ActiveRain - The Official ActiveBlog

Today's question to the ActiveRain Help Desk comes from Tony Anderson with Century 21 Community Realty In Northeast Georgia, serving clients in Habersham, White, Banks, and Hall Counties.

Tony writes:

How do I get My Profile to show up in the other cities or counties that I service?  For example I service White County in GA.  I want My Profile to show up in that county.  There are no agents servicing that area on ActiveRain. 

Thank you,
Tony Anderson

Answer:

Tony:

The way that our platform is currently configured, you can only have your profile registered in one State, County, and City. Obviously, you will want to select whichever one best represents your primary market.

Perhaps the best strategy for effectively marketing your blog to multiple counties/cities is to consistently contribute good, quality local-oriented content that is specific to each area, and tag/categorize them accordingly. Well-crafted monthly market reports are a prime example. In Tony's situation, he could create monthly market reports for Habersham, White, Banks, and Hall Counties. He could geo-target them accordingly for Localism, and push the content to the relevant County/city community pages on Localism as well. You want to make sure that each article contains good relevant key search terms that are specific to each market area - i.e., Habersham County GA Real Estate, etc..

Create a disciplined schedule/strategy of balanced writing that targets your primary market counties/cities. This way you create archives of great content that are specific to each market area you serve, and will show up in consumer searches.

Today's question from the ActiveRain Help Desk was sent in by community member, Marilynn Currie, a professional Stager in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, who asked:

Dear ActiveRain:

"I just wrote a post on my blog, and I can see it on my blog page as I wrote it, but it does not come up on the AR main blog page so other folks can read it? Do we now have to pay to have the blogs on the main page or????  On the main page there are starred blogs and others as well---  mine does not need to have a star(?) but I would like other folk to read and comment on my blog--- rather than just on my own page.  Or have I messed up in filing the blog?"
Cheers, Marilynn

Marilynn:

The reason your most recent post didn't show up on the ActiveRain Blogs Page was because you hadn't selected any categories. Whenever you publish an article using your ActiveRain Blog Publisher, you are afforded numerous options of how you want to categorize and distribute your content, depending primarily on who your intended audience is.

After you've crafted your literary masterpiece, and you're ready to publish, you'll notice a number of scrolling boxes towards the bottom of your publisher.

The first box is titled 'Visibility' and your options are Public, Associates Only, Draft, and Members Only. Most of the time, you'll be choosing Public. When you click on Associates, only those members who you have 'associated' with will be able to view it. Draft simply saves your article and allows you to come back at a later point to finish it. When you select Members Only, your post will only be available for view by the ActiveRain membership, and not the general public.

The next box is for Localism. By selecting this box, you are 'pushing' or transferring your post over to the Localism platform, where it will show up on the relevant State, County, and City pages, depending on which you specify. Make sure that when you send your posts to Localism, that your content is specifically suitable and beneficial for consumers in your local market area.

Next are the ActiveRain Channels. Simply check the primary heading (Professional or Consumer) that makes the most sense based on the nature of your article's content, and then the appropriate sub-heading. Again, your selection will be determined by the particular topic you've written about, and who your intended readership is.

The 'My Groups' box allows you to distribute your article to any relevant ActiveRain Groups you may belong to. Be sure to only contribute articles that are relevant and appropriate to the vision and purpose of each Group.

The next box, 'Categories,' is a carry-over from a previous version of our platform, and will most likely be discontiuned at some point in the near future. For now, they should correspond to what you selected in the ActiveRain Channels.

If you want to 'push' or direct your post content to your Outside, Individual, or Team Blog, then check the appropriate box.

Selecting the'Re-Blogging' box allows other members to re-publish your article on their blog, and awards you 25 points when they do so.

If you want to publish content from other Internet sources, and you have permission, then check the box that states "This is not my content, but I have permission to repost it." This allows you to do so, but does not award you points accordingly. This would apply to jokes, recipes, company newsletters, press releases, information from government websites, listings that are not your own but you have permission to promote, bible verses, poems, inspirational quotes, copied portions of your local MLS, any content that is not your own original content.