There has been a bit of confusion regarding what is acceptable and what is not as far as the creation of new communities.  We must respect each community.  Everyone will always have the ability to post their blog posts to any community they choose.  However, in order to clarify our position on the creation of communities.....

We ask that everyone adhere to the guidelines below:

Adding "The" before a neighborhood which has already been created is not acceptable.  The only time it is acceptable is when you have a community that needs "the" before it.  For example, The Arboretum.  Arboretum would not suffice and the community is known as "The Arboretum". In situations where a dispute arises, we will do our best to give precedence to the person who created the first community, or who had the first sponsorship in place.

Adding "Homes for Sale" or "Real Estate" (or other similar phrases) after a community is not acceptable in order to thwart another members sponsorship of the same community.

If you have misspelled communities, we can now make corrections to spelling. Please email support@activerain.com with a link to the misspelled community page and the correct spelling for that community.

Thank you to everyone who is creating amazing content to fill out these community pages. Your efforts are starting to gain traction in the search engines and resulting in increased traffic. We have no question that as the days, weeks and months go on that these pages will continue to rise in the search engines and reward your efforts with increased visibility and more clients.

Let it Rain!

Kerrie Greenhalgh

The reBlog concept is a really good idea, if used properly. When we first launched it, that idea was that users could pass on information from their colleagues to their readers and put their own little spin on the content.

If you reBlogged a post, it was our intention that you would add some commentary to the start of the post so that your readers would be made aware of what it was exactly about the post that you found interesting. You would let your reader know why you chose to share this particular post.

Now you have to share something. Posts can no longer be reBlogged without adding 25 words of commentary to a reBlogged post.

So what do you think? Is 25 words enough? Should we require more feedback in order to reBlog a post? Do you think reBlogging is the dumbest thing of which you've ever heard? Do you have no idea what a reBlog is?

~Bob

You asked for it!  RainCamp is on the move and tickets will go fast!

Monday, September 27th, San Jose
Wednesday, September 29th, Salt Lake City

RainCamp is the class you've been hearing about.  It's an all day event where Ben Kinney, a mega agent from Washington, gives you the insider information as to what keeps him and his team on top.  This is not a fluff event folks; yet one where the tools taught are able to be implemented into your daily routine that day!

Do you ever wonder how some people get more leads than they know what to do with?  How they dominate their market using the latest and greatest online outlets?  RainCamp will show you how. 

The success directly resulting from attending RainCamp is astounding.  See what some past attendees are saying.

At RainCamp you'll learn:

• How to get your blog to rank on the first page of Google.
• Advanced strategies of Facebook's new advertising platform.
• How to use Twitter to position you as the source for real estate information in your community.
• How a high producing agent (150+ deals/year) uses his online presence to get the listing, almost every time!

Get savvy, get informed, get RainCamp!

Make today your day, get your RainCamp ticket now! 

Kerrie Greenhalgh

It's friday, let's have a little fun......who's coming with me?

Many of you 'Like' the ActiveRain Facebook page. There are 7,122 of you as of writing this in fact. Significantly fewer of you 'Like' the RainCamp Facebook page, 435 of you. Page RainCamp is pretty distraught about this. He walks through the halls of ActiveRain moping like a 7th grader who just got a bad haircut from his 9th grade brother. It's not pretty, and Page RainCamp's self esteem is in the toilet.

(we know Page RainCamp is a 'he' because if a 7th grade girl actually let her 9th grade sibling cut her hair and it turned out horrible, she would certainly not be moping in the halls......it would be something much worse)

So we thought, 'how can we get page RainCamp some more attention so he's not so overshadowed by his older brother, Page ActiveRain?'

We're going to throw a party! A photo contest party! It's going to be a theme party. The haves and the have nots. You know the haves, the people of which everyone else is jealous. The people that have been to RainCamp. The people that have taken some great photos of their experience. The people that have met so many of their other ActiveRain friends in person. The people that have soaked in the knowledge of RainCamp. The haves.

