ActiveRain is a social network and blogging platform for real estate professionals. They started up last summer, and have cranked their way up to almost 45,000 registered users. That’s A LOT of traction… and fast!
Well, Matt Heaton and Jonathan Washburn have rolled out an advertising platform for their system. For a minimum of $10/per campaign you can start putting up impression-based ads on the ActiveRain network. Your campaign can be targeted at specific pages on our site, specific user groups, members or non-members, regional areas (state, county, city), or all users on all pages.
Other items of note:
- The minimum campaign budget is $10
- Ads have SEO value – Search engines walking the site they will see your ad as normal content.
- You can choose to have your ad displayed only 5 times to a particular user session or choose to have it be unlimited
- You can stop/start your ad at anytime and update your bids whenever you wish
The SEO Link Problem
[Update: this has since been changed/fixed on ActiveRain]
I would like to bring up one little point – bullet number 2 in particular. I’d be careful of claiming that at this point in time. You see, I follow some of the conversations on SEO, and I know that Matt Cutts has stated Google’s position on any type of sponsored links to be expressly tagged or mentioned as “sponsored” somehow.
Now Google doesn’t own the internet, nor have they been anointed as the “high priests of what you’re allowed to do online”. However, they do control a lot of SEO traffic – the lion’s share, so that allows them to be the big bully if they so choose. Basically, I’d be cautious of making that SEO claim, since all it takes is one little algorithm adustment to add make ActiveRain links be devalued as much as PayPerPost and Text Link Ads (which they’ve done).
In Summary
Okay, besides all that, I still think it’s a great platform for advertisers who have something to sell to real estate professionals. Smart marketers will do more than just advertising here, they will get in on their conversations and prove their value.
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7 users responded in this post
Hi Erik,
Thanks for the writeup and insight. I too am concerned about the SEO impact of the ads. Matt seems fairly confident that we should be okay with not requiring a no follow tag on the ads, but my opinion on the matter is still out. The statement about the SEO value was supposed to be removed from that page and I expect it will be taken off by tomorrow.
Good to hear you’re having the same thoughts as me. In the end, the SEO value might be there. However, it’s a subject that’s a little touchy right now, so I’d be careful claiming it outright.
I love how it’s an auction model – great job on it!
Why would a real estate professional want to advertise on a blog network where the users/readers are real estate professionals? Shouldn’t I be looking for consumers?
@Digital Realtor – You\’ll notice that my article\’s title is \”The Perfect Online Marketing Platform for Selling to Real Estate Professionals\”.
There isn\’t as strong of an argument for real estate professionals to advertise here as there is for companies who want to sell to real estate professionals.
Hi Erik, I also have the same concern as far as blogging where users and readers are also real estate professionals, I am kind of worried about it as a new agent, and I participated last week in the blog seminar at orra. So tell me more about it.
Hi Erik, I also have the same concern as far as blogging where users and readers are also real estate professionals, I am kind of worried about it as a new agent, and I participated last week in the blog seminar at orra. So tell me more about it.
Japhie,
I think you are talking about being part of Active Rain – is that right?
If so, the real benefit is that it’s a social network for real estate professionals, so you’ll be better networked within the industry. The blogging platform works fine, you’ll still have to promote it to your consumer-readers though.