One way to make a blog work for your business is to consider your target audience and publish content specifically tailored for that audience. For instance, if your ultimate goal is to attract people who need real estate services, you wouldn’t want to publish content meant for other real estate practitioners.

Instead, create content that would be useful for buyers and sellers in your area. Focus on sharing facts about the neighborhood, great eateries, information that would help potential buyers prep for the home loan process, etc.

Always keep an eye on traffic and engagement by using Google Analytics — you want to be sure your content is indeed reaching more and more new eyes.

Beware of alternative content ideas. Some say blog content can be about anything except real estate and somehow that content will generate real estate business. I am not exactly sure how that works. People who are looking for a real estate expert might not go to the blogger who knows where to get the best craft beer.

Generating traffic

There is no set ratio between blog traffic and client acquisition, but if there is no traffic, there won’t be any client conversions — and what good is the blog if it never generates business in some way?

There is no rule as to how long it takes to build an audience with a blog, but it can’t be done in just a few days or weeks. Still, it’s worth it.

A site that serves a huge geographic area will get more traffic than a site that serves a smaller area, but not all traffic is created equal. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, specialize in a smaller area or a market niche. This works best.

I have never made a sale directly from a blog post, but I have met people through my blog and have gotten the opportunity to work with them. When this happens, if all goes well, the end result is a closed sale or two and some referrals.

Why blogs fail

Read the full article here.