The more content you create, the more likely you are to rank higher in search results for specific keyword phrases.

Want to work with buyers?

Then write content that attracts and educates buyers.

Want to work with sellers?

Then write content that attracts and educates sellers.

The key of course, is to create new content, consistently over time. The more time people spend engaging with and consuming your content, the more likely they’ll seriously consider what you have to offer — hiring you as their real estate agent.

But how/where do you find the time? Well, here are some writing tips for busy real estate professionals…

1. Prioritize your time and your activities.

Priority #1 is to help your buyer find a new home or your seller sale his home faster and for top dollar. Between looking at homes, hosting an Open House and reviewing offers, it’s easy to let your content marketing efforts fall on the back-burner.

What happened to that Market Report you were thinking of writing? Yeah, I’m sure you’ll get to it later...

Here’s the thing though, if you expect your blog to be the cornerstone of your lead generation efforts, then you need to dedicate the time to creating content that’s going to attract buyers and sellers.

Real Estate Broker, Irina Netchaev closed 23 escrows last year. About 90% of them were leads that were generated as a direct result of her blog and her content marketing efforts. In other words, she focused on creating highly relevant content marketed towards to type of client she was hoping to attract. She says:

It finally dawned on me that I had to look at developing content as prospecting time. I made a decision to allocate an hour a day for research and writing. My goal was to have 3 to 5 posts a week, especially when my blog was still a baby. – Irina Netchaev, PasadenaViews.com

Get through your daily To Do list. But then, make sure you’re prioritizing your time appropriately. That means that instead of conversing on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, make sure that you’ve finished drafting tomorrow’s blog post. Once that’s done, you can get back to interacting on social networks. Right now, what matters is that you write that next post.

2. Keep a swipe file of potential blog posts. 

Newspaper reporters call this keeping a “morgue file.” It’s simply a folder containing article clippings that are used as a quick reference guide.

When it comes to your real estate blogging, you want to keep something similar for quick and easy reference so you can write something quickly if you have to. Whether it’s a notebook or your Evernote account, keeping a swipe file is an easy way to ensure you never run out of things to write about.

Here’s what you do:

• When you come across an article you want to quote or link to in a blog post, save it into a notebook in Evernote.
• Whenever you have an idea for a new blog post, write it down. (Personally, I sit down and write potential post titles several days a week).

Keep that swipe file handy so that when you sit down to write your next blog post, you have a bucket of ideas to pull from.

3. Answer client questions with a blog post. 

Most agents tell me they “don’t know where to start.” Well, a great place to start is your email inbox!

Here’s what I mean… Open up your email, and look for all of those questions customers and potential customers are asking you on a daily basis. Write them out as a list.

That list, is a series of blog posts waiting to happen.

What you’re doing here is basically taking all of those client questions and answering them in the form of a blog post for the benefit of everyone else who might have the same question.

So say someone asked you about the mortgage pre-approval process. Write your post, them email them:

Hey Ricardo,

Great question! Here’s a detailed post that I wrote that hopefully helps answer it in a little more detail:
http://www.mortgageporter.com/reportingfromseattle/2012/02/what-do-you-need-to-get-a-preapproval-letter.html

If you still have any questions, let me know. I’m always happy to help!

Best, 

[Your Contact Info here]

This way, you’re not repeating yourself over and over one email after another. But also, that article serves as a marketing piece for anyone going online and wanting to learn more about the pre-approval process.

4. Capture content everywhere you go.

As a real estate agent, you spend a lot of time out “in the field.” Previewing homes, driving around town, and taking a break to grab a bite to eat at your favorite restaurant.

All of that is an excellent opportunity to capture and create new content. Think about it. In many ways, real estate involves selling the community even before you sell the house. People want to know what it’s like to live there. What is there to do around town? What are some of the best places to eat?

