BiggerPockets Founder's Blog

Improve Your Real Estate Marketing by Blogging on BiggerPockets

Many months ago, we launched our BiggerPockets.com blogging system as a way for real estate investors, professionals, and others in the business to share their thoughts, opinions, and knowledge. Of course, as a result of that participation, the goal was to help these bloggers get noticed.

BiggerPockets Blogs are fast and easy to set up, and now bring a new perk:

Top Bloggers and Blog Commenters are Highlighted to the Community

We felt that it was important to let everyone in the community know who those people were that contributed the most to the BiggerPockets blogging community, and have thus added the Top Participants this Month feature.

On the right side of the main blogs page, you'll see a box with the Top Participants this Month, which shows the five (5) most active bloggers and the five (5) most prolific commenters.

So What are the Perks for Being on the List?

If you're on the list (which looks back at the last 30 days, not the previous month), you'll get your name and personal avatar posted, which link back to your profile AND a link to your website will also appear in the list!

You can see that participation equals FREE PR for your profile and website link!

Are There Other Reasons to Blog on BiggerPockets?

1. BiggerPockets has a vast and captive audience.
2. SEO link back potential to help your offsite web properties.
3. Networking with others — Social Network isn't the future, it's here to stay. You have to be part of the conversation or you don't exist.
4. By providing helpful and meaningful content, members who blog actively on BiggerPockets will gain benefits including broad exposure for you and your business.
5. Do-follow links to your favorite websites
6. Make money! Our bloggers can make money by showing ads on their blog.

What Are You Waiting For? Jump on the BiggerPockets Blogs community and start posting your own blogs and engaging in conversation with others by commenting! You'll see the benefits yourself!

NOTE: If we feel that you are "gaming" the system by posting "junk" comments or blog posts to inflate your count, we will either remove your ability to participate, or we may remove you from the site completely.

A valuable, but little known feature of BiggerPockets.com is the ability to request Professional Trade References or Testimonials from your colleagues.

As you can see from the image below, which comes from my profile (see section below my colleagues), your references are neatly displayed on your profile for all to see:



Why References & Testimonials are Helpful

Having your partners, customers, clients, or colleagues write you a reference allows other members to see that you're someone that they should also be working with. It embeds a level of trust to your profile.

BiggerPockets is a vast network of tens of thousands of real estate investors, professionals, and consumers. If someone has the opportunity to work with someone who has no positive references/testimonials or someone with many, who do you think they'll choose?

The great thing about our references is that they are NOT anonymous! You can always contact someone's references for more information about a member, and in turn, see that they are the real deal!

How Do You Get Started Building Up Your References?

1. You can request a reference from ANY member of BiggerPockets that you are colleagues with. If there is someone that you're interested in getting a reference from who is not yet a member, just invite them to join the site using the INVITE link, which is located above the search box at the top of all pages.

2. The easiest way to add a reference is to go to the profile of your colleague and select the REQUEST REFERENCE link located below their profile image. They'll get the reference request and can, at their leisure, write it for you.

Another way to go is:

3. View the list of your colleagues from the DASHBOARD, by hovering your mouse over the Networking Link in the gray horizontal bar near the top of the page and clicking on MY COLLEAGUES.

4. You can now find those colleagues that you'd like to get a reference from. Simply click the REQUEST REFERENCE link for the people you want one from and they will be notified by email and on their dashboard that they have a PENDING Reference Request.

5. When the reference is submitted, it will appear on your profile and you'll be notified.

Writing an Effective Reference
It is important to write an effective reference if someone requests one from you. Writing a brief sentence stating that someone was good to work with is a waste of everyone's time. A good reference/testimonial will include information such as your relationship with the person you're writing about, how long you've worked together, and under what circumstances. You want to be detailed enough that people who don't know the person you're writing about get the picture.

What Are You Waiting For?
Get out there and start inviting your clients, partners, customers, and colleagues to the site and have them write you outstanding references to help build up your status and sellability!

You're a member of the premier real estate social network . . . now what?

Here are some tips for getting started here on BiggerPockets:

• Fill in your profile - If you're here to network, make deals, or market yourself or your business,  people are going to want to know more about you. We've got four main sections on our profiles where you can tell others who you are and what you're here for: About Me (general info about you), Real Estate Experience (your real estate background), Real Estate Goals (your goals), and Currently Seeking (what you're looking for. eg. partners, money, clients, etc.).  Adding your location and occupation will allow us to bring you the most appropriate services, and like everything else, help others find you.  You can also add information about your company, your contact info, other social networking profiles you want to share and more.  The more complete your profile, the easier it will be for people to find you!
• Upload a personal image / avatar - As you navigate the site, post comments, write articles, blog posts, or forum posts, your personal image will travel with you.  By uploading a personal image, people will start to recognize you and get to know you better.  You'll start to stand out more than those people using the generic avatar.  Additionally, only members with a personal avatar appear on our Networking page. Please note that we DO NOT allow members to use company logos or any other form of advertising in their personal avatar.  We've created a company directory so members can get exposure for their businesses.
• Introduce yourself to the community in our New Member Introductions forum - There's no better way to start letting people know that you've arrived to our site then to introduce yourself.  Let people know where you're from, a little about your background, your goals, and some interesting things about yourself.  Please do not use this as an opportunity to sell your product, services, or deals.  We've got other areas for that. 

