Sean jordan, Keller Williams Elite Realty 
Website: http://www.thepropertyfinders.ca

---

Li Read, Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring) 
Website: http://www.liread.com
Blog: http://www.liread.com/blog.htm

---

Fred Carver, Re/Max Camosun 
Website: http://www.1-victoria-real-estate.com
Blog: http://www.victoriarealestatevoice.com

---

Sandy Wagner, RE/MAX Professionals 
Website: http://www.sandywagnerhomes.com

---

LeRae Redal, Moses Lake Realty Group 
Website: http://moseslakerealtygroup.com

---

Chris Galyon, Northwest Properties Brokers Network 
Website: http://www.excellentnwhomes.com
Blog: http://activerain.com/blogs/chrisgalyon

---

Trisha Bass 
Website: http://www.movetomoseslake.com

---

Barbara Orr, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Executive 
Website: http://SnoKingHomes.com

---

Mary Lockman, John L. Scott Methow Valley 
Website: http://www.methowrealestateservices.com
Blog: http://www.methowearth.com

---

Brett Meade Meade 

---

shirin sarikhani, seattle staged to sell 
Website: http://seattlestagedtosell.com

---

Brett Tousley, NW Home Brokers 
Website: http://www.brettsellshouses.com
Blog: http://www.bretttousley.com

---

Kim Schildt, first american title 
Website: http://www.firstamericantitlewa.com

---

Ron Brown, First Mortgage Company 
Blog: http://eb58920.activerain.com/

---

Adam Hestad, Real Property Associates 

---

Raymond Hill, Windermere R.E. 
Website: http://raymond.mywindermere.com/
Blog: http://toprealestateagentinseattle.com/

---

John Payson, Prudential Northwest 
Website: http://www.thepaysongroup.com
Blog: http://www.thepaysongroup.com/blog.php

---

Sarah Payson, The Payson Group 
Website: http://www.ThePaysonGroup.com
Blog: http://www.thepaysongroup.com/Blog.php

---

Smith Smith, King of the House Home Inspection, Inc 
Website: http://www.kingofthehouse.com

---

darrell backen, keller williams elite 
Website: http://dobacken.com

---

Cindy Atkins, Investor Nation Advisors 
Website: http://investornationadvisors.com

---

Collin Noia, John L. Scott - Renton 

---

Liz Davis, John L Scott 
Website: http://johnlscott.com/lizdavis

---

Howard Chung, 864Coach.com / www.Web864.com 
Website: http://864coach.com
Blog: http://howardchung.com

---

Beryl Gosney, ConnectRealty.com Inc 
Website: http://connectrealty-pugetsound.com
Blog: http://www.veteransrealestate-blog.com

---

Dan Edwards, Northstone Real Estate, Inc. 
Website: http://www.danedwardsrealtor.com
Blog: http://www.yournwhomeresource.com

---

Teresa Rommel, Keller Williams Bothell 

---

Kevin Tinsley Tinsley, All Tech Mortgage Inc. 
Website: http://www.alltechmortgage.com
Blog: http://activerain.com/blogs/alltechmortgage

---

Greg Saffell, REMAX Performance Plus 

---

Gary McNinch, Keller Williams Renton 
Website: http://www.RentonHomeFinder.com
Blog: http://renton-wa-real-estate.blogspot.com

---

Brad Davis, Coldwell Banker Danforth 
Website: http://www.JustRealSeattle.com

---

Arnold Camps, Washington Housing Advocates 
Website: http://www.wahousingadvocates.com

---

Melinda O'Bannon, Coldwell Banker 
Website: www.melindaobannon.com

---

Janell Wilson, The Talon Group 
Website: http://www.talonnw.com
Blog: http://www.talonblog.com

---

Joseph Hill, Keller Williams 
Website: http://imaginepropertiesnw.com
Blog: http://activerain.com/josephrhill1

---

Patrick Flynn, Seattle Realty Group 
Website: http://www.SeattleRealtyGroupllc.com

