Real Estate Social Media Blog: Joel Kruse (Active Rain)

I stumbled upon Active Rain two years ago when I literally had no idea what blogging was. I set up a profile and kind of poked around. I started blogging, and getting comments. Since then I have become a regular here, and I want you to know why!

• Active Rain connects me to the broad world of real estate professionals and it is truly amazing to feel connected to people all over the country!
• Active Rain is very therapeutic.I can share my challenges and triumphs in real estate and gain insight from others as they share theirs. It is therapeutic just to write about my listings, experiences and reading what is going on in the market all over the country makes me a better Realtor!
• Active Rain is very good for business!   I got a referral just TODAY from Active Rain! This agent said that reading my profile was very helpful, and he chose me to refer some great clients who will be relocating here soon. Yipee! My listings get quite a few views on the virtual tours I post here on Active Rain, so all around, Active Rain gives me great exposure!
• Active Rain is very educational!There are dozens of posts that relate to pertinent issues for our industry. While I don't get " clock hours" for all of the reading I do here on Active Rain, I find a huge amount of great information here on ALL spectrum's of real estate from financing to staging!

I am truly glad that I found Active Rain one cold Januray day in 2008. It has enriched both my personal and professional life.

Blogging has become apart of my business plan, and is a priority to me because it has added alot to my life.

Thank you to all of the wonderful folks on Active Rain, and stay connected!

www.SpokaneRealEstateVoice.com

BethAnn Long ~ Spokane Realtor

Coldwell Banker Tomlinson South Inc.

...there's no place like your home!

www.BethAnnHomes.com

Learn about google juice and get some for free!

Everett Washington Homes

      So I thought I would do a community service and give you all some google juice. What the heck is Google Juice you say? Everyone is getting google juice from their blogs right? Well if you're not, you should be! Check it out...

     See that photo of me at the bottom of this blog? See it? And you see those links next to it? Yeah it's giving me google juice! YUM!  See, all my blogs have that so those links are linking back to my website www.JeffRainwater.com where people can do things like search Homes for sale in Snohomish County. Every time I link like that, the search engines think that someone searching for Homes for Sale in Snohomish County will likely want to see my website. (THEY SHOULD!) This is known as GOOGLE JUICE and it gets you a higher ranking on the search engines.

SO....today I'm giving away free google juice! Here's what to do....

In the comments section below I want you to put exactly this....

"Hi Jeff! Thanks for teaching me about Google Juice and thanks for giving some Google Juice to my website www.JeffRainwater.com where people can search for Homes for sale in Snohomish County Washington!"

Put exactly that but change the website and the two links to link to YOUR website instead and change the location to wherever YOU sell homes! BAM! I just gave you some google juice! If you don't have a website, make a juice comment linking to your activerain profile, or heck, juice mine up some more!

LETS SEE THOSE JUICEY COMMENTS!

For all your real estate needs, contact the local real estate expert for your community.

Jeff Rainwater - (425) 238-4247

Your local expert: jrainwater@gmail.com

Contact this Real Estate Consultant for answers to your real estate questions

Skyline Properties Inc.

ActiveRain Training and Support - Your Virtual Classroom

We are now offering RainMaker members an opportunity to join us for some "informal" on-line training and support.  Our ActiveRain Training and Support Program is where you can phone in, join a classroom environment, ask your questions, see live examples and get detailed tutoring on "how it all works!"  The best part is that you can do it from the comfort of your home or office computer, and classes will be available three times a week for your convenience.  Time for the teacher to give YOU an apple.

There's no formal agenda, no formatted sessions, no rules, and no reason for you to not be getting the most out of your experience here on ActiveRain. We'll go over any requested details, and provide you information on how to use many of the AR tools and services.  We want to show you how to get the best results from areas of AR that you may not understand or just simply need some help and support with.

This is a great opportunity and chance to learn anything you want to know about ActiveRain, and do it in a non-threatening and fun environment.

Training and Support sessions will be on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for approximately one hour each day.  *Holidays, *RainCamps, and other *Real Estate Industry events that conflict with our ActiveRain training and support classes will take precedence, sessions will not be held on or during those dates and times.

