jonwashburn

Do consumers even visit ActiveRain?

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:37:08 -0600

I just stumbled upon the comment above that was a part of a post where people were debating the returns on various online real estate websites. I have heard the sentiments of the comment above numerous times since founding ActiveRain. Because of the rich professional-to-professional networking that happens everyday on ActiveRain some people dismiss the great consumer reach of the site. This is likely our fault as we tend not to toot our own horn regarding our accomplishments. As a result we have done a poor job educating the industry as to the power inherent in ActiveRain to connect real estate professionals with consumers.

I track our traffic numbers on a daily basis. It's a borderline obsession for me. When you've built websites your whole adult life, this tends to happen. For example, I know that yesterday was our second highest number of visitors ever to the site. 88% of our visitors on a monthly basis come from search engines or referral from other sites. These are potential clients doing search queries that are leading them to your posts.

But the stat that jumps out at me that lets me know ActiveRain is MUCH MORE than 'primarily a peer-to-peer platform' is this: the number of members on our site is quite a bit less than 10% of our unique visitors per month. That means there are over 9 consumers hitting the site for every one member.........and when you factor in how many of our members are actually contributing content, that number gets even higher.

As I was getting ready to write this post, I did some additional research and found the graph below that compares ActiveRain's traffic with other "big boys" of our industry: ColdwellBanker.com, REMAX.com, Century21.com, and KW.com. It is exciting for me to note that we started off one year ago in 5th place (out of 5) in this group and now we are ranking in 2nd place with almost a 200% yearly growth rate.

7 SEO Secrets to Dominate your Local Market

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:41:38 -0600

All of these suggestions are free to implement and will generate very high quality incoming links and a pretty healthy amount of traffic.

You can use your ActiveRain profile just fine with each of these items but you will likely generate the best results with your own Individual Blog. (If you don't have an Individual Blog yet click here to get one.)

Please note that pretty much all of the items below require that you have a free account with the applicable website.

1. Submit yourself to Google Local. Make sure to put in your blog or profile URL in the website entry form field.

2. Add your blog to Local.Yahoo.com.

3. Submit your blog to Yelp!

4. Create a blog post for everyone of your listings and submit the URL to Google Base.

5. Create a blog post for everyone of your listings and submit the URL to Craigslist.

6. Add links to your website, ActiveRain profile, and your Individual blog, on your LinkedIn profile page. Your LinkedIn profile is second only to your ActiveRain profile in terms of Google Juice.

7. Add yourself to YellowPages.com. The search engines tap this database to populate their Local search results.

(The cow above looks very dominating; similar to the way you will look to your competitors if you implement these strategies. In case you were wondering, that is why I chose it as the picture for this post.)

Letter to the critic

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:44:19 -0500

You are doing a fine job in the critical assessment of the accomplishments of those who are out there doing something. Surely there is no shortage of critics who take jabs at great efforts, especially when those efforts fall short of the creator's vision. However, the world is rarely benefitted by discouraging the dreams of doers. If you must focus your energy towards criticism, it should be turned towards motivating those who take no risks, and do not venture towards greatness, but live a life without purpose or effort.

What is ActiveRain?

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:32:02 -0500

Intermixed with the daily struggle of running a company that is grasping for revenues, in what seems like a never ending attempt to bridge that last little gap to profitability, I am blessed with inspiring messages from the members of this network about how ActiveRain is impacting their lives.

My most recent inspiration came from an article authored by Russ Ravary and the accompanying comments on it. Whenever I am in a certain mood, and read one of these posts, I am reminded that ActiveRain is something greater than just a business. I am elevated above the grind-level view of daily operations, and if only for a few fleeting minutes, I recognize the incredible opportunity we have in front of us to change, and improve, the way an entire industry operates. Indeed we are doing something even more than revolutionizing an industry in need of change; we are enriching the lives of our fellow colleagues and creating one of the greatest caring communities in the world.

We are a part of something that is quite rare, something that is both exciting and humbling at the same time.

I am often charged with answering the question, "What is ActiveRain?", and now even after years of running the company I haven't been able to articulate an answer that seems sufficient. ActiveRain is clearly more than just a business; It seems to mean something powerful and slightly different to everyone who embraces it and makes it a part of their lives. Recognizing this, I would like to turn the question over to the individual members of this community to answer in the comments below.

