"The only thing worse than a woman scorned is a woman ignored." - Lenn Harley
I had "Call Lenn Harley" on my to do list for almost four weeks. It seemed like something was always getting in the way. An emergency here... a crisis there. A few days ago, while stuck in LA traffic, I finally made time to dial Lenn Harley and introduce myself. I had no reason for calling. But so many people had her on their short list of most respected real estate agents that I just had to speak to her. Wow.
It was a truly delightful conversation and Lenn is smart, engaging, open and has an amazing sense of humor. At one point in the conversation she said, "Google is fickled." I laughed out loud, because I had said the exact same thing in a comment on my It's Not About SEO. It's About YEO post. One person responded that it wasn't that fickle, but I really believe it is. And so does Lenn. I related the response to her.
"Well, of course it's fickle," Lenn said. "Google is a woman. It has to be a woman. The only thing worse than a woman scorned is a woman ignored. If you ignore Google, Google will turn on you. But if you treat Google right, give it strokes every day, Google will be a faithful lover."
You have to love the analogy. Thank you, Lenn.
This, of course got me thinking. Not about lovers, but bout Jeff Belonger. (Yes, I need to get out more often.) Jeff asked me a question via comment on Flickr-ing Local Photos: You Engaging Others (YEO). I told him I would answer it in a post. This is that post.
Jeff lives in a very small town of 12,000 people. He has limited local entities to blog about, and he has a rational fear. Jeff's question was this: "do I get very detailed? Pick out say... a few restaurants? All 10? Do I just do 1 each day? My 2nd post was on churches... there are like 11 in town, but I took pictures of like 4 or 5 of them and wrote little inserts. Just looking for advice." My advice? Pace yourself.
You Must Pace Yourself
I've been telling Julie Ferenzi that her blog, Living In Plainfield is not a sprint. Jim Cronin said the same thing about blogging, "Blogging is a marathon. It's 100 marathons. It is not a sprint." So, this means you have to pace yourself. This is particularly true if you live in a smaller community. If you're not careful, you'll simply run out of things to talk about.
The Towsley Canyon Example
I do local content posts to serve as examples only. So my post, Towsley Canyon: The Perfect Family Hike, was written with a post like this in mind. Towsley Canyon is indeed a great place to go hiking with the family. But it's also a great place to go mountain biking, or cross country running, or to challenge yourself in a workout, or to take a church or school group. But if I put ALL of that into one post, I miss out on the opportunity to write 5 or 6 posts on Towsley Canyon, all with a different focus. Each post will attract a different part of the long tail. Each post will engage a different group of readers.
Google needs to be stroked.
There is nothing magical about a blog that makes it better than a standard web page for search engine optimization. Except that it encourages you to write new content and that's what strokes Google. That's what Google is looking for. You want Google to love you? Write. You have to write regularly about your target. You have to engage the readers. And you have to do it over and over again. Blogging is not as complicated as some people make it out to be, but successful blogging is harder than you think (read this). Don't make it even harder by trying to cram everything into one post!
"Google is a woman."
Lenn, I know you didn't think twice about spitting that out, but it's a brilliant observation. And I, for one, will never ignore her again. Because I'm not looking for a Google one night stand. I want a relationship.
Jeff Turner aka respres
What a well written post and quite funny I might add - thank you!
Cheers,
Uzi Husain
Arizona Realtor, serving Goodyear & The Phoenix metropolitan area
Jeff - I do firmly believe that would be something Lenn would definitely say. She firmly believes it and shows us that every time in each of her posts. She is THE queen when it comes to knowing what Google loves and when Google makes even ever so slight changes. She's been the Google queen for almost as long as I've known her on another network she and I belong to.
Ann
LOL I thought Google was a woman all along :)
Excellent post Jeff. We live and work in a small town as well and I think focusing in on one event/place rather than everything is the way to go.
LOL. Between Lenn's analogy and getting Teresa's reference, I am on to my next appointment with a smile on my face. Thank you.
