Yesterday was our very First class on blogging for the Solano Association of Realtors members. I had Mike Mueller come from Patagonia Finance, (Another AR member nearby) join me in introducing Blogging and Activerain. There were about 40 people or so who attended our class. It was a great eye opener for many just starting to understand what blogging even is. We had surveys filled out at the end, and are still reviewing the great comments and feedback. The majority of this group just wanted to know. what is a blog? Mike put together his presentation on his website for easy future access. I found this to be very helpful for us and for the group! 5 reasons to blog, 10 things to never do when blogging, and 101 things to blog about. I hope you'll take on a support role in your community to get the word out about AR and Localism. The best way to promote anything worth it's salt, is by word of mouth and referral. We charged $5.00 per person and then gave the money back to a charity for local teachers called" The Teachers Wish List" foundation. This money goes to our local school teachers to help them with supplies and things they need to do their jobs more efficiently. Everyone came away happy and educated, therefore, I feel the class was a total success. The follow-up training is to teach each of the new AR members in our area, how to navigate, and utilize AR for blogging, networking, building referrals, and getting SEO. 3 weeks ago, I had no idea what blogging was, or why I should even consider doing it. Today, I still have many questions on a lot of things, but I am learning and growing as I go along. Great Stuff!

I also wanted to let other AR members know that since I joined the network 3 weeks ago, my website has gone to the top of the search engines. I get alot of hits on Agent Assist 5.0 free software, marketing tips and information, and now I get alot of views on my online customer service order page. I am very grateful to Activerain for all their support and guidance. The members are great, the support is unbelievable, the networking is priceless, and the benefits are awesome. I used to get 1-2 hits on my website a day, now I get over 20 hits a day, and they are sticky hits. Some are in my site for up to 15 minutes at a time. All this thanks to reading some of the posts on how to make your blog work for you. Content is King, but there are definately some tricks to the trade, and they can be found right here in the AR network. Now, I'm going to do a little less posting, alot more reading and research, and see where the next level takes me. I did make some adjustments to my website thanks to some of your feedback and comments. Feel free to check it out, I always love good corrective critisism. If your friends and clients won't tell you what's wrong or what needs improvement, than who will?

To those of you hooked on the AR network, we salute you!