ActiveRain Tutorials

Many have asked how to add, remove & change the order of your widgets on your outside blog.  So, today I put together a short tutorial on how to do all of this.  If you are not familiar with how these widgets work, watch this simple 3 minute video & it will walk you through step by step.

If you are having trouble viewing what I do on my screen, click the full screen tab & watch.

If you are not familiar with what some of these widgets are, visit these posts in my widget series where I explain the some of the most popular widgets available for your outside blog:

Widget Wednesday~ Tips to Enhance Your Outside Blog- Part 1

Widget Wednesday~ Tips to Enhance Your Outside Blog- Part 2

Widget Wednesday~ Tips to Enhance Your Outside Blog- Part 3

Have you seen the newest theme released today for your Outside Blog?  It is called A Day at the Beach.  This exciting new theme features a pictures of a beach & waves along the side.  It also allows for a Header image for your blog.  Below is a screenshot of what it looks like, or you can always visit my outside blog to view it in real time.

Remember, changing your theme is a simple deal. All you have to do is head over to your outside blog after clicking on the link from the left hand side of your 'my home' page. Once on your outside blog, click the 'theme' link up at the top of the page and select the theme you want to use.

If you don't have a custom ActiveBlog on your own domain yet, Brad Andersohn takes you through the step by step of how to get it set up. If you have recently signed up for the Rainmaker upgrade, your ActiveBlog is included in your upgrade so make sure to get it set up.

For information on how to sign up for your own Outside Blog, click on the picture below.

To see other new themes visit:

New Theme Thursday - New Theme for your ActiveBlog! Our Business Casual Theme

New Theme Thursday - New Theme for your ActiveBlog! Our Easy Going Theme

21 Themes to Customize your Outside Blog

It is time again for a new ActiveBlog Theme!  It is titled Blue Days and with this addition, there are now 21 themes available to customize your blog.  So take a moment to check out the new theme. If you want to see how this theme looks & feels, visit my outside blog, http://activejeremy.com.  There you can see how the links work, your picture loads & also all those fun Widgets! Below is a screenshot.  Click on the picture to see the live version.

The next theme that we will be rolling out is going to be HUGE! So make sure you check back here regularly to not miss it!

Remember, changing your theme is a simple deal. All you have to do is head over to your outside blog after clicking on the link from the left hand side of your 'my home' page. Once on your outside blog, click the 'theme' link up at the top of the page and select the theme you want to use.

If you don't have a custom ActiveBlog on your own domain yet, Brad Andersohn takes you through the step by step of how to get it set up. If you have recently signed up for the Rainmaker upgrade, your ActiveBlog is included in your upgrade so make sure to get it set up.

For information on how to sign up for your own Outside Blog, click on the picture below.

To see other new themes visit:

New Theme Thursday - New Theme for your ActiveBlog! Our Business Casual Theme

New Theme Thursday - New Theme for your ActiveBlog! Our Easy Going Theme

Another Wednesday has come upon us which means it is time for the weekly installment of Widget Wednesday.  If you missed last week, we covered the Local Posts Widget.  We talked about how it categorized your posts and also helped to build your SEO.  This week we are going to discuss the Search Widget. 

What is the Search Widget? The search widget is probably one of the more powerful widgets available for an outside blog and also one of the most easiest to grasp.  As many of you may recall, I wrote a few weeks back, how the ActiveRain Search Button could save you thousands.  Well, the search widget may not save you thousands, but it can easily help you make thousands!  

So how does it work?  The search widget is a Google Powered search engine that allows viewers of your blog to search for the keyword terms they are interested in.  It will display the results to them as if they were doing a regular google search.  The big difference is that it will only show results from your domain!  How cool is that!?!  So, for example, if someone stumbles upon my blog, http://myrtlebeachhomesblog.com and they are interested in purchasing a home in a community called, The Farm at Carolina Forest, the search brings up only posts that have been published by my blog.

If you remember me mentioning how the Local Posts Widget adds layers to your Outside Blog by categorizing and giving each post a unique domain to help increase SEO.  Well as you add that widget and some others you can easily create some great searches for people.  My search above brought back 241 results!

So what are you waiting for?  Go add this Widget today! if you have not set up your Outside Blog yet, go do it now!  If you are not sure how to set up an ActiveBlog, as usual, Brad has written a tutorial here.

Today I am starting another new series that will run for the next several weeks about the great widgets that are currently available for your ActiveBlog (outside blog).  We will dive into the details of how to maximize the functionality of these widgets as well as some of the benefits of running them on your blog.  I will be using my outside blog http://myrtlebeachhomesblog.com as the the example over the next few weeks.  So, keep checking back to see the transformations and changes.

For this first post, we are going to discuss the Local Posts Widget.  While this widget seemed kind of trivial and boring when I started studying it, I found out that it can actually be a very productive and beneficial widget. 

This widget will take all of your local content/Localism posts and categorizes them into various groups.  For agents that work in more than one state, it will break things down into the separate state level. Or, say you work different counties & cities, these will be grouped together. It will categorize things all the way down to the neighborhood level. 

As you can see from my local posts widget, I wrote about many different communities, in a few different cities.  You can also quickly identify which communities I farm and focused my business on.  For a consumer this is a great way for them to find more information about an area.

Remember, unless a consumer is subscribed to your blog or are a regular reader of your material, the main way that most people who land on your blog are coming through a search on google on a particular subject. So, someone may land on my blog by searching for information about a community, and then after viewing the community, they want to see what else you have on it.  So, they click on the link on the local posts widget to find you have more articles including information about the amenities in the community, your listings in the community, and even market reports! 

You have instantly become the local expert on the neighborhood with this buyer/seller and chances of winning their business has just increased exponentially.

Now, lets shift gears a moment and talk SEO.  The other major benefit of having this widget running is that it creates individual pages for each and every area that you write and categorize on your outside blog.  This means more links on your blog.  Which means google will pick up more things on your blog making you a greater authority on that subject.  To see what I mean, simply scroll over any of the links in the local posts section of my blog and you will see each and every one is it's very own individual page for just that community.  How cool is that?

So, if you have not set up your Local Posts widget on your Outside Blog yet, go get to it now!  If you are not sure how do this, as usual, Brad has written a tutorial here.

You may wish to Subscribe to my Blog to keep up with this series.  And remember to check back tomorrow for New Theme Thursday!

Jorgen snuck a new theme up on the Outside Blogs last night. "Business Casual" is the name of the new theme. We have one more in the wings for next Thursday and a contract with a great designer for an additional 18 themes.

Here is the new theme:

We will be dropping a new theme every Thursday so make sure to check back for the new stuff each Thursday. Remember, changing your theme is a simple deal. All you have to do is head over to your outside blog after clicking on the link from the left hand side of your 'my home' page. Once on your outside blog, click the 'theme' link up at the top of the page and select the theme you want to use.

If you don't have a custom ActiveBlog on your own domain yet, Brad Andersohn takes you through the step by step of how to get it set up. If you have recently signed up for the Rainmaker upgrade, your ActiveBlog is included in your upgrade so make sure to get it set up.

You can see the theme in action over on my outside blog.

Sign up for your ActiveBlog today!

***TO OPTIMIZE THE BUSINESS CASUAL BLOG, YOUR PICTURES MUST BE NO WIDER THAN 550 PIXELS.***