We have a ton of content that we have posted on if we have been blogging for any amount of time. Now some posts if we use the long tail stay on Google for a long time. Others posts may drop down if we don't keep fresh content coming. But,there is a way to keep those posts alive and doing their job of continuing to educate consumers and associates.
Several ways I have used to keep that content alive are as follows
In March of 2009, I took the plunge and had a new web site created by Dakno, using my old domain name MissyCaulk.com. I had struggled on what to do for 3 years, as I had worked hard to get that site up from beyond page 49 to page 1 and I didn't want to just drop it even though I did not desire that site anymore.
One of the great features about my Dakno Web-Site is the ability to create as many pages as I want to with Agent Back Door. This makes the site updated with fresh content. I no longer have to call up my web-master and wait 3-5 days to get something changed.
One of the pages I started was Community Information. This page includes Blog Posts I had written here on Activerain over the years on Saline History, Ann Arbor History, Ann Arbor Best Place to Retire, University of Michigan Top 100 Hospitals and Ann Arbor and Saline Schools.
The second place I have used Blog Content is on the Pages for Buyers and Sellers. Both of these pages are from blog posts I had written on Activerain. I have literally filled my neighborhood pages from all my blog posts on Activerain they have been about local neighborhoods.
Why reinvent the wheel?
I have recently hired two new Buyer Agents and just this past week, Kim emailed me and asked for help with getting a data base set up. Rather than write it all down again, I remembered that during the MakeOverToTakeOver Contest that was sponsored by Activerain in 2007, one of our challenges had been to write on our data base.
I found the post and emailed it to Kim. 
Rarely a day goes by that I don't get at least one email from someone on Activerain that has questions about lead management, registering on web-sites, my Tiger Lead Site or various other topics.
If I have written on it, which I usually have I answer their question and send them the post.
Last year I received a phone call from a consumer who was considering moving to Saline. She had heard Saline Schools were good and had questions on them. Since all my children had attended Saline, it was easy to tell her as much as possible about them. BUT, the main thing I did was go into my blogs on Activerain and send her all the posts on Saline Schools for her reading.
Lastly, many times when we set up our profiles on different Social Network sites, they would like a blog. I usually just go to my Activerain Archives find a older post, post it there and bring it back to life.
If someone has asked a question on Trulia Voices and I know there is a post I have written, I will link to that particular post rather than just my main blog or web-site.
With the TAG Box on the right side bar it is easy to find the old posts we have written and use them to help one another out, serve the consumer and bring it back to life.
Missy Caulk & Team can be reached at 734-926-9797 or email: Missy@MissyCaulk.com
Our Team of 6 agents are available to help you relocate to Ann Arbor, Saline, Dexter, Chelsea, Milan, Ypsilanti Township, Clinton, Manchester, Whitmore Lake, or throughout Washtenaw County, MI.
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Stay strong, stay faithful, stay honest, stay loving, stay true to who you are, most importantly stay true to who God is as you'll be who you are, and you'll be happy, you'll be you, you'll be free. -Jamie Caulk
Missy: I love the idea of bringing old posts back to life--many times the information is stil relevant but, I change out the photos and maybe update it a bit for eye appeal!
Speaking of eye appeal--this is a beautiful post! You ARE the QUEEN!
Have a great week...
Missy this is totally awesome. These are great ways to really make AR work for us. Thanks for sharing.
Missy, it certainly pays to be persistant. It took me over a year to get to the top of Google for my site. It took making changes and improvements each and every day. Thank heavens it's now on auto pilot. Melissa and I were visiting the other day about all the work we did on MakeOver To TakeOver. The information still applies big time! Technology changes every day but down to earth marketing is classic! Thanks for the great post!
Deb
Great post! It is nice to remind us to remember that our blogs will eventually be a database of information on our area, schools, and neighborhoods. If the tag title here in AR is used then you can even strategicly create a system of organization for those blogs.
Excellent. I have started using posts to answer client and consumer questions... kind of a full circle, since I wrote some of them to answer consumer questions.
Debe, great idea on changing out the photos or updating them.
Deb, it took me over a year too, but when I first started learning about SEO, my web-site was full of bad coding. So little by little I did my best and finally could be found. I learned the most from Karen George as she mentored several of us here and we are still good friends.
Sabrina, that is so true, tags make it easy to find things. I even go to others posts and search by tags to find a post I remembered they wrote.
