JonWashburn.com

Seattle RainCamp Almost Sold Out!

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:25:46 -0500

Who announces a conference 16 days before the event? Of all ideas, that has to be one of the dumbest. Right?

We were told that it would be nearly impossible to generate enough interest in such a short time, and we'd be presenting to an empty house. Well perhaps it was dumb, but we did it anyways, and I'm pleased to announced that the event is just about sold out!

Below is a (partial) list of our registered attendees. The list below represents the best of the best. Seattle area (and beyond) real estate professionals that are committed to learning how to be most effective in their use of new technologies and social media.

I am so excited to see everybody on Wednesday. This is going to be an amazing event. I would like to thank everyone listed below for their support.

(If you haven't yet registered, but still want to click here)

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

Letter to the critic

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:44:19 -0500

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.

What is ActiveRain?

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:32:02 -0500

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?

7 SEO Secrets to Dominate your Local Market

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:41:38 -0600

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.)

Are we statesmen or politicians? Honest Assessments of the Housing Market

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:35:52 -0600

“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.”

A politician looks forward only to the next election. A statesman looks forward to the next generation....

- Thomas Jefferson

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 show up to work terrified, everyday.

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:17:36 -0600

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.

What can the NAR do for you? This is your chance to tell them and know they'll hear it.

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:25:42 -0600

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

ActiveRain Mission Statement: Help us create it

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:15:17 -0600

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.

Maybe everything else is just a means to an end."

ActiveRain from 97 feet up

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:21:57 -0600

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.

Traditional Real Estate Brokerages vs. Online : Online is winning

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:13:20 -0600

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?)

Lenn let's talk, I'm always looking to hire hard workers!

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:43:22 -0600

For years I've been a believer that it was best to "Work smart so you don't have to work hard".

Lenn,

I am sorry to hear that you've been unsuccessful in your endeavors to not have to work hard. Obviously you are extremely successful, but even after all of your success you are still one of the hardest working people I know. Surely if you were as smart as you are a hard worker, you would be one of the smartest people in the world. Any observant person can see that you are one of the hardest working.

Let's take a look:

1. You are in the top .001% of top point earners on ActiveRain. In fact you are #1 out of over 100k people. It takes a lot of work to achieve at that level.

2. You are up bright and early, 6AM, writing a blog post on ActiveRain. You are an SEO maven and know that blogging on ActiveRain is one element of work that generates SEO results. You would be surprised how few people start work at 6am. I would bet hard cash that you don't clock out at 5pm either. We're talking 12 hour days and 60 hour weeks. Definitely hard work.

3. You generate a ton of buyers on your website homefinders.com. Now a smart person would just sell or refer those leads outright. But you take the extra work to speak to nearly every prospect and set them up as slam dunks for your referral agents.

4. You registered homefinders.com in 1995 and have doggedly stuck with it for over a decade. I bet the first few years were lean. Lots of hard work investing in the internet when the smart money was on telemarketing.

5. I also understand that you programmed most of your website. I'm guessing that you don't have any formal training as a computer programmer, but you needed it programmed so you just did it. Doing the dirty work that you should have just outsourced allowed you to learn first hand how to increase your SEO. How's that SEO knowledge working out for you now?

The most successful people in nearly every industry are not so smart. To rise to the top you need to do things differently than all of the other smart people. You need to take risks that smart people think are ludicrous. You are a top producer now, but don't forget what it took to get there. You are doing our members a great disservice if you tell them that becoming great is going to be possible without an extra helping of stupid-hard work.

Smart work is overrated: Hard work is where the top producers are.

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:11:48 -0600

It is a great deficit to start with. Being smart, or God forbid "extremely talented", has to be one of the single greatest impediments to becoming successful in real estate.

No, it's not that real estate is a special field; there are in fact only a few highly specialized fields where brains end up doing more good than harm. For example, it is good if you want to be a rocket scientist, university professor, doctor, or consultant. In pretty much any other field it just gets in the way. Here's why:

1. Smart people use their brains to make the right decision:

People with massive brain power usually know that they are smart so when it comes time to make a decision on something, they tap into their giftings to evaluate and deliberate what the right course of action should be. Sometimes this process can take days or even weeks. The really, really smart people usually take the longest to figure out which way to go, sometimes even months.

Its true that smart people usually don't make a lot of mistakes. They rarely lose a lot of money on a stupid marketing investment, or expend a lot of energy running down the wrong path. In fact they rarely run anywhere; instead they move cautiously.

