Activerain Year In Review

I joined Activerain in December of 2006, so not one of the first to join; but in Activerain months, I guess I am old.

Jennifer Fivelsdal invited me to contribute to the Year in Review for 2007 for the Activerain Community.

There are dozens of posts that have been paramount in growing my business this year and with the 15 or so of us contributing, I encourage everyone to follow all the links and see what you may have missed out on, or what you can implement in 2008. I spent hours, a few weeks ago, going through all my bookmarks. That was a job, but I found many of them I had already been implemented along the way.

Have you ever heard the saying, "when the pupil is ready the teacher will come?"

On April 4^th, 2006,  I was sitting at my computer and a post came up about The Great Blog Link Experiment by Karen George. She said the first 22 people to sign up could be a part of the blog experiment. I quickly threw my name in, having no clue what I was going to learn.  You can see from my comment back to Karen, I had no idea what she meant. But, I thought it would be fun.

Over the course of the next two months, Karen took a group of 22 of us, and taught us all she knew about getting our rankings up in Google and it worked. All of the posts are written by Karen in her tag line, blogging seo for real estate pro's.

Somewhere along the way I heard people were jealous of the group; and I never understood that. No one knew each other when we joined the experiment and we all just wanted to learn more about Search Engine Optimization.

Three people here on Activerain, I have learned so much technology from are: Brad Andersohn, Jeff Turner and Brad Carroll. Is it any wonder these three guys are in the TOP 5 most subscribed to Bloggers on Activerain?

Brad's post on Setting the Record Straight on Duplicate Content, is a must read for anyone wanting to know if it is OK to post  both on your Activerain Blog and your "outside" blog. (Uggh, I hate that name... can we think of another one in 2008?)

Brad also created my new blog, AnnArborRealEstateTalk.

Brad Andersohn's post on 20 Google Tools for your business and how they are all FREE is a great starting point and seriously how do you choose one of Brad's best?

Also this Updating Your Activerain Profile is a must read. This is important for Search Engine Optimization.

Jeff Turner, is so full of technology and I find Jeff everywhere in Cyber-Space one can possibility imagine. TLW, started a group just for Jeff, called the Hubba Clubba Roar. There you can find all of Jeff's posts and it makes it easier to find any thing he has written. Jeff is responsible for me learning to embed YouTube Videos on Activerain, with his fabulous tutorial.

VFlyer.com has also been a tremendous asset to my business this year. I found out early on one of the founders Aaron Sperling graduated from University of Michigan. The customer service at Vflyer is phenomenal. I have spoken to Oliver Muto many times on the phone and you can read all about the exciting ways to use Vflyer here as he blogs on Activerain. 

What Year in Review would be complete without all of Lenn Harleys posts on copyright. So here is the link to over 25 posts of copyright violations, what it is, with fantastic information on photos, maps, Google images and the law.

In August, Activerain won the Most Innovative Media site from Inman News. This was announced in August and I was thrilled. I had called for their nomination here in a post on Activerain in June. ( photo with permission from Frances Flynn Thorsen)

A sad day for us in the rain, was when we found out Caleb Mardini was leaving Activerain to pursue other endeavors. Neal Bloom wrote a tribute post to Caleb that included many of his articles and contributions to the community. Make sure you read Caleb's announcement post.

Finally, I close by saying this: 

I have learned so much here from ALL of you, I have learned about your communities, your market, your struggles, your successes.

I no longer think Clearwater Homes without thinking Cyndee Haydon,

I no longer think Long Beach,CA with out thinking Laurie Manney,

I no longer think Bonita Springs without thinking Chris Griffith,

I no longer think West Virginia without thinking Sarah Cooper,

and I will always associate Hawaii with Whoo Hoo Sally.  

Friendships have been made and established across the State of Michigan with Lola, Stefan, Kris, Gary, Therese.

These are not just towns spread across the United States, but real people attached to that location...

To me one of the greatest values of Activerain is the built in referral network, that has nothing to do with which franchise we belong to, or the little referral button, but has been developed by the value we associate with each individual as we have connected with them through their writings. 

So as we say Good-bye on New Years Eve.....

I'll close by saying, "See you in the rain in 2008." and here is my Wish For You.