I would like to start out saying that I have no affiliation what so ever with Active Rain other than a blog that I pay for every month.
We have been with Active Rain for about a year and I am not actually the one who blogs there it is my partner and mother and here is her blog address http://judisaccurateblog.com/ we have taken and sold 9 listings from referrals in AR and I really can’t even begin to tell you how many web leads we have received directly from our blogging efforts, in the last 30 days it was 609 visitors directed to our main web site from our AR blog. Also when we do a blog about a specific community and properly tag it I can normally find that blog on the first page of Google within minutes and the fastest I have found one after hitting submit was 28 seconds.
I am not putting numbers in here to brag I just want to expose one of our most powerful tools. It is free to set up a profile in Active Rain and it cost to actually be found and have an outside blog. It is reasonable I think around $30 bucks a month and if you actually blog and put out good content you will see results. When people ask me where to get started with an online presence I send them to two places 1) right here Agents online and 2) Active Rain.
I wish you all good luck on building your online business and would love any feedback on your Active rain/Agents Online experiences and success or failures. Also any other powerful places you feel we should or need to be marketing ourselves online.

Jim - Thanks for posting this. I've been hearing about Active Rain and have seen a few people comment that they have received business from participating on the site. I've spent a little time there but I guess I haven't really dug into it enough to understand where the business comes from. Do they have property search functionality or is it just the blogging?

I think mostly I was looking for interactive discussions but all I ever found was individual blogs and comments. I must be missing something so I'll have to spend some more time over there!

The discussions happen on the blogs. It is not a message board like this is. It's different from this format and a little difficult to get used to coming from a background of strictly message boards.

I stumble upon some good conversations on ActiveRain. That said, I wouldn't pay the monthly fee for it. I am one of the "Grandfathered Rainmakers" since I was blogging on there before they switched to paid service.

There are still nagging server errors and I personally do not think it's worth what they charge. If they charged $10 or something a month I would pay, but not anywhere near what they charge now.

You can still benefit from a free ActiveRain account - you can still build up referral relationships with other agents. Seek out agents in areas where a lot of your buyers come from and befriend them...or seek agents that are NEAR your current market area but not necessarily in it and open up a relationship. Don't just send an emails stating you want to be a referral partner - actually comment on their blog, get to know them a little bit and build up an online friendship.

This is where many "power prospectors" fail in online relationships - people online don't want to be prospected to - they want honest interaction. I have several online friends who would get my referrals - and never once have they asked for them.

I could not have put it better myself Perky. I like that, Perky REALTOR it makes me smile just saying it.

The one thing I have been seeing on Active Rain in my area lately is a ton of spammers and it is really turning me off. I have found a new home here and love what is being put out by the members.

Thanks for sharing.

I just use ActiveRain for my own purposes - I do not follow a lot of the "blogging rules." Some snobs say you should not advertise your listings on your blog, that you should not do this and not do that.

My blog is an extension of my website. It allows me to expound upon my listings in ways that I never would be able to on my website. I can tell a story about a home with my blog.

I use my blog to tell people about my community, my town, the areas where homes are for sale. I include links to the MLS search and links to homes for sale in the area that the blog is about. I get a LOT of internet leads, many of them thanks to AR.

I have also learned a GREAT DEAL about the business from others on ActiveRain. I've learned how to optimize my blog for search engines, I've learned about software and tools...I've learned little tips and tricks....the key is to wade through all the spam and find the good bloggers (who don't blog about their listings only, like me...hee hee....)

I occasionally post blogs that are for intended for other agents, but 99% of what I post is for the consumer, period. Because of that I've never been, nor will I ever be, a "rock star" on ActiveRain - I don't get featured posts, I dont' get a whole lot of comments, but I can attribute at least $15,000 or MORE in commission as a direct result of my blogs. So I know it works - you just have to work it RIGHT. (That $15,000 would be MORE in other markets, depends on the average sale price of your home. MOST of my sales are in the low 100,000 - 150,000 range, though I have a few big ones coming up now, and sold a couple bigger ones; most are under 200,000 by a lot...lol)

The consumer doesn't find your blog by going to ActiveRain.com; they find your ActiveRain blog because it comes up on search engines. You could probably do just as well with your own blog on another server - but the value in ActiveRain to me is what I've learned from others on the network, and some of the entertainment...lol

It's different from this forum in many, significant ways - I come here for the chit chat and I enjoy the banter, but most of what I've LEARNED about being a good agent and about the internet was from other ActiveRain bloggers.

