Tips about Your ActiveRain "Settings" Page
So much has changed since my initial post from 10/07 regarding the ActiveRain "settings" page. I'm creating an updated post for our new members joining the network. To access your settings, make sure you're logged into AR, then go to your "MY HOME" link located at the top of any page. Next, click on the "Settings" link located on the left hand side of the page. I'll explain each section of the "settings" page below.
This is your Blogs Title. Be sure to give this one some thought, it is the theme of your entire Blog.
Your Blog Description. This is an important area of your "Settings Page." This is where you can add Widgets and their HTML codes to your Blog. This includes any ActiveRain Approved Widgets that are available.
This is your Blogs Description. (Text Only - NO HTML Allowed Here) This is where you should describe your Blog, it's content, and it's value to your readers, but remember the SEO opportunity. You are limited to 100 words, so focus your description and keywords. This is often times the most overlooked area by new and existing AR members. Maximize your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Allow Non-Member comments. Be sure you have this box checked, otherwise readers who are not members of Active Rain will be unable to comment on your post. Unless all your posts on your Blog are members only, I would make sure it's checked!
Sharing your comments. Your comments are already shared in the posts where you've made them. If you want other members and readers to access "All" your comments in one easy access location, you can check this box and allow them, it's your preference.
Twitter Settings. Enter your user name. Be sure it's the one you have setup on Twitter. Detailed Post Here
Add your password for automatic Twitter updates. You may also wish to tweet your "Members Only" posts. By checking the box, you are allowing your "members only" posts to be broadcast over the twitter network. If you don't currently have a twitter account, you can get one here at Twitter.com
Your Email Settings. This is a very important part of your settings page. You have to decide how you want your email notifications to work and be managed here. Do you want to get emailed every time someone adds you as an associate? What about the comments you'll receive on your Blog Posts? How about the groups you've joined, the founder or administrator can do mass emails to the group, do you want to be notified? There is even manual score and point adjustment email notifications. This is really up to each members own discretion.
Under the General Settings, the option to allow others to see when you are on-line is no longer available. This feature will be removed in a future update and release. It was available when the member count used to appear in the upper right corner of AR pages.
Reblogging Option. Reblogging allows others to "ReBlog" your posts on ActiveRain. If you check this box, other members will have to option to Reblog your content on their ActiveRain Blog posts. To find out more about Reblogging and how it works. Click Here.
Hit Router Settings. This is one of the Super-Power features on ActiveRain. Over 100,000 consumers use this per month on average. The Hit Router allows consumers to search specific geographic areas for homes from nearly every Blog post and AR profile. Be sure to setup your Hit Router, maximize Hit Router and create your Market Area Campaigns when you leave this post. This is a great lead generation tool for directing traffic and visitors to your IDX sites and listings. Here's some important information about Hit Router you'll want to know about.
The Final and MOST IMPORTANT TIP HERE: Don't forget to click on the 
after making changes.
A--------C---------T---------I---------V-----------E-----------R------------A------------I-------------N
This next section is actually part of your "My Home" page, but let's cover it while we're here.
My Comments. Here's where you can go back and track every comment you have ever made on Active Rain. Use the "My Comments" link to go directly to any post you have ever made a comment on.
Notifications. This is a new feature that allows you to review comments made when you've checked the "Notify Me Of Comments" on another members post. They can also be deleted from the list here.
Points Summary. This is a breakdown of points earned. It shows your total points on Featured Posts, comments, regular points, inviting new members etc. ONLY YOU can see the breakdown of your individual points.
Statistics. How many comments do you receive? How many views do you get on your post? How many clicks are your posts getting? It's all on this page. Another great feature of the Statistics page is that you can see every post you've ever submitted on AR. Using the stats page will help you determine many things about your Blog and posts.
Associations. These are other members that have added "YOU" as an associate. When you add someone as an associate, don't forget to put a comment in the box at the bottom of the page. When someone adds you as an associate, hopefully, you'll reciprocate. In my opinion, this is one of the best reference and referral here.
Invite Others. Use this link to send an invitation to someone who is NOT currently a member. When you invite other Real Estate Professionals, and they accept, you will be credited for their membership and get a percentage of points for everything they do on AR. You can also send an invitation outside of AR, just be sure to use the proper link so you can get credit for inviting them.
Blog Bookmarks. This will take you to ALL the posts you have bookmarked on AR. We all get the comments from members that say "I've Bookmarked Your Post!" This is so they can be referred back to at a later time.
Link To ActiveRain. This page will give you the options and graphics to place links and images on other websites and Blogs. It allows you to promote your Blog and membership here at AR. You can use these HTML codes on most outside websites and Blogs.
Review Pending Outside Blog Posts. Another new feature, this allows you to deny or approve other members posts to your Outside ActiveBlogs. Depending on how you setup the admin rights will determine how you end up using this feature. You can find out more about Multi-Authored Outside Blogs here.
