Active Rain Real Estate Bloggers
Real Estate Blogging platform ActiveRain.com awards user points for various activities ranging from setting up a user profile to creating content, joining groups, or even commenting on other Active Rain blogs.
While we don’t really know what the points-to-closings ratio is, we thought for curiosity sake, we would outline the user in each state that has the highest points awarded (with special note that one user is inching close to one million points).
Active Rainers Across America
- Jesse & Kathy Clifton– Jesse Clifton & Associates, Fairbanks, Alaska, 219,079 points
- Ann Allen– Keller Williams Realty, Birmingham, Alabama, 215,185 points
- Barbara S. Duncan– RE/MAX Advantage, Searcy, Arkansas, 336,305 points
- Tony Marriot– Keller Williams Realty, Phoenix, Arizona, 390,353 points
- Jeff Dowler– RE/MAX Moonlight Beach, Carlsbad, California, 649,450 points
- Kristal Kraft– The Berkshire Group Realtors, Denver, Colorado, 359,943 points
- Valerie Osterhoudt– Johnson Real Estate, Cromwell, Connecticut, 256,309 points
- Patricia Kennedy– Evers & Company Realtors, Washington, D.C. 656,260 points
- Tom Davis– Harrington ERA, Dover, Delaware, 218,743 points
- Katerina Gasset– International Properties & Investments, Wellington, Florida, 614,742 points
- Jim Crawford– RE/MAX Greater Atlanta, Atlanta, GA 567,030 points
- Celeste “Sally” Cheeseman– Century 21 Liberty Homes, Mililani, Hawaii, 576,552 points
- Lucky Lang– Mel Foster Co, Davenport, Iowa 147,264 points
- Brian Brumpton– Keller Williams Boise, Boise, Idaho, 180,102 points
- Alexander Harb– Rice Property Management & Realty, Chicago, Illinois, 330,211 points
- Jeff & Grace Safrin– F.C. Tucker 1st Team Real Estate, Valparaiso, Indiana, 209,148 points
- Rob Lang– Realty Executives, Hedges, Lawrence, Kansas, 156,632 points
- Lizette Fitzpatrick– Lizette Realty, Lexington, Kentucky 247,376 points
- Frank Rubi Kenner– Frank Rubi Real Estate, Kenner, Louisiana 264,009 points
- Bill Gassett– RE/MAX Executive Realty, Hopkinton, Massachusetts, 409,745 points
- Lenn Harley– Homefinders.com, Rockville, Maryland, 806,694 points
- Andrew Mooers– Mooers Realty, Houlton, Maine, 317,681 points
- Gary White– Flexit Realty, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 537,950 points
- William Feela– Whispering Pines Realty, North Branch, Minnesota, 375,079 points
- Don Rogers– RE/MAX Gold, O Fallon, Missouri, 356,038 points
- Suzi Gravenstuk– CAL Realty, Diberville, Mississippi, 109,942 points
- Kevin & Monica Ray– Access Realty, Missoula, Montana, 150,350 points
- Debe Maxwell– Helen Adams Realty, Charlotte, North Carolina, 389,349 points
- Bob Timm– Oak Park Realty, Minot, North Dakota, 53,163 points
- Troy Trumm– Alliance Real Estate, Omaha, Nebraska, 253,426 points
- Dale Baker– Baker Home Consulting, Claremont, New Hampshire, 389,700 points
- Hugh Krone– Century 21 Bill Semmens, Hamburg, New Jersey, 276,036 points
- Ashley Drake– Keller Williams Realty, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 84,932 points
- John Novak– Keller Williams Realty, Las Vegas, Nevada, 495,846 points
- Carole Provenzale– Feng Shui Long Island, Locust Valley, New York, 435,678 points
- Maureen McCabe– Real Living HER Worthington, Columbus, Ohio, 575,317 points
- Judy Barrett– Integrity Real Estate Services, Idabel, Oklahoma, 322,984 points
- Todd Clark– Palazzo Realty Group, Beaverton, Oregon, 828,668 points
- Donald Bradbury– Coldwell Banker Heritage, Quakertown, Pennsylvania, 458,374 points
- Karen Hurst– Stonehurst Realty, Warwick, Rhode Island, 185,441 points
- Jim & Maria Hart– AgentOwned Realty, Charleston, South Carolina, 412,605 points
- Duane Hosek– Coldwell Banker, Rapid City, South Dakota, 54,250 points
