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Castellum's Top 10 lists Compendium

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Services for Real Estate Pros with ---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors---

 

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OUR  ACTIVE RAIN RESOURCE PROJECTS

For those who are new to the Rain and who may have missed out on our world famous top 10-650 lists. Here's a recap from the Month of August/September so far.

1. Top 650 most interesting Active Rain Groups -

This list showcases some Active Rain groups which have up to this point not been recognized, some of them being stuck on page 179. Other groups which are more visible made the list due to the number of subscriptions and posts. All in all we feel we gave Active Rain users a better perspective on the types of groups exist on Active Rain and in the process hope more users have a chance to network.

2. Top 100 Sports Records that will never fall -

Being big sports Buffs, we wanted to share a list with our fellow enthusiasts. These sports records show the longevity of sports athletes and help bring down the notion that all records will fall because of sports enhancement drugs. This list will continue to be populated as time goes by.

3. Top 100 Software/program links

This is yet another list which will never be done, but it should give the average consumer a great head start.

4. Top 100 Tutorial links -

Sometimes you just have to figure things out for yourself. This list is just for those people. From web to video, from photoshop to flash, we tried to include the most requested tutorials. This list as the ones above will continue to be amended. 

5. Top 100 Greatest Active Rain Members  (Based on Points) from  the USA -

Controversial at first but was quickly followed up by our featurd members list below. The members on this list were at the top of their state(featured). We didn't take into account whether they gamed the system or not (thats' a future list).

6. Top 75 Free Photo Sites -

Seeing that 80% of everyone on Active Rain uses google images(copyright protected) i felt it was time to give everyone a list they could use. The links i included in this list are 100% legal (see disclaimer) for non-commercial use and 90% of them are legal for commercial use. Just make sure to read the fine print anywhere you go before using their product.

7. Localism Compendium -

Our first list and with it's popularity spawned a plethora of others (look above). Localism was a hot issue in july(we'd like to think it still is) so in an effort to educate and inform ourselves a list was born that gave back to the community at the same time. As with most others, information will continue to be updated as it rolls in. With features getting added everyday this will be a go to post to keep up with the jones'.

8. Castellum's Featured Members(Associates Only)

 Not a top 10 list perse, but surely one that will be big enough to be called as such. We showcased the very best members of Active Rain in terms of their content, experience and overall positive impact on the network. This list was not based on points therefore. With 100,000 members, this list may very well never get finished but we sure hope to have the most active members displayed as a resource guide to newcomers. (UPDATE: Due to recent events, i've decided to make this available for associates only. Disclaimer: if you can't handle our opinion on who we feel deserves to get praise then don't read this post.)

9. Active Rain Major Real Estate Brokerages -

We compiled (to the best of our ability) all(most) brokerages that we could find(as stated) on the Active Rain groups list. Being that there are close to 5000, it's possible some more may pop up over the next month (time allotted to browse all 5000 groups again, phew). This list was mainly created to bring attention to the number of duplicate groups in hopes Active Rain staff would do something about it as it has only led to confusion.

10. Top 10 most resourceful Active rain members -

We created this list to showcase the most resourceful Active Rain members. This list did not include realtors in particular, albeit one exception, as it focused primarily on those who help professionals in our business. Professionals such as trainers, photographers, etc. Seeing that there are and will be many  more to follow, a top 20 list is surely on the horizon.

11. Top 25 best Active Rain Bloggers (based on points) from CANADA -

As with our top 100 best bloggers from the U.S, this list pays homage to the best in CANADA. In some instances only 1 person was showcased as the point total was so low that it could easly be surpassed.

12. Top 300 Realtor links (COMING JANUARY 1ST, 2009)(Associates Only!)

 Following up Brad Andersohn's Top 100 list, and his soon to be released Top 250 list, we have compiled more in the hopes with his combined effort to drive everyone absolutely batty trying to figure out where to put their time and effort into. Note to readers: Just stay on Active Rain!  (UPDATE 11/20/08): This list is still on schedule to be released by the first of the year)

13. Top 250 members on Active Rain (Based on subscriptions) part 1

We are working on this list now. It's out of draft but nowhere near finished. We'd appreciate it if you left us some encouraging comments to keep going as it's a tiresome post. This post as with the one above will only be available to associates. (UPDATE: finished as of 11/10/08)

14. The Worst Active Rain Offenders  -  (Harlen the Copyright Avenger only!) 

This list will showcase the Very Worst of our members. The people on this list will comprise of gamers, people who find loopholes in the system to take advantage of others or of Active Rain and generally people who don't belong on this network or don't play by the rules. This list will be done by January 1st. I promise. AS with the above 2 lists, this one will also only be available to our Associates. (UPDATE: This list will not be published)

15. Active Rain/Localism Suggestions List -

Ideas about Localism/Active Rain. People will have an opportunity to add onto the "master list" when replying comments that have not already been mentioned.  We hope to turn this into a master list. Member participation is appreciated.

