Raillife.com is a great example of a hyper local blog.  Hyper local might be an overused term in real estate blogging nowadays.  So lets say that Nick Bastian, the Realtor behind Raillife.com,  is great at defining his market, setting limits so that it’s a market that he can dominate and strategic about the long tail.

Lets take a look at 6 things Raillife.com can teach us about real estate blogging

1. Use of Video

Even though Nick uses a lot of text at raillife.com there are actually quite a few videos in the blog posts. Adding the video to the written word creates a great dynamic. There’s something for everybody. And of course he even uses pictures.

2. Use of Flickr

A picture is worth 1000 pictures. Google seems to like pictures also.  Google seems to really like pictures from Flickr. Nick does a great job of integrating pictures and being consistent  by doing his Flickr pic of the week.

3. Content about a niche community – timeless

Nick does a great job of getting small.   Getting small is of course one of my favorite things about Internet marketing.  His niche about life and community along the the light rail  is interesting and it matters to the people living in that area. What I love about this niche, it is actually a geographic and demographic niche.

I also put that it’s “timeless” in the subheader because this is something that will not be going out of style any time soon.

4. Content about events – timely

Raillife.com is also a resource for events. What’s happening on the Fourth of July? Anything interesting happening this weekend? Having these events posted makes Raillife.com also timely.

5. Places to eat

If you want to find out where you should be eating along the rail, that is covered too.  There is a list of restaurants on the blog. Again this makes the blog not only a great resource, but also demonstrates to the community that Nick is truly a part of it.

6. He sells real estate too!

Nick has done a great job of creating an online community  around a real life community.   Nick is obviously an authority in his marketplace, his community. And there is an objective here. There is intent. When you look at his website, it might not beat you over the head, but you know what he does. He sells real estate.

The Bonus 7th thing we can learn from Nick is that he self hosts on WordPress.org

To learn how easy it is to self host your own website/blog check out

How To Self-Host Using WordPress.org