Photo Blogging: Cell Phone to Blog Post in 90 Seconds Flat

Photo blogging is a way to leverage what you do best every day, look at properties and use your cell phone, to create fresh search engine relevant content for your blog even several times a day.  Here’s how it works:

STEP 1 – Snap a cell phone picture of a listing in your market area

STEP 2 – Compose an email with the address of the listing as the subject line and just a sentence or two describing the property.

STEP 3 – Send the email to a special address that once received will instantly post your subject line as the blog post title, insert the photo and follow it up with the descriptive text as the main body of your post.

There you have it, about 90 seconds total (unless you are all thumbs like me, then figure 2 minutes).  And what is really cool is that you haven’t broken your daily routine to do it.  And no more staring at a blank computer screen trying to figure out what to post while you could be out, well… looking at property.

Now at this point you are probably thinking “Awesome, I can do that!  Ahhh, what’s that special address I need to send these emails to?” As you might have guessed, there’s just a little bit of set up you have to do before you start photo blogging yourself silly…

Getting Started

The first thing you want to do is set up a free account at Posterous.com.  Once set up, you will be able to send your cell phone posts to post@posterous.com and it will “know” who sent it (it also works with email sent from any device, including your computer).  Now if this is far as you go, Posterous will automatically create your blog and handle updating it via your emails.  However, if you want to maximize your “Google Juice” that a frequently updated blog can give you and have a look & feel that is consistent with your brand, then there are a few other things that you want to do:

a) Create a sub-domain from your main Website domain that points to your photo blog.  For example, if your main site domain is “LuxuryMountainHomes.com” then you may want to set your photo blog URL as “photoblog.LuxuryMountainHomes.com” with links to it on every page of your site.  By doing this, search engines like Google will attribute the new photo blog content to your entire site.  And since you used the property address as the post title, your site’s relevancy for your market area increases with every submission.

b) Have your Web designer modify the look and feel of your Posterous blog to be consistent with that of your main Website.

By doing the above, you now have a way to constantly be adding high-relevancy blog content to your site throughout the day, day-in day-out without breaking a sweat.  IMPORTANT: if you already have a blog with more traditional content, be sure to make your photo blog separate from it.  Not everyone subscribed to your current blog will want to receive your photo blog posts throughout the day.  Remember, the main benefit of a photo blog is quickly and easily adding search engine relevant content to your site on a regular basis, not necessarily to inform a reader base.

From $250K to $600K Average Sales Price in Just a Few Months

Walter Burns is a condo specialist with Weichert Realtors in Hoboken, NJ.  Thanks to his social media efforts (a large part of which is his photo blogging) his average transaction prices have soared from $250,000 to over $600,000 in short period of time.  You can see his photo blog by going to http://photos.livingonthehudson.com/.  You will notice that in addition to his photo blog he has a traditional one as well, both of which are seamlessly integrated into his main site www.LivingOnTheHudson.com.  If you examine both, you will see that the frequency of his posts to his photo blog is far greater than his regular one.  And for good reason, it’s so darn easy!

Whether you are brand new to blogging or a seasoned social networking pro, photo blogging is one tool you should be using on a daily basis.  If you can take photos and text with your cell phone, you can photo blog.

NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.

Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He’s dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com or you can visit his Website at http://www.russer.com

This article is reprinted in its entirety from the January 2010 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark of RUSSER Communications.