The dumb people just move. They don't know no better. They know that even if they took the time to try to figure out the right way to go they'd probably just screw it up anyways, so they just save the time and simply go. The nice thing about just going is that you can do it at any time. All you need to do is get out of your own way.

2. Smart people rely on their brains to limit the amount of work they need to do:

When you are smart you can usually a figure out a way to do whatever needs to be done more efficiently than dumb people. In fact really smart people usually can figure out a way to get somebody else to do the work for them. When the smart person succeeds at getting someone else to do their work for them, they usually benefit in the short run but not in the long run. By offloading their work, they lose the experience, and confidence that an accomplishment would have built.

Dumb people don't realize that there is any other way to doing something than to just do it. So they do.

3. Smart people fear looking dumb:

People put a lot of expectations on smart people. If a smart person does something dumb they will usually get chastised, so they learn early on to not screw up. Dumb people don't have that same pressure. They are free to mess up as much as it takes to figure something out. This freedom to screw up is key to learning and succeeding. Just look at children and compare them to a smart adult in how quickly they can learn something new. Children, like the dumb person, give themselves the freedom to fail.

4. Smart people count on good ideas to become successful:

Smart people think. They think, then they sometimes come upon a good idea. Smart people know that good ideas are not that easy to come by so they carefully guard that idea to make sure no one steals it. Dumb people know that they are not going to come up with a good idea so they don't even try. Instead dumb people spend their time doing.

Closing message to dumb people: The good news is that being dumb comes naturally to you. There isn't a lot of advice that you need; just keep on going.

Closing message to the gifted ones: Just because you were born with brains does not mean that you cannot be successful; you will just have to work harder than others. When your first reaction is to deliberate the merits of your choices: don't. Learn to go with your gut. Over time you will be able to develop your gut instinct into a finely tuned insturment. Know that your smarts will not make you successful. The most important thing to success is giving a little more than everyone else. The dumb guy knows this inherently; he knows that for him to get even the littlest bit of success he will need to work 2x as hard as the next guy. If this post struck a cord with you and you are thinking that you are going to act more and think less, start now. Seriously, pick up the phone, knock on some doors, do something and don't stop doing it.

Do consumers even visit ActiveRain?

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:37:08 -0600

I just stumbled upon the comment above that was a part of a post where people were debating the returns on various online real estate websites. I have heard the sentiments of the comment above numerous times since founding ActiveRain. Because of the rich professional-to-professional networking that happens everyday on ActiveRain some people dismiss the great consumer reach of the site. This is likely our fault as we tend not to toot our own horn regarding our accomplishments. As a result we have done a poor job educating the industry as to the power inherent in ActiveRain to connect real estate professionals with consumers.

I track our traffic numbers on a daily basis. It's a borderline obsession for me. When you've built websites your whole adult life, this tends to happen. For example, I know that yesterday was our second highest number of visitors ever to the site. 88% of our visitors on a monthly basis come from search engines or referral from other sites. These are potential clients doing search queries that are leading them to your posts.

But the stat that jumps out at me that lets me know ActiveRain is MUCH MORE than 'primarily a peer-to-peer platform' is this: the number of members on our site is quite a bit less than 10% of our unique visitors per month. That means there are over 9 consumers hitting the site for every one member.........and when you factor in how many of our members are actually contributing content, that number gets even higher.

As I was getting ready to write this post, I did some additional research and found the graph below that compares ActiveRain's traffic with other "big boys" of our industry: ColdwellBanker.com, REMAX.com, Century21.com, and KW.com. It is exciting for me to note that we started off one year ago in 5th place (out of 5) in this group and now we are ranking in 2nd place with almost a 200% yearly growth rate.

