I would venture to say that quite a few of you out there have decided to take your blogging experience to the next level and go about setting up your own outside blog. The ability to customize the look and feel of your own blog and to have something that is uniquely yours is the natural progression of blogging on ActiveRain.
Today, we released an internal beta version of our outside blog platform. We currently have about 15 ActiveRain members testing the functionality of it and giving us feedback on a variety of topics. We tried to pick 15 members of varying skill level and acclamation to ActiveRain. We have members who have been here over a year, we have one that has been here for all of a week. We have members that have just learned how to use pictures on their AR blog, we have members that are constantly challenging our programmers by being ahead of the curve. The hope is that we will be able to provide a platform that is easily adoptable by our members, new and old.
A few of the highlights of our outside blog platform:
- You will be able to host your blog on your own domain. For example, you can have your posts feed to bobisgreat.com if you own that domain.
- You will be able to customize the look and feel of your blog.
- It's easy to set up your outside blog. You can be up and running in less than 15 minutes.
- You will be able to build your posts in ActiveRain. You won't have to learn a new platform.
- You will be able to decide where you want your posts to publish. Do you just want your outside blog to be about local content pertinent to your local market? You will be able to decide which posts go where. Send your local market reports to your outside blog. Send your real estate industry related posts to ActiveRain. The choice is yours.
- You will be able to benefit from the SEO knowledge and power of ActiveRain.
- You will be able to brand your own blog while at the same time staying connected with the ActiveRain community. Your comments will be syndicated between your ActiveRain blog and your outside blog.
**above is a screen shot of a portion of the user interface.
Our beta testers are giving us a run for our money. They have already found some bugs for us to fix, and given us some great overall feedback. With their help, we hope to have this platform available for everyone by the first week of next year!!
Here are some samples of our outside blog platform. Please note that there could be a bug or two, and these blogs may temporarily go offline from time to time. :)
(we'll be adding more once they are up and running)
Stay tuned to my blog and Jon's blog for updates and some great specials we will be having around our outside blog platform.
Friends, followers, and connections are the way of the future.
Make sure you check out some of our Facebook Fan Pages Too!
Faina,
Those won't be in our initial release, but they are both great ideas that we have considered for future versions.
Missy,
not yet.............
Vicky,
we think we are keeping it pretty simple. Once you get it set up (which isn't tough at all) you are running it on the same ActiveRain platform, so nothing new to learn there.
Okay....gotta check this out. And in the meantime.....is someone going to teach me how to feed this into my website? Cool. Now does this have anything to do with Localism? Is Localism playing any part in this? Is this totally different and kind of like a blogspot thing?
You know me Bob...new stuff ...ask bob :)
Sally,
"feeding it" into your own site is relatively easy. All you will need to do is point your DNS records to a different place. Your hosting company will be able to do this with little problem.
This will be separate from localism. It will be your own site............check out the demo's. (or it can be a subdomain of AR...............jon.activerain.com for instance.)
Dan,
Yes, in January when we launch it wide scale, you will be able to register a domain through ActiveRain.
Bob here
Bob, This is awesome news!!! I do have an outside blog on wordpress and it is a little hard to configure. I so love the AR format so this is great! I can't wait to see more. I can't see the screen shot very well - are there "formats" to choose from? Thanks again for all the "stuff"
This looks interesting. I still haven't gotten the jist of the SEO, still evolving as a blogger, looking forward to this as well.
Heather
Awesome, you guys just keep providing us with more opportunities to grow. Thanks a bunch.
Hi Bob - interesting things going on! One thing I didn't care for when I went to both of the sites you have in your post is that it tried to place cookies on my computer when I went to check them out. Anyway that can be done away with?
Ann
very cool! I can't wait to try it out, and get it to all of our agents in the company!
Jeff Lund
Director of training and technology
Scratch one item off my AR Christmas list!!!!!!
Santa Bob, you still got 9 more items to go! (Tappin' foot!)
John,
Headers are customizable, and we have the functionality in place to allow users to customize stylesheets, but we are not sure if we want to make that option available for the initial release. We only have so many customer support people on staff right now (1) and we want to do everything possible to make the product as user friendly (break-proof) as possible.Jo,
Yes, there are predesigned 'formats' or you can design your own.
Ann,
I may have to ask Matt or Ben to weigh in on that.