I am training for a triathalon this summer and now I can stop freaking out about my blog. It is like my training. One day at a time. One goal at a time. Do the best I can. Just keep moving forward. Thank you for putting it into perspective for me.
Thanks for this, Jeff. It sounds exactly like a Lenn commentm adn it makes so much sense! :) Great analogy. Vitalist.com is pretty cool, isn't it?
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
I am getting into the blogging swing-careful not to overdo. Building relationships seems very worthwhile though. My custom blog will be ready in a few weeks and it looks to be a real winner. At least until today when I got word that the DRE is now stating the anything other than the agents name as a domain name may be at cross purposes of the fictitious name rule for the Broker. There must be hundreds of thousands of domain names that would not be acceptable if that in fact is what is decided. One more thing to worry about.
Hope you are doing well. I love reading your posts. You are certainly right about pacing oneself with the posts.
Stay well and Happy!
William
Jeff,
Great information. Thanks for the post! Of course Google is a woman! lol
Opps, I left out the edited sentence complimenting you on the blog.
William
Well...duh, google is a woman. She's organized, changes her icon often, has a fetish for not getting lost and will ask you for directions if they're needed.
Great post,
Fran
Jeff, I agree with you about Lenn, she is one of the true "real" people out there. No fake facade, just pure 100% Lenn!
With that said, I agree with Lenn about Google being a woman, Google is fickle, but tends to reward those who do the right thing.
Your advice about pacing yourself is great. Pacing yourself for a marathon, a blog or just life in general is a sure way not to get burnt out and bent out of shape. We've got plenty of time to succeed, we might as well do it right the first time.
kk
Love it.
Google IS a woman ;)
All the best,
Beth
I wish Google was a man. Then I would understand better what to do:)
My wife looks over my shoulder at 11:30 at night and sees me reading "Google is a Woman". With that - she goes to bed. Google has gone to bed.
I do agree that this is not a get rich quick scheme. It is a journey. I just hope they don't change the rules too much before the end of the race. It is about content and as long as they keep it that way, bloggers will have an opportunity to shine.
That is too funny!
Very observant and VERY funny.
Jeff, I like your advice about pacing your output. I agree but from a slightly different perspective: if you put too much in one blog, people won't read and absorb it all anyway.
Question: Do you think blogging here at AR will boost one's SEO ranking, or does Google ranking have to come from putting your blogs elsewhere?
WOW! ! ! I don't know which is better, the post or the comments. What a treasure chest of jewels around here.
For Jeff Belonger in a township of about 12,000. What an opportunity. You've got to OWN it. My market is about 20 counties in two states and about 60 major market areas. Hard to keep up with, so I focus on areas where our brokers are the most responsive, one at a time.
I am, after all, only one real estate broker. That said, being a woman, I'm blogging and doing laundry at the same time. Very talented, indeed.
Enough for commenting. I need to go stroke Google with a breakfast of "new homes in Lovettsville". I have 6 of the top 10 spots and I want 7.
{SVW Hubba}...
Laugh on line. You know why and I needn't say more. SVW.
TLW...ROAR!
Jeff,
Good article and advise. You brought the point home with an interesting twist.
Blogs should be like vitamins, one a day. Comments on other blogs should be like meals and snacks, several a day.
Mike Stankewich, Realtor, Huntington Beach, California
Jeff T... wow, this was awesome. Today has been a great day. I have read a few great posts from late last night, up until this morning. Late to this party, but what a great one. Sure, thanks for the mention. But most of all, for that advice. It makes perfect sense now.
On 2 other notes, I have also had Lenn on my to do list for about... what Lenn, 4 weeks now also. Expect a call tomorrow. ;o) Okay..we'll see... lol But seriously, she does make a great point and Jeff, I am glad that you touched upon this.