Top Real Estate Blogs - October

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 12:06:55 -0500

Rank	Website	Index Change		Rank
1	Curbed		0	12,256
2	Bigger Pockets		0	27,197
3	Bloodhound Blog		0	38,165
4	The Real Estate Bloggers		0	43,690
5	Agent Genius		0	49,838
6	Zillow Blog		0	51,553
7	The Housing Bubble Blog		0	56,601
8	Sellsius Real Estate Marketing		0	64,498
9	The Future of Real Estate Marketing		0	71,527
10	Housing Doom		0	75,933
11	Phoenix Real Estate Guy	+	1	78,700
12	Altos Research Real Estate Insights	-	1	79,070
13	Raincity Guide		0	81,398
14	GeekEstate Blog		0	87,904
15	Trulia Blog		0	90,655
16	Mortgage Fraud Blog		0	110,796
17	Blown Mortgage		0	114,099
18	4Realz.net		0	131,150
19	St. Paul RE Blog		0	134,348
20	Real Estate Radio USA		0	134,855
21	Miamism		0	135,487
22	Transparent Real Estate		0	139,822
23	Real Estate Zebra		0	172,809
24	Arizona Real Estate Notebook		0	175,281
25	RealBlogging		0	179,078
26	The xBroker	-	1	186,217
27	Buffalo/Niagara Real Estate Homes	-	1	195035
28	Denver Real Estate & Relocation	-	1	227,276
29	Sandbars to Sunsets	-	1	230,271
30	Foreclosure Truth	-	1	236,109
31	Seattle Condo Blog	-	1	236,960
32	Maxsell	-	1	239,571
33	360 Digest	-	1	251,548
34	Luxury Home Digest		0	255,520
35	Sacramento Real Estate Voice		0	257,089
36	MLPodcast Blog		0	262,257
37	Long Beach Real Estate		0	274,425
38	Urbnlivn		0	276,491
39	REagent in CT		0	291,413
40	Dothan Home Search		0	321,639
41	Phoenix Area Real Estate Blog		0	345,672
42	Virginia Real Estate News		0	351,218
43	Just New Listings		0	353,452
44	Lenderama		0	353,707
45	My Tucson Blog		0	354,226
46	The Get Home Denver Team		0	363,814
47	House Blogger		0	371,894
48	Colorado Springs RE Connection		0	388,880
49	Mortgage Porter		0	393,673
50	Focus on Crofton		0	401,542
51	IndyRealEstateTalk.com		0	404,072
52	HousingBubbleCasualty		0	412,318
53	Realty Thoughts		0	418,565
54	New Hampshire Real Estate Blog		0	428,720
55	Triple Mint		0	436,374
56	Maureen McCabe		0	440,779
57	NYC Blog Estate		0	441,461
58	Phoenix Real Estate		0	455,403
59	Real Estate Technology Coaching		0	458,709
60	Foster City Blog	+	1	488,938
61	Mi Oakland County	+	1	584,456
62	NewHampshireMaineRealEstate.com	+	1	598,688
63	Lane Bailey	+	1	609,667
64	Gary Bolen	+	1	619,391
65	AnnArborRealEstateTalk.com	+	1	687,809
66	Reno Realty	+	1	707,029
67	RealEstateSnippets.com	+	1	727,459
68	Jim Lee	+	2	753,052
69	San Diego Preview	+	2	815,078
70	RobinAshley.com	+	3	857,910
71	Las Vegas Real Estate	+	3	863,388
72	Marchel Peterson	+	3	893,801
73	Maggie Dokic	+	3	893,812
74	Real Crozet VA	+	3	918,942
75	Ryan Hukill	+	3	930,155
76	The Landlord Blog	+	3	952,839
77	San Mateo RE News	+	4	960,838
	REI Blog			DNR*
	Bryant Tutas			DNR*
	Thesa Chambers			DNR*
*	Does not rank. Blogs will be removed from list after two consecutive months of DNR designation.

According to CAR, Home Buyers Want Agents To Be Aggressive And Fast

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:08:07 -0500

"What do they want to see on websites? 61% wanted multiple pictures and a slide show; followed by maps and directions; agent contact information, virtual tours and neighborhood profiles. "

Why doesn't someone just make a simple home listing site that has just those features?

Via Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing}:

The California Association of Realtors recently released their annual Survey of California Home Buyers for 2008 which is once again, full of interesting and useful information.

First off kudos to CAR for changing the name from Survey of Traditional vs. Internet Homebuyers to Survey of CA Home Buyers. Is there really a difference anymore as searching online for real estate has become pretty ‘traditional'. Maybe some, but this gap will continue to close quickly.

According to the report, turns out buyers are taking longer to find their dream home, demanding more, and are less satisfied than ever before. Tough crowd. To anyone selling real estate over the last couple of years, this shouldn't be a huge shocker, but it is nice to now have data to substantiate the trends, and more importantly use the data to improve where applicable.

Taking longer- When the internet was heavily used during the buying process, the buyer spent an average of 8.3 weeks searching for a home with their Agent, and looked at an average of 12.7 homes. In 2007 this number was an average of 5.2 weeks.

