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How Did You Find Active Rain?

We were on line when brokers were not allowing us to use email for business. That seems like eons ago. We still had those MLS books we carried around with us! Do you remember those?

Back in 1997 Real Estate was really just in a pre- infancy state on the Internet. We were on the leading edge of what was happening on line but that is a different story.

We went offline in 2002 and that is another story also.

In 2006 we decided to go on line again with our new real estate brokerage. But I was now determined not to be taken for a ride again with all the bells and whistles enticing real estate agents to buy the snake oil and witch's brews. I was also adamant about not learning about on line marketing from anyone in the real estate market based on past sour experiences and figuring out that most of those salespeople had really NO clue about on line marketing.

So that began my research and studies. I searched for the top Internet gurus who sold product, physical and information products on line and who were actually making money doing so. Each night I began my studies about 8 p.m. and became so interested with such a desire to learn all that I could. On line marketing fascinates me and really gets my creative juices flowing. I know that all I need is a good team of assistants to really dominate niches on line. I would not stop researching, taking webinars, listening to conferences and then applying what I was taught in a non real estate capacity to see if this all really worked until the wee morning hours. Most nights I would not go to sleep until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m.

We were going to do it right this time.

So after much research and trial and error I bought into a website that was proven to be another mistake. Like- did I not learn from all these classes I just took? I learned my lesson rather quickly that this particular website was just another gimmick. However, during the time that we had this website- we remained in the Google sand box for quite a while. I was not even indexed. The site was crappy to crawl also.

Getting links would be the key to getting our website out of the Google sand box and get it at least partly indexed until I could find the right website for our business model. Since I knew that I had to get topically related links I searched for real estate related forums.

Finding about 4 to 5 different real estate forums on which to participate in the conversation with; we began to build links back to our website and in about 2 months of doing that we found ourselves on page 22 of Google for our main keywords. I was so excited that this was actually working. Of course, we all know that page 22 on Google means nothing in the real scope of searching but nevertheless it felt really good to finally be indexed.

It was more exciting to discovery that linking back to our website from these forums was working because there are a lot of nasty people on those forums. Oh my gosh! I had never known such nasty and mean spirited real estate agents ever in my 25+ years of being in this business. In fact, I did not know these nasty people really existed in the on line world until I witnessed for myself how mean they were towards each other and towards the consumers. I would bite my tongue more than type. Each morning my routine was to comment on the forums for about 30 minutes. With the start of each morning I would have to tell myself, " Remember why you are here. You are only here to get the link back to your website. Don't pay attention to the rude people here." Good thing I could separate the two!

One day in one of these forums one of the agents had placed a link to Active Rain and said that all agents should be on Active Rain.

I decided to take a peek with reservation based on the treatment I had come to know in these real estate forums. I think I landed on the home page of Active Rain. It actually appeared to be a bit overwhelming. There happened to be a featured post on the reader board by Sally Cheeseman.

I noticed that Sally was from Hawaii . I lived in Hawaii for 5 years and it is my favorite place on earth. I like to always keep in touch with all that is going on in Hawaii. So I began to read all of Sally's Hawaiian posts. I felt her warmth and genuine goodness.

Wow, a nice place? Could it be? A warm and fuzzy place where I could feel welcome but also get links back to our website? Hmmmm, felt like a breath of fresh air!

I joined Active Rain in late June of 2007 and started blogging. Then I discovered quite by accident - the point system- I was hooked!

But best of all, within 8 weeks we were #3 on page one on Google for our main keywords. I keep a journal and decided to go back to the time that this happened. My journal entry on August 13,2007 says, " I am So excited! So Excited! Our website is now #3 on Google! And I did it all myself by blogging! By Blogging on Active Rain! WOW!"

So how did you find Active Rain?

Posted by Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Luxury Homes on 07/05/2009 06:24 PM

Comments (97)

Active Rain Community Support in the ActiveRain Channel

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97 Comments on How Did You Find Active Rain?