So when you’re out previewing homes, or eating at your favorite restaurant, take pictures. Lots of them. Capture video if you can. Then later, use it for your next blog post by writing a review. Paint a picture of what it’s like to live in the area. What are your favorite restaurants, and why?

Instead of simply stating “now’s a great time to buy,” help paint a picture of the neighborhood in your next market report post full with pictures and/or video! I love how real estate agent Walter Burns is doing this with his Living on the Hudson Condo Videos.

Don’t have a digital camera or a video camera? Don’t worry, you can capture all of that content on your smart-phone. You just have to remember to do it.

5. Let go of perfection. 

Learn to let go of your inner perfectionist. You know, that little gremlin inside that’s telling you “everything has to be perfect.” Your writing, your photos, your video.

When you’re creating new content, it’s easy to criticize yourself and stop yourself from publishing your work for fear of it not being ready. Or it not being good enough.

The problem with that though, is that if you’re constantly waiting for things to be perfect, nothing will ever get published!

So today, learn to let go of your inner perfectionist. That post doesn’t have to be perfect. You just have to hit publish (more often). You’ll improve your writing, your video recording, and your photo taking with time.

Is Finding the Time To Blog a BIG Challenge for You? 

How often do you publish new content on your real estate blog? Do you commit to publishing a certain number of posts weekly? Or do you write only when you feel like you have something to say?

How have you made creating content a part of your daily routine? If it’s not a part of your daily routine, what can you change to improve your results the way Irina did in the example above?

(Photo: LocoMusings.com design by Agent Evolution)

Yesterday, I was on webinar with Nicole Nicolay — Chief Creative Officer at Agent Evolution. We were talking about IDX best practices for better lead conversion which happens to be my specialty and what we offer at Diverse Solutions. At the end of the webinar, Nicole asked me for some takeaways on what I think makes a real estate website stand out from the competition. In other words, what can you do to position yourself as the “go to” resource in your market area? So that people visit your website, over anyone else’s?

Here’s what I had to say on the subject…

1. You need to have a professional looking website. If you have the skill-sets and patience to do it yourself, then by all means please do but realize that unless you have experience, it’s definitely going to take up a lot of your time to get it right. If you lack the know-how, it’s honestly worth every penny to hire a professional up-front to do the work for you.

Chad Johnson, President & COO of Agent Evolution, said it best:

A real estate agent building their own website is like a homeowner doing a FSBO. The job can get done, but the end result isn’t nearly the same.

A professional web designer brings the same knowledge and experience to a website project that a real estate agent brings to a home sale. Quality website planning, designing and coding is a service that will pay for itself through more internet leads.

2. You need an IDX system, period. Consumers are coming to your website to search for homes.

What new homes are for sale in [your area]? What if I want to search by price-range?

If you’re not giving consumers what they want, they have no reason to stay. But an IDX system is more than just a simple presentation of new homes for sale, it’s also a lead generation opportunity.

3. You need content. Lots of content. All things being equal – in this case lets say design and IDX listings – what’s going to get people to search for homes on your website versus one of your competitors?

The answer to this one is “content.” More specifically, how are you using your writing to differentiate yourself? To hi-light your expertise of the local market area? To prove to others that you know real estate better than anyone else?

The more you write what you know about buying and selling real estate, what you know about the local community, and mistakes to avoid when buying or selling a home, the more likely people are going to stay on your site consuming your content as they learn more and more about the buying/selling process.

//

This is just a big picture view on the key ingredients that I think help you stand out. I’m sure we can drill down and talk about each one individually. But in order to be effective, I definitely think you need a solid combination of the three. Don’t you?

What do you think makes a real estate website stand out from the competition?

Being able to display IDX listings is the ultimate traffic magnet. People will come to your website time and time again to search for new homes and therein lies the lead generation opportunity.

But what should you look for in an IDX provider?

Should you require site visitors to login/register before being able to access listing details?

Where should you display your IDX listings for optimal exposure?

