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Active Rain-How Important Are Points, Content, Comments and other things?

Active Rain Present and Future -One Member's Perspective

I learned blogging from Active Rain and try to give back what I know. If someone can learn what I did through trial and error, Active Rain Growth it could save then a lot of time. Looking at some of these issues is the purpose of this post. I am not as active on Active Rain as I was before my "outside" blog was born. I try to stay connected to the community and the many friends here, by reading the blogs I subscribe to here and outside blogs discussing AR.

The other day Jay Thompson's post initiated an interesting discussion on Agentgenius about quality of content on AR and if and how it's connected to the point reward system. Make sure you read it, if you didn't have a chance. Today I read an excellent Rich Jacobson's post about what the the content could or should be, which as always, generated many opinions.

A lot of confusion about what AR could and should be may be could be resolved if members clearly understood several points, which took me some time to realize. I claim no "insider" knowledge, only my personal experience and what I learned on the "outside". If I am mistaken, all clarifications and corrections are welcomed.

Importance of Points

There seems to be misunderstanding about the importance of points for AR members. IMO AR points have nothing to do with Google, who does not know or care about them. In other words, if your goal is to be found through Google, your points would not matter. The ability to be found has to do with key-word rich content which does not depend on points and and back links, which may or may not depend on points (see below).

I am not sure if consumers come to Active Rain main page to look for real estate information. My guess, it's not the case. If it was the case, having your picture prominently displayed (because of on the number of points), perhaps would be a benefit.

Some people say looking at the number of points helps them decide who to consider for referral. To me more important would be the quality of the members' writing, not the number of points they have, which is not one and the same. Quantity could indicate a members' level of participation, which is important for some things, but again is not an indication of the quality of their writing or their expertise.

Understanding your Audience

Understanding who you are writing for is tied to the purpose of your blog. As a member, your readers could be other members, consumers or both. There are many on AR for whom other members are their consumers, i.e coaching, blogging, staging, etc.

As a member you may have a business goal for your blog or you may not. If you use this platform purely in a social way, any content that brings such social interaction seems a fair game (provided it's within the community guidelines).

Having a "social part only" for such bloggers (not just groups) could solve the issue of diminishing value to consumers, since it won't be for consumers.

My guess (only a guess) most people are here for business, so the rest is related to business blogging.

Non real estate content

If you are an RE agent (the majority here) your business goals will influence your content. There are people who write personal or non-RE content as a way to built relationships with other members. They seek referrals and thus business.

This content could be useful for consumers as well, if they found the blogger based on his/her real estate posts and would like to know more about him/her.

Such content could also bring like-minded people/readers to the blog, not necessarily people looking for real estate. If a personal relationship is developed with such readers, it may eventually lead to business, but it would not be something in the short term. For example my post about best pizza in Princeton brings constant traffic to the blog, but not of people looking to buy/sell homes. It's important for new bloggers to understand this.

When consumers find this content on blogs through organic search, I can't see why it would diminish the value of the AR platform. If the consumers came to AR and saw lots of groups for recipes, etc., that may have an undesirable effect. The question becomes how to separate what individuals write on their blog, from the structure of the AR as seen by the consumer.

Real Estate Content

This content is what brings people to real estate related sites. By having this content both bloggers and AR benefit. The issue becomes interaction with other members, which so many on AR are looking for. If you write super local content do not count on many comments. It's not surprising, because mostly it's not an engaging story about your DOM being up or down.

If you are a new blogger with supper local RE content you may not be noticed on AR by other AR members. If your goal is to be noticed by consumers then it shouldn't matter. This though does not apply to "famous" bloggers on this platform who get comments no matter what they write, because of who they are.

The Importance of Comments

It could be hard seeing 100's of comments on some blogs and few or none on yours, but the number of comments do not measure the success of your blog, unless you are marketing your services to AR members or are looking for referrals. Commenting and getting comments then becomes very important as away to engage with others on AR. This bring you back to deciding what is your blog goal and therefore what your content should be.

It could be also disappointing when you invest a lot of time to write something that could be of value to other members and your post doesn't get seen or commented on. If the focus of your blog is local RE, and you don't get recognized for contributing your knowledge, don't view this a failure of your blog. There are many other factors that determine what's read and commented on.

Page Rank and Back Links

When I started on AR I did not understand the importance of back links. Back links are important to Google as a measure of your site's credibility. The more people link to you, the more important your site becomes in Google eyes. Commenting on other people blogs is one way to get back links, unless they are "no-follow" which many blogs now are. I am not sure if AR has no-follow, but the idea of commenting for links may not be all you think it is. Also linking to lesser ranking sites would not be a benefit. If you are commenting because of these reasons and to accumulate points, you may want to double check your strategy.