- Roland Woodworth– Exit Realty, Clarksville, Tennessee, 367,400 points
- Jason Crouch– Austin Texas Homes, Austin, Texas, 628,326 points
- Tony & Darcy Cannon– ERA Realty Center, Decar City, Utah, 282,949 points
- Charles McDonald– RE/MAX Assured Properties, Charlottesville, Virginia, 521,937 points
- Irene Gaffigan– Lang McLaughry Spera, Ludlow, Vermont, 40,047 points
- Rich Jacobson– Windermere West Sound, Kitsap, Washington, 390,173 points
- Tom Braatz– RE/MAX Realty Center, Waukesha, Wisconsin, 445,370 points
- Rebecca Gaujot– Coldwell Banker Stuart & Watts, Lewisburg, West Virginia, 167,503 points
- John Chase– Chase Brothers, Sheridan, Wyoming, 20,245 points
Eric Hempler
October 23, 2009 at 3:27 pm
This post should give all of these guys some followers. I know I’ll be adding a few. The more you can soak up and learn the better.
Jason Crouch
October 23, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Lani – Believe it or not, I didn’t find this as a result of a Google Alert. I was just checking in to see what cool stuff you had here, and I saw the headline about ActiveRain. Thanks for the mention! I hope you have a terrific weekend – hook ’em Horns!
Chuck G
October 23, 2009 at 4:32 pm
OK…go ahead, crucify me, call me “close minded”…But I have watched AR from the periphery for years, and I STILL don’t get the whole draw to this platform. I took a quick and very unscientific sample of the postings of the top AR bloggers above — without exception, 100% of the comments on every post that I saw were written by…other Realtors. Maybe that’s just the point I’m missing? Is the value really in the interaction between agents? Is this platform geared toward attracting buyers and sellers? I’d love to know what kind of ROI the top AR bloggers are getting, because it’s evident they put a ton of time and effort into their posts.
Maybe AR just hasn’t caught on here in CA — I know if I punch in the normal search parameters for my area into Google, not a single AR blog comes up (many other blogs do, though.)
Just curious…
Ines
October 23, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I just noticed that if I change states (like to N Dakota for example), I would b at the very top -hmmmmm ….wonder how Miamism would dir in New Mexico 🙂
Eric Hempler
October 23, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Chuck G,
I use activerain for free and you’re correct regarding interacting with other Realtors. I use it for feedback and I think the majority of everyone on there does. Like any social media, you either have use for or you don’t and really don’t need to use any of it to be successful.
Bruce Lemieux
October 23, 2009 at 4:52 pm
I’m with you Chuck. I understand that AR is good for SEO for your own blog. Lenn Harley’s (MD entry) non-AR blogs do very well here. I believe this is from ‘link juice’ from AR. But I suspect that she does a number of other things well to help her SEO. I do see AR’s Localism posts come up on google searches, but that’s about it.
I read and comment on a couple RE sites (too much lately), but I try to keep this at a minimum. I know many bloggers don’t like Trulia Voices because it doesn’t help your SEO. However, these are pretty much all consumer-agent conversations which is more worthwhile IMO.
I stay off of AR and try to apply most of my marketing/social media time to interact with buyers/sellers. If consumers were there, then I would definitely participate.
Ken Brand
October 24, 2009 at 9:16 am
I am going to create my own State, sorta like “State of Tara”. Hear Ye, Hear Ye, I know proclaim myself Govenator of The Great State Of Ken Brand. In my State I am Number One….in fact, I guess I’m the only one.
Kudos to the prolific contributors at Active Rain
Cheers.
