jonwashburn: AR's dirty little traffic secret

How long did they stay?  Is there a way to tell how long those that came from search engines stayed as opposed to those that came by typing in the domain name?

I know I did! How many customers I am getting? Well I am getting lots of referrals from other agents! Well worth my time in AR!

Hey..just run a search looking for an agent and you will see where AR comes up...right at the top

Very very cool.  Congrats AR for getting 1 million hits!
Now, fellow rainers....   what words are you using in your blogs?????

I checked my stats the other day, and 20% of my visitors were from AR!

All I know is since I joined AR last year, I can type in remax lynchburg or my name and I come up on the first page on AOL or google, without having to pay for placement. Blogs I wrote for localism show up on the first page. Thanks and Congratulations AR!

Hooray...I think that is awesome!  It's definitely benefited me in the process.  Did you think it would be this big?  

Maureen,

Search visitors stayed for an average of 4 minutes and 36 seconds, and they viewed 5.24 pages.

Direct traffic visitors stayed for an average of seven minutes and 45 seconds, and they viewed 8.34 pages.

Both of those stats show that AR is a very "sticky" site. 

Midori, Yes the success of AR surpassed my expectations!  But not my hopes. :)

I've had consumer hits that resulted in closings on both the buyer and seller side. According to MyBlogLog, I had 16 visits to my AR blog from the search engines yesterday. What was it that caused the huge traffic spike in months 10 and 11?

Kudos!  Bravo!  I think you are absolutely correct.  In the past week or so, I have had several consumer contacts, both on AR and by phone.  I think it will continue to grow as the content on localism grows. I hope to be able to contribute more once things slow down a bit.

Jon:

Could be Agents checking their key words and where their recent SEO pieces are ranking. 

I am sure that some of them are.

However, I know consumer business comes from AR.  I am about to cash another check on Monday!

BTW...thank you! 

What are the next top 10 words used???

And is there a major gap in percentages between the different top searched terms?

Thank you SO much for this data.

These are exciting statistics, but not surprising.  It would be great to receive more detailed traffic stats on a regular basis.  All this statistical information is very helpful from a marketing standpoint.  Thank you!

Thank you for that great boost.

I am glad that we are getting a good traffic flow to AR.

Jonathan - we don't think about this much, we're still very much focused on providing good content consistently and seeing what happens. We're doing ok, and there's a point where we will focus on SEO for a second, before we go back under again.  In the last 90 days, we've had $2M+ of closed transactions from our blogs alone.

Thanks for giving us this information, now back to basics.

cheers 

I can attest to the fact that consumers are finding me on ActiveRain!  I have one closed listing sold, one pending listing sold, one listing, and one closed sale - all from consumers who found me through search engines on ActiveRain since April.

Jonathan,

That's 1 + Million "Unique" VISITORS with separage IP addresses or visitors period? I would imagine already got kazilliion "Hits!" (Some users need to understand the difference between Visitors and Hits.)

Regardless of whether Unique Visitors or Visitors, that's INCREDIBLE!

ActiveRain does get agents high up on Google pages! That's a charm!

Now, it's all about turning visitors to Buyers NOW and in the future for Realtors!

Cheers, KIM..... ActiveRain Meister!

N. Padre Island, Texas

Thank you for pointing this out.  Most consumer visitors are going to find individual blog posts and find people they connect with that way. 

WAY TO GO ACTIVE|RAIN

While I believe many of the search engine results are bloggers checking to see how they rank its still a very powerful tool and I expect to see some of the results my fellow rainers have had some time soon.

Not only did we get over 1 million vists last month, but over 10 million page views.  Hopefully the servers don't start smoking soon.

I have stat counter installed on my AR blog and judging by the key words used to land there, they are most likely consumers as they're not words a Realtor® would use. And then there are the links from Google Images to certain photos over & over. I suspect they're either linking to the images or stealing them.

Jonathan, congratulations on this milestone!  I got a request for information through AR today from a consumer.  No doubt the public is coming to AR in increasing numbers - which should increase at an even faster rate once Localism officially launches...

I never questioned consumer traffic to AR.  I know they are coming because they are calling me after they have been here.

Wow this is great news.  I'm opening escrow on Monday with my first Active Rain transaction and I only joined in July. 

