Active Rain Leads - Really?

 

282 and counting… That’s how many blogs I’ve written without a featured blog or a nibble on a lead.  Anyone else out there having a similar experience?

The purpose of this short blog is not to indict the leadership of Active Rain nor is to disparage any Active Rain members.  In fact, besides the proxy errors and bad gateways, I think the Active Rain group is doing a very good job to secure internet presence and favorable authority with Google.  Related to the blog members, well…I’ve actually enjoyed some of the online relationships that have recently developed, especially since June of 2009.

Here’s the point of this blog.  I think it’s important to think in terms of profitability.  This idea encompasses the construct of resources, including financial, staff and time.

 

 

The size and shape of the real estate business model is changing right before our eyes.  Less square footage from office space is being transposed into a larger presence in the virtual world.  There is going to be a day when realtors are going to invest more money into technology and additional staff to effectively use their time profitably.

This is where Active Rain is effective.  They help to educate the whole of real estate about SEO and SMO for larger participation in the virtual world of real estate sales.

But as the size and shape is being remolded about how we do business, at the same time, there has to be an objective recognition about our business model.  We can’t do business as usual without adaptation, and then think that Active Rain will pick us up from the declining markets just because we’re posting several blogs.  That's actually unfair to Active Rain as a marketing tool.

Too much blogging, too much scattered energy, and too many subjective impressions do not validate the objective realities about business outcomes.

For example, before blogging, my personal sales ranged between 16.5 to 25 (+) million per year.  After blogging rabidly and adding many hours to my work day in 2009, my sales hovered around 10 million. Do I think AR blogging will help my business?  I have a two-part answer.

First, I think market indicators play larger roles about our business volume than we recognize.  We cannot lean too heavily on one source for our business, especially if the given results are considered under a time period of five years. 

Second, and futuristically, I believe blogging (using originating source codes) for the majority will help to add some Google juice to personal website placement in the search engines.  This is certainly beneficial to fortify branding and to literally have an influential voice over the internet about real estate.

However, trying to stack blogging on top of social marketing, then on top of traditional marketing, then on top of servicing buyers, then on top of working with sellers, then on top of making investments, then on top of keeping up educationally, then on top of doing daily business protocols and such – a much larger list can be drawn – fundamentally requires additional resources of small teams or groups.  One person operations will be rendered ineffective, even if a few leads are gained from Active Rain.  Profitability must be considered in the big picture of business.

The good thing about Active Rain is that it temporarily quenches your thirst for the new ways of doing business, but to drink from the cup, and to become profitable, some courageous moves “to spend more to make more” are likely required on the part of realtors to really evaluate the profit margins considered in this blog.

Feel free to contact our Colorado Springs Realtors at Selley Group Real Estate, LLC: 

2139 Chuckwagon Rd, Ste 210 - Colorado Springs, Colorado 80919 - 719. 598. 5101

 

                    

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