Tom,
It will be worth (at least) ten times more than we charge for it :)
Sally,
Of course you can
Bob,
well said!! Don't get confused.............I spell mine B-o-b............haha
Great idea! Can't wait to implement it. I especially like the ability to post localism type posts to it and keep your AR related ones here. What will you all think of next? So glad you didn't sell yourselves!
It just gets better and better at AR.
Keep up the good work!
Ok Bob. I'm in. Now... about that post you put up about the 'thread' today, then removed before I had a chance to read it - what was that all about?
And can you? (you know...)
Bob - Nice service to offer here. If it would have been available a year ago, it would have saved me many headaches with WordPress. Customizing one of their themes exceeded by tech ability, or my interest in learning what I needed to know to do it.
best
For those wanting to feed their blog to their website, before the Outside Blog gets up, check out the article here This works very well! You can set up as RSS feed from your blog to your own website with a few simple clicks.
Bob,
This is good stuff I can not wait until it is rolled out to the masses, I would love to put my AR blog on my site.
Take care!
RJH
Brian,
I won't take offense to you posting that link on my post if you don't take offense to the fact that I made the link a little simpler. (it's one of the benefits of having editing control)
Oh this is gonna get good!!! I am thinking what fun things can be done! Active Rain is rockin~
I heard about this at the AR party in Vegas, and have been waiting for you all to announce it. I had started another blog before I even joined AR, but am not happy with it and have wanted to do another on a different platform. So I'll be patient. When will we have the ability to categorize? That is something that is very important to me personally....
Thanks, and Bob? Stop spoiling that boy of yours! :)
Hi Bob: What a cool new development. And all those things you mentioned as being features of your new platform. If I had any idea of what you were talking about, I would have probably enjoyed your post even more. LOL.
Actually, I am not that bad. Best of all... I learn at least one new thing every day here on Active Rain. It is such a great learning source. Just think, in another twelve or thirteen years, I will really have this thing down pretty well. Hey, ya just can't stop progress, can ya ? Thanks for sharing, Bob.
Now it's time to go back up to your post, and follow all the links and learn even more. Cool !
I am very interested in continuing to read on this blog...I am going to subsribe to it so I can read more on it later...Thanks For This Post!
I really like the idea of an outside blog... sometimes it feels like we are "preaching to the choir". It was for that reason I went outside.
I will be interested to know/see if it will work with my existing outside blog on blogger.
Me
Bob,
Is it based on Linx or Microsoft? Okay we will wait and see. Thanks for the information.
Really nice looking and clean. Awesome...when you do expect full roll out? This is a great idea...one of my outside blogs is junko...it loads slow....sometimes it's down. With the paid version coming into play what happens with our current stuff? What differences will be there between the paid vs. the standard? Will we loose any functionality when the paid is rolled out?
Now if we post on the paid version...even though its separate from localism....if we select will it show up there still? Congrats...guys...this is very exciting...
Bob,
With a captive audience this goes hand and hand with A/R and it`s members. Great marketing idea.
Bob, so you are going to go head to head with Blogger and Worpress and Typepad? I use both Blogger and Wordpress for outside blogs. Can you please outline what advantages you will have over these experience competitors?
Thanks for continued innovation.
Hi Bob,
This is exciting news, looking forward to it. :)
Sounds great. But keep it not too complicated. Maybe roll it out in phases.
Answers my questions about setting up another blog in my recent post. Great idea, can't wait to see what I can do with this new set up.
Sorry for not following this more closely last night and being able to answer every question directly. I will try to answer a few, and you are free to call me and ask any questions that don't get covered. 425.216.2754
This new platform will be available to all members in the first week of 2008.
A couple of people asked about being able to import posts from your current outside blog into the new platform. This will not be an option in the first release although we are exploring ways to be able to syndicate from your current outside blog. This is something that we have gotten quite a bit of feedback from prior to our outside blog platform, it's just a matter of freeing up the programming time to do it.
Being able to categorize your posts will be something that will be a part of version 2 and not available right out of the gates.
Dan,
As far as advantages over the current options available..............a key advantage will be it's association with ActiveRain which manifests itself in greater SEO and a more active blog. In addition, for members with little experience outside of ActiveRain, there will be very little learning curve. Set up time can be as little as 15 minutes. (One of our beta testers had his up and running in 10, although there is enough stuff to play with that he has been back in making adjustments here and there).
