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ActiveRain outside blogs - sneak preview

Outside Blogs I would venture to say that quite a few of you out there have decided to take your blogging experience to the next level and go about setting up your own outside blog. The ability to customize the look and feel of your own blog and to have something that is uniquely yours is the natural progression of blogging on ActiveRain.

Today, we released an internal beta version of our outside blog platform. We currently have about 15 ActiveRain members testing the functionality of it and giving us feedback on a variety of topics. We tried to pick 15 members of varying skill level and acclamation to ActiveRain. We have members who have been here over a year, we have one that has been here for all of a week. We have members that have just learned how to use pictures on their AR blog, we have members that are constantly challenging our programmers by being ahead of the curve. The hope is that we will be able to provide a platform that is easily adoptable by our members, new and old.

A few of the highlights of our outside blog platform:

You will be able to host your blog on your own domain. For example, you can have your posts feed to bobisgreat.com if you own that domain.
You will be able to customize the look and feel of your blog.
It's easy to set up your outside blog. You can be up and running in less than 15 minutes.
You will be able to build your posts in ActiveRain. You won't have to learn a new platform.
You will be able to decide where you want your posts to publish. Do you just want your outside blog to be about local content pertinent to your local market? You will be able to decide which posts go where. Send your local market reports to your outside blog. Send your real estate industry related posts to ActiveRain. The choice is yours.
You will be able to benefit from the SEO knowledge and power of ActiveRain.
You will be able to brand your own blog while at the same time staying connected with the ActiveRain community. Your comments will be syndicated between your ActiveRain blog and your outside blog.

**above is a screen shot of a portion of the user interface.

Our beta testers are giving us a run for our money. They have already found some bugs for us to fix, and given us some great overall feedback. With their help, we hope to have this platform available for everyone by the first week of next year!!

Here are some samples of our outside blog platform. Please note that there could be a bug or two, and these blogs may temporarily go offline from time to time. :)

(we'll be adding more once they are up and running)

Stay tuned to my blog and Jon's blog for updates and some great specials we will be having around our outside blog platform.

Do you care what I'm doing and thinking? (I can not for the life of me imagine why) If you do, you can find me on some of these places........but remember, if you are offended by anything you see or hear, I didn't force you to follow me!!:

Posted by Bob Stewart - ActiveRain on 12/04/2007 07:38 PM

Comments (165)

outside blogs

Originally posted at: ActiveBob.....It's always Raining!: ActiveRain outside blogs - sneak preview

Post is included in group: Tech Corner
Post is included in group: e-PRO Internet Technology

165 Comments on ActiveRain outside blogs - sneak preview

DEC

2007

Bob -this sounds like great stuff. Too bad you only needed 15 people:) Would this allow you to have categories and IDX? if the answer is "yes", it would be really great.

Dang, I have my web host building an outside blog for me right now; which I'm going to put on the back end of my website. Who knows though I bought a domain that I really like and now have no place to use it so maybe I will do both.

This is fantastic! Exciting stuff. :)

yeah what Faina said....

Bob, I wish I had known this was coming, I just got my outside blog set up TODAY. Is it possible to send posts to our outside blog if it is not through here. I love the activerain platform. There is none better.

Faina,

Those won't be in our initial release, but they are both great ideas that we have considered for future versions.

Sounds pretty awesome. Just keep it simple. There is too much already to learn.

Missy,

not yet.............

Vicky,

we think we are keeping it pretty simple. Once you get it set up (which isn't tough at all) you are running it on the same ActiveRain platform, so nothing new to learn there.

Okay....gotta check this out. And in the meantime.....is someone going to teach me how to feed this into my website? Cool. Now does this have anything to do with Localism? Is Localism playing any part in this? Is this totally different and kind of like a blogspot thing?

You know me Bob...new stuff ...ask bob :)

Bob - This is pretty cool - you guys rule!

Sounds cool where is my invite!

Looks good... I won't hit you with all the questions yet but keep us posted. Assume you will also have a method in place where we can register a domain and have it hosted with a few simple keystrokes...

Sally,

"feeding it" into your own site is relatively easy. All you will need to do is point your DNS records to a different place. Your hosting company will be able to do this with little problem.

