Below are some of the most Frequently Asked Questions I receive through the Contact ActiveRain support service.
Why can't I make public posts? Writing public posts is one of the many benefits of having a Rainmaker Membership. Brad Andersohn wrote a great post about the Activerain membership program. To learn more visit the following link: ActiveRain's NEW RainMaker Membership Plan
Why doesn't my picture show up in comments? Once you reach 10,000 points, your profile picture will begin to show up in comments.
I have tried joining but haven't been able to. Any suggestions? Make sure all fields are filled in completely. Also, usernames & passwords need to be in all lowercase with no spaces. If this does not allow you to register, then my guess would be that the username you are trying to register with has already been taken. Try registering again with a different username. If things still do not work, there should be a red box around the field that needs to be corrected. If the red box is on the username field, that means either your username has already been taken and you will need to try a different one. Hopefully this will correct your signup problems.
I have linked to my website & submitted it for bonus points but have not been awarded any yet. Unfortunately, we are no longer giving points for linking to the network from your websites or other Blogs, but please feel free to continue enjoying the benefits from having that link in place. We appreciate you directing traffic to AR, and we don't mind sending traffic back to your site as well. Thank you.
Help! my blog has gone all out of whack! My profile picture is off the page & everything looks crazy! What happened? More than likely, you have copied & pasted something (from either your website, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel) that has a piece of bad coding attached to it. Either remove that piece of copied & pasted material from your blog, or place that post back into draft mode & things should return to normal. If this still does not correct the problem, it is possible you have some sort of image/graphic that is set with parameters too wide for your blog/outside blog. To fix this, make sure all images/graphics are no wider than 550 pixels.
My last post did not receive any points. Why? Points are only awarded for the first 10 posts of the week. The week begins on Monday & runs through Sunday. Also, the post must be posted as either "public or Members only" and be at least 50 words in length. Lastly, it must be your original content in order to receive points.
Is there a place where I can find out about your community rules? Yes, please visit our community guidelines.
Why are the Photos on my Outside Blog Lapping over & looking funny? Make sure all photos are no wider than 550 pixels in width. To correct, edit the original post on ActiveRain & change the width of the photo.
Why won't my header/sidebar image load on my outside blog? I keep getting a 500 error when trying to upload my new banner? This is another common issue but is easily corrected. While in your outside ActiveBlog, click on the "Customize" link located in the top tool bar, use the browse button to find your banner then the upload button to submit it. Notice the text along side the button that reads: (Your header image must be 960x134) This use to say "Looks best when...) but we changed it. Your header/Banner image must be the right size or you may get this error. Picnik.com is a great FREE on-line resource that allows you to resize and customize your images and photos. Here's one I created for my outside blog. The secret is 960x134 only for your header & 189 pixels wide for the sidebar image.
Why would I want to become a Rainmaker? What are the benefits & what results can I expect? The ActiveRain Rainmaker is more than just a membership! There are so many benefits to becoming one. You can read those benefits here: The ActiveRain Rainmker Getting Results
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Nice to answer questions in a blog post, Jeremy.
I can not conceive of all the questions you all get and have to answer.
Jeremy, I would love to see you post the craziest questions you have ever received. Who knows, one of them may have been mine.
Jer...
Well, even an old-timer can learn something new. I didn't know that linking points had been discontinued. Thanks for a great FAQ post.
Hi there, more information for me if I ever get my OB together. ;-)
Thanks for the FAQ's! It is very helpful.
Good recount of the rules, regulations, norms. I find 490 wide images work best too.
Jeremy,
As always, you are inforamative and fun....thanks for keeping us in the know.....
Some good info here I never knew about such as 10k in points for the picture or the AR week starts on Monday. Jeremy how about making a dedicated webpage on AR for your articles like this - where you just list the titles to each article? I'd have to think that would make many newbie members much more inclined to keep at things to get over the newbie hump.
A clear and informative post. I am sure this will be very helpful to members.
Jeremy - I think I've had all of these questions at one time. This is a great post for newbies.
These are great points that I had to painfully learn. This should make a great resource for many
Jeremy- I would go crazy with all those tickets! I can't even keep up with all the AR emails I get just from members asking questions! WOW! I commend you! Of course, I write a lot of tutorials to help with all these tickets but the new people don't know how to get to them:)
Jeremy,
I always appreciate your help when I contact you. Thanks again!
Jeremy, thanks for this information, I will be forwarding to some agents in my office.
Jeremy, thank you for helping us to the questions we always get in the field. It really helps, thank you. Great resource.
Jeremy, Thanks a lot for posting these questions and great answers.
Super duper - I'm actually at the point where this all makes sense. Thank goodness for all the help along the way!!
I always wondered why I had the Rainmaker account. Thanks for the post!
At least people are asking questions instead of running away thinking it's all too complicated.
Jeremy,
Thank you for posting this information and if I get into trouble I know just where to come :)
Cheers!
Sharon
Jeremy,
Thanks for all of the answers for the new and seasoned members.
So let me get this straight, you only get points for the 10 posts a week??
Christine & Jennifer- That is correct! You only receive the 225 points for your first 10 posts of the week. The week is from Monday-Sunday.
OMG people actually have time to write more than 10 posts a week. It takes hours for me just to write one.
Thanks Jeremy for the great advice about Picnik.com. I've used it a bunch of times already after learning about it yesterday. Also didn't know about the 50 word rule - that explains why I didn't get some points last week after uploading some pictures which contained a lot of words - but didn't have enough "outside words."
Thanks!
Jeremy..I hope you don't mind i will need to call you my outside blog page needs HELP!
HelpfulHannah
Jeremy - this is an excellent post and thanks for answering all the questions. I don't write more than 10 either . . .
Jeremy: Poor you. Answering the same questions over and over and over and over. Probably was a good idea to post answers to the most common ones. Have a good one!
I know a lot of people might not understand why you post these posts that most would think are elementary but to those of us who are new...these are greatly appreciated!
You mean I can't get points for aLL of the 50 posts I write every week? Darn...
Actually, this is pretty good stuff.
Thanks for the post & info. Great info! and Activerain is working pretty well.........I'm new, will let all know of successes. Cary NC has got a lot of members, therefore I've got lots of competition.
Why would you want a Rainmaker Account? The better question is why wouldn't you want to harness the power of AR to drive your posts and your website to the top of Google?
Jeremy:
Thanks for answering all those questions. I've been trying to figure out about the linking points because I saw that so many others had them.
Hi Jeremy. Thank you for the reminders.
Great list of the things most often asked. We are lucky to have you on staff at AR. Thanks Jeremy
Jeremy,
What a wonderful, helpful post! If I had even half of your knowledge my head would explode.
Thanks for sharing.
Great answers Brad, the go-to guy!
That helped me. I was wondering about the picture. Now I need to work on my points!
This post was very helpful and easy to find a few weeks ago when I started on this journey. Thanks for clarifying things to help me get started! :)