But fear not, the have nots are invited too. The people that have not had a RainCamp close enough to them. The people that have not created an album in their facebook account for 'RainCamp photos'. The people that have not stared into the dreamy eyes of increased business and come away full of excitement, enthusiasm and passion. The have nots.

So here is how we are going to do this........Haves, you stand over on that side of the room, have nots you stand over here.

Haves:

Like the RainCamp Facebook page

Post a picture from RainCamp on the RainCamp page

In the 'write something....' section include your ActiveRain user name in parentheses and create a sentence with:
'RainCamp (City) was/is.........(fill in the blank)'

I'll give you an example: (arbob) RainCamp Dallas was the best money I ever spent to learn about online marketing.
I'll give you an example: (arbob) RainCamp Seattle is where it all started.
I'll give you an example: (arbob) RainCamp New York is still the record for the most attendees.

Get 1000 points for your picture. 500-1000 extra credit given if your sentence matches really well with your picture and/or you make us    laugh

Have nots:

Like the RainCamp Facebook page

Post a picture from your hometown, with you in it, that best describes why RainCamp should come visit you or captures the essence of why your town/city is the greatest.

In the 'write something.....' section include your ActiveRain user name in parentheses and create a sentence with:
RainCamp (City) would be.......(fill in the blank)'

I'll give you an example: (arbob) RainCamp Honolulu would be the longest RainCamp ever, two weeks seems appropriate.
I'll give you an example: (arbob) RainCamp Houston would be bigger than Honolulu, everything is bigger in Texas.
I'll give you an example: (arbob) RainCamp Ashford would be a bust; Ashford has a population of 73, do Seattle again instead.

Get 1000 points for your picture. 500-1000 extra credit given if your sentences is super creative and makes us laugh.

Every week for the next six weeks, on friday, we will pick a winner from the haves and a winner from the have nots. Each winner will be given one free six month community sponsorship to an ActiveRain community of their choosing, a $114 value.

EDITED:

Week one winners:

Haves: Debe Maxwell and TLW (great stuff, just couldn't pick a winner)
Have nots: Chris Alston and Craig Rutman

Each of you can email me a link to one community you would like to sponsor.

If you didn't get your points......it's because you didn't leave your user name as the instructions instructed (from the department of redundancy department)

~ Bob

Time is running out!  Please tell me you have purchased your ticket to RainCamp Orlando; tickets are going fast!  Platinum seats are sold out and the rest are going fast! 

The RainCamp train is en route and it may be the last time we're in Florida for some time.  Do you want a taste of the Sweet Success past attendees are experiencing?  

RainCamp is an all day event where we share the secrets to what makes one successful.  The tools taught are ones that you can implement into your daily routine immediately.  This is not a fluff event yet one where we show you and spend the time explaining exactly how to use social media to stay on top of your game.

Ben Kinney, the featured RainCamp speaker, is a renowned agent and a Realtor® Magazine's 30 Under 30.  He leads a successful brokerage in Bellingham, WA and is also a published author.  Ben will give you a window into what he is using to stay successful and tools and tips you can use in your own business.

Do it for the children, do it for your country, ok I may be getting a bit dramatic but do it for yourself!  Learn the newest techniques that will keep your competition at bay.  Rub shoulders and network with other professionals in the area.  

If you want to make your body stronger, you go to the gym.  If you want to climb a mountain, you train.  If you want to make your business more successful, you go to RainCamp!

Sign up today!

Kerrie Greenhalgh

Let it Rain!

Question: What constitutes a community? I live in a really small town, is that a community?

Answer: As it relates to ActiveRain community pages, a community can be considered anything around which people commune (OK funny guy, what does that mean?) that is more specific than a city or town.