This will be separate from localism. It will be your own site............check out the demo's. (or it can be a subdomain of AR...............jon.activerain.com for instance.)

Dan,

Yes, in January when we launch it wide scale, you will be able to register a domain through ActiveRain.

I can see the importance of adding the blog to the personal website because that is where everyone is going now a days.

Wow...Bob it sounds like there some exciting stuff happening.

Sound awesome! Can't wait to see it.... More reading....lol
Bob here

It's also fairly easy to frame in one of the "Outside Blogs" to your existing web site, so it looks like it is just another page of the site.

Bob, This is awesome news!!! I do have an outside blog on wordpress and it is a little hard to configure. I so love the AR format so this is great! I can't wait to see more. I can't see the screen shot very well - are there "formats" to choose from? Thanks again for all the "stuff"

This looks interesting. I still haven't gotten the jist of the SEO, still evolving as a blogger, looking forward to this as well.

Heather

Bob,
Awesome, you guys just keep providing us with more opportunities to grow. Thanks a bunch.

Hi Bob - interesting things going on! One thing I didn't care for when I went to both of the sites you have in your post is that it tried to place cookies on my computer when I went to check them out. Anyway that can be done away with?

Ann

Sweet....what a wonderful holiday present to all of us from Active Rain!

How much? ;-)

I'm looking forward to seeing this live. Will we have the ability to customize headers and stylesheets? What about plug-ins?

very cool! I can't wait to try it out, and get it to all of our agents in the company!

Jeff Lund

Director of training and technology

Yeah...like I understood that :) In any case, can I bother you when it's up so you can walk me through?

There are just too many cool bobs around here...I am getting confused.

Sorry everyone..........AR had a little hiccup........give me a minute to clean up the duplicate comments, and I will respond to some of the questions.

Bob - Ironically I started my own real estate blog for one of my websites today.

Scratch one item off my AR Christmas list!!!!!!

Santa Bob, you still got 9 more items to go! (Tappin' foot!)

John,

Headers are customizable, and we have the functionality in place to allow users to customize stylesheets, but we are not sure if we want to make that option available for the initial release. We only have so many customer support people on staff right now (1) and we want to do everything possible to make the product as user friendly (break-proof) as possible.

Jo,

Yes, there are predesigned 'formats' or you can design your own.

Ann,

I may have to ask Matt or Ben to weigh in on that.

Tom,

It will be worth (at least) ten times more than we charge for it :)

Sally,

Of course you can

Bob,

well said!! Don't get confused.............I spell mine B-o-b............haha

Looks like it has potential for bloggers who don't have the desire or knowledge to learn html. I am bummed though, was going to buy the domain bobisgreat.com :-)

Sounds cool - I have a name and I was just about ready to set it on another site

Bob, this is freakin' great news. lol --> Carole.

This would be awesome! I could save time by not having to blog on 2 different sites.

Great idea! Can't wait to implement it. I especially like the ability to post localism type posts to it and keep your AR related ones here. What will you all think of next? So glad you didn't sell yourselves!

It just gets better and better at AR.

Keep up the good work!

It just gets gooder, gooder and more gooder!

Ok Bob. I'm in. Now... about that post you put up about the 'thread' today, then removed before I had a chance to read it - what was that all about?

And can you? (you know...)

Bob - Nice service to offer here. If it would have been available a year ago, it would have saved me many headaches with WordPress. Customizing one of their themes exceeded by tech ability, or my interest in learning what I needed to know to do it.

best

Thanks for the sneak preview. 'Looks like a good "next step" for a lot of ActiveRainers.

I did not get a chance to go through all of the comments, but put me down as interested in another blog platform, especially if it ties in with my AR one. My outside blogging is taking off, but I like "varied" blogs so I can target different audiences on each. Alittle more work, but also a little more fun.

looks like I better get to domain searching.

Sounds pretty good. I've got a blog already, but I'll bet the AR blog will be positive.

Love your ideas. I haven't created my outside blog yet. I'll keep an eye on your blog so I can join in.

Love your profile picture. Love this information. Thank you for sharing it with us. I now have it bookmarked and will join your blog. Best to you.

Hot diggity, Bob! I'm very excited to see where this leads.

Great news, Bob. I heard about this when I was in Seattle a couple of months ago and have been eagerly awaiting it. Hopefully it will soon be out of beta and available to all of us. Thanks.

For those wanting to feed their blog to their website, before the Outside Blog gets up, check out the article here This works very well! You can set up as RSS feed from your blog to your own website with a few simple clicks.

Bob,

This is good stuff I can not wait until it is rolled out to the masses, I would love to put my AR blog on my site.

Take care!

RJH

Oh cool! This looks so great. That's one of the biggest things I've missed on AR, is the lack of creative control. I can't wait to see more.

Brian,

I won't take offense to you posting that link on my post if you don't take offense to the fact that I made the link a little simpler. (it's one of the benefits of having editing control)

Oh this is gonna get good!!! I am thinking what fun things can be done! Active Rain is rockin~

I am very interested in outside blogging. I will check the links provided and will be interested to read more. Thanks for covering this important topic. It is great to have your own customized outside blog to complement what is going on with the Active Rain blog.

Sweet! I can't wait to try it out. I have been looking for another blog site to post on.

Bob, I've so been waiting for this! Can't wait to see the final product come online. Keep us posted!

Double DANG - I'm late to this party, but count me in. Looking forward to it!

DEC

2007

Bob, this is such exciting news and I have so many questions, but I should probably wait till I try out the whole thing first.

WOW this is fantastic, do share ASAP all the details. Love the fact that you don't have to learn a new platform and can put stuff in different places. Will you be able to put it in BOTH places?

THIS IS GREAT!!!! So happy to hear it! I have only recently been mulling over which platform to use to set up my outside Blog and now that AR will have one, I'll wait before doing it. Keep up the great work!!!

This is all very good sounding. Like it a lot. Thanks for continuing to bring good things to the A/R.

I heard about this at the AR party in Vegas, and have been waiting for you all to announce it. I had started another blog before I even joined AR, but am not happy with it and have wanted to do another on a different platform. So I'll be patient. When will we have the ability to categorize? That is something that is very important to me personally....

Thanks, and Bob? Stop spoiling that boy of yours! :)

great stuff keep us updated

Hi Bob: What a cool new development. And all those things you mentioned as being features of your new platform. If I had any idea of what you were talking about, I would have probably enjoyed your post even more. LOL.

Actually, I am not that bad. Best of all... I learn at least one new thing every day here on Active Rain. It is such a great learning source. Just think, in another twelve or thirteen years, I will really have this thing down pretty well. Hey, ya just can't stop progress, can ya ? Thanks for sharing, Bob.

Now it's time to go back up to your post, and follow all the links and learn even more. Cool !

I am very interested in continuing to read on this blog...I am going to subsribe to it so I can read more on it later...Thanks For This Post!

Bob - Great Stuff!! Count me in!

I just looked at all 3 examples that you have links to. I'm impressed! Sara particularly did a very nice job with hers. I'll be interested to follow this and see what develops. Thanks Bob.

I really like the idea of an outside blog... sometimes it feels like we are "preaching to the choir". It was for that reason I went outside.

I will be interested to know/see if it will work with my existing outside blog on blogger.

Bob,

Is it based on Linx or Microsoft? Okay we will wait and see. Thanks for the information.

Very nice Jon. You guys have come full circle on the outside blogging thing.

Really nice looking and clean. Awesome...when you do expect full roll out? This is a great idea...one of my outside blogs is junko...it loads slow....sometimes it's down. With the paid version coming into play what happens with our current stuff? What differences will be there between the paid vs. the standard? Will we loose any functionality when the paid is rolled out?

Now if we post on the paid version...even though its separate from localism....if we select will it show up there still? Congrats...guys...this is very exciting...

Bob,

With a captive audience this goes hand and hand with A/R and it`s members. Great marketing idea.

Bob, This is very cool! I have two outside blogs now through blogger. I would really like the new address please keep us informed as to when.

Bob, so you are going to go head to head with Blogger and Worpress and Typepad? I use both Blogger and Wordpress for outside blogs. Can you please outline what advantages you will have over these experience competitors?

Thanks for continued innovation.

Hi Bob,

This is exciting news, looking forward to it. :)

Sounds like you have a lot of interest and looks like a lot of work has gone into thinking how to make AR folks happy!!!

