Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman

11.4. Avoiding the Temptation to Advertise

All content you post to your blog should be soft-sell, if you choose to do any selling at all. The purpose of your blog is to provide free, valuable information and insight. Rob Levy (www.roblevy.com), a tech-savvy real estate agent in Portland, Oregon, recently explained how he used the Internet to market his services. According to Levy, "With the old way of doing business, we used the MLS book, so buyers had to come to us, because we had all the data. Nowadays, with IDX, Realtor.com, and other sites, buyers can find housing data themselves. In other words, in the old days, we sold the agent and then gave the buyers data; now, we give them the data and then sell the agent. The new way of doing business requires that you establish a Web presence to gather leads."

When you give away valuable information and demonstrate your subject matter expertise, consumers are more likely to buy into you and ultimately buy from you.