16. Top 10 most Active, Active Rain members (COMING SOON) -

We currently have 3 people on this list and are actively looking for more. In the meantime reference to our list of the most active members since june.

(UPDATE: This list will coincide with the Top 100 best looking blogs (By State/Country) Look below for more info. Project 30)

17. Top 250 Photo, Video, Music and file sharing Social Networks  (Associates only!) 

This list showcases the best sites for sharing photos, video, music, documents and simply for storing reasons. This list is sure to grow in years to come and will eventually include a comprehensive subsection for community portals where one can also communicate with others (eg. imeem, facebook, linkedin, etc). Also included inside will be information about the best chat service programs.(not done yet)'

18. Top 10 Active Rain Newcomers  -

Searching through this vast network allowed us a glimpse into the future. The members on this list showcase the best that this network has to offer in the upcoming weeks and months ahead. These members have contributed on invaluable levels albeit on a smaller scale.

19. Top 25 Active Rain All Stars who have left us (COMING SOON)  -

These members were once very valuable to the creation, stabilization, and dictation of Active Rain activity. They are sadly missed but even in their absence, once can still recognize their greatness.  We hope they come back to this network one day to see how we've immortalized them in a soft copy format. (UPDATE: This list will be finished by December 11th.)

20. 10 Things to know about Active Rain  -

This was a contest submission for Bob Stewart. The article's purpose was to educate the newcomers to this network who may be interested in joining.  Information was based on research across other social network business models integrated with Active Rain's own mission statement. It serves it's purpose as reference if nothing else.

21. Top 100 Best looking Active Rain Blogs - By State/Country (COMING SOON)  -

The ideal for this project was to generate a detailed list of the most influential members based on content and aesthetics of their profile, banner, blog background, sidebar and overall perception at first glance. Nothing was left unscrutinized. The list is in our opinion the most accurate representation of the most active members on active rain. With that said, this list may very well coincide with project #16 which lays out similar goals. This list took the longest to create but as mentioned is in our opinion the most resourceful for both newcomers and veterans on this network.

22. Castellum's First Annual Active Rain Contest: How many members will we have on December 1st, 2008

Based on a post we saw created by Matt Heaton in years past, we sought to find out if members would be interested to play along (for fun at the time) to see how many members we'd have by a specific date. Based on a visit by Bob Stewart within my account when he left a visit on this project while it was in draft mode, we were able to award actual points to winners. Based on that reward, members flocked to join the contest and with over 165 entries this contest was a huge success. Thanks again to Bob Steward for making this possible.

23 Top 100 Active Rain Sociialiites (COMING SOON) -

This group of people, known as the underbelly of ACtive rain, keeps this puppy running. They bring activity and members to the rain with their stories, wit and humor. They provide valuable diversity and content that is often overlooked. With the help of Paul Slaybaugh this list will give credit where credit due. Thanks paul for the idea, i owe you one.  

24. Top 10 most interesting websites for the week of 10/20-10/27

A series of thumbnails depicting interesting websites categorized by type with a brief explanation of each. These websites are all handpicked by us and the assortment will vary from week to week. 

25. Tips on Copyright/Fair Use related to publishing blogs with pictures which are not yours

This was a pretty comprehensive post based on our research, which focused on helping the Active Rain Member become more knowledgeable of their rights and responsibilities in regards to Copyright Law for use of images and clip art. We also included information on how one can protect their own work and how one can go after someone who has copied your work. 

26. Top 107 ways to get featured and the Top 10 bloggers with featured posts

As the title suggests, this list is dedicated to giving you strategies that will help ascend your feature posts ranking. Some are serious, and some are all in fun, but seriously follow the list and you could become one of the top 10 bloggers featured in this post.

27. Top 40 Active Rain Members (Based on Features)

We had to scope all the current categories of Active Rain through the first 3 pages to fulfill our duties in coming to a successful conclusion to this list. We feel we have accurately depicted the current nature of this network by spotlighting the most featured members. We are constantly doublechecking our efforts and feel this list can be extended over time. Stay tuned.

