How the system works and working the system, or ActiveRain point values that I'm aware of

As a Marketing & Business Consultant, I love to deconstruct things to see what they are made of (there's that pesky preposition ending again, so I'm adding this parenthetical text). After all, deconstructing the human psyche and trying to determine what makes it tick, what makes it buy, what makes it sell, what makes it choose me over someone else, is simply fun. With apologies to the Beach Boys, "I'll have fun, fun, fun, 'til my Client comes to take me away."

I've only been here at ActiveRain a little less than a month, but for ActiveRain newbies, almost-newbies, and anyone else who is wondering where to get points, here's what I've found so far:

1. 100 points for activating your real estate profile.
2. 100 points for adding your primary phone number. Apparently no points for alternate phone number and no points for fax number.
3. 175 points for short description in your profile. You're limited by the number of characters, so use them all.
4. 100 points for your first feedback or suggestion to ActiveRain.
5. 200 points for including your photo in your profile.
6. 200-600 points for linking to Active Rain. I linked all four of my web sites to Active Rain using their 600-point logo on my home pages for 2,400 points. Added on 3/21/09: Apparently you no longer get points for linking to ActiveRain. That shouldn't prevent you from linking, though, and certainly make sure that you have an invitation link on your web site so that people can click and join, and once they do, you get 10% of the points they accumulate.
7. 400 points maximum for testimonials in your profile. If you have less, get busy. Be wordy. Don't abbreviate. If you have a testimonial from a Client named Viswanathan Anand (for all you chess fans), and you live in Truth-or-Consequences, New Mexico, put that. Don't put "Mr. Anand." If you have a billion testimonials, then you can abbreviate. But re-write or add if you don't have 400 points yet.
8. 400 points maximum for "areas of expertise" in your profile. If you have less, get busy. Be wordy. Don't abbreviate. If you have a Bachelor of Science in Forest Management from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, put that. Don't put "B.S., Texas A&M." If you have a long résumé, then you can abbreviate. But re-write or add if you don't have 400 points yet.
9. 400 points maximum for "about me" in your profile. If you have less, get busy. Don't be afraid to delve way back into your history: "I was born in Kingsville, Texas. My first interest was music, and I was practicing piano, violin, and voice before I was 10."
10. 50 points the first time you view someone else's points summary.
11. 25 points for each blog comment you make, as long as it's either 10 words or 50 characters, apparently. Having problems getting to 10 words? Start with "Hi, James." and end with "Make it a great day."
12. 4-25 points for each comment from someone else in your blog. These are the only points that you don't seem to get awarded immediately. I guess there are Active Rain Blog Trolls (ARBTs) who visit every new blog and then push the magic button that awards points. I've not been able to determine what affects the number of points awarded. I was thinking that it probably had something to do with how many comments you get within the first few minutes, or how many comments you got while your blog post was still on the blog scroller. Nope. I'm currently leaning toward the opinion that you'll get more points if an old-timer has enough interest to comment on your blog, fewer points if lots of newbies common on your blog. I've seen blog posts get no additional points above the initial 200 and then, weeks later, along comes an ARBT and, boom!, 72 extra points. Really weird. I have determined that old blog entries with new comments get updated at midnight on Saturday and midnight on Tuesday.
13. 225 points for a blog entry if you complete Channels. Without Channels, it's 200 points. You can get an automatic 2,250 points by doing 10 blog posts per week. The ActiveRain week starts at midnight on Saturday/Sunday in the Central Time Zone (for you military people, that could be 2400 on Saturday, or 0000 on Sunday). So for me in the Pacific Time Zone, my ActiveRain week starts at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night, and each day starts at 10:00 p.m., as well. You are not limited to 10 blog posts per week. You are only limited to an automatic 225 points for each blog post up to 10 per week. Whomever the Powers That Be are can award you 225 points for any blog post beyond #10 if they deem your blog post worthwhile, and you will always get credit for comments (see above).
14. 200-275 points if your blog post is "featured." 
