There are a bazillion (odd, spell check didn’t flag this – must be a real word) different articles on the Internet that provide excellent and common-sense advice about how you can spark creativity and continue to come up with things to blog about.

Your primary focus isn’t about writing a great blog, it’s about selling real estate.  As it should be.  That doesn’t mean that your real estate blog doesn’t deserve a bit of love from time to time too.

Over the next few weeks, I’d like to share some basics which might help you inject some life back into your blog posts.

I know – you can barely contain your excitement.  Me either!

5 Ways Blogging Is Like Bran: 100% Natural

Be yourself.

Do your readers know who you are?  Sure, they know your name, your website address, and maybe could even quote something you wrote.  But do they know you?

Are you yourself when you blog?  Or are you a robotic word-processing machine?

If someone was to read your most recent, or say 5 most recent posts, would they be able to start seeing a picture of who you really are?  Do your posts have passion?  Do your words show your personality?

OK so that was a hefty list of questions.  You should ask yourself them – and answer them honestly.  I think everyone, myself included, would see room for improvement.

Read This:

• The 7 Secrets of Running A Wildly Popular Blog

Even if you write about something that might seem impossible to inject life and personality into (like climbing mortgage rates, lending rules, other real estate red tape) there are ways for your blog posts to ooze YOU by the way you write.

How?  Try these two tips out.

Throw the perfectly constructed sentence out the window.

This is one of my favorite things about blogging, and likely why I love it more than any other writing I do.  I don’t like the ‘rules’ we learned in school.  Personally, I feel they make for boring reading on a blog.  I let the rules slide a bit – I haven’t been all that great at mastering them anyways.

Maybe as you’re writing in Microsoft Word, the grammar checker tells you that your sentence is fragmented.  Maybe it is.  So what?  For me, if it delivers the impact that I’m going for and makes sense, then I say forget the rules, and I enjoy what I’m writing a whole lot more.

A word of caution: It is possible to go too far.  Make sure you strike a good balance between fresh writing and a complete and utter unreadable mess.

Read This:

• Why Writing Like a College Student Will Kill You Online

Write like people talk.

Have you ever read a book, an article, a blog post where you felt like the person was talking to you?  If you knew the person already, did it feel like you could hear them speaking those words in your head as you read along?  I’ve had that experience – and I love it!  And let me tell you, the article – no matter the topic – was captivating.

I write the way I talk.  I mean, I don’t add in the Uhh’s and Umm’s, but how I think I’d say it out loud to you if we were chatting right now, is how I’m typing up this blog post.

And I know that later, when I reread what I wrote to proof it, I’m going to hear my own voice in my head saying the words on the screen.  I am going to hear and feel the excitement, the vibe, the humor behind the words I’ve written, and I know that when other people read it, they’ll hear and feel the same thing.  (I hope.)

Try it for your next blog post.  It might mean you have to actually talk out loud and type what you’re saying to get into that mindset.  You might feel like the words come out unpolished and jilted.  That’s ok – that’s what editing is all about.  You can refine it later.

When I write how I talk, I speak another language completely.  I usually have to go in and edit what I’ve written and rearrange a few words here and there to make sense to the readers.  You’ll figure out what your little quirks are, and learn to work with them.

Read This:

• The Number One Reason You Find It Difficult To Write

That’s my long-winded post for this installment.  There’s more where that came from.  Stay tuned.

Just a quick note about the Read This links.  I strongly encourage you all to click-through to the posts I’ve suggested.  The people writing those tips and suggestions are blog geniuses and know their stuff.  I have learned (and continue to learn) so much from reading what they write.

What is this site all about you ask?  Well, LovelyListing is a blog dedicated to finding the most random/amusing/hilarious real estate listings on the internet – and let me tell you, some of them are ridiculous.

For example, check out this latest entry, found on Zillow, which gives literal meaning to the phrase “accented stonework”:

Or this entry, which may win the prize for the most sinister looking decorations of all time.  Foosball anyone?

So if you are in need of some distraction this afternoon (or anytime) take a trip over to LovelyListing and have a laugh or two.

This launch is the result of much hard work by our very devoted staff.  One of the most noticeable things we changed was the layout from two columns to a three-column layout, which allows us more room for fun widgets.  Also, we’ve made each post more clearly distinguished, for easier readability.

We are now using a customized WordPress theme based on Corp 1.3.

Take a look at the old blog below and tell us what you think of our facelift.

In addition to the changes to the look and feel of the blog, we’ve also added a new contributor role to the blog –  our Point2 Agent Education Team.  Our Education Team has their own blog, where they post regularly, but they will also post on our Agent blog from time to time.  Stop by and read their first post here, or their many other posts on the Education blog.

Also, not to be overlooked is the addition of a blogroll which links to the other blogs that are maintained by different individuals and departments here at Point2 – from Heavy Equipment related topics to in-depth programmer musings in the Point2 Technology blog.

So, tell me…do you like it?

Oh yeah, and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog feed.

While some of the results of this survey could be inferred by nothing more than a rudimentary grasp on internet culture (such as the number of blogs increasing exponentially over the past couple of years), there were other statistics which any blogger, professional or otherwise, should take note of if they hope to refine their craft or more effectively engage their audience.

For example, even though there are essentially no barriers to entry for bloggers, other than perhaps the motivation to actually start a blog and actively maintain it, blogging seems to be a male-dominated affair. Nearly 2/3 of bloggers in the US are male and this proportion increases for Europe and Asia bloggers.

Note: For any of the following charts to work, you need Adobe Flash!

Another surprising finding from the survey was the media consumption among adult bloggers as compared to the regular population. While the average American adult spends an average of 24 hours watching television each week (a crazy stat in and of itself), the average blogger only watches 8.

However, it appears that bloggers have merely substituted TV for internet – with bloggers spending an average of 26 hours on the internet as compared to the adult average of 14.

A final, interesting conclusion from the survey was the detailed demographics of bloggers from around the world. Globally, over 65% of bloggers have at least a college level education and more than half have some form of advertising on their blog.

Also, it seems Asian bloggers are generally much younger and twice as likely to be single then their North American and European counterparts – I still have yet to figure out a reason for that one.

For a comprehensive run-down of the report stats as well as some interesting insights from renowned bloggers, you owe it to yourself to check out the full report.