28. Top 65 ways to not get featured on Active Rain

Coinciding with project #25, this list looks at it from a different angle. What if you were trying to avoid becoming featured? Would you know what to do? This list tells all. Many bothans died to bring us this information so please follow these important steps.

29. After Dark Horrorfest: 8 films to die for Compendium

An ongoing list featuring all known movies to have been released through the past 2 years, and of those about to be released in theaters in January. We also added reviews and a short list of our favorites, including the top 3 and worst 3 movies out of the whole lot based on numerous reports, reviews online and in print. This list was generated specifically for halloween enthusiasts who enjoy having movie night on that day.

30. Most Active, Active Rain Members Since July

This was an early project of ours where we tried to see how we stacked up against other members who joined this network during the same time. We were proud to be 6th on that list at the time. It's a great tool to see what's possible in a short amount of time if you apply yourself.

31. Active Rain Real estate brokerage groups list

After our top 650 groups projects post, we focused on pin pointing specifically in finding all the brokerages within each group category and highlighted them all in one list. We cannot say this list is complete, but we believe we at least highlighted the top 90% and largest brokerage groups on Active Rain.

32. Active Rain's Growth Spurt

This is a post we'll continue to update wherein we look at each month's compete website statistics totals compared to Active Rains' competitors.

33. Active Rain/Localism  Wikipedia Project

Our biggest project to date. The focus being on getting all major resources into one group for easy reference. This would be replicated for both localism and active rain focusing on featured localism posts, and featured active rain posts. Members would be able to submit their own posts at the mercy of the moderator's discretion. This is still in it's infancy and has a long way to go but the eventual outcome should be extremely beneficial for both veterans and newcomers to this network.

34. Mc.Cain vs Obama - Thorough Analysis of Positions

In order to educate ourselves while conversely paying it forward to the rest of the network, our mission for this project was to find the positions on both candidates, based on their own promises made on their websites. It was interesting to say the least. 

35. Top ten most interesting websites for the week of 10/25 - 11/2

In order to educate ourselves while conversely paying it forward to the rest of the network, our mission for this project was to find the positions on both candidates based their own promises they made on their own websites. It was interesting to say the least.

36. Top ten ways on how to write better localism posts

Knowing many members of this network were having problems writing posts towards their localism business model, we thought it would be best to create a list which documented the most popular marketing methods when trying to grasp a reader's attention.

37. Top 104 things to do on Active Rain

Because newcomers may not know all the benefits of being on this network nor understand just how many things one can do to advertise themselves to the world essentially, we decided to make a list of "some" of those things. This will become a monthly post each time going deeper into the Active Rain Archives to find the very best our members have had to offer while at the same time mentioning about any new features have been made available to you.

38. Top 325 real estate related topics  to write about in your Active Rain Blog

Writer's block gets the best of us. Being a realtor or being involved in real estate in general requires people to write about the industry on a weekly basis. To do this, i made this list of 325 real estate related terms/ideas available to members of this network and beyond to help them along. As the year progresses we will release more articles like this focused on different topics (UPDATE; misc topics will contrive part 2 in this series)

39. What if Twitter Dissapeared? Top 40 Twitter Alternatives w/reviews

Seeing that twitter has become a very popular tool for realtors, we felt compelled to let them know of all the various other twitter-like applications out there that can be used as substitutes or to complement their microblogging. We found a few (Cough) and included a review for about 10 of our favorites. Keep in mind that everyone has different likes and dislikes so what works for one may not work for another but we feel confident that our 10 favorites will be useful to anyone looking for good alternatives to the hype that is Twitter.

_____________________

Everything mentioned in this article will be available in our new groups: Active Rain Wikipedia and Localism Wikipedia 

Active Rain Wikipedia (Join Group
Founded: 09/15/2008 
This list was made specifically to help Active Rain members find resources without having to search the network through 1000's of comments and posts. We ask everyone who has ever posted a vital resource to Active Rain Contribute by including it into our group. That or give us a reblog option to post on your behalf. To be clear, we ask only that you post resources to this group. No listings, etc. This group will be specific to Active Rain and will feature information about specific members, professions and any information that both reference from. The Focus of this group is to give the public information quickly and in detail. Only the most resourceful and complete web logs on Active Rain will be displayed here. We hope to have several posts for each member/profession in his/their district, state, country displayed here. 
Subscribers: 7 + 13(old group)20Blog Posts: 35 RSS
Localism Wikipedia (Join Group
Founded: 09/26/2008 
This group was made specifically to help Active Rain members find resources without having to search the network through 1000's of comments and posts. We ask everyone who has ever posted a vital resource to Active Rain Contribute by including it into our group. That or give us a reblog option to post on your behalf. To be clear, we ask only that you post resources to this group. No listings, etc. This group will be specific to Localism and will feature information about specific regions, communities and the things one can do while visiting or vacationing there. The Focus of this group is to give the public information quickly and in detail. Only the most resourceful and complete web logs on Localism will be displayed here. We hope to have several posts for each district, state, country displayed here. 
Subscribers: 7 Blog Posts: 6 RSS

