Okay... it's time to level with you guys...  several months ago I heard about Active Rain and I was told it's a great way to drive traffic to your sites. All you have to do is start a blog and post on it every day and comment on other peoples blogs and before you know it you'll have more leads than you know what to do with. So I posted one or two blogs saw that it was labor intensive and asked my wife who has been writing training sessions for agents for 30 years if she would mind posting some blogs for me. She said, "Not at all, Rich I have tons of stuff."

So Beth has been doing all the work and as you can see she has done a nice job. Here's my problem!  This morning she starts having an Active Rain fit... "Rich, this AR is ridiculous.. I got nothing happening here and I'm spending hours on the computer so call the guy that told you to do this and tell him it's a waste of time."

Now the guy was Bob Corcoron, I'm sure a bunch of you know him and I value his opinion. My question is what do I tell Beth?

She does like the info she gets from the site and she shares it all with our agents. She said some guy "Jeff" on staff has been very helpful to her, he even gave her some points for being nice. He told her to post listings and not worry about points but my wife is a very competitive person and she loves those points. She made a few friends and was impressed because two of them even sent her a message and told her to call them. So she likes the Social Part... however...I'm just not sure that all of that is enough to keep her going.

If anyone can tell me how long it takes to get some action and by action I mean money, Beth always says "time is money and if you want to be successful you have to do the most productive thing", and she's not seeing this Active Rain as a productive use of her time...  sooooooo any ideas that would help me to keep her posting those blogs will be greatly appreciated. 

I'm not sure she's not right, because I see only one lead that visited one of our sites, and she has put hours in but I do have faith in Bob C aside from the fact that I pay him a ton of money so I might as well listen.. Oh Well .. and help will be greatly appreciated.

Have a great day!

PS... This does take time, now I have to put a picture in???

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Star Posted by Richard & Beth Witt - Broker - Re/Max Wittney Estates on 03/07/2012 07:45 AM   Comments (84)   active rain, help, time is money, waste of time, nice people, social  
Short URL: http://actvra.in/MJz

84 Comments on Active Rain Is Not Doing It

20 Most Recent Comments Displayed Show All

MAR
08
2012

Thanks for all the info... great question.
10:43am • #66
455,823 Points 24 Featured Posts Outside Blog

I was under the impression that comment links are no-follow?  How does that benefit?
11:23am • #67
255,297 Points 9 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

I think the localism posts are really beneficial. I've closed a deal because of writing local posts, they were researching the area (relocating to Va) and caught one of my posts. From there they started following my blog and then contacted me to be their agent. The keywords are definitely important too. I learn something new everyday on how to structure my blog, I think it's something you have to stick with.
11:32am • #68
248,895 Points 8 Featured Posts Outside Blog

Hi Richard,

Congratulations on your featured post!

I looked through your blog and noticed a few things immediately:

  1. You (or your wife) have not been blogging for very long. It does take time, as others in your area have probably been at it far longer and will rank higher than you on Google, as a result.
  2. Many of your blog posts are not targeting your service area and taking advantage of those "keyword rich" posts that you could be utilizing.
  3. Many of your posts are not providing information that home buyers and sellers are looking for or care about. With online marketing, it's all about providing content that helps, educates and provides value to the reader.
  4. Your blog posts are not optimized for the search engines, therefore, they will not be readily indexed and rank for keywords and to attract your target audience.

I would suggest, as mentioned in some of the comments above, that you have your wife take the Active Rain courses available, and review some of the blogs by other members, to get an idea of how to attract clients to your posts. In addition, you'll need to become familiar with all aspects of SEO, which includes generating high quality back links to your blog. You can find more of this information on numerous top ranking SEO and social media info sites, such as getfoundnow.com. If you'd like a list of others, you can find one on another blog that I host, getreelblog.com. All info on my site is free, and I just have it as a resource for our agents and others.

Good luck to you and your wife! I hope that you'll stick with it!

Gina Lemos 
11:41am • #69
155,852 Points Outside Blog

Great question raised and all the answers are even better. Once again the AR community rises to the challenge....I love AR :-)
12:16pm • #70
303,804 Points 27 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Hi Gina.. thanks for the great advice.. I have so much advise I hardly know where to begin.. I checked out your town sites and will be using as much of their info as I can... I have watched all the video and have had a long talk with Jeff who was very helpful... but like today I wanted to post a virtual tour and I can't find out how to do it as yet but I know I will... Thanks again... (Beth)

 
12:34pm • #71
303,804 Points 27 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Hi Ann... I agree that the answers are fantastic... They will be of tremendous value to me... thank you for your time...and comment..
12:35pm • #72
303,804 Points 27 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Thanks Rene for your advise... I'm getting some education and I am very grateful to everyone that took the time to help me out... looks like the community is a big thing...
12:36pm • #73

If you want to know how you are doing, there are statistics offered by Active Rain in your home profile area.

I am presenting this from memory having not reviewed the data for a few weeks, so my descriptions may not be 100% accurate.

This will tell you how many times someone has opened your full post and has read it.

It will also let you know how many visitors have gone to your web site from Active Rain blogs you have written.

For a small click fee, Active Rain sends visitors to your web site.

I have only been on Active Rain since January and I am seeing some numbers come through.

Before you get a lead or a phone call, these numbers have to start moving up.

