Active Rain Beats Them All

Here is why. 2008 has been my best year -I worked as hard, but earned more. The most important reason -blogging, aside from me being the best Princeton agent:) Having dedicated last year to blogging I found Active rain to be the most stable solution of them all. Here is a report on my findings.

Selecting Your Blog provider.

Selecting a company to develop/host and support your blog is critical, unless you are a pro and doing it all by yourself. Here I refer to blogs outside of Active Rain platform. This may seem self evident, but it's far from easy to accomplish. Here is a little glimpse into my travails:
1. Signed-up with reputable Company #1. Initially things were OK, but soon deteriorated. Personnel changes lead to difficulties.
2. Signed up with another provider. Read #1.
3. Signed with Company #3. Read #2. The site is still not working after several months.
4.Signed up with Company #4. Much work was lost in transition. I won't say much more for now. Check it out here - Princeton Real Estate Homes.
5. "Learned" Wordpress.org. Designed my own blog. Learned that Blog Designer  is not what I want to be when I grow up. Checked it out here, leave a comment and please be kind:) It's work in progress - Princeton Real Estate Guide.
6. Active Rain in the meantime remained there all along with no problems. And at a cost of my time alone this is still the best deal in town.

Photo by Zeets Jones

 Tips for those contemplating venturing outside Active Rain:

1. Start an outside blog, only if you have a strategy of how it will improve your overall Internet presence. Having another blog may not add much to you being found on the Internet.
2. Start another blog to protect your future Internet presence, if Active Rain changes in some dramatic way. You need to protect your content. Another blog may be you insurance policy and may mature in Google eyes with time.
3. Links are proverbial make it or break it for blogs - the outstanding content is a given. Having multiple blogs could delute your individual blogs' link "strength", unless you have a strategy for increasing links for each blog.
4. Having a micro-niche blog may or may not  benefit your overall presence - back to the links importance. Micro-niche could be achieved from your existing blog, by careful selection of key words that are less competitive and accomplish your business goal. This was my approach this year and it worked. 

Please comment and share your experiences on providers, link building strategies, niche marketing or any other successful blogging strategy.