JUL

I found Active Rain due to a magazine article in the FAR (Florida Association of Realtors) magazine. I didn't know anyone that used it, and at first I didn't "get" it...but it didn't take long. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Great article. The internet which allows our web sites to advertise for us had opened up a lot of business for us. Most buyer clients search on the internet first. Newspaper are a thing of the past.

Your Queen Creek Real Estate Specialist

Katerina --- --- I'm just trying to remember how I found out about Active Rain -- I honestly don't remember - I joined in Sept. 2008, but never did anything with it until end of Jan. 2009 when Rebecca Levinson held a seminar for our company -- she inspired me to get into it and wow -- now, I'm addicted.

Mama Liz's Signature

Katerina, I found Activerain through the Realtor magazine in January. The article said that if you're not using Facebook, activerain and Twitter for your Real Estate business, you will be within the next 12 months. I decided that my goal for 2009 was to understand these new techy items. I've ceryainly learned a lot!

I was invited to AR by a friend of mine in Myrtle Beach that I knew from my SEO link building efforts, then I later heard more "buzz" about this community when I was hanging out on the Real Estate Webmasters forum, so I decided to come give it another try. I joined and made a profile in December of 2006, but I started actively blogging and commenting in August 2007.

I found Active Rain via Ben Kinney of Keller Williams Bellingham Washington. Ben actually taught a course on Internet Lead generation for my office in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia which I missed, however I got a hold of one of his handout packages and actually read it. He mentioned Active Rain & Hot Frog both of which I tried out and loved using. The rest is history...

I have always felt badly that I didnt subscribe through Ben and he has received no credit for my membership which he deserves, I didnt know anything about the points structure so I do have an excuse.

My finding Active Rain was as a result of the Keller Williams culture of sharing ideas, a culture which I am happy to say is emulated here as well in the Rain.

I had heard about it from fellow agents, but I really was motivated to check it out after attending the REBAR Conference in Boston this past June. Seemed it was all the buzz there, so I joined and I'm hooked too!

--Tim

I was invited by Bonnie Erickson from St. Paul - she read possibly my second or third post ever on my first outside blog and invited me. I got started, then took time out, then re-engaged adn have not yet looked back.

Jeff

I was invited by one of my Realtor friends, Carol Lee. Hubby now curses her (affectionately) about "corrupting" me with AR.

I was invited by Randy Prothero from my office and I didn't start until four months after. ...and the rest is an ongoing story :)

I found it by reading blogs and comments and finally realizing if I did post here I would not be eaten alive like I saw happening on so many blogs for months previously that kept me from posting after the first couple attacks. Finally, Active Rain, a safe place to live and learn the business, what a relief indeed!

Katerina - Someone mentioned it at a social networking event, so I decided to find out what it was all about. I am glad I landed here first. I learn something new every day.

Hi Nestor and Katerina: I found ActiveRain through a loan officer who recommended it to me!

Last year I hire a tech person to help me learn what I was missing in the technology part of my Real Estate career. She immediately had me join Active Rain. Emily Lowe. I've thanked her many times.

I found AR through an agent who mentioned about it on Agentsonline.net. At first, it was presented in the wrong way as she constantly mentioned it as if she was getting something in return. The "something" in return was the invitation point.

Of course, I didn't know what it was and it took me 6 mths to finally join - for fun. Little did I know, it would make such an impact on my business.

I was invited by a local attorney and although he does not blog he is earning points each time I do.

I am pretty sure a few people had sent me an invite a few years ago and I finally decide to sign up but it took a few months before I started using it but boy am I glad that I did.

JUL

I "found" AR long ago just browsing for info on the net. I did not truly understand what it was until I recently came upon a post by an agent whom I know and respect -- whose office places high in Google -- and credits AR for much of that success.

I was invited by a favored office colleague. She hasn't completed her profile nor ever posted, despite my prompts, but is racking up points because I do!