Congratulations! You've Arrived!

Now that you've got your profile together, you've introduced yourself, and you've uploaded a personal image, its time to start exploring the site.  BiggerPockets is a very comprehensive site with tons of free information, tools, resources, etc.

- Read articles on our forum, article directory, official blog, member blogs

- Find properties and deals in our property directory and dealmaking forums

- Network with others through our groups, networking page, and on our forums

- Keep up with the latest real estate news on our bulletins

- Learn about real estate companies and businesses in our company directory

- And much more!  Get out there explore, and start getting involved!

UPDATES:

I know that its been a while since I've updated you with exciting site news.  Rest assured, we've got some cool new stuff on the way to enhance the experience of all members.  We'll be letting you know about these developments in the upcoming weeks.  Meanwhile, we've been fixing bugs, speeding up the site, and doing minor improvements across the board.  

CONTEST:

We're also working on a contest with some really great prize giveaways. Stay Tuned!

If you're interested in getting some PR for youself and giving away a prize, please contact me ASAP.

BLOG:

We're looking to add new bloggers to the BiggerPockets Blog Team.  If you're interested in contributing to the Blog, please get in touch

GROWTH:

The site has been seeing fantastic growth in all metrics.  We're adding new members at a great pace, and activity in all areas of the site is at or near all-time highs. Thanks foryour participation on the site, and we look forward to adding more great features to get you even more excited about BiggerPockets.

Meanwhile, please continue to invite your friends, colleagues, and clients to join the site!

Until next time . . .

One of the nice things about BiggerPockets, in my opinion, is that we try to focus on people interacting with one another. We don't allow members to travel the site using a company avatar because it is just plain impersonal. The internet is impersonal enough, and we're work very hard to change that, particularly in the real estate space.

That said, we felt that there was a need for people to be able to share information about their companies, and in the vain of helping companies market themselves, (can companies market themselves?), we just launched the latest feature to BiggerPockets:

The BiggerPockets Real Estate Company Index

This new directory allows companies to gain FREE publicity in front of our vast and growing audience of real estate professionals, investors, and consumers.

Adding a company is simple. Just visit the directory and click the Add a Company link. After filling out the information about your company and submitting it, an admin will approve it (providing you create a neutral profile without all the sales copy), at which point you can join that company by clicking the "Click here to add yourself" link.

We encourage you to Invite your co-workers and colleagues to join BiggerPockets so they can also add themselves to your company.

This is a great way to get FREE PR for your company!

Once you're added to a company, you'll note that the company's name in your personal profile links back to your company's profile. In the next few days, we'll additionally make it so your company's logo appears on your personal profile.

So . . . what are you waiting for? Create your company's profile today and start getting some free PR!

The good press keeps coming for me and BiggerPockets in 2009.

I was again interviewed by US News & World Report, this time before the new year for an article that just came out today called "5 Top Blunders of Internet Home Buying".  Its a great article and I've got quite a few quotes in it (be sure to check page 2 of the piece as well).

Please check it out and be sure to pass it on to everyone!

Happy Holidays everyone!  We launched a few changes to the BiggerPockets site this afternoon that I thought worth sharing.

• Members can now share their real estate wants and needs on their profiles in the Currently Seeking section.  Whether you're looking for properties, partners, money, clients, etc. you can share these so others on the site can more easily connect and work with you.
• We've drastically sped up the Dashboard and other areas of the site!  Regular members will see a big change!
• We've upgraded the recent forum posts section of the Dashboard to make it easier to navigate.
• Corrected several problems in the BiggerPockets Blogging platform.  Users will no longer see blank trackbacks on their articles;  we've also fixed a few bugs in the comments.
• Improved pagination issues throughout the site.
• Fixed several bugs in the member password reset system.  

Speed, Style, and Incentives

You may have noticed that we just rebuilt the front page of BiggerPockets. This redesign came about for several reasons.

 Here's a few things of note:

1 - The old front page took almost 6 seconds to load on a broadband connection -- that was not acceptable! The new front is much faster!
2 - The old front page had little information for possible new members. The current front page is designed to get possible new members excited about signing up!  It is important to focus on recruitment, and we believe the new page will greatly help.
3 - Instead of just showing random members on the front, we're now showing members, others who live in their area. If you log in from Los Angeles, you'll see members in LA, while New Yorkers will see their fellow New York City residents. If your city doesn't have a lot of BP members, you'll see others in your state.
4 - We're still showing the latest 6 forum posts and have added the most recent 4 articles from our blog. After polling a group of current members, we determined that these were the two things that they used the most on the old front.
5 - We updated our registration page to include more info why members should sign up.

