The Official ActiveRain Blog
A blog about the current happenings on the ActiveRain Real Estate Network. What's new, where we're going, updates and more...
Success in real estate greatly depends on your organization's marketing skills - and surprise, it's not just the marketing person's job to cultivate these skills. Are you set up for success? Real estate marketing is so important because it's how you communicate with your clients who you are and what you do. It's about promoting YOUR unique value proposition to build your brand, attract clients, close transactions, and create repeat and referral business. At this BuiltHOW Virtual Marketing Conference, we’ll dive into all forms of marketing, from the more traditional marketing like direct mail and digital advertising to the more unconventional (but seriously effective) avenues that we’ll cover in the following sessions:
How to Launch and Promote Your Own Podcast
Become a Radio and Television Expert
Remarketing and Retargeting
Facebook Marketing
How to build a Niche
And many many more
If you can't attend the event live on Thursday, June 17th, register anyway and we'll send you the highlights! BONUS: When you register you will automatically receive Debbie's 89+ page Real Estate Script eBook! Get your FREE ticket today or step up your game with a VIP experience! The only regret you'll have is missing the most important day of the year for you and your business. ---
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Posted: June 11, 2021, 3:24 pm
Part Eight: Invest WiselyCongratulations! You've made it to the last lesson, Part Eight of the Wealth Series. Everything we’ve covered has prepared us for this point: investing wisely. In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to invest in a variety of different “buckets” - I call these the 5 Buckets of Wealth. If this lesson gets you excited and you want to learn more about investing then I have a solution for you: the Win Make Give Investing Series (coming soon). - Ben Kinney Don't forget to submit the giveaway questions here for your chance to win BIG and to register for Friday's LIVE event at 11 am Pacific where we will announce the winners of the Win Make Give Wealth Series giveaway. Part Eight Preparation Understanding how much money you could be saving in taxes will help you move through this next lesson:☑️ Calculate how much 10-40% of last year's income tax would be.☑️ If you still had that money, how would you invest it? Listen on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyStitcherGoogle PodcastsYouTube Part Eight Resources Part Eight WorkbookDOWNLOADReal Estate Investing ModelsDOWNLOAD Part Eight Giveaway Question ☑️ What are the 5 buckets of wealth? Part Seven: Facebook Group Check-in
Go to the Win Make Give Facebook group and comment on Chad Hyams' pinned post for the day. Share some ideas of what you could potentially write off on taxes that you haven’t yet? SHARE NOW Have you shared this gift with anyone?The Win Make Give Wealth Series is geared toward helping people in any industry at any income level, and it’s a great gift to share with everyone in your life. Here’s the link to share: winmakegive.com/wealth/---
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Posted: June 10, 2020, 4:31 pm
Part Seven: Pay Less TaxesWelcome to Part Seven of the Wealth Series! We recently covered how to increase your income. When you increase your income, sometimes that means you have to pay more taxes. Only a few pages of the tax code is about paying taxes, and the rest of it is about how to not pay taxes. Let’s take this time to talk about the pages that cover paying less taxes. - Ben Kinney Part Seven Preparation Have these documents in front of you to help move through the exercises in this lesson with ease:☑️ If you're a business owner, find & review your most recent business tax return. ☑️ Find and review your most recent personal tax return. In this lesson, we will walk through some legal ways we can reduce the amount of taxes we pay and learn about the incentives that most people miss. Listen on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyStitcherGoogle PodcastsYouTube Part Seven Resources DOWNLOAD PART SEVEN WORKBOOK Part Seven Giveaway Question ☑️ To change your _____ , change your ______ . Part Seven: Facebook Group Check-in
Go to the Win Make Give Facebook group and comment on Chad Hyams' pinned post for the day.Share some ideas of what you could write off that you haven’t up until this point? SHARE NOW Have you shared this gift with anyone?The Win Make Give Wealth Series is geared toward helping people in any industry at any income level, and it’s a great gift to share with everyone in your life. Here’s the link to share: winmakegive.com/wealth/---
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Posted: June 8, 2020, 6:42 pm
Part Six: Increase Your IncomeNow that you've done the preparation and work to know where you need to be to reach your financial goals, we're going to talk about how to increase your income. Part Six of the Wealth Series will take you through ten ways you can create additional sources of income to create stability, security, and confidence in your financial future.- Ben Kinney Part Six Preparation Have these documents in front of you to help move through the exercises in this lesson with ease:☑️ A list of all your current sources of income.☑️ Have a copy of your tax return from last year. Building wealth is like a domino effect, that often accumulates bit by bit over longer periods of time with diligent saving, reducing expenses, and finding new income sources. Listen on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyStitcherGoogle PodcastsYouTube Part Six Resources DOWNLOAD PART SIX WORKBOOK Part Six Giveaway Question ☑️ You can’t ________ your way out of a recession. You must increase your ___________ . Part Five: Facebook Group Check-in
