Brad Andersohn Has a Target on His Back  
by John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR®  
Hemet CA Real Estate 
                                                                                                                                            

That's right, I've said it and now it's public.  No going back now, is there.

What, you must be thinking, how can I say something so evil and spiteful about such a strong contributor to the ActiveRain community?  You must be thinking, "That John Occhi is one heck of a troublemaker - what is he up to now?"

Well the truth is I am gunning for Brad's position in the State of California to be the #8 Blogger (Again) in all of ActiveRain.  It's a slow process, but get back there, I will.

                                                                                                                        

Don't worry, Brad and I are friends and he has had as much fun with this as I have.  We constantly stop by each others blog to announce that we just picked up our 25 points - heck, brad has come back and picked up 50 and even 75 points (maybe it was even 100 - I forget) from just one blog that I posted...but that's OK, because I did it to him too!

That's OK, I'm going to get at least 200 here!  Top that Brad!!!

You see I was doing some research for the niche I am working and searched Google for the very generic term, California Foreclosures and found Brads blog post, The California Foreclosure Process & Timeline  on page 3.  I thought this was great to see one of our ActiveRain blogs rate so high on such a generic search term.  After all, I had found it pretty easy to rank for all three top positions on Google, for a similar term, replacing California for Hemet.

                                                                                                                          

So, we exchanged emails back and forth for a few days before I picked up the phone and caught Brad at his desk.  We must have talked for at least an hour - just comparing notes on what we have been able to accomplish on ActiveRain.  We exchanged some ideas and I'm not sure what Brad did at this point, but we thought at the time that it would help the rankings for the blog that ranked so well - unfortunately Brad, is has slipped to page 10...so if you remember what you did, it is now time to reverse engineer that and get it back where it was!

At the time, I believe I had climbed back to the #11 or #12 slot in the California rankings and I shared with Brad that at one point I was in the #8 slot, and I was working hard at my blog to regain the position (you see, I had quit blogging for about 10 weeks, frustrated because I wasn't generating any results - then as soon as I quit I got my first AR deal, and then another and another - then I decided I needed to get back here before it was too late)...to which he had the nerve to tell me that is his current spot.  So, you see I have been on a mission ever since.  When I first recorded the difference in our scores, Brad had a solid 4476 point lead on me.  Well as of the beginning of this week, I have whittled the difference down to a mere 2623 points.  Those 1853 points have been brutal!

                                                                                                       

I thought this was the appropriate time to go public, because both Brad and I will cross the 100,000 point threshold this week, barring an act of God.

That's right, we will both cross over at almost the same time - Brad with his 99,459 points will be there a day or so ahead of me, but not for long!  When he joins the ranks of the The ActiveRain Silver Star Hall of Fame, he can hold his breath until I get there, because my 96,866 will be in the 6 digits before he knows what happened.

                                                               

Well, it has been a journey, one that started officially back in June of 2006 and didn't really kick in gear until the day after Christmas - but other than a short 10 week hiatus I have been here just about every day - writing my blogs and offering my comments to many members of my local Hemet community as well as the great and no-so-great people I have encountered here on ActiveRain.

I have always felt as if I was here because AR is part of my business plan - a part that works and so yes, I do blog for my business.  Yes, I enjoy it and yes there is a great social aspect to this whole Web 2.0 thing that AR has seemed to embrace with both arms.

In my time here, I have written many helpful blogs for others, just as I have learned from so many great contributors.  I formed the Group Localism Beta, to help get Localism off the ground and I would like to think that it has helped in some small way to make Localism what it is today.  I have cried my heart out, when my wife's cancer took a turn for the worse and I have prayed for many and many have prayed for my wife and me.

I know I have ticked off a bunch of people, which is why I left AR - because I did not want to play by what I thought were their silly rules - yes, at time I felt like it was the cool people back in high school trying to run things again - and so what. They leave me alone and I leave them alone.  Today, I have formed many great friendships and I continue to mentor new bloggers who show a genuine interest and I still learn from some really great people in this industry - industry leaders are here taking time to mentor me, which I find amazing that at 53 I can still be mentored. 

ActiveRain - you are amazing!

Now Have a Blessed Day,

by John Occhi, Hemet REALTOR®   
Preforeclosure Specialist

PS - Brad, I've got my eyes on you...