ActiveBob.....It's always Raining!

reBlogging: Whoops, there it is!!

Bob Stewart - Community Evangelist - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:07:44 -0700

Last night, with little fanfare, we launched a concept on ActiveRain called 'reBlog'. In fact, there was such little fanfare I didn't even know it was live until I woke up, reached over, grabbed my iPhone and started reading my emails. (yes, I am addicted to my iPhone, my job, my family and golf). This feature was meant to be tested and have some bugs worked out, but it accidentally slipped through to the live servers. In the first few hours, there were some components that were just not right. We are fixing those right now and the next time you see the 'reBlog' button, things will be in much better working order. Not to mention, we got some GREAT feedback right out of the gate. Sometimes being caught off guard can be a blessing in disguise.

reBlogging on ActiveRain:

According to reBlog.org:

"What is a reBlog?

A reBlog facilitates the process of filtering and republishing relevant content from many other Blogs. reBloggers subscribe to their favorite blogs, preview the content, and select their favorite posts. These posts are automatically published through their favorite blogging software."

This is a feature that will be available for members who have an ActiveRain Outside Blog. When you 'reBlog' an article, the post will be sent to your ActiveRain blog. Minimal points will be awarded when you reBlog an article. There will be a weekly cap on the amount. And reBlogging for points isn't going to provide your readers with a very valuable experience anyway. However, if your blog post is reBlogged by someone else, you will get 25 points every time up to a maximum of 500 points per post.

Every member will have the option of deciding whether or not they want their content to be available for reBlog. In your 'my settings' page, there will be an ability to opt in or opt out of the reBlog platform. If you choose to opt in, then your posts will automatically be included for reBlog. However, you will be able to opt-out on a post by post basis. If you choose to opt-out, then on each post you will be able to opt-in on a post by post basis. then you will not be able to opt-in on a post by post basis.

When you post a blog and make it available to reBlog, then a little reBlog icon will appear on the post on ActiveRain to any member who is logged in. If someone chooses to reBlog your post, they simply click on the reBlog button and they have the ability to write an introduction to the post. They may choose to write an intro or not, but once they reBlog the post, it sends that post only to their ActiveRain Outside Blog. The post is not reBlogged on their ActiveRain blog or Localism.

Member's only posts will not be available for reBlogging

Duplicate content issue: Any time someone reBlogs your post, there will be a link back to your original blog post. If you fed the post to your outside blog, the link from the reBlogged post will be a link to the original post on your outside blog. If you didn't send it to your outside blog, and the post went to Localism, the link back to the original will be a link to the post on Localism. If you only published the post to your ActiveRain blog, then the link back to the original post will be a link to your ActiveRain blog. Matt Cutts, the Google webmaster on SEO spells out that content syndication is OK if you make it clear to google who the original author was. reBlogging on AR does this by linking back to the original source.

The benefits of reBlogging someone elses post:

According to reBlog.org:

"Why should you reBlog?

reBlogs are useful to individuals who want to maintain a weblog but prefer curating content to writing original posts. They can also enable organizations to tap the contributions of their employees, members, and communities-at-large in order to easily redistribute relevant content."

Successful blogging is all about informing your reader. Over and over you will hear that business blogging is not about you, IT IS ABOUT THE CONSUMER. Providing relevant informative content should be your goal. reBlogging gives you the opportunity to bring the best content to the reader of your ActiveRain Outside Blog. Not everyone can be an expert in everything. However, in the halls of ActiveRain we have experts in just about anything real estate related. Being able to utilize the expertise of other members to inform your readers and your clients will be beneficial for everyone, especially your clients.

Think of this scenario: Little Jimmy Loan Officer is an expert on FHA. He blogs his little heart out about FHA. You just got done taking a client out for the day and they just told you that they don't have the 10% they originally thought they had, they only have 5% down. You think FHA is the way to for them and you want them to read up on FHA mortgages. You tell them to go check out your blog later tonight when they get home. You know that Little Jimmy has the best stuff on the web about FHA mortgages in his AR blog. So you jump in and grab two or three posts Jimmy has written and you add a little message to your client at the top........now your client is on your blog, reading the best info out there from LIttle Jimmy Loan officer about FHA mortgages. Not only does your client appreciate the fact that you are finding the best info on the web about FHA mortgages and delivering it to them, they associate you with Little Jimmy Loan Officer, the expert on FHA.

This could play out for information about staging, home inspections, the escrow process, or even information from a local competitor about market conditions. Delivering solid content to your readers should be the goal. You shouldn't have to know everything about everything......but your readers should be able to have that information at their fingertips......on your blog.

Would I reBlog a blog post written by a competitor in my market? Yes! If it was good information that my clientele would be interested in. Real Estate 2.0 is about client centric thinking. Your clients don't want to work with you because you are the source of original information, but because you are the source of good information that they need when they need it.

The benefits of allowing other's to reblog your posts:

In case you haven't figured this out, the name of the game is DISTRIBUTION!!! How wide of a net can you cast with the content you provide. It's the reason many blog here, so that google will pick you up and your reach will be wider. reBlogging gives the person who is an expert on certain topics an ability to have a much wider reach.

If you are a loan officer, stager, inspector, or anyone who works with agents, THIS IS A NO BRAINER. A great post by someone about FHA mortgages could be reBlogged by 1000 agents. if you don't see the power in that, then I don't know what to tell you.