Get answers to all of those questions and more in this free IDX webinar with rockstar Nicole Nicolay from Agent Evolution this upcoming Wednesday. She’s going to be asking me some tough questions about IDX, and I’ll be giving her all the answers.

When: Wednesday, 11:00 am Pacific
Reserve your seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/591365064

Want us to critique your website?

No problem, just drop your site URL in the comments below. Nicole Nicolay and I will try to get through as many websites as possible!

Will people read my work? 

Will they like it? 

What if they don’t read it? 

What if nobody reads it? What if they think it sucks? 

That voice, asking all of those questions and making you second-guess yourself… That’s the inner critic. He’s relentless, and if you give in, he’ll cripple your work.

If you really want to excel, all it really boils down to is sitting down and doing the work.

Jeff Goins, who writes Goins Writer, is someone who knows this all to well. He’s been there. In your shoes. He’s dealt with the self-doubting, inner critic. Rather than let it keep him from creating his art, he’s put in the work. All while having a full-time job, and a family. He works late evenings and early mornings to put in the work. In his words: “I put the time in and showed up — and I saw the results.”

In an impressive and short 8 months, his work reaches thousands upon thousands of people. So today, I’d like to share some of Jeff’s words of wisdom from his latest book…

Writing Lessons from “You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One)”

All of this — this business of becoming a writer — starts not with the hands, but with the head…

Writing is mostly a mind game. It’s about tricking yourself into becoming who you are. If you do this long enough, you being to believe it. And pretty soon, you start acting like it.

It all starts with the right mind-set. If you can’t get that right, you’re going to have a tough time both getting started creating your best work. You’ll always be wrestling with the inner critic – letting him get the best of you and keeping you from creating your art.

Well, that ends today. You are good enough. You are creative enough. And people do value your work (your art). We’re just waiting for you to get started.

//

You have to be yourself, to speak in a way that is true to you. This is the next step to reclaiming your life as a writer — taking yourself seriously so your audience will, too.

It’s ok to have mentors. People whose work you admire. But ultimately, you’ll have to create your own style and write in a voice that is unique to you. Once you do that, people will come to admire your work for the uniqueness that it brings.

To do this, you’ll have to write and create daily until you find your voice. Keep writing, keep creating and you’ll get there soon enough.

//

Some days, it’s enough of a chore just to put your butt in a chair and stay put. To create something. Anything. If you do this long enough, though, you start to create really good work…

Everything is practice. Every word you write and action you take is a chance to get better. This is the difference between professionals and amateurs. Pros are always looking for a chance to get better, to improve their craft just a little more.

Some days you’ll struggle. You’ll sit there, staring at a blank screen and the words just don’t seem to come out. I know because I’ve been there.

Other days, you won’t be able to type the words fast enough.

Still, you have to commit to showing up day in and day out. Put your butt in that chair and just start writing. You don’t have to publish everything you write, but you have to commit to writing daily. It’s like they say, “practice makes perfect.” If you don’t put the hours in, you’ll never get there.

//

If you are going to succeed as a writer, you are going to have to learn to be smart. To have thick skin. To be more than talented. You are going to have to be a marketer, an entrepreneur, a talented salesperson.

Because this is a business.

Writing is about creating. Doing the work (just like any other job). But it’s also selling… Selling people on your work. Working hard to earn their attention, keep it, and to keep creating and meeting expectations.

Thom Chambers authors The Micropublisher — an online magazine running through 2012. He’s a writer (and a good one). But he’s also running a business. He plays the role of marketer, entrepreneur and talented salesperson just as often as he’s creating.

//

You need a tribe — a focused group of followers to spread your message.

“Treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.” – Seth Godin

Ultimately, you need an audience to help spread your work. The quickest way to build an audience is:

1. Be helpful. Help solve a problem.
2. Care. Take a genuine interest in people. Thank them for taking the time to take an interest in your work. After all, without them, you have nothing.

