A "Localism Tip" and How to Leverage the Search Engines

WOW - What a Response. I made my last post late last night and then woke up this morning to numerous posts - then I checked and found out that the pot had gone to FEATURED - so thank you all very much.  Let me address each of you briefly here and if you have any specific questions, please let me know:

KENGO - I love the fishing analogy.  In a previous post I have called it the HUNTER and the FARMER and I would definitely say this is the farmer planting his prized seeds in his most fertile ground.

RANDY - In my humble opinion, time spent on Localism now will pay off big time very soon.  Read my previous post and follow along at the new Group - Localism Beta - please join us.

MAGGIE - What's nice about the Snow in my part of California is it is just up the hill - a 20 minute drive with no traffic and I can be right back home in my DRY weather found in Hemet.

As far as rediscovering Active Rain - I am in the same boat.  I originally joined in June and did nothing more than establish a presence with a profile.  Then the day after Christmas, I was doing some SEO work and I kept seeing these pesky ActiveRain sites popping up where they had not been before.  A little more research and I was convinced my SEO time was being ill spent outside of this medium.  Yes I still have a website or two to take care of, but AR is now my "big dog"

As far as getting up to speed on Active Rain check out the blog post that  Blanca Cholewczynski, wrote called a Welcome Wagon.  Links to some very specific topics in other blogs - Great stuff and highly recommended.  I know I have it bookmarked!

PHYLENA - Thank you for the compliment.  Good luck to you.

CHRIS  I went to the link you provided and I went straight to the Localism page.  It may look like your website because you are the dominate presence there.  Otherwise it looked like every other Localism page I have seen that has received some TLC>  Nice pictures, by the way.

MISSY - The way Localism links back to your blog is automatically built into Localism.  That's the short answer.

The long Answer is that each article and each photos has a by-line that is a link to your blog and once someone appears at your blog, they of course can link to your website.

Hope this helps, if you need more, write back and I'll be glad to help.

BETH - The only way I have figured out how to refer back is to bookmark the blog - otherwise it is very easy for it to get lost.  I am glad that I have been able to help.  This is my goal as a REALTOR - to educate my clients so that they will figure things out for themselves and thereby own the information they uncover, rather than me telling them everything.  It works there and it works here.

TONY - I'm not sure you want to lump your mind into the same category as mine - it can be a scary place sometimes - but with that being said, yes I am referring top the FREEFORM description field.

CHRIS - Thanks for checking back and picking up on my added thoughts to the original post.  Hope it works out for you.

KEVIN & SHERRY:  As far as the weather, what can I say.  Quick story.  In So Cal we of course host the Rose Bowl every year - the "Grand daddy of all Bowl Games".

In every Rose Bowl game there is always a Midwest team, like Michigan so all of the fans from the Midwest tune into watch the ‘big game' on New years Day to see raving fans in the bleachers wearing tank tops and T-Shirts and of course there is always a group of Alumni wearing no shirts at all - showcasing their painted chests.

I am of the opinion that back in the Midwest, the locals are freeing and they get to see first hand just how beautiful a day we can have here and so they migrate. 

I'm almost willing to bet that silly game is responsible for 10% of the population in southern California.

Now get this - it never rains on game day.  We can have the absolute solid weeks of the worse weather leading right up to the day before game day - and then miraculously new years Day is all about sunshine and blue skies.

I'm sure you'll take some beautiful pictures when the time is right.

JOHN:  I store all of my pictures on the free online hosting service Google provides for your photos - called PICASSA,.  If you download the desktop version, they do a great job of organizing your photos on your computer making it very easy to find what you are looking for - much easier that Windows.

If you are not using the many free services Google offers, I strongly suggest you look at how easy they are making life on the internet.

JUDY ANN - Excellent Point Judy Ann, I always have a camera with me and then my cell phone is my back up, just in case I need a battery charge or something.  Plus my phone uses the same card as the camera, so I even have more memory with me, when needed.

And thanks for the explanation as to how the search actually works.  I was probably rambling as I tried to explain it.

Once again thank everyone for their interest in this topic.  I would ask anyone who is interest in following the development of Localism to join the new group, Localism Beta and feel free to write your own article or just chime in and post comments for all to see, including the Rain Gods.  As of this posting, we are up to 13 members and 15 posts - all in less than 24 hours - so there is some great interest.  Please join us.

Now Have a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR
www.johnOcchi.Com

JIM & MARIA,

Thanks for the comment - I'm not sure if the other search engines will look for images or not, but Google has it's own specific search engine just for images - you can find a picture of anything you want - anywhere in the world, based on the keywords in the photo description.

Now Have a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR
http://www.johnocchi.com/

Jennifer,

Don't forget to add as many communities aroound your town, so you cna then load the pictures to the communities as well.

We still don'[t know how the commuinty sites will link tous or what cred we will get, but if nothing else we have been promised pointsw for establishing the communities and by doing so you have first shot at addint the pictures - which will link back to you -so it is win-win.

Now Have a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet REALTOR
www.JohnOcchi.Com

RICK & INES - You are more than welcome.  Add all the pictures you can

RAY - thanks for the kind words - it is great to have such an open forum for REALTORS to communicate and build search engine rnkings all at the same time.

JASON - Every picture is in some community.  If it's not there - ADD it yourself.  I figure it doesn't even matter if I am in that market area, aif I know of a community, I'll add it.

Nhow have aBlessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet CA Realtor
www.JohnOcchi.Com

WOW - this is an old post - before Localsim even went live.

I sponsor SAN JACINTO, CA - but to be honest I have been here and gone ---back and forth with ActiveRain over the past year or so and have forgotten more than I remember - and to be honest, I can't even figure out how to access Localism anymore...

Sorry

John...

But I am determined...