Active Rain - 2007, and beyond

I did not have time to include Canada in this but will as soon as I have time.

Active Rain is about member generated content.  Without the content there is no Active Rain.  I thought I would take a look at who we are and where we live.  The number in, or near each state represents the number of Active Rain members in those states.  The red numbers are to highlight the states that have more than 2000 members.

Since membership varies from state to state the number of points needed to be number one in each state also varies.  Of the 63,000 + members only a small percentage participate by writing blog posts on a regular basis.  This is true with most social networks, about 1% of the members are active. 

I was asked to pick what I thought are the 12 best posts of 2007.  I can not do that because  I would have to read every post made this year to pick the ones that I think are the best, and then it would just be my opinion.  Chances are there is someone out there, like you, who writes amazing posts that I have never seen.

I was also asked to share some thoughts about Active Rain and am honored to do so.

Active Rain has become a school of sorts and for some of us even a kind of laboratory where we can experiment with new ideas.  In the past several months I am noticing that people that are new to real estate blogs are imitating some of the best bloggers.  By doing so they seem to shorten the learning curve and have successes sooner.  The very best examples of real estate blog posts can be found on Active Rain for those who know where to look.

We all learn from each other and that is what makes belonging to Active Rain a good thing.  I would encourage members who have not started a blog to do so.  If you are not sure of what you are doing make the posts members only. It really is a great cahnce to learn about how to write a blog. 

I wish I could predict the future of Active Rain.  It is likely that membership will grow.  New members join every day and some of the long term members stop writing, but we find each other on social networks all over the internet.  I have made so many friends on Active Rain and those friendships have moved outside of the network and continue to grow. 

Active Rain has become less of a social network in the last year and more of a go-to place for real estate information.  I see the trend continuing in 2008, with more of us branching out and joining social networks, while the bloggers who are writing the real estate content continue to join Active Rain and participate at a higher level.   

 It is each members participation that makes Active Rain what it is.  To those who participate a regular basis thank you for being here.  Have a happy and prosperous 2008 and please keep writing.