Jim - thanks! I like my handle too. Most of the time I am perky, though I've thought of changing my handle to Snarky Realtor on here from time to time...lol

I set up an AR account a couple of days ago, after reading about it here. If nothing else, it's already been helpful because I had to fill out the profile section. I've been avoiding the "About Me" kind of things because I'm not so good at them but I made myself sit down and do it. :)

I asked about the income potential piece of it just because I had heard people mention it and couldn't figure out how that worked. Mostly, I'm just always looking for more opportunities to talk with other agents and learn how and why they do things the way they do. Seems like that will be another good place for that.

We had a guest speaker come in last week and talk to our office about some different marketing things. She mentioned blogging and everyone pointed at me because I'm the geek of the group. I basically run my business online and, with the exception of open houses, my clients come from the Internet. So everyone was a little shocked that I don't blog. After poking around AR for a bit, maybe this will help kick me into gear and finally start that up.

Perk,

Great marketing strategy and one I have been advocating for awhile. I tell my clients to use a blog as well and that it requires work. I hear so many individuals today that talk about social networking sites but they too are not the holy grail. Just like every tool out there you have to use it and work it and about %95 of the people out there won't use it or use it properly so, you can easily slip into the top %5 of superstars if you keep at it.
God Bless!
Mark Ellis
ExpertRealtorWeb :rockon:

Gayla I am very happy you took action. That is one of the things I enjoy and makes posting on here and other blogs worth while to me, seeing others succeed. I can't even explain the value I have received from this forum and others. Agents online is directly responsible for over 100 transactions for us in the past 2 years because this is where I learned about REO'S and BPO's. Now its all about web presents for me, I'm burnt on the foreclosure business.

Good luck and if you find Judi Boad on AR and follower her she will follow you back, she is my mother and partner and is really in to AR and on it every day. I love her green thoughts for the day blogs.

It is amazing I get on my soap box about these marketing strategies and would have to agree maybe %5 will take action. I think a lot of people expect instant gratification or feed back from the web and it just usually is not that way. It's fast but not instant. Also I believe many people do not know how to find their voice online (I'll do a post on that tomorrow) Keep up the good work.

Snarky Realtor You gotta stop you are killing me here. I am not the one on Active Rain because of many things you said like the whole "Blogging Rules" and I much prefer they way I get to communicate in here and the banter is great, my partner much prefers AR so I guess to each their own. I am glad you see the value and it was great actually hearing the dollar amount you have received from AR business. Sounds like if you use it right the monthly cost is a worth while expense (oh ya you went and got grandfathered in @@@@@@@ that's me shaking my fist at you because I have to pay every month). Have a great week and see you around AO.

9 Listings from AR it a ton! Looks like you and your partner are doing things right. Everyone seems to have their own opinions on it and have seen some heated discussions over the topic of AR. Some love it, some hate it. Very impressive return form investment though, for you. Keep it up.

Thank you we have been blessed with some amazing results from our efforts in Active Rain and it was and is from being very focused on our actions. (more than happy to share them just PM me):)

I totally agree that the opinions vary drastacly on Active Rain and any forum site for that matter. Just like me and my partners 2 of us do not blog or even really use AR while my partner who loves AR dislikes this site. So it's all a matter opinion.

I will finish up with saying that there is tons of value in all of the sites and the amount of success is going to completly depend on how you use that tool.

Good Luck and Have Fun.

So I've been on AR a little more than a week now. Spending most of my time just looking around and reading posts. I did post a couple of things and I have to say the almost instant comments are nice. I'm thinking of joining the 30 day blogging challenge thing just to kick start myself into making it a habit. I do think it's a little odd that I don't blog considering how much of my business is Internet based.

I'm still contemplating paying for the upgrade. I think part of my hesitation is that I'm not really convinced I would have enough to contribute publicly to make it worth it but I'm thinking about it.

Gayla,

I am really excited you are thinking about the Blog challenge and I truly believe you will see the benefit in it, not only for building that great habit also in building relationships.

