The Official ActiveRain Guide

Enhance Your Business Listing - Rank Higher and More Often

Having your Local Business Listed on the web is important for its future survival.  Claiming your listing will help give you more control over how the search engines index you and will also help prevent spammers from hijacking it.  There's also a good chance it could improve your search engine rankings and deliver your Company increased traffic.

GetListed.org has some tools and information to help you get your Business noticed on the WEB and by the searching consumer.  GetListed checks the most popular and commonly used search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN Bing, and Best of the Web, to see how your Business rates and ranks in a variety of ways. 

Get a listing score or percentage based on your Business listing or Company name. Your "listing score" is a number that ranges from 0-100 that approximates how effectively your business is taking advantage of free listings at the major search engines.  Claim your Business Listing on the major search engines, it's the easiest and yet most over-looked detail by many Local Businesses today. 

DON'T JUST HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON ON THIS ALARM!

In the process of consulting a client on how to get more exposure for their Company and Local Business on the Web, this is what we discovered.  You can see below why I am sharing this with you today, and why it is so important.  No matter how large or small your Company, you need to be registered and "LISTED" with these search engines. 

It's FREE, and your efforts could make a huge difference for your Local Business.

DO YOU WORK HARD GROWING AND PROMOTING YOUR BUSINESS?

GetListed.org has Local Marketing Advice, Advanced tips, and News for marketing your business.

• Why Local Search Is So Important
  Over 10 billion unique searches are performed each month, and that's just in the United States! See why listing your business online is so important.  Learn More »
  

• Why Citations Are Important to Your Local Business Listings
  Citations are defined as "mentions" of your business name and address on other webpages, even if there is no link to your website. Find out why they matter in Local Search.  Learn More »

• Managing & Improving Your Business's Reputation Online
  In this article, they recap the advice of a number of prominent Local Search Experts about the importance of paying attention to, and even encouraging, customer reviews of your business online.  Learn More »

NOTE: There are many other search engines on the web, not quite as popular, but here's a quick list if you're interested.

Understanding the importance of "why you are doing the things you're doing" in today's "Staying In Business" model, should help to motivate you in getting these certain tasks done.  I find it very beneficial when others that have learned by "Trial & Error" take the time to share their experiences.  We can all learn from each others mistakes, I trust that will be the case here today.

(Imagine the potential of sharing this info with other local businesses you wish to connect or build a relationship with)

Do your Local Business a favor, take the next 10 seconds to run your Company name and Zip Code.  Then take 10-15 minutes and List your Local Business in each of the Top Search engines, this will help to "Enhance Your Business Listing & Rank Higher and More Often."

Cityplace Conference and Event Center
2711 North Haskell Avenue, Suite 100, Dallas, Texas 75204
Phone: 214-515-5100 - Fax: 214-515-5199

"RAINCAMP™" Platinum Pass Includes:

• Reserved Platinum seating in the front of the room with table, wi-fi, and power
• Hosted VIP lunch at RainCamp™ with ActiveRain CEO Jonathan Washburn and RainCamp™ speakers,
  Ben Kinney, Brad Andersohn, and Bob Stewart.
• RainCamp™ T-shirt exclusive for Platinum supporters
• Premium RainCamp™ tote with surprise give-aways 
• Platinum RainCamp™ Supporter Badge at RainCamp
• Invitation to VIP after party, including appetizers
• Latest cutting edge social media instruction e-book by Ben Kinney and Jay Papasan
• Platinum RainCamp™ Supporter Badge on ActiveRain Blog or Profile page
  
• Access to VIP registration line

"RAINCAMP™" Premium Seating Includes:

• Reserved Premium seating near the front of the room with table, wi-fi, and power
• Access to VIP registration line

We also want to thank our Platinum Sponsor for their continued Support.

RainCamp™ - San Francisco

RainCamp™ -  New York

RainCamp™ -  Dallas Texas

(Your Photo and Face Belong Here)

Over the past few weeks, we've been sending out emails discussing what RainCamp™ is all about and why we think you should be there. With the tickets being donation based, meaning you can pay whatever you can afford, you'd be crazy for not joining us.

I'm serious, you would be crazy!  Just yesterday, Garrick Werdmuller, a loan officer in Alameda, CA who joined us last month in San Francisco, posted to his AR Blog and said "I would have to say it was the best event I have ever attended as a mortgage professional and I have attended most of the big mortgage and real estate marketing events. If you get a chance, GO!"

What had Garrick so excited?  I'm sure it was that he learned how to get his content on the first page of Google. Or maybe it was the techniques he learned to help him actually get business because of his interactions on Facebook and Twitter. Maybe it was some of the connections he made and relationships he built with the people that surrounded him.

I'm certain those all played a part in forming his opinion of RainCamp.  But for a Real Estate technology lover like myself, who just can't get enough of staying on the cutting edge of marketing, it was a chance to immerse himself with 450 other Industry professionals with the exact same mindset and goals.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter and ActiveRain give us an incredible opportunity to exchange ideas from the comfort of our living room. Still, there is no way to replace the real life networking opportunities afforded by being in one location with 450 of your peers, all with a common goal, maximizing their online effectiveness while still connecting in real life.

Next week, I will be in New York, along with four of the most influential people in real estate: Jonathan Washburn, our CEO and Founder, Bob Stewart, AR's Chief Evangelist, Spencer Rascoff, COO of Zillow and Ben Kinney, Mega Agent from Keller Williams in Seattle. We'll be talking about a variety of strategies to improve your online presence and help you get business using the web and Social Media.

Next week at RainCamp, we will:

• Show you how we have helped thousands of our members rank at the top of the search engines for searches in their market.
• Share how Donna Harris, a RE/MAX agent from Austin, Texas used her blog to make $122,000 in commissions over the last two years doing something you can do in your own market right now.
• Reveal how a plan and some guidance can help you use blogging to impact your business and get the same results as Donna.
• Provide you with a full day of great info to take home with you and implement immediately!

At the end of the day, Real Estate is a people business, and no amount of technology will replace old fashion networking and sharing, in person.

Come Join us on Tuesday, January 12th in New York City for RainCamp to learn and build cohesive, meaningful relationships with colleagues that will carry you into 2010 and beyond. Click here to register today, we are filling up fast and the last seats will be gone before you know it. I can guaranty that you don't want to be the one that didn't take the time to learn this stuff. 

I'm excited and looking forward to seeing you and connecting in NYC.