ActiveRain Voices – Members Speak Out

When I returned home from Inman’s Real Estate Connect in San Francisco last week, I searched through my notes, videos, photos and handouts looking for something to post about that might be unique. There were so many things that I learned this year, some really great topics and technologies, wonderful panels with experienced speakers, it was fantastic. I was a bit challenged on what to post and share today.

Looking back, the one thing I came away with more than anything else this year, was the impact of the people and all the friendships I have made. Socializing, Networking and Connecting with People.

There are so many reasons why people in the Real Estate Industry join and stay on ActiveRain. You’ll find many here that have written about their personal rewards, benefits, and successes on their Blogs. There is a common thread and purpose behind each and every reason people love ActiveRain. As I walked the halls and meeting rooms in San Francisco, I had one question for other ActiveRain members…

To see the full length 5 min video on youtube, CLICK HERE.

“What is the Biggest Benefit or Value you get out of the ActiveRain Community?” I was very fortunate to catch these members friends comments on video. They shared their voices, and their experiences publically and I am so grateful to be able to share that. It’s an honor and privilege to be a part of this video, the three day event, and most of all, a part of their lives.

Thank you to: Rich, Desiree, Cindy, Kristal, Richard, Jeff, Missy, Gena, Kim, Tracy, Ginger, AJ, Brian, Jeff, Mara, Tom, Nick, Tisza, Mary, Teresa and Mike, each one of you for sharing your thoughts and for helping make this idea and video possible. Your voices will be heard and I hope viewers will come away with a greater understanding and idea of what Social Networking and ActiveRain is really all about.

ActiveRain Hits 100,000 Members Today

Today marks a huge milestone for the ActiveRain Community, we finally hit 100,000 members. 
July 25th, 2008, a day that will go down in history as yet another GREAT “ActiveRAINY” DAY!!

Please join us as we welcome ANNA WILSON from Franklin, TN, the lucky and fortunate member to help us hit this long sought after goal.  Anna was invited to ActiveRain by Buddy Ladd, (W.E. Advertise) from Nashville, TN.  Both Anna and Buddy will be awarded 10,000 bonus points each.

Our 99,999th member is PATRICK GRAY from Newark, DE, who managed to discover and join ActiveRain all on his own.  Patrick will be awarded 2000 bonus points.

The 100,001 member to join AR is JON SESTERHENN from Schaumburg, IL.  who also discovered the community on his own, and will be awarded 2000 bonus points for doing so.  Congratulations to each of you, and welcome aboard!

Be sure to send these folks a warm AR welcome and congratulate them.  Give them the community support and love that is so well known through-out our network, and encourage them to Blog Blog Blog.

Lastly, I want to say Congratulations to ActiveRain, and to all of YOU who have helped build what’s now being called one of the most popular and “TOP” Real Estate Blogging Platforms and Networks in the Country according to Inman News.  “The man on top of the mountain, didn’t fall there!”

FYI – Anna Wilson joined ActiveRain and Created her Account on Fri Jul 25 2008 @ 10:59:55 for the record.

The ActiveRain Gang – Follow Us Live @ RE Connect

Since I will be joining the others at RE Connect this year, I just realized, I probably won’t have much time to Blog and comment while I’m away. Oh No! 🙂 This will be a very exciting event and I’m certain there will be so many things I’ll want to share. How will I keep up with it all? How will I keep you informed of all that’s going on around us in the Big City By The Bay? I think I have found a way……

First, there’s twitter, which will allow me to create short bursts of mini Blogs. This will be a great tool while we’re mobile. Then, there’s Utterz, which allows us to be on location, and still post Videos, Text, Photos, and Audio. Man, is technology cool or what? All this can be done from my iPhone and FLIP Video camera.

So if you’re interested in what the AR Team and hundreds of other members and friends will be doing for the next 4-5 days, you can check out @BradAndersohn on Twitter, or Utterz.com. To make it easier, I’ve added a widget to this post so you can get all the latest and greatest happenings from this conference. This will be a ton of fun, I hope you’ll enjoy these musings as much as we’ll enjoy creating them.

