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ActiveRain's got gas....

Lenn compared Google links on ActiveRain, Inman, Realtor.com, Zillow, etc.

ActiveRain losing gas? By what measurement?

Lenn is comparing Google Backlinks and Pages Indexed...

Traffic

I can't help comparing traffic but if you put huge sites like Realtor.com and Zillow in it makes ActiveRain look dinky... but I am comparing to Inman.com and to Realtown.com another social network for the real estate industry with blogs. Realtown is older than ActiveRain.com

Permalink to graph stats

Yearly growth in traffic for ActiveRain has grown over 40%. And look at that kinda pinky link there.... that is Localism.com Localism is up 16%... is Localism.com formally launched yet?

Feel free to go do a compete traffic graph comparing ActiveRain to Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow... whatever... actually here is a graph.... Edit Link was not showing all sites unless you were logged in...it was leaving Zillow off!

ActiveRain.com, Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Zillow.com

ActiveRain is a lot smaller than these behemoths... but if you look in the table below the yearly increase in traffic is better than Realtor.com and Trulia. Only Zillow has a better yearly increase in traffic with over 80%....

ActiveRain's got gas....

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Posted by Maureen McCabe Central OH Homes on 07/05/2009 11:49 AM

Comments (36)

ActiveRain in the ActiveRain Channel

zillow, trulia, realtorcom activerain, localism

Post is included in group: Realtors®
Post is included in group: Addicted to Active Rain

36 Comments on ActiveRain's got gas....

JUL

AND...if you "fill 'er up" the mileage you get for your career is outstanding ! Great points Maureen...

Maureen - Wow!

A double plug, thanks for plugging Lenn's post!

Lenn does a very good job of showing that Activerain is not loosing gas and I hope the trend continues!

Robert Swetz

Lenn's post was inspired by Vegas's Bob's post:

ActiveRain is losing gas (much longer title ) which is members only.

Sally I think the gas is there for those who take time to post content to consumers.

Robert I think some of the GAS is going to Localism, some is going to our outside blogs. I am very happy with how quickly MY local content shows up on Google for my ActiveRain posts. Sometimes it is ActiveRain, sometimes it is Localism, sometimes it is one of my Outside blogs.. you can see a dip here in traffic that coincides with changes but I think individually those who are posting hyper local content are getting the Google juice and the traffic, it is just showing up differently.

The problem I have with Zillow, is that they kind of hurt an agent with the unreliable property values. Just ask an agent in Austin, Texas.

Critics will always have their say. ActiveRain is a very positive force in our business and we prefer to focus on the benefits. And, hopefully it will even be better in the future.

Terry I am not a fan of Zillow... I respect them...(not for the Zestimates accuracy ) but for their ability to get traffic. I think they've done some interesting stuff...

Roy I think AR is good for the industry... I think it still has room for growth...

Excellent. I baked a cake and you put the icing on it. Love the graphs.

There's no doubt in my mind that ActiveRain gives us tremendous Google juice. Others may too but, if I want a specific blog post to produce in Google SERP at at a predictible time, I know exactly what to do.

With ActiveRain, it's not always the numbers, i.e., Zillow. It's the flexibility with which we can use it to build our business.

These great visuals really help tell the story for the Active Rain platform. What I'm having issues with it how to tell about google indexing and backlinks for my outside blog. All I can see is on my google analytics is that my traffic is down over 50%.

Active Rain=Internet Power With Ease

Maybe they should have a slogan, like, so easy a Cave Realtor can do it??

Good stats provided but are we compared apples to oranges? Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com are search sites. AR isn't a search site per say. I think the other behemoths wouldn't have anything to offer a consumer except a house search right?

Lenn is right about the 'target' we can hit deadon with a post on AR. It's a lot more beneficial I think.

Localism is ??? asleep at the wheel? It's like a bus with no driver at the moment.

Great post! Nice to see a graph with it ... adds credence to the whole AR phenomenon, but nothing compares to real live results --which I see!

