Mouth 2 Mouth

With technological advances in communications, and changes in The Real Estate business in general, resources for real estate related information are abundant. The largest and most active source for real estate related information is the real estate professional. Despite this however, there are a number of very large and visible corporations who've captured the public's attention, and positioned themselves out ahead. The goal at ActiveRain is to put the professional back out in front.

The ActiveRain Real Estate Network is currently one of the best, and the most alive place online where you can learn and share knowledge with likeminded real estate professionals. The wealth of information available on The Network is amazing. Snippets, vignettes, opinions, and experiences of members arrive daily on The Rain. Each member comes sharing and commenting on their daily lives as a part of this industry.

Developing contacts sharing referrals and learning from each other, the collective professionals are here on The ActiveRain Real Estate Network strengthening one another with support and knowledge.

In addition ActiveRain is reaching out to consumers with our push technology that pushes your information and your contributions out over the internet through fine tuning, optimization of network materials and regular submissions to Google Base^TM and other sources. We are working to help put real estate agents, loan officers and other professionals together back in front of their clients. Our goal is to help you use your skills and your contributions to this industry to benefit you.

With Localism we are further positioning to greater enable you reach your local markets. The collaboration of those of you who contribute to keeping this industry going on a daily basis is helping to push out large disintermediation oriented entities. We are in the very early stages of Localism now, but as we build we will have made a great resource to help put you in front of your business prospects.

In the long run it is the work and the contributions that you put in today that will help to prepare you and put you in position succeed tomorrow.

With all of the members and information available today on The ActiveRain Real Estate Network, it's easy to get overwhelmed and consumed. The goal however should always be to help you and your business grow.

As The Network has grown we've instituted tools to help you define your niche, your contacts, and refine your resources. These tools are there to help you make The ActiveRain Real Estate Network an even better resource for you.

The associates list is the first tool to help you shape The Network more in your favor. With the associates list tools you can create a list of those individual ActiveRain profiles that you'd most like to keep up with. You can make different groups of associates for different purposes. Each group of associates you create will give you a link that will filter all posts in the network to only those ones that your associates have posted. Set up and manage your list of associates closely so that you can get the maximum benefit out of ActiveRain.

ActiveRain Groups were created to help you further define and express your niche interests. Groups are administered by group members themselves, not ActiveRain, each group is unique, and being a part of a group, like the associates feature will help you get the information you are looking for. A group's strength of course will depend upon how strongly and consistently that group maintains itself. Join a group that matches your interests and concerns.

The greater ActiveRain Real Estate Network is a wonderful source to learn and share and grow your business. Utilizing these tools will help you further refine the wealth of information available to you here on The ActiveRain Real Estate Network.

Make The Rain your own and keep it relevant to your daily business routine.

The Associates List: Stay Connected. By Me

Managing Your Associates By Collen Kulikowski

Adding Associates By Suzi Gravenstuk

Redefine and Refine Your Associations By Me

When I was 16, I spent a lot of time looking for a forest green 1964-1968 Mustang. That was the dream car. I put a lot of hours into the Seattle Times, The Little Nickel, and other local auto publications. I also looked at many other cars trying to find a compromise. That compromise ended up being a 1980 Honda Civic, hatchback with poor brakes that I purchased for $500 from a coworker at the local movie theater.  Not quite a forest green 1964 Mustang, but with much better emissions and mileage (oh and it was really good in the snow but that’s a story for another day).

While there was something I wanted out there, there was also something I could afford and that was practical for me. As I spent all that time perusing the paper, I skipped over 1,000’s of listings of cars that did not display the price. Because truth-be-told, no matter how much I wanted that Mustang, I was limited by a budget. I would not waste my time if the car was outside of my range. In addition the car may sound great on paper but if it was 3 times what I wanted to spend it wasn’t worth looking at.

I understand that prices may change, there are reductions, but I at least need to know we that we might be able to dance. If you want me to take a look at the ad, or the flyer you are sending out to me, are advertising a listing, as an agent, and as a buyer, please always include our price.

I’m visiting with family in Idaho.  I was sitting down and showing someone what was going on with Localism and I was stunned.

Those images I’ve seen submitted to Localism are impressive.  Thank you for showing me so many beautiful things. 

I travel and I’ve seen a some, but even in my own state I’m seeing amazing things that I’ve never seen before.

Thank you those of you who’ve submitted, and those of you who will submit.  If you haven’t checked it out please do. 

This is awesome.

Thank you.

Caleb

Let's celebrate!  We've done a lot of wonderful things this year here together with this community we call ActiveRain for those of you who are not aware or those of you who have been slacking off, we are looking for more submissions to the Carnival of ActiveRain for the Most Memorable Posts of 2006.

Thank you Maureen and company, for once again putting this together. 

We're looking for the best submissions, those ones that are of enduring interest, about finance, about staging, about local content, about real estate opinions, off topic and humorous posts well.

Let's hear your favorite stories.

Quickly get your submissions in.

Please see this post for more details.

Thank you,

Caleb

Plagiarism?  What were you thinking?

Let me start out by saying I am not referencing any one person in particular here.  This is in response to a general trend.  Don't take it personally, but I hope this is taken to heart.

How interesting is it that someone would seek to represent themselves and their interests online by stealing the content and information that was created by others.

I have to say in a network of professionals who are working together to elevate their position online and develop the networking connections and relationships that will help them succeed.

I know that a number of people don't get it.  A significant part of the blame for that can be put on me.  But to sit down at the keyboard and to find someone else's content and hit "crtl+A", "crtl+C" on it and then to wander of over to your ActiveRain blog and hit "crtl+V" then post, after reading and clicking past the disclaimer that indicates you must have permission to post this content...really...I'm hoping those that have done this just completely missed the point.  We all have our dumb moments, honestly that's just dumb.