Just click play on this widget, you can also click on photos for a larger view.

For those of you coming to the RE Connect, I’m looking forward to seeing you again, as well as meeting many of you in person for the first time. To those who can’t make it there this year, I hope this will be the next best thing to being there. I’ve never done a “Follow Me” Blog post like this so I hope it works, please excuse my experimenting here.

I’m out the door, armed and ready with camera and phone, so come along, follow me/us, and enjoy the ride, the journey, and all the fun! 🙂

PHOTO SHARING:
My Flickr Photos
All Other Members Flickr Photos

The Official ActiveRain Gathering at RE Connect – San Francisco

Well, it’s less than a week away! The rumor is true, the ActiveRain Team will be in San Francisco next Tuesday thru Thursday for the Inman Real Estate Connect and we’re hoping we’ll get to see and meet many of you there.  If for some reason you can’t join us this year, we’ll be bummed, but that’s OK, there will be plenty of Bloggers jotting, tweeting, uttering, videoing and texting all about it.  Stuff will be popping up all over the web during the entire event I’m sure.

 

Here’s what I know so far:

The REBlogCamp is Tuesday.  Beer with Bloggers sponsored by Zillow will be Tuesday night.  Weds. Night – House Party Hosted by Trulia.  ActiveRain will also be announcing the winner(s) of the MakeOver 2 TakeOver challenge, (TBA).  The ActiveRain Gathering will be taking place, wait a second, I’ll come back to that..

Here’s the Inman RE Connect info, the schedule, and  The Top 10 Reasons To RE Connect

If you’d like to join us, let us know so that we can get an estimated head count, we’d like to get an idea of who will be there for sure.  ActiveRain Parties Gatherings are some of the best Gatherings Parties you’ll ever attend. I’m hoping to capture most of this event with photos and on video, that way we can share the best stuff with those of you who might not be able to make it.  It’s going to be a Blast!  Jon says “No Working!” Actually, he said “Net Working!” The guys, just want to have fun.

These are the M2T Finalists who will be there:

                                                          

             

The M2T Teams were ALL awesome this year, but these are the folks who made it to the very end, Congrats!  You should all be very proud, I think I can speak for ALL the AR members in saying, thank you for sharing all you have so openly and willingly, and for having such a great spirit and attitude, you’ve made many winners! Good Luck in the final challenge, we’re very excited to see who’s left standing in the last round!!

Now, back to the gathering, I guess the title of this post was a little misleading in that I have no details for you about the gathering other than we will be there for sure!!  The Flights are booked and confirmed…

Come back, and check for updates and details, I know I’ll be getting a call from Jon, Bob, or Rich after I hit the button.  Let’s see how long it takes before they see this post.

My Guess is  ???

                                                    

 

UPDATE 7/16 – Ok, I’m back…. It only took them 4 minutes to respond!! LOL~  WITH NOTHING!!  (See Comments below)  haha, so you’ll just have to come back again later if you want the party details… Don’t forget to let us know if you’re coming, we’ll need to see if we need a Limo, Bus or Cable Cars??

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

UPDATE 7/17 – The intensity is building, hearts are pounding, the comments are blazing away here, and now, I finally have the news you’ve all been waiting for.  So grab your calendar, the ActiveRain Gathering Party will be at the Hotel Adagio in Union Square, up in the Bolero Penthouse Suite.  It starts at 9:00pm on Wednesday, so don’t be late.  Make sure you wear a photo from your ActiveRain profile page on your lapel, (so we’ll recognize you), especially if your photo is outdated. hehe..