_____________________

We have one request for those reading this and you'll have fun taking part in this, but please take our Fastest Finger Speed Test so we can make another top 100 list out of it :)

UPDATE: Top 300 realtor links list won't be ready for our 100th post but our first associates only list was just published.  It is a work in progress however so please be patient while we gather more info. 

 

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Comments (20)

Jason Crouch
Austin Texas Homes, LLC - Austin, TX
Broker - Austin Texas Real Estate (512-796-7653)

You have been busy with your lists!  I am a listmaker myself.  Have a great week -

Sep 15, 2008 04:16 AM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

Coming from a legend like you we are honored. Would you mind sharing those top 10 lists with the rest of Active Rain (if you haven't already) 

Did you take the fastest finger test yet?

Sep 15, 2008 04:21 AM
Marie Westerman
Blanchard and Calhoun Real Estate/ Wilson Parker Homes - Evans, GA
New Homes Sales Specialist Evans GA REALTOR

Thank you for taking the time to assemble all of this for us. I am bookmarking it to review later.

Sep 15, 2008 04:21 AM
Jeremy Blanton
Myrtle Beach Homes Blog - Myrtle Beach, SC
Myrtle Beach REALTOR®- myrtlebeachhomesblog.com
I too am one for making lists...but my lists are more the types that are used for things to do & not to do...
Sep 15, 2008 06:14 AM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

just as important. You should join our new group: Active castellum it's a group strictly for resources. You'd fit in well :)

Sep 15, 2008 06:26 AM
Diane Aurit
LKN Realty, LLC - Mooresville, NC
Lake Norman Real Estate

What an amazing group of lists...this must have taken days to pull together.  I particularly like your localism post.  Great job!

Sep 15, 2008 09:34 AM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Great list. I have alot of reading to do.Thanks for the post.

Sep 15, 2008 11:53 AM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

I see a future for the internet for medical issues. This could replace the primary physician.

We just type in our problems,our blood presuure,heart rate weight ,former problems ,and the potential therapy shows up. Based on worldwide published knowledge results and latest information, we take it to the specialist, the websites will tell us who in our area, and tell them what to do.

UPDATE: The first of our associates only lists has just been posted. It's a work in progress.

Sep 15, 2008 01:45 PM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

UPDATE: Amended the post to include our latest projects (lists)

Sep 20, 2008 02:32 PM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

UPDATE: added another project and changed out our group home (we have 2 now)

Also added project #15 to the list.

Sep 26, 2008 07:43 AM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

UPDATE: project #17 is up but as mentioned in post 100, it's for associates only at this point.

Sep 29, 2008 01:38 AM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

UPDATE: included projects 18-22 

To clarify: Active Rain resources will stay open to the public.

Oct 09, 2008 03:41 PM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

UPDATE; Amended all post to reflect accurate information. Included our latest contest.

Oct 12, 2008 07:21 AM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

UPDATE: added projects 23-24

Oct 24, 2008 12:05 AM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

UPDATE: added projects 25,26,27,28,29,30,31 and 32

Oct 31, 2008 11:41 AM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

UPDATE: added projects 33,34,35 and 36

Nov 15, 2008 05:59 AM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

UPDATE: added projects 37 and 38

Nov 20, 2008 07:41 AM
Pat Starnes-Front Gate Realty
Front Gate Real Estate - Brandon, MS
601-991-2900 Office; 601-278-4513 Cell

This is awesome! How much time does it take to put this together? ~Pat

Nov 20, 2008 12:09 PM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

a lot :) luckily i'm getting paid to make resources available to others so it's all good.

Nov 20, 2008 04:44 PM
Everard Korthals
---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA
Mountain Realty

UPDATE: as you can tell we haven't updated this post in a while, and that is because we have created a new one, more complete, for your bookmarking please:

Our Top 100 Resources

Mar 17, 2009 10:06 AM