Go to the Win Make Give facebook group and comment on Chad Hyams' pinned post for the day. Share what you plan to do right now to increase your income. SHARE NOW Have you shared this gift with anyone?The Win Make Give Wealth Series is geared toward helping people in any industry at any income level, and it’s a great gift to share with everyone in your life. Here’s the link to share: winmakegive.com/wealth/---
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Posted: June 5, 2020, 8:22 pm
Part Five: Student Of WealthCongratulations, you’ve made it more than halfway through the Wealth Series! We’ve already covered financial health, the reality check, retirement planning, and saving like crazy. Now it's time for Part Five of the Wealth Series to find out how to become a student of wealth.Are you enjoying the Wealth Series so far? Do us a big favor and leave us a review and a rating wherever you are listening! - Ben Kinney Part Five Preparation To best understand how to make Part Five become a reality, make sure you: ☑️ Review parts 1-4 and complete all the workbooks.☑️ Review the amount of money you will need to save for retirement. This lesson will help you understand how easy it can be to build real wealth. Understanding compound interest is the secret to being wealthy. Now it will be one of your tools to building massive wealth. Listen on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyStitcherGoogle PodcastsYouTube Part Five Resources DOWNLOAD PART FIVE WORKBOOK Compounded Value of Optional Expenses CalculatorDOWNLOAD Compound Interest CalculatorDOWNLOAD Part Five Giveaway Question ☑️ What is the value of $100 invested monthly with a 7% annual rate of return after 30 years? (Use our compound interest calculator) Part Five: Facebook Group Check-in
Go to the Win Make Give facebook group and comment on Chad Hyams' pinned post for the day. What was your biggest AHA on the subject of compound interest? SHARE NOW---
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Posted: June 3, 2020, 3:46 pm
Part Four: Save Like CrazyThe Win Make Give Wealth Series is designed to be sequential, meaning it builds over each lesson. Part Four of the Wealth Series will take you back to the reality check from Part Two, where we visited our expenses and designated them as required or optional. In this session we find more ways to eliminate expenses to save more money so that we can use these savings to pay down debt, invest, and build up reserves. Welcome to Part Four: Save Like Crazy!Make sure you join our Facebook Community to join the conversations going forward. If you are enjoying the Wealth Series so far, do us a big favor and leave us a review and a rating wherever you are listening! - Ben Kinney Part Four Preparation To complete Part Four exercises with ease, make sure you've: ☑️ Printed your recent bank and credit card statements. ☑️ Completed the exercises in Part Two and have them available. During this lesson, we’ll walk you through how to find the right savings model that works for your situation. The goal is to create some new financial habits but not take away from living a good life. Listen on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyStitcherGoogle Podcasts YouTube Part Four Resources ☑️ Complete Part Four workbook DOWNLOAD PART FOUR WORKBOOK Part Four Giveaway Question ☑️ What are the two saving models from this lesson? Part Four: Facebook Group Check-in
Go to the Win Make Give Facebook group and comment on Chad Hyams' pinned post for the day. Share one of the places you will find immediate expense savings. SHARE NOW Have you shared this gift with anyone?The Win Make Give Wealth Series is geared toward helping people in any industry at any income level, and it’s a great gift to share with everyone in your life. Here’s the link to share: winmakegive.com/wealth/ ---
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Posted: June 1, 2020, 5:58 pm
Part Three: Planning For Retirement Congratulations, you've made it to Part Three of the Wealth Series! I hope that you took the time to listen and complete the workbook in Part Two. Are you feeling a sense of freedom by simply knowing where you are financially right now? In this next lesson, we're going to take the steps to figure out your financial goals for retirement, so you know where you’re headed and if you’re on track to reach that goal. - Ben Kinney Part Three Preparation Having completed the following will help you move through Part Three exercises with ease:☑️ Fill out your net worth tracker spreadsheet. ☑️ Update your required and optional expenses worksheet. Part Three is all about planning for your retirement to ensure you live comfortably in your golden years. Get the tools and steps to know exactly how much you need to retire, as well as some ideas on how you can make that amount of money and reduce expenses if you aren’t on track quite yet. Listen On: Apple PodcastsSpotifyStitcherGoogle PodcastsYouTube Part Three Resources ☑️ Complete Part Three workbook DOWNLOAD PART THREE WORKBOOK ☑️ Calculate the amount you’ll need to save in order to retire comfortably DOWNLOAD RETIREMENT CALCULATOR Part Three Giveaway Question ☑️ Use the 4% rule - if you need $60,000 a year when you retire, what is the total amount you would need in your retirement investment account? Part Three: Facebook Group Check-in
Go to the Win Make Give facebook group and comment on Chad Hyams' pinned post for the day. What did you learn from the 4% rule exercise? What surprised you the most?SHARE NOW Have you shared this gift with anyone?The Win Make Give Wealth Series is geared toward helping people in any industry at any income level, and it’s a great gift to share with everyone in your life. Here’s the link to share: winmakegive.com/wealth/ ---
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Posted: May 29, 2020, 3:40 pm
