When I joined Active Rain I was not sure if this would be something I would be interested in.  David Kucic talked me into checking it out.  I shortly saw the benefit of this wonderful forum and jumped in with both feet.

In a reasonably short time I have written 521 posts and hit the 350,000 points mark.  Now I know that sounds like a lot and it is.  But let's look at what it takes to make that many posts.

Market reports - This something I generate for communities in my area to share with clients and to keep my knowledge of the market up.  Active Rain is a great place to post them for the public.  I have received many contacts as a result of my market reports.

Listings - One more way for your properties to be seen on the net.  The ability to post electronic flyer and virtual tours in our posts make them so effective.

Professional behavior and ethical standards - This has been my favorite category.  I have learned so much from others about their practices.  I have been able to vent and discuss situations I see in the market place and get advice from some of the most knowledgeable folks in the industry.  Active has also given potential buyers a chance to learn more about my business practices and has been a great vehicle for them to silently interview me.  I have gotten a few great clients who found me through my blog posts about ethics and professional behavior.

Localism - Here is another wonderful thing about Active Rain.  It gives you the ability to post information about the communities and pictures for people looking to relocate to the area.  This serves three purposes:

1. It gives the public a chance to learn about the communities they are planning to move to.
2. It lets them know you are an area expert.
3. It also gives agents from other places a way of identifying agents working the community.

Search Engine Optimization - All of these posts are acting like separate websites on the internet when it comes to the search engines.  We are forming a big spider web.  The more posts we have the more opportunities for others to find us on the internet.  Active rain has also been a terrific place to learn about building our presence.  The many great folks here have written the best articles on improving your internet presence and are willing to answer questions.

Social Networking - If you have been on Active Rain for more than a few days, you probably have made many great friends already and will make many more In the future.  The cool thing is we are connecting with folks who do the same thing we are doing from other places and can freely share ideas to improve our business and balance our personal lives with business.  I have attended two Active Rain gatherings and had the pleasure of meeting several members in person.

I can go on for a long time here and could make it a multi-part series.  Or I could try to list all of those who were influential to me here.  That would make this the never ending blog.  Instead I will stop here by saying:

Thank You Active Rain!! 

I love this forum and hope it will continue to grow and thrive.