ActiveRain moves fast. So fast that I know of only a few people who really have a clear picture of everything that ActiveRain has to offer. AR is now averaging a site upgrade at least once a week. To put that in proper context, most software companies are on a quarterly or 1/2 yearly deployment schedule.
We've done five separate deploys in the last 10 days alone, so I thought it would be beneficial to do a high level overview of the different products and services available on ActiveRain, while focusing on our core business components.
1. Blogging: There is a major shift from the traditional way real estate is marketed and blogging represents this new paradigms epicenter.
In the past advertising options included post cards and newspaper advertising with canned messages, listing magazines with latent information, nothing that provided any real testament to who the real estate professional really is. ActiveRain continues to evolve a social media publishing (or blog) platform where real estate professionals can share their expertise and knowledge while creating a conversation with potential clients.
Our blogging platform will focus on empowering our members to syndicate their data to as many consumers as possible, involving integration with other highly trafficked sites. Some of the sites I would like to see us work close with this year include: the major real estate brokerages, Zillow, Trulia, Yahoo, and Microsoft.
(This feature of ActiveRain is Free)
2. Referral Exchange: Best ActiveRain resource that you haven't heard of.
The basic premise behind the Referral Exchange is, you guessed it, a marketplace where real estate professionals can exchange referrals with ease and efficiency. We launched it over a year ago without much fanfare as a fix for the frustration I experienced when needing to personally refer business out of state. Finding a hard working and appreciative professional was a lot harder than it should have been. The Exchange recently reappeared on my radar after I heard a series of fantastic success stories.
Using the Referral Exchange is simple and free.
Once a referral is added to the system an email is sent to all members on ActiveRain that have an alert set up that matches the parameters of the referral. New members are setup with a basic referral alert at registration. To change your alert settings click here
(This feature of ActiveRain is Free)
In the next few months we plan to implement a new element to the Referral Exchange product that will require all outbound referrals to be screened before it hits the board to eliminate any spam.
3. Profile: You don't get a second chance to make a first impression...
For those who don't believe in the power of the ActiveRain profile, take a moment and Google your name. Unless it's Brad Pitt, (or you've been on ActiveRain for just a short while) you will likely find your ActiveRain profile on Page 1 of your search results. And even if it doesn't show up on page 1, it's information that consumers are highly interested in. Take time to make your profile read and look beautiful. When I practiced real estate I always considered myself unemployed and on a never-ending quest to find a new job. Your profile is your resume. Treat it with the respect it deserves.
(This feature of ActiveRain is Free)
4. Individual & Team Blogs: Almost 10 years ago I created the first Search Engine Optimized IDX website that used listing content to generate long tail search results. This innovation eventually allowed my team of real estate agents to generate over 5,000 leads a month and sell well over $100 million dollars in real estate a year.
I believe our new ActiveBlogs are as powerful today as my SEO IDX website was back when I first created it. If used correctly, ActiveBlogs have the potential to revolutionize personal, team, office, and/or niche real estate production.
The core value proposition of our blogs is an infrastructure that we call RAIndexing, or "Real Area Indexing". Simply put, your blog turns into a long tail Search Engine Optimized website. Similar in nature to the SEO IDX website, the primary difference being the IDX website uses static listing content whereas ActiveBlogs utilize much more potent unique, fresh content.
We have a giant office whiteboard full of improvements that will continuously be released for the ActiveBlog platform. For example, we just added the ability for people to add a Listing Router search widget to ActiveBlogs. In the next few weeks look for "New Theme Friday's", and a widget integration. To sign up for an ActiveBlog click here.
(ActiveBlogs cost $19/mo and $79/mo for an Individual and Team license respectively)
5. Localism: Localism is designed to be the worlds most complete Neighborpedia.
Members may sponsor communities, cities and even sub-divisions on Localism. The concept is based on a verb we call "localised", which is the process of adding location based meta-data to content, whether it be text, pictures or video. The website is designed to exclusively feature 'hyper-local' real estate information for consumers. Focused hyper-local content from an established and trusted website ranks inherently high on search engine result pages, like Google
Localism thus becomes a powerful resource for real estate professionals because it allows them to leverage their very local knowledge of a given area to potential clients that otherwise wouldn't know about unless they visited the area personally with a seasoned guide in tow.