Sounds great. But keep it not too complicated. Maybe roll it out in phases.

Bob, I think this is a great move on your part. I already have an outside blog but I like the fact that your writing area is wider. Your samples are looking good!

The platform looks really good. Great job guys!!

Just what I was looking for! I have started researching outside blogs and now I don't need to. Thanks and look forward to the unveiling.

Looks appealing and friendly. How soon can we all get on board?

Bob ~ I have an outside blog that is a blogger site, would this new site be better than blogger? Also, would the blogger posts be transferable to the new site? Thanks!

BOB: How soon will others get to try the beta? I'm planning on starting an outside blog, but before I go someplace else, I'd like to see what the AR one looks like.

Fantastic idea Bob & Company and I'm sure the implementation will be just as good. This is wonderful for a guy like me, since my outside blog consists of a sticky pad and ballpoint pen. I look forward to this very much! Oh, and congrats on the feature ;-)

I'm interested to see how quickly these rise from the sandbox...

Answers my questions about setting up another blog in my recent post. Great idea, can't wait to see what I can do with this new set up.

This looks awesome! I can't wait for this to be unveiled.

Bob, I've had an "outside blog" since 4 months before I started to get really active on Active Rain. It's been very successful for me so far, but I'd love to explore more the option that you'll be offering. Any word yet on costs and would we be able to easily import over old posts that we have on current outside blogs?

Bob, when do you think that you'll have this up and running?

Great read.... as I sit here setting up a WordPress blog... to replace my blogger platform. Will there be a way to autopost to a wordpress blog on my own domain?

Sorry for not following this more closely last night and being able to answer every question directly. I will try to answer a few, and you are free to call me and ask any questions that don't get covered. 425.216.2754

This new platform will be available to all members in the first week of 2008.

A couple of people asked about being able to import posts from your current outside blog into the new platform. This will not be an option in the first release although we are exploring ways to be able to syndicate from your current outside blog. This is something that we have gotten quite a bit of feedback from prior to our outside blog platform, it's just a matter of freeing up the programming time to do it.

Being able to categorize your posts will be something that will be a part of version 2 and not available right out of the gates.

Dan,

As far as advantages over the current options available..............a key advantage will be it's association with ActiveRain which manifests itself in greater SEO and a more active blog. In addition, for members with little experience outside of ActiveRain, there will be very little learning curve. Set up time can be as little as 15 minutes. (One of our beta testers had his up and running in 10, although there is enough stuff to play with that he has been back in making adjustments here and there).

Midori asked a great question regarding the current "stuff". You will not lose ANY of your current functionality with ActiveRain. You will be able to select exactly where you want your posts to appear. AR, localism, and your outside blog will all be options, or any combination of the three. The main difference between the paid and the standard will be the ability to customize the look and feel. You've been somewhat limited thus far in your ability to brand your blog.

Price..................we haven't set a definitive price point yet. I made a comment to someone above that we believe it will be worth ten times more than we charge for it :) It will end up being less per month than you spend on coffee in a week (at least if your town has been invaded by Starbucks like our great state)

If I didn't answer your question please feel free to call me and discuss it.

Bob, Informative Post. I'll keep a watch out on your progress.

Hi Bob...

I am going to have to park and unpack :)

But...I'll be back. This is exciting news :)

TLW...ROAR!

Wow, this is a great idea. Not sure I understand how it works, so I'll wait for updates and check out the blogs mentioned in this post. One thing is for sure. I can't be bothered to blog outside of AR. So, this will help me greatly!

This is really cool, I 'm still plugging away at it ! lol

Sounds pretty awesome. when do you think that you'll have this up and running?

Wow! You got 100 comments on this......

Patricia Aulson/Hampton NH Real Estate

We ar in the midst of evaluating a place to have our outside Blog and would love to see what you have to offer. Thanks

Thought of two more features this morning that I'd like to see -- comment moderation, and the ability to use Google Analytics. Traffic has always been a big question with AR blogs, would be great to know how much comes from outside sources and what those sources are.

