How I Sold My ActiveRain Profile for $6,750.00

You heard it here folks.  Damion Foxworthy is now the proud new owner of my ActiveRain profile.  The story behind the sale follows…I’m sure many of you have heard the controversy about the sale of MMORPG characters and goods.  It is quite an industry actually, complete with overseas sweatshops where workers will spend hours mining for gold in World of Warcraft, or building up an Everquest Character for resale.  You can even buy 50,000 “Linden” dollars on ebay for only $199.99, in the popular online universe known as second life.  I even wrote a post about it a while back that discussed the implications of a lady that became the first millionaire from selling virtual goods.

It’s an interesting topic… and it got me thinking.  If people can sell virtual goods and money, why not ActiveRain points?   ActiveRain isn’t a game or an online virtual world, but it does deal with a potential commodity called: points.

In the early days of ActiveRain, it was pretty common to see people gaming the system for points.  Writing 10 junk posts a day, or commenting 50 times a day just to build their points.  But as AR has evolved there have been measures put in to make sure that in order for people to get ahead, they have to actually work at it.  Which makes the points that much more valuable.

Let’s discuss the value of points for a moment…  As most of you know, points can help you get ahead of your competition in any given market.  You can see here that I am currently listed in Colorado.  Ranked 7th in Colorado, 2nd in Douglas County, and 1st in the town of Castle Rock.  Not Bad!

But, lets say I decided to sell my profile to a real estate agent in Virginia… it’s a hugely populated state, and represents a huge real estate market segment.  But, there is very little competition for points.  Meaning if I were to switch my profile to Virginia…

I suddenly catapult to the number 2 position in Virginia, 1st in Arlington County, and 1st in Arlington.  Pretty amazing!

Not only does the profile now catapult me to the top of the Virginia members, but it also gets me to the home page of activerain for all the people from Virginia viewing the site!

It struck me like a ton of bricks the other day that my AR profile is valuable!!!  And somebody might pay some serious dough to get an instant high placement in the state they work in.  So, I went ahead and sold it to the highest bidder.  I considered the fact that many of the AR member would be angry, frustrated, or even hostile. And if you happen to have read this far into the paragraph you’ll be happy to know that none of this is actually true.  I haven’t sold my profile, I just wanted to see what kind of reaction it would get from the AR community.  What if tomorrow you woke up and saw a profile selling for $6,000 on ebay?  Would you be mad, upset, surprised, frustrated?  What?  Points are important to alot of people… whether you are trying to beat your competitor to the home page or AR, or trying to get to that coveted first spot on localsim.  Points on AR are the underlying thing that drive the community.

The other issue to selling an AR profile is the content.  What do you do with it?  Let the person have it for free?  Place a CC license on it so they can’t duplicate it?  You have to ask yourself, are you willing to let all that content slip away… how valuable is it to you?

Points rule activerain… and I plan to make a fortune from selling AR profiles.  Who’s with me???

Posted in Blogging, Real Estate Community | 34 Comments »

The Big Pink Toilet of Death

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Here’s a perfect example of why I don’t put Google ads on my site. I found this on the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog this morning as I was browsing. The big pink toilet just stuck out like a sore thumb while I was reading about Zolve.com!

Joel has one of the best RE.net blogs out there, so it’s nothing against him… I just couldn’t resist sharing.

Posted in Blogging, Fun and Interesting | 7 Comments »

Hooray for the Real Estate Tomato

Yeah baby….

http://www.inman.com/Member/specialreports/bloggers07/default.aspx

Posted in Blogging, Real Estate Community, Real Estate News | No Comments »

vFlyer Is Taking Over Real Estate Classified Ads

vFlyer has done it again. This company continues to impress me. I have written about vFlyer before, twice actually. At the time, I was a die hard postlets fan because of the speed in which you could post listings. But since then, vFlyer has grown up quite a bit and won me over completely!!! The level and speed of innovation is very impressive.

Since my first article, I have received half a dozen or so email announcements from vFlyer about improvements they have made, and all of them from what I can see are valuable to the real estate professional.

In their latest announcement earlier today, they have opened up the possibility of brokers using the tool for a full office of agents. It can also be set up for assistants or people that want multiple accounts.

This is yet another helpful tool from vFlyer, and the reason why I am referring them to all of my clients that need online classified flyer support.

Posted in Interviews and Reviews, RE News, Real Estate Community, Real Estate News | 1 Comment »

Is Your Market Saturated with Other Bloggers?