The long overdue feature of making Localism open for consumer and local merchant contribution is scheduled on our internal project board for completion in the next 30 days. Relative content from local neighbors and businesses coupled with real estate professionals knowledge and expertise will benefit all participants, providing an engaging and comprehensive experience. I'm confident that the sponsoring professional will reap the substantial rewards Localism was meant to provide from conception.
(Localism sponsorships are less than $10/mo per sponsorship. Price breaks are available with multiple sponsorships)
6. Listing Router: Leads are dead; 2009 is all about the "click".
Early in the decade well-funded companies utilized marketing budgets and technology that was largely out of reach to individual real estate professionals to generate huge quantities of 'leads' at a much lower cost than an individual was able to. Many real estate professionals felt that they got burned by these lead generation companies as a result of excessive long term contracts and poor conversion rates. As a result the concept of buying a lead conjures up a foul taste for most practitioners in the industry.
Today, many of these lead capture technologies have become cost effective and subsequently made their way into the hands of individual practitioners. As these points have crossed, a fast growing alternative to 'lead reselling' has manifested called click marketing. Our entrance into this field is a product we call Listing Router. Foundationally Listing Router is very simple: ActiveRain members can buy clicks from ActiveRain consumer traffic and route them to specific locations (web-pages) of their choice. We've taken a novel approaches with Listing Router by sharing a portion of the click revenue with the member who's post and content drove the traffic.
In the future we hope to become the central market place where real estate professionals buy clicks, and Search Engine Marketers sell clicks. To set up your Listing Router account click here.
(Clicks range in price from $.89 to $3.89 per click. AR members with high point total are automatically given discounts on the per click price.)
Bonus: Spellcheck: This has been the cause of almost as much headache to ActiveRain members as has been the dreaded Proxy Errors. In the future we plan to add the words: blog, Localism, Raindex, and ActiveRain, to our dictionary. It irritates us as well. For some reason this is not an easy technical fix.
cool...looking forward to the new developments. geolocation is good.
Tony
This summary of ActiveRain possibilities listed and explained in one place is an awesome resource. Thanks for taking the time to put this together for us.
Thank you for a website that makes me feel at home and gives me a place to share my innermost thoughts and concerns for our future in real estate! I applaud the Active Rain staff!
Jonathan,
Exactly what I was looking for! A place that explains all the wonderful, inexpensive attributes that can be accessed on ActiveRain!
Thanks,
Kathy Opatka, Re/Max Premier Properties, OCEAN CITY,MARYLAND.
Jonathan.... I will admit, the more and more time I spend on AR, after starting out on 10/3/06, this site is incredible. And just the things that you mentioned make it even better than anything that I have seen out there. Talk about getting the word out is an understatement. Wondering if there will be any such tools for loan officers to possibly obtain more leads... anything in the works besides blogging, networking, and the referral exchange... which I never used.. because I prefer people finding me and trusting me, instead of just reading my profile or seeing how many points I have... and just sending me a referral then. thanks for all that you all do... and it was good to see u in NYC. Too bad it was only for a few minutes.
Thank you for the Active Rain 101 review. As one of the people who has been here since almost the very beginning it's nice to see it A.R. grow. But these changes are also overwhelming. Just this morning I was thinking I don't recognize this place any more. It's been hard to keep up with all of it.
My profile even comes up first page in long tail searches - it is amazing to me how much Active Rain has done for my business. I got an email last night from someone in Saudi Arabia who has been reading my blog - they are getting ready to retire here and found me while searching the area online...
Thanks for the update on what AR is doing and planning - it's all good!
Jonathan, great review of the capabilities of ActiveRain. Should be very informative to the newbies. Thanks and congratulations on the feature.
"So fast that I know of only a few people who really have a clear picture of everything that ActiveRain has to offer."