Lane, LOL
Missy -
I love recycling content in any variety of ways. If the content is solid the first time around then 'rennovating' is that much easier. Thanks for new things to consider.
Michael
This is good stuff. I find it hard not to do the same thing twice. However, I do think that different spins on similar topics is a way to make a lot of angles shed light on the prevailing topic.
Missy, you are on top of your game I believe Danko are in Raleigh NC, I have seen some of their work looks good. I just dumped my web site after a year of nothing! So I'm trying Point to Agent, but as Brad said ActiveRain is a website too.
Missy - great ideas for using your blog posts I need to remember more that I can use past blog posts to answer buyer's and seller's questions.
I'm with Debe....definitely royalty here Missy. Every time I read one of your posts I learn something. I appreciate the time you take to educate us and share what's working for you!
Missy, exactly. Why reinvent the wheel? Make those hours of writing work for us! I think it was Katerina who wrote a post recently that once and for all put to rest the myth of duplicate content - it even had a video by one of the Google guys talking about it.
I have liked Bobby's input ever since being on RealTalk years ago. He did a great web site for you! We also have Point 2, but it would be great to have a custom site.
You rock! Thanks for the reminders and suggestions.
GREAT points, and timely for me as my new website is almost ready for launch, so thanks for the fine tuning :o)
Missy, wonderful information here. I have found myself sending out my posts, and I think that is fantastic! And I checked out your new website, great stuff! I was lucky enough to have found my website company right from the start. I love them. And I can add, subtract, etc, to my hearts content. I just have to have the time to get in there and freshen it up.
Thank you for the link to "makeover to takeover". I will go look at that right now!
Missy - Thanks for the tips. I think I will look into Dakno for myself.
Missy, what great tips you have gave us here! I think I will check out Dakno also.
Now that I see yours I forgot so much stuff on mine!!! lol. Great compilation Missy!
Missy -
As usual, thanks for the suggestions! Like the way you integrate blog content into your primary site. Also, thanks for the suggestion on Agent Back Door.
You ever need anything in Chicago - let me know!
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
H Missy, You may not have realized this but this may be one of your very best posts in your large collection. I see this as sharing ideras and resources with your peers, accomplishments of your personal marketing plan, and how business flows in your direction created by your internet presence. Very well done. Excellent, Excellent, Excellent!
Missy great post as usual. I too make great use of my older postings. It is great to be able to make web changes yourself I am trying to make that switch.
Hi Missy -- I learned something new about the URL for a specific tag -- oh the oh so importance of proper tags eh? How powerful is that. Thanks!
Missy, I didn't know about the agent backdoor function. It makes a lot of sense for those with a website like that.
Hi Missy. I looked over Dakno and they seem to offer a great service. I have been reading some of your older posts as well especially about Outlook as I have been revising my database to be ready for 2010. ~ Lana
Missy,
I bookmarked it, as it is too late to digest everything. I am not sure I can really easily find my old blogs using tags, or I simply did not do a good job marking the posts
Cool post Missy. I do use specific tags and specific groups to post inspection stuff to. Thanks for some different ideas...
Helping you live your American dream...
I was excited when I saw the contest Bob announced, because I knew I would get some great information to help me utilize my blog posts for existing clients.
Missy, thank you. You've sparked a couple of ideas in my noggin and I'm grateful :-)
I'm writing a post about the same thing. . You have giving good ideas. . excellent use of AR congrats!
Way to go Missy. Our old blog posts are like money in the bank. I quite often have a question from a consumer and I just shoot off a link to them to a blog post.
They're mine!!!
It pays to pay attention to your Internet library.
Missy, thanks for the information. Your post makes great sense.
Good ideas on using blogs as two way communication. In one post, I opened it up for "questions from the audience", and one of my favorite customers/readers challenged me with a couple of hard questions. So I had to dig around to find the answers, and posted them...I just didn't tell him that I had to dig around for the answers!
Missy There is only so much real estate and related topics - I regularly update posts Karen
Missy - The "if there's a question on Trulia Voices" bit rings true for me. I always reference something if I can and it's always interesting to watch that post (and related posts) traffic over the next few days. Quite often, the person who asked the question isn't the only going back to read it.
Missy,
This featured post of yours is an encouragement for me to revisit my disuse of my registered domain names. Thanks for that!
