Here's the scene. It's Saturday, you're sitting on Floor Time in an almost empty Office. It's raining. It's cold. The chance of a walk in, that isn't merely seeking shelter from the weather, is near infinitesimal. The only action you are seeing is brokering a deal, via text messaging, between the kids fighting over dishes, again.

What better time to write content for your website, if for no other reason than to seize the temporary escape this will provide. :)

Now, what to write about.

Everything. Think back over the past week. Where did you go? Who did you chat with? What did you chat about? Think about where you drove, are there any local oddities that you've seen so many times you just overlook now? Did a local event happen that might be of interest to a potential home buyer? Maybe a visitor on your website is torn between areas and chooses your market area just because they discovered a blog on your website about a monthly under water basket weaving class and they LOVE that! Think about what made you smile and write about that. Was there a Youth football game ending in an edge of the seat tie-breaker? Did the local High School hold it's Graduation? This is content gold that the Big Guys are unable to provide.

Spend a few hours writing blog posts about these things. Don't publish them all, just write them and save them. It becomes easy once you get in the groove. You can write many in a few hours. Then, over the next week you can publish these live to your website, share them on your Facebook page and with your friends on social media. This makes it much easier to provide a consistent stream of content to your website.

Utilizing a registration system on your website to capture the email address or create accounts for your website visitors is also recommended. If they love your content, they will come back and will want to be notified when you update. This creates a relationship and keeps your name in their minds as they continue their home search.

Videos are also a wonderful resource for your website visitors. It is easy to make a short 60 second video with your cell phone and post it to Facebook. You can do this while sitting at your desk as you write the content or while you are leaving a successful Listing Presentation. You can start the ball rolling on the right foot by posting a video about your new listing as you leave the home! Think how that will make your seller feel, to see their home on your Facebook page before you leave the driveway. Add a link to your website and you again have content gold that can never be provided by the Big Guys.

The Big Guys that dominant the MLS related search returns are open to competition. They can not provide the Local experience an agent can provide. This is the foot in the door to use to make your website relevant and is the best (perhaps only) way to effectively compete against the Big Guys. A website that shows regular use and provides a real slice of daily life in an area is a real resource to people looking to learn more about an area. The Big Guys can never provide that home town feel that a local agent is able to do.

Real estate is and always will be a local business. This is the advantage you have. You are local. They are not. Use that to your advantage and let folks know about your market!

Keep it Local. Keep it Real.