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Do consumers even visit ActiveRain?

By
Real Estate Agent

I just stumbled upon the comment above that was a part of a post where people were debating the returns on various online real estate websites.  I have heard the sentiments of the comment above numerous times since founding ActiveRain. Because of the rich professional-to-professional networking that happens everyday on ActiveRain some people dismiss the great consumer reach of the site.  This is likely our fault as we tend not to toot our own horn regarding our accomplishments. As a result we have done a poor job educating the industry as to the power inherent in ActiveRain to connect real estate professionals with consumers.

I track our traffic numbers on a daily basis. It's a borderline obsession for me. When you've built websites your whole adult life, this tends to happen. For example, I know that yesterday was our second highest number of visitors ever to the site. 88% of our visitors on a monthly basis come from search engines or referral from other sites. These are potential clients doing search queries that are leading them to your posts.

But the stat that jumps out at me that lets me know ActiveRain is MUCH MORE than 'primarily a peer-to-peer platform' is this: the number of members on our site is quite a bit less than 10% of our unique visitors per month. That means there are over 9 consumers hitting the site for every one member.........and when you factor in how many of our members are actually contributing content, that number gets even higher.

As I was getting ready to write this post, I did some additional research and found the graph below that compares ActiveRain's traffic with other "big boys" of our industry: ColdwellBanker.com, REMAX.com, Century21.com, and KW.com.  It is exciting for me to note that we started off one year ago in 5th place (out of 5) in this group and now we are ranking in 2nd place with almost a 200% yearly growth rate.

Comments (125)

Anonymous
Diana Perez - Majestic Properties-Hollywood, FL

I think that AR is doing a great job so far, just look at how much the network has accomplished alone in 2008. Since we have jumped to 2nd place, I think that 2009 will be even a greater year for future analytics. I also think that this may be a wake up call to AR members to blog not only to other members but with the consumer in mind as well.

Jan 14, 2009 02:23 PM
#107
Debbie Hutchins
Birmingham, AL

Thanks Jonothan!  I love ActiveRain!  Hopefully with Re/Max AND ActiveRain I should get real busy!  November Newbie!

Debbie

Jan 14, 2009 02:52 PM
Cindy Hartpence
Edisto Real Estate Company - Edisto Beach, SC

This is all very excitng news. Hope I can step up to the plate on active rain!

Thanks,

Cindy

Jan 14, 2009 03:00 PM
Chris Olsen
Olsen Ziegler Realty - Cleveland, OH
Broker Owner Cleveland Ohio Real Estate

I have wondered about this for two years, and I just stumbled across this, so my concerns have been eliminated.  The 9-to-1 ratio is absolutely astounding.  If this isn't impetus enough, I'm not sure what is.

AR Rocks Baby!

Jan 14, 2009 03:19 PM
TIM MONCRIEF
Tim Monciref - Austin, TX
Over 2,000 homes sold…..

Because we blog so much, the more successful one is the more they are googled, and active rain will be everywhere.  I google search farmed areas and it is amazing to see how many people read active rain (not localism) blogs....and it shows the metatags that were typed....which helps you determine which ones work and don't work.  Great work!

Jan 14, 2009 03:31 PM
Robert Lani
Keller Williams - Seattle, WA

Jonathan - you mentioned the big boys in your stats but you did not mention where Windermere or John L. Scott come up in your stats.

Jan 14, 2009 03:33 PM
Celeste "SALLY" Cheeseman
Liberty Homes - Mililani, HI
(RA) AHWD CRS ePRO OAHU HAWAII REAL ESTATE

AR has been the greatest investment of my time yet. With so many in the Real Estate Industry contributing valuable content it will continue to grow. Thanks for all you do ...