Mike in Tucson
Hi Missy, this is such a great idea. Another great reason the be on Active Rain. Thank you
Jean Richer
Ottawa, ON
Missy, You have reminded me of several new things that I wanted to work on but hadn't. This really is a great post.
Missy,
I like the idea of placing the blog content on your own website. Right now I'm running months behind in this.
Brian
The key is to be ubiquitous. Among the best compliments I receive is that people see me wherever they look on the Internet. I'm sure you hear that more than I do.
Purposeful recycling- I LIKE it! two thumbs up!
Missy - Thank you so much for mentioning Dakno! You are a terrific and important member of the Dakno family of clients and we so appreciate your partnership! The search ranking results you have achieved are a result of your tireless efforts to generate high quality content. Like my buddy Kevin Tomlinson says "you must write to be read". You have proven having access to an easy to use Agent Backdoor site editor with limitless page creation, blogging and providing great content is a winning formula. Congratulations on your success!
Missy - great post! I've got it bookmarked so I can add some of these ideas to my site as well....Thanks!
No doubt it is important to have fresh content added to a website. The search engines love it along with consumers:)
Thanks for the feature...and everyone's comments.
The key is to use your content as much as possible. After all it takes time to write a post (at least it does for me) so get as much mileage out of it as possible.
Local information lasts forever or is easy to update.
I have been following this series and have gleaned many ideas from those who are participating.
Having a link to you in a google search is a great idea for everyone. Excellent advice. Not only that, everyone needs to google themselves frequently to see what is going on out there concerning yourself.
Missy, great post! Congrats on the feature! I currently have the custom designed website. While I love it...it is frustrating to have to wait days while changes are made. Thanks for the info!
Hi Missy,
I really enjoyed going back and reading your content. Very nice.
Missy:
This is great information about recycling local posts. My original reason for blogging was for content for my website. It has evolved from there.
Missy - great ideas! I had never thought of putting my posts on other sites and with Debe's idea - update and change phots. And I like Lenn's comment about our blogs being "libraries". I have this one bookmarked.
Great info and great ideas. Thanks.
Missy - Brilliant idea. I have used some of my posts in this way, but only occasionally, now I see the power of it. How do you access the post you want easily? Do you use the Search function. I'm coming back to the post to answer my own question. I see that I can look up posts by their Tags. Shows the importance of tagging your posts properly for retrieval. Thank you for this valuable tip.
Missy - I love the idea of using some of our older posts for other networking sites! That's a great tip. Very well done and well deserving of a featured
an mention in the newsletter this morn!
Great idea to post to AR then link back from all social networks...
Hi Missy, Thanks so much for the mention! Are you using the Auto RSS feature of AgentBackdoor? You can simply put in an RSS feed into a content page or neighborhood page and the page will automatically pull in your blog content every time you write a new post on AR or any of your other blogs. It's a great way to keep things fresh on your site. The AutoRSS feature will only pull in the first few sentances of a post to avoid any issues with duplicate content. I added it to your "About Missy" page so you can see an example - http://www.missycaulk.com/staff.php
Thanks again!
Missy, great blog, I really like your posts, they are very innovative as well as interesting. Keep up the good work
Doug
Missy, Great post. We discovered that having control as to up dating our web site was key to search ranking. It' not hard to learn how to post and up date a web site, it as easy as up dating a word document. As far as Data Bases, I keep my contacts in an Excel spread sheet and when I send out my monthly emails to prospects and clients, I just copy and paste 100 bcc emails at a time (100 email addresses is the max I can send out at one time on my email server).
Missy,
It is interesting that you used the word "relationships" in the title of your post. I think many of my fellow agents think that I have my head stuck in the computer talking to no one. There are many uses for the blog content and it is certainly easier and faster to cut and paste then to create from scratch every time.
Missy - you've done a terrific job with your site, and with your relationship building. Using your blog posts elsewhere makes so much sense, whether on your site or sharing posts via emails to answer questions - isn't that what the information is for?
I like Brad's idea alot will be interested to hear how that works for you.
Jeff
Sounds like you're definitely utilizing your blog on many different platforms to gain attention.
Very informative blog post. Thanks for the information. I am sure it will be useful to me down the road.
Great advice as always. I am still a web site believer, but with many calls to action. I am in the process of creating 8 more landing pages for mine with unique URL's tied into specific search like the schools and auto email notifiaction of new listings.
Great, Missy, thank you. Something I do is also if a client has a property of interest in a certain neighborhood I'll email them the links to the blogs I've done on that neighborhood for their info.
