BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Tag: activerain.com (page 1 of 1)

July 29, 2009

Is ActiveRain Selling Loan Officers An Exclusive Opportunity, Or Just Selling Their Real Estate Agents Out?

by

Las Vegas Mortgage Blogger

Author website

active_rain_making_money_off_the_backs_of_loan_officers_by_using_agents_as_a_carrot

I’ve received a few emails and calls from my loan officers this week about some new exclusive opportunity that Activerain.com is pitching to the mortgage industry.

Apparently, Active Rain is cold calling mortgage professionals who have an AR blogging history and offering them an “extremely rare opportunity” to pay $299 / month for the privilege of being able to re-sell upgraded AR products to real estate agents.

The following email is an example of what the new Active Rain business model appears to be:

xxxxxxxxx,

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to speak with me.  As I said, this is an extremely rare opportunity.

WISCONSIN

Currently 848 Real Estate Agents

Currently 123 Loan Officers

You will have a full training course with ActiveRain to learn the knowledge on how to dominate the first page of Google.  With this knowledge you will train agents to do the same.  You will keep in contact with these agents as their trusted advisor who has directly taught them on how to fully market themselves successfully.  There will be loyalty here.  You will have full access to every single new and old agent in the whole state of Wisconsin.  You will be highlighted all over ActiveRain for this.

$299/month is your investment.

After 15 upgrades you will receive $700.

For every rainmaker upgrade thereafter, you receive $25.

The relationships and possibilities are endless.

Please let me know as soon as possible as time is of the essence.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Member Services
ActiveRain.com
xxxxxxxxxxxx

I’ve obviously blanked out the names to protect the people involved in this specific conversation, but I’ve already been given permission by my loan officers to talk about this on Bloodhoundblog.

________

Let me get a few disclaimers out of the way before I dive in to this Active Rain thing.

I’m a loan officer with several blogging platforms – some are free, and some cost money to participate.

My main objective with 99% of the group blogs that I build is to help my contributors expand their reach online with a little help from a few friends who share the same goals.

I understand the importance of having a well capitalized web project so that the development crew can stay on the Read more

July 10, 2008

Localism.com’s Top Management Address Active Rain Member Concerns

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

Jonathan Washburn and Bob Stewart were my guests on a 45 minute interview about the new Localism.com:

1- Bob Stewart gave us an overview of the new Localism site and described its stated purpose.

2- Jon Washburn explained the history of the Localism portal and how polling the Active Rain community led to the decision to repurpose the portal as a hyper-local community interest site.

3- Opportunities for community evangelism were discussed along with practical ideas about how existing Active Rain members might benefit.

4- The sponsored community issue as well as “Top Neighbors” placement were explained.

5- Jon Washburn explained basic SEO strategy.

6- Bob Stewart discussed how the SEO strategy will be coupled with search engine marketing to draw consumers to the site.

7- Jon Washburn answered the BIG question; “Will he sell Localism or Active Rain ?”

The interview is about 45 minutes long and is perfect to download to your iPod, for your evening workout.

Download/Listen to the Localism.com interview here

July 9, 2008

Localism.com: It’s Not Just For Surfers

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I remember when ActiveRain.com released its Localism.com portal.  SoCal surfin’ REALTOR dude, Rory Siems commented that he thought “Localism” was a term surfers used for defending their beach from “kooks“.  While Localism is not a surfing site, the principle of “protecting your turf” is alive and well for local real estate professionals.

Bloodhound colleague Michele DeRepegny vented her frustrations with the new site:

But this morning I’m feeling a little nauseous after the much anticipated revamp of Localism, The redesign is neutral and simple, with a few twists in navigation still needed.   I would have rather paid for an “outside blog” than purchased “communities“.  Maybe buying the way to the top as a community sponsor will actually reduce some of the crud posting just for points, but right now I’m having very mixed feelings about continuing to drink the Kool Aid.  Maybe I just need sleep.

I was privy to a pre-release tour so I know why they whitewashed the design.  The concept is that Localism isn’t just about real estate anymore.  It’s designed as a national host for thousands of hyper-local communities.  Membership is free and available to anybody in the community, including non-real estate related businesses.  The white washing was done to draw the readers to the user-generated content rather than an appealing design.  Community sponsorship is available to any business and quality content providers are rewarded with featured status on the pages.

Navigation is cumbersome but the site is in its infancy.  The designers are trying to create a sense of “stickiness” where the users are drawn to deep local content, be it pictures, video, or text.  They have some glitches but they should work it out.

The main feature of the site is that content will be edited for quality.  Active Rain hired editors to determine what user-generated content will be quality and what should be buried in the bowels of the server.  The intended result?  A sticky site about “your town”, for “your neighbors”, sponsored by “your Rotarians (local businesses).

Greg Swann feels it might be a SEO play:

What does it portend for you? For one thing, dumbstunt SEO plays like Localism are doomed. Read more

Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

Media Contacts