Write for GEB
Geek Estate Blog is focused on real estate technology and online marketing, and focused on serving industry professionals. That means real estate agents and brokers, founders of technology companies, vendors, and consultants.
We are interested in adding REGULAR contributors who are passionate about real estate technology and marketing. Regular contributors to Geek Estate Blog are expected to write a minimum of one post per quarter. We are a membership driven organization. Part of membership in GEM Diamond is the ability to contribute articles without having to make a pitch (articles still have to pass an editorial review). GEM Crystal is our entry level content tier.
Pitch Guidelines:
We get a lot of pitches for content, which means we’re doing well since others are finding it and realizing there is an engaged audience here.
That said, we turn down the vast majority of requests.
Why?
Mostly, it’s because those pitching haven’t done any research. Here’s a few guiding principles to note:
No consumer facing articles. If you’re pitching a topic focused on home buyers or sellers (we get a lot of these), you’re virtually guaranteed to not get a response. If you spend 2 minutes reading past posts, you’ll know Geek Estate Blog’s audience is NOT buyers / sellers — but tech savvy real estate professionals and tech executives. Buyer/seller focused articles will be instantly deleted.
Tell stories based on your own first hand experiences. If you don’t have real world real estate experience and learnings to share, this is the wrong outlet to pitch. How can you possibly help our audience do better, if you haven’t done anything within the industry yourself?
No Self Promo / SPAM. We’re not opposed to vendors writing, but posts from them need to be written without pimping their own products or clients. No text links within the body of the post will be given unless you write at least 2-3 quality posts first. Tech and marketing vendors seem to be more concerned with this issue than most.
Examples of Topics to Cover:
- IDX Integrations
- Reviews of hardware and mobile devices from the perspective of how they can Help a RE Professional be more efficient
- Office Technology Reviews (printers, desktop computers, laptops, etc)
- Explanations of MLS Technology & How it Can Be Utilized
- Explanations of API’s that can be integrated into a real estate website.
- Blogging & Social media strategies that work and the things to avoid.
- Future tech like augmented reality, semantic web etc.
- Effective marketing strategies both new media and traditional. I.E. cutting edge listing presentations, unique creative and more.
Contributor Guidelines:
- If you are going to attack something… attack ideas, not people. (i.e. “your idea sucks”… not “you suck”)
- Avoid obvious self-promotion
- Do not cross post content on other blogs
- Disclose conflicts of interest
- Topics should be issues that have either been researched or learned through 1st hand experience
How Inquiries are Evaluated:
Guest authors get links and exposure in return for original content. We do WANT more guest contributors. But not all of them are good; many are spammers or SEO consultants who will do anything for a link. Here’s how guest posting inquiries are evaluated:
- Look at their email address and see if there is a number in their gmail address – ie suzysmith23@gmail.com. A number in their address generally means they are an SEO consultant. These are almost always instantly deleted.
- Check their website out. Do they appear to be a legitimate business, with a legitimate reputation? Are they in the real estate vertical? Does their website give a snake oil salesman impression? Or are they providing valuable content? If the site looks like crap, the inquiry gets deleted.
- Make the author send an original article NOT already posted on the web. Are they pitching their own product? Are they stuffing the article with their own links? Do they seem genuinely interested in helping others, or just in it for their own benefit?
Make Your Pitch
If you’ve read the entire page and still interested in contributing to Geek Estate Blog as a regular author or have a specific story/article you feel is a fit for our audience, e-mail community @ geekestate.com (please include your phone number). State your interest and include at least one original sample post relating to real estate technology that could be a Geek Estate Blog post along with a brief bio and any links to previously published articles.