I was hoping Localism would be bigger than it seems to be at this point.

I think they should have FEATURED Robert's post also, on this topic.

well done! love the graphs too.

Maureen, what is interesting out in the real estate community many have heard of Active Rain, yet when I poll consumers in general about Localism no one has heard of it. So I do believe that green line for sure.

Active rain has by a long shot been good for our busines. Amazing results in a short period of time. Far outweighs realtor.com which was such a waste of money. Localisum up 16% - I've just begun understanding and using this feature - thanks to all of my ar buds that have helped get this far!

It's good to stats and charts that speak to me. Thanks!

You have quite a knack for creating/obtaining visual proof to support a position. This is soooo interesting, thank, Maureen.

I am still gaining ground thanks to AR and Localism. This is an awesome place to hang if you use it properly!

I'll do the G's first...in honor of graph....

Greg It is a long time since I have used a graph on ActiveRain... I used one on local content in June.. showing inventory sliding.

Gary I understood that Localism was not going to be a destination site... buzz, buzz, buzz you gotta see what is on Localism... like Zillow was buzz, buzz, buzz you gotta go look at YOUR Zestimate. Instead the search engine is going to take the person searching for Fort Worth neighborhood (insert name) to the content on the neighboripedia. I think that is starting to happen. I don't know what the delay was but I never thought they were going to promote that Localism was the place you gotta be.

ActiveRain is the place to be for the real estate industry... much more so than older "places to be" to talk to one another, learn get the latest news, Google has been very good at getting readers to content on ActiveRain.

Lots of members are too busy with member to member posts to write to consumers... and you get a slap on the back if you write to your peers but I think Google is indexing Localism. Paul Slaybaugh mentioned something a few months back (may have been a members only post) and there was a comment from Bob or Jon about the instructions they've provided Google on how to set the spiders loose on the content provided on ActiveRain... AR / Localism / Outside blogs

Vickie Are you saying you have Google Analytics on your ActiveRain blog or on an Outside AR blog (s)?

Can we do Google Analytics on our whole AR blog?

Dawn LOL you need to do a Cave Realtor post.... and not offend any Realtors or anycave men....

I don't think AR is as easy as it was when I first started. It is not as simple but I think they've added positive changes for all members. I read Vegas Bob's post AFTER I posted this... I clicked on the link and decided to just write based on Lenn's post...

I have since read. I don't think the little dip March to May is because of the fees to new members but I could be wrong... I think it is more traffic redirection... past 12 months +40% is nothing to sneeze at. We'll have to wait and watch.

Erica Localism languishing is such a mystery... the 2nd one... the new and improved.

Kat Why do you think Robert's post isn't featured? I flagged it.

Anna Realtor.com is a waste of money and a waste in a lot of other ways too.... I think Localism has been pokey and I don't really understand why but it is starting to show up for me in search engines.

Irene and the nice thing about a graphs is you can NOT use something that does not prove your point... when I saw the March to May drop I thought about NOT talking about traffic on AR today but I think it is explained by traffic on our Outside Blogs....and Localism as a whole. I hope.

Renee said "This is an awesome place to hang if you use it properly!"

Not everyone is doing it right... maybe in the long run some of those who I think "what the heck?" will end up ahead but I think there are some people who just want to write members only posts and are missing out. Some who only want to learn from other's in the industry (don't want to use Localism, don't want others to use Localism.) Maybe they are right but I see a great opportunity in Localism and my outside blogs to talk to consumers rather than about them.

Lots of members post agent to agent content on Localism, just see it as another group, or someplace else for people to read what I've wrote. Posts about SEO, licensing issues...

Chevron with Techron :) Thanks for more numbers - my accountign brain tends to like the numbers:)

Now I will do the L's Lenn and Lyn ... thanks Ladies

Lenn thank you for having a post that lended (? not spell checking out... I was thinking lendt ...I know I don't mean Lent but thanks for the offer Firefox spellcheck ) lends itself so well to being iced... and for building off of Bob's blog post.