Part Two: A Financial Reality Check Congratulations, you've made it to Part Two of the Wealth Series! I hope that you took the time to listen to Part One and complete the workbook, as this sets the stage for a Reality Check. In this lesson, you will take a deep dive into your own personal finances. I expect that you will experience multiple emotions, and that is a good thing. It's so important to know where you're at before plotting a course to where you want to end up.- Ben Kinney Part Two PreparationHaving access to the following documents will help considerably with getting the most out of today's lesson:
The goal of today's lesson is to create the habit of tracking your net worth on a monthly basis, because we believe the lack of accounting means the lack of accountability. At the end of Part Two, you will have a complete picture of your finances, including your income, expenses, debt, and assets.Listen on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyStitcherGoogle PodcastsYouTube Part Two Resources ☑️ Complete Part Two workbook☑️ Choose the simple or more advanced net worth tracker to calculate and update your net worth DOWNLOAD PART TWO WORKBOOK Budget & Expense TrackerDOWNLOAD Simple Net Worth TrackerDOWNLOAD Advanced Net Worth TrackerDOWNLOAD Part Two Giveaway Question ☑️ In order to increase our net worth, we must ____ less than we ____. Part Two: Facebook Group Check-in
Go to the Win Make Give Facebook group and comment on Chad Hyams' pinned post for the day. What was your biggest takeaway from doing this Net Worth exercise? What surprised you the most?SHARE NOW The Win Make Give Wealth Series is geared toward helping people in any industry at any income level, and it’s a great gift to share with everyone in your life. Here’s the link to share: winmakegive.com/wealth/---
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☑️ Most recent bank statements ☑️ Recent credit card statements ☑️ Mortgage Statements | ☑️ Retirement balances ☑️ Student debt ☑️ Value of personal assets |






Posted: May 28, 2020, 5:35 am
Part 1: Financial Health & Building WealthWelcome to the Win Make Give WEALTH SERIES! I'm so excited to welcome you to this 8 part series and am confident these next few weeks have the potential to change your financial future. In order to get the most out of this experience you will need to do a few simple steps:
Listen to Part One: We are providing a variety of options for you to listen to Part One. Please select the best option for you below and take the time to subscribe to whichever channel you select.
Download and print the attached homework: Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday you will receive an email like this with the lesson and workbook. The workbook includes an easy way to follow along with the lesson as well as financial exercises for you to complete. When appropriate you will also be given links to download spreadsheets and other tools.
Join the conversation: If you want to ask questions, join in on the conversation, or get help with any of the assignments, please join our Facebook community. If you do not have access to Facebook and have a concern or question, please reach out to us via email at team@winmakegive.com.
$5,000 cash giveaway: Lastly, if you are interested in our $5,000 cash giveaway, please pay special attention to the workbook. You will be asked to answer one question from each lesson - we have taken the time to make it pretty obvious what that question will be. This is not meant to be difficult, just to ensure that all who enter the contest take the time to study each lesson.
Start the Wealth Series Part One with a powerful conversation about why we all need to make more money, our mindset around wealth and investing, and an introduction to my wealth-building philosophy of "flipping the triangle". - Ben Kinney Listen OnApply PodcastsSpotifyStitcherGoogle PodcastsYouTube Part 1 Homework☑️ Goal of Flipping the triangle is investing in assets that create _____ ______DOWNLOAD PART 1 WORKBOOK Part 1 Facebook Group Check-in
Go to the Win Make Give Facebook group and comment on Chad Hyams' pinned post for the day of what your aha was for this episode. SHARE NOW Have you shared this gift with anyone?The Win Make Give Wealth Series is geared toward helping people in any industry at any income level, and it’s a great gift to share with everyone in your life. Here’s the link to share: winmakegive.com/wealth/---
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Posted: May 26, 2020, 6:44 pm






Posted: May 19, 2020, 9:22 pm






Posted: March 19, 2020, 10:03 pm
Tuesday, November 27th, 2018 at 11:00 AM PDTJoin Ben Kinney live while he interviews one of the most mentally and physically tough individuals alive today: Retired Navy SEAL David Goggins. Get ready for an intense discussion about how to push through pain, boredom, and fear in order to realize your true potential.Have you ever considered that you have more to offer the world? More potential left inside you? Are you tired of letting your past define you? Then don’t miss what is guaranteed to be an exciting, intense, and possibly life changing conversation.In David Goggins’ new book, Can't Hurt Me, he shares his astonishing life story and reveals that most of us tap into only 40% of our capabilities. Goggins calls this The 40% Rule, and his story illuminates a path that anyone can follow to build an unbreakable foundation, demolish fear, and reach their full potential.Preorder Can't Hurt Me here: http://geni.us/canthurtme