---

Evelyn Himple, Keller Williams Realty, Everett 

---

Jeff Stobie, Your Choice Real Estate NW 
Website: www.yourchoicerealestatenw.com
Blog: www.piercecountyhomeblogs.com

---

Paul Pival, Coldwell Banker Bain 
Website: http://paulpival.com
Blog: http://blog.paulpival.com

---

Jeff Hurley, Keller Williams 

---

Tory Mayfield Mayfield, Keller Williams 

---

Greg Benson, Keller Williams Realty Bellevue 
Website: http://GregRBenson.com

---

Sherry Rosenlund, Keller Willilams Realty SE Sound 
Website: http://www.go2sk.com
Blog: http://www.seattlerealestateupdate.com

---

Gabe Hoggarth, Working The Magic 
Website: http://www.workingthemagic.com
Blog: http://www.workingthemagic.com/blog/

---

Sheryl Knowles, Keller Williams 
Website: http://go2sk.com
Blog: http://seattlerealestateupdate.com

---

Julie O'Brien, Keller Williams 
Website: http://www.JulieKnowsHomes.com
Blog: http://623fa55.activerain.com/

---

Mimi Osterdahl, The Muljat Group 
Website: http://www.LiveGoodBeHappy.com
Blog: http://www.LiveGoodBeHappy.blogspot.com

---

Ann Hauser, Realty Executives BRIO 
Website: http://annhauserhomes.com

---

Dale Serbousek, Windermere 
Website: http://BellinghamSelect.com

---

Kate Pedersen, Realty Executives 
Website: http://kates-realestate.com

---

Freddy Delgadillo, Realty Executives Brio 
Website: http://www.freddyshomes.com

---

Gabrielle Nemes, RE/MAX Select R.E. 
Website: http://gabriellenemes.com
Blog: http://activerain.com/gnemes

---

Rhonda Porter, Mortgage Master Service Corp 
Website: http://www.rhondaporter.com
Blog: http://www.mortgageporter.com

---

Julie Agnew, The Talon Group 
Website: http://www.talonnw.com
Blog: http://www.talonblog.com

---

Drew Ebner, Northwest Mortgage Advisors 
Website: http://www.drewebner.com

---

Mike Toomey, RE/MAX Eastside Brokers 
Website: http://www.miketoomey.com

---

Peggy Foster, Realty by Design 
Website: http://BuyersAgentBellevue.com

---

Gary Clark, KW Federal Way 
Website: http://www.PugetSoundHomeHunter.com
Blog: http://southeast-puget-sound-wa-real-estate.blogspot.com/

---

Thomas Wolter, Real Estate Conflict Resolutions 
Website: http://realestatearbitrationandarbitration.com
Blog: http://bellevueundressed.com

---

Sue Rand Rand, Windermere/Gig Harbor 
Website: http://www.suerand.com

---

rick pezzner, laptop™ real estate, inc. 
Website: http://www.vure.com

---

Carole Holmaas, Windermere 
Website: http://isellgigharbor.com
Blog: http://blog.isellgigharbor.com

---

Amanda Ewoniuk, Preferred Properties 
Website: http://mywallawallahome.com
Blog: http://activerain.com/blogs/aewoniuk

---

Trisha Bush, Preferred Properties 
Website: http://www.preferredww.com
Blog: http://www.preferredww.com

---

Valerie Spaulding, Windermere Peninsula Properties 
Website: http://www.valspaulding.mywindermere.com
Blog: http://www.belfairwarealestate.com

---

Cynthia Dickert, CENTURY 21 Real Estate Center 
Website: http://cindydickert.com

---

Jeff Latham 

---

Taylor Grant, First Rate Mortgage 

---

Dinah Lee Griffey, Windermere Peninsula Properties 
Website: http://TheNorthwestLife.com
Blog: http://The NorthwestLife.com

---

Kim Cripe, Ticor Title and Escrow 
Website: http://www.myticor.com

---

Connie Blumenthal, Windermere Real Estate 

---

Julianna Hind, John L. Scott 
Website: http://www.juliannahind.com
Blog: http://www.activerain.com/julianna