Things Change

Blogging evolves and so does Active Rain. I recently had two posts deleted (never happened before) from the newbie group, which I thought had information which could have been helpful to me as a newbie. I won't post to this group again( unless I have a how to tutorial), although this post could also be useful for newbies).

When I started blogging on AR I used to get quite a few features, but it hasn't happened in a long while. Did I change my content? Perhaps, it became a bit more super RE local. My writing didn't change, the AR has changed.

Second guessing these changes is counterproductive. This platform is offered to all of us for free, and everyone is free to chose if and how to participate. It would be harder, if not mpossible, to learn anywhere else what you can learn here.

Importance of Features

If your post is featured you get noticed by many, you could get many more comments and potentially important back links. Not counting the ego, these are all reasons why Features are important. I don't think they are important for your content being found by the consumers, as I said before, Google doesn't know about features or points. The exception is the visibility that Features brings and potentially a higher page rank for the post. For example, one of my posts has page rank 5, where my blog has page rank 3. The post was titled in jest " how to buy without a realtor", and I am getting a constant stream of traffic of people looking for how to avoid using a realtor. It was was not my intent.

Bloggosphere is Rife With "Passion"

When people object to some heated discussions on AR, they should realize that it's an incredible mild version of the rest of the RE.Net. I am not speaking of sites that engage in "reator lynching" -I just don't go there. These are just samples here and here of the "passionate" discussions taking place on respected sites in the last several days.

If and when consumers come to Active Rain, and when it's becomes recognized by other bloggers as a community with top quality content, the passion and sometimes ugliness would be more present here then now. AR owners and members have to think whether they want and welcome such changes.

Posted by Faina Sechzer - Princeton, Montgomery, Hopewell, NJ Real Estate Expert on 05/13/2008 04:11 PM

Comments (80)

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80 Comments on Active Rain-How Important Are Points, Content, Comments and other things?

MAY

2008

Very comprehensive. Thanks for the references to a couple of posts I missed.

This is TOP information, I wish I could have the knowledge you do. Thank you for the great education

Eric Reid, Managing Broker Renaissance Realty Group Inc. www.GeorgiaOnlineHomes.com

Question?

If being a featured Blog "may" rank you higher with back links

Does commenting on a featured blog offer a higher back link value ?

How do you also feel about leaving all your link back information in your comments - you may have commented on that already and I apologize - I am rushig out the door and wanted to be able to get back to your blog when I reach the office

Aloha, and have a great day

Lance Owens (RS)

(808) 936-8383

Lance@KonaHomeTeam.com

www.KonaHomeTeam.com

Aloha Kona Realty Inc.

78-6740 Alii Drive

Faina - Great post again. I know this is a particularly sensitive issue on A/R. We gave up on the points issues only because we see so many others gaming the system with personal/religious or political issues that are not about real estate. I thought the original idea and agenda was for Real Estate which is what I thougth A/R was supposed to be about. I am not in this "competition" for points anymore for this reason and it has hurt our blogging "creativity" for a better word. We pretty much only are posting local content now and have fallen off the tracks for a while. Glad to see you have embraced this platform as it is still a terrific platform for learning and always will be, I hope. See ya on Twitter Faina. Bob H.

Faina - Nicely done on this analysis. The only things that I can add here are:

Points can result in higher placement on Google because your profile will appear on a higher PR page. For example, I am on a couple of PR5 pages now with my profile because I am ranked highly with my points.
AR does not use "no follow" tags for signatures, but they DO use them for the body of the comment itself, so links within comments will never help anyone (sorry, Lance).
To answer Eric above, commenting on a post with higher PR value will help.

Gary -these are the thoughts and questions I had, bud could not find clear answers for, i.e had to waste spend time trying to figure these things out. Hopefully, someone else could benefit from my effort. Writing quick 10 minutes posts is not something I have learned yet:) When one puts in a lot of time and thought in their post and they don't get read, one can be questioning if it's worth spending the time.

Eric -thanks for the compliment. I am always available to help with what ever information I have. Thanks for your comment and don't hesitate to ask.

Eric - "Quality" of back links depends on the page rank of the page/site you are commenting, which has nothing IMO have to with being featured.

