It is with reluctance that I write this blog. I consider some of the information to be bordering on proprietary, so I will write around that. If you belong to Active Rain, never take this site for granted. Work in the rain, tend to your crop in the rain, and the rain will richly reward you with a bumper crop.  

I see blogs from new people who state that they received their first business contact from Active Rain. I have a confession -- Active Rain is the power in my search engine optimization. Two years ago, I had a nice little website for King of the House Home Inspection and little Internet presence, so nobody saw my site. I was lucky if I found my business on page three of google or any other search engine.  Sure, I had a good local referral network, but online was dead. Thanks to diligently working in the rain, I am being rewarded. Below is the top of page one of google and you will see the organic results. These results cost me zero dollars -- only time and effort. These results are from only one of the search terms that I work to "own" in my market.

All the top search engines, MSN, Yahoo, Dogpile, etc, show basically the same results. For the record, that last link also leads back to King of the House.  I work to have seven or more hits on the first page, and always want to be in the top two positions for all of my selected search terms.  Note that the only other competitor to hit that page is also an Active Rain member. The map sites get results too and I try to be at the top there as well.

Do I take credit for this search engine power? Well, maybe a little bit because I do work hard in the rain, rain or shine. But rain is the real power. You might, wrongly so, think that only one of the hits is directly tied to Active Rain. While that might look to be the case -- that is not so!

Active Rain is the power behind all those hits. I had professional advice along the way, and was taught how to tie the multiple hits and sites together -- like harnessing oxen to work in the field. With that advice, powered by an even and constant rain, I was able to achieve maximum search engine optimization more than a year ago.  If it was not for Active Rain, instead of six to eight hits in the organic results on the first page of google, I would be back on page three.

This benefit, from aggressively working in the rain, was gradual in coming. But it has grown in importance in the past year. I was looking at my last 20 inspections. Of those 20, I can trace seven of them directly to online presence. Thirty-five percent of my recent business was harvested by my working in the rain! It might be higher than that; I find that, more and more, even when realtors give out lists of inspectors, people check that list in search engines. When potential clients find my site -- qualifications, credentials -- they compare the local inspectors and I often get the nod. Because of Active Rain, I get calls and Emails from around the country asking questions about topics I have blogged about from mold and relative humidity to jolly dancing mice on the streets of Venice. Those inquiries are not paying work, but it is fun talking to the people.

if you are new to the rain, I encourage you to roll up your sleeves, put on the rain gear and get to workin' in the rain.  When my wife asks me why I spend so much time in the rain, the answer is simple -- I am cultivating the crop and enjoying the bounty from the on-going harvest.

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections