Real Estate Blogs: "Post or Perish"

For the past 50 days, The Real Estate Cafe has been living it's own case study, trying to find out whether blogging really influences how many people visit our site.  Yes, during our mini-sabbatical, we've been working on some exciting things behind the scenes and collecting lots of audio files for a podcast.  And yes, we were interviewed by the Center for Realtor Technology (even though we are NOT Realtors) for their report on blogging in real estate which was released today. But most importantly, we participated in RadioOpenSource.org's program on "The Beginning of the End of the Real Estate Bubble," and two clips from our real estate bubble audio time capsule were played on the national broadcast (which was their first on XM radio!  Exciting!)

Truth be told, we have also been suffering (at least tongue in cheek) from "Bloggers Depression."  But after reading this remarkable publication, complete with reassuring illustrations like the one above, it's a relief to know we are not alone and that we no longer need to suffer in silence!

So a word to the wise.  Any Realtors reading this who think they can jump into the blogosphere and see an immediate surge in their Google rankings and online leads, be forwarded that creating "the ultimate traffic-building tool," as the Center for Realtor Technology (CRT) calls it, may come at the cost:  your free time (what free time, right?) and mental health.  Posting daily takes discipline and diligence, and if you stop you may experience the same thing we have:

Our pageviews have dropped 90 percent in the last 50 days. 

Bottomline:  Consumers, both buyers and sellers, and looking for local experts who can provide timely, credible insight into their market.  In a town where "publish or perish" is the mantra for faculty hiring committees and junior faculty alike, the new buzz words for would be real estate bloggers is "post or perish."