I usually write such lengthy comments to other posts that I decided to create a post out of those long comments 
instead. This is in response to Jonathan Washburn's post "Forever is composed of nows". Jonathan's post was a response to another post written by Harj Gill (the link is in his post), about providing our content to AR, or any other proprietary blogging/website provider.
I blog on AR to add to my blogging experience (I have multiple blogs). Each of my blogs has a purpose, and AR started out for me as "conversing to other agents" and most of my current blogs are to Localism.
The most important aspect of AR for me is the comaraderie and learning experience. My AR blogs get indexed but don't rank well (and that's OK with me since I want my main website to rank and my AR blogs always send one-way links to my website). They don't rank well because I don't promote them anywhere else. I specifically use them to promote my other sites. So they're doing what I want them to do.
Do I own my website? No, because I purchased it through a webmaster. I own the content on that site, and need to remind myself to keep copies of all of it in case something happens to my website vendor.
On the other hand, I own a Wordpress blog (have a couple), that I host on Bluehost. I can take those sites to any other hosting provider and do what I want with them. I can switch up templates in less than a minute (as long as they're already uploaded), I can change them up spending a little more coding time, I can add plug-ins and do whatever I want. So to answer Jim Hale (#3 commenter on Jonathan's post), yes, you can own your own blog/site.
I don't believe in putting all of my eggs in one basket so that's why I share my blogging. Years ago one of my main websites was penalized by Google (along with many others at the time) for reciprocal linking. It came back but was off Google serps for around 3 months (and it was in the #1 spot for my keywords).
It's not easy using multiple blogging platforms but fortunately, blogging happens to be a hobby of mine (writing) that pays off for my business. I know it's difficult for some just to make posts on AR. I think AR is a great compliment to an agent's online presence, but it wouldn't be the only thing I rely on.
I will also say that I found an agent for my own purchase of a 2nd home in Scottsdale, AZ on AR and I currently have a listing from an AR member, so it has worked as a referral source. AR is a combination of things for me, and it is just one tool in my entire Internet marketing arsenal.
Comments(9)