Last... another question for you. Yes, I live in a small town. Right next to me is a town called Cherry Hill with about 72,000 people in this town. I was told by a few to dump my town and go after this town. How about doing both? marketing both and blogging about both. Right now, I am #4 on the 1st page of Google search for my town. In regards to the other town.... gee, after about 20 to 25 pages, I found nothing. But this would be a great area to go after. Any advice? thanks again.... and for the mention.
All... thank you for your comments. For me, the important message is "pace yourself." I've heard too many stories of blogging burnout. I'm sure we've all had our moments. One of the keys is pace.
Now... I need to answer a few specific questions in the comments.
Teresa... pretty please... will you write a post about how Google is a man?
Jeff Belonger... absolutely! Go after it. Lenn covers 20 counties for goodness sakes!
Brian... blogging here on AR will boost you other sites, if you're linking to them properly in your posts. This has been proven over and over.
Jeff.... I have been thinking about Jeff B 's problem as well - I live in South Florida so I have a lot more to blog about... but the two cities where I center my marketing are sometimes a little slow...
but I think that real estate agents typically have more food for thought than Mortgage people because they can always push a listing! How many articles on the MMA do we really need? We all have the program!
So given that our "listings" aren't Exclusive Rights to Sell - we have to get out of our box and get creative. Jeff did it with his vacation to the Big Apple... And I applaud him for that
I just think that people in general have to remain creative in order to feed the beast... I did feel some personal pangs when I read Lenn's comment... but truthfully, I know it is real and I know that my goal on here isn't to rack up points - it is to be seen - here and everywhere else. To get myself some name recognition and start bringing in the business that I want and need.
That is causing me to be more creative than ever... which as a downside is definitely taking time from my schedule...
so I guess I need to figure out what's a happy medium??
David.... have your wife blog for you... hire 2 assistants, and ask Donald Trump to support your marketing campaign for 6 months. ;o) Gee, this would work for me and I would have no more pressure nor stress in my life.
And David... thanks for that compliment. I'll be honest, I enjoyed doing that, but it took a lot more time than I had expected. And it was slightly out of my area by 2 hours, hence why I did it as a blog perspective from the tourist side. But as you stated, this can take time. And just a fyi, Ines gave me the insight to actually mention the word tourist in my heading, even though I had already written the first two as a tourist. I just wanted to give her that mention.
Jeff
This was an excellent post. As always you are right. But learning content for google is a class....no several classes in and of itself. Some of us are still learning.
Hmm, I like the analogy. especially in the sense that, like women, there is no set way of getting it's attention. You can have one thing that works for you for a while, then "Poof" it starts ignoring you. Also like a woman, it doesn't hurt to have a bunch of money to throw at the problem!
Bob Mitchell
ValueList
David... you're right. You have to remain creative to feed the beast, but you don't have to be a creative genius. You do have to pay attention, always be on the lookout for things of interest and trust your gut. If it interests you, it will probably interest others. Good blogging takes time, there is no question.
Roberta... we're all still learning.
Bob... :) I'm not touching that one.
Interesting, so you think that google is a woman, uh? Well, then Yahoo and MSN are males and both are fighting for her (google)... lol., Excellent post.
Jay
All of a sudden blogging is so clear. Absolutely the best analogy.
Not only is Google a woman, but she's a high school english teacher who makes you write, write, write. If you at least do your homework, you'll get a C. If you make a little effort and make it fresh, you'll get an A. If you're teacher's pet you'll ace it with an A+ 100%.
I love it. I can see clearly now the rain has gone.
123
Blackwater... thank you. I've been called an idiot before and pompous many times, but never pompous idiot. I kinda dig it.
Ok this is too funny...a post from 07.
So funny I am going to share on Posterous.
Hubba...
How's this: You Pompous Ass. Kinda rolls right off the tongue :)
Lol. Fig is my human test. According to the legend, fig leaves were used to cover our ass :)
TLW...ROAR!
Love it:) Don't be sexist? lol
Lol...
I haven't decided whether that was a paradox or a misnomer :)
Oh Man. Pitahaha. Who the hell comes up with those and are they 'serving' them to me? :)
TLW...ROAR!