I haven't beaten the blogging drum in awhile, at least not publically. Of course I believe in blogging. It works for me, it works for others. Like you, many of my clients come from referrals. The rest are a result of reading my articles and my blogs. It’s that simple. I preach blogging. I "walk the talk" of blogging. I do it and I encourage (and even coerce) my clients to follow suit. I’m a believer, and I have a story to tell about a client of my own who is a recent convert.

I’ve worked with my client (whom I’ll call Mr. Resistant) for several years. Along with general marketing and business-building activities, I’ve helped him to build an extensive real estate website focused on a specialized geographic niche. He wants to own that market and he’s well on his way. He’s worked to make his website useful to all visitors: potential buyers, sellers and local residents alike.

I’ve preached blogging at him for about three years now. My sermons have been met with an impressive and steadfast resistance (hence his “name” for the purposes of this article). However, a few months ago, in a moment of weakness, he agreed to consider coding a blog into his site.

Now, perhaps he had started to see the light, but more like likely he had simply grown tired of my nagging. Either way, I jumped at the opportunity. I worked with my custom script programmer to get the blog online immediately for him … before he had a chance to change his mind.

Once the blog was online, he just stared at it. He wasn’t sure how to begin. He froze up.

I recommended he write a “welcome” message – something short and sweet to get him past his writing phobia. I even verbally outlined the points to cover. He promised he would write the welcome. And, few days later (after a few impatient reminders from me) he actually wrote it.

We now had a first blog entry! And there the blog welcome sat… and sat… and sat. It was all alone.

I made a point at our weekly meetings to harass him about adding to the solitary, sad little blog. I added the suggestion to my emails to him on other topics. I reminded him that a stale blog was worse than no blog at all. His solution? Perhaps we should remove the blog … “until later when I have more time to do that sort of stuff.”

Then I became the resistant one.

Around that same time, he was ready to launch his first newsletter. I needed housing statistics from him to write the final article. He offered to send them to me by email … and it hit me! I had my new angle! I told him to blog the statistics.

He said no. He said it would take too long. He said he would blog later. He said for now he would send me the stats by email and I could “clean them up” before anyone actually saw them.

I dug in my heels. I became a difficult partner in this process.

1. I knew that he had a deadline for the newsletter.

2. I knew he didn’t want to blog.

3. I knew he needed to finish up the newsletter and I knew he needed to blog.

4. I suggested again that he simply “blog” his impressions on the current housing changes and add in the statistics. He started squirming even more.

And then I did something I’d never done … something I’d probably never do with most clients. I considered my long-standing working relationship with this genuinely enjoyable individual alongside his best interests and… I stubbed up.

“I need this information to put the newsletter to bed,” I began, “and the deadline is looming.”

He understood and said he would email it to me by the end of the day. He promised.

“I won’t accept it by email,” I announced. “Go blog it. Drop me an email when the information is live on the blog, and I’ll pull what I need from there.”

Then I took a deep breath and waited to see if he fired me or if he let me win this one. There was a long silence.

Then, he grumbled. He made comments about how difficult I can be. He made one last attempt to try to change my mind… and finally, begrudgingly, agreed.

He had the blog online in a matter of hours and the newsletter was finished on time.

But that’s not the important part of the story…

Before the newsletter article could be completed, I had a call from Mr. Resistant.

“I know I’m going to regret this,” he began, “but you deserve the opportunity to say ‘I told you so’. .. ” And he told me that he had just secured a buyer looking for a home in the $1 million price range. The buyer had wonderful things to say about Mr. Resistant’s website content and how easy it was to navigate. But, the reason he called “Mr. Resistant” to buy a home? He read his blog on the housing trends in his area.

The statistically impressive blog piece had convinced the homeowner that Mr. Resistant was the most well-versed and knowledgeable listing agent in the area.

I managed to prevent the “I TOLD YOU SO!” that pushed against the inside of my lips from escaping. I wasn’t as successful at being gracious in general, however. “Hmmm…. Imagine that” I quipped, while my tone dripped with “told-ya-so” sentiment.

He reminded me that he could have kept the information to himself, but said that after all my work to get him to blog, he felt he should tell me that it had worked. (I never had any doubt, but I kept that to myself and thanked him for the info.)

Since that time, my “resistant” client has been blogging regularly. He’s a convert. And, incidentally, while showing houses to the buyer… Mr. Resistant also listed a $1.3 million home. Not a bad return on the investment of time required for a single blog entry, eh?

(It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.)

So, if you aren’t blogging yet… what’s the hold up? Waiting on a nagging marketing consultant to give you a hard time? Need someone to push you to blog? Consider it done!

Now go blog!

Angela Parker is a Kentucky writer and Internet marketing specialist serving real estate agents, brokers, writers and other small business entrepreneurs world-wide. She runs www.WickedWordCraft.com from her mobile office, Serenity, and promotes practical mobile technology for own her clients and other mobile technology addicts on www.WickedMobility.com. She also blogs about random (and often controversial) topics on www.WickedBlog.com.