I was asked to do a 2007 Year in Review for Active Rain and my mind started racing into which direction I could take this to. The whole concept of the project is to see our own particular take on how Active Rain has impacted the Real Estate Industry this year and what I would consider to be the top 12 posts of the year.
Let me begin by saying that each person’s journey, role, focus or whatever you may want to call it, is very different. We all have strategies and methods to our madness and I think you will agree that we have also made unbelievable friendships that will carry on beyond anyone’s expectations.
I am very grateful to Active Rain mostly for the relationships, but also for giving me the gift of blogging which lead to the creation of my baby, Miamism.com. The countless hours I’ve spent in this platform have changed my real estate world a great deal and I can honestly say I am a better Realtor because of blogging.
Now to the subject at hand. The year began with The Lovely Wife, aka “TLW” asking a group of ladies (Mariana Wagner, Carole Cohen, Monika McGuillicuddy and Ann Cummings) to do blogging book reviews in order to help new bloggers as well as ourselves. The first review was Paul Chaney’s Realty Blogging (which lead to something unbelievable, but I’ll get to that later) and then we went on to review Rebecca Blood’s The WEBlog Handbook. After we reviewed each chapter, TLW was able to do an open Forum type post with none other than the author, Rebecca Blood. Yes TLW has had hundreds of great posts that lifted the spirits of Active Rain. But to think that we were able to communicate directly with a pro that has been blogging for years was pretty amazing.
Welcome To Our Open Forum With Rebecca Blood...ROAR!
I couldn’t go on to talk about another blogger without mentioning Bryant Tutas, (TLW’s very good looking husband). With Bryant I learned how to respond to people on my posts, how to deal with aggression (take a look a Candybags if you haven’t from 2006), but most of all, how to add a little humor to our very serious and sometimes frustrating jobs.
Broker Bryant counteroffers...just for you CaliGal!
Next, I’d like to highlight one of my favorite people and fellow Agent Genius Blogger who is so selfless about her blogging and is constantly helping others, in addition to letting her sense of humor shine through. I need to mention her series on Understanding the Realtor Code of Ethics. Talk about telling it like it is. Here’s Mariana Wagner’s last post on the subject and it will guide you to the proceeding articles as well.
Understanding the Realtor® Code of Ethics: Article 17 - Arbitration and Litigation
You all have seen different people celebrating break-through’s around Active Rain with posts like “I have 20,000 points” or “how I made it to 100,000”. The most original and creative post to highlight their 100th post was from Ann Cummings. She was able to involve a lot of people and was able to capture us with none other than a Jeopardy Game. (I did not hurt that I ended up wining…..hm, hm).
JEOPARDY, Active Rain Style - MY 100th Post!!
Next, I thought of a particular post that showed so much emotion that it even got support from the local media and tons of people came to comment. To think that this particular blogger was concerned about her “blogging voice” (sorry CARNAC, you’ll have to deduct points for that), at one point is beyond me. Here’s Monica McGuilliCuddy’s:
Most of us started blogging for business not just because we enjoy the interaction and the fun we have, but ultimately because blogs help SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which means real estate customers will be able to find you. Here’s a post that changed the way we look at SEO from one very successful blogger that I absolutely love. Laurie Manny:
I could not write a year in review without mentioning Stager Extraordinaire Craig Schiller. His passion for staging and for improving his industry and getting the word out are obvious. Here’s one of my favorite posts that teaches the Real Estate Industry a little about Staging.
REALTORS... Selling a home is as easy as riding a Tricycle
At the beginning of the year, I learned that by targeting a specific group of real estate customers, you could achieve a lot more. Rich Jacobson came up with a group for “first time home buyers” and some of us did articles focused on their needs. We would hear success stories from people about getting business from Active Rain, but I was ecstatic to hear that blogging really did work. Take a look at this blogging success story from George Souto (who happens to have a great singing voice, ask him if you don’t believe me).
My First Loan From ActiveRain!!!
The 2007 AR year in review cannot continue without a mention of Project Blogger. This past summer, I was lucky to be invited to be an apprentice by non-other than Paul Chaney, the author of Realty Blogging (one of the books I reviewed with TLW and the ladies of the rain). It was a real honor not only to learn from Paul but to become his friend. The competition was long, was frustrating, was intense…but the experience I got from it is priceless. For that I thank AR from the bottom of my heart. Paul and I made it a point to share our progress and learned things like RSS feeds, posting formats, keyword importance, HTML, and most importantly, showing my personality in my writing. Here’s one of the posts from Paul Chaney during Project Blogger:
Project Blogger: Seven Blog Copywriting Posting Formats
During the Project Blogger competition, I also learned from 2 other coaches that taught me (and keep teaching me very valuable lessons).
Jeff Turner is all about engaging your audience and creating relationships and not making it obvious that you are selling a product or service. In addition to sharing all kinds of great tools and gadgets (that’s why some of us call him “tool boy”), you will learn something from every single post of his. Here’s one of my favorites:
Another great blogger and Project Blogger Coach that taught me the single most important lesson in blogging is ARDELL DellaLoggia. Ardell would go out of her way to make comments on my posts and to instigate conversation. One day she said, Ines, it’s amazing that you are an architect. You need to show your readers what added value you bring to the table, you should highlight your architectural expertise (I’m paraphrasing here but you get the point). Then one day she jumped down my throat with a very controversial topic (next time e-mail me ok Ardell? – although I know it wouldn’t have been half as fun).
What Does "Bait and Switch" Blogging Say About You?
Lastly I have to mention someone that I hold in high regards. This person grabbed my outside blog when it was in need and turned it around in a weekend. I’m not trying to sell her services here, but when it comes to Mary McKnight, you can only expect a class act. Read any of her posts and you will be overwhelmed with information. Sometimes I can’t wait for her to post her next article because I know I’ll be able to tweak and make a correction to something on my site or on my own blogging.
Sure Fire Formula for a Successful Blog Post
So how has Active Rain impacted the real estate industry in 2007?
- It has brought people together, people from all places that we can create business relationships with.
- It has made us better Realtors by reading and writing.
- It was brought our business to the next level and placed us, blogging real estate professionals, at the forefront of our industry.
- It has taught us how to achieve our goals and how to establish dialoge with our own customers before they even meet us.
There are other people that in my opinion have influenced the real estate industry other than these 12, but unfortunately, I had to narrow it down to 12 posts, you know who you are and I appreciate everything you do.
To think of all the outside blogs that have been born here in Active Rain is unbelievable! I speak for myself when I say that I have not been spending much time in the rain lately because of my own outside blog and because of my thriving business. All that started with Active Rain. If you ever get a chance to get to an AR get together, don't miss it, it's an experience you'll never forget. Best wishes to everyone for the New Year, may it bring everything you are hoping for and more….and don’t forget…..BLOG ON!
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