Some 'communities' will be actual geographical areas within a town or city. In Seattle for example, there are known areas and ways locals break down the city. Communities such as 'Queen Anne', 'Wallingford' and 'Ballard' are well known and obvious communities. However, people may choose to get more granular with how they break down communities in their market as well. You may choose to create communities based on specific sub-divisions or condo complexes. Communities may also be created around golf courses, interest groups, or geographical terms people associate with living near.

You could create:

Sand Point Country Club
Seattle Senior Living
Views of the Puget Sound

These are examples of communities that could be created that don't meet the traditional definition of a community in terms of a geographical place within a city or town.

Question: Someone got a little out of control and created communities within my City/Town that are not actually communities or are the name of a neighboring city. In addition, there are communities in my City/Town that are misspelled. How do I get these cleaned up?

Answer: We are working on a system to allow you to report these to us and help us get them cleaned up. Stay tuned for this. In the meantime, do not sponsor anything that does not make sense and do not post content to these areas.

Question: How do I create a new community in my town/city?

Answer: Here is a tutorial that explains how to create new communities.

Question: My town is really small and we don't really have communities. Our population is 10,000 and the only way to further break the city down is based on sub-divisions. These sub-divisions are small (50-150 homes) and it doesn't make sense for me to sponsor all ten sub-divisions at $19/month. What do I do?

Answer: It may make sense for you to wait. Currently, sponsorships are only available at a community level. If you are trying to sponsor a town or city, those are currently not available for sponsorship. It is possible we will have city level sponsorships available in the future but we are taking our time to make sure that if/when we roll those out it's in a manner that respects the people who have organically risen to the top of their city based on ActiveRain points.

One option for you, however, may be to sponsor one highly desirable sub-division in your town/city. If the other 'communities' are too small to warrant sponsorship, your sponsorship of the one desirable area, will make it so that you appear as the sponsor of any unclaimed 'communities' in your town/city. So if there are ten sub-divisions and you sponsor one, you rotate through as the sponsor in the other unclaimed sub-divisions.

Question: How do I find the communities I want to sponsor?

Answer: In order to find the communities in your town/city, you need to navigate to the city page first. In order to get to the city page, click on the states menu at the top of most ActiveRain pages. This will present a drop down menu of the different states. Click on your state. From the state page, look on the left hand column for a list of popular cities. Below the list of popular cities is a list of counties. If you do not find your city/town in the list of popular cities/towns, scroll down and select your County. Once on the County page, select your city from the list of cities on the left.

Once you are on the city page, the list of 'communities' will be on the left hand side of the city page. If you click on a community, it will load the community page. On the right hand side of the community page will be the ability to sponsor that community.

If someone is already sponsoring that community, you will see their picture. If the community is available to be sponsored, you will see your picture on the right hand side, grayed out, with a box you can click that says 'sponsor community'.

Question: After I sponsor my community, how do I complete the sponsorship?

Answer: Once you have sponsored a community, you can complete your sponsorship by navigating to the community page and looking for the red 'update sponsorship information' link. Clicking on that link will allow you to:

• Fill out a 'blurb' about the community (to be permenatly displayed near the top of the community page). The blurb can be a maximum of 600 characters
• Create a link on the community page back to your website. You will fill out the 'Link Name' field with how you want us to display the link on the community page. For instance: 'Search for Homes in Wallingford'. You will also fill out the 'Link URL' field. This will be the URL of the page to which you would like the link to point
• Upload a 'Marquee Photo' for the community. Marquee photo's must be exactly 960 pixels wide by 440 pixels high in order to upload. 

A list of all the areas you are sponsoring can be found on the 'billing information' page on the left hand side of your 'my home' page.

Question: What if I had community sponsorships on Localism. How do I go about updating the information for those sponsorships on ActiveRain? Also, how do I find which communities transfered over?

Answer: If you were sponsoring a community on Localism, that community was assigned to you on ActiveRain as well. In order to access those communities, you can go to the 'Billing Information' link on the left hand side of your 'my home' page. Near the bottom of your billing information page, it will show you the communities that you are currently sponsoring. There will also be a link to each community. If you click on that link, it will take you to the community page and allow you to update your community sponsorship by clicking on the red 'update community sponsorship' link.

