blogging for business: Back To Square One? Probably Not
- 01/07/12 03:45 AM
I had a great December...personally and professionally!
I had successful closings of some transactions....smooth ones at that. My husband had some successful closings for his business. I had many wonderful family events for the holidays. It was a nice Christmas season.
I also started working out twice a week with a personal trainer and began a running program. I am very tired!
The first week I found that afternoon naps were making their way into my day....what about the extra energy this was supposed to create?
I'd run after carpool in the morning and then twice a week, … (10 comments)
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blogging for business: Is This A Sign I Spend Too Much Time At My Computer?
- 11/22/11 03:25 AM
Yesterday my husband and I hit the big stores to find Christmas lights. Every year it seems we need a new supply and often don't think about it until it's too late.....and then we have to work around what is left.
This year we were ahead of the game!
We got out early enough to find the large blinking snow flakes, rustic lit moose signs to welcome visitors and festive netting to cover....ok, well, our cactus.
And then as we were leaving with our stash of red and green, my husband spotted it. This little tree!
It is … (24 comments)
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blogging for business: Occupy Google.....A Cause We Can All Get Behind?
- 10/20/11 04:12 AM
We are all hearing about the Occupy Wall Street....which has lead into "Occupy This" and "Occupy That," it has spread into many different cities, causes and categories.
Ok
So I like a party...ideally with better hygiene facilities. I don't see myself packing up the VW Bus and heading down with my knitted beanie...so I thought perhaps a virtual "Occupy" might be fun.
How about Occupy Google?
That's it....albeit rather Capitalistic, guess I'd make a pretty bad hippie. Why don't we grab our keypads and create some great blog posts to push those greedy Google-hogs off page one.
This takes … (6 comments)
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blogging for business: Rain In California.....I'm Active In The Rain Today
- 10/05/11 12:52 PM
Active Rain is an interesting name for this platform. I never really gave it a lot of thought until today. We all use the term in creative ways in our blog posts and comments, but the term "rain" is an unusual term for what we do here.
I normally think of rain as something dark and cold. It's something which keeps us from doing what we want to do during a day. It makes the sky dark and gloomy. It makes my socks wet and sometimes my nose run. So thinking about such a negative term as … (8 comments)
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blogging for business: A Blog About Nothing
- 09/06/11 12:59 PM
Why would anyone write a blog about nothing? As a stand alone posting it would really make no sense. But...as part of a whole body of blog work, it shows personality and quirkiness.
Does a potential client want personality and quirkiness in their agent? Maybe...maybe not. But if you ARE quirky, better they find out before your odd sense of humor pokes out at the wrong time.
Yes I know this seems like just another of a series of "we can blog what we want to" posts which have been making the rounds on Active Rain....but it's not. … (20 comments)
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blogging for business: Are Your Posts Public? If Not.....Upgrade
- 06/18/11 07:04 AM
Do you see this little sign under your name on your blog? If not...no one but members is reading your posts!
They are not public.
I see some wonderful posts which use perfect SEO techniques and they are being "wasted" on Active Rain Members Only. This might bring you some comments, points or features...but no consumers. Very few consumers bother to become members on Active Rain. They don't need to....they just move onto other posts if one is inaccessible.
I am not being paid by AR to write this....I'm really just trying to help. I have received so much … (17 comments)
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blogging for business: Do You Have Even ONE Closing From Your Time On Active Rain? No? What Are You Doing Here?
- 05/22/11 08:40 AM
Seriously? Not even ONE deal from the blogging and commenting and participating on Active Rain? Well....there must be something wrong with Active Rain...
I guess the Google Ranking has fallen
I suppose the traffic has slowed
I hear the membership is dropping
No? No.....none of that is true. So where is your deal?
"But I have points"
Sure...so does my son's video game. So what!!! What is the point of the time we spend on Active Rain?
Clients.....consumers.....deals....CLOSINGS!
I have closings I can directly tie to my blogs on Active Rain. Direct contact and direct comments about something I wrote … (19 comments)
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blogging for business: Taking My Own Advice.....I Can Blog About Anything
- 03/28/11 03:35 PM
Taking My Own Advice.....I Can Blog About Anything
I wrote a blog post this week with a list of topics you can use for your articles on ActiveRain if you have writer's block.
What To Write About Today On Your Blog
I listed a variety of topics from the dog to business. And tonight? I'm taking my own advice and blogging about something personal.
Last night I got a hug from my 6'2" 15-year old son! I know that shouldn't be amazing, but it is...and the best part is he doesn't remember, because he was sleep-walking at the time. … (11 comments)
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blogging for business: What To Write About Today On Your Blog
- 03/26/11 07:42 AM
What To Write About Today On Your Blog
I know we all get writers block. Even I get it (could you read the intense sarcasm in my voice?). Of course we do. I'm thinking about some milestones in my ActiveRain career....getting close to 500,000 points and this is going to be my 887th post. That's a lot of posts....and as I thought about them, I thought I'd share some ideas you can use today to write a post...what can you write about.
*What your client asked you about yesterday*What the listing agent said when you called*What your dog did on … (26 comments)
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blogging for business: "I Already Know What You Drive......I've Read Your Blog Posts"
- 01/31/11 03:49 AM
I always let new clients know what I drive....there is nothing worse than everyone hanging out on a street and not knowing if the person in the car opposite is the client you are planning to meet. It makes me feel silly, so I tell people I drive a convertible PT Cruiser in a greenish-gray.
But this client already knew that....she had read my blogs.