Satisfaction is down- Overall buyer satisfaction with their Agent averaged 3.3 in the 2008 survey, it was 4.1 in the 2007 survey. When asked what concerns they has about the buying process, the two answers most commonly cited were ‘market conditions' and ‘agent responsiveness'. Those that participated in the survey, specifically asked for better negotiating and faster response times from their agents. In fact, 80% of those that weren't satisfied with their agent stated the agent "did not negotiate aggressively on their behalf".

When houses were flying off the market, negotiation skills weren't as crucial and there were a lot less reasons a deal could fall apart (even though many of these reasons today are beyond the control of an agent), so it makes sense that this is more of a concern of the home buyer today than in the past. But it is also good for agents to know that this is now a trait affecting satisfaction, as it can affect long term referral business. Also good to know when marketing the reasons one should do business with you.

As a group, Agents need to get better about response time. We have seen this in numerous other reports, but customer expectations are very high when it comes to getting a response from their Agent. In fact, 84% of the participants said response time was either "very important" or "extremely important" in their decision making process. Again, if you excel at responsiveness, this is something you need to be marketing about yourself. Just to let professionals know what they are up against, 31% said they expected an instant response (this was 22% in 2007- ironic how they are taking longer to buy, but expect faster answers) and 96% expected a response in 4 hours or less (this was 94% in 2007).

Now let's talk marketing.

The sites the public found most useful were: 33%, an individual Agent's site; 23%, Realtor.com; 22%, an "internet listing of a home that I was interested in"; 11%, Zillow, 8%, a real estate company website, and 4% Yahoo Real Estate.

What do they want to see on websites? 61% wanted multiple pictures and a slide show; followed by maps and directions; agent contact information, virtual tours and neighborhood profiles.

So while it may be harder to please a home buyer in today's real estate climate, at least we as professionals know what we are up against. According to this report, two big areas of focus need to be superior negotiation skills and lightening fast response times when it comes to satisfying your customer.

The sample of buyers in the survey included 1,249 home buyers. The full report can be purchased in electronic format here for $29.95. In my opinion, it is one of the best reports that comes out all year.

Channels, Topics, and Design Tweaks. Oh my!

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:23:58 -0500

So after an all night-marathon development session we are finally ready and happy to announce ActiveRain's newest addition: Channels & Topics.

For an overview of what Channels and Topics are check out this post by Brad Andersohn: "How to Use ActiveRain Channels"

Although the content being displayed today in most of the Topics and some of the Channels is sparce and even somewhat confusing, we have great plans for what we believe Channels and Topics will grow into over the next few months. More immediately (tomorrow night) we will put live a few extra design finishes on the home, channel, and topic pages to help make it clearer. (We recognize that some of the design elements are not displaying properly and as a result are making it difficult to navigate through the channels and the topics.

Here is a partial list of the changes we've made:

1. Rearranged the layout on the ActiveRain home page. Most notably, we removed all advertising on this page, added Channel and Topic Navigation, and provided greater prominence to the featured articles. (Within the next few days we expect to have posts from people our members subscribed to show up in the list.)

2. We removed the ActiveRain logo from the header area on pages optimized by the ActiveRain Customizer.

3. Featured Members are now displaying on the city level for logged in users. We play to make it display this way for non-logged in users soon.

Please check out the changes and let us know your opinion on this blog post. Our company philosophy is to release site upgrades as fast as reasonable and then look to our members for feedback. We do this so that if we are moving in a wrong direction with a product we can learn about our mistakes early and then adjust our direction before wasting unnecessary time and resources.