---

natalie danielson, clockhours.com 
Website: http://clockhours.com
Blog: http://clockhours.com

---

bryce lathrop lathrop, The Troy Anderson Team @ Keller Williams Realty 
Website: http://www.troysrealestate.com/
Blog: http://www.troysrealestate.com/Blog

---

troy anderson, The Troy Anderson Team @ KW Greater Seattle 
Website: http://www.troysrealestate.com/
Blog: http://www.troysrealestate.com/Blog

---

Nick Taylor, Web864 
Website: http://www.web864.com
Blog: http://www.nicktaylor.web864.com

---

Raymond Gravelle, RE/MAX 
Website: http://www.MOveInMosesLake.com

---

Brett Allen, John L Scott - Port Ludlow 
Website: http://johnlscott.com
Blog: http://www.retireportludlow.com

---

Linda Aaron, Coldwell Banker Bain 
Blog: http://www.skynnardslens.com

---

Jason Neumann, Century 21 Assurance Realty Ltd. 
Website: http://www.century21.ca/jason.neumann
Blog: http://activerain.com/blogs/c21guy

---

Mariana Bee, Bee Real Estate Solutions,LLC 

---

Cassie Daughtrey 

---

Erik Bee, Bee Appraisal Service 

---

Theresa Bastian, Keller Williams 
Website: http://BastianTeam.com

---

Reliable Robert Campbell, RE/MAX Whatcom County 
Website: http://BellinghamHomeSource.com

---

Raymond Gravellle, REMAX 

---

Debra Gravelle, RE/MAX Home Team Realty 
Website: wwwMoveInMosesLake.com

---

Linda Carruthers, Bank of America - Carruthers Team 
Website: http://TheCarruthersTeam.com

---

marsha mcmahon-jones, Coldwell Banker Bain 
Website: http://www.marshamcmahonjones.com

---

linda moran 

---

David Monroe 
Website: http://www.sellnorthwesthomes.com

---

Cheri Diehl, Discovery Coast Real Estate 
Website: http://discoverycoastrealestate.com
Blog: http://discoverycoastrealestate.com/blog

---

Janet Slawson Slawson, Windermere Real Estate/Wall St., Inc. 
Website: www.janslawson.com
Blog: http://www.seattle4realestate.wordpress.com

---

tony marnella, Marnella Homes 
Website: http://www.marnellahomes.com
Blog: http://tonymarnella.wordpress.com

---

Sarita Dua, Realty Trust Group 
Website: http://www.asksarita.com
Blog: http://www.asksarita.net

---

lisa schultz, First American Title 
Website: www.firstamericantitlewa.com

---

Bill Sauneuf 

---

Jodie Carpine, Prudential Spokane Real Estate 
Website: http://JodieCarpine.com
Blog: http://BlogsByJodie.com

---

Kim Buchan, Keller Williams 
Website: http://www.kimbuchan.com

---

Micah Stephens, Storyframe 
Website: http://www.storyframe.com

---

Linda Casale, Windermere So. Whidbey 
Website: http://www.realwhidbey.com

---

Scott Leaf, Keller Williams Elite Realty 
Website: http://www.scottleaf.com
Blog: http://www.mapleridge-realestate.ca

---

Liz Moras, landmark realty 
Website: http://www.lizmoras.com
Blog: http://activerain.com/blogs/lizmoras

---

Chris Penner, Keller Williams Realty 
Website: http://chrispenner.com
Blog: http://askchris.ca

---

Kelly Hopper, CENTURY 21 Real Estate Center 
Website: http://kellyhopper.net
Blog: http://activerain.com/blogs/kellyhopper

---

John Hartman, John L Scott Marysville 
Website: http://www.Hartman4Homes.com

---

Judy Schneider, Exit Realty Associates 

---

Larry Mandel, Top Floor Real Estate 
Website: http://www.topfloorhomes.com

---

Edy Kizaki, eXp Realty 
Website: http://www.seattlepowersearch.com
Blog: http:

---

William Carleton 
Blog: http://wac6.com

---

Casey Bui Bui, Rockwell Realty 
Website: http://www.caseybui.com

---

Rene' Fabre, Ticor Title Company 
Website: http://myticor.com
Blog: http://activerain.com/blogs/rfabre

---

Richard Bell, Windermere Peninsula Properties 
Website: http://windermerepeninsula.com
Blog: http://richardrbell.com

---

Pamela Hopwood, CENTURY 21 Real Estate Center 
Website: http://HoppinGoldTeam.com

---

Heather Burns Burns, Wells Fargo 
Website: http://wfhm.com/heather-burns2
Blog: http://activerain.com/urownlo

---

Leslie Bloss, Realty Executives Brio 
Website: http://LuvSeattle.com

---

John Gallagher 

---

Barb Pexa, Keller Williams Realty 

---

Rob Tinner, Capital Financial Mortgage 

---

Jo Soss, Skyline Properties,Inc. 
Website: http://www.homefrontrealtyonline.com
Blog: http://www.westsoundlive.com

---

Barbara Otterson, Coldwell Banker 
Website: http://Otterson.com

---

Sandy Noll, Keller Williams Realty Kirkland 
Website: http://www.letsachieveyourgoals.com/
Blog: http://activerain.com/blogs/youreastsidehomespecialist

---

Sherry Siegel, BrokersGroup, Real Estate Professionals 

---

Paul Henderson, RE/MAX Professionals and 4 Seasons 
Website: http://phenderson.net
Blog: http://activerain.com/pauls4you

---

Sarah Gravelle, Century 21 Real Estate Center 
Website: http://www.trulia.com/profile/sarahgravelle/

---

Mark Tillett, Asset Realty Group 
Website: http://www.lakeforestmark.net
Blog: http://www.lakeforestmark.com

---

Charles Buell, Charles Buell Inspections Inc 
Website: http://www.buellinspections.com
Blog: http://activerain,com/blogs/cbuell

---

chris clasen, remax mutual realty 
Website: http://www.chrisclasen.com

---

Duane Hopper, CENTURY 21 Real Estate Center 
Website: http://www.century21realestatecenter.com

---

Sharon Ventrello, Rose of Sharon Real Estate 
Website: http://roseofsharon-realestate.com

---

Kent Hermes 

---

Aaron Johnson, Tri City Home Team 
Website: http://www.tricityhometeam.com
Blog: http://blog.tricityhometeam.com

---

Carole Swan, CENTURY 21 Real Estate Center 
Website: http://www.nwhomesolutions.com
Blog: http://www.nwhomesolutions.com

---

Nancy Hill, Windermere RE/Renton, Inc 
Website: http://www.BestKingCountyRealEstate.com
Blog: http://www.BestKingCountyRealEstate.com/blog

---

Tad Navle, RSVP Real Estate 
Website: http://www.TadNavle.com

---

Howard Goff, Keller WIlliams Premier Properties 
Website: http://www.VancouverWAHomesNow.com

---

mark hall, keller williams 
Website: http://www.ernw.org
Blog: http://www.vancouver-wa-realestate.com

---

Debra Atwood, Century 21 Real Estate Center 
Website: http://debbieatwood.com

---

Rich Jacobson, Windermere West Sound 
Website: http://www.KitsapLife.com
Blog: http://www.SoundBiteBlog.com

---

Brad Howell, RE/Max Metro Realty, Inc 
Website: http://bradhowell.com
Blog: http://myseattlehomesource.blogspot.com/

---

Jirius Isaac, C21 REC 
Website: http://Looking4SeattleHomes.com
Blog: http://KenmoreHomesforSale.com

---

Darel Ansley, Peoples Bank 
Blog: http://activerain.com/dansley

---

Oscar Morante, www.BestShortSales.com 
Website: http://www.BestShortSales.com
Blog: http://www.BestShortSales.com

---

Jennifer Hamilton, Keller Williams 
Website: http://www.REAgentNW.com
Blog: http://jenniferhamiltonblogs.com/channels/home_buying

---

Tammy L. Woodin, River Side Realty 

---

Sheldon Broes, Port Townsend Real Estate 
Website: http://www.porttownsendrealestatesearch.net
Blog: http://sandrawhiteblog.com

---

Kathleen Frawley, Keller williams Elk Grove 

 

 

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.

