Atlanta Real Estate Blog - Jarvis

I saw the video this morning too. It will be interesting to see when REALTOR.com gets it up.  How it is similar to ActiveRain, how it is different, who blogs there. 

 

Better late than never.  I will be curious to see if Realtor.com will feature content and substance over (or at least on par with) sponsored links, etc.  I would be very surprised to see Realtor.com featuring content at no cost to the contributing author. 

The thing that Active Rain has already as part of their site is a HUGE commitment and following.

There is something awesome about the fact that I knew the people at last Saturday's in Chicago at the AR celebration... but I was MEETING them for the first time.

"Community" is part of what makes Active Rain so powerful. It is flattering that others look to imitate Active... but WHY recreate what is already there???? Especially when it is FREE.

Me

I've book-marked to watch later. Have a good visit.

As some of you know, I'm not a big fan of Realtor.com having written how I think that they are a rip off and such.  That said, I'll be curious, as mentioned above, how they play this in regard to sponsorships and benefiting Realtors as opposed to benefiting Move, Inc.

 

Bob Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. 

Great post. Thanks for the info.  Just trying on how to tie all these blogging things together: my website, activerain, realtor.com.  Any helpful advice on that one.  Also, blogging takes time and I'm trying to make my time cost effective as well. 

Here is the first thing I want to know.  Is Realtor.com going to be jerks and put no follow tags on all your links in the blogs just like they do on Realtor.com.  If so don't waist your time blogging on it, it will be almost worthless,  Just like doing the paid adds on Realtor.com and they put your picture up and a link to your website. 

 

No-Follow = Search Engine This Link gets no link credit.

 

James Boyer

Sounds like competition to the Rain, question being, only Realtor's creating blogs there or will they allow mortgage brokers, home stagers, etc?

I wonder if they will let realtor 'partners' sign up.

lenders, stagers, title companies, ect

 

I just reread James entry here, no link credit? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

Thanks for the video link. I will pass it along to fellow realtors.

Thanks for the information I will have to check it out.

interesting post lost of things on the horizon for all agent

cheers
Scott

I wish NAMB offered this kind of benefit!

It sure will be interesting to see where they go with this, I think AR will still be the best blog platform for us.

It'll come at some cost, but in time and money. We can also be sure their business model will always come first. It's just how things are.  Thanks for your post.

We have to use what works, some of this will emerge to help Realtors and others will help themselves.  It is hard to visualize that some of the sites will change there philosophy.

Thanks for the update Josh. Does anyone know when Realtor.com is going to be rolling this out?

Enjoy your trip, thanks for the news.

Its is a great idea but we will have to wait and see who will actually benefit from the blogging. Will it be us as Realtor's or will it be the website. Thanks for the info I will definetly keep a close eye on it and look out for it.

should be interesting.  It will definately take blogging more mainstream, but I think many agents will give a nod to it and move on.  After all, it isn't difficult to get a website...if 35% don't even bother why would many more have the commitment it takes to blog?

JJ,

I smell all smoke and mirrors on realtor.com part! They`ve done this before!

Have to see what the platform is like. All blogs are definitely not created equally. -Charles

Thanks for sharing Josh.  It's great knowing what is happening at REALTOR.com.

Is it surprising that I trust Matt, Caleb, Jonathan et al more than I do realtor.com? I think - judging from their history - that they're more interested in making money and preserving the status quo (power) than serving us - i.e., we pay for expanded listings and their ads send them away! I'm willing to check out what they have, but am doing so with a large dose of skepticism. Also, they used to allow html but then took it away when it appeared that some agents were more "professional" than others.

I agree with James Boyer's comment above.

I will bet you money that Realtor.com will put no follow tags on their blogs. It will be useless for any SEO opportunities. 

With the new neighborhood features, it looks like a "market expert" type of thing.  The blog may be free but I bet there is an "upgrade" to allow SEO opportunities or more likely to be the featured "voice" of an area. 

REALTOR.COM is doing this for one reason and one reason only. SEO. It doesn't cost them anything (relatively) to put in some boxes and run Wordpress mu or some variation on a blogging community. Obviously there are core benefits for move.com and Realtor.com, which include SEO benefits, automatic user traffic and fresh content they don't have to pay for. Obviously I think that there are a few major reasons why REbloggers would want to use the service but that really comes down to what the core functionality (nofollow tags in blog postings - as Tim said) will be in there. At the end of the day, I am not sure if it will be a great community and honestly I can see agents "abusing" it and posting predominantly listings on there for extra exposure and possible backlinks to their site. 

Much like their market condition reports, I'm sure such abuses as frequent daily postings to be at the top of the stack will be used as well.

Community ?  I think trulia voices will have more of community then Realtor.com will.

Joshua

Aziz,

Thanks for the compliment, but it's unfounded.  I just found the article, and posted it here on Active Rain for others.

Thanks though!

 

 

I will wait and see.

Is this currently being offer? Your link to digg this did not work, and I search realtor.com site and could find nothing about blogging. 

Vicky,

Watch the video, this is an upcoming feature.

Digg only would work if you are on the post itself not the entire blog.  I just tested it and it worked fine for me, too bad no one is digging it.

 

I dug it.  I can never remember my sign in for digg....

I'm sticking with Active Rain, it has done more for my ranking than anything else has.  My motto, if it ain't broke don't fix it.