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"RAIN POWER!" It's AWESOME!!!!!

Okay, I've read the posts about the power of Active Rain and the google juice, well as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. So, if you've never done this before, Google yourself!

If you've been an active Active Rain blogger than you're going to loooooove the exposure that you and your business are receiving. If you haven't been then you are missing out;

BIG TIME!!!

If you haven't been than take this challenge.

START!

Write 3-5 thoughtful, insightful blogs each week for the next 3-4 weeks and then;

Google yourself!

If you're not smiling at the results I'll be shocked. But a few suggestions and some advice.

Update your profile. Is it out of date? What message does it send. This may sound corny, but this is going out to the world! Be brave, ask a respected associate what they think of your profile. After you are satisfied with your profile remember to keep it updated.

It seems that most/all of my recent blogs are showing up on the net. I found this out when I googled myself. So take seriously what you write, and who you expose this to. You have a members only tool.

Looking to move up in the ratings? If you're not you should be. Don't you want the fellow Rainers and Rain readers to feel you're an Industry leader? Use all the tools. I was just updating my profile and saw at the bottom an opportunity to write my Active Rain success story. So I did. I didn't know it would give me 500 points. I'm also not sure where it went. Oh well, I'll find it.

A piece of advice;

Take this seriously!

Include Rain participation in your marketing plan. Maximize it's use. Read the articles. They're great! There is an incredible wealth of knowledge amongst the Rainers. Learn from them.

We often forget to say thank you. So to the powers that be. Thank you for Active Rain. The "Rain Power"

IT'S AWESOME!!!!!

Posted by Jay Beckingham on 09/18/2009 08:18 AM

Comments (79)

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79 Comments on "RAIN POWER!" It's AWESOME!!!!!

SEP

2009

It is awesome. My rain blog gets ranked up there but my other one always beats it!

Great points, Jay. I'm amazed to see my blogs come up so often, sometimes when on Google key word searches, too, not just when I Google my name. Active Rain really is powerful, and becoming more so every day.

I have been on AR 3 weeks. My google search is on the 2nd page now. My actual website is on the first page. :~)

I agree with the awesomeness! My name itself doesn't stand out but with AR I've made such headway at making myself Googlable (is that a word?).

Hi Jay ~ Just read the post on how easy it is to start a war on AR. Not with this subject, right? This one we all agree on...No question about it, used correctly, there's great power on the Rain! (Notice the small caveat - you need to use it, it's not a magic bullet!)

Denise

For sure we are there, howvever do many people really Google peoples names, surely they know us? More important to get Google juice for good local content so new clients can find us.

OK, Jay. I did it. I Googled myself (I feel so dirty). I am listed 4 times on the 1st page (with my Outside AR blog being the highest ranking of these) and my profile and photo pops up at the bottom of the page. It is cool.

Oh, and by the way, I'm ALL over page 2 of Google for "Heather Chavez". Yay Google Juice!

Jay... some very good points... something add. You can use Google as your business card also. You can just tell people to google you. Another point in regards to writing those 3 to 5 blogs a week, make sure they are of quality though. Good information, localism at times, and with key words... overall, yes, this place is awesome. thanks

jeff belonger

Most definitely awesome, Jay. I googled myself this morning and I am the first page all the way through...my AR blog is in the top 2, then localism in the #5-6 spots, my website is #7, and there are other profiles in the remaining spots -multiply, linkedin, google, wink, plaxo. I can't wait to see when my outside blog finally gets indexed. That's gonna be bthe coolest thing.

Gary,

the combined exposure must be great.

Lottie,

i'm not a techy type guy and they've made this so easy for me.

Jason,

first page for the website. that's pretty good. how come i had to search for your name?

Susan,

if it wasn't it is now. i'm sure google has a language of its own.

Denise,

i read that post also, but i'm not into wars. as we used to say in the old days, i'm a lover not a fighter.

Corrine,

do people google names? i do. i can get some background on who i doing business with.

Heather,

think about it. you've got your profile exposed on the internet at no charge.

keep it updated. make sure it's you, and read Jeff's comment. telling people to google you. great idea

Jeff,

telling people to google you. what a great idea.

i'm with you 100% with the necessity for quality. it's got your name on it.

thanks

jay

Thanks Jay. I've just started this blogging game, so it'll be interesting to see the results. Google me in a few weeks to see how I've done!

I am still new to this blogging game although there is ton of info on the site, time will tell how things go ;-)

Dianne,

i googled Dianne Bartlett and the first hit for you, the 3rd item on the first page, is your active rain profile. this is one of your internet calling cards.

jay

Gene,

like anything else you'll get out of it what you put into it.

good luck,

jay

William,

i agree this is so cooooooooooooooool.

it's one of those marketing tools that works while you sleep, and you know that there are buyers on the net while your snoozing.

jay

I really enjoy seeing my name all over page 1 of google. That has been the best part!

Jay: You are so right... Active Rain is a powerful community and we all should send our thanks to the masters ones who made it all possible.

Updating our profile. Yes.. This is on my list too.