 

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?

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.)

“A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.”

On Friday I put out a post asking for suggestions on what messages I should bring our NAR elected officials.  One line of response I got was that we should quit with the messaging that "Now is a good time to buy", and that the NAR has lost all credibility by calling false bottoms to the market, time and time again.  It seems that there is general concensus that NAR should focus it's messaging on advising consumers that real estate markets are local in nature and that a local REALTOR should be consulted first before buying or selling a home.  

Well that line of thinking is all fine and good so long as the consumer has confidence that the local REALTOR has their best interest at heart.  That confidence is something that is earned, and frankly I do not believe that we have done a good enough job earning that trust in the past. Now is our chance to turn things around and take a cohesive step to fulfilling our fiduciary obligations and giving our nation an honest local assessment of the housing market; good or bad as it may be.

I am charging every ActiveRain member to author a blog post assessing the state of your local housing market.  Please mark the post for the  "Local Housing Market" topic in the "Home Buying" Channel.  We will dedicate the next few Wednesday to only featuring posts about the local housing market.

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.

Next week I will be speaking to the NAR Strategic Planning Committee in Washington DC.  The committee consists of all of the NAR top brass and other influential leaders.  I am putting together my presentation this weekend and I want to reach out to our membership to see what types of things you would like addressed with our leadership.

Please think big. My sole focus in going to Washington DC is to speak on behalf of our members and I am not afraid to be bold.

To learn more about the NAR's current Strategic Plan click here: http://www.realtor.org/research/research/strategicplanning

I asked our team to come up with a mission statement today.  Although they were not very happy with the short deadline, on a Friday no less, they all pitched in and came up with some good ideas. Now I am taking these ideas to our membership to help us refine what we currently have and hopefully eventually derive at the perfect statement that crystallizes where we will take our network.

The only parameters that I established was that it must be shorter than 30 words.

Here are some of the possibilities our team came up with:

1. ActiveRain is the Leading Social Network for Real Estate Professionals whose primary goal is to provide an effective platform that allows its member to generate quality consumer-oriented content, establishing their role as a knowledgeable local expert, and connecting them with potential clients.

2. To allow real estate professionals to connect with consumers by highlighting their real estate expertise and local knowledge while learning techniques that will make them successful in today's market.

3. ActiveRain is a Social Network that enables real estate professionals to connect with consumers and exchange ideas with peers through dynamic conversations about their local markets and personal expertise.

4. As the largest and fastest growing Professional Real Estate Network in the Country, it's our mission to provide a secure and professional platform for our members, and to be the Industry Leader in the markets we serve.

5. To help real estate professionals grow their careers, connect with peers and customers, and become respected local experts.

6. ActiveRain: for when life moves you to connect, share, and grow.

 

Mike, one of our developer's, offered this note along with his mission statement submission. I think he is very insightful so I am passing it onto you as a bonus of sorts:

"Our members clearly believe participating in ActiveRain is good for their careers.  They're right.  When they take an active part in our service (ActiveRain), they establish relationships with others in the industry, create a body of work through their blog entries, learn occupational tips and tricks, receive encouragement, get inspired, establish a reputation, even get occasional leads.  As long as we help them to achieve these things for themselves, we'll be successful and well-regarded.

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.

The real estate brokerages website traffic represented in this chart that are not dropping off a cliff are all of the online, "non-traditional" variety.

Little tiny 100 person company Redfin is about to surpass Coldwell Banker?  Zip Realty has almost as much traffic as the next three largest brokerages combined?  What does this mean on the local level? What are the big brokerages doing to correct this?

They must recognize this is a serious problem and innaction is not an option.

(Note: Please don't talk about what you charge for commissions or what should be charged on ActiveRain. Price fixing is illegal, M'kay?)