And I owe her BIG TIME!

I had read about blogging and felt it would be the next big thing...so I started a blog on WordPress. com and then one on blogger.

One night I was surfing the net and came across Activerain. So I thought why not?

I joined and quickly noticed the point system, it was fun and a challenge to get myself up to Number 1 in Ann Arbor, but even more exciting was people were actually commenting....something never happened on WP or Blogger. I was hooked...and hooked quickly became addicted.

To say I have learned so much and met so many folks is an understatement. The opportunities Activerain has opened up for are endless.

Wow the best night of surfing in my life.

I found out about AR through a feature in REALTOR Magazine. It took me a couple of months to make the plunge. My regret is that I didn't get started sooner. :)

I honestly cannot remember. Signed up in 2006, forgot about it, then came back to it in 2008 when I re-launched my internet marketing after going solo. Trying to get my agents on board but their blinkers are too big.

I think I found out about Active Rain from Inman News. That was in 2006. I didn't start blogging right away, but I did create a profile. I was already doing blogs on my homebuying web site at about.com and didn't feel it was necessary to write a different blog. But there are things I will say in my personal blog now that may not appeal to a national audience, so it makes sense to me to do both.

I found out about activerain quite by accident when researching something real estate related. I joined a couple of years ago, but did't actively start following until 2009. It's a fountain of info!

JUL

My daughter, Annie signed me up for AR a while ago and did a basic profile, then forgot to tell me about it. About 6 months later, she mentioned it again, and I read blogs for a week, finally wrote one myself. I got some kind comments, was amazed, wrote a few more after learning from you. My website went from page kazillion on Google to page one right away.

Funny thing is - my daughter got me going and kept researching my stuff, but she had a profile and never wrote a post - She now wants to help me with staging and write about it - but she will have to pay the membership fee to be a Rainmaker, and she IS the Rainmaker behind the scenes for me.

the guy that did my website told me about it! Glad he did.

Patricia AUlson/portsmouth nh real estate

I was invited by By Referral Only member Katrina Madewell. ~Nyssa

I found AR in a round about way via the e-PRO course. So yes, e-PRO was worth every penny and more! I kept reading on RealTalk about AR and was always fascinated with computer and technology anything. Also was constantly looking for new and better marekting avenues. At first I didn't pay much attention to AR, but I finally joined and was nearly immediately hooked. Been here about 2 years, June 07 also. One of the best real estate decisions I've made. Wish I had joined sooner.

I found active rain at a constant urging of an escrow company employee. I blew her off for awhile and then looked at it. What a find. It has been a real support base when I needed it!

I found activerain because someone I knew from a forum found it and he started sending invite links to everyone. I think he invited like 200 people those first couple of weeks AR was around. I'm AR member #471, and now there are over 151k!!

The points are meaningless unless you're putting ca$h in your pocket!!

Katerina, I found activerain when I was doing a goggle search for "expireds". I didn't even know anything like this existed. I am so happy that I am a part of this wonderful network. I have learned so much in the past few months and everyone has been so helpful and willing to share their knowledge.

Katerina.... I found Active Rain because of Nima Rezven and Brian Brady who told me to check out this site. I didn't at first, because I thought it would be like myspace... just a bunch of kids on a site, many of which gave childish comments in a forum that I started on myspace. After about 3 weeks of listing to Brian Brady, I finally joined on October 1st, 2006 and wrote my first blog 3 days later... and yes, at first, the point system hooked me. ... then meeting some wonderful people and networking.... but what keeps me on here is the google juice and the business... and from meeting people like yourself, Nestor, and Lisa..

jeff belonger

LOL!!! Right here -->

http://activerain.com/blogsview/45236/so-i-was-bored-

Fun post to see how people found AR. Back in early 2007 I was online, Googling "home staging" and came across an AR blog by Craig Schiller. I thought, well this AR looks like an interesting place and was promptly hooked! It's been a great place to learn, share, and get consumer exposure too!