From a real estate agent perspective: just imagine the power of having a hot new listing reBlogged by all of your local competitors, and don't forget about the SEO power of the backlinks you'll earn. Or imagine writing a post about negotiating contracts. If a couple hundred people picked up the post, you could instantly become a recognized expert on the subject (and get a few hundred backlinks to your outside blog).

IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ:

Some people will never buy into this and that's fine. Those that do will soon see their reach expand much further than they could hope for on their own. If you don't want your blogs reBlogged, simply go to your 'my settings' page when the feature is turned on and turn it off. Initially, all members have their global setting set to opt-in. However, all past posts will be set by default to opt-out of reBlogging regardless of your global setting, however you can go back and retroactively make them available on a post-by-post basis.

Once the feature is live (again) you can go and change your setting to opt-out. You will also have the ability to opt-out on a post by post basis if your global setting is set to opt-in. In the same way, if your global setting is set to opt-out, you can opt-in on a post by post basis.

Friends, followers, and connections are the way of the future.

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My visit to the Moose Den

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:47:53 -0800

Dad made me write this post so he could use it as an example in his video about how to create a community sponsorship. So here goes:

I've never been quite so excited in my young life as the first time I saw the Mariner Moose. I love that stinking Moose......from a distance, or at least that was my first experience. Seeing the Moose riding the four wheeler across Safeco field was pretty cool. Having the Moose up in my face, not so much.

I've been to about 15 Mariner games with Dad now, so I'm alright with the Moose up close now, but I promise you, I wasn't cool with him the first time we met. In fact, I was petrified. That stinking Moose is scary up close the first time you meet him. I mean come on, look at that face......that's something only a mother could love. Huge snout, big pointy antlers.....have your heard of a headacure Moose? (You know, like a pedicure, but for your antlers.......)

The Moose and I are cool now though. And it's all thanks to the visits I've made to the Moose Den. The first time, I was pretty scared, I admit. But subsequent visits have led to an understanding between me and the Moose. He keeps his pointy antlers pointed toward the sky and I won't put my gum in his fur. It's working out pretty good so far.

Well, here is my latest picture with the big guy........

(Hope this works for your demo Dad!)

ActiveRain New Hire - Welcome Harlen 'The Copyright Crusader'

Bob Stewart - Community Evangelist - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:35:14 -0700

Our network is being plagued by cut and paste content! So today we hired a new team member. Let me introduce you to Harlen 'The Copyright Crusader'.

We are a community of PROFESSIONALS! 99% of you understand that. Harlen has been brought on to ensure that the 1% who are bringing the rest of us down are dealt with. He has assured us that his relentless pursuit of justice for the holders of copyright protection will be unmatched. He has guaranteed to crush copyright infringement in 30 days or we don't have to pay him (can't beat that). How you might ask? well............

Every time you submit a post on Activerain you see this:

Some of you choose to ignore it. Some of you think that since you have gotten away with it before, you will continue to get away with it. You will not. Today, on his first day on the job, Harlen suspended the accounts of four members who had previously been warned about this type of behavior. One member had over 150,000 points. That's a lot of time wasted copying content and trying to pass it off as your own. Please, Harlen implores you, do not be the next person this happens to. He will be hunting content to the far and wide reaches of the network and running that content in Google to find the original author.

If you see someone copying content, leave a link to this post in their comment section. Warn them about Harlen and his 'Copyright Crusade'. Because if Harlen sees it before it's pulled down, the first offense will be a two week suspension. No questions asked. (Harlen thinks this is really lenient. Read that image above again.......it says "Posting copyrighted material without permission WILL result in being removed from ActiveRain")

The second time will be a ban from the network. Harlen has guaranteed this garbage will STOP!!! Plagiarism is polluting a network that thousands of people have poured their heart and soul in to making stellar. Harlen promises you that plagiarizers will no longer leave their mark on ActiveRain.

We have something very special here at ActiveRain. Your participation here is not a right, it is a privilege. By abusing that priviledge you are making yourself, and more importantly, the rest of ActiveRain look very unprofessional. Our community guidelines say: ActiveRain is a place where real estate professionals can network with their peers and discuss industry insider topics. It is also a public forum where consumers can pull back the curtain and see what the real estate industry is really about.

Do we really want consumers pulling back that curtain and seeing plagiarism, stealing and dishonest gaming? Harlen does not!!! Harlen believes that we all learned about plagiarism in elementary school. He remembers his fifth grade teacher Mrs. Robinson sending him to the principals office when he copied a passage from Marcus Valerius Martial without citing it:

"Why, simpleton, do you mix your verses with mine? What have you to do, foolish man, with writings that convict you of theft? Why do you attempt to associate foxes with lions, and make owls pass for eagles? Though you had one of Ladas's legs, you would not be able, blockhead, to run with the other leg of wood." - Marcus Valerius Martial

Here is a great resource for what you can and can't do: The wise advice of Lenn Harley

(This is not a joke, even though it is kind of funny)

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My new startup Timu officially launches

Bob Stewart - Community Evangelist - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:44:09 -0700

Congratulations Matt! I've had my profile up for a while now....maybe I should fill it out with some eye popping stats so someone will want to pick me up on their softball team for the summer :-)

If you have kids or grandkids in sports you have to check this out. It's a great way for little leagues to do some cool stuff with their stats, pictures, videos (I think) in a social environment. With Caleb and Matt on board I have no question it will be great!