Jon - I'd like to think I'm included in that group of a few people!! lol~
I agree, there is no other network on the planet that offers as much or ALL of the tools and services that ActiveRain does. We are like the VCR of WEB 2.0 in that many members probably have no idea on how many features we offer or how to even use them. To me, this is actually a good thing....... it's job security!! :-))
Jon,
THIS is effective communication. Well written :)
I just recently took advantageof the localism feature. Very nice. I'm fairly new to active rain and am learning my way around. The photoelements blogs have also been very helpful to me.
Thanks for the update on the plans for AR-this is the news we needed.
This summary really helps, thanks! I'm still undecided on the individual blog or listing router.
Jonathan - Nice update on the big picture at ActiveRain. I am looking forward to starting an Austin-area group blog soon.
Jon,
I'm not sure if I can continue to follow a fearless leader that couldn't catch any steelhead. Nonetheless maybe with all these cool features and tools I can be persuaded to change my mind ;-)
Everyone is looking on the web to find homes and the old way of doing business via newspaper and home guides is dead. Glad to see you are working on keeping on the leading edge of technology.
Jon- That was great of you to share the tips! We appreciate being kept informed at all times =)
Jon - Great info. I am anxious to see if the referral program starts turning into some business.
I've been on here a year but have no clue if my listing router is set up correctly or not. I also don't know if it makes sense for me to set up another blog since I have my RE Tomato blog and my AR blog?
Maybe I don't follow you enough, but this was an excellent explanation. Listing Router sounds interesting... not as interesting as your depiction of the "big" lead generation company. I don't quite understand how the relationship with GL can coexist with the promotion of "clicks" Clicks to my website or my page of choice is a way to generate leads, no?
Maybe I'm overthinking this. I was just curious. Either way, cheaper, more practical and prodcutive always gets my attention.
Excellent post. I think I'll mark this for a feature.
1) Thank you for all your hard work and this great site.
2) Thanks for all the innovations and letting us know again how many assets we have at our fingertips.
All the best!
Jonathan, Just wanted to check in. I appreciate your information. I am waiting to go for the advanced blog. Although $19 seems like a great deal. It is a popular #. If I took all the great $19 deals that are out I would either become wildly successful or very $19 in the red. Like, Trulia Pro for $19.
You guys are awesome.
Awesome overview - thanks! I have been using AR for just a little time now and it was great to see the many benefits condensed down into one place. I will be sharing this with other agents in my office who are not yet on AR.
Johnathan: Active Rain is truly a leader in the internet world. Thanks for all the support !
Appreciate you highlighting these areas. I received great feedback from Localism and look forward to updating my blog soon.
Great job partnering with Trulia on the "raining points" by the way
Jonathan: Thanks for the summery. I can appreciate AR more now. What a great site, isn't it?!
Hi Jonathon, Thanks for the overview. If you aren't tired of hearing it: We really do appreciate the incredible time and talent you guys bring to the table !
"long overdue feature of making Localism open for consumer and local merchant contribution is scheduled on our internal project board for completion in the next 30 days"
I am SO excited to see that news, not that all the rest isn't great also, but Localism has my heart and my money and it will always be my first ActiveRain love.
Jon, I appreciate everything that you and the rest of the team work so hard to get accomplished.
Hi Jonathan~ I am one of the ones that can't keep up with all of the newest happenings in here. Eventually I do figure it out though, LOL! Thanks for all you do! Vickie
Hi Jonathan -- Thanks for the info, I didn't know about the referral exchange. I tried to setup a county specific (Ohio, Cuyahoga County) Referral Alert and it came back with an error message that said: "You must add at least one location to continue" -- I added both a state and county, so I'm not sure what gives here?
Thanks for spelling out these changes. I would love to see some guidelines for what is a proper use of the 'Referral Exchange' ...
Jonathan, this is wonderful. I have invited at least 5 people to join Active Rain today. I am talking with many others in my area. I reblogged this --- so that when these folks go to my blog they can quickly see the benefits of signing up!
