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Links to some great Active Rain Contest collections

By
Home Builder with The Flooring Girl

This is a repost as I thought this info would come in helpful, especially as many are still developing/refining their marketing plans for next year.  Also, this, at least for me, is catch up time, so it's a great time to read up on posts/implement things that normally you may be too busy to do.

 

Below are links to several of the great contests we've had on Active Rain and pools together the links to a myriad of great posts and info.  I hope you find it helpful (even if you just bookmark it for now). It's a great place to come back to when you have some extra time and want to take your marketing or business practices to the next level.

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Active rain has always been a place of learning and sharing.  There is tons of great info here that can help all of our businesses - both agents and non agents, both new and veterans and everyone in between. 

 

active rain logoIn the past, there have been several contest with TONS of useful info.   These are the challenges where we have been asked to write about areas that we learned and have improved our businesses.  Some are general marketing ideas; others are general business processes, and some are specific (e.g. the most amazing kick butt listing presentations.

 

If you go to these posts, you will see links to the contest entrants and a wealth of great ideas.   A few times, I've wanted to go back to these old contests or link to them in a comment (as I thought it would help the author with their question).  I realized last week that there is no easy way to find these old/past contests, and I thought it might be useful to includes these here.

 

Print Campaigns - An AR Contest

active rain contestThis is a current contest (yes, you can still enter) asking us to share learning on what has worked best for us in print media.

 

What do you wish you knew....(when you first started your business)

This has some wonderful eye opening "a ha" moments that many of us have had.  I'm sure many of wish we could go back in time and give ourselves all this wonderful advice.  But, regardless, we can all learn from each other, so we don't make the same mistakes, and I think in particular, this would be really helpful for newbie agents.

 

The most amazing kick butt listing presentation contest

Some wonderful learning and sharing here that help agents who focus on listings (or want more listings) so they can improve or hone their skills, presentation or approach.

 

Best business practices contest

This one has wonderful marketing ideas - many fresh and new ones.

 

Your best systems contest

This one shares processes on how to do things faster, more efficiently and more effectively across a wide variety of topics including social media, print, database management, follow up, etc.

 

Crowd Sourcing the way to more referrals

First, this post has a great example of how 1 agent generates a bunch of great referrals (read the story portion) and secondly, the  entries provide examples of how members of AR generate more referrals.

 

Your best Techo Secrets that make your personal and and professional life easier

Tips and tricks for the trade.  Some very useful tools to help improve your effectiveness.

 

"Crowdsourcing the Way to an Amazing Open House"

Some great input here on how to make open houses a success (as well as some rationale for why some no longer use open houses).

 

Crowdsourcing: Scripts and Dialogues aren't just for actors

Some great examples of scripts/dialogues to help people close sales, prompt decisionmaking and even help with lead conversion.  I even love the two examples that Bob gives in the post.

 

Echo sign and Active Rain: What is your favorite app?

Some great advice on apps for your phone or iPad that will make you faster and more effective.

 

Pre-Winter Holiday Plans for Business and You

This one has a lot of items that people are doing during the holiday time to make sure they have a strong spring. Some great tips on using this time wisely and optimizing marketing and networking

 

 

This is my first stab at collecting all of this useful info in one place.  Maybe whoever owns the Contest group can give this a star so that it is a permanent fixture in the group and easy for everytone to access.  As I said, this is my first attempt at putting this together. I did my best to trya to remember these useful contests and then search for them here. But, if I am missing some (especially as some may be before my time0, pls add a link in the comments and I'll add it.

 

Please note that this is not supposed to be catchall for every contest; rather, it's meant to capture the "timeless" ones that will always be helpful to our members - new ones coming in and established ones that are just searching for ways to take their business to the next level.

 

I'm going to bookmark this, so I don't lose it again!

 

 

 

Comments(17)

TeamCHI - Complete Home Inspections, Inc.
Complete Home Inspections, Inc. - Brentwood, TN
Home Inspectons - Nashville, TN area - 615.661.029

 Good morning, Debbie. Yes! I will bookmark this! Just looking at the titles seems as if there is a lot of good information here. Thank you!

Dec 29, 2013 07:19 PM
Joe Petrowsky
Mortgage Consultant, Right Trac Financial Group, Inc. NMLS # 2709 - Manchester, CT
Your Mortgage Consultant for Life

Good morning Debbie. I bookmarked your post as it is a great resource that I will use again and again. You did a lot of work putting it all together.

Make it a great week!

