On December 30th Google updated its page rankings. According to Google “pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher Page Rank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search rankings“.

Google last updated its page rankings in February of 2008. Since then HomeGain launched the HomeGain Agent Blogging Network. In the latest Google page rank update, many HomeGain AgentView blogs scored page ranks of three and four! HomeGain AgentView blogs are also appearing at the top of Google search results for the key words “[city name] real estate blog”

The HomeGain Agent Blogging Network provides each AgentView subscriber with a blog, along with a place to post their profiles and listings in an exclusive and advertising free environment.   Upon launch of the HomeGain Agent Blogging Network, many were skeptical “Why pay for a blogging platform when you can set up your own word press blog for free?” The answer is page rank and higher placement in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and built in traffic from your instant home values tool.

AgentView subscribers blogging on the HomeGain Agent Blogging Network benefit from HomeGain’s and the HomeGain Real Estate Blog’s high Google page ranking.

Here are a few examples of some highly ranked HomeGain AgentView blogs:

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Here’s some quick advice for AgentView real estate agents to manage that new blog you may not know what to do with:

1. Blog articles are great but they do take time to write. Generally, the first ideas new bloggers have for topics - how-to’s, hyperlocal news - have been done before by other bloggers. It’s hard to differentiate yourself starting up a blog.
2. So do something different. Think like a journalist; watch out for real-time housing market news and be the first to report it.
3. Take notes at the tour marketing meetings, subscribe to the feeds of local online news and real estate publications.
4. Think in sound bites. Whenever you hear something interesting, write a sentence or two in the blog. Be efficient, don’t take more than 3 minutes per idea. Use a cellphone to write it if you’re in a tour meeting or open house.
5. When you see an interesting article online, cut and paste the article title and create a link to it.
6. If you write down several ideas per day, you soon accumulate a whole portfolio of ideas and facts that will be displayed on the blog. This content is just as revealing about how you develop business and help clients as blog articles.
7. You become a go-to source for your market. Prospects will come back again and again to see your new “sound bites”. After all, you’re the only one reporting on a daily basis… this is compelling to a committed home buyer or seller. Analogy - if I’m doing a stock purchase, I’d much rather analyze it in real time on Marketwatch.com than pick up the current Business Week magazine.
8. You’ll soon realize you can expand on the sound bites to construct more detailed blog articles. You’ll lose your writer’s block.
9. Finally, it’s easier to automate the whole process of “reporting” using a variety of micro-blogging and bookmarking applications like Twitter , Friendfeed, Tumblr, Delicious and Diigo. This is another story.

To learn more about HomeGain’s AgentView product, click here.

Without further adieu, here’s my list of preferred plugins for Wordpress blogs:

Akismet - There’s a reason this plugin comes standard with every WP install.  It’s the only spam plugin you need.

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The number one thing that has helped my real estate career has been reading blogs. 

Through my years in real estate, I have gotten almost no help from my colleagues or brokers. The philosophy was that we were in direct competition with each other so we could not share our ideas or expertise because it might hurt our career. Almost no agents would divulge any of their so called “secrets”. If a real estate agent would give up any of their knowledge, it was at a price.

I am so glad I discovered Web 2.0. What I learned was it is ok to share knowledge and ideas. It will not hurt me. It will help build a supportive community and it will help the real estate industry as a whole.

Here are some things I have learned by reading blogs:

• Social media, especially Twitter
• About blogging and blogging ideas
• All about video
• Virtual tour options
• Moo cards
• Marketing techniques
• Advertising
• Real estate news
• What to put on my website
• How to treat clients

 And much, much more.

My favorite real estate blogs are:

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We are pleased to announce the launch of the HomeGain Real Estate Blog iPhone application.

The platform enables readers with iPhones to access and view HomeGain Blog articles in a customized format.

The HomeGain Blog automatically recognizes that it is being accessed by an iPhone, and delivers the iPhone interface.

No software downloads are required.

If you have an iPhone, please take a look.

AgentView exclusively features agent listings, profiles and blogs as well as HomeGain’s Home Sale Maximizer and instant home valuation tools all in an advertising-free environment.

HomeGain understands that blogging can be a challenge. That’s why when we started the HomeGain Agent Blogging Network, we soon added free blogging training at the HomeGain Blogging School.

Classes are conducted weekly by HomeGain Blogging School Professor, Joseph Ferrara. Each lesson provides useful blogging tips and a critique of some of the blogs that appear on the HomeGain Agent Blogging Network.

Check out a sample HomeGain Blogging School lesson.

Sign up for AgentView and the HomeGain Blogging School.

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