Jonathan- This is a great summary of the architecture that AR offers. When one considers that it is above and beyond the great content that exists here, it truly makes for an amazing site.
Great overview especially for us newbies! I am still not sure what the listing router is..will do a search, I am sure you guys have a 101 class on it. :)
Thanks so much!
Cindy
Thanks for a great breakdown of all the features that you offer with AR. I appreciate the continued upgrades that are being made.
Beautiful!
I can hardly keep up. Seriously.......but it is all good.
My office at Keller Williams is going to set up a team blog. So that will be good too, just have to get some agents to commit to posting there and not just me and the few others that already blog here. LOL
Thanks for all you do and make it a great year.
Hi Jonathan;
Great post and super information, looking forward to the new products.
Had no idea most of this was available, thanks
Do you know how to check how many members we had in March of 2007? I keep saying about 19k but unsure. Anyway, that's how fast AR has grown since I started :) :) Oh, and me too!
IMHO, Active Rain is adding too much, too fast. And some of it is costing money... which I will not pay. I've been here for almost 2 years. I've enjoyed the site for the majority of this time. But now I can't keep up, and don't really want to. I have enough to try to keep track of.
I'm just venting. Thanks for the post where I can vent =P
Jon,
I'm new to AR and Blogging for SEO (and learning more every day) Thank you for this very innovative fast moving site. .. With all the latest sw deployments you guys have been rolling out lately it can only get better and better ! ... Along with my Business ! TX ;-)
Jon,
I'm new to AR and Blogging for SEO (and learning more every day) Thank you for this very innovative fast moving site. .. With all the latest sw deployments you guys have been rolling out lately it can only get better and better ! ... Along with my Business ! TX ;-)
Rock on !!! There are some great features, some we are taking advantage, some we plan on doing more ! Thanks for the concise update !!
Jonathan~ Simply put, you guys ROCK! I continue to be amazed at the level of commitment at A|R and all of the "services" you & the rest of the Team provide to help us grow our business! THANKS to all!!
Thank you Jonathan for sharing that with all of us. I hope you have a great day!
Jonathan - thanks for the AR summary. Always good to be reminded of what we have at our beck and acall but also new improvements, and understanding the benefits makes it even better. Can't argue with the price on this stuff. Looking forward to continued innovation in 2009.
Jeff
Jonathan, This certainly is a difficult place to keep up with but I'm in there trying :) Thank you and all the AR "gods" for everything you've done and are doing!
Jon, thanks for the great overview. I need to give the referrals another look-see.
I still am not using everything that Active Rain has to offer but I'm trying
I am little confused on the listing router and the lead generation part. What does that do for us as agents as far as driving other agents to your listing?... huh?
Wow -- I thought a year ago that A/R was amazing, but you guys somehow manage to keep making it better. Thank you for providing such a great forum for us!
how long did it take Microsoft to add Google to its dictionary. No you mean Goggle don't you.
Jon,Thanks for the update. I will have to bookmark and re-read several times!!
Jon ... thanks for this good article about the current and future possible uses for AR and Listing Router. Please keep up good work and AR leadership. Harrison
Jon, You are amazing, really. I am using a few of the features but know I need to get a grip and figure the rest of the features out. I relocated last year, from Nashville to Huntsville and I knew NO ONE. I had NO Internet presence before I found Active Rain. Now, I"m all over the place. Sometimes I just google myself, neighborhoods, restaurants, etc., just to see my name on the front page, rotfl. It amazes me. To top it all off, I'm so STUPID when it comes to all of this and it STILL works. You're a genius!
I'm so thankful that you still have the referrals. I closed a referral from AR in November and got a new referral from New York just last week. THANKS!
Thank you Jonathan for the lowdown. Hopefully I will be able to pay for these pro tools this year and take advantage of all the business they provide.
thanks for explaining these to us.
You guys are rocking... Now if we could just strip the signatures of superfluous junk...
;^ )
Great summary! I would love to syndicate my blog posts to popular sites like Trulia and Zillow -- let us know when that's available and I'm on board.
