I suppose I have a very addictive personality because once I find something I love doing, I stick with it like a fly on … errmmm… HONEY!  I have five major blogs for which I write:  Shakadoo (for Shak & Jill), Music City Bloggers (as real estate and neighborhood editor), Middle Tennessee Realty (business), This is LaVergne (community), and my personal blog (fortunately G-rated or you’d never find the link!). Blogging is such a great outlet for me to talk about whatever strikes my fancy – whether as a Realtor, friend, advocate, or just goofing off.

Today at The Real Estate Tomato, Marc Grayson posed the question, "Are you IN or OUT with Real Estate Blogging?"  He asked what audiences real estate bloggers write for.  Are their posts designed to appeal to their colleagues in the business or to consumers seeking information?  One commenter said he was OUT,

I’m definitely OUT. The first rule of writing is to know your audience, so if you say that you don’t know who you’re writing to, than you should stop and take a minute to think about it.

I’m in the business of selling homes to consumers not to my peers, so that is where I focus most of my attention.

Writing here at Shak & Jill, our commenters come from both the public and from agents, so I’ve often thought about who different posts would appeal to.  On my business blog, my goal is to first and foremost provide valuable information to readers.  However, that’s not my only goal – if I find something interesting, I’m going to post it.  If someone enjoys reading it, the chances are good that I would personally get along with them.  Maybe I’ll get to work with them and I definitely want to LIKE the people I work with and want them to like and trust me, as well.  My other goal is to build name recognition… when people think real estate in my area, I want them to automatically think of my name.  You’ve got to do some legwork to reach that point and since not everyone can afford the giant billboards, blogging is a good alternative.  That 80% (ish) of homebuyers look online also helps.

However, many agents I work with say they just don’t have the creativity to blog.  It’s not for everyone, that’s certain, but if you think, you can blog.  The easiest way is to think about what appeals and interests YOU and tell what you think about it.

I don’t know the answer about who the biggest audience for Shak & Jill is, but I know for certain I don’t care who it is for my other blog – as long as they find value in what I post.