Early on, agents building a blog might feel like Sam Brownback during the presidential primaries - perpetually speaking to an empty room

For all the benefit it has for agents, the Internet can also be a brutal place. And agents wbo blog are agents that put themselves in the center of the storm. Blogs take a while to mature, and along the way, every real estate blogger will deal with languishing in obscurity, cutting criticism, and a lack of motivation. Here’s a guide to handling the growing pains along the way, but keep this in mind too: the payoff is worth it. Those bloggers that can weather the rough, early days, will be rewarded with a collection of strong content that attracts new readers, promotes discussion and feedback, improves search engine ranking and ultimately generates new business.

1. Get used to speaking to an empty room.
If there’s one thing that kills a blog in its early days, it’s this: agents put tons of effort and research into a post only to look at the stats the next day to see that no one read it. Discouraged, they quit blogging altogether.

This is the wrong approach to take, and it’s the only sure way all that hard work put into those first posts is wasted. Blogs take a while to get indexed by a search engine and to develop a following. Those first posts are always going to fall on deaf ears, but they’re the necessary steps to building an audience. Keep at it. In time, your work will circulate and you’ll develop a following. Try to make your first posts evergreen- write about content that’s relevant at any time. That way, when you do develop a readership, you can link back to the early content and get it read then.

2. Develop a thick skin.
There’s something about the anonymity of the Internet that brings out the worst in people. Undoubtedly, you will get “flamed” at some point, the victim of a scathing, personal diatribe posted to your blog that probably goes so far to question your worth as a human being. Get used to it. It’s the cost of doing on the business on the Internet. And just wait until your content gets picked up by sites like Digg and Reddit- you’ll be subject to the most vituperative attacks you’ve likely ever seen. Accept that the benefit of getting on these sites - lots of new traffic and inbound links - is well worth the insult.

A cautionary note: don’t over censor your blog. Separate careless attacks from thoughtful criticism. Readers can sense when your blog is filtered; remember, you don’t want this to be a pure PR piece for yourself. Respond to criticism and learn from it, but don’t be afraid from putting it on your site.

3. Keep posting.
You’ve worked hard to develop readership and subscribers, and nothing loses them faster than an extended hiatus in your posting. So give them fresh content. Generate new ideas for features - links of the day, ask the expert - anything to keep them coming back. The search engines notice, too. Stop posting too long and your new content will stop getting indexed and your rankings will fall. It’s important to post at least three times a week - anything less and you may struggle to keep your readers.