For those interested... here is my outside blog set to a standard, unedited template.

http://jeffturner.activerain.com/

I have had a difficult time keeping up with multiple blogs. I just may have to come back to Active Rain more often and figure out a way to make all four blogs work. I'm glad to see you will be compensated for your efforts and brilliance. KUDOS to all!

Hi Paula: I would love to see all of your four blogs. Could you please send me links to them... send them to karenannestone@gmail.com . Thanks Paula, and thanks Jeff, too.

I can't wait to see how it all pans out. Sounds like it could be a great tool in addition to my own blog.

How could AR get any better? Subdomains, that's how. Awesome!

Exactly what I have been waiting for. Can't wait to get mine set up.

Cool....thanks for the sneak peak... I will be interested to hear and see more!

I have been on for only about a month, by the time this is available in January I should have this down cold and be ready tgo step-up to the outside world of blogging - looking forward to it.

Question - for those of us with a fixed front page (franchise website) can we still be able to make a link disceranble enough to make prospective clients want to click through?

Bob that's TERRIFIC I was just about to start my "outside blog" now I will wait...If you need any more guinea pigs let me know....

Interesting. One more thing to think about working on.

I just had to come here to see what all the noise was. Yall people kept waking me up.

I was starting my outside blog this evening... now you are giving me something to think about (I had no visions of running away from AR).

I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it. Now I don't have to learn WordPress, Yippee. Thank you, thank you, thank you. My brain hurts from working so hard to learn everything I read about on AR.

DEC

2007

Will these "outside blogs" have auto ping / track backs ala Wordpress?

Looking at the samples, it appears tags will carry forward. Now another reason to tidy up my tags.

great ideas here...you are on to something!

Bob, exciting news. I almost went for setting up an outside blog at the beginning of the month and decided I wanted to wait and work on better understanding what my ROI was going to be. I wanted to evaluate integration, design and technical aspects of maintaining a high standard and value. I am glad I have waited. I look forward to hearing more.

Bob - this is really great! We have been discussing our site becoming a blog site and here you are with the answer to all of our questions!!!! We will be awaiting more information on this!!!!

Count me in as a potential user of this added feature... I'm chomping at the bit to try it!

Bob - I am thrilled to hear this and I am very interested! I will check back in for updates.

DEC

2007

Can't wait!! I wish I knew earlier, I wouldn't have created 4 others outside AR.. :-(

I made a goal of getting an outside blog site. This may be the answer. Thank you for continuing to make Active Rain such a powerful tool.

Looks great, Bob ! I'm very interested in seeing what the outside blog platform will be like. Right now I use Blogger and Wordpress (not overly active on either of them) and it will be fun to see what the AR platform will be like. I like the fact that it is directly compatible with our AR blogs here.

((-:

Very exciting news for all of us looking to maximize our presence. Please count me in when you get to that point ! Good luck.

Sounds great...can't wait to see and hear more.

DEC

2007

Bob - I'm getting excited. I visited Sara's blog and it looks terrific. I can't wait!

DEC

2007

Bob - I look forward to seeing this implemented. What is the production date?

very cool when does this roll out?

I can't wait until this is out of Beta. I currently use WordPress, but I'd like a better place to distribute. Count me in....

I can't wait to try it out too! I wish I had been picked for the test drive :(

Please release it soon!

DEC

2007

Bob, sounds great! You guys are FANTASTIC! Thanks, I'm looking forward to it.

Bob: I'm really looking forward to taking this new product for a walk around the block. I can only imagine how great it will be. Now I'm glad that I held off setting up my outside blog. I suspected this was on its way. THANKS for all the work behind the scenes to keep us behaving!

Cool, can't waite to be able to blog on and on and on with my own blog.

Take care!

RJH

DEC

2007

This is interesting and I can't wait to try it when it is available.

DEC

2007

Bob, you will read this hundreds of times, but I'd love to participate once this is available!

DEC

2007

Keep me in the loop! I have a new blogging website and a static website... I'd like to revamp the static website.

Thank you...

DEC

2007

You know, it should really be free. There are plenty of free blogging alternatives out there that are easy to set up, and you already make money off of the ads on your web site. This will only be another method of brining more traffic to this site for your ads. Blogging is free content that we the users make for your web site. I'm a little annoyed actually that this feature isn't free, and as soon as I am solidly in second place for my region I will take my blogging elsewhere that benefits me more.

