Each time we receive a Dakno Real Estate Marketing website inquiry before returning a call I go through my usual "drill" and Google the name of the party interested in our Dakno real estate website & blog products and services. (Do you go through that drill when someone contacts you about your services? - Maybe you should.) Because of the awesome SEO-power of Active Rain, many times a profile will appear at the top of the search results of an agent who has invested considerable time blogging at AR. Why not take advantage of this Google power and really make your Active Rain profile work for you. Here are 5 recommendations you might want to consider:

1. I see way too many AR profiles written with a 8 point font. Unless you target an alien audience under 35 years old with perfect eye sight make sure your profile font size is large enough to be reader-friendly.
2. Avoid using multiple font colors, font styles, font sizes and words underlined for no apparent reason (underlined words normally cue the site visitor that the word is a "link"). BTW - a few bolded words are ok, just don't go overboard and make everything bold and in all caps. IT GIVES THE APPEARANCE YOU ARE SCREAMING AT YOUR AUDIENCE! See what I mean.
3. Many profiles are written in third person making the profile cold and impersonal. I recommend profile owners write their "bio" in first person. It's far more casual and makes you more "approachable". Isn't that the objective to connect with people? Although this isn't a "AR About Me page" I think it ranks up there with one of the all-time best "About Me" pages! Take a look at AR member Elena Thurston's About Me page!
   
4. Because AR offers you some serious SEO backlink power, I suggest you link your target market keywords from your AR profile to your website and your blog and don't forget to use superior anchor text when linking. When I say link to your website I'm not just talking about linking to your homepage but to interior pages of your blog or website. I also suggest you "deep" link to interior pages like buyers articles, sellers tools especially your area information and your MLS property search tool.
5. Because the Internet Empowered Consumer is far more concerned with their needs than a real estate agent's desire to "capture" them, they are always asking the "what's in it for me question." If your AR profile fails to answer that critical question WIIFM, chances are you're missing opportunities to connect with your target audience. Maybe you should consider adding more value to your profile by offering some area information and do a little less "self promotion". To the consumer, it's mostly "noise" anyway.

Where's My AR Profile Example?

By now you are probably asking yourself Bobby where can I find a good example of an optimized AR profile page? I love examples and this one is a really good one (IMHO). Take a look at the profile page for Mr. Miami Beach Real Estate himself, Kevin Tomlinson's Active Rain Profile page.

A Great Way to Start Your New Year - Edit Your Active Rain Profile Page!

Start with those tips and you will experience greater SEO power and possibly stand a better chance of starting a conversation with a new prospect too.

Feel free to add this list. It's not comprehensive by any means!

Happy New Year!
Bobby Carroll - Dakno Real Estate Marketing

Twitter me: @Realestatecoach