The problem with commenting only on high page rank pages is that first you have to check each page for it's rank and if it's "no follow". If everyone did that people with page rank 0 would never have comments, which would the feat the purpose of exchanging ideas between everyone regardless of page rank.

Lance, the way I understand the guidelines and the blogging etiquette, it's not cool to leave your link information in the comments. It diverts attention from the post. Your name/signature is your link anyway, any more I don't think is OK, unless the post author was asking people to put some information with links in the comments.

Bob, as you know I have "fallen of the track" as well. My goal with this post was to share what I know about things, as you say are "sensitive". The result -? I will definitely see you on Twitter in a bit.

Jason, I just wasn't clear as to what you meant by "Points can result in higher placement on Google because your profile will appear on a higher PR page. For example, I am on a couple of PR5 pages now with my profile because I am ranked highly with my points."

I thought your profile page is one page, I am not sure how you appear on several pages. Do you mean the AR page with the "featured" people for a particular geographical area is ranked higher then your personal profile page? I would like to understand better what you meant.

As far as being found by Google through organic search, people with fewer points could come up higher then people with more points. That's a fuction of the SEO for their page.

if you mean the profile pages that AR indexes and are displayed for a particular search term, that also seem to not depend on the number of points. People's profiles with fewer points could be displayed higher for the same search term then people with higher points.

It would be good to get clarification from Rich about points and what AR does to index the pages and what effect if any it has on Google. More specifically- does the number pf points effect where AR's indexed posts and profiles appear in Google placement.

Really good information as I thought points mattered to google and I have been knocking myself out to accumulate more points.

I think points are imporant to place you in a higher position in your county, state, or city. However, I think the sharing with others and helping them is of extreme imporant. It is good to give to others.

The points are great and I love being # 1 in my city. But what I really like is being seen in Google, Yahoo and so on and so forth and my referral network growing.

The other most important thing AR does for me is help me be more knowledgable in my field of work. So what I have to say is GO AR.

Maria -you are not alone in that misunderstanding, hence my post. Points are fun and in some way measure your participation in this forum. They are not a way to "gain favors" with Google or be found through organic search by consumers. this depends entirely on you: your content, ware with all with keywords, understanding of your target market, and most importantly the number and quality of back links.

it is even possible that with so much effort going into accumulating points, the quality of blogging could be sacrificed for quantity. if your goal is to get consumers to come to your blog, these are the things that you need to consider.

FAINA - When I first started on Active Rain, I got caught up in the points and the competition. I wanted a lot of comments on each post, and was disappointed when it didn't happen. It was very important to me to build up my subscriber base and to keep rising. And then it happened....

I started getting burned out. At the same time, I was learning more about keywords and longtail, and my approach changed. I don't claim to be an SEO expert (far from it). However, I have learned enough in my time here from very knowledgeable people to rise in the Google rankings for a number of search terms.

The networking and socializing is fun, but it will only lead to business if you live in a high-referral area. I think the most important thing is to brand yourself with your area to the community so that you are thought of when a referral opportunity arises.

My blogging has been much more Long Island centric as of late, and it will likely continue to be that way in some respects. At the very least, I will have balance, which I didn't have very much of early on.

People should realize that local posts receive less views, clicks and comments, but they are the posts that will likely be found by a consumer doing a Google search. It's all about business planning and goal setting. Each person has their own reason for being here, and no one is right or wrong. It's just personal preference. I do think that you evolve as you spend more time here, and your original goals may not be your current goals.

Congrats on a well-deserved feature, Faina.

Kay -yes, the points will help you to get to a higher position in your county, state, or city. The question is what does it do for the goal of your blog? If you want to be found by consumers, I am not sure it matters greately, if at all, what position you are in. That is not how most consumers do their searches.

Sharing is the part I absolutely agree with. Sharing is giving your knowledge to others without any motive or incentive of promoting one self. There is nothing wrong with sharing and self promoting at the same time (as long as the content is valuable), except I would call it marketing rather then sharing.

Faina- Congrats on your feature. As you know me, I LOVE POINTS! That drives my passion.

I did get a listing because of my points. People will list with you. I have sellers tell me, " I don't know what that point stuff is all about , but we know it must be important!" and that weighs in their decision to call us.

When you are on the front page of Active Rain with a feature and/or with points or even on the front page of your state, that does effect your google juice through linking with PRs that are higher than yours are. I wrote a detailed post about this and how points affect your google standings and so has SEO expert Karen George. Google does see features and top pointers. Their algorithms pick up the pagerank and the links and they see this as a credible source.

