Finally, after numerous requests from members, and months of hard work, ActiveRain added the Google Analytics Widget to Outside Blogs today.  Google Analytics is a free service that provides detailed statistics about visitors to your blog.  This only applies to the ActiveBlogs, ActiveRains Outside Blog Platform.

How To Install the Google Analytics Widget

1. Go to your ActiveRain Outside Blog and Click on the link.

To create a new ActiveBlog (Outside Blog) CLICK HERE or go to your "My Home" page, and Click on the "Outside Blog" link located on your sidebar. It will be on the left hand side of your My Home page.

2. Click on the "Widgets" link from the toolbar at the top of the page.

3. Click on the  button to open your Blogs Widget Manager.

4. From the "Widget Manager", using the pull-down menu, select the "Google Analytics" option.  Next, Click the "ADD" button and you're ready to install.

5. You'll need to register your Blogs Domain (URL) at the Google Analytics Site.  Once registered, you'll be given an HTML "snippet code" that you'll need to add as shown in the box below.  Use CTRL+C to copy the code from GA, then CTRL+V to paste the code in the snippet box of the widget manager.  It's very simple.

6.  Once you have registered your Domain name, and added your (snippet),  Click on the "Install" or "Update" button, but only click on it one time.  If you do click "install" more than once, you will see additional installs which can be removed very easily.  Just use the "delete" link if this happens.

7. Your Google Analytics will now show as an installed Widget.  You can edit or delete the widget using the "Edit|Delete" links shown above.  NOTE: Nothing new will appear or show up on your outside Blog, so to check your stats, traffic, and reports, you'll need to go to your Google Analytics Account for those details. 

TIP: You can use the "Reorder Widgets" button to change the order and placement of widgets, but this has no bearing on the Google Analytics Widget since there's no images that will show on your sidebar.

8. Now just click the button, and you're done!  Time: 3 minutes.

Now you can track your visitors, get statistics galore, see where your traffic is coming from and much more.
If you find for any reason that you are NOT getting any data or reports for your Blog, here's a video that will help explain how to make sure you have completed the above steps properly. 

9.  Last step: If you'd be so kind, and click My Outside Blog so I can test that everything is working OK.

HUGE Kudos to the AR TEAM and programmers for making it happen today, thanks guys!  :-)

With all the great tools available on the net for FREE these days, it seems like there's hardly any room or time to add anything new that will either simplify or complicate and consume our lives any further right?   There are literally hundreds of sites popping up each week that try to compete and offer greater value than the next site.  As I research what's out there, some of my favorite sites to investigate are the ones that might benefit us, our clients or our business.

Have you ever tried to email a file attachment that was too large for your email host, or too big for the recipient?  Many of these email hosts and pop servers put a limit to the file size you can share, send, or receive.  I wanted to share a file with someone the other day, and their email kept rejecting it because the file exceeded their email servers limits.  It was only 3 megabytes.

So looking for a quick and easy solution, I remembered hearing about Box.net  It's a file sharing site that allows you to upload all types of files and give others access to them.  It can be used for public or private sharing depending on how you set it up.  Having a site on the web to store files can also be a huge benefit if you ever need to access them while you're away from your own computer.  Of course having your own server is best, but most don't have that luxury.

Box.net lets you upload almost any file type and allows you store up to 1.0 gigabytes of data FREE!  You can also add additional services to your "BOX" like efax, Outlook, Gmail etc.  You can add your social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter and others.  You can even post files directly to your blog to share information with others all over the world.

Here's a sample of one of my Business Cards I uploaded.  You'll get a kick out of that one! lol~  It's nice that there's no software or hardware required, it's really simple to use and easy to set-up, you'll have user permission controls, and they offer 24x7 phone support.  Here's one of the quotes from their site:

Did you know? Over 50,000 businesses use Box.net to share ideas, create content, and collaborate in an online workspace?  Users can access online file storage from anywhere - even on the iPhone or Blackberry.

Since they've been around awhile, that usually proves their value, stability, and WEB track record.