Our dates and times selected for the first come first serve training and support this month are as follows: (ALL Times listed below are PST)

ActiveRain Training and Support Calendar for February 2010

Mon -2/1 @3:00pm / Wed - 2/3  @10:00am / Fri - 2/5  @8:00am
Mon -2/8 @10:00am / Wed - 2/10 @1:00pm / Fri - 2/12 @3:00pm
RainCamp Week - No Classes
Mon -2/22 @3:00pm / Wed 2/24 @10am / Fri 2/26 @8:00am

 

TODAY'S SESSION - ActiveRain Q&A

"RainMaker" Special - Signup Here for New Member Discount
Visit RainCamp™ - "Because The Way We Do Business Has Changed!"

ActiveRain has been a great source of success for many members.  Now, you may think I am biased as being part of the AR family....I could sit here all day and tell you about the amount of success you will achieve until I'm blue in the face.  I believe showing you individual stories from members new and old will have a longing effect.  

I urge everyone to update their profile by adding their own success story.  Simply go to your profile page and click edit located next to My Profile (Edit).  Scroll down until you see the spot designated for ActiveRain Success Story.  Keep in mind this will not show on your AR profile but will be available to view on the ActiveRain Success Stories link.  Not only is it a sleek way to share your own success but you will be rewarded with 500 points!!!

You'll find some great Success Stories Here:  ActiveRain Success Stories

Jonathan Bell (Keller Williams Realty Partners, Inc.)  "Before I started to blog on Active Rain, I had never really blogged before. Actually, I HATED blogging. However, since I have started blogging and promoting my Active Rain blog to my Sphere of Influence, past clients and friends & family I have seen my leads increase significantly and I've even made one sale because of it. The amazing thing is that it all happened within the first 2-3 weeks! I LOVE ACTIVE RAIN!"

Duane Murphy (Coldwell Banker The Real Estate Group Inc.)  ".......two days after activating my profile and taking time to edit my information I received a call from someone wanting me to list his property. After being on Active Rain and starting to get more active I have noticed every time I "google" myself or my website that I am now showing up first page consistently.... It does take a bit of time to get your "points" going so that you show up a bit higher in the search results but I figure that with anything that takes time if you stay persistent the payoff will come. I almost hope that no one else in my office finds out how well this is starting to work. Don't need to help the "competition" level the playing field!"

Pascack Valley Real Estate, Lisa and Robert Hammerstein (Coldwell Banker)  "We Love Active Rain!.....Active Rain has become an integral part of our business plan since joining in October 2006. Localism is my playground and has brought me Google juice galore.....This network offers all the news on the latest technology and ways to apply that technology to your business. We’ve found groups to join to share ideas with colleagues and that has been fun as well as extremely helpful. Active Rain is the first place we go to find agents across the country when we need referral contacts. The search engines like Active Rain and that really helps to boost us so the public can find us.....What did we do before Active Rain?...."

Terrie Leighton , Realtor (Northern Nevada Real Estate) ".......Blogging was something I had never considered until I ventured over to the ActiveRain site and started reading blogs written by other real estate professionals.......I joined immediately and have never looked back! By participating in this community, I feel, I know, I have become a better real estate agent. Sharing, teaching and helping each other is just a small part of what the ActiveRain community has to offer........Thank you ActiveRain! You have truly changed the way I do business!!"

Linda Jandura Realtor North Carolina Buyer & Seller Specialist (Raleigh Cary Realty) "Joining Active Rain has been one of the best moves of my real estate career......The wealth of technical & SEO information could not be found anywhere else, at any cost. Whenever I put up a blog my website traffic increases tenfold, at the minimum!......by searching on certain key words my website is now on the first page of Google whereas it had been buried so far down I couldn’t find it....The best part is all the “virtual” friends I’ve made have made over the past year......Thank you Active Rain."

Bob Foster (Century 21 Lanthorn R. E. Ltd. Belleville, Ontario)  ".....As a new realtor, in my first year of this career, I have found that I have two main sources of information......One is the advice of my colleagues at the office, and the other is the ability to search the blogs here on ActiveRain.....As I have said to others who are also getting a start in this profession, imagine having a huge staffroom where you can draw on the collective knowledge of more than 130,000 real estate professionals and get great answers fast. It exists, and it's called ActiveRain!"