I am not google, nor will they ever tell all. But I will tell you that it does matter. The more the spiders come to your blog and see content that people are reading and liking, the more they will invite themselves back again. I am ahead on Google for keywords I don't even use as keywords! I was looking for a foreclosure attorney in our town and our blog came up in the #1,2,3 and 4 spot on google for that search term. That was not my intention. I even said out loud to my computer, " I wasn't looking for myself!"

I get A LOT of listings because of my personal posts. I have one listing because of my home school posts, the mom connected with me and I just got another call today from another mom who is homeschooling and is trying to find a homeschool friendly place to move to.

I have received listings and calls to refer to other agents based on the comments that I write that show up on other blogs. I had a referral for Missy from a seller near her town in Ann Arbor because of my comments on her blog. He said he liked how I was honest and forethright in my opinions on a variety of issues. Commenting on blogs will also help with your own pagerank and google juice and google relevence. The no follow tag is only for the body of the comment, not for the signature.

I got a listing about a month ago because of the posts I write to help the members on Active Rain. She said she has been following my blog and that my reaching out to help agents with their blogging and businesses speaks volumes of the kind of person I am, and she said, based on that, she wanted me to be the one that listed her house.

I get calls from attorneys and business owners all the time telling me they use my SEO posts to help them with their websites. These are potential referral sources not even on Active Rain that are snowballing for us.

Now I can speak with authority on this subject. People can second guess the reasons and the excuses all they want. But we have become living proof of what works on Active Rain. I do NOT have an outside blog.

We get 2 to 3 listings every single week directly from people calling us reading our blog and every one of those has had NO competition. We were chosen. They needed us, we did not need them. They called us, we did not solicit them. They ask us to list their properties, we do not ask them if they are interested in selling their home. We have been getting this response since January. And I have only been with Active Rain since mid June of 2007.

The reach and impact is huge, larger than we will even be able to truly conceive. Katerina

Adam -I really have very little to add to your comment -you summed up what I was trying to communicate.

In the early days, I didn't understand how blogging works. I was completely focused on points, features, comments. I got all of it, but I did not understand what brings business. I know know and it's not what I thought then. This post, which took some time to think through, is in a nutshell everything I learned that is important.

Thanks for your comment. It is great to hear again from old buddies.

Faina- You have taught me a lot of things that I did not know. Thanks for taking the time to educate us in the rain.

Individually none of us are as smart as all of us and with ActiveRain we are all connected and able to share creative ideas, assist each other and make connections not only with other agents but also with home buyers and sellers.

This is a very informative post, and I agree that blogs written with content are more likely to be found by google.

Faina, this is (I think) a perfect fit for the Newbie Group. I was very fortunate when I started AR - I had no idea what to write about EXCEPT my local market, so I started there and have been rewarded for it. As time goes by, we all get more comfortable with interacting with the friends we have come to make here, but it is very easy to become sidetracked by the social aspect and for a little while I forgot that I came here for business. Once I realized that I was playing more than working here, I was able to refocus my efforts and it has paid off in closings. 20/20 hindsight, right?

Faina: this is a very good post, chalked full of useful information. You spent a LOT of time and I appreciate it. I WILL be bookmarking this.

Thanks

Wow - I honestly never thought of AR as a place to get business or improve my search engine ranks. I just thought of it as kind of a virtual Starbucks filled with people who are in the same business as myself. I picture myself flowing from table to table, joining discussions or just listening in and absorbing all the vast knowledge here.

Gotta run... my mocha latte is ready!

Thanks for all the great information! While points doin't matter on google, the more blogs you have, the greater chance you will be googled!

Thanks for the reference to Jay's article. I hopped over th AG and read it. It certainly helps put things into perspective. We have to be cognizant of the environment in which we operate. The internet is full of opinions. I believe different platforms will have different value for different agents. And no one is going to like them all!

Faina, Great post. Very thought provoking thoughts. One thing your didn't mention is that getting points is fun. I think as people gain the experience from collecting peoples they become better bloggers and eventually the focus goes away from the points. Of course, it tkaes a lot of points to get to that point.

Faina, I think points are personal. I think we could analyze forever but every person has their own "reason" for the points.

"Some people say looking at the number of points helps them decide who to consider for referral. "

Or we could say, "they should spend more time working real estate instead of all this writing!"

Again, I think it's cyclical. In the beginning it is the points. Instant gratification. Production and payoff.

Then we realize we are getting business from this.

Bingo.

Then, you make friends. People you really like visiting with.