Website: Hotel Adagio
Map: 550 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 
Hotel Phone: 415.775.5000

The Bolero Penthouse Suite is located on the 16th floor, offers sweeping city views and adjoins to an outdoor terrace.  The Suite includes complimentary high-speed-Internet access, now that’s too funny. 🙂

         

Lastly, don’t miss Rich Jacobson and Myself in what’s being called, “the boxing match of the Century.”  It’s the Wii Championships being held at the Trulia House Party.  For the Main Event, come watch Jonathan Washburn take on Pete Flint for the Wii Tennis Championship of the World!  There is some serious competition happening at Inman this year folks, you are ALL in for a wonderful and exciting treat…

Get a WiKi – With Just One Clicky

What is a Wiki?  Many of you have probably heard of WikiPedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Currently there are 2,457,781 articles in English on their site.  Many Bloggers link to Wikipedia for explanations and definitions of odd and peculiar terms, words or phrases.  What’s it for?

You’ll find numerous links to overviews, editing, questions, help, contents, searchable categories, featured content, browse their A–Z index and more.  Now, how would you like your own?  Trust me, You’ll love it!!

I think everyone should have “their own” Wiki-Custom Pedia, let me show you how to get yours for FREE, it’ll be a quicky!  But first, before I do, you are probably asking yourself this, “Self?  What is it, and why would I want my own Wiki?”  Glad you asked. 🙂 It’s not a WikiPedia, it’s a Wiki!

“The PBwiki is the world’s largest provider of hosted business and educational wikis. They host over 400,000 wikis, serve millions of users per month, and 96% of their business users would recommend PBwiki to a friend or associate. Leading companies from AT&T to Wal-Mart, including 1/3 of the Fortune 500 companies, choose PBwiki to help them with knowledge management, collaboration, project management, and a host of other business processes and workflows.” Quoted by PBwiki

        

Collaboration for over 30,000 businesses now including ActiveRain

Now use your imagination.  If you’re a Broker, a REALTOR® in a community, A National Lender, it doesn’t matter, I guarantee you will find a way to put a Wiki to good use in your business.  Today I created the ActiveRain Wiki, a sample to share with you that will allow you to see some of the endless possibilities.  Jon asked me to push the today with these types of technology tools, so I am! 
To start your own, you know what to do next! (Hint…it’s RED)  lol~

                                                            

Create totally secured wiki’s, they do have plans available, but I chose the ones that come for FREE!

                   

Important:  You might want to put some time, thought, and effort into how you want to use a wiki for your business.  If you’re like me, you’re going to get very excited when you see all the cool stuff you can do with this, but my suggestion is to take your time, evaluate it, do some research, and then make this a powerful tool in your business. This one goes on my top 10 list, IT’S A REALLY HOT TOOL! 

Now that’s a quicky wiki!  🙂                                                         My Outside Blog: REnetBlog.com

SEO Tools – You Should Know, about SEO

SEO?  There are Groups, Blogs, Website Graders, those who claim they know it all, and those who confess they know nothing whatsoever about it.  Both in and out of the community, many have benefited greatly from the SEO that comes from Google, Yahoo, MSN etc.

What about those who haven’t a clue about SEO, what it is, how it works, why they need it, and who the heck cares?  This site, SEOBook has some fantastic information and tools for any beginning Blogger new to SEO.  All of you experienced Bloggers may already know this stuff, but for some, SEO is still difficult to get their arms site around.

I hope this will help those who want to know more about SEO, how it works, the technical nuances, and how to benefit from just learning more about it.  Check out these links, video tutorials, Blogs, FAQ’s, and tools. SEO is not the most important thing in your on-line business, or is it?  That’s for you to decide.
It’s time you know, about SEO.

• The Bloggers Guide to SEO

• FREE Search Engine Optimization Tools

• Search Analytics Tools

• Competitive Research Tools

• Link Analysis Tools

• Search Engine Rainking Tools

• FREE Video Tutorials – Tracking the Competition

• FREE SEO Tutorials  &  Videos
  

 

Once you’ve checked these out, I’m sure you’ll have a much better grasp and understanding of SEO, and be able to maximize the potential of your sites by using the FREE tools and information that’s available online.  You should come away with some good ideas on how to better YOUR SEO either on your Blogs or websites. 

