The Road to Success is Always Under Construction, Help Here,On the Way

The Road to Success is Always Under Construction, Help Here,On the Way

By Michelle Carr Crowe, ActiveRain Ambassador

“The Road to Success is Always Under Construction,” my mother Judy Carr used to say. As many ActiveRain members and readers know, ActiveRain just underwent a huge upgrade. As with most improvements, there’s an adjustment period. Find some ActiveRain Help Here, More on the Way Monday.

Look for ActiveRain help, updates and information here: http://activerain.com/blogs/intheloop, and be assured (I have the word of Bob Steward) more help is on the way Monday.

At ActiveRain’s In the Loop, look for updates, work-arounds and some answers to the most common questions. This is a blog you should add to your bookmarks, as it is where AR communicates many changes and updates.

For specific issues not noted or addressed at ActiveRain’s In the Loop, or anytime a technical issue is occurring that isn’t covered elsewhere, send comment directly to the tech team at support@activerain.com or 888.643.3837.

For easy reference, I’ve copied some of the text from the most recent ActiveRain’s In the Loop.

Topics ActiveRain Channels and Categories have been rolled into one and now are called Topics.  13 Topics are available to choose from and each blog post written must have a topic selected.  You'll see this change when you're in the "Write a Blog Post" spot under the "Post To" section.  

Blogs (from the Nav bar) Here's where you'll see the 13 Topics displayed via Consumer and Professional.  Easily find posts on the topic at hand or click the orange "Search Blogs" to be taken to the blog roll.  Click on a topic and you'll see the new blog snippet view.  The number of comments are now easily seen along with the author's photo, name, title and snippet of post.  The trending topics algorithm we've created to display posts on each of these 13 pages will be updated every 5 minutes to ensure we're displaying the best posts we can.  The algorithm isn't something we're disclosing but takes a number of factors into play.

Blog Post Dates Blog posts will now have 2 dates: created on and updated on.

Q&A Users will be required to select a location and topic when asking a question.  This will help users search for similar content relevant to that location and/or topic.  Again, we're working on a better search function across ActiveRain.

Blog Editor You'll notice a new blog editor when writing a blog post.  We've massively updated the tool bar and options to make your blogs easier to create.  Currently the spell check is not compatible with TinyMCE (the tool bar) and the issue is beyond our control.  For those using Chrome and Firefox you should be able to right-click while in your post to use spell check.  For everyone else, please be patient until the next release or so when we can get it in there.  I suggest copying your work to a word document and spell checking there. 

Spell Check: Until this is fixed, write your blog post into Word, use Spell-check, Save it. Then copy (Control-C) and Paste (Control-V) into the ActiveRain blog text box. This solution will also prevent the "lost posts" problem, as you can copy it in again if the first post is lost.

Update: In order to paste content into your blog (from another source like Word) you will need to use the (control + v) command. Or if you are using a Mac, you would do (command + v). This will allow you to paste. You currently cannot paste using the 'file' dropdown option. 

Associates We asked and with an overwhelming "get rid of it" response, we have removed all associate pages.  If you had any Associates Only posts, they are now in Draft form and will need to be edited to either Members Only or Public in order to be live.  Check your "View Drafts" link to check.

Groups Any group that hasn't had activity within the last 6 months has been deleted.  Group moderators were notified of this weeks ago and had a chance to save their group if so inclined.  We need to clean up Groups and this is the first step in that move.

SEO Last but definitely not least, SEO updates.  Removal of extra links, bad HTML, better redirects and tons more technical updates have been made. Google continues to update their algorithm and we have a whole team working on getting ahead of those changes as best as possible.

Update: We have gotten reports that points are not being awarded for logging in. We are working on that right now. 

Update: We also realize that adding images isn't working as it should be. There is currently no way to wrap text around an image using the 'right' or 'left' justification for an image. We are looking at that as well and hope to have a fix very soon (FYI via Bob Stewart-Monday would be the earliest for this to happen).

Ambassador Michelle Update 1: Blog Headlines/H1: (via Bob Stewart). H1 is no longer an option in the text of a blog post, as the posted headline/ title is by default the only H1. To make blog posts more SEO-friendly and appealing to the Google logarithm, H1 is removed so that AR bloggers don’t inadvertently compromise themselves.

Ambassador Michelle Update 2: Work-around for photo inserts/text wrapping: (Thank you to Sharon Tara!)  

Click your mouse on the spot in your post that you wish to insert the picture.

Click the "insert/edit image" icon on the tool bar.  (bottom row, sixth image, box with mountains in it)

Next to "Source" click the camera icon.

The Responsive File Manager will open.  Click the "+" button next to "Actions".

Click "Drop Files to Upload" and choose and open your picture.

Click "Return File List"   which will take you back to the previous page where your picture will now be added.

Double click the picture.

Resize the picture if needed.  Add image description.  Hit OK.

Picture will be added to your post.  While it is still highlighted in blue, click the align right or align left icon on the tool bar.

- See more at: http://activerain.com/blogsview/4204468/temporary-fix-to-insert-and-align-pictures-in-your-blog-post#sthash.sz1Eknfo.dpuf

 

Ambassador Michelle Update 3: Work-around for Photo uploads via Flickr 

(Thank you to Rene Fabre!)

In Flickr, go to the photo you want to share.

Look towards the bottom and you'll find a link (ways to share).

Copy the html embed code (choose size first).

Back on Activerain in the editor go to HTML view and paste the code.

- See more at: http://activerain.com/blogsview/4204912/how-do-you-post-flickr-photographs-in-an-activerain-blog-#sthash.ByNriJM4.dpuf

Images courtesy of Stuart Miles/www.freedigitalimages.net.

Thank you for reading “The Road to Success is Always Under Construction, ActiveRain Help Here, More on the Way Monday”.

Aloha & God bless you,

Michelle

Michelle Carr Crowe Real Estate Agent Keller Williams Cupertino	P: 408-252-8900 F: 408-850-6911 E: GetResultsTeam@gmail.com	20230 Stevens Creek, #E Cupertino, CA 95014 www.MichelleJudyCarr.com

Michelle C. Carr-Crowe, DRE #00901962, and the Get RE$ult$ Team (established by the late Judy Carr) are known as the "Lynbrook and Cupertino Schools Experts." Michelle is a creative catalyst for positive change in people's lives.She is a Silicon Valley-based multi-million dollar real estate consultant who works by referral only.

Her designations include: Accredited Buyers Representative (ABR), Accredited Consultant of Real Estate (ACRE), Accredited Luxury Home Specialist (ALHS), Accredited Staging Professional (ASP), Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE),  Property Marketing Expert (PME), Real Estate CyberSpace Specialist (RECS), and Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES). In addition, she is an internationally-published freelance writer with over 1,000 traditional articles in print and online, as well as over 62,000 blog posts on Blogger, ActiveRain, MySpace, FaceBook, Realtor.com, Trulia, RealBird and others. She enjoys reading, traveling, animals, dancing, staging and praying. Check out her blog at www.activerain.com/results or visit her online at www.michellejudycarr.com or www.lynbrookhighhomes.com. For RE$ult$ ... Just Call ... (408) 252-8900.