Question: What if I was sponsoring a city on ActiveRain? What happens to that city sponsorship?

Answer: Previously on Localism, there were two ways to sponsor a city. In cities under 40K population, you could directly sponsor a city. In cities over 40K population, you became the sponsor if you were the person sponsoring the most communities in that city.

First let's deal with those directly sponsoring a city on Localism under 40K population. You are no longer paying to sponsor that city. However, city level sponsorships are not yet available on ActiveRain. If/when they become available, you will have the first right of refusal to sponsor that same city on ActiveRain. For the time being however, you will simply maintain the Localism city level sponsorship free of charge.

For those of you that were holding a comped city level sponsorship of a city over 40K population as a result of sponsoring the most communities in that city, we are evaluating how that will work if/when we introduce city level sponsorships on ActiveRain. Currently however, you maintain the city level sponsorship in Localism.

We have something fantastic to share with you this morning.

Hot on the heels of the release of community pages on ActiveRain, we have implemented a system to reward members for writing great hyper-local content. We will now have the ability to feature hyper-local posts.

Hyper-local posts that are featured will be awarded 300 additional points and the blog post will remain sticky at the top of the community page. Featured hyper-local posts will capture the essence of an area and serve to enhance the visitors understanding of the community/neighborhood/area about which it is written.

(Just a side note, because I know this will come up......these featured hyper-local posts will not become featured on the main feature board on the home page)

As the days and weeks go by, we will compile some of the best hyper local posts so our members can get a better idea of what constitutes a featured hyper-local post. We will also feature some of these posts on the home page over the coming days and weeks to additionally give our members a better idea of what a great hyper-local post looks like.

If a community has a featured hyper-local post, that community will automatically have a 'Featured Real Estate News' section created on the community page. The community will then display the last 3 featured posts for that area.

We are firm believers that hyper local content is the best way to reach consumers in your market. It affords you the best opportunity to reach consumers much further in the buying process than the traditional internet home buyer. What is hyper-local? It's content that targets something more specific than a city. It might be about a specific community in your town. It could be content that focuses on a specific sub-division or condo complex. This kind of content is easier to get to rank in the search engines and it's the kind of things people search for as they really being to narrow their home search down. It's also the kind of content your neighbors search for that allows you to market to them by being the central purveyor of information for your area.

We're excited to be able to reward great hyper local content and hope this serves to elevate the quality of the information our members deliver to their communities, the people that live in those communities, and (most of all) the people looking to live in those communities.

With the recent launch of ActiveRain Community Pages, we've had quite a few people ask us how they can create community pages within their cities or towns.

(I've also had a ton ask us how they can get their area cleaned up and get duplicates, misspellings and just plain wrong information removed......we are working on a way for you to be able to report these things through the site and hope to have that out in the future)

If there are communities within your town/city that you would like to add (maybe not even to sponsor, maybe just to be able to assign your content to get it on a community page) you can add the community by first going in as if you were going to create a new blog post.

You don't have to actually create a new blog post, but you need to get to the page where you would create one. From that page, go down as if you were going to assign the post to 'Localism' and check on the box. Then drill down to your city by selecting the State, and County and then the city. This will then display an ability to place the post into a specific community (as seen below)

You will then notice the 'Add Neighborhood' link . Clicking on that link will give you a map popup. Once the map pops up, you can manipulate the map to drill down (that term again, I can't think of a better one) on the center point of the community you would like to add. Hover your mouse over the map and right click on time. This will place a map marker on the map at the center point of the community. Then in the top field, fill in the name of the community you would like to add. (PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK THE SPELLING). Then click the 'add community' button and your new community will be placed on the list for your city.

and voila, your new community page has been created!

On Monday we introduced ActiveRain Community Pages an incredible new way to present your hyper-local content to consumers in the way they want to see it.