Then, hummm....I haven't gotten past that yet. So, Faina, what happens then?

I guess I'll just have to wait and see! Thank you for the post. I've enjoyed it so much! Thanks, Faina! Great post!

Later in the rain~Deb

Faina, I read this earlier today, but wanted to go explore the links in your post. First, let me say I had 2 posts deleted from the AR newbie group and will NOT go there again. Too nitpicky for me.

Second, my understanding of AR is that there are no backlinks on the comments at all. Occassionally I will get a google alert on a comment, but it is very rare. I hope Rich or Brad clarifys for us.

I don't believe I have ever received a referral from points; however I have received referrals and given them due to to relationships.

Points definitely don't help you with google. Active Rain does all that. But the points make you more likely to be found by a consumer searching in your area.

While it helps to be ranked high here..... Content is King..... because Hittail told me so! ;-)

Faina, I just went and checked many page ranks of top bloggers here on AR. I am only getting a 4 on all of them.

I still think content is king, but most do focus on point system. But lots of points doesn't necessary equate to a qualified real estate professional who know what he/she is doing. Great blog!

Cheers,

Cindy

I don't care where I rank on Activerain but I do care where my posts show up on localism.com. It bothers me that content that is old or poor rnaks so high on localism just because the person has more points.

Thanks for the tips, from an up-and-coming newbie!

Very nice post. Very useful. I, too, have been trying to increase my points - for what I do not know. I'm just competitive that way. However, the points I think are really just a way to get you more involved in the community.

Katerina -I understand that points could get competitive juices going. I couldn't stop until I was #1 in Princeton:)

You brought up so many good points that I have to take them one at a time. Let me start by reiterating -I am not an SEO expert, I don't know Google's algorithm, I don't know the inner workings of AR. What I know is my experience and what I learnerned from SEO experts.

1. You say "I did get a listing because of my points". Before the consumer could find out about your points, they had to somehow find you. I am not sure people do a search for "a person with most points on AR".

2. Most consumers do not know what Active Rain is. They just look for real estate information. Assuming, there are some who know, they would search for "Florida Active Rain". #1 on this search is the AR page with the Florida AR members with the most posts. If consumers looked at these, would they select Chris Elizabeth Griffith, because she is #2 on the list?

#2 on this search comes up Midori Miller's post from 6/27/2007. Your Blogger post is the last one on page 1 for that search. What does it tell you about importance of points?

If a consumer found your content and was told that AR points are a measure of credibility, then the points would matter, if you had the highest number. For anyone with fewer points it would not be a good argument to make.

For example, I can't say that I am the best agent in Princeton, just because I have the most points.

I know that for the same key word search people with fewer points could come up higher in Google search then people with more points. I asked AR guys about it, but they didn't have an explanation then.

3. Google and Featured Page and State Page.

I double checked and the page for both Mercer County NJ and Princeton NJ are rank 3, as is my blog on AR. I am not sure what the benefit of it is.

Active Rain page rank is 6, but I would have to read more about Google's algorithm( which no one knows) and how it attributes benefit to featured posts.

I had a featured post ranked 5, and other featured posts that didn't rank at all. The one that ranked 5 had a lot of consumers commenting on it and had over 100 comments. Other featured posts with 100 comments did not get high page rank. All of this to say, that AR people would have to explain if and how Google benefits are derived from featured posts.

Even if Google somehow knew about featured posts, it would only apply to that post and not to any others.

4. You said "I have one listing because of my home school posts". it is entirely possible that someone was looking for homeschooling and was looking to buy a home. It could be possible that someone would be looking for the best place for pizza in Princeton and looking to buy a home at the same time. My guess, it's unlikely.

People who found my blog because of my pizza post, are usually transient readers. Unless they immediately fell in love with my blog, it would be unlikely that they would subscribe (most consumers don't understand RSS), or call, or even remember me, unless they were looking for a house at the same time as the pizza.

5. Someone who listed with you because of your help to other agents, again did not find you by searching for a a "real estate coaching". They probably found you by searching for real estate content. If it happened to be important for them that you help oher agents, that was a benefit.

6. If you or anyone writes content about SEO and this content is found through Google, it could definetely lead to potential business, if this is the business one is pursuing.

7."People can second guess the reasons and the excuses all they want." I am not sure what you meant, so I can't answer this point.

8. Your success with getting listings through blogging, proves that blogging could lead to business.

Thanks for all your thoughts.

Vickie- I am happy you found it useful. Thanks for commenting.

Sam - agree completely.

Sharon -it's content+ back links from authority sites.

