I have always loved good ideas. The trouble with good ideas is that often, they just remain -- good ideas. However, when a good idea is executed with passion and belief, magic happens. Matt Heaton and Jonathan Washburn are "Rainmakers" and the magic is happening at Active Rain.
Active Rain is a real estate agent community. In the Internet world it's called a social network. It's a place where agents, mortgage professionals, home inspectors, home stagers and other real estate related industry professionals can post blog articles, network with one another and share listings. Participating professionals sign up using the city or town they do business in. For instance, I signed up in Kirkland.
Now here's the move that's brilliant in my mind. To encourage participation, they "rank" each agent in their city, county and state by participation points. By simply signing up and creating a profile, you get points. For linking to another personal web site, points are awarded. Each blog that is submitted and each comment that is written gets points. As other professionals are invited to join, points are awarded. In fact, 10% of that person's lifetime points continue to be awarded. Active Rain started in June 2005. When I joined in February, there were already 15,000 members. In April, Active Rain has surpassed over 30,000 members!
Their next brilliant move was to "steer" agents to write local content. To do this, they created a "tie in" site called Localism. Now professionals can write articles about their city, market statistics, upcoming events real estate listings and general local information. The professional can also post photographs of their area. As content builds, the professional becomes known as the local expert and they receive Active Rain points!
Active Rain and Localism are quickly becoming Internet sensations. Readership in the areas that relate to real estate is growing exponentially. Active Rain's web traffic is closing in on hugely read real estate sites like Zillow. Active Rain and Localism are a virtual search engine magnets for the search engines like Google. Articles written on Active Rain and Localism are zooming to the top of not only "basic" searches (like Eastside real estate), but more importantly the millions of "long tail" (update lighting fixtures cost vs value) searches that many people use when trying to find information giving the real estate professional an opportunity to find client eyeballs.
I had lunch yesterday with these two dynamic entrepreneurs. Matt and Jonathon are 29 years old. They started this and several other ventures with 4 other Sammamish High School buddies. Matt shared with me that he has known one of these friends since the second grade. I found them both to be incredibly in tune with what consumers and real estate professionals desire and are giving it to them! They have spent the last couple of days planning about what to do next and they shared some of those plans with me. I"m not going to steal their thunder and will allow them to introduce their next wave of thinking, but I will share that I think their ideas are exciting!
In a few weeks Active Rain will be celebrating it's first birthday. I can't wait to see how this baby grows up!
If you're a real estate professional reading this, and haven't joined Active Rain, email me for an invitation. I want the points, darn it!
I am so glad that you reached out to Matt about meeting up for lunch yesterday at McCormick and Schmick's in Bellevue. Congratulations on your recent search engine success resulting from blogging, it's wonderful to meet real estate agents who get "it".
I look forward to seeing you again at the ActiveRain gathering in June in Seattle.
Posted by: Jonathan Washburn | May 15, 2007 at 10:24 PM
I had a lot of fun bouncing ideas off of you and hearing your feedback over lunch. It's obvious you are just as passionate about what you do, as we are about what we are doing over at ActiveRain. Hope to see you again soon.
Posted by: Matt Heaton | May 15, 2007 at 11:02 PM
Thanks Jon and Matt. I'm looking forward to seeing you at your one year party.
Posted by: Greg Perry | May 16, 2007 at 05:58 AM
Active Rain could be one, if not THE one site which shoved real estate agents, head first, into Web 2.0. I've been a member for as long as I've been bloging, and happy to say I'm the featured agent in my town. Matt and Jonathon are scary-smart and a great asset to the real estate industry.
Posted by: Stacey Macioszek | May 16, 2007 at 06:42 AM
Stacy, Your web 2.0 comment is interesting and right on the money. Yes, Active Rain is having an impact in helping agents understand how the Internet is evolving.
Posted by: Greg Perry | May 16, 2007 at 09:34 AM
I too had not heard of web 2.0 until I joined ActiveRain last August. Though I had already been blogging for over a year, ActiveRain helped me to refocus an move forward with my blogging.
Posted by: Maureen Francis | May 17, 2007 at 07:47 AM
Yes, Maureen, there is a lot of collective wisdom in the Active Rain community. Anyone who hangs around will learn!
Posted by: Greg Perry | May 17, 2007 at 01:37 PM