Welcome to your first day on ActiveRain

The more that I am trying to get involved with newbies and making it a point to help people out, the more I see a need for a tour guide. With that said, I would like to take a few minutes to welcome the 4231 newbies that have joined over the last 30 days. Just imagine where we will be by the end of the year if we continue to grow at that pace. Now, I know that a lot of people come in here and the first thing that they do is get overwhelmed. So, lets get right to it.

• Creation of a profile: I think that the first and foremost thing that everyone should do is to create a profile. This does not mean answering a few questions and diving in. Put some meat into it and get a picture of yourself up there as quick as possible. The last thing that you want is for people to think that you are a primate. So many times I see that people have just put in the basic information and left the rest blank. To access your profile, you can go to My Home and click on the edit. Once you have filled out the About Us, Areas of Expertise, and Testimonials, then it is time to move on to the next area.

• Post a Blog: I noticed that when I am scanning all the newbies, I notice that only a handful of them actually tackle blogging the first or second day on here. All I can say is do not be scared. Make the first blog simple and announce yourself. It is simple to throw 50 to 75 words into a blog and tell everyone in the world that this is your first day here and you are anxious to meet new people. You will be surprised to see what comes out of the woodwork. Once again, you can got to post a blog directly from your My Home page by clicking on the POST link right beside the words My Blog.
  

• Surf and Comment on other Blogs: Once you have posted your own blog, it is time to go out and read other blogs. Now, there are 2 ways to do this. We will also go over how to comment on a blog. Lets look at the 2 ways that you can surf blogs. First, is the easiest. In the upper right hand corner you will find a link that says BLOGS and if you were to click on this, it would take you to the most recent blogs as well as any blogs that you subscribed to. The second path is by going though the groups link right next to the blogs link in the upper right hand corner. In this, you can find groups that you will enjoy and read blogs there.
  

• Subscribing to Blogs or Groups: The next thing in line is to subscribe to peoples blogs that you enjoy and joining groups that you can relate to. I have seen many people in the past subscribe to a number of groups and never "step foot" into one of them. It is important that you do not flood yourself in the beginning.
  

• Invite Others: This is something that we all could stand practicing more of. It is important to grow our membership and we do that by spreading the word. People like you and me need to get out and tell all of our friends, family, and co-workers about this site and then our business partners. We want to grow it with people that are just as enthusiastic as you are. The Invite button is located on the lower left hand of your My Home page. If the invitation is accepted, then you can earn bonus points as well.

• Linking to ActiveRain: Another great tool that ActiveRain allows is linking. If you have a website that you own, or one that you have a lot of traffic on, you can create a link on it and AR will give you bonus points for this. It will also give you exposure for your ActiveRain account and can lead to business leads or referrals.
  

Now, with this tutorial, I hope that it gives you some type of path for your first couple of days to follow. I am always willing to help anyone. All you need to do is ask. If I do not know the answer, I will make one up. Just kidding. I will direct you to someone that can help. Thanks for taking the time to read and good luck.

You can check out other tutorials that I have written through this link also.