Dec 29, 2013 07:29 PM
Debbie Gartner
The Flooring Girl - White Plains, NY
The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers

Michael - Yes, there is.  Lots of good posts from many Active Rainers.

Joe - Yes, it should come in handy.  I keep adding to it as new contests are added. I guess now I should add to both this and the original as some people have bookmarked different posts.

Dec 29, 2013 07:33 PM
Bobbie Smith
Stroudsburg, PA
570-242-1891

Thank you Debbie. It is great to have these all in one location.

I've recently gone back to a few of the contests for putting my Business Plan together for 2014 - perfect timing.

Dec 29, 2013 08:37 PM
Sally K. & David L. Hanson
EXP Realty 414-525-0563 - Brookfield, WI
WI Real Estate Agents - Luxury - Divorce

You read my mind today....what a great collection of resources ...thank you and the very best of 2014 to you !

Dec 29, 2013 08:40 PM
Roger D. Mucci
Shaken...with a Twist 216.633.2092 - Euclid, OH
Lets shake things up at your home today!

Debbie, this post took a lot of time and effort to put together.  Kudos to you for offering this to everyone.

Dec 29, 2013 09:02 PM
Andre R. Aragon
Greater Tampa Real Estate Photographer - Tampa, FL
Real Estate Photographer

Wow Debbie - what a list. Thanks for compiling this - I see some I want t read right away. Thank you!

Dec 29, 2013 09:11 PM
Debbie Gartner
The Flooring Girl - White Plains, NY
The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers

Bobbie - Yes, there's a lot of great info there.

Sally & David - So glad to hear that.

Roger - Yes, but it's great for me (and others) to have it in 1 place

Andre - You're welcome.  Yes, several are here from before you came back.

Dec 29, 2013 09:20 PM
Ginny Gorman
RI Real Estate Services ~ 401-529-7849~ RI Waterfront Real Estate - North Kingstown, RI
Homes for Sale in Southern RI and beyond

Love this post Debbie...thank you for sharing..i 'm going back to the listing presentation & forgot to put mine on Slideshare...soon.

Dec 29, 2013 09:40 PM
Debbie Reynolds, C21 Platinum Properties
Platinum Properties- (931)771-9070 - Clarksville, TN
The Dedicated Clarksville TN Realtor-(931)320-6730

I don't remember many of those. I didn't start doing contests until last summer. In fact I didn't know what they were all about. If somebody had just told me early on.

Dec 29, 2013 11:13 PM
Debbie Gartner
The Flooring Girl - White Plains, NY
The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers

Ginny - Excellent.  Smart.  I still need to learn slide share.

Debbie - Most of these are from this year.  Oh and LOL.

Dec 29, 2013 11:20 PM
Tom White
Franklin Homes Realty LLC (615) 495-0752 or www.FranklinHomesRealty.com - Franklin, TN
Franklin Homes Realty LLC, Franklin TN

Debbie, you are just a treasure trove of information! Many of these go back before I was on AR. Thanks so much for putting this together!

Dec 30, 2013 12:00 AM
Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
Pasadena And Southern California 818.516.4393

Debbie - you put forth a lot of work and effort showcasing the different contests and I appreciate it very much... I didn't start participating in contests for a long time and now only particpate in some of those that I am made aware some which don't seem to show up under the contest tab under resources --- it seems they should be easier to find.   

Dec 30, 2013 01:20 AM
George Souto
George Souto NMLS #65149 FHA, CHFA, VA Mortgages - Middletown, CT
Your Connecticut Mortgage Expert

Debbie great idea to do this.  You are right there are excellent resources in the entries to those contests, and just because those contest are over is no reason to not go back to them and continue to use the information within the blogs.

Dec 30, 2013 01:57 AM
Debe Maxwell, CRS
Savvy + Company (704) 491-3310 - Charlotte, NC
The RIGHT CHARLOTTE REALTOR!

Love this idea, Debbie!  Thank you for doing this - bookmarked (first in 2014)!!

Happy New Year!

Jan 01, 2014 03:42 AM
Debbie Gartner
The Flooring Girl - White Plains, NY
The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers

Debe - Excellent.  I'm so honored.  Oh, and check out the reblog from Nikesh!

Jan 01, 2014 04:36 AM
Debbie Gartner
The Flooring Girl - White Plains, NY
The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers

Debe - Excellent.  I'm so honored.  Oh, and check out the reblog from Nikesh!

Jan 01, 2014 04:36 AM