Active Rain

Does anyone find Active Rain useful??

Permalink Reply by Bradly Berrnier on June 10, 2008 at 9:42pm: Dave,

I recommend Active Rain to all of my clients. I think that it is the best real estate blogging network on the web. Have you checked out the Active Rain success stories? There is also a consumer end of Active Rain called Localism. Here is where you can post pictures of your community and blog about they cities and communities that you specialize in. If you do make an active rain blog make sure you take advantage of this end and blog about communities.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jack Siegel on June 11, 2008 at 9:34am: I just started looking into Active Rain as and will let you know.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jon McCurley on June 13, 2008 at 9:51am: Hi Dave,
Not really, It can be great for connections but I think most people are on their to find out any news they like or to find deals but not real networking. It has a lot of potential but hey stress on not calling people or emailing people to much and it is just not worth doing either knowing you might get the person who is not interested in networking and gets mad that you called them.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dana Bostick on June 14, 2008 at 12:39am: I've found it useful. It's a great tool for learning about different things in the business plus blogging there gets you noticed by Google. My blogs on AR have popped up in Google searches on the topic I wrote about.
Bottom line.....any promotion or communication is good. Like planting seeds. Not all will grow, some will and you never know where a communication line will take you or what seed will bare fruit.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bradly Berrnier on June 14, 2008 at 11:04pm: I disagree with Jon McCurley.

Lets put it this way. If you are going to seriously social network anywhere on the web and you are real estate agent, you should have an active rain blog.

I would suggest getting your Active Rain blog and start posting about your area before everyone else other then you has.

There are no if, ands or buts about it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jon McCurley on June 20, 2008 at 1:40am: Bradly,
You are right about the blog postings being very high on google and people do read them but I was mostly talking about the networking side of it. The blogs are the only reason I still go on there and they will always keep me coming back but that is about the only reason. As a matter of fact, I always look for your new blogs, you always have great stuff. I have gotten some business from AR but I get a TON from Linkedin. I find it much easier to set an appointment with someone when you connect through Linkedin but on AR I have actually been told not to email people when trying to network. There are also blogs on there that talk about this point and from the responses about half the people make a point in saying not to try and contact them and the other half encourage it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bradly Berrnier on June 25, 2008 at 5:25am: Jon,

Thanks for reading my active rain blogs (I am due for a new one).

I did not realize the mixed issues with trying to network over Active Rain. I have heard a lot of stories about referrals and other business generated by their site and am glad to hear another opinion.

I was wondering if you have used their Localism end at all. I have seen great results generated from it which only makes sense it is advertised as the consumer side of the site, unlike Active Rain which is the real estate 'networking' side.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bradly Berrnier on June 14, 2008 at 11:06pm: And what Dana has said is totally correct. I have noticed posts I have made on active rain rank highly (on the first page if not #1) in Google's results.

Google gives a very high value to Active Rain blogs and this can be very beneficial to your search engine rankings.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Scott Ingalls on June 20, 2008 at 11:35am: I'm new to ActiveRain (as well as this group). I really appreciate being able to "lurk" in the discussion areas for a wide variety of topics, as well as finding "specialty" contacts. Still trying to get up to speed on SEO's, etc., but there are a lot of productive posts on them. I have posted to Localism, and yes, I have received good, early placement on Google with a limited number of posts. It reminds me of the days of posting to interest groups on the Bulletin Boards (pre-internet). I think that if you are careful, consistant and a "bit" lucky, it'll produce. As a free resource, it delivers what it promises.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tim Owensby on August 10, 2008 at 9:18am: If you are a real estate agent, lender or mortgage broker, it is a great place to be seen. It has an easy to use blogging platform for those who don't want to maintain a separate blog. It has good SEO positioning and can be effective at promoting your own site.

However, as an investor, I never found it all that useful. It has a different target audience.; ▶ Reply to This