Lynn wrote: "Good stats provided but are we compared apples to oranges? Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com are search sites. AR isn't a search site per say."

I don't know sign out and look at ActiveRain as a consumer:

Or look at Localism.....

Find HOMES on Localism

I think they think they can search homes on ActiveRain / Localism. Agents have options to let their site / IDX be the local site being searched.

Realtor.com is search. Limited info on the properties unless the listing agent wants to support Realtor.com

Is Zillow search? Not all listings are on it in my market,... you can search for home values on virtually every property, Zestimates = Infotainment.

Trulia not all local homes are on it.

Lyn said "I think the other behemoths wouldn't have anything to offer a consumer except a house search right? "

Q&A, blog posts, throw the darts at the Realtor?

Maureen...

On the anecdotal side of the coin, I got 6 calls yesterday for information about the Peachtree City GA fireworks display 1 day after I wrote about it ... that's Google power!

I got a call for the Columbus Doo Dah Parade yesterday. I am assuming they were on my post on ActiveRain or my outside blog or localism because I am not the Doo Dah Parade.

I still think AR has a lot of gas ... google and otherwise. I plan to stay around.

I too agree that it's not always the numbers, but the connections and the help we get on AR that is key.

Patricia Aulson/portsmouth NH

Nice short, effective post, and great comments as well. As many have said, its not about numbers, but use and the quality of leads, etc.

I would like to chime in and agree with those who write about the benefits of the activerain community. It is more valuable to me than any other web site I use other than the MLS.

Hi Maureen -- sometimes you can get too techy on me, but when I received a note from John Q Public thanking me for the 4th of July venues I posted -- last year, he wrote, when he was new to the area he couldn't find anything. This year, thank to my post, he did -- then I know Active Rain works! Now, if only he'd contact me with a home purchase requirement!!

;-)

Maureen: Great job with the graphs.. the number really don't lie...

Maureen - Very interesting graphs. I just wrote a lengthy comment (#93) on Lenn's posting on this topic from a newer (less than two month) non-paying member and provided some Google stats about myself so I am keeping my comment here short.

I don't think people come to AR to search for homes per se, but to find information relevant to their particular real estate interests. That's why comparing AR to Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com, etc. seems to be comparing apples to oranges, imho. They may be going to those sites for other information that they can't find here in the Rain. Oh, and about Localism? I wish the powers that be would finally get it up and running the way it should...

Looks like AR maxed out at 1.1M unique visitors. I wonder why that doesn't continue to grow as more and more bloggers find the Rain?

Just looking at that last graph, there doesn't seem to the growth in unique visitors that the other comps have... That worries me.

JUL

Thanks all for the comments even the nit pickers who the post or comparisons doesn't work for. Move along and compare whatever you want to.

Carla Keep talking to people. People who are reading your content will buy with you or refer someone to you because they feel like they know you.

Marc I guess I forgot the "new breed" as VB called you would show up in comments on OUR (old breed?) public posts. That could potentially produce bad commenting habits but I have NOT seen that, not sure what the point was that VB was trying to make, blogs should be free for all again because there was no gas on AR....

John I think traffic was redirected to our outside blogs, Bob or John commented on a post about it a month or so ago. It was Bob - sitemap

Yearly change in traffic unique visitors

Lane #'s above are R.com, AR, Trulia. Zillow top to bottom. Isn't the monthly and yearly traffic the % of unique visitors? AR increased about twice as much in the year as ....R.com and Trulia?

We can't all be Zillow.

Maureen - great job! Charts do amazing things :)

Question for all of you though.... For those of you who are getting "client leads / closed escrows" as a result of your time on AR -what do you believe you are doing to attract these leads?

Most Realtors I know who have been using AR for sometime tell me they have never rec'd any kind of leads from AR. What are we missing?

Drew

I can only speak for me... long tail. Hyperlocal content.

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