About the Speakers:David Goggins Retired Navy SEAL, Endurance Athlete and Motivational Speaker David Goggins is a Retired Navy SEAL and the only member of the U.S. Armed Forces ever to complete SEAL training, U.S. Army Ranger School, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller training. Goggins has competed in more than sixty ultra-marathons, triathlons, and ultra-triathlons, setting new course records and regularly placing in the top five. A former Guinness World Record holder for completing 4,030 pull-ups in seventeen hours, he was also the recipient of the 2018 VFW Americanism award and will be inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in March, 2019. He’s a much-sought-after public speaker who's shared his story with the staffs of Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams, and hundreds of thousands of students across the country.Ben Kinney Professional Speaker, Mega Real Estate Agent and Technology Entrepreneur Ben Kinney is a nationally-known entrepreneur, professional speaker, trainer, best selling author, innovator and mega real estate agent, but prefers the title of “nice guy.” In the last few years he has personally trained over 100,000 business owners via conferences, classes, and webinars. Ben owns and operates multiple Real Estate Realty Franchises across 3 countries, 19 real estate expansion businesses all across North America, 7 software companies, including ActiveRain, and the Ben Kinney Training Organization.---
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Posted: November 26, 2018, 6:34 pm
If you had the chance of joining us back in 2009 for our RainCamp experience, you know that Ben Kinney knows a thing or two about real estate. We get asked all the time if we plan on having another RainCamp. We haven't announced anything yet, but the next best thing would be spending an entire day in San Francisco being immersed in all of the systems and models Ben has spent the last ten years building and deploying in his real estate business. ActiveRain, in conjunction with Inman and Ben Kinney Training, are proud to present "Zero to a Thousand" - an event crafted for agents at all production levels that would like to learn how to move from having a job to owning a business. Learn how to generate the leads, listings, and leverage that an agent would need to build a profitable real estate team or business.Join us on Monday, July 16th, for Zero to a Thousand: a "How to Build and Grow Your Real Estate Business" hands-on intensive training taught live by Ben Kinney.In addition to owning ActiveRain, Ben runs and manages one of the largest real estate teams in North America. His agents closed 2,000 transactions in the last 12 months across 17 major cities. On the Monday before Inman Connect San Francisco, he’s coming to San Francisco to show agents how they can close more deals, build better teams, and get more out of their real estate businesses.This event is perfect for individual agents, team owners, operations and administrative staff, buyer and listing agents, and brokerages at any point in their business who want to attract and retain more team members. Get a $100 discount by registering today. This event is going to sell out so jump on the chance while it's still available.
AGENDA8:00-9:00 - Registration9:00 - 9:30 - Intro with Brad Inman and Ben Kinney on the future of real estate and the impact of real estate teams.9:30 - 12:00 - PART I (STEPS 1-4)Step 1: Business planning, goal setting, and thinking bigger.Leave with your own simple-to-follow written business plan.Step 2: Business fundamentals. Create your own mission, vision, values and culture that will attract talent and leads to your real estate business.Step 3: Buyer lead generation. Find the leads and the systems that will feed your business in any market or price point. Figure out where your business will come from and leave with proven buyer lead generation plan that match your business.Step 4: Seller lead generation. Listing are the inventory of the real estate store. If you control the inventory, you control the market. Learn how to get listings in any market and how to convert those leads and close on those appointments.12:00 - 1:15 Lunch Break1:15 - 5:00 - PART II (STEPS 5-10)Step 5: Build your administrative team and systems. You need enough leverage in business to free up time to build the business and sell more volume. When and who to hire, what to have them do, and how to compensate them.Step 6: Build your sales team. Showing agents, buyers agents, listing agents, and inside sales agents. Who to hire, when to hire, how to pay them, and what they should do every day.Step 7: The boring stuff. Systems, technology, team contracts, team expectations, accountability, and financials that each individually are worth the full price of admission.Step 8: Leadership. How to hire, retain, and grow leadership starting with you first and then your people. Where to find talent, what does talent look like, and how to succeed through people.Step 9: Expansion and opportunities. How to leverage an existing business to build new businesses and how to expand what you have built into neighboring cities, counties, states, and countries.Step 10: Work-life balance, wealth-building, and legacy. Why is this worth it? Why your family will thank you for this. How to put it all together to build a life by design.Closing Thoughts and Take Aways with Brad Inman and Ben.5:00 - 6:00 - Meet and greet, networking and mastermind.This event has a 100% money-back guarantee. If you are not satisfied and fired up by lunch, you can leave and get a full refund.Warning: This is not a normal conference. This is a full-day training event complete with a manual, tangible takeaways, and real-life applications and examples. This class is for agents who want to build a team, already have one but want to do it better, and for those who have dreamed of building and thinking bigger. You will laugh, you will probably cry, and you will never have had a full day class go by so quickly and leave so fulfilled.VIP Includes: Early access to venue, preferred seating, Zero to a Thousand swag, and 3 months of group coaching calls and Q & A with Ben Kinney.
