Helping Realtors Grow

Pauline,

Great start...congratulations for the follow through..  Following the 80/2- rule you have climbed to the top just by starting this blog - now do yourself a favor and keep it up and truly be apart of the top 20%.  Work consistently and have the patience you speak of in your profile and you will definitely see it have an impact on  your business.

A few pointers...

Go back and clean up your profile - it looks good and reads fine - the problem is you have the generic instructions in place - just go ahead and delete them and you will be fine.

As far as your first article - play with formatting.  use paragraphs to break up your thoughts.  I personally like to write in MS Word and then cut & paste my writing into the ActiveRain editor.  The problem I have with that is that my hard returns show up as a double space.  So I then have to delete them and enter a SHIFT/RETURN in the editor to make the line spacing more appropriate.  some folks use a text editor like WORDPAD.  Either way - just break it up so you post is not one long paragraph.

Good job on the link to ActiveRain.  What I might suggest is that you also include links to the people you speak of - Joey, Mike,  Lori, Rhonda & myself in this case, all have links.  These were found in less than 5 minutes on Google.  then you could also add a link to the company websites if you want.  You can never have too many links in an article.  You can either create the link back to their (our) websites or the the blogs - either are appreciated.

linking serves 2 purposes - it makes it easier for your reader to do more research on a topic and second it helps build your own standing as an expert by cross referencing on a particular topic - plus everyone loves links back to their site - so you are helping others who may in turn help you.

My final bit of advise is to just get started and blog away.  We spoke yesterday about consumer oriented articles that you may use in your business - re-write them and make them your own and then publish them.  This is how people will find your blog - by the key words you use, so be generous with the TAGS you apply to your articles.  For example ion this blog you have chosen several very relevant key words to include as tags - however imagine 100+ articles under your belt in the next couple of months and then figure out why someone may not find this blog for what you discussed...

Suppose someone is looking for credit repair or Springboard?  No reference.  Or for Rhonda - can't find her.  So like kinks, I suggest you use every possible key word you can in your tag line at the end when you go to  post.

Finally, go out and read other blogs - tons of advise here on how to do it.  Like lots of advise, there are conflicting opinions - so read and decide for yourself what style you are comfortable with.  I suggest you find some groups and in particular start with one of the newbie groups and then go on from there.

Now have a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet REALTOR
Real Estate - Hemet CA

Pauline,

As far as communicating, you should try and use your blog and not send me individual emails, unless if they are private in nature (and we don't know each other THAT well).  The reason being is that the more comments you have in your blog, the more attention it is likely to receive.

Also, by interacting on the blog, you are creating an interactive Web 2.0 experience and that is what blogging is all about.  Of course if their are inappropriate comments, you can always delete them.

As far as linking, it is very simple - when in the text editor, highlight the desired text (try an include a key word or two in the link) and then look up at the icons in the text editor.  You will see one that lights up once the text is highlighted that looks like a chain link - that opens a dialogue box to crates your link.  If you use MS WORD, there is a similar icon, but with a globe behind the link.  I personally find WORD much quicker to use.

As far as inviting others, there is a link at the bottom of your HOME page on ActiveRain that says something like INVITE A FRIEND - real simple.

Keep it up, you are doing fine.

Now Have a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR
Real Estate - Hemet CA

Pauline,

another tip to get folks to read your blog is to read other blogs and don't be bashful about commenting on what others have to say.

Now Have a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR
Real Estate - Hemet CA

Pauline...

the one thing about a succesful blog - you have to do it more oten....

John