Those are refreshing statistics.  Local 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchises have seen great results because of AR, too!

thanks jonathan................good info.......

duane hosek in the black hills of south dakota

Thanks I've always thought it was an absurd claim (that the trafic on AR is all us reading one another) but wondered why there are not more stats  posted.  I would think it would encourage posting consumer content.

Awesome,

As a newcomer, I am fascinating by this media, and though so far did not get so big results and business from AR, hope that it is a matter of time and persistence.

A phenomenal instrument, and the source of information, which I could ot even imagine couple of years  ago.

Thanks.

That's great!.  While I would like a better breakout on the stats, like what's provided by Google Analytics, I know how high the AR blogs rank.  It just goes to show how important good relevant content is. 

Congrats!  That is great news.

Good info - Finding different ways to track the data is definitely key!

Congratulations on the traffic. Keep it coming.

I do search my keywords to see where I'm coming up but I don't click on it to enter ActiveRain so I don't think I'm throwing your numbers off, right?

Congratulations on this momentous achievement!!  And thank you for letting me come along for the ride. 

Yeah for us! This is great to hear! 

Awesome!!  Congrats to you for hitting 1 MILLION!!! 

Woo Hoo!!!  The proof is in the pudding there for sure!

I know the public has found me - I've had relatives I didn't know about find me here; reporters have contacted me because of coming up on AR; consumers have contacted me as well.  And I know they've all come from AR.

Way cool!
Ann

Jonathan - those are great numbers. You can see from those commenting on this post - consumers are visiting -hence some people are getting the business. If you conducted a survey of the people publishing on this platform, it would be interesting to see how much business people really got. On this thread we get reports from those that did. It can also help to see if there are regional differences, i.e. are consumers in CA more savvy then in NJ and look to  blogs for the inside scoop on real estate.

Just like seeing these numbers is good confidence booster, understanding business part could be a double booster.

Thanks for the great work. 

Wow, those numbers are impressive.  Thanks so much Jonathan for compiling this for us.  Personally I've seen a 100% increase in traffic to my website since I started being a "regular" here on AR. 

Jonathan - the nameless person above is not a consumer -I just did not log-in. Sorry.

Thanks for giving us this information...

Jonathan,

Thanks for answering my question.  All are impressive stats.  Great achievements, AR Team!

All I know is that I've been using Active Rain sporadically for just 2 weeks and I have seen my website move up on the search engines beyond my expectations. I can't wait to see what happens after I really figure out how to use this thing.

Jonathan, thanks for sharing this with us.  To what do you attribute the huge jump at month 9?  I know that even though I have my own blog when I do a google search most of the times my AR rankings are higher.  There is no doubt that this is a powerful site!

I'm sure you are somewhat correct. I check my stat tracking and see many hits from areas where I know they are not from members reading. But how come we do not see many comments from consumers here if the post is public? Do the just read and move on or do they just contact you if there is an interest? If I am posting consumer related content then I want to see the consumer...not just industry or members.

I had a customer call me yesterday and specifically stated "I was reading your blogs on ActiveRain"  I got the listing... ActiveRain is being read by the consumer too...

Neal go out to the blogophere, most consumers don't comment. They'll sign up for email updates of listings, they'll ask questions privately. The'll call.  Very few comment.   The readers who comment on my other blogs are civilians (not RE industry) but they are food bloggers, sports bloggers...

 

Jonathan - CONGRATULATIONS!! You guys have have created an amazing community here and we're all benefitting - thank you  and keep up the great job! :-) I love tracking stats because like so many others I've seen all the Google, MSN and Yahoo searches that have landed people on articles here - and that doesn't even show me who all's hitting my localism.com hits (which I just realized)

Love seeing the graphs and facts!! Hope one day you can turn those "visits" into $$$$ for yourselves. :-)  

Great Post.  I run my name through Google, Active Rain is always first....  It used to be Paris911, but Active Rain passed my own site a long time ago...

Connor MacIVOR

Active Rain makes my phone ring.  I don't always blog about it, but one time I did, and the post was featured.  Thanks for helping grow my business.

Mike in Tucson

Good job.  I have been wondering about consumer viewers since I came here.  Of course I have the content available in other venues that are well searched, but I have been hoping that this platform was getting a good bit of traffic as well. 

we all love stats - thanks for the update!!!

That is great!  I have been posting a link to my AR blog on craigslist to try and generate more traffic here as well!  We need to get more consumers looking at AR on a consistent basis!

Welcome to the million visits club! :) I may have missed it in the comments, but can you share the unique visitor stats? On a monthly basis?

Congratulations on the milestone!  

I am definitely getting business from here because it is search engine rich.  I hear the same thing and shrug also. 

Thanks for sharing these stats with us. I Know Google finds me here! Congratulations

Jonathan - I well believe it. I have been getting phone calls from some of my Localism posts.

Jonathan, as evidenced by the fact that so many agents, vendors and mortgage lenders have excelled in the search engines and received business from the visibility on the Internet through Active Rain, that in itself is testament to the quality of hits received. We only have to look at what has been paramount in our own business to know what is working.

Since the consumer does not feel comfortable commenting, it is not an essential line item of importance when determining the value of the hits. Picking up the phone and emailing the individual is of utmost value. I would say that Active Rain and the Rainers are doing a fabulous job!

Jonathan, congratulations on the 1 million mark!

Jonathan, that is great news. I am getting tons of google juice and loving it! We get business, referrals from agents, direct sellers and buyers, friendships, recognition in the media and other sources, and I have lots of subscribers! IT is all good! Katerina

As a new member, I'm already seeing how this tool will be beneficial to me.  I've been looking for the right place to begin blogging and I'm so happy to have found the right fit.  By the way, my girlfriend and I were out in WA last summer and completely fell in love with the area. 

Congratulations on hitting one million!

Bob Black 

 

That is absolutely awesome.  I have seen it driving traffic to my website as well...pretty incredible.

Jonathan - It is no surprise to me. Most of the postings here get picked up right away by the search engines so it makes sense that the traffic would follow.

Tracey - who are you opening your escrow with? :-)

Jonathan - I am getting over 7000 hits now per month, look at the map, these can't all be RE professionals.

Frankly, Whoever is complaining, divide them by 50,000 members. You are in a vacuum which only hears the complaints. 

AR's consumer traffic from google placement is awesome. I post here AND on my blog. When customers contact me (oh and they do!), they usually do so from the AR version? Why? Great SEO.

Keep it up.

Listen to the haters, but give them back that grain of salt, as it isn't worth taking it.

Frank 

Jonathan is this ActiveRain and Localism Or just ActiveRain?

Great news, but I never doubted it for a minute, I love it here, Google loves us.

Thanks for the info Jonathan!

Cheers to AR.  I know that my info shows up between pages 1 and 4 when my local city and "home inspection" is typed in.  It's either my AR profile or one of my blogs that shows up.  Once again, for no cost invloved, just my time, that's great! 

Well I'm glad for that!

Let's hope it continues and we'll benefit from it.

Thanks for the post!

Congratulations on the 1,000,000 visitors!  That's amazing!  I know that AR is helping me get consumer traffic, I don't need any other reports to look at.  THANK YOU!

Good info to know, especially for a newbie to this site. Thanks!

To answer a few of the questions above:

1. The stats listed are just for the ActiveRain.com domain alone.  

2. ActiveRain had 654,000 unique visitors last month, and 10,250,000 page views.

3. We are looking into a solution to provide more detailed stats to our members.

4. ActiveRain grew by almost 20% in visits last month.  The exact visit count was 1,173,104.

5. Localism received another 181,000 visits / 132,000 unique visitors.

6. I have no specific information regarding what accounted for the traffic spikes in months 9 & 10. My guess is that it had something to do with AR taking a step out of the "Google Sandbox"

Jonathan, Thanks for the stats. I can definitely say that I've had several consumers find me through ActiveRain in the past 2 weeks alone. I feel fairly confident that these will turn into business for me after the conversations I had with the prospects. ActiveRain works - and I'm constantly telling anyone who will listen about it (agents in my office, home inspectors, etc.)

Google loves Localism.  So do I. 

Jonathan......very impressive indeed! I get direct consumer contacts from AR just about everyday. The best thing is that most of them are sellers! That's a big difference from what the Internet usually provides. The Internet has historically been much more of a buyer magnet than a seller magnet. Not anymore!!!! Great job guys.

Keep up the good work. It is appreciated by us.

Jonathan...

Impressive? You bet :)

And...I really like this idea...

"We are looking into a solution to provide more detailed stats to our members."...

