There is a need for some clarification as to how RAINdexing or Indexing your Outside Blogs works on ActiveRain. With all the options available and the inter-connections between AR Blogs, Localism and Outside Blogs etc., I am going to try and simplify how it all works and what it all means. Since my recent post "poll survey results" concluded that reading was the #1 best way for the majority to learn, I'm opting to do a Blog post on this topic.
Here's the 5 areas we'll cover in order to help you grasp and get your arms around how this all works:
Channels, Topics, Localism, Outside Blogs, Categories & Local Post Widgets.
MAXIMIZING INDEXING ON OUTSIDE BLOGS - PART I
Indexing Your Outside Blog Categories Using Channels and Topics
TIP: The Channels and Topic options are located just below the Visibility Section when creating or editing a post.
When creating a new Blog post that you want to appear on your Outside Blog, it's imperative that you are adding the post to Channels and giving it a "TOPIC". Topics will appear on your Outside Blog as "Categories" and will be indexed or RAINdexed accordingly. When you apply the Categories Widget to your Outside Blog, your "Topics" will appear on the sidebar as "Categories." See below.
Here's a Screen-shot from the Outside Blog Sidebar
(This is referred to as the Category Widget)
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MAXIMIZING INDEXING ON OUTSIDE BLOGS - PART II
RAINdexing your Outside Blog Local Posts Using Localism and the Local Posts Widget
TIP: The Localism options are located just below the Visibility Section when creating or editing a post.
To have your Blog posts RAINdexed and sorted by Geographic Location, you'll need to add them to Localism for this Widget to work on your Outside Blog. Adding posts to Localism allows you to select State, County, City, and even down to a specific neighborhood. Having these geographic locations broken down this way allows viewers to search those specific Hyper-Local posts by "Index" for the areas they may be interested in.
Here's a Screen-shot from the Outside Blog Sidebar
(This is referred to as the Local Posts Widget)
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MAXIMIZING INDEXING ON OUTSIDE BLOGS - PART III
How To Add The Indexing / RAINdexing Widgets To Your Outside Blog
Step 1:
Go to your Outside Blog and Log-in
Step 2:
Click on the 
link at the top of the page and then click the 
button.
Step 3:
Open the "Add New Widget" pull-down menu and select "Categories" or "Local Posts" then repeat.
(you can only add one widget at a time)
Step 4:
You can use the 
button to align your Index Widgets by simply dragging and dropping them where you want them to appear on your Outside Blog sidebar. Once you're finished, just click on 
.
Step 5:
Click here to see a sample of how this has worked well for another AR member. RAINdexing is Powerful.
I hope this post clears up some of the confusion or misunderstanding of how all these tools work together to get you the best possible results and indexing of your Outside Blogs. As always, if you have any questions or need any assistance, our support staff and team are always ready and willing to help. If you do not currently have an outside blog but might be considering one in the future, taking these steps now will ensure you won't have to go back and make edits to your posts in the future.
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Related Articles To Assist You
How To Create and Maximize an ActiveRain Outside Blog - 10 easy steps
5 Suggested Ways To Maximize Your Group/Team Outside Blog
How To Drive Traffic To Your AR Outside Blogs
ActiveBlogs - Link Love and SEO
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Thanks again Brad,
I am really working on grasping all this useful technology. Great stuff.
Steve