***

If you’re a writer or an aspiring writer, Jeff’s book is a refreshing and motivating read. It’s a call to action to get up and put your best work forward. It’s not just words of motivation, it’s a plan of action for “how” to get it done.

I admire Jeff for the art he creates and the hard work he puts in to make it all happen.

Whether you’ve been at the business of writing for a while or you’re a newbie, pick up a copy of his book You Are A Writer (So Start Acting Like One). You’ll be glad you did!

Giveaway Contest:

I’m going to buy two copies of Jeff Goins book to give away. All you have to do is share your biggest writing challenge and one thing you plan to change to improve. Or, share your biggest writing challenge when you were first starting out, and tell us what you changed that made an improvement in your work.

Just leave a comment with your tip to enter.

Entries will close on Monday, May 7th at 3:00pm Pacific. 

• First of all, writing is hard work (just like any other job). Some days, you can’t type words fast enough, and other days, you’ll just sit there staring at a blank screen. Still, you’ll have to motivate yourself to show up and publish every day, or risk losing your audience.
• At first, you’re writing is going to suck. Still, you have to overcome the fear of sounding silly, and hit publish. Otherwise, you’ll never get better. It’s like training for a marathon, you can’t run whenever you feel like it. You have to train every single day to build your strength and your stamina or risk never finishing the race.
• There is no finish line. You know how they say, “writing is a marathon.” Well, that’s true, except there is no finish line. No prize at the end. Just you, and your audience day-in and day-out.
• Nobody cares about you. They only care about finding solutions to their problems. So focus on becoming a problem solving information source to them and you’ll win their attention.
• Readers won’t always comment on your posts, but that doesn’t mean they’re not reading. Take a real estate blog for example, there’s not much to comment on when you’re reading a market report. It doesn’t mean your reader isn’t interested, they just might want to reserve a conversation for a private discussion on the market and they’re real estate needs. The point is: keep writing, and don’t use comments as a gauge for growth.
• Borrowing other people’s audience is a great way to grow. By this of course, I’m referring to guest blogging. To date, I’ve been featured here, here, here and here. Each article resulted in a great deal of traffic and (at least) a couple of hundred subscribers per mention. Here’s the thing, when you’re featured as a guest blogger, it’s the ultimate testimonial. The author who’s publishing your guest post, is essentially vouching for the quality of your content by presenting it to their audience. It works!
• Build your email list early. Period. Don’t wait until you’re ready to monetize your site to start building your list, that’s a mistake. Start building that list early, even before you’re ready to monetize. Get a free account at MailChimp. Aweber has a great service too. (I use both). Ultimately, your email list will grow to be your biggest asset. (Related: Read Copyblogger’s tutorial series on Email Marketing).

What do you wish you knew when you were first getting started?

It’s easy to go online and search for homes and gather information about the local community — schools, best neighborhoods to live in, etc.

In order to be successful and grow your business, you need to match the way you market your listings, to the way consumers go online to search for information.

Real estate blogs are a great way to get found, build relationships and close the sale. Here’s how…

5 Ways a Real Estate Blog Can Help You Sell More Houses: 

1. Helps position yourself as the local market expert. 

A real estate blog gives you the opportunity to showcase your knowledge of the local real estate market by writing articles such as local market reports, financing programs, tips for home buyers, and things to do around the community. Every time you write a local market report, you’re showcasing your knowledge of the local real estate market. Every time you write something about the local community, you’re showing people that you really know the area.

Each of these things helps establish your authority of the market within your reader’s eyes.

2. Helps you develop relationships before the sale. 

Remember the saying, “people do business with people they know, like and trust.” Well, a real estate blog helps you develop long-term relationships with readers long before you close the sale.

A real estate blog helps consumers discover your site and your content just as they begin their home buying process. They might be searching for things like:

• Homes for sale in [your market area].
• Best schools in [your market area].
• Things to do in [your market area].