Today at noon (PST) we will begin offering ActiveRain members an exclusive sponsorship position for each community. Sponsorships will be available to RainMakers for $19/mo, and for non-RainMakers for $29/mo. 

To sponsor a community, visit your community of choice and if your community is still available, you'll be able to sponsor it right from there.

Please check out what an example Community Page looks like:

If you are a RainMaker, the hyper local posts you publish on ActiveRain will syndicate to these Community Pages, automatically, and for no additional charge!

In addition to the organic content section on the left side of the page, we will also be offering our members a chance to become the exclusive sponsors for each community. 

Sponsorships will include the ability to:

• Prominently display your picture on the page along with your contact information.
• Create a highlighted link back to a location of your choice (most likely your home search website).
• Upload a high definition marquee photo for the community to be displayed at the top of the page.
• Write a community description describing the highlights of living in that community which will be a static portion of the page.

The Community Pages are live now! You can find links to them on the City Pages on ActiveRain:

Platinum Tickets have sold out!  

You can purchase the few remaining gold tickets on a donation amount basis!

At RainCamp you'll learn:

• How to get your blog to rank on the first page of Google.
• Advanced strategies of Facebook's new advertising platform.
• How to use Twitter to position you as the source for real estate information in your community.
• How a high producing agent (150+ deals/year) uses his online presence to get the listing, almost every time!

This is a can't miss training event that will change your business in amazing ways!

Click her for tickets

Check out what some attendees are saying:

"Raincamp was a good experience for me. It exceeded my expectations, and I can tell you I've been to many industry events of the course of my years, I don't say that lightly."

Kristal Kraft - RainCamp Denver
Top Ten From RainCamp

"Was it worth the time and money? You bet. I believe Wednesday's event was the single best 1-day education I've had the honor of participating in. Again, if you have a chance to attend a RAINCAMP, do it!"

Valesca Bogard - RainCamp San Francisco
RainCamp - The Best ROI EVER Received from a 1-day Conference

"If you haven't been to a Rain Camp, seriously consider it. There is no question, the technology that is being taught, is the wave of the future.......this is a better way of doing our job, a more effective way of prospecting and converting leads to clients."

Robert Deane - RainCamp Los Angeles
We Laughed But I Did Not See Anyone Cry

"It's only 2 hours into the day (we are on break) and I've already realized several things that I can do NOW to increase my website traffic.....I'm excited by the ideas I've gotten so far. This is definitely worth the time/price."

Karen Fiddler - RainCamp Los Angeles
Break Time at ActiveRain RainCamp LA

"There were so many current and powerful ideas.....but at the end I realized the future of real estate is upon us.......I had become a dinosaur and (RainCamp made me realize) I need to revamp, rethink, remodel and change my business strategy and marketing plan."

John M. Cameron - RainCamp Bellingham
I Just Flew In From RainCamp and Man Are My Arms Tired

"I was blown away, and I'm not one to get blown away with things like this....I learned so many things, that I can't wait to have a few minutes to implement ideas...."

Donna Harris - RainCamp Dallas
ActiveRain RainCamp Dallas TX - WOW!!

"I was excited to learn from many of the top experts when it comes to marketing real estate....were able to take home the things learned and start applying them immediately to increase their listing and selling opportunities."

Linda Yates - RainCamp Dallas
Making it 'Rain' at RainCamp in Dallas

"The day flew by! I was fully engaged and absorbing information from 9:00am-5:00pm. It was worth every penny and I highly recommend you attend if you get the chance."

Michelle Minch - RainCamp Los Angeles
RainCamp Los Angeles | It's Raining Information

"As with (my) first RainCamp, I've come away again today with a greater appreciation of my potential - and an excitement toward growing. I've been given a great set of tools and now it's up to me to put them to good use."

Bruce Kunz - RainCamp Washington DC
ActiveRain RainCamp in DC - More Than Just For Points

Reserve your seat today.....not tomorrow....TODAY!!!!