So true....the key is to address hot topics too. Discuss the news of the day in real estate. But be careful that you are not also showing too much of your personal opinions, those will show up also...so will the comments on other's posts. So keep it nice folks.

I wish i had the time to follow up with my blogging but i get sidetracked and need to consider it a task i need to do just like the rest of them. Good thought Karen as to not showing too much personal opinions.

Jay - great post! you are correct, the more you blog the more you are picked up. It is like feeding a monster, the Google monster that is. I just checked and I am on page one of Google, well below Jay Ferguson the rock star, but i am on page one. Thanks

Jay: You are right. Active Rain is free and we get so much benefit from it. Sure we are required to put in some time, so to speak, to get the benefit but it is so easy. It takes less time to write a blog than it does to drive to a local coffee shop and spend $5 on a cup of coffee. I wrote a blog the other day it is was number 1 on Google within one hour!! Holy Cats … it just does not get any better than that!! Thank You Active Rain and thanks to every power that BE in the Rain!!!

Jay, just wanted to add my name to your growing list of comments. Consistant blogging with good content and good key words will put you at or near the top of Google and Yahoo searches.

Jeff had made a good point, using a Google search as a business card is an impressive way to validate yourself with your clients.

Thanks AR

I totally agree that the "RAIN" helps keep my business flooded!

Jay

I've been using AR a few months now and am starting to see the benefits! I am ready to google myself!

Laurie

I have learned so much here on Active Rain and even found a great Realtor to sell my home out of state!

Jay - I love the energy. Its not alway easy to keep coming up with fresh material, but important because it keeps your brain always working!

AR is awesome. When I google my-self I always see my AR profile.

thanks jay. I am new and becoming a fan of AR and blogging in general.

Good information. I've seen a lot of local realtors with outdated profiles in this and other sites.

It's nice to come up on the first page for your name, but is anyone coming up on page one for say "San Diego Golf Homes for Sale" or "Frisco Texas Equestrian Property"? Make sure when you're blogging to use the keywords from your web site as the "linking text".

If your not sure what your website developer optimized your site for, look at the page title (should be located at the very top of your computer screen,) hopefully your website's page title mentions the name of the community where you are selling real estate. Use those keywords for your link. Active Rain is an excellent resource to use to help your website rank highly for keywords!

Great advice I'm getting ready to update my AR account !!!

Jay - it's freaking awesome. Ever since we did Bob's hyper challenges the blogs get ranked fast. It still kind of amazes me. It's been such a great journey with so many great people!

AR has the power to shoot your profile into the stratosphere! I think googling key words in your field of real estate is a better gauge to see your ranking, instead of just googling your name (but that is a fun thing to do too). Good tips in your post and in the comments!

Yes, Google yourself and your AR homepage will most likely appear. The real test in google some of your key words and see where you appear. Writing meaningful post is the answer.

Great advise Jay.

Jay, Thanks for the success story. You're right raining works.

I love to GOOGLE others . . .too!

Hi Jay. When I search for my name my AR shows up. So do my other blogs but *you* can't beat being found by customers who use Google to find out more about you :-)

AR has been such a great tool for me!! I absolutely love it!

Jay,

This is very true, Google likes to see consistency and volume.

At least, at this point Google doesn't read the blogs and decide whether or not they are any good. Maybe, one day!

Brian

I agree wholeheartedly! I am digging on the Google Juice that Active Rain gives me and I do Google myself regularly...not that I am all stuck on myself or anything...lol...I just like to know my efforts are paying off!

I will google myself and see what I find. It's hard to type right now, but it will get better. AR has been good to me so far.

Jay, great emphasis on what Active Rain brings to your searches and your business.

i'm googling myself right now. I haven't done that in a while. I wonder what I will find.

That's great for you. Keep it up . It's nice to know your hard work pays off for sure.

Patricia

I think this is a great idea! See how many AR posts pop up and just what the public would see if they googled you name

I totally agree with you! Lately I have been trying out the new "blog tactics" to improving my google juice. I am actually a step ahead of your suggestion. This is my third week to be doing the "new blog tactics" and I will go and see how my google juice has or has not improved. I love this place!

I have only been a member for a few months and my Activerain activity comes up first and second page Google consistently. I have a long way to go, but to get such great results so soon is awesome. Activerain management really has its act together.

I may be new to blogging but I think I have picked a good forum to start...now I just need to get the first blog out of the way :)

Over the last three months I have pushed people with my same name to page 3 of google. I dominate, many of which are AR blogs, but don't forget about LinkedIN, Trulia and Facebook, they are very pwoerful too!

Hi Jay -- It is amazing what people say when they find you -- I had someone from another state asking me a title question the other day...

Jay - As a manager for Chicago Title in Phoenix, AR has been a huge source of contacts within my area. I too am amazed when I google my name. You've got to be kidding me!!

Are you sure that you dont work for AR, I am getting to think this just might work. Thanks for the post.

SEP

2009

Jay - good point, blogging on the rain should be part of a real estate marketing plan. If you don't have time, make time, it's well worth the effort. Thanks for the post.

