This post by Lenn is right on target --- she has a lot of excellent information. Thanks, Lenn.
ACTIVERAIN HAS MUCHO MOJO!
Inspired by a post by Robert Swetz about ActiveRain losing gas, I thought a comparison of other real estate related web sites was in order.
- WHY ARE YOU AN ACTIVERAIN MEMBER? Your motivation for membership may influence your opinion about the present day status of ActiveRain on the Interent.
- ACTIVE MEMBER - You probably realize the value of regular posting to ActiveRain.
- ACTIVE MEMBER BUT ONLY POST TO MEMBERS ONLY - Perhaps blogging is a vehicle for personal expression.
- ACTIVE MEMBER BUT POST PRIMARILY TO LOCALISM - Use ActiveRain for business generation and don't really care about the personal expression.
- MEMBER BUT NOT ACTIVE - You may not realize the benefit of Active Membership. Invited by a member but not really interested in blogging.
When I read a post about ActiveRain losing gas, or as often expressed, losing Google juice, I always want to ask, compared to what? I'm not sure that ActiveRain is
- losing gas,
- losing rank, or
- losing status as a premier real estate realted blog.
COMPARED TO OTHER REAL ESTATE WEB SITES, two measurements that I use to determine Interent synerby are pages indexed by Google and Google backlinks. Pages indexed by Google represents opportunities for a Google return in a consumer search. Number of backlinks represents the popularity of a site, used by Google for page rank. Compare the following:
Pages Indexed ActiveRain.com 951,000 Realtor.com 2,950,000 Inman.com 36,000 Housevalues.com 309 Zillow.com 2,380,000 Homagain 2,140,000 Realtor.org 37,300 Trulia.com 4,300,000 Backlinks ActiveRain.com 1,670 Realtor.com 4,130 Inman.com 1,930 Housevalues.com 59 Zillow.com 3,860 Homegain.com 1,060 Realtor.org 2,900 Trulia.com 3,190 With a membership of 151,552, as of this a.m., ActiveRain has 951,000 pages indexed. If you are posting regularly to ActiveRain PUPLIC pages, Google is going to crawl your post.
EXAMPLE: My post SELLING A HOME IS A VOLUNTARY DECISION - OR, IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO TO THE CLOSING TABLE was posted on July 2, 2009 @ 6:58 a.m. It was indexed by Google on July 2, 2009 @ 12:51 GMT. This is the result I see regularly. My Localism posts, all PUBLIC are indexed within minutes of publication.
THAT IS GOOGLE JUICE! I do not believe that ActiveRain is losing gas.
*This number does not represent the total Google backlinks, only major ones are reported.
Hi Liz, I agree with this Lenn thought, that Active Rain does still have momentum going for it.
Gary --- thanks for stopping by -- yes, we are on the same page.