Not too long ago, ActiveRain launched the "Re-Blog" feature, which allows members to designate posts that they will allow others to post on their own blogs.  I have been fortunate enough to have had about 8-10 of my posts re-blogged since this was launched.  Each time this happens, I get an additional 25 points, which is great, but there is a much larger benefit at play here.

At first, I found this to be flattering, but I didn't really consider all of the SEO benefits, even though I have been studying SEO and optimizing my own site for the search engines since 1998 (pre-Google days!).  Today, I had a "lightbulb" moment. 

Aha! 

I actually get it now.  For ten years, I have heard and seen a two-pronged version of the same basic concept preached consistently by those who sell SEO services, and on SEO forums:

"Make your content compelling so that others will organically link to your site.  Organic links are generally much more valuable than reciprocal links." 

If you are not familiar with the concept of "organic" links or organic results, allow me to briefly explain.  An organic link is one that comes to you without any effort on your part.  In other words, I am not actively trying to obtain links on sites for my profile by asking people to link to this page. 

Organic results are those that appear underneath the paid/sponsored results on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines. 

Before I was blogging for my business, I couldn't figure out how to make any of the dull real estate information on my site compelling enough to cause someone to link to it willingly without receiving something in return (usually, a link from my site to theirs).

Today, I realized that when my posts are re-blogged, they generally appear on the re-blogger's OUTSIDE BLOG.  This is significant because most outside blogs have their own separate domain, which means....

I am getting organic links from many other sites to my AR profile now! 

The stronger that my AR profile is, the better chance it has of being found on its own for various terms on the search engines.  Also, the link to my primary site from the profile carries more weight, too.  If you are an SEO newbie, that may not make as much sense, but the full explanation of Google PageRank would be a lengthy one within the confines of this post.  For a much more thorough explanation of backlinks, check out this previous post of mine:

How to generate and track backlinks for your Active Rain profile - A few basic SEO tips

Suffice it to say that I am 100% behind the re-blogging concept at this point, since it is a phenomenal way for the re-bloggee (is that a word?) to obtain new links with no additional effort.  It also benefits the re-blogger by providing additional content that is hand-picked.  I re-blogged a post last night to help a friend whose mom is very sick.  I was happy to have this option available, rather than having to put everything into my own words.  Her post was more powerful.

As I told Pippa Mac the other day, if you see a post of mine in my archives that interests you, and you would like to re-blog it, let me know.  If it doesn't have the icon to allow this, I will edit it and allow you to have access for your re-blogging. 

Also, I would highly encourage you to obtain a separate domain for your outside blog if you haven't already done so.  Jeremy Blanton wrote a great post detailing the easiest way to set this up:

How to Set Up Domain for Outside AR Blog

Thanks for reading!  I hope this is helpful.