We hope that these moves help to drive new signups to the site, while satisfying the needs of our current membership.

Thanks for listening . . . we've got more great improvements coming to other parts of the site soon.

Many of you may not know that BiggerPockets has a system to allow members to take private notes on other members and on property listings.

That's right, Your Notes are PRIVATE!

Your notes are viewable ONLY BY YOU!

Taking notes on other members is a great way to stay organized, to remind yourself of conversations or discussions, etc.  Essentially, notes allow members to keep a virtual file on those people that they come into contact with on BiggerPockets!

Here's how BiggerPockets Notes Works:

1 - Find Notes Tab on a member's profile and click on ADD NOTE

 2 - A dialogue box will ope, allowing you to create a note.  Write your note and then save it, or cancel if you don't want to.  Notes can be deleted at any time.

3 - After saving the note, you'll see it every time you open the user's profile and view the NOTES tab.  Additionally, notes can be viewed from within the DASHBOARD by clicking on the NOTES tab on the sidebar.

See View from the DASHBOARD below.

That's it!  As you can see, creating notes is an easy way to remember things about other members on the site.

BTW - You can also take notes on ANY property listing on the site.

Questions?

Over the past 2 days we've rolled out a set of AWARD BADGES for those members who are amongst the top contributors to our forums, blogs, blog comments, bulletins, referrals, etc. 

Here are a few of the badges you could qualify for:

Top Poster

Top Poster this Week

Top Poster This Month

And here's how it would look on your profile:

So, get active and you can end up being one of the top contributors to BiggerPockets and get your profile blinged out with awards!

BiggerPockets is not only a community for sharing knowledge, for networking, and making deals, but it is also a marketing platform for people in the real estate space.

Here are several easy ways to use BiggerPockets to market yourself and your business:

• Create a Detailed, Professional Profile with Photo - BiggerPockets profiles have been designed to give you the opportunity to share information about yourself and your business with the rest of the community and the world.  Our profiles are search engine optimized and can be found on all the major search engines.  They give people a way to find out about your contact information, experience, goals, and of course, your activity on BiggerPockets.  Profiles that are not completely filled in do not appear in our networking page or site's front page.  A complete profile means one that includes an avatar or image.  If you don't want to share a photo of yourself, find a picture that matches and use it. Remember, profiles with photos get a TON more traffic!

• Create a signature and get active on the forums - Our forums are visited by thousands of people every day.  If you're an active forum participant, you can easily start building a good reputation among the community.  Those people who prove to be knowledgeable and helpful to others often get a TON of business from their participation on the forums. I know some people who became so flooded with business that sadly, they could no longer participate!

  Part of getting noticed is having a signature at the bottom of all of your posts.  You'll want to edit your profile and select the signature tab to create your sig.  Make sure your company name is accurate in your profile, and select the "Use my name and company in my forum signature" button.   Then use the blank space next to "Forum Signature" to enter your website URL, phone number, or email address (if you want people reading your posts to see this info).

• Create a Blog - BiggerPockets Blogs are easy to set up and use and require no programming knowledge.  We've essentailly created our own proprietary blogging platform that not only allows you to communicate with the world, but helps promote you.  BiggerPockets has implemented many search engine optimizing features to help you get your name out there by blogging.  The key to successful blogging, however, is not just having a blog, but having one that shares Quality content.  If your blog is just full of spammy crap, no one is going to visit your profile, website, or anything else.  Check out some more of the blog's features.

• Write some Articles - BiggerPockets has built a phenominal article directory for the benefit of both the average real estate consumer or investor and for the benefit of the articles' authors.  Since we're talking about marketing benefits here, we'll focus on the authors.  All articles on BiggerPockets give the author a place to create a byline/signature.  This is the perfect place to market yourself:  share links to your website, tell folks what you're up to, promote your latest book.  Our articles are viewed by tens of thousands of people every month both on site and through our articles feed.  Why wouldn't you want some added exposure?

• Participate in BiggerPockets Bulletin - BiggerPockets Bulletin is a real estate social bookmarking tool that allows members to post interesting real estate related news and other links to share.  Our members can then make comments on these articles or vote on those that they find most interesting.  Got an interesting article or story that you wrote?  Share it on the bulletin!  With participation comes visibility . . . with visibility comes just what you're looking for - free marketing.

• Join or Create a Group - Groups are a great way for people of similar interest to come together.  Being part of a group on BiggerPockets allows you to be seen by those people, and bring renewed exposure within your own, mini-community.

• Just Get Involved! - We've created an incentive system for those members who get involved on the site.  Our stats page highlights the most active members of the day, week, month, and all-time.  This page is visited my tons of members, and the search engines alike.  Show up on the stats page because you're active, and you're going to see more traffic to your profile!