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I’ve heard some talk lately from discouraged real estate bloggers that can’t seem to rank well in the search engines. They try blogging for a few weeks and then give up often times assuming that there are simply too many competing blogs and websites in their market area. In most markets, this is simply not the case!

Yes, it is true that there are a few places around the country that have fierce competition. Those would be in places like: Seattle, Phoenix, San Francisco, Florida, and a few others…

But for the most part, there are very few markets that are saturated with multiple blogs. In many cases, there are some fairly large markets that aren’t even represented.

What does this mean for you, the beginner blogger?? There is hope!!

Don’t get discouraged when you see other more experienced bloggers rank ahead of you. There is plenty of room for you.

I can’t tell you how many real estate bloggers I’ve met that have started blogging without even considering their target audience, what they are looking for, or how they are finding it. Often, when I ask a new blogger what their core target is, they just shrug their shoulders.

Understanding your target, and your keywords is key to outranking your competition.

Start researching!
* Decide on 5 primary keyword phrases

* Search for those phrases on Google, and catalog the top10 results

* Take those results and research them with this Page Strength Tool, or the Website Grader

* What do you find? Keep track of your results

* Try Wortracker.com or the free SEO Research tool I offer on this blog

* Try to find those specific keywords that have little competition

But… I’m a blogger in Seattle, and I don’t have any hope of ever ranking well… Nonsense! Here’s what you do:

* Start going niche. Forget the term: “Seattle Real Estate”. You will waste time and energy trying to rank well for that term.

* Choose instead: “Redmond real estate listings”, or “redmond condos for sale”. Yes, they do get less searches, but the competition will be much less.

* And here’s a secret that not many people will tell you: the more specific the keyword phrase, the better your chances will be of converting that searcher into a customer.

* Forget trying to be the top blog in Seattle, start researching and looking for those terms that you can rank well on.

* In my experience, the person that chooses to go niche with their keywords will triumph over the competition that is fighting an uphill battle to rank for the the most popular real estate related keyword in their market.

The quickest way to failure as a blogger is to not know your target.

Posted in Blogging, RE Blogs, Real Estate Marketing, SEO | 10 Comments »

Google Sets it’s Eyes on the Real Estate Industry

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When I saw this video on Inman TV, I jumped to watch it.  It’s not everyday that you get a Google executive speak specifically about Google’s goals for the real estate market.

Google Wants:

• To aggregate listings from across the country from the top 100 brokerages.
• To court MLS boards around the country to get them to feed them their listings.
• To provide free data on listings to consumers that are searching with real estate related terms.

What does it mean for you?:

• Make sure ALL your listings are on Google Base   Try using a service like Postlets or VFlyer so you don’t have to submit listings manually.
• Keep an eye on your local search terms.  You will probably notice the Google Base search bar come up for some local real estate terms.
• If you work for a local broker, try to talk them into feeding your office’s listings into Google Base.
• On some smaller searches you may start to notice Google Base results in the organic area. 

Posted in RE News, Real Estate Community, Real Estate News | 4 Comments »

My 1 Year Anniversary with ActiveRain - Reflections, Observations and Surprises!

I posted this earlier today on ActiveRain, and thought the audience here would like to take a look…  On the original post, I made some comments on what I feel are the most valuable aspects of AR.  I also asked some questions, and even though I’ve only received 18 comments at the time of posting this, the answers to my questions are insightful… so I will share them after the main body of this post.

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Today is my 1 year anniversary on ActiveRain… and I have some observations I’d like to share, and questions I’d like to ask the ActiveRain community.

It has been an interesting ride.  I remember my first week vividly… I wrote like a mad man.  In the first 4 days, I wrote 3 posts per day, and hit 10,000 points in that first week.  I was addicted to the points, but most of all I was addicted to the community.  Name one other place on the internet for the real estate community where you can come on as a beginner, post something, and have 100 comments in 24 hours.  It’s unbelievable.

ActiveRain has come a long way since it’s humble beginnings in the summer of ‘06.  We have seen many people come and go.  We’ve seen many members that began blogging on AR become top bloggers around the country.  We’ve seen Project Blogger, member carnivals, member contests, many great upgrades, and 40,000 new members.