Benn Rosales
October 24, 2009 at 10:08 am
10 points to Ken Brand
Matt Stigliano
October 24, 2009 at 10:14 am
Ken – Can I join and be #2?
Jay Thompson
October 24, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Chuck wrote: “Maybe AR just hasn’t caught on here in CA”
There are 23,914 AR users in CA (though I suspect many “users” are just those that create a profile and never come back).
I don’t get it either Chuck, and I was active in AR in the very beginning. I know some claim untold wealth from clients they gain from AR, but like you, I rarely (VERY rarely) see AR blogs in search results.
It is a great place to network with other agents, but I’ve got to believe adding content to your own domain and not sharing space with another 150,000+ real estate people is more beneficial for business in the long run.
Of interest (to me anyway) is that it’s also possible to amass a lot of point by referring other members. The top guy in AZ for example, hasn’t posted a blog on AR in over a year. Almost 2/3’s of his points are from invites / residuals.
Mark Brian
October 24, 2009 at 12:23 pm
AR is useful for networking and educational purposes. I do wonder how the top dogs on AR are actually doing as far as closed transactions. But I visit and contribute.
Ed Wilberg
January 1, 2010 at 9:22 am
It is a full time job to type and submit all those entries. I am in the middle of trying to get Buyers ready to buy before FHA rules & requirements change. I am putting together a SHORT SALE & Auction seminar. People on the east coast have little idea as to selling or buying through auctions. Auctions are a great way to get your SHORT SALES moving with multiple offers.
Ed Wilberg.com Newark,DE Real-Estate Auctioneer
Benn Rosales
October 24, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Devil’s Advocate:
I’m sure folks get a lot of satisfaction from the comments on their posts from other agents, but the point of AR as I understand it is to make rain (business) in the form of transactions, but what it has become is verbal diarrhea.
I use such a harsh word because there are few there actually focused on their consumer, and instead focus on the instant gratification of preaching to the choir. You can call it agent learning or agent networking, but it’s neither, it’s a bubble disguised as a network. Folks who are afraid to do the heavy lifting outside of the bubble or safety in building their own network around their consumers.
As I said, not all are guilty, but the vast majority are flush worthy.
Congrats to the point earners, there are few folks I know in there, and oddly enough, most of them live out here in the real world too.
Bob Wilson
October 24, 2009 at 3:53 pm
@Benn I have always thought that the pink liquid.would be a natural sponsor for AR.
Lenn’s Homefinders site ranked well long before AR and if AR disappeared tomorrow, it would still rank well.
AR has played with the site enough so that the juice that used to flow pretty freely is not doing so anymore.
While many love to talk about how their posts rank #1 in a day, They have little if any staying power.
Janie Coffey
October 24, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I honestly did build my business (closed transactions) from AR, but am finally branching out to create my own blog (time to cut the apron strings I guess). I still have residual visitors from posts written 2+ years ago, so it was well worth it. I do agree that the largest benefit is the inter-agent learning, but for those less techy agents, an AR outside blog might be all they can handle and it serve their purposes well. I still go back often and read member posts there. There is a lot to be learned (less techy maybe, but real estate related, yes). You do have to have a pretty strong filter, that is for sure.
Yanni Raz
October 24, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I use activerain.com and I love it.
Katerina Gasset
October 25, 2009 at 1:58 am
Thanks for including me in the list. I was a very active member of BNI, an off line networking group for over 25 years. The day I quit was the day that I started getting more business from sellers who found us through their organic searches where our blog on Active Rain showed up for them. In 2008, we were getting 4 listings per week from phone calls for sellers who did not live in Florida who needed to short sale their homes. That has tapered off quite a bit because they are trying for loan mods first now.