Via Matt Heaton (Timu Corp - CEO, ActiveRain - Co-founder):

Yesterday was a big day for me, after 8 months of planning and product development work finally launched my new startup, Timu. Timu gave me a chance to apply many of the lessons learned with designing and building ActiveRain to another market, amateur sports.

It's a social networking platform specifically built to solve the communications problems encountered by athletes, sports teams and their fans. Online social networking is a natural way to solve many of these problems. Yet, existing social networks provide disjointed solutions that do not handle sports specific features, such as player rosters, game results and statistics. At the same time existing sports web site offerings provide little interactivity and user engagement.

Individual athletes can setup an profile on Timu in minutes. Profiles can be customized with information about the sports they participate in, teams they play on, and their competitive highlights. Photos, videos can be uploaded, and various “widgets” can be added or modified. These profiles serve as one center of communication within Timu.

Coaches, players, or parents can create a team center for your team on Timu. Team centers provide many features like team news, schedules, player rosters, photos, game results, statistics, statistics and a wide range of commmunication tools. All of the people associated with the team can be invited to become members of the team center, which can then function as a hub for team communications.

A few examples of team centers: http://bellevueblaze.timu.com http://dreadsox.timu.com http://baseball.timu.com

Currently Timu supports about 30 different sports ranging from baseball and soccer to unicycling. Each of these sports has it’s own section or hub on Timu including photos, videos, game results and discussions. Timu members can participate in the conversation at these hubs about their sport. As Timu grows we will be providing the ability to view these hubs by region, subsection of a sport, or even by sporting venue.

Create a Sports Profile

Setup your Team on Timu

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Growth Leader Marketing Program - Anyone want to play?

Bob Stewart - Community Evangelist - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:15:09 -0800

(This one is long, but you may be glad you read the whole thing)

Over the next couple of months, I will be embarking on a project here at ActiveRain. Some of my time will be spent helping introduce our network, and the real estate industry to a new product. When Jon first approached me about doing this, my first response was...."I am not going to push a product on our members that sucks" (I'm pretty forward with Jon, I may have used a more choice word than "sucks"). Jon also reminded me that I'm not pushing it, I'm simply putting it in our members hands and asking for open and honest feedback.

I've been through Growth Leader and ladies and Gentlemen, it doesn't suck. In fact, just the opposite. It's very powerful.

So what is Growth Leader? (Here's the official version, I'll give you my version in the next paragraphs)

Growth Leader enables real estate agents seeking a competitive edge to generate a steady stream of prospects, and provides them with a powerful contact management solution that helps convert these prospects into clients.

Integrated response-generating website that is search engine optimized with direct MLS integration.
Powerful combination of TV, search engine & other real estate advertising to help you attract prospects looking for homes and real estate info in your area.
Industry leading contact management solution with lead notification, automated follow-up, email, mobile access.
Prospect monitoring tools that allow you to know what your prospects are thinking every step of the process, showing which ones are most active: how often they visit and which properties, prices and neighborhoods they're interested in.

Sounds like the next best thing since sliced bread, right? Well as Brian Brady would say, there is no 'magic purple pill', but Growth Leader is a powerful way to generate prospects and convert them to clients, and that folks, is the name of the game.

Growth leader has two parts. The first part is the integrated website and contact management solution called Vision. The second part is an advertising component that drives traffic to your site. Depending on your market, the cost of driving traffic will vary, but the traffic is exclusive to you and you control how much traffic you want your site to get.

Vision is powerful. The corporate speak above is not B.S.. The back-end monitoring of your prospect's and client's behavior gives you great insight into where they are at in the process. Every agent should have something like this on the back end of their home search site.

OK, enough about the product for right now, just believe me that it's great.......why would you believe me? Because Market Leader is going to let selected members demo the product in exchange for their feedback on the product.

This is where I come in. I'll be selecting and working with many of our members over the next 6 months and engaging them to use the product, give feedback, help develop best practices and CLOSE TRANSACTIONS (remember folks, that's the name of the game).

We have started the project and are in the beginning stages. Some members are up and running and some are in the provisioning stage getting ready to start. I want to get this product in the hands of members who will use it and implement it in their business plan, this will be the first criteria when selecting participants. I also want it in the hands of people who are going to write about it so that the word spreads. In order to achieve this, I will be selecting members that have consistently blogged on our network for an extended period of time. Since we are asking participants to write about the product once a week, I need to know that the members testing it are dedicated bloggers. A third component will be how many subscribers a member has. If all you do is blog about your listings and no one ever reads, sorry, but that isn't going to help spread the word.

Right now it's available in about 25 markets. There will be more coming and when they launch, I'll update this post. If you are interested in participating, please see if your market is below and leave a comment or respond to me directly via email (bob at activerain dot com). I will apologize in advance, because not everyone will be able to participate. If you are selected, I will send you additional information about what you will agree to do for me in order to get your hands on this great product for free for a few months.

Markets:

Miami, FL - Southeast FL Regional MLS and Miami-Dade
Phoenix, AZ - ARMLS
Tallahassee, FL - Tallahassee Area MLS
Atlanta, GA - Georgia MLS
Boston, MA - MLS PIN (aka Bay State MLS)
Houston, TX - Houston Assoc. of Realtors
Portland, OR - RMLS
San Diego, CA - Sandicor MLS
Tampa, FL - Mid-Florida Regional
Dallas, TX - North Texas R.E. Info Sys
Jacksonville, FL - NE Florida MLS
Orlando, FL - Mid-Florida Regional MLS
Washington, DC - MRIS
Austin, TX - ACTRIS - Austin BOR
Fort Meyers, FL - Punta Gorda MLS (Now Mid-Florida MLS)
Los Angeles, CA - Southern California MLS and Multi-Regional MLS
Seattle, WA - NWMLS
West Palm Beach, FL - RMLS Florida Regional
Baltimore, MD - MRIS
Chicago, IL - Midwest Real Estate Data

Please note that just because your specific city doesn't show up, doesn't mean you wouldn't be able to participate. If your MLS is represented, there's a pretty good chance you will be able to participate. Also, if your market is there, but you use a different MLS, contact me directly as there are some additional MLS's coming on board.

Make sure to check the box to receive updates if you comment as I will update the markets on this post as they come online and you will be notified that I have updated the post.

(this button below will direct you to a Market Leader Account Rep, not raise your hand to show interest in our marketing program)

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Duplicate Content and Outside Blogs

Bob Stewart - Community Evangelist - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:44:39 -0700

If you don't care to read about all the technical details below, just set up your Outside Blog on a custom domain (ie, jonwashburn.com), not just a sub-domain (jon.activerain.com) and trust us that it's going to kick SEO butt. For those of you who like first hand info, here you go.

In case you haven't heard, we launched outside blogs yesterday, June 25th, 2008. We are really excited to have a platform that our members can utilize to seamlessly syndicate their content across multiple domains, allows for individual branding and at the same time exposes their content to high volumes of traffic. A common question surrounding the release of Outside Blogs centers on the issue of duplicate content, how the search engines handle duplicate content (specifically Google), and how we will structure both your ActiveRain blogs and your outside blogs to provide you the most exposure.

First, let's clear up a little bit of terminology. There are four seperate places that your blog post can show up.

Your ActiveRain blog (activerain.com/blogs/arbob)
Localism
Sub-domain blog (activebob.activerain.com)
Outside Blog (jonwashburn.com)

This part is VERY IMPORTANT and will take care of duplicate content for one of the four. We will be adding no-index tags to all sub-domain blogs. Considering the SEO power of ActiveRain.com, sub-domains will not perform as well as your primary domain for the purposes of search engine placement. With that in mind, it makes little sense to have the content showing up on a sub-domain (i.e., activebob.activerain.com) and have the sub-domain indexed, rather than the content be indexed on the primary domain (activerain.com/arbob). Therefore, the primary purpose of a sub-domain will be strictly for offline branding. But in all cases, a custom, member-owned domain will serve that purpose even better. As such, we really encourage our members to invest the $8 to get your own custom domain set up.

Now we are left with three places that your blog post will show up. There is lots of information about how google handles duplicate content and what it will look at to determine what will show up in the search results. As it relates to what will be happening on ActiveRain/Localism/Outside Blogs we want to look at what Google identifies as the originating source. Here is an excerpt from the Google Webmaster Blog from June 9th of 2008:

In cases when you are syndicating your content but also want to make sure your site is identified as the original source,it's useful to ask your syndication partners to include a link back to your original content.

(There is also a great article written by Vanessa Fox, formerly of Google, about ranking as the original source for content you syndicate.)

We can tell Google what the originating source is. What do you want to be the originating source and what do you want Google to index? It will be up to you. Here is how it will work:

Originating Source is:

ActiveRain: If you don't syndicate your post to your outside blog, and you don't geo-target it so that it shows up on Localism, ActiveRain will get credit as the originating source, because the post won't show up anywhere else.

Outside Blog: If you syndicate your post to your outside blog and you do not geo-target it, your outside blog will show up as the originating source. (since the post is not geo-targeted, it will not appear on Localism). Your syndication partner (your ActiveRain blog) will have a link back to your original content (outside blog)

Localism: If you Geo-tag your post, Localism will be credited as the original source; your ActiveRain blog and your outside blog will link back to the post on Localism, indicating to Google that Localism is the original source. (If you've made it this far, you're probably wondering why the heck you would want the current version of Localism as your original source. If you can keep a secret...the new Localism might be coming out the second week in July...but I'll deny it if you tell anyone)

You control it!

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Don't let your fingers get your butt in hot water

Bob Stewart - Community Evangelist - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:10:41 -0700

Take a look at this little piece of news that just came across my google alert. Make sure that you aren't out making libelous commentary because it could land you in hot water.

Wisconsin man gets 18 months probation in criminal libel case

Where were his libelous comments made? Yep, you guessed it, right here on ActiveRain. The article also mentions that he had his real estate license suspended for a year.

Please be careful what you are writing when posting on ActiveRain. Libel is real and it can cost you your career.

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How To Get Started with ActiveRain Video

Brad Andersohn (Zillow - Outreach Manager) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:08:48 -0700

It's one for the money, and two for the show three to get ready, it's a go Mixpo! ActiveRain and Mixpo have officially partnered to bring you a powerful new tool and platform for your video editing and video productions. A simple way to create, edit, and produce Video that can be used on your AR Blogs, Profiles, and Websites. Mixpo is now available for ActiveRain Members!

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW MIXPO VIDEO WORKS FOR YOUR BUSINESS!