I found Active Rain when a guy was compairing his site to AR's before he changed it to include blogging. I used to be a member of his site...no more!

Katerina, I found it in 2006 but didn't do any blogging with it for well over a year. Wasn't sure what Active Rain was all about. I think I read about it somewhere and got the link. I don't even think I was reading blogs in the early days. It just went dormant with me as a member.

I did a Google search. I have no idea what words I used. I think it was networking and real estate. That was in June of 2006. I didn't do much until October because life got in the way. So I really feel Oct is my anniversary date.

Not all that long ago an SEO company called me to do a free analysis of my website. In conversation with the woman setting my phone appointment with the "expert" to go over the report, she asked me if I was a member, and admonished me when I said no. She explained the benefits, then after listening to what they would do, what it would cost, investigating here on AR, well.. the rest is history. I kept my money in my pocket and here I am.

I was told about Active Rain at a WCR conference by Amy Chorew of Matthew Ferrara & Company. Thank you Amy.

I joined AR in April this year. I was researching about online lead generation programs online and found one blog from an AR memeber about it. That is how I came to know about AR and joined and am enjoying every minute of being here.

I was invited by Kristal Kraft who I knew from RealTalk and ePRO . . . 3 years ago on the 17th of this month. :)

it came to me in a dream! Actually, Donna Harris dragged me here.

I found Active Rain before I was a Realtor by googling for relocation info on different cities we had possible job offers in. (bad sentence structure, but I'm sure you get what I mean). ActiveRain posts always popped up on the 1st page of any search I did, no matter the city I was looking at. Lots of good info that I passed on to hubby as he was interviewing around.

Funny thing is, I pretty much FORGOT all about ActiveRain when I became a Realtor 18 months ago....DUH on me, I know....and rediscovered it thru my e-PRO class about 6 months ago.

Remembering how helpful it was to me as a professional relocatee, I jumped right in....and here I am!

I found Active Rain in a marketing class I was teaching for a real estate company I was a trainer for. One day during class a new agent said "Have you been on Active Rain? It is great you need to try it!" I did! I joined, learned and then wrote AR and blogging into my business plan for 2009! Now I teach about it in my 3 hour Online Marketing MCE class! Lovin' the Rain!

Jeani

I found Active Rain by what Blantche Evans of www.RealtyTimes.com told a real estate agent seeking advice on how to get more business. Can't remember everything she said but when Blantche Evans speak,people listen and I am when she told the real estate agent to become a member of Activerain.com,I did the same thing. I have met many great people like you and Nestor who I am constantly learning from. Love Activerain.com but I am still looking for my first lead-LOL. But its coming. Great post.

Katerina: Just wanted to come by and say it was nice talking to you today. ;) As always we seem to have a good conversation going with open minds....no matter what we're talking about.

I was invited by an office colleague. She hasn't written too many posts, despite my giving her some short training, but she is racking up points as I keep pretty active on AR.

I found AR by googling local spots. AR kept coming up. How happy was I when I found out it was FREE!!!! :) And Hawaii is my favorite place on earth too :)

I found AR by researching BPO information. I don't recall exactly WHO it was, but I bookmarked their blog and realized it was a huge real estate network. I would spend DAYS looking up all kind of info, reading tons of blogs until I jumped into blogging - and STARTED GETTING BUSINESS FROM IT! The rest is history...

Our ARA newsletter recommended blogging and listed a few sites. I tried several and liked this one best. I dropped realtalk which I'd been on.

I honestly can't remember how I got here. But I think it was about free blogging or just the name Active rain and blogging that got me here.

I got an email from an agent that had link to AR. I don't like the agent, I don't like their business model, but I clicked the link and well here I am. And I check out their blog every once and again and it doesn't get much effort.

I was invited by Kevin Cahill, Keller Williams agent . I didn't use the link he sent, and later I was able to remedy that misstep by contacting the guys at AR, and they gave him the points he was due! I am very, very grateful to be a part of AR!