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Posted: June 18, 2018, 5:16 pm
On December 15th, we released a new version of profile pages on ActiveRain. The primary focus of this redesign effort was to make your profile pages more mobile friendly, to enhance some of the SEO elements on the pages and to elevate your blog posts to a more prominent position on the profiles. Given that about 13% of the traffic in a given month on ActiveRain ends up on your profile, and thousands of our members are being found each month based on searches for their name, and almost 45% of the traffic on the profiles is from mobile devices, we felt that giving creating a better profile experience was important for our members and the people visiting your profiles. Here are some of the things we would like to share about this new design:Building the Site Based on Components: One of the large undertakings, as it relates to our development efforts, is to use the concept of components when we design new pages on the site. The idea with components, is they can easily be moved around and upgraded as additional features are added to the site. What you see today on the profiles is not the end of the road. Over time, as we come up with new ideas, it will become much (MUCH) easier for us to use the new design and add additional components to the page. This gives us a ton more flexibility as we move forward, since we have set a solid foundation upon which to build. Previous designs on ActiveRain were more stand-alone, meaning the design you saw was the design you were always going to see, unless a major remodel was done. The new component based design will allow us to make incremental changes moving forward based on behavior on the site, and also based on new ideas that we want to try. This might not seem like a huge deal, but it is and it will dramatically decrease the time it takes us to build in new aspects to the site. This has currently been completed on the home page and the profiles. We will continue to use this same design concept as we move to other pages on the site. Mobile Responsive:Now, your profile pages will be mobile responsive. When they are displayed on a phone or tablet, they will automatically resize to fit the screen. Previously, there was a simple design that displayed on mobile and didn't give a visitor the full experience of the profile. This old design is still in place on mobile devices for a short while, but the new desktop design will shortly roll out across mobile platforms as well and bring with it a better experience interacting with your profile on mobile.(note, to see the new mobile responsive design, you would navigate to your profile on a mobile device, then you would need to go the bottom of the page and hit the 'show desktop version' link. In about a week, it will all be one display and there will no longer be a different desktop and mobile experience on profiles)
(a couple of example views of profiles from an iPhone)Note: You are not currently able to edit your profiles from a mobile device. This is best acheieved (or really only achieved) from a desktop browser.SEO Friendly: Some enhancements have been made to the profile pages to make them more SEO friendly. They include:Page Description: One key element of your new profile, that was present on the old profile, but not fully utilized, is the quote block. Now, that quote block will serve as the page description for your profile. A good example of the use of that area would be "Specializing in helping first time homebuyers find the perfect home in Seattle WA". What do you do? What do you specialize in? Where do you do it? Think about these things when adding your quote. If you decide to use something more light, just know that it will become the page description for your profile. Rework of Meta Data: Our SEO team spent some solid time reworking some bad meta data on the profile pages. Meta Data allows the search engines to more easily index a page. The new profile pages have been updated to include the most recent meta data code to serve to search engines that are crawling your profiles. Adding back bread crumbs: Bread crumbs are those little blue links you will now see at the top of your profile (image below). They give easy links back to the home page, and the state, county and city pages where your profile is set up. These give search engines easy navigation to be able to send their spiders deeper and deeper into the ActiveRain site. These had been removed in a previous profile design yet were determined to be an intregal part of the overall site SEO.
Your Recent And Popular Posts Now Showcased on Profiles: Just below the 'get to know' section of your profile, you will now see your most recent and most popular posts displayed. This gives someone who may have seeked out your profile (maybe they googled your name after coming across your marketing offline) an ability to easily access your most recent and most popular blog posts. Since many times consumers are entering the site and landing directly on your profile, we wanted to make sure that your expertise was front and center on your profiles in a way that we have never showcased before.
Making Video More Relevant:For some time you've been able to add a video to your profile page. However, in the past it was totally tucked at the bottom of the page. Today, your video moves up the page into a more prominent position. It still sits under your blogs (we are a blogging community), but it no longer lags all the way at the bottom of the page. Contact Call To Action: If someone wants to contact you, we believe it will be pretty obvious how they do it. The dominant color element at the top of the profile is the orange contact button. Clicking that will give someone the chance to call you, email you, or be directed to your website using the 'learn more' button. In fact, you can direct that button to link whereever you would like it to point. (Upon landing on the page, the contact component will not be exposed until someone actually clicks the contact button)
What Should You Do Now?Head over to your profile. Take a look and see what areas you might need to update slightly. We did our best to make sure everyone's profiles will move over the data from before, but there could be some minor tweaks that need to be made. The most obvious one is going to be the cover photo. The size changed. It's not longer 600W x 200H. Instead, the new cover photo dimensions are 800W x 150H, a little wider, a little shorter. And as always, let us know your feedback. 2000 bonus points for the best feature request. Now that we have the profiles built on this component concept, it's so much easier for us to add elements to the page as we get great ideas! tell us what you would like to see on your profile? And let us know what you think. ---
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Posted: December 15, 2016, 4:59 pm
ActiveRain Launches New Home Page Design and Blog Featured ImagesOn Tuesday, September 20th, ActiveRain launched a new home page design, aimed to highlight blog images and additional content, as well as set the foundation for further remodel of the site. Our new design, puts an emphasis on a new feature, the 'Featured Image' for blog posts. In addition, it will make the home page more engaging, by bringing additional 'popular posts' as well as 'top questions' and 'recent posts' to the forefront.
