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Listings, ActiveRain, and Who's Selling What to Whom Where.

The other day I was trying to post a listing on ActiveRain. I'd just put the listing into vFlyer and was going to post the HTML that vFlyer recommends here to get it some exposure. (vFlyer does a pretty good job of easily and neatly laying out an HTML flyer).

Posting the listing happened pretty easily, but then I noticed I wasn't getting points for it. I tried including it in a group specifically about promoting one's listings, and that didn't matter.

I had read the other day that listings weren't being featured on localism, but I hadn't known they weren't getting points -- if indeed, that's what happened.

After a little while, I tried removing the vFlyer code and writing a "meta" article like this one, but still no points. The article was public, not members only, and the settings looked like they always did on any other lame posts like the one with the clown in it here recently.

So I got to wondering what the deal is on posting listings here, and why it seems -- maybe I'm misreading it -- that there's something in the ActiveRain code with what would appear to be a prejudice against properties. I know there is a predeliction against them among the bloggerati, but I consider that just an affectation -- I didn't realize it had been institutionalized. And to be sure, there's still a chance this is a PEBCAK issue ("Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard"), but I just wanted to see if anyone else has run into it.

Posted by John Lockwood on 06/14/2007 05:58 PM

Comments (5)

listings, activerain

5 Comments on Listings, ActiveRain, and Who's Selling What to Whom Where.

JUN

2007

Community Update No more points for listings...

John, yup. No more points for listing. But, hey, things change all the time on ActiveRain. Hard to say what will be next.

PS, you might want to make this kind of post members only. Consumers don't care about points and you probably don't care if Google indexes this, right?

John, Thanks for posting, the last I knew you do not get points for posting your listings, But things do change.

I noticed this recently, too. I made the decision to not worry about it, since I am trying to do the right thing for my client and get the listing out there...and who knows, maybe I will get a call from it, too.

Thanks everyone. Lori, I agree, it's still the right thing to do and I should get to it anyway for my sellers. It's just . . . how to put this nicely . . . dumb. The first thing that happened to me when I walked in here was a stager from Sacramento welcoming me oh-by-the-way-she's-a-stager-in-Sacramento. Since then I've had a few notes from Lenders, etc., and that's fine. I happen to think selling is good. I'd like to do some.

Actually, Maureen, (by the way -- thanks for all your visits -- I appreciate it) if ActiveRain is discouraging its users from posting listings, I think that that's exactly the sort of thing a consumer would want to know. Realtors read carnivals -- consumers are looking for houses (by definition -- it they're not, then they're not consumers). If there's reason to expect less of them here, that should be important to consumers, I would think. It also matters if people are telling sellers "Hire me, I'm a blogger." If your blogging doesn't get you more exposure for a seller's home, the seller shouldn't care about whether you think you're F. Scott Fitzgerald, I would think.

Also, yes I do care if Google (and Yahoo and MSN and the rest) indexes more of what I write rather than less -- with rare exceptions, I want them to index everything. Page rank algorithm and all that. Being a PR junkie is another flavor of having Pointitis.

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Listings, ActiveRain, and Who's Selling What to Whom Where.

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