Positive Real Estate Professionals

With the majority of my day spent helping our members as well as promoting them on a level that they have come to expect, I do not get the pleasure of reading other blogs throughout the blogosphere as I once did. However, there are occasions that I still have the opportunity to do so. It was such an opportunity that got me started thinking on the subject of blogging. Personally, blogging is not rocket science. It does not take a MBA from Harvard to be good at it. Yet, there are some blogs out there that leave me feeling empty when I read them. Then, there are others that leave me hanging. And there are still ones that just seem to talk at me instead of to me.

You ask why would I be left feeling empty after reading an article? Well, let me see if I can translate it for you. Have you ever read an article that just seemed to leave feeling like you just wasted 10 or 15 good minutes of your life?   When you read an article, you want to be able to feel like you can take something away from that article, even if it is just a smidgen of knowledge. Personally, that is not the case in some of the articles that I have come across over the last month or so. Before some of you come knocking on my door about this, let me state some facts. I know that some people are out to have a personal journal and nothing more than that. I am good with that, but personally coming to a page that has been suggested to me to read only to find out that Tommy, the family cat, licked his hind leg today really is not what I want to read (or see). When you are blogging for business, you always want to be able to leave your readers with something to take away.

The next issue that I have found is with those blogs that make me fell like I just watched an old episode of Cliffhangers. Have you ever read an article that you sit there thinking that the author left out the statement “To Be Continued”? One of the things that I have learned in my time spent blogging is that for each and every blog post that you write, you have to close strong. Think of this as a sale that you have to make and you want to go in with your strongest closing pitch. For me, the last thing that I want is to read an article that seems to leave me hanging at the end. If no more, just recap what you have said, or use the phrase “In conclusion” or “In closing” or something as simple as that. Just make sure that you wrap it up nice and tight. Your readers will appreciate this very fact.

The last thing that I cannot seem to stomach when I read a post is when the author seems to talk at me instead of to me. Most of this can be avoided by simply creating interaction throughout your post. One of the simplest ways to do this is to ask questions of the reader throughout the post. In doing this, the readers can feel like you are talking directly to them. Not only that, you are soliciting a response from them. When reading a post, do you tend to answer the questions that are asked by the author? Most of us do that without even thinking and most of us appreciate that as readers.

So, in closing,  I have to say that this is my personal opinion and not a law that is written down somewhere. I will not sit here and tell you that many people think the same way. Personally, I really think that this is just common sense, hence, the title. Just remember this one thing if nothing else sticks with you from this article. Before you hit publish and send your article out to the world wide web, think to yourself  “Would I enjoy reading this article”?