Feb
24
Finding a Name for a Blog
Posted by Dustin Luther under For Realty Professionals, From the Inbox
Since these seminars started I’ve been inundated with great questions, so I think I’ll just continue diving into my Inbox for inspiration…
“.. Since the seminar I have done some URL shopping. so far came up with www.olyhomesource.com. What do you think? I also did some research to see if anyone was blogging here in Olympia, no one! With one exception www.city-data.com. Do you know anything about this site? It’s nationwide, but get’s down to specific state and cities and wow, lot’s of people are blogging. Amazed me! I can’t believe how many people are seeking information through strangers, well I can but it was very encouraging…”
For starters, I don’t know anything about the city data site. It looks interesting, but I wouldn’t see it as competition for someone who is trying to start up community site in Olympia. The name olyhomesource.com is definitely a good start, but I would have tried to come up with something that would have better captured the community. Is there a major landmark (river, building, high school mascot, etc) that almost everyone in the town identifies with? I probably would have run with something along those lines. With very few exceptions, I’d try to stay away from words like “real estate” or “homes” in my URL. While they may be SEO gold, using them immediately gives away your real estate intentions and might drive away readers who would otherwise participate in your community.
In terms of finding bloggers in Olympia (they exist!), here are a few places to start.
1) A search of the Technorati directory to find people who have self-classified themselves as writing about Olympia (sorted by authority). Some of the more prominant bloggers writing about that community include:
I’m positive there are others (and probably some very good ones I missed), but that at least demonstrates the diversity of stuff that is already out there!
Also note that Wikipedia is a wonderful source for information on every city in America. There are typically lots of links making it a wonderful source of inspiration for new posts. Here’s the wiki entry for Olympia.
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COMMENTS (6)
When I came up with the name of my site, it was for two reasons. One, I'm a cooky person who wanted to interject some fun into a very boring subject, and two, I wanted a name that no ther sane person would use. Thus, I know that just about every one of the now 36,000 Google results for the search term, "lenderama" are refering to me or my blog. February 25, 2007 at 11:51 am
Great points Todd! The more unusual, the better! February 25, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Wow, thanks for the link. I wrote a bit about my reaction to finding it, but I wanted to address something directly. In terms of finding and connecting with other local blogs, once you've found them, stay in touch with them. Link to them when you find something interesting, comment and do other good blog citizen type of things. In Olympia, at least, the reaction to a real estate blog could be bad, if it was a particularly bad attempt (like http://www.thurstoncountyblogs.com/). By the way, do you suggest your clients read Clue Train? March 2, 2007 at 8:03 am
Emmett, Great stuff... I happen to think there is definitely a place for real estate agents to play a helpful role in building up an local online community. The staying in touch part is huge and something I've spent more than a little bit of effort on doing with my Seattle blog. To give an example, when one of the local blogs decided to include Rain City Guide in a "best" local blogs competition, it validated that some of the hard work I've done to make sure the site is a community resource as oppose to a real estate sales pitch. In terms of reading... I think the Cluetrain is an awesome book. I don't recommend it in the presentation, but when people ask for good books to read, I include that book as well as Naked Conversations and the Long Tail. I think that 1-2-3 punch would make a wonderful education in understanding how to use social networking technologies. March 2, 2007 at 9:54 am
Does propertyshark.com cover Olympia yet? March 2, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Jerry, It sure does not look like it... The closest thing I can find is the Seattle area where they cover King and Snohomish Counties. In general, they tend to add new areas on a county-by-county basis because that is how much of the data is collected and recorded. (At least that seems to be the case on the West Coast... Other parts of the country may organize things differently!). March 2, 2007 at 2:11 pm