Maureen McCabe invited me to ActiveRain way back in August, 2006. Since then she's earned over 100,000 points just on invites. Thanks, Maureen!

Hi Katerina, I heard about it from Donna Harris and Greg Nino!

I think I found AR when I googled other real estate agent's names ... not sure when I got the "bug" but I try to read posts at least every other day ... wish I had 48 hrs in a day :)

Katerina - I had heard of ActiveRain through my own research while studying for my license. I was searching around to learn a few things and happened upon it, read a few things, and never thought much more about it. My head was full of a million sites, tools, and ideas - so it's not a surprise. One day while at an open house, I was chatting with Kristin Moran on Twitter and we were talking about her business. She had just closed a transaction thanks to ActiveRain and I asked a few questions. That afternoon, I received an invititation from Kristin and joined up. Now I work with her.

This is really a great response to this question. I think we can get some good data from these comments. It seems as though many people are invited to Active Rain by someone they knew.

My broker invited me, after he had been invited by our real estate coach, and that was back in 2007. What I missed in the last year and a half before I really jumped in. The really sad thing is, now I'm hooked, and my broker doesn't even bother.

In March 2007 I had attended a free half day seminar on how to use the Internet to build your real estate business. One of the speakers was Dustin Luther, and he fired me up to check out Active Rain. I have never heard of it before. I went home that same day and created an account.

Hi Katerina! What a great story--even though I've heard it, I certainly did enjoy the read! Sally is most definitely warm and welcoming to newbies and I'm glad she welcomed you here too! As you know, my former coach told me to join and I didn't for awhile--thought I could NEVER, EVER possibly write a comment but, I enjoyed reading others' comments! Then, I got my feet wet and now, it's a shower-a-day to keep the real estate boredom at bay!

Congrats on that little gold star too!

Searching for a specific answer to a question... I found three or four networks... I stayed on one...

Hi Katerina -- I stumbled on AR by accident back in 2007, but never gave it serious consideration until late last year when I was Googling something and ran across numerous AR posts and got hooked again.

I was looking for real estate syndication sites. I ended up finding an article that covered tools that all real estate agents need to use - including ActiveRain. I worked through the list. Tried them all and stuck with the ones that worked for me.

JUL

I'm not sure how I got here when I first signed up, but I posted my profile maybe made a comment or two and then left.

Then a year ago, I took a class with Dustin Luther and Jim Marks who strongly advocated AR. I came back, took another look and haven't wanted to leave since.

Great post!

I found Activerrain while searching for new real estate forums to post on, trying to increase my web presence. It's amazing how much free marketing one can do online by forums and mediums like activerain.

Katerina, what a fabulous post! I cannot, for the life of me, remember how I heard about ActiveRain. It might have been through a real estate technology seminar I attended about three years ago in Las Vegas. At first, I didn't really understand it. It has only been around six months ago that I became more active. Now that I have found the point system I have really taken off.

The points system got me.. .I'm very competitive (in a good way) and AR reel me in. .

Yes, I could not agree more with most forum out there. I tried Craigslist forum one day, I did not stay more than 15 minutes. Insults raining from everywhere and everyone...so sad...

Cathy Chaudemanche

Hi Katerina, I learned about Active Rain from my sister our office manager. She was researching different things about short sales and new rulings and kept finding AR posts. She was bugging me, take a look at this place, agents comment and share is feels like when you go to a real estate boot camp only it's Online!

So, I nervously joined in June 2008. I am a member of a real estate team and not a lead agent so I felt shy about putting myself out there so to speak. That said, it was one of the best decisions I've made in a long time, now I am able to generate business and we all benefit. Here's what happened in two months time of committing to Blogging. I too keep a journal so to speak, my blog has generated ten closed sales for a total of $3.2 Million in sales volume. It wasn't the point system that hooked me, it was the sharing of information and the ability to comment and exchange idea's. What really got me hooked was when consumers started to read my posts and respond by calling and saying "can you help me?" or " I read online that you helped..." or "I just read your blog post online about ______ ,and I feel like you are the agent I want to work with!"