Let’s assume you’ve written about each of these topics. So Jack and Jill (our imaginary home buyers) stumble across your site and start consuming your content. It’s well written, friendly, and informative. The more they read, the more they come to like and trust you. They might not know you very well (yet). But that’s the beauty behind blogging. As they read your content more and more, they get to know you. And soon, it’s like they’ve developed a relationship with you without ever having met you. So when it comes time to buy, guess who they’re going to call first?

3. Helps you differentiate yourself from the competition. 

While you’re competitors are out passing flyers and cold-calling, your blog is doing the prospecting for you. The trick is to write articles that demonstrate your knowledge and expertise of the local market. To show consumers how you’re going to make their home buying or selling process, easier.

They don’t have to get on the phone to listen to your sales pitch. They’ve already decided based on what they’ve read from your blog (so it better be good).

4. Helps you get discovered in search results faster. 

Every time you publish something new, you’re helping improve your search engine rankings. The trick is to properly optimize your posts so that they rank for specific keyword phrases.  But basically, every time you publish something new, you’re creating more pages on your domain. And the more pages Google has, the more likely your site is to show up in search engine results for dozens of keyword phrases.

The most important part of your blog posts is going to be the title. When Google starts to match what is being searched for among all of the pages in it’s index, it’s going to match your post title with the phrase being searched. So make sure your post titles are closely tied to the type of search queries your target consumer is typing when they go to search for homes online.

5. Helps you spread the workload among other members of your team. 

Simply put, writing takes time. Which is why most real estate blogs fail, long-term. But, it’s easy to bring guest contributors on-board to help spread the work-load. Here’s two scenarios that work well:

a.) Start a multi-author blog with other agents in your office. 

Ewingsir.com is a great example of a multi-author brokerage site where multiple agents are contributing their knowledge and expertise by frequently posting new content to the main site. In addition, each community has it’s own dedicated site with select agents contributing content to those community sites.

By following this model, you no longer have to worry about finding the time to blog as a real estate professional. Instead, every member of your team is helping contribute their knowledge and expertise to rank better and drive more traffic.

b.) Allow for guest posts from industry partners. 

If you’re a real estate agent, here are a few ideas for getting others to help contribute content to your site…

• Invite a loan officer to post mortgage updates (weekly or bi-weekly) on your real estate blog. The fact is, they want your business. So why not partner with them by having them contribute content to your site? It’s content for you, and an audience with potential leads for them. It’s a win-win.
• Invite a home-stager to contribute content on your real estate blog. Again, they want your business. So why not have them contribute some articles that discuss the benefits of home staging and how it helps sell a home faster.
• Invite your clients to guest post. Do you have clients that are foodies and/or really enjoy the local night-life? Why not treat them to lunch in exchange for a guest post? It’s a great way to add a different voice to your blog and hi-light the local community.

***

Yes, blogging is hard work. But it’s well worth the effort when done right.

Write something. Anything.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. The point is to simply get your writing out there, period. It’ll get better over time.

Nobody starts of perfect. Not even the bloggers you admire today.

In fact, let’s take a look at some of their first posts…

***

Prolific real estate blogger, Jay Thompson, wrote a rant about loan officers. It was short – only about 3 paragraphs or so. Zero comments.

Today, Jay writes content for sellers, for buyers, and pontificates on changes within the real estate industry. His blog averages about 1 million site visitors per year and he averages dozens of comments per post.

Quite the change of pace from his first post.

//

Let’s take a look at renowned marketer, Seth Godin… His first post was a rant about shopping (true story).

His style today is still very much the same – short and to the point and often inspiring you to think. The difference of course is today, he reaches tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of readers daily.

//

Copyblogger Media started out as a blog. Today, they’re a multi-million dollar company selling some of the best software and information products. Brian Clark’s first post was about the power of blogging and how it helps create relationships, build trust and ultimately leads to sales.

