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The ActiveRain Outside Blog - Yay or Nay?

By
Industry Observer

What Value is the ActiveRain Outside Blog?

Many members many not even be aware, but ActiveRain gives you the option of not only blogging on this platform, but choosing a second option, second url and a second chance to publish content. I found this out early and published my content there for quite some time. AR has a few tutorials on how to make it happen and where to go to set this up. Once you set it up the content you publish here can easily be sent to that location. Okay, sounds good? One more opportunity to get out the word. 

I recently had some major issues with my WP website transfer and photos and ended up with broken links galore. It seems to all be fixed now, but the last leg of my journey to keep links intact was found on my outside blog. I used a tool called Free Broken Link Check to find them all. I typed in the url of my blog and within a few minutes it brought back each and every single broken link I had. It told me where I could find them. Since they were on the outside blog and you can't edit from that location, i had to look for them on my AR blog. 1583 broken links later I am now with ten broken links that don't matter. Phew!! This was exhausting.

So, with that said, do you use the outside blog and if so what are your results. I have very low stats there compared to this blog and also to my WP site. Putting out content that could need updating now and again that is hard to locate is not a good thing. Not all the tags and categories were easily found. Most probably due to the many AR glitches. Some took me quite along time to relocate for editting. I wish I could say that was time well spent. Those links went to my WP blog so it was a priorty.

I'm looking for feedback here, so please enlighten me who uses their outside blog and what gains have you seen. If you thoughts were like me, it can't hurt that makes sense. I don't know if I will continue to use mine. I just can't see the value. Your thoughts please!!!

published by: your real estate expert Janis Borgueta Key Properties of the Hudson Valley as a community service in Newburgh NY. To receive more real estate information please subscribe to this blog. Looking to buy a new home? Search the MLS for  Homes in the Hudson Valley.  You can contact Janis at (845)-527-7115 or find her on Google+

Comments (24)

Women of Westchester Working Together
Women of Westchester Working Together - West Harrison, NY
Women helping Women get ahead

Not sure.  Ask Phil.  Or, Michael prob. knows how.  It can't be that hard.

Mar 13, 2014 09:57 PM
Janis Borgueta
Newburgh, NY
Retired RE Salesperson

True Debbie, but I did not know we totally "owned" it or if AR had control??

Mar 13, 2014 10:04 PM
Sheila Anderson
Referral Group Incorporated - East Brunswick, NJ
The Real Estate Whisperer Who Listens 732-715-1133

Good morning Janis. I am so tired just reading about your experience. I respect your efforts but I'll pass.

Mar 13, 2014 10:50 PM
Joanna Cohlan
Fresh Eyes For Your Home - Chappaqua, NY
Designing, Decorating & Staging Westchester Homes

Not another thing to keep track of Janis.  I would say, keep it simpler and focused with AR and Wordpress.  Although I too have had some wordpress issues.  And btw, who owns the content??

Mar 13, 2014 10:54 PM
Joe Pryor
The Virtual Real Estate Team - Oklahoma City, OK
REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties

I have had a WP website that of course has a blog built in and this is a primary source of business for me where Active Rain becomes another source along with youtube.com. Much of what the WP does is to help drive traffic to the website which is my content on a site I own and the idea is to get people signing in for the IDX as well as landing pages that can capture investor leads.

Mar 13, 2014 11:03 PM
Jill Sackler
Charles Rutenberg Realty Inc. 516-575-7500 - Long Beach, NY
LI South Shore Real Estate - Broker Associate

I've had one from the beginning just because it was offered. I don't really know the stats although the domain name LongIsland Notabilia is on my business card and I have links to it on email signature etc.

Mar 13, 2014 11:19 PM
Alex Popovic
602 CRE - Phoenix, AZ
Alex Popovic Developer, Real Estate Broker

Janis,

I've found multiple problems with blogging over a couple of sites.  Firstly, blogging the same content over two or more sites probably gets you penalized for duplicate content by google, while it may not penalize you too much, it won't give you credit for the same content, so there maybe a "wasting time" factor.  Secondly, most either blog on a WP blog and or Google+ and something like AR, at some point you need to decide to blog on one platform.  I hate to say this, but my website will be up and running in a couple of weeks and I'll be blogging on it exclusively and share my blog with other SM i.e. FB, Twitter and other platforms.  It hurts me to have to leave the AR community in terms of participation and I'll be back from time to time to blog and stay active, but at the end of the day it's about us as IC's to promote us and via our avenues and not by a service such as AR. 