My hope is that in the future when someone wants to know "What is ActiveRain", I can point them here.

What does ActiveRain mean to you? How has it impacted your life. How has it helped your business?

Redfin - Usability testing reveals consumers can't see ads

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:10:31 -0500

Redfin is going to be hugely successful and kick the pants off of it's competitors. They are going to achieve this not because there is anything special about their pricing model but because they are executing flawlessly in a wholey consumer centric way and are developing the best online experience bar none.

Glenn published a great post today about usability testing (It was later removed. Only guessing that they took it down because it could be construed as being disrespectful to their clients/testers.)

Here are some of my favorite lines from the post: (I quoted liberally from the article because so much of it was valuable.)

A web designer couldn’t figure out our website. A former brokerage customer didn’t seem to realize we were a brokerage. Someone used Google to search Redfin’s search site.

Every time we tried to give the usability subjects a marketing message about how great we are, they didn’t merely dismiss it or bypass it. They didn’t even ignore it. They never saw it in the first place, because they were so engrossed in our real estate search application.

...We would blast them with a huge graphic about our customer service, right in the middle of the screen, and then, after asking them if they saw anything about customer service, watch as their cursor orbited the graphic in a long, fruitless search.

...When we exposed a button for scheduling a home tour, the usability subjects jumped all over it, because it was part of the application. The ... users were suddenly making quantum leaps of deduction: “you have a tours button, so you must have agents in addition to a website, so you must make money as a brokerage, probably splitting the commission since it’s partially on the web.”

What that means for us is that we’re going to have keep working to build a home-buying application that guides people all the way through escrow, rather than building a search site that reels customers in, then shows them an ad for our brokerage business.

10 steps to Localism success

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:34:47 -0500

1. Write about some place local: The smaller the region the better. A community post is generally more valuable than a city post, and a city post is better than a county post. The more specific your post, the higher likelihood it will return higher search engine results.

2. Provide original and interesting content: Actually say something. Don't just link off to other web pages.

3. Post lots of pictures: There is nothing that captures the spirit of a place better than a picture. Except... Video.

4. Take a video: Videos of communities will be all the rage starting in 2009. If you have your video hosted somewhere, let one of our community builders know and we'll see if we can get it displaying on your community.

5. Do not post a bunch of self serving marketing material on the bottom of your post: If a home buyer or seller finds your information interesting they will figure out how to contact you. Also, our editors highly downgrade posts with built in - self serving marketing messages. Have a way for the consumer to contact you, but keep the 'PICK ME, PICK ME' messaging to a minimum.

6. Write about current events happening in your community: Opening Day for Boating, Seattle's Pioneer Square Art Walk

7. Write about people in your community: Saline Chief of Police. What better way to make a connection with someone in your community than to profile them for your blog. A fantastic way to break the ice on a relationship you've been meaning to foster.

8. Write about local businesses: Everyone loves to get the inside tip from the "locals" about the hot places to try. This is your chance to be that local. Bubble's Boutique in Laguna Beach, New Rita's Restaurant

9. Write about tourist attractions and points of interest: They are called "attractions" and "interest" for a reason. People are attracted to them and will be attracted to the posts you write about them.

10. Don't write about yourself or simply recite what you did: People want to see your personality shine through, but they are on Localism primarily to learn about a new place. Once you prove to them that you are a good source of information then they will become interested in learning more about you personally. No one cares about these posts: "I joined the Bellevue Washington Chamber of Commerce". "Last weekend I river rafted in the Wenatchee river" Instead write this post: "Upcoming Dover New Hampshire Chamber of Commerce Events" and "Hood River is Hot" Unless you are providing good pictures and an interesting read to go along with it, no one is interested.

Bonus:

We are creating a site to attract the consumer and hopeful draw their participation. Post sparingly about real estate. When you do write about it, write about new home developments, and subdivisions. Barclay Park Condos

Super Bonus:

Sponsor your community on Localism. Assure that your description of your community, links to sites of interest and your home search site are front and center while people learn about your community. (when you click on this link, you will log in to Localism with the same user name and password as ActiveRain)

reBlogging: Whoops, there it is!!

