Week In Review – Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ’s – Volume IV

This Post was created using just some of the questions I get asked from ActiveRain members. Some of the ones you won’t find posted here, I could never repeat in public!  lol~  You can’t even imagine some of the kinds of questions I get. My Favorite this week has to be just “Bob?”
Now does Brad sound like Bob to you? haha!  Seriously though, no such thing as a dumb question.

Here are the TOP 10 FAQ’s for the week of March 16th, 2009.  If you know of any other member who may have some of these same questions or issues, please feel free to forward them this post.  Otherwise, I think you all know where to find me…  lol~

My broker would like to change his status from Real Estate Agent to Real Estate Brokerage. but we can’t find the way. Help!

  This is an “admin feature” that only the AR staff can change.  It is encrypted in the system once you sign-up.  We can change it for you easily, just send an email to support@activerain.com.  This will also give Jeremy Blanton some job security and something to do… lol~

Brad, if I have an outside blog can someone who is a member but not grandfathered or paying be on my team blog?

  If any member has the ability to post on their Blog publicly, they can also post on your outside blog after you invite them.  If they are not able to post to the public, they will be unable to post to your Outside Blog, but they will still receive the invitation.

How do I know if anyone is reading my Blog posts on AR?  Is there a way to track stats and traffic?

  Yes. There are a few ways you can.  The first is to check your “Statistics” Link on AR.  Go to “My Home” scroll to the bottom of the sidebar located on the left of your screen.  Click on the “Statistics” link, and you can view your comments, views, and clicks.

You can also install Cluster Maps, SiteMeter, or ActiveMeter on your Blog by using the HTML codes they provide, then place the code in the description box (HTML Only), on your “settings” page.  Here’s How to install Various Widgets.  Oh Yeah, there’s always getclicky.com and MyBlogLog.com too.

I think it was you who had done a video with what looked to be an Active Rain gathering. It was a whole bunch of people saying how great the Rain was. Could you give me a link to that video or tell me where I might find it?  Thanks!

  The video was taken at the Real Estate Connect in San Francisco, it was added to one of the ActiveRain landing pages. Here is a link:  ActiveRain Voices in the Rain.

I just purchased my AR outside blog and all the Themes are created for other companies.  My company is not available.  How do I create my own custom themes and sidebar?

  There are many company Themes available now that are branded, but there are two you can use that are NOT branded to any brokerage of company.  They are “Elements of SEO” and “Legacy”.  These can both be customized by adding your own header and sidebar images.  We’ll be adding additional themes (both branded and non-branded) down the road. Also, watch for the new text widget, I think it’s actually “LIVE” now. (hint:)

I have been a FREE member on AR now for over 4 months and was just wondering how this Network makes money?   What other products or services do you offer, if any?  I love Activerain, thanks.

  FAQ – Pick of the week!  ActiveRain does have the FREE limited membership which many do use and benefit from, however there are other tools we offer to members that include: Sponsoring Localism Communities, Setting up Listing Router Campaigns, Creating ActiveBlog Outside Blogs,and Market Leader & Vision. FREE memberships can upgrade to an ActiveRain “RainMaker” membership if they choose.  We also have Channel sponsorships available and advertising in our ActiveRain Newsletter. There’s so many ways you can benefit from some of these additional services on AR, but they are not free.

You can also just make your check out to “Brad Andersohn” and I’ll see that it goes to good cause. 🙂

     

Just curious…How many “Channels” are there and how many posts does it take in a given channel to get it visible?

  All the channels are listed on the main page of AR.  There are 8 consumer and 8 professional, then there are the top 3 topics in each channel based on member content.  The more content about a subject, the more chance it will show up in the top 3 topics for that channel.  No idea how many posts it takes, I think it’s based on the majority of posts generated.  Maybe consider writing posts about the current top 3 topics in any channel for some additional exposure in those channels. More On Channels

Just typed a blog and a bunch of orange letters came up when I cut and paste from Word.  Then there was no button to post it and it said I had a Bad Error.  I tried to open a new browser and open A/R and I got a message so I couldn’t log on. Now I can’t log into A/R.

Bad Request

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Size of a request header field exceeds server limit.

  Easy Answer for this one.  DO NOT COPY AND PASTE FROM WORD!  Text or Images. When you do this, HTML codes and scripts also get copied over that in many cases, are not compatible with our network.  This will also happen when you try to copy too much information from any other source.  Instead, use ActiveRain to create your post, then save it in “draft” mode.  You can make all your edits in AR.  If you must use an outside source, I have used ScribeFire.com for Firefox and it seems to work well.  There are no hidden codes or malicious scripts that I’m aware of.

For some reason I have stopped receiving the daily AR newsletter. I did recently change my email address to the one above and this was also changed in the system.  Is it possible for you to remedy?

  Yes.  If you have us change your email address in ActiveRain, you’ll need to notify us by email with the new email address so that you can be added to the distribution list for the newsletter.  Just send your email update request to support@activerain.com and we’ll make the changes in our database. If you’re NOT currently getting the AR Newsletter, and you’d like to, just email us your request to be added to the list.  

Is there a help section or link to search for answers to my questions on ActiveRain?

  There are a few areas you can find help and answers to your questions: Start with the “SEARCH” link located at the Top of every AR page.  You can check the HELP/FAQ group located at the bottom of every page.  Another place to find help is the ActiveRainGuide.com site, which has tutorials and help posts by other members.  My Profile has a few tutorials as well. If you are brand new, a great place to start is the “Getting Started” link located on the main page of ActiveRain. (below the channels area)  Then Join Groups.

I hope these FAQ’s have helped some new members.  There is so much great information on AR, and now with over 1,000,000 articles/posts, you can probably find almost every answer to any question you may ever have about AR or the RE Industry.  🙂

March 2009 Related Posts:
Week In Review – Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ’s – Volume I
Week In Review – Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ’s – Volume II
Week In Review – Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ’s – Volume III
    
Week In Review – Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ’s – Volume IV

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