What Forums are You Participating in ?
As part of the 31 day challenge to Build a Better Blog, Darren at Problogger states that forums are fantastic places for bloggers to participate for 3 main reasons:
1. Profile Building - You can build a significant profile in your niche by putting consistent time into a large forum. Basically, you can stand out in the crowd as an expert in your area.
2. Driving Traffic - People will click through to your main website such as The Somers Team or your blog - Philadelphia Real Estate Voice .
3. Understanding your Niche - These forums can become topics of new blog posts. Our post "Buyers Say No to Closing Costs: What will sellers say ? " was inspired by a Trulia question.
Four examples of forums we participate in are as follows:
Trulia Voices
Trulia Voices is our favourite forum ! You can answer consumer's questions here and set it up to have the questions emailed to you that relate to your area. Please check out our Questions and Answers Page - I just noticed that we have answered 507 questions !
We have succesfuly closed a number of transactions from connecting with consumers on Trulia and so can you !
Zillow
It is also worthwhile to check out the Zillow forum for advice. We have not spent as much time here as Trulia but feel it is has potential as well. We were warned that some consider it the "wild west" of real estate as the discussions can be quite heated and it is frowned upon to have links going to your blog posts which I thought was a negative.
Northern Liberties Message Board Forum
We recently started participating in our local Northern Liberties Neighborhood community board. I would think in your area there would be a local community message board that you can participate in as well to connect with individuals in the neighborhood.
Active Rain
What better way to participate and comment then in this forum right here on Active Rain ? One can learn a ton of info and network with other Realtors and professionals all over the country while developing a strong referral network at the same time. Even within the forum, there are hundreds of invididual groups such as the "Build a Better Blog" Group that we started in correlation to the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge.
There are probably hundreds of forums you can join to help you build your blog.
What other forums do you participate in ? Please share here with a comment.
Other Related Posts:
Are you Connecting with Your Readers ?
Are You Blogging for Business ?
Have you read some of these top Bloggers ?
Promoting Your Blog - Day 3 of the Build a Better Blog Challenge
5 Ways to Recommend Price Reductions to Sellers
Day 1 of Build a Better Blog - Elevator Pitch
I am really excited to be doing this 31 day challenge (see Matt Stigliano's post - 31 Days to Build a Better Blog - Who's in ?). It is not too late to be a part of it. You can join the Active Rain Group "Build a Better Blog" today. Or subscribe to our blog to follow along ! Is just a click away !
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you know, I don't know why I never got going with the question and answer forums. Time to check back into that!
Chris and Stephanie.... this is a very good post in giving direction on how to get more business. Tom Burris gets some good business from message boards and groups. I just never found the time.... and I spent too much time on AR for the longest time. I know I need to change this up some and I enjoyed meeting you and a few others when we got together with Jennifer Allen, because we talked about some of these forums. I know I do need to work on this... thanks
Christopher and Stephanie - Good point about Trulia. I hadn't even thought about it as a "forum." I participate there and although I sometimes find it a horrible place (I get disgusted with some of the things I see going on in there), I do actively participate in the San Antonio section, trying to answer and help as much as I can. I actually just submitted an offer (the short sale I mentioned) thanks to Trulia and had one listing appointment (long ago, I didn't get it) thanks to Trulia, so it does work. I've had some communication with consumers there too, so maybe that will lead somewhere. I just wish Trulia would police the "out of area" responses, as I think there's a danger to consumers possible there - agents giving advice that works in their state, but not ours (for example). I also wish Trulia would ban RealtyTrac as I have yet to find one of their listings that is actually active on Trulia when a consumer asks about it. Then I have to explain why RealtyTrac is what it is and why Trulia uses them. Its frustrating at times.
Michael - It is certainly worth looking into.
Jeff- Yes, you are already a dominant force on Active Rain so you can leverage that to become more active on some other forums... basically a form of diversification per se. We do not spend a great deal of time on other forums but I do believe it is another way to brand your name, drive additional traffic to your site or blog, and to gain more business. I think the key is to not "sell yourself" but to provide helpful info.
Matt- Good points regarding Trulia. There is a lot of people soliciting business there and provide selfish answers. We have found success just by providing helpful and relevant info. As far as the "debates" ... we just do not participate in those. I have faith that consumers can see through that. I agree with the RealtyTrac as well as many as the Trulia questions ask about those listings which does not go anywhere.
Chris it looks like your build a better blog program is going well. Hey as a suggestions instead of linking back to your AR articles why not link to your Outside blog? Maybe you didn't publish them there...I didn't look?
Hi Stephanie, I participate in a Mac Form on Real Towns as I get lots of great hints for learning the Mac, and answer Trulia Voices when the questions are pertinant to Michigan. Of course I have a profile everywhere but spend the most time on Twitter and Facebook and here.
Bill - Thanks ! The Build a Better Blog program has been quite a learning experience so far. Yes, I did not link to the outside blog for I did not post all of them there. It seemed like many of them were more AR and Realtor focused than consumer focused. I did post a couple there that I thought consumers might be interested in as far as a broad topic of blogging and so forth.
Missy- We just got a Mac and are experiencing growing pains with it so probably should join a Mac forum. We like Trulia voices for Philadelphia Real Estate questions. We also spend a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook.
Chris,....I must say..your blog took me places ..excellent..as usual..
Helpfulhannah your friend in Philadelphia
Forums...well I am out of the loop . Thanks for the heads up.
I recently started on Zillow and obviously here, I keep hearing about how much agents like Trulia. Maybe I need to stop over that way as well...
~Chanda
Hannah - Wow, very cool. Thank you for the compliment !
Tina - Well, why not join (if you have not done so already) Build a Better Blog group on AR ?
Chanda - Definitely check out Trulia. We have benefited from Trulia Voices.
C&S - The first thing I did after reading the task is update my Trulia and Zillow profile, and I agree that answering questions at the local level is more beneficial.
Maria - Yes, having updated profiles is important, especially having your links in there. And I agree about answering questions at the local level - is much more beneficial than the broader, national questions.
Great Post,
I'm constantly learning more and more from all the great folks in this community. You two have given so more ideas to work with. I'm looking forward to following your posts.
Thanks, Jess
Jess - Wow ! Thank you for the compliment. Is also great to see a local person here on Active Rain ! We certainly enjoy sharing information and networking here as part of the strategy to grow our business.