While in the introductory stage of incorporating Mixpo Video, you can still sign up for a monthly subscription at a very low price, or you can save a few bucks by subscribing annually. "You mean there's a fee?" Yes there is, but it's a minimal fee for what you'll get, and it is only to help defray the cost of implementing and supporting the application for all the ActiveRain members here.

If you would like to get a jump on the "New Wave" of Real Estate Video 2.0 and give Mixpo a run, you can set it up NOW!. For $29/month, or $290/year (that's two months free) we can get you access directly to Mixpo. Since their isn't currently a way to directly purchase the product, you will need to use the ActiveRain Paypal. You can transfer the money to ActiveRain's Paypal account by going to Paypal.com. Use the email address billing@activerain.com. Once you make the transfer, send me or Bob Stewart an email with a copy of your receipt, and we will get you activated right away. (within 24 hours) EDIT: NEW UPDATE: AR Video is now fully integrated into ActiveRain. To sign up, just click on the video reel in the toolbar of any new post or comment. This post was created before we implemented the AR Video Platform. It is now fully Integrated. (New Post Coming Soon, or this one to be completely re-done) Edited 9/11/2008

As we go through the integration (speculating about 4-6 weeks), anything that you produce on the 'Mixpo' console will eventually show up on your video.activerain.com account once the integration is complete. Feel free to email me if you have any specific questions or concerns. I have been testing and working with Mixpo since my first day here at ActiveRain, and I am happy we are ready to finally roll it out to members. Here are just some of the Features and Benefits I have noted using the Mixpo tools, editing and on-line production console:

The MIXPO Video Editing and Production Console
Some "Power" Points You May Want to Know About and Consider

| View | Upload your own

So here's a chance to go from Blogger to Vlogger, and get a jump on your competition with Video.

Tutorials | Training | Mobile | Widgets

"May this blog be just one more planted seed of wisdom that helps you or your business blossom today!"

If it was anyone else but Teresa.......

Bob Stewart - Community Evangelist - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:53:26 -0800

.......I probably wouldn't do it. But I don't want to run into her in a dark bar in New York during Real Estate Connect and have to explain why I ignored her meme. If you've never seen Teresa in a dark bar in NY, lucky you........haha.

She also asked that we immediately ban all future meme's from ActiveRain. I am seriously considering it (again, the whole dark bar and running into Teresa thing again).

So the rules of this meme:

Grab the nearest book
Open the book to page 56
Find the fifth sentence
Post the text of the next two to five sentences
Dont dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual one. Pick the Closest.
Tag five people to do the same

**The one book that this can not be is the Bible**

I have been flying more than normal lately. Jon always gives us books to read. If Seth Godin has a new book out, you can be assured it will show up on my desk from the book fairy with a request that I read it. So the combo of lots of flying and book reading assignments make for a great pair. So when I got this email from Teresa saying I was tagged, I leaned over and opened the zipper on my bag and out pops a little Seth Godin book, Tribes.

There is another (WOW, I have no idea how I was going to finish that sentence. I just got off a 30 minute phone call with a person that we suspended for copyright violation. I don't know how many times I have to say the same thing over and over to get the message through. I must have tried to say the same thing ten different ways. I am seriously patting myself on the back for keeping my cool......very frustrating.)

Let me start over........

There is another book in my bag, but it was buried a little deeper, so Tribes was the first one I saw. I normally read historical fiction books for relaxing and 'The Alexandria Link' by Steve Berry was just underneath. Great book but like about ten other books on my shelf right now, I haven't actually finished it. Two hour plane rides never allow me to finish the whole book and I always forget them on the next trip. The airport book store LOVES ME! Ok so Page 56 then......fifth sentence......Tribes:

"First, they're not going to do the local leadership required when tribe members interact. They're going to be so busy following the playbook that they'll hesitate about engaging in the interactions that make a tight tribe such a vibrant organization. People don't engage merely to remind on another of the status quo. Instead they eagerly engage when they want something to improve. This microleadership is essential to the health of your organization."

So there you have it. I am 99.999999999% (maybe even higher) sure that Seth Godin would not try to come after me if I posted a picture of the cover of his book, (in fact, he would probably welcome it) but with all the crap I am dealing with around copyright and trademark violations, I am just not going to post a picture, short of Seth himself stopping by and saying it's ok. (Believe it or not, my blog was recently audited by a member who I was dealing with regarding copyright violations and she went through EVERY post I have ever written to make sure my blog didn't have copyrighted or trademarked images........I had to erase one post that was questionable.)

In the spirit of outlawing meme's on ActiveRain, I am not going to tag anyone further. Is that a fair enough trade-off Teresa?

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Beans to Brew Cafe ~~ Allendale, MI

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:38:26 -0800

Want to meet for coffee?!?!?!?!?!?

Beans to Brew Cafe at 6177 Lake Michigan Drive in Allendale, Michigan isn't your average run-of-the-mill coffee shop!! It is special in so many ways! Marcia VanderMolen, who owns Beans To Brew with her fiance Jim Wood, has been the propritor for two years but it has been in the Allendale area for about 10 years. She says it has the atomosphere of the show Cheers in that it seems you can always run into someone you know .

~~Chocolate is an Essential Nutrient~~

As you walk in the door you can almost feel the four walls calling you, "come in, sit down, relax with your friends have a cup of coffee". And if that isn't enough, the comfy sofa off to the side says, "bring a book, read and have a Raspberry Cloud". The coffee house is comfy and welcoming from the second you walk in the door. The quotes stenciled around the walls are so whimsical and fun.