Thank you for this great information, especially the referral exchange.
"This feature of ActiveRain is Free." ... and the ROI for those who put in a little time and effort is infinite.
Awesome post. I didn't realize how much I could actually do. I'm a new Realtor and just getting started on cranking this out. Do it right and the money will follow I'm sure.
I'm happy to hear about adding words to the spell check feature. I recently posted my first blog on Active Rain and had to laugh when "blog" turned up as incorrect! :>)
Jonathan,
Could dream of more appreciative crowd? Isn't it a blessing to be able to attract such an enthusiastic group of professionals?
You gotta be proud!
Thanks, I didn't know all that was available.
Nice and concise. Great blog!! I am off to check my referral setting. It is so easy to miss taking advantage of a feature because you didn't know it was available or you had forgotten it was available.
Jonathan- You have done one heck of an amazing job with Active Rain. From a small network to the star of all real estate sites. The offerings are immense if one learns to captivate them appropriately and use them to their full advantage.
Blogging is still the best and the ActiveBlogs are going to be amazing. I am just waiting for the 26th when I can move my domain name over.
Listing router has already increased traffic to our website that have turned into customers.
Localism- Well, I am all about honesty and I liked the old Localism better. We used to get great listings from Localism. To be honest- I don't like the idea of the local businesses getting on localism and writing their own content for many reasons.
Profile- One of the most powerful tools you have to offer after the blogs. Our profile has been viewed almost 100,000 times. That is nothing to sneeze at.
Referral exchange- I just pick up the phone and call the agents I have made friends with here on Active Rain to refer to. I will not let just anyone get our referral. We want to make sure the agent we refer is a good match for the client. We get referred business often from AR members. Anyone will if they learn to pay if forward.
Keep up the great work. You are very appreciated. Katerina
You guys always come up with great stuff. I'm looking for to the dictionary additions.
Keep the changes coming we started just over a year ago and see the presence you have allowed us to gain through Active Rain. Keep up the great progress.
Great summary, thank you! You gave me some tips that I had forgotten about.
Jonathan, it sure seems like you guys are beyond busy these days! Thanks for your update and I look forward to seeing some of the new gadgets and gizmos that you throw our way! Take care and happy blogging!
Johnnie, baby, you hit the big time!
Thanks for spelling it all out, Jonathan. There are a couple of tools here I was unaware of. Worth looking into.
Jonathan- Thank you for your tireless work on continuing to make this platform excel. I'll be interested to see #2 having worked on many referral platforms and having direct experience in referrals when you say it's an underused tool...well...this has been the way for so long. I will also be interested in seeing the screening process when you roll it out.
I can tell you, the best screening is the old fashioned phone call. Mickey Mouse can be your client.
looking for a picture of Jonathan Washburn has been spotted around Seattle in a Hot Pink Full length Fur coat
Hahaha @Teresa!!
I told you, that pic is in my safe deposit box for a rainy day.
Jon,
What is the significance of 97 feet?
It is nice to see where we're heading! I'm definitely here for the long haul! Thanks for all the great upgrades and changes to the service. Can we see true WYSIWYG on blog creations sometime in the near future?
Kathy
Localism Sponsorship Volume Discounts? I tried to find info on volume discounts - can you point me in a direction? I sponsor four cities now and may add some neighborhoods if it is cost effective.
Thanks Jonathan for the update. I look forward to all the great changes ahead.
... if this post doesnt get you motivated to be a part of this then I dont know what the heck will !
This is probably the best summary of what this site offers and where it's heading (for now ! ... I expect the future updates will be bigger and better still !)
GREAT job...now I'm pumped !
Jonathan, Active Rain rocks! Thanks for all that you do!
I just wish it were a little easier to post to my blog. If we could just click for colors. Click for sizes, etc. That would be awesome! Not that AR isn't awesome already. That would just be a big scoop of cookies-n-cream ice cream on top of my fudge marble cake!
~Renae
OK maybe with photo shop I can just make one of my own.
