Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Blogging 101 Shailesh Ghimire AzMortgageGuru CTX Mortgage Company

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Introductions We are in the mortgage business CTX Mortgage Company (3 years) Blogging for almost 2.5 years More actively since earlier this year

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire So… You Want to Blog Part One –What is a blog? –Blogging Platforms –Blog Topics –Blogs as Networks Part Two –Marketing your blog –Search Engine Results –Social Media/Networking –What makes a blog great? –Turning clicks into deposit slips

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire What is a blog? A blog is a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. A blog provides commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Source: Wikipedia

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Blog vs. Website A blog is a type of website Websites are typically more static with a brochure feel A dialogue, a conversation with fresh content One does not displace the other, they serve different functions Lets look at a blog and compare it to a websiteblogwebsite

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire How to Set Up a Blog Requires a blog software installed on a host server It needs a domain name or a subfolder within an existing domain –For example, Available platforms: –Wordpress –Typepad –Blogger/Blogspot –LiveJournal

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Lets Take a Tour Once installed this is what it will look like on WordpressWordpress This is what a Blogspot environment will look likeBlogspot

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Setting Up a Wordpress Blog

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Wordpress Setup Themes and design (thousands of free themes available) Test your blog on varying platforms (IE, Firefox...) Check the load time (anything greater than 7s is bad) Install some useful Plugins such as –Askimet –Ultimate Tag Warrior –Relevant posts plugin

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Final Setup Stage Search Engine Optimization and Analytics –Install Google Sitemaps –Register with FeedBurner –Register with Technorati, BlogCatalog… –Register with Google Analytics –Decide whether you want to be known with or without the www

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Some Lessons Learned Host your blog within your own domain name Choose a web host experienced in hosting a blog Do not use a proprietary blog software Dont be afraid to ask questions while setting up a blog

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire How to Generate Blog Topics

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire What Do I Blog About? Anything and Everything –Start with an area of expertise –Neighborhoods/Farm Area –Parks/recreation –Hobbies/Interests –Customer stories –Personal triumphs –Controversial topics (if youre comfortable) Make it distinctly you, dont plagiarize, dont compare and dont underestimate yourself

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Content is King Write about what you want to be known about –Brush up on your writing skills if you need to Keywords in your post title and story Picture descriptions and title Relevant tags and categories Keep the blog fresh (3-5 posts a week)

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Some Blogging Idea Tips Subscribe to: –RSSPieces.com (A Years Worth Of Blogging Ideas) –Daily Blog Tips Website (dailyblogtips.com) Read local newspapers and comment Read industry publications and comment Read blogs from outside of the industry

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Networking: Becoming a Blogger Visit other blogs Use a RSS Reader –Google Reader, Bloglines, Feedreader, FeedBruner, Pluck... Leave comments on others posts Draw inspiration from other blogs (dont plagiarize) Link to other blogs and posts –Trackback

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Links, links and more links Links coming back to your blog (keyword rich links) help your search rankings Deeplinking helps keep your readers within your blog It brings new visitors to your website

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Marketing Your Blog Register with: –Technorati (the premier search engine of blogs) –MyBlogLog –BlogCatalog –FeedBurner (for syndication) Install Google Site Maps Register with Google Analytics Cross-marketing through Facebook, MySpace, ActiveRain...

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire ActiveRain Community of Real Estate Professionals Blog platform is available Positives: –Automatic reader base –Great exposure –SEO love Negatives: –Crowded –(Talking to peers) –Addictive

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Milking Active Rain for Search Engine Placement Tips on Active Rain: –Keyword-rich titles –Add descriptions and titles to pictures –Make sure your profile headers are descriptive –Effectively use tags and localism –Link to your website and your other blogs –Read Karen Georges blog on Active Rain –Shameless self-promotion –Doorway to my blog

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Other Social Media Facebook –Publish your post snippets on your profile page MySpace LinkedIn Twitter and many, many more

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Congrats! Youre a Blogger

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Define the Goals of Your Blog To be found on the Internet To be read by peers and potential clients To demonstrate your expertise To maintain relationships with past clients To turn clicks into deposit slips

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Now That Youre a Blogger Manage your Ideas –Make your blog predictable (Funny Friday, Monday Market Update...) –Jot ideas down when you think of them –Save good articles you have read –Save funny cartoons you have viewed –Save YouTube videos that may be relevant –If youre on writing roll, then post-date a few articles

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Words of Wisdom Become familiar with copyright laws Backup what you say with proof, because they will question you Never lie, never personally insult, never vent aimlessly Respond to questions you receive about your posts Read the comments people leave and respond Be careful about what you write. Once you publish its set in stone. Google will find it one way or another! Just be you!

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Resources and Blogs of Note Locally: –RealEstateWeblogging101.com –PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com (Real Estate) –BlogArizona.com (Home Inspection) –ChristophSchweiger.com (Real Estate) Nationally: – –

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire Questions

Your Mortgage Team For Life © Aimee & Shailesh Ghimire I do mortgages on the side to support my blogging habit!!! Call Aimee at (480) Shailesh at (480) On the web: Blog: