New Mexico’s Excellent Road Conditions Website

Over the holiday season, my wife and I decided to take a long-delayed snow skiing vacation in the mountains of New Mexico (specifically Angel Fire). Anyway, today, while we were trying to head home, we learned Interstate 40 was closed due to snow conditions — from (believe it or not) Albuquerque to the Texas state line!

Forced to find a hotel on the road, we got one and are now warm and happily cruising the Internet. But after we got in, relatives told us of an excellent website called New Mexico Road Traveler Information Service maintained by the state’s Department of Transportation.

Now, granted, this isn’t run by a for-profit small business … but it’s one handy helpful example of how you can help your customers stay informed of specific emergency news in your industry.

And for a tourist who will be coming back to the beautiful New Mexico mountains … I’m one happy camper … I mean snow skiier!

Real Estate Agents: Get Yourself a Blog

Check out Kristal Kraft’s Denver real estate and relocation blog here.

She’s also got a really effective website as well called Kristal Sells Denver.

This is an exceptional example of using blogs to market yourself and your services. She’s got relocation information scattered about her blog, pictures of Denver events, links to other Denver bloggers, and a beautiful photo header of the Denver skyline.

The biggest thing I’d suggest doing differently though … and worth mentioning … is hosting her blog on her domain name, versus the hosted blog solution.

The reason for this is that by hosting on your own domain, you invest in the value of your own domain versus anothers.

For instance, she’s bound to be getting inbound links (links from other people) to her blog.
Links, in the search engine world, are like votes. They help you rise to the top of search engine rankings. Right now, links to her blog aren’t helping her awesome website.

So if you’re spending time and energy on writing a blog in the first place … be sure you’re pouring your efforts into your domain name. It’ll benefit you and your company in the long-term!

If you’re a real estate agent … you should be blogging about your business!

Looking at Kristal’s example, you could be:

  • Blogging about relocation information and giving useful links
  • Blogging about how neat it is to live in your city and “the burbs”
  • Posting photos of events using Flickr & the beauty of your city
  • Showcasing your expertise and teaching others about real estate and your market
  • Ranking higher in the search engines for your city’s relocation information
  • Getting inbound links from your city’s other bloggers
  • One of the first people those who are relocating to your city meet (you’re a real face, a real person that they know – virtually – in your city)

[Found via BusinessBlogConsulting]

Business Blogging 101 Links

As part of my Business Blogging 101 for Entrepreneurs series at The Napkin … here are some great posts to help you blog better …