I'd like to thank you guys for everything and am looking at implementing some of the paid features into my 2009 business plan. Do you offer an annual commitment discount?
Jonathan- Thank you! I am tempted to think may have come across my recent ranting and raving about not being able to keep up with changes. Your post could not be more timely and I am pleased to learn I was not the only one struggling to make sense of all the changes. My very kind friends tried to help and assuage my fears the best they could but of course, they were not the creators either
Today is a day of enlightenment. First, I found my lost blog and now I have your explanation. The fog has lifted somewhat. I hope AR will continue to keep us up-to date. I do wan to be one of those "with a clear picture.
Wish I could have bookmarked your post. That's something that went away, I guess.
Jonathan, great post. Active Rain does move so fast as you described with all the enhancements. Even us regulars have a hard time keeping up with new stuff that keeps coming up over the horizon.
Great info. Thank you so much!
Jenny
"Some of the sites I would like to see us work close with this year include: the major real estate brokerages, Zillow, Trulia, Yahoo, and Microsoft.
None of these are real estate brokerages. As a matter of fact, none of them are even licensed in real estate. Lets not get confused or mislead the public.
This is so exciting and I too love the overview of the enhancements that we will be getting with Active Rain. Thanks for your hard work. What a team!
Benjamin, So glad to hear that you are planning on buying some of our products. I promise that we will do everything in our power to make our products empower you to make a huge return on your investment. (Plus buying stuff from us helps to keep us in business. We have 10 full time employees working extremely hard to bring our members the best of the best.)
Eloise, Your recent "rantings" about getting overwhelmed is not the only rantings I have seen. There is so much happening so fast that many of our members are feeling a bit lost.
Gary, I know that keeping up is hard. I just encourage you to not feel overwhelmed. USE ActiveRain the way you want; the site should serve you. Not the other way around.
Laurie, I meant to communicate that the syndication partners would include the major real estate brokerages like Coldwell Banker, RE/MAX, etc, and other major online real estate portals like Trulia, and Zillow.
JoAnn, "Exciting" you are telling me! This is the most fun I have ever had in my life at work.
There's never a dull moment around this place! Thanks for always improving a wonderfiul community!
Thanks for all you do to make ActiveRain the fantastic site it is. 2008 was my year to focus on technology in my business. In the fourth quarter I really started utilizing ActiveRain and I have seen many changes in the past few months. I am happy to know it is the behind the scenes work you and your team are doing to put this site in the forefront. Using the site and following blogs has helped me really take a giant leap forward in getting the most from my time "in the rain".
For anyone who may be feeling overwhelmed I have a few suggestions:
Thanks again.
Jon....thanks for this "all-in'one" reminder of what Active Rain can do/has to offer to us!
I've got many features to explore, and I for one, am one of those that at times seems overwhelmed with Web 10.0 (I swear we'll be calling it that in no time!)
While I just did my Business Plan for '09, I think I'm gong to have to step back and create a bit of a seperate plan for my Active Rain and other activities!
But thanks for giving me us so much to work with!
Good to hear. I was thinking of bagging localism, but Im' excited to see what we can do to move it even further forward.
Hi Jon! WAY Cool! I have but, two things to say--well, okay 3:
1. I'd best get my rear in gear!
2. Will YOU optimize MY website for ME?!! 5K/MO?! I'm IN!
3. I'm seriously glad that you're going to weed out the spam on referrals. I know that the vast majority of us do not use this function because the vast majority of what we receive in alerts from this function IS spam!
Jonathan,
It's good to see the steady flow of improvements done to the platform. Sometimes, though, it is a bit overwhelming to keep up with all of it, put your arms around them. Still, wonderful.
Jonathan, thanks for the overview. We need a periodic review of all the features you folks come up with!
Jonathan - I love AR... The improvements continue to just make a "good thing" better... I can't wait to see what else you have planned.
Jonathan~AR is awesome. Thanks for reminding a newbie like me of all you have to offer! I'm gonna go for the outside active blog! Thank You again, for all that AR does!!