Okay I feel like an idiot. I thought I was pretty computer/internet savvy until I started reading these forums. It's obvious that I haven't even scratched the surface!
I want to start a blog but I am confused. What is the difference between the REW forum blogs and an REW blog that they skin to match your website? The REW blog is $300... is the REW blog a wordpress blog that everyone here is talking about?
Basically, my question is, where do I start. And do I link from my website to my blog or vice versa or both? I am confused about backlinks and search engine positioning etc. If someone could explain that would be awesome!
Any and all advice is appreciated!

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Gloria Singer
Lang Realty
Boca Raton, FL Real Estate
Boca Raton Homes for Sale

The free blogs are located here, the advantage to them is they automatically pick up the authority of this site. The downside is you don't own the site and are building content for someone else.

The one that is skinned to match your site (look like your site) would be located on your site. So yoursite(dot)com/blog is a common place to put it.

Neither of these options is a WordPress blog.

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The Suburban House Hunters Team would like to thank REW members for past referrals! We are never to busy to handle your Chicago area referrals.

Always looking for quality unique content for our real estate agent blog, PM me if interested in writing a post.

My thoughts on the Sarasota Association of REALTORS actions.

That is a lot of information that you are looking for; good for you for asking the questions!

I just actually started my blog with Wordpress. I had to get a feel for which one would better suit what I wanted to do with my blog in the long run. I would do a bit of research on both the wordpress sites as well as research the other blogging platforms that are out there to see what really matches your goal(s) for the blog.

With regard to backlinks, etc; I am not very good with SEO stuff, so I will let one of the SEO guys/gals to answer that section.

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Andy Scherer
Senior Loan Specialist
Mortgage Trainer

Gloria

I am still trying to figure out all of this SEO stuff myself. I think you need to figure out what you want the blogging to accomplish. I think it is a balnce between getting links to your site, providing relevant content and working on long-tail search results.

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Carolyn Gjerde-Tu
Davis CA Real Estate

Visit my new blog It Keeps You Running attempting to prove you don't need keywords in your domain name.

Coming soon, my new site for Sacramento Real Estate

Welcome to the club. I'd suggest using more than one blog, and using each for different purposes:

One to post serious articles and promo your professionalism; one related to your specific market area, like your farm; and another you can use specifically for SEO.

That last one is where you post articles that include links to the sites of people who reciprocate by doing the same for you. This is a complex strategy. The important thing to remember about it for now it is that you not link to it from your site, nor link to the site from the blog, except that you may link to your site in one article.

Link to the other two blogs from your site, to the blogs from one-another, and to the site from the blogs.

BTW--If you don't have a farm, you should consider farming, and setting up a special section of your site for thorough exposition of all the relevant info related to the neighborhood. The link to the farm blog should be from this section only, but you should have deep links on another page (or pages) that point to the farm section--in addition to your standard nav link. Use that section for static info, and the blog for breaking news, special events, announcements and info about new listings in the farm area--yours and those of others.

Hi Gloria (and good to meet you...);

You have gotten some pretty in depth info on the blogs and how they work. About backlinks and etc.

There's a glossary here at REW so that the lingo is a bit less confusing...take a look at it and it should hopefully make the geek-speak read more like english. It's up at the top.

Backlinks (or links) are essentially indications to the search engines that other sites view your site as having relevant and authoritative information on a subject.

One of the things you can do is ask specific questions in the Google forum below and we will try to help.

Welcome to REW!

Eric

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Eric Blackwell
Technologist, SEO Specialist and Consultant

Louisville Real Estate My Home Real Estate Site

Search Engine Marketing, Coaching & Custom WP Blogs Learn how to get the MOST out of your already awesome REW site.

Real Estate Industry Watch - Real Estate Industry News Blog Get up to date info on the Real Estate Industry

Thanks for the responses everyone! OKay, SAJim, I was worried about having the time for one blog, but three?
I am more confused than ever. Isn't the whole idea of it for SEO for my site? Or is it for SEO for my blog? Or is it to embed links in the blog which will point to my site and therefore help my website gain in search engines...
is that what is called a backlink?
And are you saying that I shouldn't have a menu item on my website linking to my blog?
Also, can someone please tell me what "long tail search results" are?
Thanks!

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Gloria Singer
Lang Realty
Boca Raton, FL Real Estate
Boca Raton Homes for Sale

Gloria the first thing you should focus on is a quality blog on your website. This will allow you to continue to grow your site. Over time you want this to be your main focus as you own the site and the traffic generated will be the most valuable.

Secondary you can keep your free blog you have and use it to build links to your site. Just make a post a month with market updates and link back to your main site. KISS with this blog.

Also secondary, you can add a free REW blog at the link I provided before. This blog might rank better then the one on your site for the time being. So it will help you drive some traffic (and links) to your site. The key is you don't own this site so you have to decide how much you want to invest in it.

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The Suburban House Hunters Team would like to thank REW members for past referrals! We are never to busy to handle your Chicago area referrals.

Always looking for quality unique content for our real estate agent blog, PM me if interested in writing a post.

My thoughts on the Sarasota Association of REALTORS actions.

Hi Gloria;

Long tail search results are those that go beyond just "City real estate" or "City Homes"...they are all the other phrases that people use to search for houses..here are some examples:

City condominiums
City new homes
City condo
City state homes for sale
homes for sale in city state

etc. and so forth.

The amount of traffic that you get from being on top of the search engines for a term like City real estate (Boca Raton real estate in your case) is actually the tip of the iceberg compared to the traffic that comes from ranking well across many of the terms.

Hope that helps. I have more thoughts on your blog but need to get home for dinner...(grin)

Eric

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Eric Blackwell
Technologist, SEO Specialist and Consultant

Louisville Real Estate My Home Real Estate Site

Search Engine Marketing, Coaching & Custom WP Blogs Learn how to get the MOST out of your already awesome REW site.

Real Estate Industry Watch - Real Estate Industry News Blog Get up to date info on the Real Estate Industry

Ah...Ken beat me to it re; the blogs...

Thanks Ken!

Eric

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Eric Blackwell
Technologist, SEO Specialist and Consultant

Louisville Real Estate My Home Real Estate Site

Search Engine Marketing, Coaching & Custom WP Blogs Learn how to get the MOST out of your already awesome REW site.

Real Estate Industry Watch - Real Estate Industry News Blog Get up to date info on the Real Estate Industry