Comments»

1. Allen Benson - June 27, 2007

Ardell,

Got a questions. I have been watching these bloggers from the start very curious how their blogs would be picked up and handled by the search engines. Kevins site Kevintomlinson.com does very well in google but his blog site southbeachrealestateblog.com has not really gotten any traction in google as far as I can tell. Searching terms like South Beach Real Estate, South Beach Condos, and similar searches. Have you looked into this or made adjustments for this? I would think based on his articles he should be near the top.

2. ARDELL - June 27, 2007

To me Allen, getting the blog to search without good content yet, is…uh…like an agent trying to grab a client the day he gets his real estate license

You’ve got to hone your craft before you put it into action…but that’s me.

Kevin will have his blog long after I’m gone…or not. He has a PR person and a website guru and all the techie talent he needs to move it up and about when it’s time. We’re still tweaking it as of yesterday and it will soon appear as a button on his site.

Not everyone who starts a blog…blogs long term. So I felt it best, since he had never, ever, blogged before the competition, for him to test out whether or not he wanted to do it long term, before making it part of his expensive site and total IMAGE program.

It always cracks me up when a blogger emails me and asks, “How do I get people to read my blog” and I go look at the blog and it has ONE STINKIN POST on it!” For crying out loud.

To me it’s mostly about content. First get it loaded with something worth reading and THEN figure out how to get it seen. But yes, you are correct, his tech guy did not necessarily agree with that.

When Kevin asked me to help him with his blog, it had nothing to do with the contest. He didn’t even know there was a contest. He asked me to help him NOT make mistakes in public. So he had to learn how to blog and I had to VETO some of the original material, outside of the public eye.

Truth be told, my Broker has already gotten more business from just putting his profile in Active Rain, than Kevin has from blogging to date. What can I say. South Beach ain’t no Seattle. I don’t even know if blogging is a valid proposition for South Beach Florida. Time will tell…

3. Jonathan Washburn - June 27, 2007

Aren’t all Project Blogger participants winners?
I can’t believe your broker got more business from just putting up a profile on AR (in Seattle) than Kevin has gotten from his great blog! I am sure that in time that will change.

4. ARDELL - June 27, 2007

Jonathan,

I’m not sure how many luxury condo buyers read blogs But clearly it will be a nice addition to his site which already brings him mega business. Potential clients can get a better feel for who he is by reading his blog. His piece on Devito’s South Beach may not be what some of the Judges feel is good blog work. But for Kevin’s market…it most definitely IS!

5. Jonathan Washburn - June 27, 2007

I thought the Devito restaurant opening was one of the best consumer directed blog posts of the year! Was it you that said that post rated higher than some of the local newspapers coverage?
If I was a consumer r.e. blogger that is exactly the type of stuff I would be doing.

6. ARDELL - June 27, 2007

I think The Miami Herald asked if they could link to his article because he had better photos

7. Dustin - June 27, 2007

That’s a classic bait and switch article…

8. ARDELL - June 27, 2007

Dustin,

My main problem as Kevin’s Blog Coach has been to get him to stop focusing on the competition, and the other Apprentices, and the Judges. So I figured since I only have 3 weeks or so left to Coach him, and I couldn’t get him to stop focusing on whether or not he was going to “win”…I’d just be done with that part now

Hope it works!

9. Kevin - June 27, 2007

Oh man! All the biggies are in the room!

Jonathan,
As of today my blog was not connected to my website, which is getting 1300-1500 unique vistors per day. I don’t know why we didn’t link the blog from the website. I’m sure after today it is humming.

Thanks for the compliment on the DeVito thing. I don’t DO those types of things and only went because I thought it would be really interesting to ‘cover’. I so felt like a loser taking pics of Brooke Hogan like a paparazzi—but it was fun. I was bent over with hysterics.

10. Dustin - June 27, 2007

Ardell,

I was just having fun with you. I thought about writing a “bait and switch” article on RCG that linked to your post just for the hell of it, but even I could make sense out of the irony…

11. Kevin - June 27, 2007

Miami has a interesting dynamic with regard to what is considered ‘interesting’.

As with every market, especially with the shaky state of the condo market, people CRAVE statistics. An agent who doesn’t have the perspective and insight to translate the statistics, render the stats useless.

I like to be the purveyor of the stats and interpret them for my clients.

Topics like BA or fiduciary responsibilites are so NOT sexy and thus would garner zero interest.

12. Brad Carroll - June 27, 2007

Hi Allen, I thought I would chime in about the blog’s rankings in Google. I too have been a little disappointed with the results so far. But I have to remember that terms like South Beach Real Estate are fiercely competitive (that term competes against 21M other pages). Kevin’s blog is also on a new domain with brand new content. Many new sites will get “sandboxed” by Google.

Early on, I asked Kevin which phase was more important “South Beach Real Estate” and “South Beach Condo.” After all, I wanted to have a clear idea for Anchor Text. His reply, “BOTH” (that’s why I like working with Kevin so much!) I knew that not focusing on a specific keyphrase would probably hurt in the short term. But we thought a long term, more rounded approach would be best.

One thing I have been very pleased with is the sites SEO results for “long tail” terms. In the past 3 weeks, almost 300 unique search terms were used to drive traffic to his site! Now that’s a long tail.

Search Engines account for about 35% of his traffic and Referring sites account for 55%. Looking down the road, I think that his blog is poised to be very successful. So while I am not thrilled with his SEO results now. I am hopeful for the future. Oh wow, sorry for the long comment!

13. Jillayne Schlicke - June 28, 2007

Hey Kevin and Ardell,

Congratulations on winning the contest!

14. Kevin Tomlinson - July 13, 2007

Jillayne

Thanks—I feel like Tara Conner.

15. Jillayne Schlicke - July 13, 2007

Well at least she’s a hottie.

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