Even Real Estate agents do it.

Following is recent article from Dallas Morning News how realtors are creating a "face in cyberspace" with blogging.

Blogs give Realtors another way to reach home clients

12:27 PM CST on Friday, November 17, 2006
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News www.dallasmorningnews.com

Austin real estate agent Dee Copeland has put up a bigger sign in cyberspace.

Since March, Ms. Copeland has been running a blog [http://texasrealestate.blogs.com/] to inform potential buyers about her local housing market. Recent postings to the Web site talk about local zoning changes, buying houses in Mexico and updates on neighborhoods.
"I use the blog to communicate market conditions and updates to my clients, other agents, investors and anyone interested in my market," says Ms. Copeland, who's an agent with Keller Williams Realty.

Along the way, she picks up home sales business. "I'd say we'd get perhaps a lead a week from the blog," said Ms. Copeland, who, like all real estate agents, is continually on the lookout for new clients. Many of the more than 1 million Realtors in America are creating blogs – short for Web logs – to attract new business.

More than eight out of 10 real estate agents already have a company Web site.
Residential real estate agents hope that the informational Web log listings will allow them to connect better with potential buyers and sellers. There are currently between 500 and 1,000 sales agents with blogs, according to industry estimates. That's out of an estimated 50 million blog sites.

"For 2007, you need to have a blog," Bernice Ross, an Austin real estate sales consultant, told agents meeting in New Orleans last weekend. "The people who don't have a blog will not be generating the leads. "It's a great way to talk to younger consumers in a way they want to be spoken to."

The Internet has been a mixed bag for real estate agents. Although almost 80 percent of potential homebuyers now use the Web to look for properties, the latest survey found that only 7 percent of consumers found their agent via the Internet. "I know there is frustration in the industry," said David Lereah, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors. "The leads from the Internet are not as effective as they would like it to be. "This is still a referral business."

Real estate agents see blogs as just another way to generate referrals. "One out of every four consumers on the Internet will work with the first person that contacts them," said Earl Lee, president of Prudential Realty Affiliates. "They are just surprised we actually respond." The casual touch

The blogs are a more informal way of getting consumers to connect with real estate agents, industry members say. "Visitors to blog sites are much more willing to share information about what they are looking for," said Richard Nacht of New Jersey-based Blogging Systems LLC. "They are very open and willing to talk to you about what their needs are.

"There is an opportunity to start conversations in a nonthreatening, nonsales environment," Mr. Nacht told real estate agents during a panel discussion.
Dallas real estate agent Judy McCutchin has had a Web site since 1994. http://www.dallashomes.com/judy-judy.htm

She recently launched a blog [http://askchester.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html] to add to her Internet presence. "It hasn't been up there in this form for too long – just a few months, but it has been received well," Ms. McCutchin said. "We'll be doing one soon that will have some pretty comprehensive information on the Dallas real estate market that will be backed up by hard-core statistics." Providing information about the local housing market is a must, Ms. Ross told real estate agents.

"If they start seeing you as the local expert and you have new posts all the time, you become a trusted adviser," she said. Taking time. But real estate agents are leery of the time commitment a blog requires. Indeed, a glance at some Realtor blog sites shows that some of them haven't been updated in weeks or months. "Business people don't have time to blog," said Bill French of MyST Technology Partners of Colorado.

"They certainly don't have time to moderate comments all day. "Be careful of the amount of time you spend," he told agents. "You are here to sell real estate, right?" Mr. French said agents can use information they already produce in client e-mails and newsletters to provide info for blogs. "If you think about all the e-mail messages you write in a week, I bet you can find two or three that you wouldn't mind sharing," he said. John Helmering, president of www.Realestateblogsites.com, said, "Realtors are very busy, but they don't have to blog four or five times a day." His company has set up 60 blogs for agents since February. "It's been overwhelming to see the adoption of blogs by the real estate industry," he said.

E-mail stevebrown@dallasnews.com