She knew that I love road trips and that I have another one planned. She knew my son was married last summer and that I've recently been able to reconnect with my stepkids. She knew that … (39 comments)
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blogging for business: My Best Blog Got Only ONE Comment....Making The Case For Hyper-Local
- 01/23/11 04:51 AM
This is a long overdue post. I have a little post that got one little comment....yet is making an impact in my community and in the way I blog in general. Last week I got confirmation that it was working.
I managed to get out of the house and hit the local Taco Tuesday with the ladies of Mission Viejo....been a long time since I had the time. I was surprised when an acquaintance came up to me to talk about an Active Rain post. What?
She said that she was referred to a post I wrote by a friend of … (124 comments)
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blogging for business: My Active Rain Anniversary!!! Two Years Ago Today.....I Wrote My First Blog Post, And Nobody Noticed
- 01/08/11 05:21 AM
January 10, 2009
I wrote my first blog post. Starting the Home Buying ProcessThis might sound funny now, but I really didn't think anyone would read it from Active Rain. I wrote it for Google juice. I didn't even bother to add a tag....what the heck is that? I knew NOTHING! The ironic thing is that is really the point...Google....but yes, I love the AR interaction.
I look back on that first post and it's really just an advertisement, not necessarily anything I would respond to....probably a good thing that no one really read it. But I kept going.
… (12 comments)
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blogging for business: If An Active Rain Post Is Written.....And Nobody Reads It....Did It Make An Impact?
- 12/18/10 05:43 AM
This is a tree-in-the-forest thing. Clever huh? Ok....but my question is still the same. We see posts run through the AR blog roll and sometimes by the time I come back to read one, it's already gone. Did anyone catch it in time? Was it read? Did it matter?
I have written posts with very few clicks (in the Statistics) and no comments. Shocking, I know...but true. They are often hyper-local ones, but sometimes they were just boring. As they head out to the blogosphere I wonder if there is any impact at all from having written them.
… (23 comments)
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blogging for business: Cashing my $10,675 Check From My Junk Mail....Another Active Rain Success Story
- 11/29/10 08:33 AM
I would really like to know why this came from my junk mail (Active Rain?) but I'd like to share my "Yippee"!
A mere month and a half ago, I thought to check my junk mail to make sure I hadn't missed anything....and there it was, a contact from my Active Rain site with an investor asking questions.
Again....why was that in my junk mail?
I didn't make it a habit of checking my junk mail, needless-to-say I do now. But it was someone who had read a few of my posts and saw a listing of mine and … (12 comments)
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blogging for business: Blogger's Block? Here Is A List You Can Blog About Today!!!
- 10/25/10 07:05 AM
It happens to all of us...new and "used" Active Rainers. I don't know why I just called us "used" but it sounded funny, did it grab your attention? No....oh well. :)
This week I had a post Newbies.....Have You Thrown An Active Rain Party And No One Came? It'll Happen....Keep Blogging and I've heard from many Newbies with emails which said "I'm just not sure what to blog about" or "I had lots of ideas at first, but didn't get any comments...so not sure what to blog about."
So first, I'd like to remind these Newbies that the purpose of blogging … (77 comments)
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blogging for business: Newbies.....Have You Thrown An Active Rain Party And No One Came? It'll Happen....Keep Blogging
- 10/23/10 03:11 PM
Everyone has been new to Active Rain at some point! Yep....it's true! Doesn't seem like it when you are trying to get your blogging feet wet, does it?
I remember! I remember spending hours, agonizing over a post that I just thought was "brilliant" only to find no comments waiting for me in my Inbox. None....
But I kept blogging...and you need to also. You also need to keep in mind that the purpose of the blog post is OUTSIDE CONSUMER EXPOSURE! And Google doesn't care if you are just starting out. Looking through some of my … (61 comments)
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blogging for business: Are You Afraid To Post A Blog? Why? It's Easy....Like Nike Says "Just Do It"!
- 09/29/10 02:26 PM
I hear from so many new/not so new Active Rainers who tell me how nervous they are about posting a blog article. Why? I mean....I get it, it's scary to put your ideas out into the blog-o-sphere....but everyone has started at sometime. And Active Rain is such a friendly environment that you are going to get encouragement, not ridicule. And the Google Juice....holy cow (really....is a holy thing)...can you truly afford not to move your business forward via the Google Juice? I can't!
I started blogging in January of 2009.....and no one much noticed, at first. So....I … (47 comments)
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blogging for business: Do You Think You Are Indispensable? Guess What.....We're Not! :)
- 08/22/10 08:16 AM
Today's "Daily Drop" has a blog I wrote about a trip I'm taking to Italy with my mom, daughter and daughter-in-law...and how I'm preparing for it.
Preparing For My Trip To Italy Includes Writing Blog Posts And Using The "Draft" Option
I guess I'm surprised by so many comments, very well-meaning, suggesting ways to continue working on my trip. I DON'T WANT TO....IT'S A VACATION. Properly planned, there is no reason why my business cannot go on without me. I'm not indispensable....neither are you! :)
My Arrangements While I'm Gone:
New Client Inquiries:
I have an experienced agent monitoring … (16 comments)
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blogging for business: Effective Blogging......Is This Blog Post Effective?
- 05/29/10 06:17 AM
What is effective blogging? What are the goals of your blog? Broker Bryant has a featured post this morning asking the question, Is your blog relevant? and it got me thinking about the goals we all should have for our blogs.
The point of blogging is for business.....right? Ok, then there are 3 elements each blog needs.
1) Interest/Relevance2) Readability3) Call to Action
Interest/Relevance
Who are you attempting to reach? Is it the consumer? Are you offering something of value that they will find when looking for real estate information? The point of a blog is to be read! In the land of … (8 comments)
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