Bob Stewart - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:07:44 -0500

Last night, with little fanfare, we launched a concept on ActiveRain called 'reBlog'. In fact, there was such little fanfare I didn't even know it was live until I woke up, reached over, grabbed my iPhone and started reading my emails. (yes, I am addicted to my iPhone, my job, my family and golf). This feature was meant to be tested and have some bugs worked out, but it accidentally slipped through to the live servers. In the first few hours, there were some components that were just not right. We are fixing those right now and the next time you see the 'reBlog' button, things will be in much better working order. Not to mention, we got some GREAT feedback right out of the gate. Sometimes being caught off guard can be a blessing in disguise.

reBlogging on ActiveRain:

According to reBlog.org:

"What is a reBlog?

A reBlog facilitates the process of filtering and republishing relevant content from many other Blogs. reBloggers subscribe to their favorite blogs, preview the content, and select their favorite posts. These posts are automatically published through their favorite blogging software."

This is a feature that will be available for members who have an ActiveRain Outside Blog. When you 'reBlog' an article, the post will be sent to your ActiveRain outside blog and not to your internal ActiveRain blog. Minimal points will be awarded when you reBlog an article. There will be a weekly cap on the amount. And reBlogging for points isn't going to provide your readers with a very valuable experience anyway. However, if your blog post is reBlogged by someone else, you will get 25 points every time up to a maximum of 500 points per post.

Every member will have the option of deciding whether or not they want their content to be available for reBlog. In your 'my settings' page, there will be an ability to opt in or opt out of the reBlog platform. If you choose to opt in, then your posts will automatically be included for reBlog. However, you will be able to opt-out on a post by post basis. If you choose to opt-out, then on each post you will be able to opt-in on a post by post basis. then you will not be able to opt-in on a post by post basis.

When you post a blog and make it available to reBlog, then a little reBlog icon will appear on the post on ActiveRain to any member who is logged in. If someone chooses to reBlog your post, they simply click on the reBlog button and they have the ability to write an introduction to the post. They may choose to write an intro or not, but once they reBlog the post, it sends that post only to their ActiveRain Outside Blog. The post is not reBlogged on their ActiveRain blog or Localism.

Member's only posts will not be available for reBlogging

Duplicate content issue: Any time someone reBlogs your post, there will be a link back to your original blog post. If you fed the post to your outside blog, the link from the reBlogged post will be a link to the original post on your outside blog. If you didn't send it to your outside blog, and the post went to Localism, the link back to the original will be a link to the post on Localism. If you only published the post to your ActiveRain blog, then the link back to the original post will be a link to your ActiveRain blog. Matt Cutts, the Google webmaster on SEO spells out that content syndication is OK if you make it clear to google who the original author was. reBlogging on AR does this by linking back to the original source.

The benefits of reBlogging someone elses post:

According to reBlog.org:

"Why should you reBlog?

reBlogs are useful to individuals who want to maintain a weblog but prefer curating content to writing original posts. They can also enable organizations to tap the contributions of their employees, members, and communities-at-large in order to easily redistribute relevant content."

Successful blogging is all about informing your reader. Over and over you will hear that business blogging is not about you, IT IS ABOUT THE CONSUMER. Providing relevant informative content should be your goal. reBlogging gives you the opportunity to bring the best content to the reader of your ActiveRain Outside Blog. Not everyone can be an expert in everything. However, in the halls of ActiveRain we have experts in just about anything real estate related. Being able to utilize the expertise of other members to inform your readers and your clients will be beneficial for everyone, especially your clients.

Think of this scenario: Little Jimmy Loan Officer is an expert on FHA. He blogs his little heart out about FHA. You just got done taking a client out for the day and they just told you that they don't have the 10% they originally thought they had, they only have 5% down. You think FHA is the way to for them and you want them to read up on FHA mortgages. You tell them to go check out your blog later tonight when they get home. You know that Little Jimmy has the best stuff on the web about FHA mortgages in his AR blog. So you jump in and grab two or three posts Jimmy has written and you add a little message to your client at the top........now your client is on your blog, reading the best info out there from LIttle Jimmy Loan officer about FHA mortgages. Not only does your client appreciate the fact that you are finding the best info on the web about FHA mortgages and delivering it to them, they associate you with Little Jimmy Loan Officer, the expert on FHA.

This could play out for information about staging, home inspections, the escrow process, or even information from a local competitor about market conditions. Delivering solid content to your readers should be the goal. You shouldn't have to know everything about everything......but your readers should be able to have that information at their fingertips......on your blog.