Lisa - I am not sure what the new rules are for the Newbie group. The question I used to ask myself was: would this have been helpful to me when I was a newbie. If I thought so, I posted there. After several of my posts were deleted, i do not post there -including this post.

Jenn - you can't go wrong with AR for learning. You can find a lof of very good information, and you can't beat the price:)

Faina - You asked me to clarify my statements above. Since I am #17 for real estate agents currently on AR, my profile appears on this PR 5 page now:

http://activerain.com/action/nav/show_featured/Real%20Estate%20Agent

I also made it onto this PR 5 page today:

http://activerain.com/action/nav/show_featured/all

The backlinks to my profile are more valuable, and the anchor text for my profile includes one of my main keywords (austin texas real estate).

To answer your other question, yes, the Texas AR member page with "featured" members is also a PR 5, while my profile is currently a PR 4.

I hope this makes it more clear. Thanks!

Kathy - thanks for the compliment.

Bo -you are right -different bloggers gravitate towards different platforms. You are also right -it's hard to find complete harmony and satisfy all.

Good post. way to go after the balanced points. It is tough sometimes to weigh the pros and cons of real estate only content.

Jimmy - I said "Points are fun and in some way measure your participation in this forum" in my comment to Maria. I happen to be a very competitive person, so for me it was great fun for a while.

Missy - I think you are right. Here are the statistics I just got for back links (i used several checkers, since they could be a bit different). Unless I am doing it wrong this is what I got:

for my Active Rain blog - 56 back links,

for my outside blog: 1356 back links (it's 4 weeks old)

I don't believe links for Active Rain blog are from Active Rain. I made approximately 2300 comments here and received approximately 2700. I asked AR guys about it a while back, but they did not know why.

For me -- "to thy self be true" is the answer! I just post what I think is content rich and epitomizes who I am and what I believe. "it is what it is!"

This is a fantastic post Faina - I saw it earlier, but had to leave and didn't get a chance to really read it. I think that we have to differentiate the points themselves from what the points create for you.

Points are the result of posting - either comments or blogs. So the points create Goggle juice for your blog no matter how you look at it.

They also lead to a higher ranking on your city and and county dashboard. This means that the more points you have the closer to the top of the dashboard your name will appear when a prospect clicks on "Active Rain" for a city or county heading - like "Westchester, NY" - I'm #2 on the dashboard. I see a good deal of benefit to trying to sustain a place in the first five slots. '

The points won't help you if your content isn't there. Quality before quantity - or the prospect will just move on someone else down the dashboard. So junk posting doesn't help.

The rest you said better than I could....

Hi Faina - Really like the comparison you made between hyper-local real estate content and peer content. I've had several market reports get zero comments, but those are the ones that generate contacts from consumers. Readership and rewards sometimes come when we least expect them.

thanks for the balanced approach of this blog. I enjoyed it and it's nice to hear someone speak about the motivation behind blogging.

MAY

2008

Deb -you got me to pause,re:"what's next?". I wasn't sure, at first, but it was 2am iand I wasn't thinking clearly:) Now I remember the answer -a new blog:)

Amy -I am not sure that "the more blogs you have, the greater chance you will be googled" is correct. It depends on what I said in the post and other comments. In fact, I have a Blogger blog, which I had for years, that is never found, also for the reasons I described: content, key-words, links from authority sites.

Christy - you say "But the points make you more likely to be found by a consumer searching in your area." Consumers searching in your area don't know anything about points. Perhaps, if consumers came to the Active Rain page with profiles of agents for your area and you are #1 there. I think there a re few of those.

The three comments above for Deb, Amy, Chrysty are mine -didn't realise I wasn't logged in.

Jason -NJ page (where I am # 11) is also Page Rank 5. I am still not sure how it improves my back links, or helps my posts be found on Google. Like I said before, for the same key words a person's profile with fewer points could come up higher then the one with more points. i would like to discuss this with you in more detail off the blog. Thanks for coming back to clarify.

Cyndee -completely agree. What is written on someone's blog is not always the same as what it is in real life, or complete proof of their competence.

Ruthmarie - You say "So the points create Goggle juice for your blog no matter how you look at it". If you mean lots of points=lots of posts+lots of cmments=quality key-word rich content + quality links from authority sites= Google juice. Then yes, and even then with a qualifier. If the posts are about pizza, the readers will be be people looking for pizza. It's google juice, if you sell pizza:)

Thanks for your comment, friend.