Featured Images on Blog Posts and The Home PageYou now have the ability to add a 'Featured Image' to every blog post that you create. These featured images will be highlighted when your post is selected as a featured post, and also gives your blog posts a visual lead in, for every post, should you chose to use this new feature.The featured image will become a larger part of the site as we continue to remodel additional pages of the site (your blog page, the blog home page) as well as the set the stage for ActiveRain to syndicate content to other platforms. (IMPORTANT: We will be looking extra hard for content that uses the featured image when we are selecting posts to be featured on the home page. Posts without the featured image could still be featured, but you'll have a better shot if you use the featured image on your post)Featured blog images will make it much easier to send your content to social media sites by tagging that image as the default image to display when your post is shared outside of ActiveRain. In order to take advantage of the new featured image, you will upload it just below the title line of your blog post in the blog editor. For best display, you'll want to use an image with a minimum resolution of 480pixels W x 360pixels H.Color Coded TopicsYou'll begin to see when a post is featured, or when it shows up in the 'popular posts' section on the right hand side of the home page, that each post is color coded to match the topic that was selected when you created your blog post. This is the first step in allowing our members to sort content on the site based on topics in which you are most interested. In the next version of the home page, each member will be able to determine which categories (we'll call them channels) you have the most interest in, and you'll be able to sort content to only show you those specific categories. Much of the work we have been doing is setting up for some of these forward looking features on the site. Some of the colors you will see:For Professional PostsYellow - ActiveRain Community
Rust - Real Estate Best PracticesMagenta - Real Estate IndustryBlue - Real Estate Sales and Marketing(Color coming soon) - Real Estate Technology and ToolsMint - Mortgage/FinancePink - Just for funFor Consumer PostsTeal - Home BuyingDark Purple - Home SellingRed - Home ImprovementGreen - Real Estate General InformationRoyal - Real Estate Market TrendsTerracotta - Lending/FinancialOrange - Local News and EventsSky - ListingsNew Navigation Header
At the top of each page on ActiveRain, you will now see a slightly modified header. Blogs, Q&A, Products and University get the lion's share of the exposure in this new header design. You can also 'search' from this top header area (new and improved search coming soon!) as well as easily get into blog writing mode with the new 'WRITE POST' button. The flag will still show the most recent interactions people are taking with your content and display all of your notifications. Just about everything else you would ever need
can be found in the drop down menu by hovering over your small profile picture. Popular PostsThe popular posts area on the right hand side of the home page will continually serve up fresh content based on an algorithm that looks at (among other things):Number of commentsNumber of likesAmount of Traffic (or clicks on the post)Number of reBlogsNumber of sharesWhen it was writtenAnd even factors in are you a new or long time member (new members get a little extra love)This will be a great chance for some of our newer members to get discovered. It will also help our moderators find content that should be elevated to featured status based on the activity of the posts. Foundation for Next Round of DevelopmentThis round of development had many aspects that are being put in place to aid in future development efforts. Prior to this release, our site has had a massive variety in the style sheets used to layout pages. During this release, we have made major strides towards normalizing the design elements around the site. You'll continue to see work being done on this, and as such, in this current iteration, there are some styling inconsistencies. But, we are working toward complete and total consistency across the entire site. All of this to say, if you see some styling issues, please let us know. Coming SoonNext on the roadmap are updated Business Pages/ Product Profiles (and some big news on how brands will be able to use and interact on ActiveRain), updated member profiles, and the channel concept that I spoke about above (the idea that you will be able to personalize your ActiveRain experience).Play Around (starting Tuesday after the release) and Let Us Know What You ThinkWe'd love your feedback. There isn't a ton of change to functionality (with the exception of adding featured images to blog posts) but there is definitely some navigation elements that have moved. We hope that things will be easier to find as you get used to the new design. Much of the work that was done was put in place to make future development releases easier and more frequent. So hang tight, we are in for more awesome enhancements in the coming months!---
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Posted: September 19, 2016, 5:19 pm
As David wrote about last week, We recently launched our new podcast series, ActiveRain Insights for Success.
In setting out to do a podcast series, we realized that we have access to some of the smartest people in the real estate industry. Between ActiveRain's decadelong history with community and Ben Kinney's decadelong history with selling and innovating in the real estate space, we've made friends with some really amazing people.
Smart, driven, energetic, funny and hard working don't even begin to describe some of the guests we have already interviewed.......and we are just getting started!
Already, we have interviewed:
Chris Smith: Love Chris! I consider him one of the foremost hustlers in our industry (I use that term with total endearment). Chris knows how to market! As co-founder of Curyator, Chris helps 1000's of agents have a better business......and he almost got both of us to cry!
Dusty Baker: The guy just gets social media! And he's using it to build a really successful real estate business in one of the toughest markets in the country, Santa Barbara CA. And he's only 27!
Sherry Chris: Real Estate Powerhouse! Sherry is the CEO of Better Homes and Garden Real Estate LLC and one of the most well connected and hardest working people in real estate. A true innovator, Sherry never disappoints when sharing her experience with the industry.
Jay Papasan: Author extrodaniare! Jay has co-authored, with Gary Keller, some of the most successful books about real estate of all time. His most recent book, The One Thing has become a Wall Street Journal #1 best seller and is a guide to acheiving truly remarkable things in your life by focusing on the one thing, that if you do it, will make everything else in your life easier (I'm paraphrasing)
Seth Price: Marketing Genius! Chief Instigator for Placester (love that title!), Seth is leading a massive expansion of a great company, the fourth time he's been part of a team building a multi-million dollar company. (and unfortunately for you all, it's a podcast so you can't see that he is likely the best dressed people in real estate).
Chad Hyams: The Voice of Reason! And our good friend from the IMSD days, Chad is currently the Director of Growth and Productivity for the Southeast region of Keller Williams. He spends his days pouring his soul into making real estate agents have more successful lives and businesses.