It wasn’t a very long post, at least not judging by today’s editorial standard on the Copyblogger blog. Today, that blog is the foundation of a multi-million dollar company.

//

Darren Rowse, author of the Problogger book, started with a post about the need for brevity in your blog posts. It was a very short post and resembled the writing of someone merely putting their thoughts down on paper, so to speak. Today, that blog is the foundation of several ebook launches and reaches more than 165,000+ readers.

***

When you look at each of those initial posts, I think you’ll find that they’re hardly the level of quality of their most recent work. That’s no surprise.

The truth is, no one starts off great. 

At first, you’re writing might be horrible, but that’s ok. The more you practice, the better you get.

But you have to be willing… Willing to look and sound silly at first.

To write, even though it seems like no one is reading.

And to persist, and show up day-in and day-out.

Blogger’s don’t start at “perfect,” they work their way there through daily practice and execution.

What are you waiting for? Write something!

Why aren’t people showing up? How long before they do?

What am I doing wrong?

These are all questions that are probably racing through your mind.

If your blog is a part of your business – a part of your marketing – then there’s that added pressure to perform and generate results sooner rather than later.

Here’s a fresh reminder from Des Traynor, an app developer, to not worry and to just focus on doing the work. In his post, he’s talking about web apps, but I think the advice is directly applicable to your things like your real estate blog or your membership site.

If you build it, congratulations, but don’t expect too much. If you build it, market it, support it, monitor its publicity, and keep improving it, then they will come, slowly, in fives and tens. Each new subscription is proof that you’re getting somewhere. The trick is ensuring constant growth, and that takes hard work…

It’s not cool to start a business and quit it only six months later because it’s too much hard work and you’re not a millionaire already…

Success requires not only the diligence to work hard and ensure slow growth, but also the patience to tolerate it when you’re surrounded by a world offering get rich quick schemes. - Des Traynor

Yeah, it’s going to take time and sometime’s it’s frustrating. But keep working at it, keep writing, keep measuring, and keep improving.

Stop stressing, and just remember, with every new post you write, every email you capture….you’re on the right track.

Don’t quit. 

The #1 reason most blogs fail is that people stop writing before they have a chance to get noticed.

Why? Because writing is hard!

Writing is hard work, not magic.

It begins with deciding why you are writing and whom you are writing for.

What is your intent? What do you want the reader to get out of it? What do you want to get out of it.

It’s also about making a serious time commitment and getting the project done. – Suze Orman

There’s no such thing as “instant returns” or overnight success when building a blog. It just doesn’t work that way.

Building a readership and turning readers into customers requires a long-term commitment. Period.

Think of it this way, writing is like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the more natural it becomes. There are two reasons you need to exercise your writing muscle daily:

1. The more you write, the better you get.
2. The more you write, the more confidence you gain in your writing ability.

You can’t wait until you’re in the mood.

The more time you spend worrying about constructing the perfect writing environment, the less time you’ll have to actually get the writing done. Get over it. Put your butt in the chair and just write.

For one hour, two hours or three. Daily.

Show up, day in and day out and just write.

Let’s say your a real estate agent. If your real estate blog is your primary marketing tool, you need to make writing a part of your prospecting time.  Real Estate Broker Irina Netchaev closed 80% of her transactions last year as a direct result of her real estate blogging efforts and that was no coincidence…

It finally dawned on me that I had to look at developing content as prospecting time. I made a decision to allocate an hour a day to research and write. My goal was to have 3 to 5 posts a week, especially when my blog was still a baby.

Learn to eliminate distractions.

You might be getting your writing done at home or at the office… While neither of those might be your ideal writing environment, you can at least take steps to minimize distractions. Do this by:

• Closing all of your other window browser tabs to focus on your writing.
• Closing your office door. If you don’t have one, try headphones and putting yourself on “Do Not Disturb” mode.
• Closing your email.