~~Life's to Short for Bad Coffee!~~

The Signature coffee's are the best. If these coffee names don't make your mouth water, I don't know what will. How about a Milky Way, Sugar Daddy, Caramel Decadence, Snow Cap, Kahlua Mocha or a Mocha Blanca? Or if you are one that watches your sugar like I am, try the Catwalk Skinny, Nutty Buddy, Chocolate Lovers Latte, Leprechaun, French Kiss or a Coco Beach. Am I making you thirsty yet? . . .Don't worry, Beans to Brew is ready to serve it up with a smile.

~~Lifes is too Short, Eat Desert First~~

But wait . . . They also have a complete menu, from sandwiches to paninis, salads, desserts and pastries. On this particular visit they had recently introduced the Laker Club with ham, turkey, lettuce and tomato with ranch-mayo dressing on a wheat tortilla. Are you hungry and thirsty now?

Beans to Brew is a favorite place for friends to get together, laugh and enjoy themselves. On this particular day, I walked in to find my neighbor who lives behind me enjoying coffee with her friends. Their laughter was contagious and I got an opportunity to apoligize to her for my leaf burning from the week before--truly I wasn't trying to smoke her out!!!

~~A balanced diest is a cookie in each hand~~

It is also a warm and welcoming place for business people to meet their clients, which is what I was doing that day. Like so many, I work out of my home so I land at Beans To Brew on a regular basis to search for homes in West Michigan with my clients or discuss our next plan of action to get their home sold. Beans to Brew is a perfect place to meet for a business lunch as they provide free wireless-- a must in today's technological world.

~~Eat well, laugh often, and love much~~

Marcia is getting married on November 30, 2008 so stop in and say congratulations!

To celebrate she is offering a free cinnamon role with the purchase of a double or triple signature drink. To get your cinnamon roll, all you have to do is print this blog and bring it in for your free cinnamon roll. Offer good through the end of the year--December 31, 2008.

Hours are: Monday - Thursday 7-7, Friday 7-6 and Saturday 7:30-4 CLOSED SUNDAYS Phone: 616-895-9099

**Update: Beans to Brew has been a fatality of the economy and closed its doors 12/30/08.

Network News - Groups, Localism, Outside Blogs oh my!

Bob Stewart - Community Evangelist - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:56:11 -0800

As necessary, but at least once a week I am going to post this and place it in the ActiveRain channel under the topic 'network news' to keep you updated on what's going on around ActiveRain. I know, I know.....where the #$% was this a week ago? The apology comes later.....read on.

We did a major infrastrucure upgrade last week. As a result of that upgrade we have experienced a rash of issues. In order to alleviate some of those issues we had to make some quick decisions to triage the groups area of the site, as it was responsible for the majority of the proxy errors.

Proxy Errors

As you can see from the graph below (sshhh, don't tell Jorgen, I shared his super secret proxy error graph.....he's on a plane home to Kansas for Christmas right now so maybe I can sneak it by him. Don't worry, he'll be working the entire time he's on vacation) proxy errors are almost non-existent.

Groups

Groups were the major cause of the proxy errors that were abound last week and early this week. Some of the groups have gotten so big that our existing infrastructure for groups was no longer sufficient to support the amount of content contained in them. We made some temporary changes to groups in order to stop the proxy errors and give the developers enough time to fix the infrastructure.

Right now, Groups are only showing four pages and are arranged by 'last comment'. That is being fixed and on Friday morning when you wake up Groups will be back to being arranged in chronological order and you will be able to see much deeper into the archives.
Member lists in groups are still accessible, but the button has moved. To access member lists you now click on the hyper-link for the group member count. If your group has 300 people in it, the 300 will be a link you can click to access member lists. Currently you can not administrate member roles but that will be fixed Friday morning as well.

Posting to Localism

Posts are not currently feeding to Localism. This fix will be in place Friday morning. Posts that you have posted in the last week that are tagged to syndicate to Localism will feed over there retroactively once the fix is in place.

Posting to Outside Blogs

Posts are not currently feeding to your outside blog. This fix will be in place (take a guess......) Friday morning (man, I can't slide anything past you, can I?). Posts that you posted in the last week that were tagged to syndicate to your outside blog should retroactively feed once the fix is in place.

Tags on the sidebar of your blog

Right now, if you go to the tags dropdown of your blog, it's possible that you will see someone else's tags show up. In fact, you will see the same tags in the dropdown menu on every blog you go to. If you see your own tags on your blog, go to my blog.....you will see your tags on my blog as well. We call this the 'ActiveRain soulmate bug'. The person who's tags are following you is your ActiveRain soulmate and we expect that you will get to know them well and maybe make a new friend.

Any guessers for when this will be fixed? Yes......you in the back with your hand raised.......BINGO!! Friday morning.

