Dear Mr. Internet: It's so difficult to "stand out" online. Is there something I can do that will absolutely differentiate myself from all my competitors? Debi Orr Century 21 Landmark Properties Ridgefield, CT

Dear Debi:

How about something that requires very little investment of your time or money, yet practically guarantees:

1. growing awareness of your name and brand;
2. that you are the "talked about" real estate expert in your town or city;
3. you will receive tons of new visitors to your site?!

Sound to good to be true —it's not. This opportunity is just waiting to be had by anyone who follows my plan below on how to syndicate their own online column. In other words, become the "Dear Abby" of real estate in your area!

Six Steps To Online Fame And Fortune...

Before you throw up your hands in protest about not being able to write (which I will address shortly), let's review the easy process of creating your own successful online column:

STEP 1 - Select Your Niche - decide your column's focus. For example, being the "expert" on issues concerned with all aspects of online real estate (buying, selling, resources, etc.) is a natural —given that most of your readers are going to be online anyway. Or, you could concentrate on a particular demographic such as first-time buyers, seniors, etc. Just make sure whatever topic area you pick provides an ongoing rich vein of ideas and issues to write about.

STEP 2 - Choose A Column Format - some sort of advice or "Q&A" where real online consumers ask topical questions that will interest other readers is always a good bet. This is because readers can readily relate to other real people with issues.

You don't have to wait for someone to ask a question before you write about it. Ideally, you've picked your questions months in advance. Just contact several of your past clients for permission to be the ones doing the "asking". Be sure to include their full name and town of residence —a nice touch that adds credibility to your column and can cause lots of extra "chatter" among people who know the person named in the article.

STEP 3 - Design The "Look" - have a good designer layout the overall look and feel of the column. Make sure that it can be read without horizontal scrolling on an 800 x 600 resolution screen. If your current Web site already incorporates a strong "branding" element (see the November 2000 issue of "Ask Mr. Internet!" on branding), be sure to include that in your articles as well. This is a powerful way to extend your online brand and create an attractive content "package" for the sites publishing your column (more on that later).

At the bottom or a sidebar include your "byline" (i.e. short bio) with full contact information and links to your Web site and an e-mail address where readers can send their questions. Keep your byline short, simple, and void of any sales pitch. Online editors can smell a disguised infomercial a mile away and will reject anything that smacks of self promotion. Your copyright notice and terms for republishing is best placed at the very bottom of each article.

Now if you want to get fancy, you can include "Feedback" and " Forward To A Friend" buttons as part of the column template. This a very effective "viral" way to spread word of your column (and you!) in addition to receiving valuable reader feedback. However, the "Forward To A Friend" feature will likely require the services of a programmer to implement. The format of my "Ask Mr. Internet!" column (as exemplified in the link above) illustrates all of these features.

STEP 4 - Offer A "Printer Friendly" Version - many people like to print out articles from the Web. For each article create a text-only " printer friendly" version that can be accessed via a link from the graphical one. An extra bonus that comes from doing this is that it makes it much easier for offline publications to republish your work —giving you even greater exposure and credibility.

STEP 5 - Set Up A Schedule - and stick to it! There is one thing that editors hate above all else, and that's missed deadlines. Don't even think about "selling" a column to an online publication unless you have the discipline to deliver —every time!

How frequently your column comes out will largely depend upon the requirements of your "primary" publisher (see STEP 6 below). Whether it is monthly (not to hard to do) or weekly (much more work), just make sure you stick to the schedule.

STEP 6 - "Sell" Your Column - nearly every newspaper in the world, big and small, has an online edition run by editors who are just crying for quality online content! In fact, most U.S. cities have several papers that have some sort of Web equivalent. You can find which ones in your area have online presences quite easily by going to the Media Directory of the Editors & Publishers Web site.

Arm yourself with a couple of sample issues of your column prior to making any calls. Then, contact the editor of the the largest online newspaper in your area to get their thoughts about including a regular real estate column in their online edition. If there is interest, point them to your sample issues and explain the benefits to their readers of having access to this kind of information. By the way, the more "branded" your column looks, the more likely an editor will say "yes" —because they invariably prefer to offer their readers something distinctive rather than generic.

It should not take long for them to make a decision —especially if you give them a deadline before you speak to someone else! If they say "yes", great, if not go to the next one on your list.

IMPORTANT: once an online newspaper agrees to host your column, be sure to negotiate the right to republish the articles with other newspapers in a way that won't conflict with theirs. This allows you to greatly broaden your reach by "syndicating" your column on many different sites.

That's pretty much it, except for just a couple of minor details, like...

Who's Going To Write This Thing?!

Ideally, you write your own column. However, given that most real estate professionals are not particularly known for their outstanding writing skills, there is another way —have a "ghost" do it! A ghost writer is a professional that simply writes for someone else.

You can find yourself a good ghost writer (and a designer for your column template for that matter), at eLance.com. Here you can post a project and professionals will bid on it —at no cost to you. Typically it will only take 24 hours to find the person who fits your needs. Also, eLance.com maintains a rating system that shows how other clients of a particular freelancer felt about their work. Everyone I have recommended eLance.com to has been very pleased with the results.

Just make sure that the writing style of the person you hire reflects the "tone and feel" you want to get across in your column. Remember, their writing is going to be a reflection of you. Prior to each article have your ghost writer "interview" you about the topic question and how you would address it as a real estate professional. Lastly, it never hurts to have a consistent and entertaining "personality" show through -- an important part of having readers look forward to your next article.

Once You Have It —Leverage The Heck Out Of It!

Now that you are the (possibly exclusive) online real estate columnist for the Web edition of the XYZ paper in your area, here's what you can do to boost your marketing exposure and business to even greater heights:

• Broaden Your Base - with one site under your belt it is easy to go to many other sites (i.e. other papers, Chamber of Commerce, etc.) and offer them the same content. Most will jump at the chance. Keep in mind that each one then becomes another conduit to you and your Web site —at no cost to you;
• Announce It - being a respected columnist is a point of distinction that you can use in all of your marketing that sets you way above the competition in the minds of the consumer. That's because articles carry a much higher degree of "legitimacy" than any amount of advertising you could do;
• Archive It - your past articles create awesome high-value content for your own Web site, almost automatically!

The power of the written word is very much alive online. If leveraged wisely (e.g. via an online column) it can quickly and powerfully catapult you to the highest levels of differentiation over your competitors.

Better act fast though —there's likely to be room for only one "Dear Abby" of real estate in any particular city!

Published: February 16, 2001

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Michael J. Russer (a.k.a. Mr. Internet®) is an internationally acclaimed speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry and small business. He is also the exclusive Internet columnist for REALTOR® Magazine, the architect of the revolutionary e-ProductivityTM system and leading voice for the use of Virtual Assistants in small business. You can subscribe to his free monthly leading-edge newsletter ePOWER NEWS by going to ePowerNews.com.