Mellisa,

so will your clients, as Jeff mentioned, invite them to google you.

Roland,

we must always remember to be thankful.

Karen,

keep it nice is right, remember this is going out on the net for all to see.

Justin,

you need to decide if it will be a priority or not. i'm curious what made you join in the first place.

Jay,

maybe you'll pass him as you become the real estate star!

Kathleen,

the benefits are great and unlimited. $5 coffee, ouch!

Bill,

you could him me, and others i assume, with the best use of keywords.

Erica,

the rain floods your business, i like that!

Jay

ps; i'll be back

Great post Jay. It takes a little effort (lightning and thunder), but the results for the rainmaker is usually "RainPower" I'll be adding your post to the AR success stories archives. I'm building a success stories eBook and yours will be in there. :-)

BTW - Your success story you added from the bottom of your profile page is on the main AR page now. You'll find a link that says "Success Stories" thanks for adding yours.

Jay

Thank you for the great post. I know that I can do a better job or adding posts here to increase my exposure.

Your concept is based upon doing a Google search on yourself. For me, I do not anticipate that someone would put my name or my company name into a Google search.

What I WANT is for someone to Google a particular topic or key word and have some of my posts to Active Rain pop up. Then, new customers ( who do not know me or my company) can find me.

So, how can we use Active Rain effectively to do this? I may actually post this question independently as a new blog post.

Mortgage News And Trends

Thanks for the reminder to update our profiles. I need to get mine updated.

Unfortunately, because there is a famous English cricket player with my name, and many pages about Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys misspell his name as Willis, I don't show up until page 2 of Google. Might have to change my name :-(

Totally agree with the popular consensus... AR is a fantastic marketing tool and a way to establish credibility and professionalism in our profession. A quick tip that helps me keep track of our team's SEO efforts... create a "Google Alert" for your team or business name and for key word terms that you are trying to "rank" well for in the internet search engines. That way... when your blog or website pages get indexed in Google ... they send you an email to let you know about it!

Wendy Herndon

THE SERENA GROUP

WOW, to say the least i'm a little overwhelmed at all the responses. It's great that so many are seeing and appreciating the benefits of AR.

I feel it's important as a community that we share with each other the benefits as we see and experience them.

I would have never thought to have a customer google me, but i will now put it on my business card.

thanks for that one Jeff.

i'll also use it on my website.

I defy anyone to try to prove to me that there are not multiple benefits on AR.

Thanks Everyone,

Jay

Jay, since joining Active Rain, when I Google my name - I have 9 of 10 spots. Down at #9, there is a word "Alter" because let's face it, there are a lot of searches that would include the word "alter" but I have captured my name page!

Jay, Thank you for the post, Great Blog. There are too many members that do not really know how to use the Rain. I am one of them, so Thank you again. I appreciate your effort.

Hi Jay. Exactly. There are many benefits of AR: SEO, knowledge base, etc. By the way I'm glad that so many people noticed this post and commented. It is a good reminder to update our profiles LOL Which I should do.

Okay... I am going to take the challenge. Yike, just starting to get feet wet on blogging so I am up for the challenge. Wish me luck! Thanks!

I have googled myself a few times and it is always interesting what I see. However, I am of the opinion that that will not help me. I need some of my key words to do better, like Kenmore Homes for Sale, and that is what I want to work on.

Jay:

This is great information, especially a reminder about updating the profile.

To "Dream Home Financing" guy:

You would be surprised. People will Google your name - but you have to tell us what it is first!

Seriously, when people find you any place now I think you should just expect that they are going to Google you, and they'd better find some good things or they won't be interested in working with you.

Jay - thanks for the information on the success story on Active Rain on our profiles, I didn't know it was there. I also googled myself and had a revelation - I had been posting as The Mode and DurhaM Team and not using my name. Not too smart. Well, I'm changing that now, because I did google myself and only had 1 post come up under my name, but when I googled my team, my Active Rain posts were #2-#6 with my website being #1.

You are right that we should update profiles periodically as that's when google alert pops up wiht them.

Active Rain is the number one source of traffic to my web site.

SEP

2009

Very true Jae. I have noticed some of my articles climbing the google rankings. It is very exciting.

SEP

2009

Can't agree more!

SEP

2009

Timley, I'm in the process of updating my on-line profiles. A tip I was given was to keep a file of places where you have profiles and give yourself an Oultook reminder to update every 4 month or so.

Things change.

SEP

2009

Jay,

Great advice! And you're right.... we often forget/neglect to say "thank you!"........soooooo....

THANK YOU,JAY!!!!

Kathy Opatka

OCT

2009

a very special thank you to all of you, the great people who make this big machine work.

jay

OCT

2009

76 comments and over 1000 views, once again;

thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

JAN

2010

Well, I'm just getting back to the blogging world so hope my results will be as good as yours!

Sonja,

welcome back.

i really feel like i've just scratched the surface.

good luck to you.

jay

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Jay Beckingham

Cape Coral, FL

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Southwest Funding

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