I think Box.net really simplifies file-sharing and team collaboration.  There's no attachments or FTP uploads, you just send your clients or co-workers a link.  This could be a useful tool to add to the many other tools and resources you'll find in the WEB 2.0 World.  Thinking and working inside the "BOX" may help you or your business be more productive when you're outside the box.  I'm just sayin...  :-)

This Post was created using just some of the questions I get asked from ActiveRain members. Some of the ones you won't find posted here, I could never repeat in public!  lol~  You can't even imagine some of the kinds of questions I get. My Favorite this week has to be just "Bob?"
Now does Brad sound like Bob to you? haha!  Seriously though, no such thing as a dumb question.

Here are the TOP 10 FAQ's for the week of March 16th, 2009.  If you know of any other member who may have some of these same questions or issues, please feel free to forward them this post.  Otherwise, I think you all know where to find me...  lol~

My broker would like to change his status from Real Estate Agent to Real Estate Brokerage. but we can't find the way. Help!

  This is an "admin feature" that only the AR staff can change.  It is encrypted in the system once you sign-up.  We can change it for you easily, just send an email to support@activerain.com.  This will also give Jeremy Blanton some job security and something to do... lol~

Brad, if I have an outside blog can someone who is a member but not grandfathered or paying be on my team blog?

  If any member has the ability to post on their Blog publicly, they can also post on your outside blog after you invite them.  If they are not able to post to the public, they will be unable to post to your Outside Blog, but they will still receive the invitation.

How do I know if anyone is reading my Blog posts on AR?  Is there a way to track stats and traffic?

  Yes. There are a few ways you can.  The first is to check your "Statistics" Link on AR.  Go to "My Home" scroll to the bottom of the sidebar located on the left of your screen.  Click on the "Statistics" link, and you can view your comments, views, and clicks.

You can also install Cluster Maps, SiteMeter, or ActiveMeter on your Blog by using the HTML codes they provide, then place the code in the description box (HTML Only), on your "settings" page.  Here's How to install Various Widgets.  Oh Yeah, there's always getclicky.com and MyBlogLog.com too.

I think it was you who had done a video with what looked to be an Active Rain gathering. It was a whole bunch of people saying how great the Rain was. Could you give me a link to that video or tell me where I might find it?  Thanks!

  The video was taken at the Real Estate Connect in San Francisco, it was added to one of the ActiveRain landing pages. Here is a link:  ActiveRain Voices in the Rain.

I just purchased my AR outside blog and all the Themes are created for other companies.  My company is not available.  How do I create my own custom themes and sidebar?

  There are many company Themes available now that are branded, but there are two you can use that are NOT branded to any brokerage of company.  They are "Elements of SEO" and "Legacy".  These can both be customized by adding your own header and sidebar images.  We'll be adding additional themes (both branded and non-branded) down the road. Also, watch for the new text widget, I think it's actually "LIVE" now. (hint:)

I have been a FREE member on AR now for over 4 months and was just wondering how this Network makes money?   What other products or services do you offer, if any?  I love Activerain, thanks.

  FAQ - Pick of the week!  ActiveRain does have the FREE limited membership which many do use and benefit from, however there are other tools we offer to members that include: Sponsoring Localism Communities, Setting up Listing Router Campaigns, Creating ActiveBlog Outside Blogs,and Market Leader & Vision. FREE memberships can upgrade to an ActiveRain "RainMaker" membership if they choose.  We also have Channel sponsorships available and advertising in our ActiveRain Newsletter. There's so many ways you can benefit from some of these additional services on AR, but they are not free.

You can also just make your check out to "Brad Andersohn" and I'll see that it goes to good cause. :-)

     

Just curious...How many "Channels" are there and how many posts does it take in a given channel to get it visible?

  All the channels are listed on the main page of AR.  There are 8 consumer and 8 professional, then there are the top 3 topics in each channel based on member content.  The more content about a subject, the more chance it will show up in the top 3 topics for that channel.  No idea how many posts it takes, I think it's based on the majority of posts generated.  Maybe consider writing posts about the current top 3 topics in any channel for some additional exposure in those channels. More On Channels

Bad Request

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Size of a request header field exceeds server limit.

  Easy Answer for this one.  DO NOT COPY AND PASTE FROM WORD!  Text or Images. When you do this, HTML codes and scripts also get copied over that in many cases, are not compatible with our network.  This will also happen when you try to copy too much information from any other source.  Instead, use ActiveRain to create your post, then save it in "draft" mode.  You can make all your edits in AR.  If you must use an outside source, I have used ScribeFire.com for Firefox and it seems to work well.  There are no hidden codes or malicious scripts that I'm aware of.