Jan 14, 2009 03:49 PM
Roland Woodworth
Blue Cord Realty - Clarksville, TN
Blue Cord Realty

Johnathan: It is great to see that there are such a high number of consumers hitting the AR site in general. Even better when they are hitting our blogs

Jan 14, 2009 03:54 PM
Brian Lee Burke
Kenna Real Estate - Lone Tree, CO
Broker & Advising Expert-Kenna Luxury Real Estate

Love the numbers and stats as well. I like to use numbers when I show sellers how powerful blogging and using AR is. So keep the numbers coming please. Interesting to see Remax dipping ~Rita

Jan 14, 2009 03:57 PM
Isaac Bensussen
Pacific Coast Real Estate Group - La Jolla, CA

Jonathan: Unbelievable. Nine out of ten people that visit Active Rain are not Realtors? I always thought Active Rain was the site for incredible intelligent Real Estate professionals that got together to share their knowledge. When I stumbled into Active Rain I knew the site was something really special. Now, I know that not only have I learned a lot from Active Rain members after 32 years into the profession, but also, I can profit from my membership if I learn to use it wisely.

Jan 14, 2009 04:23 PM
Jon Washburn
Seattle, WA

Thank you all for your comments and support! This site, and it's traffic, would be nothing without the incredible investment of knowledge by our members.

A few people asked me to compare AR's traffic with other larger brokerages, so I put that graph together.  It is interesting to note that ActiveRain last month had more visits to it's site than all three of the listed brokerages combined: Windermere, Weichert, JohnLScott.

 

Lastly, a few people called out the down tick in traffic at Remax.com. It is not fair to single them out exclusively; online real estate traffic is down across the board.  Most of the traffic changes with the brokerage companies are a result of seasonality or corresponding marketing campaigns. (sadly most of the advertising campaigns most of the big brokerages employ are on TV and don't really move the online dials.)

Jan 14, 2009 06:07 PM
Donna Harris
Donna Homes, powered by JPAR - TexasRealEstateMediationServices.com - Austin, TX
Realtor,Mediator,Ombudsman,Property Tax Arbitrator

Great stats!  I love numbers!!  It's good to see that AR is getting that much traffic, and it's also good to see that the RE/MAX site still dominates as a national franchise.

Jan 14, 2009 11:35 PM
Frank & Jodi Orlando
Frank & Jodi Orlando Get Us A Home Realty Atlanta Homes Sale - Cumming, GA

Nice blog, we have quite a few websites, ActiveRain accounts anywhere from 3-10% of the visits as a referral. Strangely, these visits are often the shortest in duration. I have no idea why...

Jan 15, 2009 02:26 AM
Stephen Kappre
KW Hometown - Mantua, NJ
Helping You Home

Thanks for sharing - wonderful news and awesome stats. I personally have more than one client come from AR each month, and I've been here for only 4 months.

Jan 15, 2009 02:31 PM
Eileen Hsu
Douglas Elliman Real Estate - Manhattan, NY
LICENSED REAL ESTATE SALESPERSON

Fantastic information. I just used Compete.com to check Activerain.com vs. our company website. Activerain rocks out!

Jan 16, 2009 09:54 AM
Teresa Boardman
Boardman Realty - Saint Paul, MN

KW doesn't have much of a web presence. My blog has more traffic that all the local KW sites combined but Coldwell Banker and other have a stong presence. Much of it is consumers searching for homes.  Locally Edina Realty has the biggest presence. Your number surprise me because I would think that the sites with the more listings on them would be getting more traffic. You should comapre AR numbers with ziollow and trulia and it would also be interesting to see what the bounce rates are.

Jan 17, 2009 11:56 PM
Laura "Ole" Olesen
Sky Realty - Austin, TX

So helpful to see the numbers do the talking. Thanks!

Jan 19, 2009 06:15 AM
Georgie Hunter R(S) 58089
Hawai'i Life Real Estate Brokers - Haiku, HI
Maui Real Estate sales and lifestyle info

This is really encouraging news!  Thanks for the graphs which make it really easy to visualize.  You could do more posts like this.

Jan 22, 2009 08:00 AM
Christopher Johnston
The Johnston Team - Metairie, LA

Great post. I had no idea that so many consumers hit the ActiveRain site everyday. Also kudos for making it to number two against the big sites. I'd like to see how you compare against Realtor.com, Trulia, and Zillow.

Mar 06, 2009 01:10 PM
Christopher Johnston
The Johnston Team - Metairie, LA

Great post. I had no idea that so many consumers hit the ActiveRain site everyday. Also kudos for making it to number two against the big sites. I'd like to see how you compare against Realtor.com, Trulia, and Zillow.

Mar 06, 2009 01:10 PM