There is much talk of points and "why we blog" here on ActiveRain. Many people say that they only blog for the benefit of the consumer, or to make friends on ActiveRain. They don't care about being featured or getting subscribers.
Those are very fine reasons to blog. I have read many instances of people getting referrals from other ActiveRainers and that is fantastic. I have also made some great friends here and I am appreciative of that.
However, there is another very good reason to blog on ActiveRain-- getting business, earning clients, making money. For those of you that think "points don't matter"; I am going to explain exactly why they do matter. Getting featured also helps, because that helps your points and helps the blogger to earn subscribers.
Here is why earning points and working to get featured should be a concern for every single Realtor and mortgage broker on this network:
Google Page Rank.
Is that enough reason? Your own "main" site will do better with Google if you have lots of points with ActiveRain. I know what you are thinking...
Huh? How could ActiveRain points help my main site rank better in Google? There can't be any relation, right? Karen has gone nuts!
I promise I have not!
ActiveRain has a very respectable Google page ranking and as more people join and link to ActiveRain, that page ranking will continue to rise. For those of you that do not have the Google toolbar installed, I would highly recommend it. One of the many things it does is display the Google page rank. (Real quick-- page rank is a type of rating system for your site. Read more about PageRank.)
Now here comes the good part for ActiveRainers. The way Google Page Rank generally works is as follows:
For each "level" you move deeper into a site, it should "inherit" the Google page rank (importance) of the higher level page, minus one.
To see this reality in action, you could follow these steps:
The ActiveRain main page has a Google page rank of 6. Very impressive.
If we go one deep, we visit the blogs page. Check that out here. It has a page rank of 5. Just as I explained, it inherits the importance of the page "above" it, minus one.
Now, on the blog page, the number one blog is the Official ActiveRain blog. Let's click on that. It has a Google page rank of 4. It is two pages deep from the main page with a PR of 6 and, of course, 6 minus 2 is 4.
Broker Bryant is just below the Official AR blog, but is still on the same page and same "level" as the AR blog, so Broker Bryant also has a page rank of four. (What I mean by "level", is that it takes two clicks from the main site to get to Broker Bryant.)
I am next, but because my blog is new, I haven't inherited the page rank yet. So my blog is a so-called "statistical outlier", from Stats 101. Just ignore my blog for now. I haven't been around long enough.
Since the AR blog (and Broker Bryant for that matter) has a PR of 4, links from the AR blog are very valuable. In fact, many sites with a PR of 4 or 5 will actually charge for text links. Broker Bryant, want to make some extra cash?
So to use Broker Bryant as an example of this, his main site at http://www.poincianaproperties.com/ will benefit greatly getting a link from a PR 4 site-- his own blog. Good for him!
In fact, most search engine experts (who know what they are talking about) will tell you that you are better off with 10 links from PR 4 and 5 sites, than 50 links from sites with a PR of ZERO. Why should Google care about links from unimportant pages? Broker Bryant's blog is considered very important by Google, because it is inheriting the importance of ActiveRain itself. He is only "two deep" from the main page. That is a very nice position to be in, as far as search engines are concerned.
So keep blogging and keep earning those points. At a bare minimum, work to get to page one of your state category, stay there, and let your blog inherit that page ranking. Then pass that PR "importance" onward to your main site, (via links from your blog of course), get more visitors, and earn more clients. Make it to page one for your state and it will bring you good fortune, eventually.
And think about this: In a year or two, when AR's main site has a page rank of 8, those blogs that have the most points will also move up in page ranking.
Do you know how valuable a PR 6 blog is? (The answer is "very valuable".)
Well, that is an upcoming, exciting reality for those that blog on ActiveRain. Blog often and as well as you can. If you are "buried" very deeply in AR (like page 35 of Colorado Realtors for example), your blog's importance (as far as Google is concerned) is pretty much nil.
If this was confusing in any way, I will try to answer any and all questions.
For more advice and tips on SEO:
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