Here are some of my observations and reflections on the AR community:

    * Many critics discount the value of ActiveRain as a lead generation source citing that very few buyers and sellers are actually reading.  I say: “nuts to that”.  So what if there aren’t a large number of consumers on the site… there are opportunities galore if you know how to look for them.  And by the way; I’ve never heard Jon, Matt, or Caleb tout the great success of ActiveRain as a lead generation source.  It’s a community!

    * For the beginning real estate blogger, ActiveRain is still the best place to start.  I’ve been happy to refer hundreds of people to activerain that have never blogged before.  It’s easy to get started, it helps beginners get their feet wet, the SEO results are quite good, and you have a whole community behind you willing to help.

    * ActiveRain groups are one of the most undervalued and under-used parts of the community.  They are a fantastic place to learn tips, tricks, and ideas.  I look at my group as an example.  As a one stop shop to get news and tips on internet marketing for the real estate professional, it works very well because it filters out posts so you don’t have to look through a long list of postings for a particular day to find what you’re looking for.

    * ActiveRain is currently the greatest opportunity on the web for vendors looking for real estate agent customers.  It’s a gold mine out there.  45,000 hungry real estate professionals all online and looking for new ideas and networking opportunities.  You couldn’t ask for a better place to market your real estate related services.

    * ActiveRain is currently the greatest opportunity on the web for real estate agents looking for referral business.  I’m not necessarily talking about AR’s new Referral Exchange.  I’m talking about relationships.  Networking opportunities.  Friendships.  I’ve never seen so many people come together as a community online than with the members of AR.  There’s camaraderie.  What a beautiful opportunity to create referral business.

    * One of the best places online to get free real estate advice, and “insider” tips on internet marketing from some of the vendors that are willing to share.  The thousands upon thousands of posts that have been written are a gold mine of information.  If you’re doing research for a real estate related post, ActiveRain search is one of the best places to go.

    * I’ve always been really impressed at the speed in which new enhancements and services are rolled out.  This was especially true in the early days.  I remember when someone would write a post, or post a thread in the forum about a bug or new feature, and most of the time these were addressed in hours, not days.  More recently with the addition of Q&A, groups, localism and referrals, the design and functionality are all very good.  The development team has really done a great job.

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As I said before, I received many comments on this post, and many of them surprised me.  I was ecstatic to see how many members had received buyer/seller leads from being on ActiveRain. 

• Out of the 15 that had responded at the time of this post, only 2 had never received a direct buyer/seller lead from the site. 
• Over half said that they had received a referral from another member. 
• All said that they have had success through AR on the search engines.
• All seemed to be extremely happy with ActiveRain, and cited multiple reasons for being a part of the community

I’m glad to see so many people getting a benefit from the AR community.  Personally, I’ve always loved the people I meet, the interaction, and the LIFE that is so abundant there.  I wish all the staff well, and I look forward to another great year!

Posted in Blogging, RE News, Real Estate Community, Real Estate Marketing | 3 Comments »

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes & A New Partnership

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~I apologize for my extended absence, and lack of substantive posts as of late.  Some big changes have been brewing lately, and I didn’t want to post until everything was confirmed.~ 

I’m excited to announce that I am now an official coach for the Real Estate Tomato! 

Helping real estate agents with online marketing is something I’ve always been passionate about, and if you know me personally, you know that I’ve always extended free advice and help for anyone that has had a need.  So, in order to focus that passion I have to help others succeed in real estate marketing, I’ve decided to become a dedicated coach.

Many of you are probably already aware of the services of the Real Estate Tomato.  They have built up quite a reputation for themselves in the past year.  They offer a service called Tomato Blogs.  The service includes a custom designed blog from the ground up, and 10 hours of intensive coaching on everything from post formatting, to social networking, to SEO. 

If you’re at all familiar with the real estate blogosphere, you have most likely already seen multiple examples of the Tomato Blog’s custom designs.  Their design and coaching make for a KILLER combination, and have thus inundated the staff of the Real Estate Tomato with new orders.

Included in my partnership with the Real Estate Tomato is the opportunity to teach my own classes with my own format and topics.  This has me the most excited because I can really let loose and teach what I want to teach.  I’m already planning and outlining classes for blogging, seo, and classes on pretty much everything having to do with online marketing for the real estate professional.

Keep an eye on this blog for news on how you can get in on some specialized one on one and group coaching.

Watch out!  There is a Tomato Blog coming to take over your market!!!

Posted in Blogging, RE Blogs, RE News, Real Estate Community | 5 Comments »