Great share. Great website by the way. Keep blogging.
Missy, I always enjoy reading your posts because they actually have content! Thanks for another great post.
Great post. I need to put more thought into how to use my past posts. I'm planning to list them out, with the links, so I can quickly go to them and link them or send out.
Thanks Missy! You just inspired me to add pages to my website for posts I have written here on Active Rain. Now, the next time I get a call about down payment assistance, I can just direct them to my website, instead of my blog to see all the relevant info.
Missy-
Thanks for the idea.
Missy - As always... you bring us such great info and it is absolutely appreciated!
Good ideas. I need to revive old topics and create some new ones. I'm working on a big blog project right now, but am working with lots of clients. Need to make the time to finish it.
Wonderful ideas. I hope that I can add them to my plan of action
Missy... I bring back several of my better blogs back to life in the course of the new year. I love your game plan here and it sounds like it's been paying off. It also sounds like you have a few good ideas that I need to look into. PS... I need to ask you a question about the picture collage. thanks
Great post! Always a good reminder to make technology work for US rather than US doing all the work!
Such wonderful ideas. I hope that some day I will have enough blogs written that I can use some of them.
Many good ideas on the use of the blog post. Thanks for the tips.
Hi Missy - we love the Dakno team too and their weekly webinars. We handle our own websites but are always learning new tips from them. Where did you get the cool tag cloud? I love it! Thanks for sharing your tips. -M
I completely agree that there is no point in re-inventing the wheel. Recycling - ABSOLUTELY!
Once again, you've inspired and encouraged us to persist, tweak and learn. Thanks for a great post!
Great ideas - thank you for sharing.
Missy:
Great ideas and very useful. Did anyone ever tell you that you have an infectious smile.
Missy - I struggle with my website (or lack thereof) - I have a lead-generating website with Market Leader, but it doesn't really seem to be working for me. I also have my company website, but I don't like it either as it's not "me" specific. Glad to know you have found something that works for you. One of these days I'll get it to be exactly the way I want it to be...
Missy,
I am with everyone else on this one. Great ideas. This is a part of my business I have been slacking in and you give me the encouragment to keep up with it.
Thanks
Thanks for the tips. I have so much work to do--just to get to 1/2 of where you are right now!
WOW, Brad that is fantastic!!!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!
Missy - Fabulous idea and extremely appreciated. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the info Missy. Now to go check out that Trulia link...
This is a great set of ideas. I have learned a lot fromt this contest entry just by reading everyone's answers and the comments, too.
There is so much information (all excellent) that I feel I need to take a whole week and concentrate just on bloggins, social networks etc. Thanks for this.
This is such a wonderful post and I'm so glad I clicked onto it. My company and I were speaking about this very subject this morning trying to figure out a positive way to maximize all our efforts and data. Thank you for sharing this information and I look forward to reading your future posts.
-Joe
Great ideas, Missy. Our blogs can do so much of our work for us, if we just let them.
Great post...you deserve the title of Ambassador!
Thanks for the info Missy. Also I am looking for a new website so I will check out Danko and Agentbackdoor.
Like a fine wine... your blogs should age nicely.
Wow. You've given me an aweful lot to think about. Thanks!
Great input Missy. Thanks for sharing!!!
You've inspired me to create more content for the cross marketing potential.
You have a great list of different ways to effectively use your blog posts and have been very successful at doing so.
How do you keep track efficiently of what's been written? Aside from the tags?
Wow Missy. I feel like I am in Calculus class again in HS. I have lots to learn.
Thank you for the helpful hints!
Hello Missy
I really appreciate all the advice. I really took a lot out of your post and will start working on this in my business. I am glad you got such an amazing response.
Missy: As always, fabulous information. Thanks for the great idea!
MISSY..You are my mentoring hero..I learn so much from you...Great post and well worth the featured post!
HELPFULHANNAH your friend in Philadelphia
Missy - Sooo much information in just this one post. I am interested in creating a functional database for my contacts. You are a great resource.
Missy- just going through Bob's Contest Post, and here you are :) Enjoyed reading what you do with your old posts, as I too use mine. Like you said why re-invent the wheel :) BTW are you staying in Saline, or moving....I lost track?
You're right, you can let the blog content rain and rain and rain all over the place. it's a great thing. Thanks for the post and all the reminders. I haven't heard of agent bacdoor before but it sounds interesting.