I fully understand what you are saying about not thinking you have enough to contribute and I want to let you know that you do. My advice is to just get in and do it, be yourself and share what ever it is you have to share such as knowledge, experiences,success, failure or just anything you are passionate about. Gary Vaynerchuk put it best "if you love
Smurfs get out there and Smurf it up, because you will be shocked how many other people love them too" (I might have spelled his name wrong Sorry Gary).

Finding your voice online can be a challenge and trust me it is a rewarding one in so many ways. I wish you good luck in all that you do and if you need anything just ask and I will do anything I can to assist. Now get offline and go sell something......

Initially, I was excited about posting on Active Rain. However, that enthusiasm went away very quickly. I much prefer to add content to my own blog, so I can have more control (i.e. reading analytics, seeing how many people search MLS from my blog, seeing what properties people are searching). Again, we all have our opinions as to what works best. Best of luck.

Maui,
I totally agree with you that promoting your own blog is the best. We absolutely put more effort in to our own Blog over any other and we diversify out to as many high authority relevant blogs like Active Rain that we can for more exposure and quality back links. We also get referrals and pick up buyers directly from the other blogs.

I do recommend to someone who has not blogged and has no knowledge or budget to optimize their own blog start in a place like AR because they can find their voice and actually be found by others until they get some traction on their own blog.

Last thing I do not drink Active Rain Kool-aid I just know it works and I do know I am very blessed to have a team and partners who allow us to have such a large reach with all of these tools such as this fantastic forum. I love AO I would have been lost in the REO world without it. As you can see I have been a member since 2007 and have very few post. I found AO Jan. 07 followed all of the great REO/BPO agent advice and got so slammed with REO/BPO business that I had no time for anything else. Early this year I realized I had all my eggs in one basket and learned how to do SEO and build web site/Blogs. I see you are very web/tech savvy and would love to talk SEO strategies with you.

Shoot me a PM whenever you'd like, if you'd prefer to take this conversation off the thread.

Looks pretty nice except it lacks functionality and user customization.

I've had my AR account since 2008. For a while it was free even though some had to pay right after AR was sold to another company. Now, my account is no longer free and I will need to pay if I want my information to be public.

Can someone enlighten me about what changed? I admit I have not done much with it but thought I was safe (from paying).

Inquiring minds want to know!

You will have to send them an email asking them to reinstate your grandfathered account.

A couple months ago they made a DUMB move and "ungrandfathered" a bunch of accounts that had been dormant - they said to keep your account free you had to post a blog 1x every 45 days. There was a HUGE backlash. If you request them to reinstate it they probably will.

Then just make sure you post something every month and you'll be fine. for now.

This is why I have a Wordpress blog as well. Just in case AR goes to all paid in spite of what they promised. but even if my blog isn't public the profile IS and that's important (if you have a good profile that is)

Perky I knew you would know. Do you know who do I send this email to or where do I look for it?

Try this...

Email Bob Stewart

Let me know if that works!

I emailed him and also customer service. I'll let you know the outcome.

Perky, he reinstated my account all I have to do is make a public post.

Thank you for giving me the right words to use on my note to him.

I've been in the Rain since 2008, I think. I got several listings from it, several rental referals, I just couldn't deal with the "Thanks for sharing" comments just to up your ranking anymore. It's pathetic! Some agents do nothing but post mindless comments to get their daily points and then you have a load of "Great Post, thanks for sharing" comments tailing your post. Wonder if my account is still active now..........

Thanks for the comment.

OK that was totally a funny.

I know exactly what you mean about those types of comments, they really stink and it is always so apparent what they are doing.

Despite that, I still see a lot of value in AR from the juice you get from Google to the referrals you can receive from other agents.

Glad you got it reinstated. NOW it's $89 / month!!! That's NUTSO. I see nothing positive happening from this crazy price increase.

re: the mindless dumb comments - they are very annoying.

AR has been a great tool for networking (as this form is as well)

I love ActiveRain. My company's VP of Sales and Marketing, Rich Gaasenbeek, publishes blog posts weekly on ActiveRain about effective contact management and real estate marketing. It has helped us gain exposure and it gives us the opportunity to speak with Realtors and exchange thoughts and ideas.

Check out the blog here:
http://activerain.com/blogs/rgaasenbeek

Matthew Collis
IXACT Contact
The Easy Way to Manage Your Contacts
www.ixactcontact.com