Here's a "community tip" you may not be aware of regarding how to "SEARCH" Blogs.  Active Rain is a huge wealth of members, knowledge and resources!  There are so many Blog topics, ideas, instructions, do's and don'ts, opinions and posts of information, it really can be over-whelming.  This post will show you how to maximize the "Search" options that are available to you on Active Rain.

When you click on the "SEARCH" feature from the menu bar above, you'll have 3 options and choices to search from.  Profiles, Blogs, and Blog Comments.  When you're searching Blogs, it ONLY searches for posts that contain the word or words somewhere within a post?  It is NOT searching "keywords" or "Tags" as you may have thought. 

I tried searching for a post I had written some time ago, and I use the words "Realtor Blues."  I never found it in the hundreds of pages returned.  That's because it pulled up every post on Active Rain that contained the word "Realtor" and the word "Blues."  Be careful if you are searching for phrases, or multiple words together.

Let's say you are searching for "FSBO", it will actually find every post that contains the word or letters FSBO in it, but if you searched "For Sale By Owner" it will pull up every post that has any portion of all four of those words.  I tried this on many searches, and had the same results every time. 

What do you do if you wanted to find "Multiple Word Searches" or "Phrases" in a Blog post on Active Rain?  For example: Open Houses, Short Sales, Buyers Needed, Activerain Help etc?  You may get back a ton of posts that aren't really what you are looking for. I know I did....

I have a "New" way for you to "Search" Active Rain, and it works by searching "Keywords" placed in the "Tags" box at the bottom of each authors post.  You'll love this!  Try these two exercises, and see.

STEP 1: Click on the "Search" option in the menu bar at the top of this page.  Open the pull-down box and change it from "Profiles" to "Blogs".

STEP 2: In the blank box just below it, type in the words "Realtor Blues" then click search.  You'll see hundreds of post's that come up. 

Unfortunately, you will not find the post I'm referring to unless you're willing to sift through hundreds of other posts.

ONLY 1 STEP:  This time, go up to the address bar in your browser, and type this:  http://activerain.com/blogs/tags/realtor blues press enter or click go, and watch what happens. 

This will pull up ONLY the posts that have "Realtor Blues" in the "tags" for that post.  Now you have TWO ways that you can search what you're looking for here on Active Rain, and they are both entirely different from each other.  If you are looking for specific posts with multiple words or phrases, and you want to narrow down your search results, then I suggest using this search process.  It's faster and it's a more targeted "Search!"

Just remember this URL: http://activerain.com/blogs/tags/ and then type in anything you want after tags/  This is a great new way to search Active Rain Blogs.  VERY IMPORTANT TIP: Remember that Active Rain converts all "Keywords" or "Tags" to lower case.  Always use lower case when searching with this method. 

Now, try searching some of your posts this way, and see why having the right "keywords" in your "Tags" is so important.  As the membership here grows, so will the posts!  That could make it even more difficult to find what you're looking for here.  Personally, this is the only way I like to search Active Rain Blogs anymore.

I know this is just a "SEARCH" tool, but it should save you some time and frustration!  After all, aren't we always searching for something? LOL!  I hope it helps you with your "Searches" as much as it's helped me!

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