Podcast Format
In each podcast, we ask (mostly the same) ten questions of each guest. Since we try to keep them under 30 minutes, and I have a big mouth and sometimes like to use it, we don't always get all ten questions in with each guest. Often, something they say will lead me to ask another question and we head down a completely different path than was planned.
After getting the first 10 or so interviews under our belt, we decided to do something a little bit different when we interview a real estate agent. Moving forward, agents will be asked the same set of four questions, very specific to the business of real estate, so that you guys can get specific insights into the business habits of some very successful agents.
Many More To Come:
We have already more interviews in the hopper with Tom Ferry, Grier Allen and Debbie Reynolds (Lots of ActiveRainers will make an appearance!). Each week we will release another podcast interview.
We'd love if you would subscribe to the podcast, which you can do from the main podcast page, or while listening to any of the individual podcasts. Or you can subscribe below.
And if you pick up something great from one of our guests, we'd love if you would share the podcast with your friends and peers in the industry!SUBSCRIBE



Bob StewartActiveRain
Make sure you check out the ActiveRain Facebook Page
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Keep Up In the Rain!














Posted: June 9, 2016, 10:58 am
Sign Up To Attend in Dallas, Thursday April 28thSign Up To Attend in Houston, Thursday and Friday April 28th and 29th (day one is Tim Heyl's Real Estate Machine, Day 2 is Ben Kinney's RE8)Sign Up To Attend in Tampa, Thursday May 5thSign Up To Attend in Orlando, Friday May 6thSign Up To Attend in Denver, Thursday and Friday May 26th and 27th (day one is Tim Heyl's Real Estate Machine, Day 2 is Ben Kinney's RE8)Sign Up To Attend in Detroit, Thursday June 16th Throughout 2009, ActiveRain hosted our RainCamp series around the country. If you were lucky enough to attend, you got to spend an entire day with Ben Kinney and me as we taught real estate agents how to market their business online.In 2015, Ben took a page from the RainCamp playbook and expanded the heck out of it. And RE8 was born. Of course, the RE stands for real estate.....and the 8?
In this new one day seminar from Ben, the 8 stands for:8 Steps to a Million-Dollar Business8 Top Sources of Buyer Leads8 Top Sources of Listing Leads8 Best Hires for Mega Agents8 Steps to a Better LifeThis is not a 'what to do' class. This is a 'how to do it' workshop.This one day workshop is a 'must-attend' if you are within a few hundred miles of any of these locations. I was fortunate enough to attend an RE8 in 2015 in Chicago. It was outstanding content. 300 agents walked away with a ton of new techniques to put to work in their business immediately. Beyond that, Ben talks about how he built a massive business in real estate and the practical examples he shares are real estate gold for any agent at any level of production. I walked away with a few things from the workshop that have helped me in my day to day business and even my life! (and I don't even sell real estate......so you'll get a ton out of this class!)I've been incredibly fortunate to have a front row seat for the last 8 years as Ben has built a truly thriving business in real estate. Now you have the chance for a front row seat if you're around any of these locations in January.Sign Up for April 28th - Dallas TXSign Up for April 28th and 29th - Houston TX (Day 1 is Tim Heyl's Real Estate Machine Class, Day 2 is Ben Kinney's RE8)Sign Up for May 5th - Tampa FLSign Up for May 6th - Orlando FLSign Up for May 26th and 27th - Denver CO (Day 1 is Tim Heyl's Real Estate Machine Class, Day 2 is Ben Kinney's RE8)Sign Up for June 16th - Detroit MI If you are not close enough to attend one of these events, stay tuned, we'll have more dates in the future in different locations around the country. And if you can think of an ActiveRainer nearby one of these locations, we'd love if you would tag them in the comments so they can join in on the learning!~Bob Stewart ActiveRain---
Keep Up In the Rain!










Posted: April 8, 2016, 7:51 am
Are you looking to up your blogging game? Join us for Blogging BootCamp where Bob Stewart will turn you into a blogging General!BootCamp is Back!
One of my favorite classes to teach over the years has been our blogging bootcamp series. I get no bigger thrill professionally than when one of our members reaches out to me to tell me how they recently closed a deal because someone found a blog post they'd written. (Or even better, they write about it in their blog and share it with the entire community!
Over the years, we've had the pleasure of sharing effective blogging techniques through our blogging bootcamp courses with thousands of agents. It's time we educate the next batch of real estate bloggers looking to land more clients via their blog!
Blogging BootCamp is a series of four classes, each last about 75 minutes, where I take you through the nitty gritty of creating blog posts designed to rank in the search engines and composed to generate more traffic to your website and leads for your business.
This particular live BootCamp experience will be broken up into four classes, with the first two classes happening this month, and the last two classes happening later in May. (In the interim, I'll be taking a short leave to care for my newborn son......who we hope will be here in the next few weeks.....but not before we get these first two classes in!)