The Apology I was talking about

I want to express a very sincere "sorry" to everyone. This last week has been a little bit tough. Our internal communication broke down and we weren't able to relay this information to you in a timely manner. Please know that the frustration that you encounter is multiplied by 1000 for every member of our team. That's not to discount your frustration because you should be able to count on ActiveRain to function properly. It's just saying that we work tirelessly to provide a product of which we can be proud and when we hit a patch like the last week our utmost concern is getting the platform stabilized so that you can utilize it. (Someone just informed me that my goatee has gray hair in it.......and I'm 100% sure it wasn't there prior to the last week)

I've never come out and asked anyone to subscribe to my blog (I just figured everyone took one look at my Shakespearian prose and immediately subscribed, hahahaha) but moving forward this will be where you can get updated consistently, so take a minute to hit that little subscribe button on the right. (Brad will attest to my HTML skills and if I was to try to pull that subscribe button in here I would be here for the next hour)

Friends, followers, and connections are the way of the future.

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Get ready for the ActiveRain reBlog revolution...

Jon Washburn (ActiveRain Corp) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 02:48:07 -0700

This video might be a little too racy for Bob's official post on this new feature but not for my blog! It reveals an interesting perspective on how members of Tumblr, another blogging network, are using reBlogging. Plus it is hilarious to boot.

Meme'd again....................for the first time

Bob Stewart - Community Evangelist - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:43:35 -0700

Well I think I have been Meme'd a couple times in the last few days. Gary Bolen was so kind as to tag me last week. But this post is really for Rich Jacobson who got me many months ago. Rich, I didn't forget, it just took me these many months to come up with something worth reporting about myself :)

I don't know how these are officially suppose to work, so I checked a few out and it looks like I'm suppose to give you 5 things you may (or probably don't) want to know about me.

1. I was raised by a single mom with three younger brothers. Most of what I am today and the man I have become can be credited to my mother. She was (and still is) the strongest woman I have ever met. My parents split when I was eight years old and she raised me and my three younger brothers all on her own. She was also the Executive Vice President of a rather large home improvement retail chain on the west coast. Eagle Hardware and Garden (purchased in 2001 by Lowes) was the Nordstrom of hardware stores. I can almost guarantee that any woman who ever went into an Eagle would pick one of them over a Lowes or Home Depot any day of the week. If you liked Eagle Hardware (for those of you in WA, you know you loved it) you can thank my mother.

Her dedication to our family was unmatched. I can remember one day when I was in junior high when a big sale rep from a company that wanted to sell their products in Eagle wanted to take my mom out for breakfast. She couldn't make it because she always gave us a ride to school in the morning. She told the guy that if he wanted to take her to breakfast (and have any chance of getting his product line in the store) he would have to arrange for a ride for us to school. We went to school that day in a Limo.............haha, complete with donuts and orange juice. I think we crammed 12 kids in that 10 person limo.............

2. I was on the math team, and the basketball team in high school. I'm not vertically challenged, 6'3". If you met me, it wouldn't be a huge surprise that I was on the basketball team. I was chosen to the All-State Basketball team my senior year in the state of Washington for the Single-A classification. Luke Ridnour was my water boy. Haha, he was in the seventh grade my senior year and could have started on our team with no problem. We used to play one on one almost every day after practice. He could never beat me (he was about 5'3" then) but he would never quit. He wanted to play and play and play. In fact, Luke went on a tour with me and a bunch of soon to be high school seniors to Germany. He played with us as a sixth grader on this tour. It may still be the most amazing basketball related thing I have ever seen. Although, a small town kid from Blaine, WA starting in the NBA is pretty amazing too.

All these years later, I think I am more proud of the math team though. My friends will tell you that I never miss an opportunity to bring up the fact I was on the math team. Our team twice took second place at the state math competition. If it wasn't for me, I'm sure they would have taken first. I'm still convinced the only reason they let me participate is in case a tie breaker was decided by a dunk contest. (yep, I used to be able to dunk........on a good day, I still can)

3. I suck at golf. It frustrates me to no end. I will never give it up. I am too skilled to not be good. I have excellent hand eye coordination. Every once in a while, I will hit a shot like Tiger. 170 yard pitching irons are not foreign (unless I am 170 yards away from the pin). Sometimes, I will play the first five holes really well.........and the last 13 even worse. I don't get enough time on the course. I need more free time. I have my clubs in the office with me right now. Almost weekly I tell myself I am going to take my lunches at the driving range down the street. I have yet to do it once.

4. I love to give away ActiveRain points for stuff I think is significant. Sometimes, I will give points to a person if I see that they have written a blog about quitting smoking. I think they should quit smoking. I'll give them 100 points for having the courage to write about it. Sometimes, I will give away points if I reference a movie quote in a comment I make and someone knows what movie it was from. I once gave David G from Zillow 1 point because he made such an interesting seat mate on our flight down to the Inman Conference. Sara from Zillow was jealous..........I gave her 1 point too (maybe it was the other way around......my #5 should be I used to have a good memory, but not anymore). Don't ask for points, I've never once given points to someone that asked for them, I never will.

I will continue to give points away for things I think are significant. Our members mean so much to me and I get a kick out of giving away points.

5. My family got bigger by one back on June 28th. My son came into the world five weeks early. He is the reason I get up in the morning now. I'd heard it a thousand times before he was born..........."you just can't explain the feeling of having a child"...........I will probably say it a thousand times in the coming months and years. I have the ultra sound photo on my desk and I am looking at it right now. It is the first ultra sound where we got to see his face. The frame says "the first time ever I saw your face........". I still get choked up when I look at it. (I'm choked up right now). I took him to his first Huskies game on Saturday. He slept through the first quarter and when he woke up in the second, all he was concerned about was the pom-pom the lady in front of us had. I can't wait for his first word, his first steps, his first dunk (he can almost dunk now btw..............haha)

I want to teach him everything my mom taught me.

