Karen's Ocean State Blog: November 2009

Many of you do not know me here on Active Rain because I have not been blogging as regularly as one needs to do to keep on top of Google.

However, this morning, as I reflected on what I needed to do to get back at the top of Google ( a place that I held for over a year) in my home state of Rhode Island, it occurred to me that new Active Rainer's are probably in a state of confusion.   I will say that a couple of  emails from Mark Lebukner and a few other new Rainer's, asking questions prompted me to write this.

First of all, we have the Newbie Group. This is the biggest group here on Active Rain, and is a group to go in and post a question. It is also a group to introduce yourself, or have someone introduce you.

Experienced Active Rainer's will come to this group after they have learned the ropes to "give back". This group is for "new to Active Rain", not new Realtors, Appraiser's, Mortgage Brokers, Inspectors...You can be any of these but you are in the group to either teach or learn.   

 Brad Andersohn of Active Rain has probably the most complete set of questions and answers and descriptions that I know of and you would do well to read as many of those as you can. Most of Brads tutorial blogs can be found here in the FAQ Group.

All that being said, I personally like to keep things simple. I suspect a lot of that is because I am time limited. Therefor, the actual reason I am writing this is for those new Active Rainer's that cannot spend all day writing.

First of all, if you have not upgraded to a Rainmaker blog, then nothing you do will be visible to anyone outside of Active Rain. And while Active Rain is great for referrals, friends and amazing knowledge, it does not speak to your home town if no one can read it. If you want to upgrade now go here.

The simplest way that I have found to attract clients is to write about a place. You can pick just about any place nearby or at least within your realm of reach. For instance, you can write about any restaurant, event, neighborhood, girl scouts, schools, farms, cities, fire department, police department, playgrounds in your area.  The list is endless. Even if someone from your area has already done it, you can write it from your own perspective!

A couple of years back, I wrote about Warwick, RI, my hometown, and then I wrote a couple of follow up posts about the villages in Warwick, RI.  This past year I wrote about Warwick Neck, Highland Beach, Chelos (a restaurant), Harbor Lights ( a marina).  These are a very minute sampling of what some people write here at Active Rain. But I am here to tell you that even this small amount brings you recognition!

Last summer, when I wrote about Harbor Lights, the marina that I keep my boat in, I did it because I was hoping they would get some business out of it. About a month later, someone on my dock came up to me and said. "Whatever you are doing, keep doing it". The reason she said that was she went online to find a phone number for Harbor lights,and while she could not find the number, she said she found me "all over the place" and that now she knows more about me and my brokerage! 

My best return on investment was a blog about Oakland beach.  I have sold four homes in Oakland Beach just since May. I consider myself and Oakland Beach expert. Note that there are not many comments on this post. But people do read them.

If I can do this, and I am an extreme introvert, then anyone can do it.

Pick a place and write a post. That's all there is to it. Make sure you repeat some of your title in that post so Google can find it. Then sit back and wait for people to contact you.