15. 25 points if you re-blog someone else's blog. Haven't yet determined if there's a maximum number here.
16. 25 points if someone else re-blogs your blog. Haven't yet determined if there's a maximum number here. This seems to have come to an end as of 1/30 or so, but it might return since ActiveRain is always tweaking things.
17. 250 points if someone accepts your invitation to join ActiveRain.
18. 10% of the points that your invitee earns. This is where you can get big-time points if you invite big-time people or Actively play in the Rain. I've noticed a couple of over-300,000 pointers here don't "actively" participate anymore, yet they get 500-1,500 points per day because all the people they invited are still Actively Active.
19. Bonus points. Awarded as deemed appropriate by the ARBTs.
20. Contest points. These can range from 200 points just for entering the contest to 500 points for placing, and 1,000 or 5,000 for winning.
21. Comment points for commenting in your own blog -- From November 13, 2007, through January 7, 2008, I experimented with this. I don't like making comments just for the sake of making comments, so this didn't initially appeal to me. However, I did discover that you can, indeed, get points for commenting in your own blog. For example, in this blog post of mine, I commented back to everyone who commented. Each time I commented, my score went up 25 points. That was the high end. Most of the time my comments in my own blog got anywhere from ½ point to 5 points. You will notice that the heavyweights who have been around a long time carry on conversations in their blogs, so don't be afraid to do that. There's a reason why they do that: They have discovered that it gets them more points. Additionally, if someone subscribed to the blog post by checking the "Notify me of new comments" box, then they might come back and comment again. This tactic often leads to good conversations on hot topics.
    Added on 1/23/09: I can definitively confirm that one other person whom I know very well is getting 25 points when he comments on one of his own blogs, this one about nice underwear.
22. Drafts -- You can do drafts in ActiveRain by simply choosing DRAFT rather than PUBLIC or MEMBERS ONLY. The interesting thing about drafts is that if your draft is less than about two hours old, then when you post it, it will be dated, and points will we awarded, for the time you posted it. If your draft is more than about two hours old, then when you post it, it will be dated at the time you drafted it, and points will be awarded for the day and week that you drafted it. This can be useful if you have a weekend off and want to do 10 blog drafts for the upcoming week. The problem with the drafts being posted, say, a week later, is that the blog post doesn't show up on the current blog scroll since it was done a week earlier, so you won't get as many comments, if any, when you post it. I have found that it is easier to write drafts in Word and simply save them for the day I want to post them. I quite often will write all of my blog entries on Saturday and Sunday for the coming week. I do that because I have also found that I get more comments -- i.e., more points -- if I post my blog entries between 6:00 and 9:00 in the morning Pacific Time. Saturday and Sunday are almost useless for getting lots of comments.
23. 500 points for completing an ActiveRain success story.

Again, you get rewarded for being wordy in your profile, so do it, but do it properly, as I've explained above with abbreviations and your personal history. If you don't have anything to say, check your own web site for content.

There might be others that I haven't found yet. As I find them, I'll keep you posted. Be sure to scroll through the comments below because there might be some updates that I'm still working on.

Please leave a comment if you found this helpful. Thanks.

Scroll down for links to some of my other blog entries.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club.

 

 

Some of Russel Ray's blog entries

1. How the system works and working the system, or Active Rain point values that I know about
2. Do you have some commercials for your business? - ActiveRain feature
3. Free help for Active Rain newbies
4. 10 ways to get a featured post at ActiveRain - ActiveRain feature
5. How to keep people from reading your Active Rain blog
6. How do you get people to comment on your blog?
7. Using Active Rain more effectively by finding Power Partners
8. Quit putting huge, gigantic, monster pictures in your blog. Now! (Help on resizing them)
9. Using YouTube videos without slowing down page loading
10. Don't forget to remember how Active Rain supports you indirectly
11. How to use the Active Rain system more efficiently
12. How do you choose a subject for your blog posts?