Would I reBlog a blog post written by a competitor in my market? Yes! If it was good information that my clientele would be interested in. Real Estate 2.0 is about client centric thinking. Your clients don't want to work with you because you are the source of original information, but because you are the source of good information that they need when they need it.

The benefits of allowing other's to reblog your posts:

In case you haven't figured this out, the name of the game is DISTRIBUTION!!! How wide of a net can you cast with the content you provide. It's the reason many blog here, so that google will pick you up and your reach will be wider. reBlogging gives the person who is an expert on certain topics an ability to have a much wider reach.

If you are a loan officer, stager, inspector, or anyone who works with agents, THIS IS A NO BRAINER. A great post by someone about FHA mortgages could be reBlogged by 1000 agents. if you don't see the power in that, then I don't know what to tell you.

From a real estate agent perspective: just imagine the power of having a hot new listing reBlogged by all of your local competitors, and don't forget about the SEO power of the backlinks you'll earn. Or imagine writing a post about negotiating contracts. If a couple hundred people picked up the post, you could instantly become a recognized expert on the subject (and get a few hundred backlinks to your outside blog).

IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ:

Some people will never buy into this and that's fine. Those that do will soon see their reach expand much further than they could hope for on their own. If you don't want your blogs reBlogged, simply go to your 'my settings' page when the feature is turned on and turn it off. Initially, all members have their global setting set to opt-in. However, all past posts will be set by default to opt-out of reBlogging regardless of your global setting, however you can go back and retroactively make them available on a post-by-post basis.

Once the feature is live (again) you can go and change your setting to opt-out. You will also have the ability to opt-out on a post by post basis if your global setting is set to opt-in. In the same way, if your global setting is set to opt-out, you can opt-in on a post by post basis.

If you would like to know what I'm up to, follow me. But don't be offended if I say something colorful. I'm human!

Friends, followers, and connections are the way of the future.

Make sure you check out some of our Facebook Fan Pages Too!

Marketing ideas for the broke ass real estate agent (Chapter 1)

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:25:02 -0600

These marketing ideas are for the motivated, and broke ass agent. It is important to note that if you already are fairly successful you will probably scoff at these ideas. That is okay, they are not for you! It is also worthwhile to mention that if you employ even a portion of the ideas with the vigor and passion required for success in real estate sales, then you will likely not need to employ these strategies for long!

(Disclaimer: I know it is very unprofessional to swear in a blog post, and I will do my best to not do it in the future. This time it just slipped out and by the time I realized that it was on paper, it was too late to take it back. However if this explanation is not sufficient please contact Bob Stewart, ActiveRain's Director of Community Relations and Member Happiness)

Power of the Sticky Note

Forget about expensive listing / pre-listing packets. Compile and drive by your list of new daily expired, cancelled, off market, and FSBO listings; delivering to each of the houses a handwritten Post-It note on their door. Write a bold statement on the note about how you can help with the home owner’s sales problem. Don’t forget to leave a name and phone number, because EVERYBODY respect the power of a sticky note, and they will call you back.

A “Talking House” can also be a Talking Car

A Talking House is a radio transmitter that broadcasts a marketing message recorded by it’s owner to a limited range of 100 yards or so. Most real estate agents use it to broadcast information about a listed property. But this box could be much more valuable placed inside a car marked with a compelling marketing message on the outside. “Tune to 89.9 within 100 yards of this car to learn how you can save thousands on your next home purchase".

Marketing HUD homes

In most markets, licensed real estate agent can easily register to become an “HUD Registered Agent”. This means that you are allowed to show and sell all HUD owned homes. It usually also means that you are allowed to market HUD owned homes, even if it is not your listing. Having some listings to advertise is a critical step to obtaining buyers.

Advertise Your Listings on Craigslist

Now that you have listings to advertise (remember the HUD homes in the last item?), put them everywhere you can. Start with Craigslist, then use Postlets.com to syndicate your listing to tons of other top sites.

Use Your Business Cards

Make it your mission to hand out 20 business cards every day. Hand it out to everyone you come in contact with. If the opportunity presents itself, like giving a card to your waiter with your bill after dinner, write a note on the back. Make in memorable.

Use the Press
Nope, just kidding. This guerrilla marketing tactic is way overplayed and much too difficult to control. Be consistent with the other tactics and you will likely find your way into the press.