Do everything you can to eliminate distractions and focus on the task at hand…getting the writing done.

Write for an audience of one. 

Stop trying to be everything to everyone. You’ll end up with a bunch of loosely written content and wind up an expert at nothing.

Instead, determine who you are trying to reach early on and write content specific to that audience.

Again, let’s take the real estate example…

Are you trying to reach first time home buyers? Then write content specific to first time home buyers.

Are you trying to reach sellers? Write content specific to sellers. Things like how to price your home for sale in today’s current market or how to prep your home for sale.

The point is, identify your target audience, then write answers to all of the questions they’re asking about buying or selling real estate in your area. Become the Go To expert for everything real estate related to that core group.

You do that by showcasing your knowledge on the blog day-in and day-out.

Showing up matters more than ever, particularly if you promised you would.

Not just showing up in person, but showing up emotionally, or with support, or with a resource that was inconvenient for you to produce.

We’re no longer judging you by what sort of widgets your factory makes. We’re judging you by what we can expect from you in the future. – Seth Godin

I read this as setting an expectation with readers. An expectation that they can come to rely on you to continue to generate useful content. That they can trust that you have all the answers.

And trust always comes before the sale.

Stop looking for the finish line. 

Because there isn’t one.

Blogging is a marathon. A never-ending marathon.

The more you feed the blog beast, the more traffic you generate.

You have to consistently feed the blog beast in order to earn and keep people’s attention. It’s like Jerry Seinfeld once said,

People have an infinite attention span if you are entertaining them.”

The second you stop delivering useful, relevant content, you’ve lost them. But don’t let that deter you, just remember…

Writing is hard work, just like any other job.

Now, I doubt the Coen brother’s had blogging or social media in mind when the film came out, but if you watch the movie enough times, and if you look close enough, there’s some unintentional blogging lessons you can pick up from the Dude himself. Here they are…

Lesson #1: Develop a unique personality and own it.

“Let me explain something to you, I am not Mr. Lebowski, you’re Mr. Lebowski. I’m ‘the Dude.’ So that’s what you call me, ya know. That or uh ‘his dudeness’ or uh, ‘duder,’ or uh you know, ‘el duderino’ if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.”

The Big Lebowski is and forever shall be known as “The Dude.” That’s who he is. That’s his name. That’s his brand. When someone utters those words, “The Dude,” people who are in the know recognize who we’re talking about.

If you have a persona online, you need to own it. Be like the Dude. Don a unique character. A personality. Then own it, day in and day out.

Lesson #2: Identify your target audience. Who can you serve best? 

It’s like Lenin said. You look for the person who will benefit the most.

The millionaire Jeffrey Lebowski’s trophy wife is kidnapped and the would-be kidnappers are demanding a ransom. So the millionaire Lebowski commission’s the dude to deliver the ransom. Except, he (the Dude) is not entirely convinced she was kidnapped.

As he explains the situation to Walter (his best friend), he goes on to explain the situation and how he thinks she probably kidnapped herself.

The Dude: I figure it’s easy money. It’s all pretty harmless. She probably kidnapped herself.

Walter Sobchak: What do you mean, Dude?

The Dude: Rug pee-ers did not do this. Look at it. A young trophy wife marries this guy for money. She figures he isn’t giving her enough. You know, she owes money all over town.

Walter Sobchak: [redacted].

The Dude: It’s all a [redacted] fake, man. It’s like Lenin said. You look for the person who will benefit, and you know… 

Wise words indeed, Dude.

What this means for you is, you need to look for the person who would benefit the most from your writing…from what you have to teach. Identify who that audience is, then focus on delivering highly relevant and highly useful content to that audience.

You can’t please everyone, all the time. But you can serve a specific audience, exceptionally well all of the time. And that’s a better way to build an audience.

Lesson #3: Keep your eyes on the prize.

All the dude ever wanted was his rug back. That really tied the room together.

