A Milestone Crossed And A Million Thanks!

A Milestone Crossed And A Million Thanks!

If you're just starting out you may not have realized YET what a special place you've found in the Active Rain community.  You've got the keys in your hand to unlocking growth in your business.  Those same keys give you access to friendships that span the country.  And yes, those same keys open the doors to the latest buzz in the real estate world.  You'll have continuing education on a daily basis if you choose to open the door and walk fully into the Active Rain!

We'd have never expected Active Rain to be what it's become to us.  We followed a link once upon a time, filled out a profile and promptly disappeared for another three years. No kidding.  Perhaps the worst mistake we've made in our real estate careers.  We knew we should be blogging (we'd heard it at a RE/MAX convention), but like many it dropped off the table.  And years later we started clicking those Active Rain Daily Drop links if a post caught our eye.  But still we lurked quietly, just picking up a few things here and there, learning who some of the key players were in the Rain.  Finally, a comment here, a comment there....just a little interaction.  And then, finally, a post.  Then another and another.  Searching for that voice and character of who we would be as bloggers.  And occasionally Miss Bad Manners makes a special guest appearance :)

We had plenty of blogging company.  Other newbies like us also learning the way.  We gained a nickname (BLiz). We found we could help each other, and that others would help us.  A question asked was a question answered.  We became more proficient.  We found sources for blog ideas....LOTS of sources.  Our blogging toolbox filled with tools we use daily.  Our subject matter evolved, more emphasis on the consumer side.  Local events and places started to fill our posts.  We learned A LOT about our area we didn't know before.

Then we found a real estate niche to work (patio homes), and we got our first BECAUSE WE BLOGGED business.  A buyer of a patio home which also became a seller of a condo.  Active Rain became our first choice for sending out referrals, and checks came back to us!  And we did get incoming referrals, two listings now sold or under contract.  Not bad considering our primary market is only about 200,000 people total!  And our phone rings regularly thanks to our blogging.  We get found, and after that it's up to us to convert them.

We're not going to thank anyone specifically by name, the list is WAY too long.  We have many special friends, some we've met in person, some we WILL meet in person, and many more we've talked to on the phone or via email.  And NEVER has that first in person meeting felt like meeting a stranger!

If we were asked to distill what we've learned here to just a few nuggets of advice, they'd be:

• Be yourself (unless you're a jerk....don't be a jerk...the Active Rain community has low tolerance for big time jerks!).  And engage with this community.  Comment, and comment some more.
  
• Take advantage of the learning opportunities.  Bob, Kerrie and the rest of the AR Staff offer some tremendous lessons if you visit Active Rain University.  And they're not the only teachers.  Plenty of Rainers share regularly the latest in real estate technology, business models, SEO, prospecting techniques and more!  NEVER hesitate to ask a question, and if the first person you ask doesn't answer, ask someone else!
  
• Find a real estate niche and work it hard.   Giving the consumers SPECIFIC real estate info they can't get anywhere else is the key to making the phone ring.
• And a bonus nugget:  Be patient.  Blogging isn't some miracle cure that will double your business in just a few posts.  Active Rain works as well as we work it.  It's a tool, we have to learn how to wield it in a way that produces results.  Be prepared to change course if you've given it adequate time without results.  Even after almost three years, we're still evaluating how we blog and making adjustments to make our blogging more effective.
  

So with that we cross the one million point threshold.  Thanks to everyone in the Active Rain community for helping us get here!

Keep on Blogging,
Liz and Bill aka BLiz