Interview with John Mudd, Realtor
JH How much traffic are you getting at the moment to your blog? Are you able to measure that?
JM Over 100 hits daily. SiteMeter.
JH How does that compare with your regular website?
JM Well, considering my blog gets more than 3,000 hits a month without me spending a penny to promote it, I would say the blog is more traffic-inensive, however, my website was getting an average of around 10,000 to 12,000 a month until I paid a company $50 to give me at least 25,000 targeted hits. This month I have over 29,000 on my last check, which was two days ago. Now it's probably over 30,000. Keep in mind, though, that my website is on a chrome plate on the back of my car, in publications galore, plus it's on all my mailings and all my ads, plus it's in all my blog posts, whether to my blog, the Inman News Blog or Blogcritics. Of course, some visit my website just to read my blog, but my blog was created to drive more traffic to my website, so it's accomplishing its goal.
JH How much time do you spend on your blog?
JM Not much, really. One to three posts a week, if that. I spend more time doing transactions than I do blogging. I only blog to generate interest in certain items. Whatever I blog about I tend to get e-mail leads on, so I try to blog about real estate I sell, new pre-construction projects or current events and entertainment items that may interest my readers. Paris Hilton's buying a house generated a lot of traffic, for example.
JM How would you describe your blogging 'voice'? To what extent does it reflect your own 'offline' personality?
JM Well, I'm not sure how to answer that, really, as I'm editorializing on my blog, so it's naturally going to be longer than what I would normally say, but it's not out of character for my writing style. I'm more low-key in person, but so are most columnists, while their editorials usually aren't.
JH How do you see your blog developing in the future? Would you like to change anything?
JM I don't have a five-year plan for my blog or anything like that, so I'm really not sure. As long as it bring business my way I probably won't change much. I figure more posts and links will be added, but other than that probably not much of anything will change.
JH Is there anything you'd like to be able to do with the blog which you can't for technical or other reasons?
JM Nope. I like to keep it simple. Simple is good.
JH Are you able to identify any weaknesses or threats with regard to the blog as a marketing/PR/communications tool?
JM You know, that's an interesting question, because traditional PR and marketing folks typically have not been able to create successful blogs, as most of those have been fake ones. My blog is very open, and I do even take risks by some of the witticisms I use, but remember, the blog is not for everyone. It targets a specific audience, and it's successful in serving that audience. Given that blogs function as marketing tools, mine has no weaknesses or threats to me or my business. Traditional PR and marketing forces you to go through a gatekeeper of some sort. As I told the Business Journal, my blog allows me to directly connect with my audience, and they can connect with me anytime via the blog. I met a woman a couple of years ago at a local committee meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization. She called me recently about a blog-post I wrote about Charles Rutenberg, the famous developer. He had passed away and my post said he should be honored and commended for his work in the real estate industry. She wanted to quote it in her community newsletter because all the homes in her community were Rutenberg homes and Rutenberg, himself, lived there before passing away, and she linked to my blog and my website for my allowing her to use it. Apparently she received the post via RSS syndication. There's absolutely nothing bad about free publicity when it helps you to promote your business. Sometimes even bad publicity is good publicity.
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