Midori asked a great question regarding the current "stuff". You will not lose ANY of your current functionality with ActiveRain. You will be able to select exactly where you want your posts to appear. AR, localism, and your outside blog will all be options, or any combination of the three. The main difference between the paid and the standard will be the ability to customize the look and feel. You've been somewhat limited thus far in your ability to brand your blog.
Price..................we haven't set a definitive price point yet. I made a comment to someone above that we believe it will be worth ten times more than we charge for it :) It will end up being less per month than you spend on coffee in a week (at least if your town has been invaded by Starbucks like our great state)
If I didn't answer your question please feel free to call me and discuss it.
Hi Bob...
I am going to have to park and unpack :)
But...I'll be back. This is exciting news :)
TLW...ROAR!
Wow! You got 100 comments on this......
Patricia Aulson/Hampton NH Real Estate
For those interested... here is my outside blog set to a standard, unedited template.
http://jeffturner.activerain.com/
I have been on for only about a month, by the time this is available in January I should have this down cold and be ready tgo step-up to the outside world of blogging - looking forward to it.
Question - for those of us with a fixed front page (franchise website) can we still be able to make a link disceranble enough to make prospective clients want to click through?
I was starting my outside blog this evening... now you are giving me something to think about (I had no visions of running away from AR).
Count me in as a potential user of this added feature... I'm chomping at the bit to try it!
Looks great, Bob ! I'm very interested in seeing what the outside blog platform will be like. Right now I use Blogger and Wordpress (not overly active on either of them) and it will be fun to see what the AR platform will be like. I like the fact that it is directly compatible with our AR blogs here.
((-:
Jo
I can't wait to try it out too! I wish I had been picked for the test drive :(
Please release it soon!
Cool, can't waite to be able to blog on and on and on with my own blog.
Take care!
RJH
Keep me in the loop! I have a new blogging website and a static website... I'd like to revamp the static website.
Thank you...
I just hope that those of us that continue to use the free version and not the upgraded version still are able to mantain our second place postions even if we choose not to upgrade to the next level.
If not, that just wouldn't be fair.
Hi Chuck: I am sure Bob is very busy, so I will answer for him. As for Mass availability... Masses at St Patrick's Cathedral are as follows: on Saturdays at 6:00pm.
The Sunday Mass schedule is 6:30am, 8:00am, 9:30am, 11:00am and 12:30pm. The 6:30am Sunday Mass is in Latin. Confessions are held on Saturdays from 2:00pm until 4:30pm... longer times are available during the Knicks losing streaks. Please see your Parish Bulletin for other days and times.
Father Bob and the Good Sisters thank you for your interest.
Mass availability:
We are still shooting for the first week of January. After a meeting with the team just minutes ago, it looks like Jan. 7th (a Monday) is the tentative release date. We'll have a separate post coming in the first couple days of January to firm that up.......
We had some hiccups with one of the things components we aren't very good at.......charging :)
Right now we are shooting for the end of the month............two weeks from now :)
Oh My!! Awesome.. What's next?
Espanol version??? Yay, there's more RAIN for all of us, thanks guys.
Bob - Any word on the outside blogs?
Thanks.
-Al
Still interested... any progress?
Hi Bob I have my own domain name for my outside blog. ( homesearchnewcastle.com)
The only templates that work on my blog are the first 2 ( without the custom header) I have been trying for hours to upload a fall header from my photos. I went to picnik resized it to 742x105 saved it to jpeg file but everytime I tried to upload the header, I get an error message. Does having an outside domain name have anything to do with it. Why the error? thanks
ps the header works when I post to . my member's only blog but I can't get it on the outside blog
Bob I am not able to load my customized header that I have on my AR blog. I thought it was because I didn't join to pay the $19. per month, so I did that...The header, that I had no problem loading was a winter scene and I wanted to change it. I still can't ....Also I can not figure why there is a huge amount of wasted space before the first blogs shows up.
I now have a generic header but I really want the header that is on my AR blog. I have problems resizing photos
( photobucket) 960x134 my pictures will not let me resize anything higher than 500. Help please.........I just noticed the last response to your blog was from me...imagine that and in the fall no less.................
Anything you guys can do to put additional tools in a central place is very helpful.