 

 
12:43pm • #74
197,638 Points 2 Featured Posts

Richard I thought I would respond to your post by not only telling you how to improve your situation but also by demonstrating it. In the space of about 15 min. I created 2 blog posts targeting a specific community in Massapequa, one that is certainly attractive enough from what I can see and what I wrote is now high up in search for "East Massapequa real estate on Oyster Bay"  and "East Massapequa homes with backyard docks."

Both posts have your contact info.

Put those 2 searches into Google and you will see my posts both on my personal blog and my post on activerain for the Massapequa real estate Oyster Bay search.  

In a mere 15 minutes, I beat homes.com, truly-a-business-stealer, realtor.com and all the other syndicates and your local competitors as well, to target a specific buyer who really wants to buy a specific type of home. As you can see, you only need one or two self-positioned leads to find this kind of post to create the ultimate lethal weapon against business scarcity. If anything is ultimately direct marketing, it's real estate!

Look what made #1 in minutes- Activerain!

 

On both posts I included your contact information.  Every time I create one of these types of posts,  local, targeted with specific keywords for specific buyers wanting something precisely reveals that they are ready to purchase, my posts rank high in Google and I get traffic from them for years afterward. Traffic from people who want to buy exactly what I have described–and yet, most real estate agents will not blog at this level. Why? I really don't know because there is a wealth of money to be made using this method of direct marketing.  There is a wealth of opportunity in your farm. Grab the camera and a notepad. Drive around your community, take pictures and notes and create blog specific to communities where you can show homes to people who want to buy them. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Activerain put me on the map in my business when none of my other resources had the capacity to do so that they do today.

That's worth repeating, Activerain put me on the map in my business.
12:44pm • #75
556,102 Points 31 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Hi Richard,

Either you are in or you are out.

If you are out, there are lots of reasons to bolster your decision.

If you are in, it is like training for sports. You have to be all the way in.

Phil
1:36pm • #76
303,804 Points 27 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Hi Phil... If I believe in something I'm in !00%... After this post I BELIEVE!
1:44pm • #77
303,804 Points 27 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Thanks Jerry... I had no clue you could pay AR for leads to your site..

2:55pm • #78
520,778 Points 229 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Katerina:  And I respectfully disagree with your disagreement #46 of my comment #45.

The premise for Richard writing this article was his lack of viable leads as a result of his blogging efforts. The best way to achieve meaningful results is good, relevant hyper-local content. While I totally agree that posting your listings on ActiveRain is a good practice (I do it all the time as well to impress my Sellers and gain greater exposure for my listings), but I was attempting to provide some helpful counsel for generating leads....not 'Wow' his current clients....
11:08pm • #79
MAR
09
2012
303,804 Points 27 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Hey Rich.. Good morning... and thanks for you comment... I'm totally confused ... so I signed up for an Internet Marketing Special Designation... it costs a few bucks but I always believed you have to spend money to make money... thanks again Rich...  Beth
4:44am • #80
520,778 Points 229 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Beth:   What is your confusion? Maybe I can help....
6:21am • #81
248,895 Points 8 Featured Posts Outside Blog

Hi Beth,

You're very welcome! I love helping people, even though I don't make money from it, but I believe in karma ; )

To post a virtual tour, you will need to embed the HTML code into the blog post. This can only be done when it's in the "HTML" mode though. What you'll have to do is write the text that you'd like in the post, then save the post as a draft first. This is very important because if you don't, and you try to switch it from "WYSIWYG" to "HTML", you'll lose all of the text. Once you've saved it as a draft, go back into "edit" the post and then click on the HTML view (upper left corner of the editor) & simply click and "copy" the code where you'd like it to appear in the post. Then save it again while in the HTML mode, before changing it back to the WYSIWYG view.

If you don't have the full code necessary to display the actual player in the body of your post, then the next best thing will be to just link to the virtual tour from some text in the post. Make sure that you use keywords to "anchor" the text- for example, for my area, I would say something like, "Check out this Yorba Linda CA Pool Home Virtual Tour".

Feel free to call or email me if you have any questions or need any help. (714) 721-6024 or gina@ocrealestateandloans.com

Have a great weekend!

Gina Lemos
12:04pm • #82
303,804 Points 27 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Thanks so much Gina... I really appreciate your help and I too believe in Karma... I called Jeff and he helped me... check me out : http://activerain.com/blogsview/3026937/garden-city-condominium-for-sale- At first this post gave me a headache but now I am so grateful for it because all the comments are really going to help me. I can't wait until I know enough to help someone else.. Thanks again...

 
2:20pm • #83
248,895 Points 8 Featured Posts Outside Blog

That's great, Beth! So glad that you've received so much help here on AR! I'm not surprised, as this really is a great community full of wonderful and supportive professionals. Good to hear that you plan to "pay it forward" as well : D

All the best to you and Richard!
5:12pm • #84
303,804 Points 27 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

You guys are great I need to find out how to make you associates... have a wonderful evening... Rich says HI I'm trying to get him to include a picture of me in his profile but someone at AR told him not to :-(
5:20pm • #85

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Richard & Beth Witt - Broker - Re/Max Wittney Estates

Massapequa, NY

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Address: 5100 Sunrise Highway, Massapequa, NY, 11762

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