Too funny. Some people are never happy, no matter what you do. With the massive amount of internet exposure we get from this site, I'm surprised it's been free this long. Personally, I don't have a problem with a small monthly fee when I'm gaining far more exposure and new business from this than I've ever gotten from my personal website or any other paid sites I've used. Anyone who doesn't see the value in ActiveRain, and is only interested in points, might as well move on down the road. Your second place position won't last once you stop blogging. Those that see the big picture will surpass you and move you into obsolescence.

I just hope that those of us that continue to use the free version and not the upgraded version still are able to mantain our second place postions even if we choose not to upgrade to the next level.

If not, that just wouldn't be fair.

That shouldn't matter, unless they make it so buying the ability to have an outside blog gives you bonus points, in which case I would say yes that is also not fair.

DEC

2007

Is there a pssibility of "retro-dating" entries so post that we made this last year can show up on the proper date assigned instead of the actual date? Now that would be awesome!

DEC

2007

Bob- This is fasacinating and progressive - so AR. I have been struggling with how to stay connected and not be fragmented. However, I don't understand how it will be done. Does the blogger log into AR to write or is able to link from the outside blog? You probably already answered my question but I still don't get it. I will work at it.

DEC

2007

Bob - I am just glad I waited.

I'm surprised we're not seeing more member feedback here from the ones already using this system.

Any word on availability to the masses?

Hi Chuck: I am sure Bob is very busy, so I will answer for him. As for Mass availability... Masses at St Patrick's Cathedral are as follows: on Saturdays at 6:00pm.

The Sunday Mass schedule is 6:30am, 8:00am, 9:30am, 11:00am and 12:30pm. The 6:30am Sunday Mass is in Latin. Confessions are held on Saturdays from 2:00pm until 4:30pm... longer times are available during the Knicks losing streaks. Please see your Parish Bulletin for other days and times.

Father Bob and the Good Sisters thank you for your interest.

Nice one!

Mass availability:

We are still shooting for the first week of January. After a meeting with the team just minutes ago, it looks like Jan. 7th (a Monday) is the tentative release date. We'll have a separate post coming in the first couple days of January to firm that up.......

OMG Karen that was a riot! Happy New Year Bob!

Ha! I got my laugh for the day... thanks!

JAN

2008

Bob ~ Hey, just checking in on the Beta testing. Any idea of a launch date for the outside blog platform?? Thanks a bunch!!

We had some hiccups with one of the things components we aren't very good at.......charging :)

Right now we are shooting for the end of the month............two weeks from now :)

JAN

2008

Oh My!! Awesome.. What's next?

Espanol version??? Yay, there's more RAIN for all of us, thanks guys.

FEB

2008

Any updates on a release date yet?

Guess we need to keep checking.

FEB

2008

Bob whats going on with Outside Blogs? Did I miss the release? Its almost March

MAR

2008

Bob - Any word on the outside blogs?

Thanks.

-Al

MAR

2008

inquiring minds want to know.. :-)

APR

2008

Checking to see if this has been updated and when it will be available for all to customize the look of their blogs like this.

JUN

2008

Still interested... any progress?

AUG

2008

Hi Bob I have my own domain name for my outside blog. ( homesearchnewcastle.com)

The only templates that work on my blog are the first 2 ( without the custom header) I have been trying for hours to upload a fall header from my photos. I went to picnik resized it to 742x105 saved it to jpeg file but everytime I tried to upload the header, I get an error message. Does having an outside domain name have anything to do with it. Why the error? thanks

ps the header works when I post to . my member's only blog but I can't get it on the outside blog

JUN

Bob I am not able to load my customized header that I have on my AR blog. I thought it was because I didn't join to pay the $19. per month, so I did that...The header, that I had no problem loading was a winter scene and I wanted to change it. I still can't ....Also I can not figure why there is a huge amount of wasted space before the first blogs shows up.

I now have a generic header but I really want the header that is on my AR blog. I have problems resizing photos

( photobucket) 960x134 my pictures will not let me resize anything higher than 500. Help please.........I just noticed the last response to your blog was from me...imagine that and in the fall no less.................

Anything you guys can do to put additional tools in a central place is very helpful.

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