We would love to know how many hits "Broker Bryant" actually gets.

If the contacts and emails are an indication...He's gets some serious hits and I'm not the one hitting him. Tempting though :)

TLW...ROAR!

I believe that many consumers visit the site too. At a  minimum our blogs come up in different searches.

ACTIVE RAIN is working for me!  I've gotten 6 listings in the past 4 months directly FROM Active Rain -- so for all those who ask "Where are you getting the leads?"  I tell them, I refer them and invite them to Active Rain - but they don't participate -- poor them.  thanks guys - this has been great for me .....

Jon - I've been putting my buckets out ever since joining the network, and Rain keeps filling 'em up!

I would have to agree with you. That is fabulous. Congrats to you and to AR!

Jonathan,

We all appreciate you getting the numbers out for everyone to see. Consumers apparently do visit AR in droves, but often refrain from commenting or otherwise signing in, so members wouldn't know.

Excellent post and very much appreciated wisdom. Thank you for sharing. Thanks for this ! Congrats AR for 1 million and best wishes for 1 million more !

I ran a couple of searches on Google..."agent, RE Agent & Real Estate Agent........I found alot of sites but nothing on AR......Not sure your should be selling your opinion on a graph. It kind of makes it look like a fact when it is not! But then again, it is your opinion so you can do what you want with it I suppose.

OK I tried a few other words you recommended.....in, homes, county, mortgages....still no AR....maybe I should not be using Google?

I don't know why you're not seeing this...  Maybe you just don't want to?

I just serached Real Estate Agent and found AR on the bottom of the 3rd page.  I thing that's pretty dang good seeing as there is no city or state specified.  Then I searched roswell georgia Real Estate Agent and my AR profile came up on the top of the 2nd page.  Searching florida Real Estate Agent and AR is 3rd down on the first page. 

Thanks, Jonathon. Appreciate the answer to my question.

Whether or not those million visits may be from real estate professionals, the fact of the matter still stand: Google gives MAJOR authority to Active Rain in it's Search Results. That's a fantastic feat! I can't wait to see how much A.R. evolves in the next few months.

Consumers definitely visit - I get feedback from them occasionally...

Jon,

I am new to your blog and look forward seeing on paper (screen if you will) how I am doing.

I know I am seeing calls from sources I haven't before...stay e!

Jonathan,

I can't believe that people are actually claiming that this site doesn't draw the consumer in. Everyone speaks of it loud and clear in the circles I run in. Yes, I tend to run like I blog...in circles. Thanks for the info. Just more info to pass on to the nay-sayers.

Jonathan, I just wrote a featured post about how our SEO on our website and Active Rain closed the deal on an investor portfolio of listings to the tune of 22 million$ in one meeting, one close. His SEO guy says our SEO is the best he has seen and that is why he told his boss to hire us. I really thought maybe I should not tell you because I like getting AR free and did not want you to start thinking you should charge us for blogging on AR :). Katerina

thanks for the info.... keep it coming

we can always use more data

Great information.  It is surprising that some folks still think that consumers aren't coming here.  Haven't they seen all of the success stories?  Our google status has increased tons since we started here.  Thanks guys...keep it up!

I suspect that the agents who are not "getting results" from participating in Active Rain are in more competitive markets.  The tougher the market the more you have to work to get noticed, even with the help of AR.  I market to a very narrow niche (i.e. phoenix high rise condos,phoenix loft condos,condos in phoenix) and I have yet to hear from an AR generated lead.  However, I know that it's just a matter of time until the work pays off.  Thanks for the stats.  W

Hi Jon,
Thank you for this post, information like this is empowering.  I appreciate all you guys and the work, time and energy you spend on AR.

Jonathan hen people talk about you you know you are getting their attention and doing something right.  The best businesses and sites in the world have their critics.  1 million unique hits?  I say "Boo-Yah! How you like us now?  Keep up the Good Work and Thanks!

Not only have I gotten clients from Active Rain, but I have also been contacted by other agents for referrals as well as a couple of paid referral companies that have been low-cost and high quality. 

I am still exited about this site and I've been here for a while now!

Thanks,

Tom Davis

World Class DE Realtor

Also wanted to mention to the person who got 6 listings...SUPER! Great Job!  We love the juice this network is giving!

Keep it up Active Rain!

Tom Davis

World Class Delaware Realtor