And you said it best-"I did it all myself by blogging! By Blogging on Active Rain! WOW!"

And yes, I did all by myself with blogging on Active Rain! WOW!!!!

I joined AR after encouragement from one of my real estate friends, Trish Russo. Ever since I've been hooked.

I found Active Rain in July of 2007 on Inman News. It took me about five minutes to know this was going to be my online blogging community.

Mike in Tucson

Jim Lee invited a bunch of us from RealTalk. You could not do so openly within the forum so he emailed. I came I signed up and I forgot all about it for a week or so. Then a couple of people asked me if I wanted "to associate" so I came back and set up a profile and "associated" with Ann Cummings and a couple of others I knew from RT... looked around and invited all the real estate bloggers I knew and some joined. I thought it was something we could use to promote our blogs that we already had but then Jim Lee emailed me "Start blogging... " I've been active since mid August 2006.....

Katerina, Thanks for sharing your story. I can relate to the learning and getting hooked and staying online until 3am. I found Active Rain through my Women's Council of Realtors chapter. They are the warm and fuzzy - sharing kind of agents I love to associate with. They share so many tips, tools and secrets you'd hardly believe we are in the same business. Now it took some courage to hit POST that first time. I wasn't sure what blogging was or what I had to blog about. Now I can't imagine real estate without Active Rain

I found Active Rain, from a blowhard agent, on Zillow, who kept talking about his "blogs" over here on Active Rain. I had followed his link a couple of times, and found AR to be clunky and hard to follow. Plus it already had a taint due to the connection with the pompous Realtor who'd led me here.

About a year later, Sylvia Barry (who was also on Zillow) invited me... I declined, and told her that AR just wasn't for me. Several months later, I decided to pop in and see what all the buzz was about...

I learned about it through Bernice Ross at the MAR conference in Ocean City back in 2007. She talked about all the major social networking sites at the time (Active Rain, LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, Real Estate Tomato, etc. and it opened my eyes to what was going on today on the internet.

I remember her mentioning "Second Life" and I thought no way, that will never take off. When I got back from the conference, I mentioned it to my 24 year old son, only to find out he was registered on the site and had his own second life profile!

Bernice Ross is cool, she's got it going on.

I found it thru Mario Romero in 2006 and then quickly got caught up opening our new office. Went to a marketing semianar in Oct 2008 and didn't buy into what they were selling BUT I did remember activer rain and thought I'd go back to see what is was about. Dabbled for a month or two and then jumped in early in 2009. Haven't looked back - it's been the best thing I've done in years.

Wonderful Post Katerina!

PS Just last weekend I emailed Mario and asked him why he's not posting or involved but no word yet. Why do people stop?

I read about it at the Agentsonline.net forum where I would read but not post. The person posted an invitation but I opted to sign up independently and created my AR in September 2008. I never posted until I received an email notice basically telling me that if I do not have any blog posts then I would have to pay so I made one blog post initially. AR seemed very clunky to me.

Later I started coming back slowly though sometimes the clunkiness still annoys me once in awhile. (I"ve been online since 1989.) In some ways it still seems clunky to me but the GJuice is great and some of the posts here are so helpful so I can't help but log in more often. I try to post here in addition to my other blogs. Aloha, Lana

Nestor: I took the advice of a lady who was a virtual assistant who suggested I start blogging. That was also in June 2007. I've never looked back and love the Rain!

I went to a seminar and the speaker asked how many of you are on ActiveRain. I never heard of it. A bunch of hands went up and I made a note to self. The rest is history

Man, I'm trying to think - I honestly don't remember my first experience with AR, but I'm sure glad I found it!