Don’t let acronyms like SEO scare you away, embrace them, understand them, use them and you’ll love them.  Why leave it to the imagination? Learn all you can about Search Engine Optimization.  🙂

More SEO Resources:  GoogleBlog,   Google Webmaster Central,  Google Help Center,  SEO Noobs 

Real Estate Radio USA – ActiveRain Interview – Bob Stewart

In this Interview, Bob talks about the NEW Outside Blogs, SEO, Duplicate Content, Syndication, Numbers, Stats, Instructions, and even touches a bit on the NEW Localism Launch coming July 9th.

Yesterday, I was sending Bob an Instant Message when he replied, “I’m going on the air” and mentioned Real Estate Radio USA. Grabbing my flip video with one hand, and typing in the URL with the other, I scrambled quickly, and this is what I managed to capture on Audio.

I used the ARVideo editing console, so I was able to put links embedded through-out the video which connect to all the posts and topics Bob mentions here. New Video, Outside Blogs, & now Localism? WOW! All this in the last 4 months? ActiveRain is really going places!

IMPORTANT UPDATE BELOW – A MUST LISTEN about LOCALISM!

EDITED: 3 Days Later: Here are two other Radio segments of Bob Stewart and Jonathan Washburn sharing the vision of Localism and it’s future with the entire country and listening world. I highly suggest listening to both of these in their entirety if you want to really understand what’s going on and how it’s all going to work.

Localism Explained & Real Estate Radio USA – Part II of the above broadcast.

Groups On ActiveRain

Why did ActiveRain create the opportunity to allow members to start and join groups?  I’ve heard many say “they’re out of control.”  Does anyone really spend much time searching groups and joining them?  If not, it’s something everyone should consider or at least re-visit.  When did you join a group last?   Did you know consumers and visitors can’t see your groups? Only other members can.  So network, that’s why they’re there.

I haven’t searched or even looked at any new groups for the past 5-6 months.  Why?  I had joined so many, I felt I didn’t have the time to check in with ALL the ones I’m already subscribing too.  But then today, it dawned on me that there are so many more new groups available now.

If you join groups just to place your posts in the TOP 5, then you’re missing the point and value of these groups.  They are like mini communities all through the rain that offer some great resources and information.  In the last six months, there have been over 1500 new groups added. That’s 4057 total.  So where do you start?  Why are some more successful than others, and what makes them successful? 

It’s Content!  Now, just find the ones that interest you most!

You can search for posts on just about anything here on ActiveRain, but if you search groups instead, you’ll find little pockets of rain puddles everywhere.  You name it, now there’s a group.  These are some of the groups I have joined (on the left) that have been a great resource, and have also been fun to be a part of.  Get connected by joining groups.

                                  How do you search groups?

                          

                                    How Can you Sort and Sift?

                                     

 

These tools will help you to locate and join some of the best mini communities created on ActiveRain.  Another way to search groups is by using the search tool.  Click on “Groups” at the top of the page, then on the right side of your screen, type in any topic and click “Search”, you will find pages of groups that meet your search criteria. Many answers to questions you have right now are in these groups!

To join a group: Go to any group, and click the “JOIN” button on the side bar above the groups’ guidelines.  To leave the group, just click the button again which now reads “LEAVE”  Don’t forget to read the guidelines before joining.  Be sure to only post information relative to that group.

Here’s a couple searches I did on some topics I was interested in, and look what came up. ActiveRain Help,  Real Estate Technology,  ActiveRain Listings, All About SEO,  Marketing Ideas and Support,  Real Estate Photography, Contests, and of course Blogging. The posts and resources in some of these groups are incredible.  If you get a minute, do a search, and do yourself a favor.  If you want to know about anything in our industry, or on ActiveRain, don’t just search Blogs, search and join groups too.