Blogging BootCamp Session 1 - The SEO of Blogging (or How To Get Your Posts To Rank in Search Engines)
Thursday, April 14th, 10am Pacific Time (1pm Eastern Time)
In this first class, we will discuss the SEO of blogging, including:Why it's important to get 'hyper local' and what that means.
How to construct your blog post so it has the best chance of reaching the search engines and getting consumers to click on your post.
What key components of a blog post will help your blog rank better in the search engines.
What often overlooked elements can be easily added to insure that your posts have the best chance to rank.
What can you do beyond the simple act of writing and publishing your blog post that will help it rank and be found by the search engines.
Blogging BootCamp Session 2 - Lead Generation In Your Blog(or How to Insure Your Posts Get People To Do What You Want Them To Do)
Thursday, April 21st, 10am Pacific Time (1pm Eastern Time)
In this second class, we will discuss how to get your blog to generate more traffic to your website and leads for your business, including:Where should I link for the most impact?
How do I get people to consume more of my content beyond the first page they land on?
How to use visual aids to increase the chances of someone taking the action I wish them to take
What kinds of value can I offer on my blog in order to get people to give up their contact info.
Sessions 3 and 4 - May TBD
Like I said, my wife and I have a baby on the way, so sessions 3 and 4 will be determined by our son, Chase. Once he peeks into the world, we'll get sessions 3 and 4 scheduled. But you'll have plenty to put into play from these first two sessions to help you create better content with the aim of attracting more qualified clients to your real estate business via your blog.Bob StewartActiveRain
Make sure you check out the ActiveRain Facebook Page
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Keep Up In the Rain!













Posted: April 7, 2016, 10:59 am
A huge thank you to the thousands of people that were willing to take the recent survey we sent out to members of ActiveRain and the users of our sister companies Brivity and KWKLY. Your feedback goes a long ways toward helping us determine where to focus our development resources and also how we can better support our customers. We are always humbled by how willing people are to share some of their time in an effort to help guide us on the best direction for ActiveRain and our other companies We randomly selected a few people to win a free year of a few of the products, as well as some one-on-one time with Ben Kinney. Here are the winners. Congratulations to these folks and again, a huge thank you for everyone that spent some time to help us. 1 year subscription to BrivityKaren BoyleSteve Stockton1 year subscription to Brivity ValuationsJamie MagnessJim PaulsonShadow with Ben KinneyJen StalcupCoaching call with Ben KinneyAnthony SchippaNina HollanderFree Year of Rainmaker Account on ActiveRainKathyrn SoteloMark TraskFree Year of KWKLY Text to Lead ServiceMark England
Jerry Newman
We will be reaching out to the winners early next week. However, if you see your name on this list and would like to get started sooner, please reach out to us. You can email bob@activerain.com and he can get you pointed in the right direction. Congratulations to the lucky winners and thanks again to everyone willing to help us out.---
Keep Up In the Rain!









Posted: March 14, 2016, 9:14 am








Posted: February 2, 2016, 4:32 pm
Where Ben, Bob and David discuss the vision for ActiveRain in 2016 ---
Keep Up In the Rain!









Posted: January 23, 2016, 10:06 am






Posted: January 20, 2016, 11:36 am







Posted: January 19, 2016, 3:40 pm






Posted: January 11, 2016, 3:20 pm
Throughout 2009, ActiveRain hosted our RainCamp series around the country. If you were lucky enough to attend, you got to spend an entire day with Ben Kinney and me as we taught real estate agents how to market their business online.In 2015, Ben took a page from the RainCamp playbook and expanded the heck out of it. And RE8 was born. Of course, the RE stands for real estate.....and the 8?
In this new one day seminar from Ben, the 8 stands for:8 Steps to a Million-Dollar Business8 Top Sources of Buyer Leads8 Top Sources of Listing Leads8 Best Hires for Mega Agents8 Steps to a Better LifeThis is not a 'what to do' class. This is a 'how to do it' workshop.This one day workshop is a 'must-attend' if you are within a few hundred miles of any of these locations. I was fortunate enough to attend an RE8 in 2015 in Chicago. It was outstanding content. 300 agents walked away with a ton of new techniques to put to work in their business immediately. Beyond that, Ben talks about how he built a massive business in real estate and the practical examples he shares are real estate gold for any agent at any level of production. I walked away with a few things from the workshop that have helped me in my day to day business and even my life! (and I don't even sell real estate......so you'll get a ton out of this class!)I've been incredibly fortunate to have a front row seat for the last 8 years as Ben has built a truly thriving business in real estate. Now you have the chance for a front row seat if you're around any of these locations in January.January 11th - Register Fort Hall IdahoJanuary 13th -Register for Boise IdahoJanuary 25th - Register for Linthicum Heights Maryland If you are not close enough to attend one of these January events, stay tuned, we'll have more dates in the future in different locations around the country. And if you can think of an ActiveRainer nearby one of these locations, we'd love if you would tag them in the comments so they can join in on the learning!~Bob Stewart ActiveRain---
Keep Up In the Rain!










Posted: January 8, 2016, 3:19 pm