Top Real Estate Blogs - September

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:43:59 -0500

Rank	Website	Index Change		Rank
1	Curbed		0	12,256
2	Bigger Pockets		0	27,197
3	Bloodhound Blog	+	1	38,165
4	The Real Estate Bloggers	+	1	43,690
5	Agent Genius	+	2	49,830
6	Zillow Blog	+	3	51,553
7	The Housing Bubble Blog	-	4	56,601
8	Sellsius Real Estate Marketing	-	2	64,498
9	The Future of Real Estate Marketing	+	1	71,527
10	Housing Doom	+	3	75,933
11	Altos Research Real Estate Insights	+	10	79,070
12	Phoenix Real Estate Guy	-	4	79,700
13	Raincity Guide	-	1	81,398
14	GeekEstate Blog	+	2	87,904
15	Trulia Blog	-	4	90,655
16	Mortgage Fraud Blog	+	3	110,796
17	Blown Mortgage	+	3	114,099
18	4Realz.net	-	3	131,150
19	St. Paul RE Blog	-	1	134,348
20	Real Estate Radio USA	-	6	134,855
21	Miamism	+	6	135,487
22	Transparent Real Estate	-	5	139,822
23	Real Estate Zebra	+	21	172,809
24	Arizona Real Estate Notebook	+	16	175,281
25	The xBroker	+	17	186,217
26	Buffalo/Niagara Real Estate Homes		0	195035
27	Denver Real Estate & Relocation	-	3	227,276
28	Sandbars to Sunsets	+	10	230,271
29	Foreclosure Truth	+	28	236,109
30	Seattle Condo Blog	+	1	236,960
31	Maxsell	-	3	239,571
32	360 Digest	-	6	251,548
33	REALCentralVA	+	3	253,686
34	Luxury Home Digest		0	255,520
35	Sacramento Real Estate Voice	-	5	257,089
36	MLPodcast Blog	+	11	262,257
37	Long Beach Real Estate	-	14	274,425
38	Urbnlivn	-	3	276,491
39	REagent in CT	-	14	291,413
40	Dothan Home Search	-	11	321,639
41	Phoenix Area Real Estate Blog	-	9	345,672
42	Virginia Real Estate News	+	20	351,218
43	Just New Listings	+	8	353,452
44	Lenderama	-	22	353,707
45	My Tucson Blog	+	11	354,226
46	The Get Home Denver Team	-	5	363,814
47	House Blogger	+	3	371,894
48	Colorado Springs RE Connection	-	5	388,880
49	Mortgage Porter		0	393,673
50	Focus on Crofton	+	20	401,542
51	IndyRealEstateTalk.com	+	18	404,072
52	HousingBubbleCasualty	+	19	412,318
53	Realty Thoughts	+	7	418,565
54	New Hampshire Real Estate Blog	+	14	428,720
55	Triple Mint	+	6	436,374
56	Maureen McCabe	+	11	440,779
57	NYC Blog Estate	+	9	441,461
58	Phoenix Real Estate	-	19	455,403
59	Real Estate Technology Coaching	+	5	458,709
60	REI Blog	-	1	479,060
61	Foster City Blog	+	18	488,938
62	Mi Oakland County	-	10	584,456
63	NewHampshireMaineRealEstate.com		0	598,688
64	Lane Bailey	-	10	609,667
65	Gary Bolen	-	32	619,391
66	AnnArborRealEstateTalk.com	-	8	687,809
67	Reno Realty	-	14	707,029
68	RealEstateSnippets.com	-	20	727,459
69	Bryant Tutas	+	5	738,006
70	Jim Lee	-	15	753,052
71	San Diego Preview	-	34	815,078
72	Thesa Chambers	+	4	815,522
73	RobinAshley.com		0	857,910
74	Las Vegas Real Estate		0	863,388
75	Marchel Peterson	+	2	893,801
76	Maggie Dokic	-	3	893,812
77	Real Crozet VA	-	32	918,942
78	Ryan Hukill		0	930,155
79	The Landlord Blog	-	4	952,839
80	BlogCalabasas.com		0	959,722
81	San Mateo RE News	-	9	960,838
*	Does not rank. Blogs will be removed from list after two consecutive months of DNR designation.

Redfin - Usability testing reveals consumers can't see ads

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:10:31 -0500

Redfin is going to be hugely successful and kick the pants off of it's competitors. They are going to achieve this not because there is anything special about their pricing model but because they are executing flawlessly in a wholey consumer centric way and are developing the best online experience bar none.

Glenn published a great post today about usability testing (It was later removed. Only guessing that they took it down because it could be construed as being disrespectful to their clients/testers.)

Here are some of my favorite lines from the post: (I quoted liberally from the article because so much of it was valuable.)

A web designer couldn’t figure out our website. A former brokerage customer didn’t seem to realize we were a brokerage. Someone used Google to search Redfin’s search site.

Every time we tried to give the usability subjects a marketing message about how great we are, they didn’t merely dismiss it or bypass it. They didn’t even ignore it. They never saw it in the first place, because they were so engrossed in our real estate search application.

...We would blast them with a huge graphic about our customer service, right in the middle of the screen, and then, after asking them if they saw anything about customer service, watch as their cursor orbited the graphic in a long, fruitless search.