Mar 13, 2014 11:53 PM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Janis, We have two AR Outside Blogs....the generic one that redoes all but the Members Only posts, and the other is a niche one specific to patio homes.  The niche one ranks well because those 50-60 posts are core to ONE topic.  Consumers find it and we get calls.  The generic style posts on AR don't gather nearly as much consumer attention as those niche posts.  Bill

Mar 14, 2014 12:40 AM
Sharon Parisi
United Real Estate Dallas - Dallas, TX
Dallas Homes

Janis, I have considered an outside blog and am so glad you wrote this post.  I am learning a lot from the post and all the comments.  This is one of the reason Active Rain is valuable!  We receive real information from people in the business.

Mar 14, 2014 01:14 AM
Bryan Robertson
Los Altos, CA

My outside blog actually gets more action and better ranking than my AR blog.  I'd highly recommend getting the outside blog with a custom URL to drive good leads.

 

FEATURED IN BANANATUDE!

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Mar 14, 2014 03:22 AM
Janis Borgueta
Newburgh, NY
Retired RE Salesperson

Bryan I have a wordpress blog that gets more traffic than the AR blog and the outside AR blog. Interesting that so many have a differing opinion of all of this. Thanks for the Bananatude Feature =)

Mar 14, 2014 03:25 AM
Than Maynard
Coldwell Banker Heart of Oklahoma - Purcell, OK
Broker - Licensed to List & Sell - 405-990-8862

I got a quick lead from AR, but I haven't gotten any leads since that first one. Not sure how beneficial blogging on AR was. I have basically stopped blogging on AR concerning real estate and am here just for the people and comments now.

Mar 14, 2014 05:09 AM
Women of Westchester Working Together
Women of Westchester Working Together - West Harrison, NY
Women helping Women get ahead

Janis - There is next to no functionality on the outside blog, so it offers very little.  You are doing the right thing by first focusing on your WP blog which you own and over time will get you may more traffic and traffic you can keep.  Then, use AR to backlink to it to strengthen it and some other blog posts on here that are more generic and/or internally related.  Then, if/when you have more time and money for another site, then use the domain name here but do it on WP where you can set it up much better for more traffic and lower bounce rate.  

 

you will benefit from the aged domain name...as long as it's a relevant name.  Bliz has right idea w/ a niche outside blog.  But, regardless anything new should be on WP not on the outdated and inflexible outside blog format.

Mar 14, 2014 05:56 AM
Janis Borgueta
Newburgh, NY
Retired RE Salesperson
Thanks Debbie - for sure no controlled websites EVER AGAIN!! WP is where ALL my efforts are now and working well for me.  Here less often. Good idea to keep that other domain name for future use. It doesn't offer much of anything to me now and it was just a burden during my transfer. I had to fix all the broken links as they went to my WP site.
 
Now that i fixed ALL those links, the hard way, it is fine. I don't want to have to do that ever again!! I am glad that I realized they were broken though. That could have been a problem. Making sure that the site is maintained even though not used much is important!
Mar 14, 2014 06:08 AM
Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate
Fred Griffin Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker

     Very thought-provoking, Janis!

   The one thing that stands out in all of the comments is not SEO, it is "control"

     Those who use WordPress or other sites have complete and total control.  The ActiveRain outside Blog - how much control do I have, vs. how much control does AR/Trulia have?   

Mar 14, 2014 07:15 AM
Debbie Reynolds, C21 Platinum Properties
Platinum Properties- (931)771-9070 - Clarksville, TN
The Dedicated Clarksville TN Realtor-(931)320-6730

Janis, That is such good information and I will be doing this and other clean up work this weekend.

Mar 14, 2014 01:41 PM
Janis Borgueta
Newburgh, NY
Retired RE Salesperson

Yes Fred the big new word there is not just AR but trulia. Tons of control and using our juice. You might find my blog that started all the broken link issues here.

http://activerain.com/blogsview/4333421/divorcing-your-real-estate-website-company

Yes SEO comes with our own power!

 

Mar 14, 2014 02:46 PM
Wayne Johnson
Coldwell Banker D'Ann Harper REALTORS® - San Antonio, TX
San Antonio REALTOR, San Antonio Homes For Sale

Janis- Sad to say I began blogging a few years ago but never did anything with the outside blog feature. Thanks for bringing this subject up. 

Mar 18, 2014 07:27 AM
Janis Borgueta
Newburgh, NY
Retired RE Salesperson

Wayne, Be sure to set up a wordpress blog instead. I think it is more beneficial

Mar 19, 2014 10:29 AM
Ann Marie Clements
Remax Realty Group - Gaithersburg, MD
Montgomery County & Frederick County

Wow! There are many differing opinions on what works - I just started blogging on ActiveRaun. I am now wondering if it is worth it. 

Nov 08, 2014 08:40 AM