Each week I'm going to highlight a few of our members stories so you can see the kind of impact ActiveRain is having with our Active members.  I hope you'll enjoy these success stories as much as I've enjoyed reading and sharing them.

Hello, happy ARians! Someone asked the other day if I'd been let go, because they hadn't seen me post lately, but ...no... I've just been OMG super busy.

Luckily for me, the boys gave me something to share with you today... Click play to see these yahoos dancing on a Fun Friday morning to the Chipmunks! :)

Enjoy!

RainCamp is Coming To San Francisco

The ActiveRain RainCamp Tour is Official!  Our first ever RainCamp in Seattle was sold out in just two weeks.  Now there's a demand by many of our members and non members to bring RainCamp to cities all across the Country.  As you can imagine, this is a huge undertaking for our staff and team. There are so many details that go into setting up this event, but our members and guests are not only worth it, they deserve it.

The "Rainergy" and "Buzz" that comes from a RainCamp is like no other event I've ever experienced.  You have to witness it for yourself to understand and grasp the full value and impact it will have on you, your Business, your relationships in your community, and the industry.  Here's what a few of the folks from RainCamp Seattle had to say:

RainCamp is coming to San Francisco on December 2nd, 2009 for a full day packed with great content, presentations, and some of the most useful and applicable ideas and processes that you can implement immediately into your Social Media, Networking, and Blogging Business Strategy and Plan. The Location and Venue we've selected is once again a "Top Notch" off the hook spot.

How is RainCamp different from other Conferences?

• Assess how you stack up in the modern market.
• Listen to people that are practicing what they preach, and having outstanding success doing it.
• Learn the methodology of a newer agent who has leveraged the Internet to become a 'Mega Producer'.
• Walk away with executables you can put into action immediately.
• Hard core real estate technology education. This is not a fluff event!!

What Do You Get?

An Action Packed Day: At a State-of-the-art conference and meeting room is just the beginning of our package at Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF.  They have Gorgeous meeting rooms with City and Bay views. Great layout with plenty of seating, wireless Internet Access, and much more.  All the comforts and ammenities of a 5-Star Resort.  "This is one of San Francisco's only full-service conference facilities."

 
San Francisco

Date: December 2nd, 2009

Time: 9:00am - 4:00pm
(registration 8:00am)

Location: Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF
1675 Owens Street, Suite 251, San Francisco 94143
GOOGLE MAP |  Yahoo Map | Mapquest Map | Microsoft Map

Facility: Wireless Internet Access and Power Available

 RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW!

There will be approximately 140 seats setup classroom style (with tables) reserved for attendees with laptops.  It is all open seating so those seats are first come first serve the day of event.  There will be On-site paid parking available, street parking and/or complimentary shuttles from the BART and Caltrain stations.  If you're wanting overnight accommodations, here's the Unique Venues Site.

RainCamp tickets are available NOW at a retail price of $159. However, we have reserved 50 tickets for our "early adopters" at a price of $99. This is a great value, so make sure you register right away before they're gone, it will sell out.

"When is RainCamp Coming To Your Town?"  We'd love to come to every Major City, and may do so eventually, but currently we are starting in San Francisco, then in no specific order, we'll be in Miami, Washington DC, Dallas, New York, Atlanta, Arizona and more.  I'll be announcing those date and locations soon.  We're still working out all the calendar and venue details.

This is our last West Coast event planned for a while, and we are really looking forward to coming to the "City By The Bay" and bringing the "Rain-Storm" with us.  Just like in Seattle, we'll be hosting another exclusive "VIP" event/gathering after RainCamp, we'll have more details about that coming up later.  It's going to be a day you'll never forget, I hope you can make it to join us.  We put a ton of heart, soul, preparation, and passion into RainCamp, and we don't want anyone to miss out.  So RSVP NOW! :-)

Check out the RainCamp.com Blog.  Also follow the twitter stream using #raincamp.

Photo Source: UCSF Mission Bay

 

                 

"RainMaker" Special - Signup Here and Get New Member Discount