Honor, honesty, integrity, seeking knowledge, and having fun were values drilled in to my head when I waited tables at Red Robin (yup that's another thing you didn't know about me ;)  ).  Those are good values and they very much apply here.

Copying the work of others, without consent, dishonors the content creator, you, and the entire ActiveRain Real Estate Network.  What kind of image are you demonstrating for yourself when you do this?  How effective is that kind of marketing.

We try not to award points for such things and we rely on the community to help us remove such posts.

If you are one of the offenders please note that you've been put on notice.  Plagiarism on ActiveRain isn't going to work for you anymore.  Stop posting it and remove that which you have now.

To all those that are fed up with seeing it.  We are in the process of developing resources that will enable you to identify and remove plagiarized posts and bloggers.

This doesn't mean anybody should start attacking anybody about their posts.  It works on all sides, to do well in any endeavor you will be best served by remembering to conduct yourself with honesty, integrity, seeking knowledge and having fun, and I would encourage everyone on this network to remember just that.

Have fun!

An Example of Plagiarism Right Here on Active Rain Kristal Kraft

Copyright and web images John Novak

Cut & Pasting other peoples work = Plagiarism ≠ Blogging!!!! Tom Burris

Do the RIGHT thing. It matters to all of us. Maureen Francis

Have trouble writing your own copy?? Not to worry, copy & paste with will solve your problem. ;-) Jim Lee

Plagiarism Conundrum Tony Marriot

Posting Guidelines - Group blog for consumers

Posting Guidelines - Group blog for consumers  

Posting Guidelines - Real Estate Professionals Blog

Posting Guidelines - Regional News and Information

Top Ten Responses For When You Get Caught Plagiarizing Kristal Kraft

You don't know how it feels until you're the direct victim of Plagiarism!  Nima

Blogging On ActiveRain

ActiveRain Blogging Guidelines: A Discussion Rich Schiffer

A Soldier in the Copyright Battle Len Harley

Copyright and Real Estate Websites, My Experience  Len Harley

Giving and receiving on The Rain.

You've seen it, I know you have, some of you have done it I'm sure.  In this industry there are a lot of you.

Your standing there in line minding your own business and someone comes up to you and says.  "Hey you look like a pretty smart guy ...."

And you're feeling really good about yourself (Yeah I am pretty smart. I wonder how he noticed.) until you find out that you received the complements because the person was interested in selling you on the latest multilevel marketing scheme.

Now I'm not trying to mock multilevel marketing per-se.  What I am mocking is the method.  When you are complimented like that it's great, but you then find a short time later that it was completely disingenuous.  That the persons only motive, or how it feels, is that it was to serve them.  This really hurts when you feel that you've been duped on that level.  You walk back through the interaction in your mind only to find that you've had that conversation before with another multilevel marketer and it sounded exactly the same.

Keeping that in mind, I'd like to talk about marketing on The ActiveRain Real Estate Network.

True interactions between people brewed with sincerity and openness are the ways to forge good relationships and bonds.

ActiveRain Gives you the opportunity to establish just those relationships.  By listening to others and sharing your own experiences you are networking, by virtue of the fact that this is a real estate oriented community, you are marketing.

When you are doing business and you are utilizing the resources of The Rain, you must always keep in mind that it only really works well with openness, honesty and sincerity.

You win with ActiveRain with your contributions.  Yes you get more points.  But also what comes is credibility and awareness.

I know for some it is a difficult concept to see.  Marketing seems like it should be a "buy it now, save money, operators are standing by" approach.

But really the way to get your work done on ActiveRain is to be yourself.  Talk about what you do, who you are and the world around you.   Listen to others give them feed back and be a part of the community. 

Give genuine contributions to the community, and you will find that the rewards will come.

Since I see most other's have written about their interpretation of a meme I'm going to add mine.

I first heard about memes some years ago and found the concept absolutely fascinating because essentially right before that moment I was thinking about idea transmission.

I look at memes as DNA. A DNA for consciousness that runs through a social group.  The thought behind this particular exercise is to share a new part of yourself with others in the blogosphere.

Five things about me that you might not otherwise be aware of:

1. I am very interested in social justice, and human rights.  I studied these things quite a bit in college as a geography major.

2.  Through that interest I came in contact with a friend of mine, Miranda, with whom I helped guide tours to Tributarial Amazon.

3. I was once rescued in an incident I'm not at liberty to discuss, except to say I had a nice ride in a dark helicopter.  I also once helped rescue someone in a related incident.

4. I once played Belize, a former drag-queen turned nurse in a college play.

5.  If I should ever tell you to go left or right you should question me, because for some reason I have trouble remembering which is which.

During the winter months in general The Real Estate Industry slows down. A lot of professionals take time off during this time of year. Yet still, somehow, a lot of real estate goes on being sold.

Somebody's doing all that business surrounding those sales. Are you that somebody?

If you're an independent contractor, it's easy to take these months to slow your pace and relax your efforts a bit. But this can end up wreaking havoc on you and your business.

Many people who slow down only start back up again in earnest when their cash-on-hand is looking disturbingly low. This makes them desperate sales people. Selling when your desperate for a deal just doesn't work.

Being successful in sales has a lot to do with your attitude. Keeping your cash flow strong makes it easy to keep a good attitude. For sales people ongoing consistency in your prospecting efforts is key to maintaining your business.

Without consistency your cash flow will waiver dramatically. It is essential that you put your efforts into prospecting today, so that you will have deals tomorrow.

As we go through these winter months do not forget your business. It may seem like things are slowing down, but they don't have to for you.

So this winter, go easy on yourself, don't hide from The Rain, prepare for it.