...When we exposed a button for scheduling a home tour, the usability subjects jumped all over it, because it was part of the application. The ... users were suddenly making quantum leaps of deduction: “you have a tours button, so you must have agents in addition to a website, so you must make money as a brokerage, probably splitting the commission since it’s partially on the web.”

What that means for us is that we’re going to have keep working to build a home-buying application that guides people all the way through escrow, rather than building a search site that reels customers in, then shows them an ad for our brokerage business.

Washington Post writes about Real Estate Blogging & ActiveRain

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:34:41 -0500

"...No longer must potential home buyers and sellers actually speak to real estate professionals to meet them. Instead, consumers are accessing agents' ever-more-common blogs, social network pages or viral video campaigns -- all of the burgeoning options that have been called Web 2.0 -- to tap their expertise and get a sense of their personalities. Some meet agents who quickly feel like buddies; others go with discount brokers and don't have any direct contact with their agent until they're ready to put a bid on a house.

"In this type of environment the cream rises to the top," said Jonathan Washburn, chief executive of ActiveRain, a popular real estate blogging site that boasts membership of more than 100,000 real estate professionals. Traditional advertising provides limited information, he said, but online, agents "get a chance to demonstrate their actual expertise by writing about things that are relevant to the consumer.""

Read the entire article here

(I also would like to thank Simone for writing a great article.)

Top Real Estate Blogs - August

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:53:01 -0500

Rank	Website	Index Change		Average
1	Curbed	+	2	23,005
2	Bigger Pockets	+	2	32,492
3	The Housing Bubble Blog	+	2	52,909
4	Bloodhound Blog	+	2	72,972
5	The Real Estate Bloggers	+	4	78,483
6	Sellsius Real Estate Marketing		0	78,819
7	Agent Genius	+	3	79,316
8	Phoenix Real Estate Guy	+	5	83,546
9	Zillow Blog	-	1	87,935
10	The Future of Real Estate Marketing	-	3	90,140
11	Trulia Blog	+	1	97,623
12	Raincity Guide	-	1	106,423
13	Housing Doom	+	5	111,106
14	Real Estate Radio USA	+	6	138,368
15	4Realz.net	+	1	151,290
16	GeekEstate Blog	-	2	152,850
17	Transparent Real Estate		0	154,376
18	St. Paul RE Blog	+	3	160,339
19	Mortgage Fraud Blog	+	3	165,092
20	Blown Mortgage	-	5	168,266
21	Altos Research Real Estate Insights	+	2	170,834
22	Lenderama	-	3	186,363
23	Long Beach Real Estate	+	2	190,711
24	Denver Real Estate & Relocation		0	261,381
25	REagent in CT	+	2	267,456
26	360 Digest		0	291,952
27	Miamism	+	7	293,107
28	Maxsell	+	14	318,583
29	Dothan Home Search	+	12	324,554
30	Sacramento Real Estate Voice	+	1	333,712
31	Seattle Condo Blog		0	346,685
32	Phoenix Area Real Estate Blog	+	13	354,523
33	Gary Bolen	+	28	363,986
34	Luxury Home Digest	-	6	364,125
35	Urbnlivn		0	408,837
36	REALCentralVA	-	3	413,535
37	San Diego Preview	-	8	425,495
38	Sandbars to Sunsets	-	8	428,661
39	Phoenix Real Estate	+	15	446,396
40	Arizona Real Estate Notebook	-	1	447,109
41	The Get Home Denver Team	+	17	452,788
42	The xBroker	-	10	457,678
43	Colorado Springs RE Connection	-	5	467,629
44	Real Estate Zebra	-	9	471,631
45	Real Crozet VA	+	27	473,704
46	Brian Brady	-	9	526,753
47	MLPodcast Blog	-	11	530,958
48	RealEstateSnippets.com	+	9	539,700
49	Mortgage Porter		0	550,848
50	House Blogger	-	3	570,359
51	Just New Listings		0	570,400
52	Mi Oakland County	-	12	597,725
53	Reno Realty	-	7	630,584
54	Lane Bailey		0	631,543
55	Jim Lee	+	8	644,572
56	My Tucson Blog	-	7	662,955
57	Foreclosure Truth		0	726,063
58	AnnArborRealEstateTalk.com	-	2	749,578
59	REI Blog	-	12	778,779
60	Realty Thoughts	-	10	892,413
61	Triple Mint	-	12	895,092
62	Virginia Real Estate News	-	8	900,243
63	NewHampshireMaineRealEstate.com	+	4	905,410
64	Real Estate Technology Coaching		0	925,822
65	Blue60	-	18	1,005,378
66	NYC Blog Estate		0	1,041,939
67	Maureen McCabe	-	5	1,080,956
68	New Hampshire Real Estate Blog		0	1,098,850
69	IndyRealEstateTalk.com	-	9	1,155,854
70	Focus on Crofton	-	19	1,219,760
71	HousingBubbleCasualty	-	5	1,223,262
72	San Mateo RE News	-	7	1,322,570
73	Maggie Dokic	-	31	1,379,001
74	Bryant Tutas	+	1	1,558,550
75	The Landlord Blog	-	5	1,616,784
76	Thesa Chambers	-	5	1,866,230
77	Marchel Peterson	-	3	1,914,026
78	Ryan Hukill	-	9	2,037,978
79	Foster City Blog	-	6	2,072,945
80	BlogCalabasas.com	-	13	2,292,942
	My Charlottesvile			*DNR
	Las Vegas Real Estate			*DNR
*	Does not rank. Blogs will be removed from list after two consecutive months of DNR designation.