Did I do it right? Ok, now I get to tag three people? I'd like to welcome Spencer Rascoff, the CFO of Zillow (and brand new AR member). I'd love to know a little bit about him. And of course there is always David G from Zillow, I got to know him a little on the plane, but I'll bet some others would like to know more (usually if you even type Zillow into a blog post anywhere, David G is on the spot to set you straight :) ). And let's make it a Zillow party....Sara Bonert, come out and play?

Friends, followers, and connections are the way of the future.

Make sure you check out some of our Facebook Fan Pages Too!

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Official ActiveRain Contest: Leave your mark on ActiveRain - About Us

Bob Stewart - Community Evangelist - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:17:15 -0700

We have some talented writers here on the staff of ActiveRain (present company excluded). Between the staff, you'd think we would be able to come up with a succinct 'About us' description; something that really nails the essence of the community. Alas, after hundreds of drafts, thousands of red pen marks and way too many hours spent trying to nail the perfect 'About us', we have decided to solicit your help.

At the bottom of every page on ActiveRain is the 'about' link. The introduction on that page gives everyone who ever wanted to learn about our community their first introduction to who we are. You can imagine why it's so hard to nail it. What ActiveRain is about to you may not be the same as the person with whom you are battling for first in your city. In fact, ask twenty different people and you are likely to get 20 different answers.

We need you to help us write the 'about us' language for ActiveRain.

You can find the current 'about us' piece here at the top of that page.

The winning selection will agree to let ActiveRain have the rights to the submission and we will use it not only on the about page, but in lots of stuff we do in the future.

The winning selection also gets:

5000 ActiveRain points
Two ActiveRain T-shirts
A Localism Jacket
Our love and adoration
A free yearlong sponsorship of a community on Localism
A free pass to kick off anyone else on ActiveRain that you choose (OK, this one is a joke.......but too good to resist)

A few things to consider:

All entries must be submitted by Wednesday October 8th at 11:59pm Pacific Time.
We are looking for something between 150-200 words (2 paragraphs). The more succinct the better.
All entries become the property of ActiveRain (I'm not a lawyer, but the idea is we want the right to use the stuff you write)
Entries should be sent to bob at the name of this website or through the contact link on my ActiveRain profile page

Friends, followers, and connections are the way of the future.

Make sure you check out some of our Facebook Fan Pages Too!

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ActiveRain Gathering in Orlando for NAR, November 8th @ 8pm

Bob Stewart - Community Evangelist - ActiveRain (ActiveRain) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:33:56 -0800

Katerina first brought this up to me way back in January. She (and many others, but she was first) offered to help coordinate things so that it was certain we would have the opportunity to have an ActiveRain party gathering. In typical fashion, Jon and I dragged our feet on getting everything set up. Katerina was relentless (bless her heart) in making sure we got everything in order. She succeeded!!

Katerina first let the cat out of the bag in her blog on Oct. 23rd. Only she didn't let the whole cat out.......

We will be hosting an ActiveRain gathering. The gathering will be this Saturday, November 8th from 8pm-12am. Where you ask? We'll that's the tail of the cat still stuck in the bag.

In true social media fashion, you are going to have to tune in and catch the word the day of the party. On Saturday morning we will start spreading word of the location across the internet. We'll certainly use ActiveRain (most likely in the form of a comment here and on Katerina's post). We will also be using Twitter and Facebook.

(Brad Andersohn is our resident expert on Social Media. He belongs to more sites then just about anyone I know. The list of places Brad will be dropping the word will probably be longer than I would EVER care to type)

So if you will be in Orlando attending the NAR convention and you would like to come join us for the ActiveRain party gathering, make sure you get yourself hooked in somehow (at the very least, find a friend who knows how to hook in and get the word from them). I have attended a number of these parties gatherings and they are a BLAST! The thing that always amazes me about them is how it feels like a party gathering with a bunch of old friends. I never cease to be amazed when it's hugs not handshakes that are being exchanged by our members. It's a true testament to the power of ActiveRain in creating real-life, meaningful friendships.

Plane Ticket to Orlando: $500
Hotel Room for three nights: $276
Bar tab: (sorry, I can't disclose this number)
Getting to meet the people inside your computer: Priceless!!

You can find us on Twitter:

Bob Stewart is @activebob
Rich Jacobson is @activerich,
Brad Andersohn is @bradandersohn,
Jon Washburn is @jonwashburn
Jeff Corbett is @jeffx.
Katerina's is @CoachKaterina.

I don't know how you find us on Facebook but people are finding me every day and I'll bet you are just as capable as they are. Search our name and ActiveRain would be my best guess.

We have room for about 400 people and if we exceed that number.......well then it's going to be one rocking party gathering. We are really looking forward to meeting so many of you and getting the chance to reconnect with others. oh yeah.......one last thing. We are going to be there on Thursday night. On Friday and Saturday our team is going to be out and about in the convention center.......and we'll be packing ActiveRain T-shirts to give away. Make sure you figure out how to find us so you can get that free shirt, it'll serve (hint hint) you well at the Party!

Friends, followers, and connections are the way of the future.

Make sure you check out some of our Facebook Fan Pages Too!

Find Foreclosures in Wallingford Seattle

Home in Green Lake with a basement