Content is king, conversation is part of the content. A lot of the comments on ActiveRain are NOT conversation about the topic but are just "attaboys" and chat. Running up the comment count helps egos but it is often boring reading.

A post with one or two comments that are about the topic are more meaningful reading.

Good writers on ActiveRain shouldn't worry about others who have a lot of comments on a post. One or two good comments (a conversation) are worth more than 100 nonsense back and forth comment chatter, IMHO.

Few consumers are going to comment. That may change over time, but for now a silly back and forth chat in the comments on an AR post is not an accoplishment IMHO.

FYI: Your V Flyer is distorting your blog, it is making the side bar larger. Back to you post, great point, no pun intended!

I don't think points matter so much other than being a featured member for branding purposes. The content and comments and backlinks to.

As John mentioned, it's the super boring market reports that drives the consumer base to you. The member's only posts which generate comments are effective if you reciprocate (from what I understand) and I have been BAD with that lately.

Hi Faina- I'm not signed in I guess, but wanted to comment. We all learn as we go, and from Day 2 you have been very clear on how you wanted to use your Blog. Day 1 you were lost LOL :) Now as far as my blog goes.....I don't write Market Reports or DOM's.....I don't want to be the #1 Agent, and can only handle so much business....I have gotten business from my AR Blog, and I have given business to people I have met here.....so for me I have a successful Blog. I just took the word consumer out, and everyone is the same, and if I can meet a need someone has so be it.....

I enjoyed this read, and actually read every word. I hope all is well with you, and I love the look of your outside blog :)

Faina:

Very well put together. Awesome job!

Points mean very little to me. I could easily be at 140,000 - 150,000 if I hadn't (re)moved a lot of my content for various reasons. They could yank them tomorrow and I wouldn't care. I would still continue to write here. Obviously, they do mean something or they wouldn't have done the April Fool's day joke about doing away with them. You don't tease unless you know it will have a certain effect.

I think points are to drive ego and encourage repeat and constant follow up. Competition is a good thing. It can also be a bad thing when you lose sight of why you write. Real estate agents are very egotistic and competitive in my opinion, myself included and at the top of the list (I am working on it because life has a way of teaching you humility...genuine or enforced).

Points serve their purpose for Active Rain the business. And it is a business that wants to make money...we just lose sight of that sometimes. So, I view the points as a double edged sword.

Comments are important to me. They help me grow and challenge how I think. I would like to think that mine do the same for others. They also provide me with a way to interact with peers around the country and to grow my business. I'm not SEO driven...I'm more relationship driven. Not here to debate which is better because the answer is both. Really just depends on the person and their goals/needs.

I really believe that Active Rain is at a very unique fork in the road. It needs to decide who and what it is and if it wants to be that. Social Network or Real Estate Network. Yes, it can be both but their will always be the drama with it doing that. Of course, that is good for business too (time spent on site). People tune in! Selling the drama. Any good marketer is guilty of that. Myself included.

Anyways, just my 2 cents. Hope you are having a wonderful week.

Thank you for such a great post.

Fiana...

Well. I am by no means a SEO expert but I am an expert when it comes to AR. I have been here since the earliest days of AR. I have seen every point/comment battle you could imagine. I agree with most of what Jessica Horton has said. The points are a double edged sword and sometimes do in fact drive egos instead of content. One of the problems I do have with the point system is that it does not give accurate info to the Consumer. A good example of that is someone who is #1 in their area but have only sold one house in 5 years. That is not fair to the Consumer. And don't think for one moment the Consumer is not here. They most certainly are. We get emails from BB's Blog all the time. When the Consumer finds AR I really wish there was a way for them to establish whether or not that #1 position has any merit to it. I could go on and on but I won't. Instead I'll change the subject :)

I have had many of my relevant posts deleted from the New Member group as well. The deletion of these posts appears to be a bit ego driven...I think it would also help if they would stop changing group rules and not telling us about it :)

P.S. Do you have a band aid? I just fell off my soap box :)

TLW...ROAR!

TLW - I have band aids -with all the kids, I have to:) You have a way with words, that leaves very little for me to add:) I know the consumers come to AR, because they come to my blog. But IMHO they don't come here because of anyone's points (unless I am shown otherwise). Consumers are looking for information and that's how our posts are found. The information could be pizza, or it could be a "beautiful house on a cul-de -sac in Princeton".

I was contacted (through this blog) by the descendants of a person who 250 years ago owned the house I was marketing. They unfortunately could not afford to buy it now, but were greateful for my write up about the house. My point -it's the content, not the points that brings the consumers.