Feel free to modify your AR settings anytime. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of what each of these areas and links covers. If you have any questions on how to do ANYTHING here on ActiveRain, there are hundreds of instructional posts available that I can point you to, or you can just ask me, and I'll find you the answer. Thanks and Enjoy!
Brad - This post is full of some serious information, I have book-marked it and thanks buddy!
VB
Hi Brad...Well Lots of Detail, thought and time in this instruction Blog post on Editing your Active Rain Setting Page..I think I better review this, there are some new Features.
Cheers, Thanks!
Thanks for the post.
I'll have to look into each of these to make sure I'm taking advantage.
Brad, I need to spend a little time on #10. The hit router is a important part for doing all of this.
Thanks for this post. . .I need to check my settings and updated them using this post as reference.
Thanks you very much for the information. I do need to check the settings!
Thanks Brad for all of the good information and the refresher course. I know I need one every now and then.
Brad, Thanks, I am going to go the settings page and get it up to date. As always, another informative post. We appreciate it.
Brad, thanks for the update and this will serve as a reminder for me to check out my settings.
Since I didn't get it figured out my first year of membership, I decided not to ask about the BOOKMARKING feature, and have never figured it out. What a relief now to have this info LOL! Thanks, Brad. You rock, of course, as always. :-)
Thanks Brad...it is probably a good idea to go check settings. It has been quite a long time and it is probably a good thing to look at every so often. Keith
Brad, is there anyway we can write a customized twitter? I hate the way the one is now.
I stopped doing them for awhile, then went back and I noticed my stat's from Twitter kept going down.
But, I would like to cutomize it.
Good info here. Spoke with a new member last week who subscribed to your posts. This is why!
Thanks for the update!
This post is timely and is a great "how to" !!!
Brad, Thanks for the post. There are a few changes I need to make .
Always benefit from your tips, Brad!
Bookmarks - Is there a limit? Seems I never exceed a single page although I swear I should have a book by now!
Brad, thanks for the review, will be looking at my settings again soon after seeing your tutorial.
Brad,
I have to go back and repair some links on my page. Thanks for the post!
Mike in Tucson
Outstanding tutorial Brad! This is fantastic for anyone who has just joined.
Thanks for the info. I have been considering adding widgets to my page and this is very helpful.
Thanks for the reminder on hit router. I have a new IDX solution going up next week and I will be sure to set this and thanks.
Brad...
Oh wow, I didn't realize that a lot of these changes were made. I have to go and check it all out for myself!
Thanks for the helpful info, Brad. Even after being here for several months, I am still working on figuring things out. Your posts move me along the learning curve everytime.
As always, great advice. This needs to be part of the "Welcome" to new members. It would have got us started quicker.
It sure has changed. I try to check it every once in a while, but after reading your post, I better go check it again. Thanks!
Quick question . HOW do I bookmark this Blog ????????????
Brad, thanks for the tutorial and the reminder to check my Settings page again.
Brsd,
Thanks for the info, being somewhat new I am still in the learning stages.
Brad, Always good to revisit these types of things. Thanks for the reminder!
Thank you, Brad. I will need to explore all of this this morning.
Thank you! I had been lost on the blog descriptions. Now it's so much clearer. I can't wait to change things.
Thanks Brad,
I'm new to ActiveRain and this was very helpful. Good stuff!
I hope this gets in front of the "newbie's" eyes - great stuff.
Great info, even for me - You guys are doing a great job at keeping AR on the cutting edge!
This is great! Big help.
Thanks a bunch Brad ... more things to add to my to-do list.
Thank you for taking time to update this. I think I have most of it figured out other than the middle Blog Spot area where you enter the html for widgets. Will get to work on that. Thank you!
Thank You Brad!
I was unsure about that page! I will have to try it again! I will book mark it so I can take the time to go back to it!
Judy
Thanks Brad. I like the posts with step by step instructions. Now I just have to find some applications to add to my sidebar. I had some, but I removed them because it seemed to slow down my page upload.
Brad - Glad to see you back or are you back yet and doing this from the comfort of your beach view?
Thanks for this update I will be having to go in and update some settings as well. Cool! Hope your well after your vaca!
Good Morning Brad,
You know I'm always looking for tips and help so this is very informative. Thanks for getting out to us here on AR today
Patricia Aulson/portsmouth nh real estate
Brad
Thanks for the current tips.
You're posts are always so helpful. I always look forward to new ones.
Thanks!!
Excellent Brad. I just returned to AR after over a year. Things have changed (besides the increased number of people on the site of course). Thanks for all this information. Great stuff.
Brad, a thorough review on Settings. I will have to take what you have given us and review that whole page. Thanks.
Great stuff, Brad
Great stuff! How long did it take you to put together this post? Whew!
