Multi-Author Real Estate Blogs - Thoughts from the Experts

There are numerous multi-author blogs around the internet, and several very successful ones within the real estate category (RE.net). In my mind, there are several primary benefits to multi-author blogs:

• Distributed Workload — No doubt about it, writing takes a lot of time, meaning blogging also takes a lot of time. A multi-author blog allows numerous writers to share the workload.
• Collaboration Among Contributors — Sure, some people don’t need others to review their writing, but some writers love the collaboration that comes with several people working on a particular piece of writing (hence, why so many books are co-authored). It’s great to have others to bounce ideas off of and to help generate interesting topics for blog posts.
• Varied Personalities for Readers to Relate to — I’m becoming a firm believer that the success of a blog is largely dependent on the PERSONALITIES behind the blog. Believe it or not, not everyone will relate to your writing. However, if there are numerous authors, your audience will have others to relate to when reading a blog.

I wanted to get some more insights into the world of multi-author blogs and what makes them successful, so I asked the masterminds behind three of the most well known multi-author real estate blogs on the net — Rain City Guide, BloodHoundBlog, and InmanBlog — several questions about their experiences in the trenches. I’m sure the majority of the CoRE’s audience is aware of the masterminds that I’m talking about — Greg Swann from BloodHoundBlog, Jessica Swesey from InmanBlog, and Dustin Luther from Rain City Guide. I asked them to all answer 3 questions — here’s their answers:

Q: What are the top three things that lead to a successful multi-author blog?

• Greg Swann - I’m tempted to answer talent, talent and talent. There’s more to it than that, though. BloodhoundBlog is blessed to have very talented writers, but we’re twice blessed that they’re such thoughtful, thoroughgoing people. Add to that they are so easy to get along with, and we have a killer line-up.
• Jessica Swesey - 1) Keeping the voices organized so readers know who is writing each post; 2) Getting the right voices together: points of view or insights from people that readers will care about; 3) Keeping on contributors who often fall by the wayside so they are staying active.
• Dustin Luther - You’d really have to ask the contributing authors why they got involved to find out why RCG was successful. I tried so many different things to get people involved that I’m not always sure why they stick around! Nonetheless, I’ll throw some ideas out there. (1) Trust: The contributing authors have to trust you won’t abuse their information (2) Benefits: The benefits of contributing have to be immediately obvious and able to be articulated in a simple sentence. (3) Interesting: (is that too self-evident?).

Q: If you had chance to go through the process of building & managing your multi-author blog again, what would you do differently?

• Greg Swann - I can’t think of a thing. I might have started earlier, but ideas come when they come. Had I seen where BloodhoundBlog was going, I would have built it in its own domain, but there’s nothing I can do about that now. In any case, I’m delighted with where we’ve gotten so far, and I’m eager to see where we’ll get to next.
• Jessica Swesey - Always make all the guest authors write in draft mode before publishing. It’s not that we want to censor our writers, it’s just that as a news company we have certain liabilities with content and want to be sure that readers don’t mistake a guest author’s opinion as the view of our editorial team.
• Dustin Luther - Learn PHP… There are lots of technical improvements I could make to the site that would make it easier (better?) for the contributors if I had some better coding skills! Only ignorance on my part can explain my willingness to get other people involved in a real estate website when I had no idea how to read/write code or configure server settings (let alone understand the real estate transaction!)

Q: What were the biggest surprises that you experienced while managing your blog?

• Greg Swann - Subject to contradiction from my co-bloggers, I don’t actually manage anything. I do the maintenance stuff, and I’m happy to confer about posts if someone asks. But there are no rules for contributors to BloodhoundBlog. The closest we get to a rule is when we are breaking news. Then I’ll ask for a four or six-hour window, so the news will stay at the top of the page for that span of time. I’m astounded every day at the great ideas people bring to their posts, but I can’t say I’ve had any big surprises.
• Jessica Swesey - For me, it’s been the length of the discussions that often continue long after a post has been published. Sometimes the same two or three readers will continue to discuss an issue for weeks. It’s really interesting to watch these discussions unfold.
• Dustin Luther - That it worked! No kidding… While I’ll admit that I was persistent in trying to get RE Professionals to sign up as contributors right from the get-go, to get people like Ardell DellaLoggia and Russ Cofano after being in operation less than a year was a gift that has never stopped giving!

Though Rain City Guide’s contributors write mostly Seattle real estate content, most multi-author blogs are definitely industry focused right now. However, building a locally focused multi-author blog is certainly an interesting option for real estate professionals who are interested in building a solid reputation in their local community. Should you choose to go down the path of creating a multi-author blog, hopefully, you learned something from the experts in this brief Q&A.

I have to extend a huge thanks to Greg, Dustin, and Jessica for their time!