This poor guy gets his rug stolen first by a case of mistaken identity. Then, when he gets a new rug (which he basically stole from the millionaire Lebowski), Maude Lebowski and her lacky break into the Dude’s apartment and knock him unconscious and steal his rug yet again.

And as if that wasn’t enough, the Dude is later kidnapped by Jackie Treehorn and his thugs because he’s after the ransom money too. There, he’s drugged and harassed about the money. Before he passes out, he utters the phrase: “all the dude ever wanted was his rug back. That really tied the room together.” 

Knocked unconscious, kidnapped, and threatened by castration the Dude never lost sight of his goal… He just wanted his damn rug back.

The lesson here is simple, always keep your eyes on the goal.

What specifically are your goals?

Who are you trying to reach?

What problem can you help solve?

How are you going to work on delivering a solution?

What do you need to do daily to move closer towards your goals?

Things might get tough, it might feel like you’re getting nowhere (especially when you’re just starting out). But keep working, keep building, and keep growing towards your end goal(s).

Lesson #4: Become a better teacher. Remember, teaching sells. 

The million bucks was never in the briefcase. The briefcase was ******* empty man… You threw out a ringer for a ringer.

There’s a scene in the movie where Maude Lebowski and the Dude are having a post-coital conversation. The Dude learns that she hopes to conceive a child with the Dude but that she also doesn’t want him to have a part in the child’s upbringing. Then he also learns that despite appearances, her father (the “Millionaire” Jeffrey Lebowski) has no money of his own. Instead, it was Maude’s late mother who was the rich one and she left the money exclusively to the family charity.

It’s then that the Dude puts all of the pieces of the puzzle together and realizes what really happened. Bunny (the Millionaire Jeffrey Lebowski’s trophy wife) wasn’t kidnapped after all. He just used that as a pretense for ran embezzlement scheme in which he withdrew the ransom money from the family charity to keep for himself. He then gave the Dude an empty briefcase whom he set up to be the fall guy for the stolen money.

So what does the Dude do? He calls Walter and explains the whole situation to him, step by step until he gets it.

The lesson here is simple. If you want to become a better marketer, start by becoming a better teacher.

You’re a teacher when you write a helpful blog post that helps solve a problem for your audience.

You’re a teacher when you lead a webinar.

Ask yourself, what can I do to better serve my audience? Then, go out there and to just that.

Lesson #5: Deliver value or else!

Without the hostage there is no ransom.

Near the end of the movie, the would-be kidnappers put the Dude’s car on fire and confront him one last time for the ransom money. Except by now we know there is no ransom money and it was all a scam. Still, they’re demanding the million dollars.

The Dude: Well, they finally did it. They killed my [redacted] car.

Nihilist: Ve vant ze money, Lebowski.

Nihilist #2: Ja, uzzervize ve kill ze girl.

Nihilist #3: Ja, it seems you have forgotten our little deal, Lebowski.

The Dude: You don’t HAVE the [redacted] girl… We know you never did!

Donny: Are these the Nazis, Walter?

Walter Sobchak: No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Nihilist: Ve don’t care. Ve still want ze money, Lebowski…

Walter Sobchak: [redacted].

The Dude: Cool it Walter.

Walter Sobchak: No, without a hostage, there is no ransom. That’s what ransom is. Those are the [freakin'] rules.

When it comes to blogging, there’s one little unwritten rule you need to stick to: You need to deliver value.

Without value, you’ll have no readers.

Without value, you’ll have no customers.

Those are the rules. Period.

By delivering exceptional value time and time again, through your blog posts, webinars and other content marketing efforts, you’re building trust with your readers. Trust (and value) always comes before the sale.

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Building a blog and earning an audience doesn’t have to be difficult. Just stick to these lessons and you’re well on your way.

And the next time someone tells you, “you’re doing it wrong,” here’s a one liner you can give ‘em:

Yeah, well, that’s just like your opinion man.