2008 Burlington Independence Day Fireworks

Image by found_drama via Flickr

Coming up with stuff to write on a blog is one of the constant challenges facing new (and even not-so-new) bloggers. Here’s one quick idea my US real estate blogging readers might be able to put to use within the next week: Fourth of July. Apologies to my non-US readers; please follow along and find the right synthesis for your country and let us know what that is in the comments.

Why should Real Estate bloggers write about the Fourth of July?

What does Independence Day have to do with real estate? How can you move property or get listings by writing about it and photographing it?

Long Tail tactics for real estate

If the web marketing strategy for your brokerage or agent site involves developing the Long Tail then blogging is a natural tactic. Keeping a blog will naturally develop useful search terms over time. But you already know this because you’re here, reading the Internet Marketing and Tech for Real Estate blog. The Fourth of July happens every year, right? That means every year there comes a time when the Fourth of July is a popular search term. So out of the gate you know that someone is interested in your topic every year.

Local, local, local

Real estate blogging has the capability to really succeed on local information. It’s hard to get much more local than specific neighborhood information and data. Luckily, the Fourth of July, while a national event, is celebrated on the local level. There are often parades, fireworks, street fairs, sales and all sorts of local events that happen every year in the neighborhoods, towns and cities where real estate is bought and sold.

Images beyond Real Estate

The festivities surrounding the Fourth of July tend to be excellent photo opportunities: parades and fireworks are always colorful and fun. Give your readers a chance to look at something other than house interiors just this once a year.

How to make a great Independence Day blog post (or series) on your real estate blog

Ok you are going to be in business longer than just one year so you get why the Fourth of July works. Also, you’re looking forward to the chance to show off what you know about your local area. And finally, you know that good photography always helps. What next?

Plan ahead

You probably know well ahead of time where the fireworks displays are going to be, when and where the parades will be and so on. How about a post that lets everyone know where to be and when to be there in order to have the best time. Maybe you know a great spot to watch the fireworks or a good place to park the car or a great place to get treats for the kids on the way. It’s your local knowledge so put it to use. And let people know in advance. Make a blog post that answers this question: What’s the best way to enjoy the fourth of July in this area?

Shoot some pictures

Photograph any good parades or daylight festivities first. Then get ready for the tricky part: shooting fireworks. Here are three tips that I use to shoot fireworks:

  1. Use a tripod. Jiggling the camera will absolutely mess up your shots.
  2. Use a cable-release. See above.
  3. Set the camera to manual focus. You’ll miss the first couple shots getting your camera focused on the right spot, but after that you should be alright.

Those three should get you pretty well situated, but for a full list of great tips for photographing fireworks read this link. If you give shooting fireworks a try and it just doesn’t work out, you could always cheat and use stock photography. But you should at least shooting fireworks a try, it’s fun. Update your pre-4th of July post with your pictures or make a post-4th of July article describing some highlights and including your fireworks pictures.

Get even more real estate focused

Helping people enjoy the celebration will be great for your pursing your Long Tail strategy but what if you want to stay more focused on real estate than the ideas above?

  1. Are you selling a house with a great view of the fireworks? Maybe you could shoot the fireworks from the property so the future owners know what sort of fun view they are getting.
  2. Are you selling a property within walking distance of a prime viewing spot? Let people know by updating the listing remarks a few weeks before the 4th of July (you might want to revert to your previous remarks a few weeks afterwards).
  3. Do you help people buy or sell in a neighborhood with an excellent parade or fireworks display? Let your customers know about it.

Wrap up: 4th of July real estate blogging

There you go, some thoughts on how to gear up for Independence Day on your highly local, long-term, long-tail real estate blog. And the best part is, I bet you can repeat this process for more than one holiday or festival in your area. Was this useful? Anything I should be adding?