Brad - thanks! Just realized I never went back to update my Twitter username after I changed it!
Brad, Bravo, Bravo, thanks for helping us to become the professionals we need to be...Great job!
Brad - This is a very useful post for us. I couldn't figure out what some of the settings were beforehand.
These posts are so helpful as it makes members stop and rethink if they are using AR as they should. I did get a couple points that I need to change. A couple may not sound like much, but that is a couple that I would not have done w/o the blog. Cheers.......
Brad, thanks for the step by step help. I am going to make some changes after leaving this comment.
Brad, I knew I was going to bookmark this before I finished reading it. Definitely going back to my Settings and reviewing everything. Thanks for a much needed refresher course!
Brad..this is a great update...as usual = great job!
Brad, is there anyway we can write a customized twitter? I hate the way the one is now.
I stopped doing them for awhile, then went back and I noticed my stat's from Twitter kept going down.
But, I would like to cutomize it.
Yes Missy - turn off your twitter auto-notification tweet, then just tweet it yourself.
They look like this when you use the auto-post feature.
There is currently no way to modify the tweet using the twitter options feature on AR. Maybe we can create a customizable way for members to edit the tweet before posting to twitter, that would be cool.
Bookmarks - Is there a limit? Seems I never exceed a single page although I swear I should have a book by now!
Irene - there is no limit to how many bookmarks you can have saved and stored on AR. Bookmark away... :-)
Quick question . HOW do I bookmark this Blog ????????????
Michael - you can bookmark any members post by clicking on the Book icon at the bottom of any post, it looks like this.
Thanks as always, Brad. I signed up in a hurry several months ago and didn't give a lot of thought to my blog title. Now I think I will!
How do you reset your password?
Fred - to reset your password:
1. Login to ActiveRain
2. Click on "My Home" link (upper right corner of screen)
3. Click on the "Edit" link next to "Profile" located on the left hand sidebar
4. Click the link "Change Password" located at the top of page
Hope that helps you out. :-)
Blog-n-Roll Brad...
I've been romping around and I have to tell you these Tutorials of yours are amazing. I'm not very good with Tutorials but I am good at bossing people around :)
TLW...ROAR!
TLW - are you gonna make me go chasin you around my Blog posts now? At least you didn't pick the one that takes 5 minutes to load! LOL~ Here's a link that may help for some tutorials posts, I know you've seen it already, but please, don't feel compelled to comment on each of them!!!! ROFLMAO!
Blogin-n-Rollin out.... ( I like that ) :-))))
I must admit that I joined AR quite some time ago, but only recently at the urging of another local blogger, I decided to start where I should have started a long time ago: Right here at getting started.
Brad, how do you retrieve a draft blog post? I started one, was intrupted, save it as a draft, and now I can't find it.
Hi Marianne - The network automatically saves your draft posts every minute or so. When you come back to your Blog, it should be the most recent post that will appear. If it doesn't, chances are it wasn't saved. Hopefully, you have found it by the time you read this comment.
No, I haven't found it. I guess I didn't save it. If I save it as a draft, will others be able to see it? Probably not, but I would find it by going to "My Blog," right? Thanks.
Other members can't see your posts saved in draft mode, and yes, you'll find all your posts by going to your blog. :-)
This is a very useful post for us newbies.
Thanks. Very useful information. I thought all the blogs were outside (public) blogs so I'll need to read more to understand the difference. I'm confused on that one.
I am bookmarking this page, a ton of valuable information. Thanks.
Brad, very useful info for us since we just recently joined the AR
Just what I needed thanks Brad
I am working on this - thanks for the ideas.
Brad, as always, I appreciate all the technical help you are giving. Thanks. Charlie Gantz, Greenwood, IN; J.D., M.B.A.; owner/principal owner, Atlas Commercial Real Estate, LLC
Wow - thanks so much --- I need all the advice I can get!
Good day to you all - Activerain.com Newbie onboard, just slowly finding my way around. Great site.
Hi Richard - thanks. If you need any assistance, there is lots of help and direction from other members onboard. You can always get info at ActiveRainGuide.com, or the Help/FAQ Group (link at bottom of every AR page) and there's also my profile page here on AR. I have a link to an eBook Guide if you need it. Welcome aboard, enjoy!! :-)
Thanks brad... great post. I'm still learing how this all works and this helps a lot.
Hey Richard, happy to help. Have a great New Year! :-)
Hi Brad, I'm just a month old here at Active Rain. I'm moving forward but things are still getting mixed up. I have been blogging by clicking on Write a blog post and then clicking on the choices at the bottom of the blog. i didn't know about the Settings! Today I used the Settings to insert a postlet in my side bar. I was successful but now seem to have the Postlet HTML permanently on the blog description in Settings. How do I keep the postlet but move the HTML? Thank you, Margaret C.