Great post Katerina! Enjoyed reading everyone's reasons for being here. For me it was a Dick Betts seminar at our TMLS board back in April of 2008. First I'd ever really heard of the effects of blogging. He'd mentioned a couple of places which I checked out but found my nesting here in the rain. And it was Eleanor Thorne that helped guide me on posting my blogs and getting my 1st feature. My gracious thanks to both of them...

Katerina,

I stumbled onto Activerain while working on SEO for my websites. Glad I did:)

Katerina - I discovered ActiveRain when I was talking to a tech support person - and I checked it out created a profile, and away I went. There are so many resources here and support, I went to my first ReBar Camp a week ago and I would not have known about it if I did not network with AR members.

I first heard about ActiveRain in an office meeting at my former company. My manager asked the agents to share what they were doing to advertise their business. One of the agents mentioned that he discovered ActiveRain and described the site. My manager freaked out. She said that we were not allowed to post any comments or opinions on paper or in any online forum unless she reviewed and approved the content. She threatened to sign off on the license of anyone who participated at ActiveRain or put any inormation online without her approval. (That manager is no longer working at that company or as a manager.)

I visited ActiveRain and found it to be a great source of information.

Katerina, I found Activerain through Google Alerts in 2006. When I got an alert I always went to see what the source was because if it was bring them up, it would bring ME up. I joined that same day but was afraid to post for a long time. I read and learned about everything and have been here ever since :)

Via an article on Real Estate blogging. I don't remember the original source although I do remember reading about it several times before I actually moved forward. Since joining, I have opened up many doors, many possibilities, and learned a great deal about social networking and internet marketing (among other things). This is a fantastic community.

I read an article in a Real Estate Magizine and decided I should start blogging. I got hooked by the point system too.

This is SOOO interesting! I am loving reading each and every one of your comments. Thanks so much for sharing so much in the way of you finding Active Rain. Word of mouth works! I think it is so refreshing to read about each other's journey here. It also helps to know where online you might be or offline, that we may invite or be instrumental in someone else joining AR. Thank you for all your wonderful input too.

I received an e-mail from an online friend, Maureen Francis. Maureen and I had been participants in an online forum or listserve, RealTalk, populated by some truly wonderful real estate folks, and some truly nasty folks. In fact, I had ceased to participate because of their new awkward format and the continued nasties.

So, I joined ActiveRain in August 2006 and I haven't been quite right since.

I rediscovered ActiveRain in January thanks to George Tallabas after being invited by a lender in August 2006. Sadly enough the lender that originally sent me an invitation is not active and doesn't even have 2,000 points, but George was and continues to be an inspiration. After truly committing in late January this year, I'd like to think of myself as a regular contributor and can't imagine my real estate career without it.

So how did you find Active Rain?

The famous AR Google Juice! :) I was doing research for clients. I noticed listings posted on ActiveRain were coming up highly ranked. That's not easy to do, so I decided to learn more.

Lenn- So I see:) LOL!

Bruce- I have not seen you around for a while!

Hi Katerina.....I Joined Feb 12, 2007, I believe there was around 10,000 members, I had read a Mortgage Broker Site about something and noticed he had a link to Active Rain..to this day he has not moved from where he was then at 17,000 Points, who knows how long he had been a member then, his Name is Troy Alexander a MTG Broker here in Victoria, BC..Go Figure. Then one Foggy Xmas I meet you on AR and I think I was you First Student, what an experience that was...:O))

I would Love to Work with you and Nestor Every Day. Thanks for Joining AR !!

JUL

Interesting question Katerina - I remember doing a Google search for some real estate term, now forgotten. The top spot was none other than our very own Broker Bryant. Clicking through, I found his Active Rain post. I spent almost the entire day reading on AR - that was back in the summer of 2006.

I did a lot of reading - for months -- before I joined and posted. Truly priceless information and friendships!

(I so remember Lenn and Jim Lee from RealTalk. I learned so much from them "back in the day." But I too remember the nasty comments - another reason AR was so refreshing!)

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