We carry between 40 to 50 listings and most of the time at least 18 of those will be under contract. We are also in the top 2% of closed transaction agents in our mls. I pay it forward on Active Rain to help other agents and that also results in mega referrals. At least once a week we get a referral client from an Active Rain member. 60% of our business can be directly related to Active Rain blogging. But I also publish 10 posts per week on most weeks of the year on our AR blog. I also comment on agents’ blogs and return as many as I can that leave comments on my blog. Active Rain is a great forum for agents to learn on and also consumers will find you if you are blogging correctly with the right keywords. It is a lot of work. But it brings to us a more engaged customer. We are the third most subscribed to blog on Active Rain with over 1500 subscribers but that is the agent count. We have many more email subscribers that are consumers. As long as you are adding value to whatever community you are a part of I think you will reap the rewards. As we say in BNI; givers gain. Katerina
Ken Fitzpatrick
November 4, 2009 at 3:04 am
You should have included Canada in your stats, it has just started to grow here and that data should be added to your blog too. I like reading AR blogs.
Michelle Gordon
November 4, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Well the comments are mostly from Realtor to Realtor, but who other then realtors are reading these? I know blogging on active rain has move me very high up on the google search list, I have much more google juice then ever before………………and if a future buyer or seller of real estate is looking on line for info, they may find some area’s/blogs that I posted or questions I have answered or comments I have made and contact me because they liked the things I have said. This has happen several times already. It is almost like your “live” on line interview.
Denise Hamlin
December 2, 2009 at 12:08 am
I’ve been blogging on AR for just over 4 months now. I think it’s a great social networking platform for Real Estate Professionals and long term I’m also expecting it to be good for business. I understand that some people don’t “get” it, but that goes for other social networking platforms too. There are people who don’t get twitter or Facebook.
What can I say? All I know is that I have learned an awful lot about blogging in the last 4 months and I had never even commented on a post before then, let alone written one! I’ve also learned a lot on many other subjects like Marketing and SEO. Not to mention the fact that I am starting to develop relationships to other members. (I guess it’s called social networking for a reason).
One thing’s for sure, there are some very smart people at AR. I’m not on the list above…yet, but I’m working on it. I’m currently #5 in Iowa.
Corona Real Estate Agent
January 7, 2010 at 2:09 pm
It appears some of the visitors to this and other sites don’t completely understand what Google Juice is.
I’m with Jason… Hook Em Horns!
Cameron
Corona Real Estate Agent
Corona, California
Corona Real Estate Agent
January 7, 2010 at 2:26 pm
P.S. How did someone get on the list with 20K points????
Andrew Mooers
February 7, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Active Rain has two reasons that help me as a Maine REALTOR that made your list. One, you have a resource, friends you make from daily interactions in the real estate trenches that you can pick up the phone, call, shoot an email to and quickly get a handle on how they handle this or that. So there is the behind the scenes and studying other markets, what works there. There is so much new internet options to implement and time saving on how to do it, what is not worth doing is crucial in time managment.
Second, search engine results on the community posts with the helpful links, embedded real video we produce, do get results. I can see the views and know it is worth the effort to feed the blog. But also have a stand alone blog MeInMaine, etc along with other sister platforms all designed to make the phone ring, emails to pour in, folks to wander in to the office to list, sell, buy real estate.
Ashley Drake Gephart
February 7, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Ines come on over to NM! Just start perfecting your margarita recipe 🙂
ines
February 7, 2010 at 6:08 pm
LOL Ahsley! (although I don’t do Tequila) 🙂 I’ll leave that to you
Susie Blackmon
March 12, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Active Rain provided me with a great place to learn, and also ‘introduced’ me to many people that I have been able to meet IRL at various events. I’ll be forever indebted to Active Rain. Their Localism site intrigued me, and now almost anything I post on AR is for the Localism site. However, I’ve noticed I don’t get the Google alerts for AR anymore, and no one seems to know why. I don’t post on AR as often as I used to, mainly because I have too much to do on my own websites. Regardless, there’s a wealth of information on AR whether you want to blog or not.
It never fails to amaze me that even one of the most “experienced” bloggers on AR hijacks other posts (even here on AG!!) with their very common “we are so wonderful and we’ll be the first to tell you” crap … speaking of diarrhea.
😉