Flip the Script

Be nice to the outside title and mortgage reps that visit your office. Most of your peers treat them like they carry the plague, but that is just nonsense. Next time they invite you to lunch or coffee, offer to meet them in their office. Bring cookies or pizza for their entire office and introduce yourself. Mortgage and title people run across unrepresented buyers and sellers everyday. Put yourself in the position to get business from them. Then return the favor and refer it right back.

Zillow Discussion Forum

Present yourself as an expert to potential buyers and sellers by participating in the Zillow Discussions forum.

Be a Zillow bird dog

“Report” every mls listing in your market to Zillow. This may be in violation of your MLS guidelines, but I have not heard of anyone getting in trouble for it, yet. When you report a property for sale you get your picture and a link to your profile listed on that property’s page.

Give Ice Cream at Open Houses

There is only one thing to give to people visiting your open house. A quart of ice cream! It is a little bit of a dirty trick, but it could go a long ways to selling your client's home. The ice cream limits your clients' choices to either staying at the house and eating it with you; where you can proceed to expound upon the virtues of the home, and work on establishing personal ~~report~~ rapport so that they will choose you as their exclusive buyers agent. Or they can go home and put it in the fridge and think about the virtues of the home. Either way, they won’t be looking at other houses anytime soon.

(Note, this tip works better in the summer.)

Pull a Mike Ferry

It seems that Mike Ferry believes that cold calling is the only way to market. Although he might be doing his creative thinking from inside a little box, cold calling does work and it is free. Just don’t get caught calling numbers on the Do Not Call registry. That will cost you.

Participate in the Trulia Voices Q&A. Buyers and sellers frequent the site. Sure there are more agents than potential clients, but if you put the effort in and provide top quality and personality rich questions, you are sure to snag a client sometime.

Offer a 50% Referral Fee

No question that if I was broke I would take referrals at a 50% fee all day long. Just make sure to let the real estate world know about your decision.

Blog About Your Community

Perhaps the most powerful and cheap way to make your way to the top of the search engines and earn loads of business is to start a hyper-local blog and write about a neighborhood. The key is you got to be very specific. For example a Seattle agent may choose to specialize in the Queen Anne community and could register QueenAnneSeattle.com. Include as many pictures, and videos as possible.

*If you can get the cooperation (and written permission) of other agents in your market, blog about their listings. If you are having trouble getting their permission up front; visit the house and write about the listing first, then show them what you wrote. Once they see that it is a positive review then they will be more likely to give you their permission. Sure it is a little extra work up front, and they could say "no", but even if only one half of the agents give permission it is still more than worth it. You will likely be the only agent in your market blogging about listings. This is a huge advantage!

The truth about links in comments

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 13:55:41 -0500

ActiveRain, as well as almost every other blog in the blogosphere, places "No Follow" tags on all comments within our network. That means that Google doesn't "see" the links left in comments. So the only links getting Google Juice are the links in the blog postings.

We do this to discourage link spamming.

Just thought I would set the record straight on this.

I show up to work terrified, everyday.

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:17:36 -0600

I started my first real mini-business in 1994 when I was still in high school. It was called Paradigm Interactive Media (pimedia.com) and we were a web site development company. Since I didn't know anything about developing websites, my job was to go out and sell the websites to local business; jewelery shops, hair salons, restaurants, etc.

Every time I entered one of those businesses looking for a sale, I was terrified.

Right after high school, my family went through some financial setbacks and I wanted to do what I could to help, so I got my real estate license and started to sell houses.

Every listing appointment and each time I met with a buyer, I was terrified.

After some time I got less terrified being a real estate agent and actually got kind of good at it, so I decided it was time to push myself one-step further and I recruited a group of my peers and created a real estate brokerage.

I bootstrapped the brokerage and grew it while being incredibly underfunded. Because I didn't has sufficient credit, capital, or experience to license a franchise, I created the company as an independent; without any sort of support infrastructure I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Every day going into the office I was terrified, but I went in anyways.

One thing led to another and now I find myself running a business that is blazing a trail of innovation and yet at the same time foraging for survival. Everyday I am charged to do at least one thing that is well beyond my knowledge level, skill level, talent level, or experience level; often times it is beyond my level on all four fronts. But I do that thing anyways. I put myself into the position that I have no choice but show up and do my best. Calling in sick is not an option.

I show up to work and don't know what the day will bring. I try things where the outcome is unknown. I am terrified everyday, but I would have it no other way.

