ActiveRain No Tricks but Lots of Treats
First off many thanks to Leanne Smith and Endre Barath, Jr. for hosting the October Challenge.
This was a tough one for me to write. And as you can see it took until nearly the deadline to put my thoughts to keyboard. The reason? Not that the premise of the Challenge was that hard, but choosing the treats to write about when there are so many wonderful options made this…dare I say…a Challenge. Pun intended.
After much pondering I made my decision so here goes, for what it’s worth. Treats ahead.
I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to Bonnie Erickson in St. Paul Minnesota. I suspect most of you reading this, perhaps all, do not know who Bonnie is. She was an early adopter in August of 2006. But she hasn’t posted anything in over 14 years.
The amazing treat that Bonnie offered me…little did I know it at the time…was inviting me to join ActiveRain which I did September 7, 2006. I had just recently started blogging on Blogspot (I think it was) and got the invite from Bonnie. I had little clue about what I was doing about blogging and why…and some might say that’s still the case…and knew nothing about AR. But I took the plunge and have never looked back.
My blogging journey since that fateful day is hard to put into words, without going on and on for pages. The ActiveRain Treat Bag on this Halloween day overflows, and has for years. Wonderful friendships, abundant learning and sharing opportunities, giving and receiving referrals, and so much more, make Bonnie’s treat very special and everlasting. AR is not just about real estate, it’s about life, people and community.
Stepping back in AR history a bit I must mention Brad Andersohn who gave much to the community for so many years while he was affiliated with AR, and even after he moved on to other ventures. I had the opportunity to meet him in person multiple times at events including the Bloggers Connect conventions.
Brad was always generous with his wisdom and counsel as blogging was becoming mainstream in the early years, helping us all to improve what we were doing online, and building the spirit and comradery of the AR community. I still remember getting the call from my friend years ago about becoming an ActiveRain Ambassador. What an honor and a treat that was.
Jeff Turner also immediately comes to mind in the list of AR treats from the early years. A self-described “geek” and serial entrepreneur, Jeff was the President and Founder of Real Estate Shows back in 2007, and was also one of the Coaches for the Project Blogger Competition. I also had the pleasure of meeting him in person multiple times at blogging events, although it’s been a number of years. I know that if/when we meet again it will be like old times!
One very special treat from Jeff, for me, was his concept of YEO (“You engaging others”). Jeff may have been one of the first to really focus on the value of engagement with others in our blogging and not just on SEO. It’s true more than ever today in our busy blogging world and in the AR community and in real estate - engagement is essential. His post from 2007 – It’s Not About SEO. It’s About YEO – is well worth a read and so very relevant today.
The Treats are abundant at AR as we all know and have experienced. It was fun to take a walk back in AR history.
Happy Halloween – I hope you get lots of treats on this special day.
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