Did I say, I have nothing to add? OK, just one more thing. #1 does not equal quality blog, or quality professional. It shows they have a lot of points, which means a lot of posts and/or comments. In the ideal world it would show extensive participation in the network, but I can't even say that is the case. I don't think I ever heard from the person with the most points. I wasn't sure if that blog belonged to a "live" person.

Since my start here, I chose not to waste spend energy on things I can't control, or get involved in negativity and second guessing. I don't know why the newbie group deletes posts that could have been helpful to newbies, and I am not going to do big investigations to find out. I don't have time for that. I just don't post there anymore. Easy.

I just fell off my box, but will be back for the next comment:) Thanks for your input.

Jessica- I can't agree more with you about the points. AR is a business and the owners of this business could and should run it the way they see fit. For most businesses this means becoming profitable at some time. If points get more people to participate on AR, and that's what's needed for future AR's profitability, then it's a smart business decision.

Your 2c they speak volumes and I am in agreement with on all counts. (Don't tell anyone -it doesn't happen often:)) Thanks so much for bringing your point of view. These kinds of comments are worth the points awarded:)

Maureen - you say "A lot of the comments on ActiveRain are NOT conversation about the topic but are just "attaboys" and chat. Running up the comment count helps egos but it is often boring reading."

For some people chatting is a business strategy for their blog- this is how some develop relationships and through such relationships business referrals. It may not always elevate the discourse on the state of affairs in real estate, but it helps these bloggers grow their business. If they grow their business through recipes, or "attaboys" comments, I would say -good for them:)

The challenge, like I said in the post, becomes in separating the content of individual bloggers from the structure and perception the Active Rain company wants to have on the Net and in the Marketplace.

Kathy - thanks, friend. I said in my response to Maureen, definition of the success of the blog depends on the bloggers' goal. Getting to that goal, could be through various roads. Another point to realise - the same strategy, which works great for one blogger (for example getting referrals from others), may not work for someone else. The reasons could be numerous. The bottom line for the bloggers -if it's not broken, don't fix it. For AR as a company, it's something to ponder.

Faina, A great post--lots of food for thought for this AR neophyte, who has mixed feelings about points, especially as they relate to Localism.

Faina, what a great - and informative - post and back and forth conversation. I, like you, no longer write as many posts on the Rain. I do like, however, to stop by for a visit with my AR friends - and continue to comment and to learn. My focus on posts is now more about localism........I really thought this was great! Thanks for the indepth discussion. Will jump over to Jay's post as well. I know he feels pretty much the same way. ;-)

BTW? I, too, was deleted from the Newbie Group with a post full of step by step instructions on what I'd learned on AR. A featured post no less. I no longer post to that group anymore either.

I have two outside blogs. How can I tell how many backlinks I am getting?

See you on Twitter....;-)

Thank you so much for this well written and comprehensive post on points. We all have different strategies and reasons for blooging on AR. This was very helpful to me.

Thanks for your information. I am new to AR & I already can't stand how much personal crap is on the site. I only read & blog professional information & I hope all that doesn't get watered down.

Sorry, I left a comment & didn't realize my name wasn't on it because I had signed out. Thanks again for your professional content.

Lisa - you will find your wasy with time. It takes a while, hopefully this post could make it easier.

John -yes, don't expect too many comments on market reports. Market reports are not about points:)

Teri E- e-mail or call, I would be glad to share more about back links.

Terrie L. - I am glad you found this post useful. Thanks for your comment.

Nathan - choose what you read and what you write. It's all up to the individual. As long as you know your goal, you would do great.

Renee -I used to make lots of 20-50 comments a day. I have not been that active in a while. When I write now, I don't get as many comments as before, which is totaly understandable.

MAY

2008

Faina, these are some well-thought out ideas about Active Rain, blogging and the direction that things have gone and are going around here. While points, comments, etc. are fun, and can be a useful measure internally among the members, the main goal for many is attracting consumer views which certainly happens through good real estate content.

Faina:

Excellent post with some very good tips and pointers. Just a note, the link to Rich Jacobsen's post is not working.

Brian - you and I think alike. It takes time for the ideas and thinking to evolve. Thanks, friend for stopping by here.

MAY

2008

I enjoyed this post and the comments that it generated. It is always nice to read everyones views. My personal view is...Every little bit helps and if its enjoyable (which participating in AR is for me) then that makes it worth it. I have read great informational posts and some just funny ones to brighten up my day. I wish you the best of luck Faina.

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