Jon Washburn: Dumbest statements ever, episode one

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:43:36 -0500

Scene: Me, at a "CEO Dinner" in Bellevue on Wednesday evening talking with two world-reknowned experts: the founder of the second-largest domain name registrar, and a very well-known CEO who founded many successful companies in the domain and hosting space.

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "I have a question about reselling domains; You guys both seem to know a lot about domains names."

Them (in unison): "*slight chuckle* Yeah."

me: *Silently realizing the credentials of who I was talking to, as though I had just asked Bill Gates for help with a computer problem I was having.*

What a weird species we are...

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:21:17 -0500

I look to Seth Godin for my daily inspiration. I love what he says. I base so much of how I run ActiveRain on his suggestions. Yet today I read a recent post of his and thought it was stupid. I find 1 out of maybe 100 of his posts unrelevant or dumb, so needless to say most of his stuff I get great value from.

But for this one post that I didn't like, the thought crossed my mind to shoot Seth an email letting him know that he missed the mark, however I've never written to thank him for the other 99% that are awesome.

Why are we wired this way?

Reblogging works. Real results in 30 minutes!

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:29:40 -0500

A crazy thing just happened. Sara's blog went full circle.

1. Read Sara's blog post in my Google feed Reader.

2. I then reblogged Sara's post on ActiveRain and my outside blog.

3. My friend James read my reblog of Sara's blog on his Google Reader.

4. James shared Sara's blog from his Google Reader account.

5. I read James' shared item of Sara's original post.

Wow.

My Walkscore is 100%

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:33:52 -0500

My new Seattle home has a perfect Walk Score! Thanks for sharing this great service Sara. Now I know all the cool stuff around my house.

Via Sara Bonert:

Walkscore is an incredible website for learning what individual neighborhoods have to offer within walking distance. Personally, living in Chicago, it is very important to me because my husband and I only have one car and he takes it to work everyday, leaving me to get places either by foot or bike. But my home has a walkscore of 91 (out of 100), so it isn't a problem.

This weekend I was at a cook out of some friends who recently had a child. This live in a condo in the hip neighborhood of Roscoe Village(their condo has a walkscore of 90). But now with child, you know where this conversation is headed, they decided its time to head to the burbs.

My friend was telling me how she spends hours online looking at homes and school district information, which wasn't a surprise to me. But I was surprised to hear her add "I walkscore every home I am interested in". Hmmm.... this walkscore site is now becoming so popular is becoming a verb...

This got me thinking, what a cool service it would be if an real estate website was able to put a search field for walkscore in their advanced search capablities. For examples, if you want to be pretty urban, show me homes with a walkscore of 80-100. If you want to be more remote, show me homes with a walkscore of 0-20. Walkscore does have some open source code posted on their site, I am not sure it is enough to create a search filter with yet. If someone could figure this search out, could be a pretty cool reason to use your site verses another agent's in town.

Get ready for the ActiveRain reBlog revolution...

Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 02:48:07 -0500

This video might be a little too racy for Bob's official post on this new feature but not for my blog! It reveals an interesting perspective on how members of Tumblr, another blogging network, are using reBlogging. Plus it is hilarious to boot.