Hi Margaret, I'll have to check out your Blog and sidebar to try and determine what's going on. It may just be that the postlet widget you selected is the wrong one or the wrong size for your sidebar. You shouldn't ever try to install any widget to your sidebar that is larger than about 200-220 wide, otherwise it will blowout your sidebar and it will look funny. I'll take a look at it for you and see if I can figure out why that's happening. :-)
OK... I just checked it out and it looks fine now, you must have figured it out and fixed it already. Great job! Happy New Year!
Brad - Thanks for the help. I never knew what to put in the Blog description box or what it was for.
I don't ever expect to catch up with technology. but your post is a big helping hand in that direction.
Thanks for the advice. The help is appreciated by us, as new members especially. We will continue to update and improve our settings page!
Brad,
How do you customize the background picture and banner?
Tere
Tere - go to your "My Home" link, and click on "Customize" link on the left hand sidebar of the page.
You can add your header/banner, background picture, and change colors there. :-))
Hello Brad,
I was looking information on help section, I found your information about the setting, I have a problem with my Blog, my picture and my information has been pushed down to the middle of the page. I don't know if I have deleted the widgets by mistake. I have no idea how i can place it back on right top corner. If you can help me please and Thank you. : )
Hi Brad, thanks for all the helpful info. Now I need some real help. Since Feb 5, I have not been receiving any of my daily emails from active rain... and I miss them! A couple of days prior to the 5th, I received an Active Rain email advising us to white list the active rain email address so that emails would continue. I did that. I also checked my Active Rain settings and I do have everything checked. Why am no longer getting any of my Active Rain emails? Please adivse.
Great pointers for getting started, thanks for the directions.
Great pointers for getting started, thanks for the directions.
Thank you for this valuable information.
Thank you, I'm working on it! I'll need to read through all the comments to figure out if there's an easy way to do the blog description in HTML and Widgets. I've looked at some of your links, but is there a go to spot for folks like me who don't have a clue about it?
Hi Carina - there is, if you go to ActiveRainManual.com, you'll find all sorts of helpful posts around most segments of ActiveRain and the community. If you don't find what you need there, let me know and I'll add it. :-))
Great Instructions and Information. I have Bookmarked it to rereview and rereview and rereview. Thanks for all you do.
Thanks Mary - I really appreciate that! :-)
I really feel like I have looked everywhere and have not found what I want. I just want to get my picture to show with my comments and I have searched, searched and searched for Personal Picture Plus Comments!!! What gets your picture to show up next to your comments. I can't believe I cannot find any reference to this and feel like the only person on the planet who does not know how to get their picture next to their comments!!!
Hi Mary - your photo will appear in the comments when you become a rainmaker member or have 10,000 points. It is in a post located in the ActiveRain Manual at http://activerainmanual.com. :-)
Thanks I will set my blog step by step.
I'm a Rain Newbee so very helpful! Thank you!
Thanks,
I updated my settings and I am ready for action.
Let's hope this puts me in the technological forefront.
Real estate is for strong people who strive to succeed.
Very valuable info!!!
Thanks for the help!
Whoa, lots to learn here. Here I go!
A lot to learn as others have said.. But much of this I already had set up. I paid for a Rainmaker today.. Will see how that helps if it does. Kind of an experiment although an expensive one. Yet to have any direct real estate activity although while a broker owner, I did have a jerk attorney us activerain as the legal method to serve me for a law suit !! And the court accepted it..
My head is a-spinning right now as I try to get my blog set up!! 8) I hope it gets easier cause I'm really confused and I am actually tech savvy!!
In a meeting last week with about 15 people I told them all about Active Rain and to check it out. Didn't know about the link to invite people. Such great information! I'll send them out an email today for any stragglers who haven't joined yet. Thanks for all the detail. This is very helpful.
Good Information. I guess it is time to get started with this stuff.
This is some great information. I am sure I will have to look over it many times. Thanks so much for creating the step by step for those of us new to the site.
Such helpful information, but my head is swimming and I am done for the day! Bookmarked the page and will pick this up when my eyes can focus again! :)
This is a very user friendly site. It is so refreshing to everything so intuitive as well as explained in great detail. Thank you.
Once again very helpful when I started a few weeks ago. My settings page is all set up! Thanks! :)
Thank you Brad for the information. I just signed on to Rainmaker and I am looking forward to maximizing the tools!
Thank you so much for all of the wonderful information! I'm a a Rainmaker Newbie and I can't wait to utilize all these wonderful tools! :D
Thanks for all the tips on getting started. In this market, with so much to focus on, it is nice to have a guide to help me learn the ropes.
Looks like I have some homework to do. I have made most of these changes, but there is some work ahead for me. thanks for this very helpful and informative post.
Brad,
The information in how to get up and running is great. However can you explain to me the benefits of an outside blog? i already have one through Blogger that I have been using why would I pay for one through AR?