Miami real estate blogger sued for $25 million

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:05:37 -0600

Real estate bloggers: practice diligence with what you publish on your blog! If you claim something inaccurately and it causes injury to a person, you may be sued for libel. In response to a claim of libel, blogger Lucas Lechuga was let go by his brokerage and is currently being sued for $25 million (see CBS video).

According to the video, legal experts disagree about whether or not you can be held liable for something you post on your blog.

~~I believe~~ I met Lucas in New York at Inman Connect a few weeks ago, and remember him to be a nice guy. I wish him the best in resolving this issue.

"Libel" is defined as "an untruthful statement about a person, published in writing or through broadcast media, that injures the person's reputation or standing in the community. Because libel is a tort (a civil wrong), the injured person can bring a lawsuit against the person who made the false statement."

___Follow the Story___

Lucas' Blog (Talk about great link bait!!)

Miami Herald

4realz.net

___Related Links___

Historical blogger libel case

Video on ActiveRain?

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:11:00 -0600

ActiveRain from 97 feet up

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:21:57 -0600

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.

Localism against Trulia and Zillow COMBINED: Month 1

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:03:15 -0500

"In 24 months Localism will have more traffic than Trulia and Zillow combined." Jonathan Washburn July 28, 2008

Here are the month one results. In all honesty I expected the first month traffic for Localism to be a down month due to Google having to reindex the entire site. Turns out I was wrong; Localism grew by over 50%!

But we still have a long ways to go. Good thing both Trulia and Zillow shrank this month.

ActiveRain New Hire - Welcome Harlen 'The Copyright Crusader'

Bob Stewart - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:35:14 -0500

Our network is being plagued by cut and paste content! So today we hired a new team member. Let me introduce you to Harlen 'The Copyright Crusader'.

We are a community of PROFESSIONALS! 99% of you understand that. Harlen has been brought on to ensure that the 1% who are bringing the rest of us down are dealt with. He has assured us that his relentless pursuit of justice for the holders of copyright protection will be unmatched. He has guaranteed to crush copyright infringement in 30 days or we don't have to pay him (can't beat that). How you might ask? well............

Every time you submit a post on Activerain you see this:

Some of you choose to ignore it. Some of you think that since you have gotten away with it before, you will continue to get away with it. You will not. Today, on his first day on the job, Harlen suspended the accounts of four members who had previously been warned about this type of behavior. One member had over 150,000 points. That's a lot of time wasted copying content and trying to pass it off as your own. Please, Harlen implores you, do not be the next person this happens to. He will be hunting content to the far and wide reaches of the network and running that content in Google to find the original author.

If you see someone copying content, leave a link to this post in their comment section. Warn them about Harlen and his 'Copyright Crusade'. Because if Harlen sees it before it's pulled down, the first offense will be a two week suspension. No questions asked. (Harlen thinks this is really lenient. Read that image above again.......it says "Posting copyrighted material without permission WILL result in being removed from ActiveRain")

The second time will be a ban from the network. Harlen has guaranteed this garbage will STOP!!! Plagiarism is polluting a network that thousands of people have poured their heart and soul in to making stellar. Harlen promises you that plagiarizers will no longer leave their mark on ActiveRain.

We have something very special here at ActiveRain. Your participation here is not a right, it is a privilege. By abusing that priviledge you are making yourself, and more importantly, the rest of ActiveRain look very unprofessional. Our community guidelines say: ActiveRain is a place where real estate professionals can network with their peers and discuss industry insider topics. It is also a public forum where consumers can pull back the curtain and see what the real estate industry is really about.

Do we really want consumers pulling back that curtain and seeing plagiarism, stealing and dishonest gaming? Harlen does not!!! Harlen believes that we all learned about plagiarism in elementary school. He remembers his fifth grade teacher Mrs. Robinson sending him to the principals office when he copied a passage from Marcus Valerius Martial without citing it:

"Why, simpleton, do you mix your verses with mine? What have you to do, foolish man, with writings that convict you of theft? Why do you attempt to associate foxes with lions, and make owls pass for eagles? Though you had one of Ladas's legs, you would not be able, blockhead, to run with the other leg of wood." - Marcus Valerius Martial

Here is a great resource for what you can and can't do: The wise advice of Lenn Harley

(This is not a joke, even though it is kind of funny)

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