Thinking of starting a blog? Or, have you started your blog-but find that no one is reading or commenting on your "interesting" topics? Don't do it until you answer a couple of questions and take the three steps listed below first.
Here are those questions to ask yourself:
What is the "reason" for your blog?
Who is your audience?
What's the "goal" you want to achieve?
Spend some time to answer those three questions first. You'll have a clear sense of what's happening in the mortgage industry, who the big players are and how to build rapport and relationships with your followers.
Now for those three steps:
Step 1: Monitor other blogs. Before you go hog wild, study what other bloggers in the mortgage industry do and say. Look at what's important to them personally, what's the hot topic in the industry, what they are saying, what are their followers' saying and how many comments do they get.
Step 2: Start making comments on other blogs. Pick two or three blogs that you like, ones where you are interested in the topics.
Comment on them about twice a month. Be interesting and add to the conversation. Monitor them to see what people say about your comments and don't do any self-promotion.
Step 3: Connect with bloggers who you admire. Most people have a mentor in their lives-and getting yourself a "blogging mentor" is no exception.
Ask your blogging mentor for feedback about your comments, ask how he or she got started and ask them how the blog has helped them in their business.
I subscribe to www.CopyBlogger.com. While it's not specific to the mortgage industry, it has lots of great ideas, tips and content that you can modify to fit the mortgage industry.
Karen Deis is president of