For some reason I have stopped receiving the daily AR newsletter. I did recently change my email address to the one above and this was also changed in the system.  Is it possible for you to remedy?

  Yes.  If you have us change your email address in ActiveRain, you'll need to notify us by email with the new email address so that you can be added to the distribution list for the newsletter.  Just send your email update request to support@activerain.com and we'll make the changes in our database. If you're NOT currently getting the AR Newsletter, and you'd like to, just email us your request to be added to the list.  

Is there a help section or link to search for answers to my questions on ActiveRain?

  There are a few areas you can find help and answers to your questions: Start with the "SEARCH" link located at the Top of every AR page.  You can check the HELP/FAQ group located at the bottom of every page.  Another place to find help is the ActiveRainGuide.com site, which has tutorials and help posts by other members.  My Profile has a few tutorials as well. If you are brand new, a great place to start is the "Getting Started" link located on the main page of ActiveRain. (below the channels area)  Then Join Groups.

I hope these FAQ's have helped some new members.  There is so much great information on AR, and now with over 1,000,000 articles/posts, you can probably find almost every answer to any question you may ever have about AR or the RE Industry.  :-)

March 2009 Related Posts:
Week In Review - Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ's - Volume I
Week In Review - Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ's - Volume II
Week In Review - Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ's - Volume III    
Week In Review - Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ's - Volume IV

I was just notified that the Inter-Active ActiveRain Business Card is now available on iTunes.   Last week, I posted a video on how the app works and received a great response from many of you iPhone users.  That's not to say I didn't hear from the BlackBerry Crowd too!  lol~ 
As promised, I said it was coming...now it's here.

There is already more functionality, a new mortgage calculator, and a feature that allows iPhone 3G users to click on a button while in front of a property, (or in a specific neighborhood), that returns them a google map geocoded with the location, photo, and details of that property. 

I love this stuff, I think other iPhone users will too.

How Do I get it?

To get yourself a copy to check out, or test on your iPhone, just go to the iTunes store on your MAC or PC, and in the "Search" box, type "ActiveRain" and viola!  It only takes seconds to install, and I think you'll enjoy some of these first features. (you may find a couple "rain radio" podcasts on iTunes as a bonus...shhh)

If you're an iPhone owner, you can download a copy of this app RIGHT HERE.  It's easy to do, and it's FREE.  You can also download it directly from your iPhone buy clicking the "AppStore Icon" then the "Search Tab" with "ActiveRain" as your search.  I'd love to solicit your reviews, comments, and opinions over at the iTunes store.  Once you've download the application, you'll see a button for "reviews" at iTunes, your feedback and support over there is appreciated, but only if you have the spare time. :-)

Getting My Own Customized App

Getting this application customized for you and your company or business will be easy.  There'll be a launching of the site wizard this next week, giving you the capability to create one of these for your own iPhone.  I'll have a post giving instructions and details on how to do this sometime next week.

Thanks for sharing in all the excitement with me, it's been a long time coming, and now I finally get to share it back.  Take a moment and check it out, then you can decide how you'd want your own iPhone Business Card App to work.  Or... you can just use mine to work and play in the "RAIN!"  Enjoy!

http://itunes.com/app/activerain

Today, I'm introducing a new app coming out for iPhone users, the "iPhone Inter-Active Business Card."  I used ActiveRain and my iPhone to demo how it will work.  Now it's not available just yet, I wanted to see what you think of it first. I'll be doing a follow-up post in the next couple weeks showing you how to get one of these iPhone apps that you can customize for your company and for your iPhone.  I'm really excited about this one, mainly because I got to help design it.  :-)

The "iPhone Bus Card" allows users to Interact with you from their iPhones.  They can call you, email you, or visit your website, all at the touch of a button.  The screens, tabs, links, and graphics you'll see in this video are all customizable.  You can have it link to your office or business address, which uses Google Maps to provide location and directions.  You can add video, or a link to your Blog, it even has the ability for text messaging and more.

My favorite feature is on the "about" tab, which lets you search our site.  You can search nearly 1,000,000 posts, or 140,000 members right from your iPhone.  For the past two weeks, I have been working with a developer who has helped put this all together.  I think in the next week or so, it'll be ready to go public.

I can see how something like this could easily go viral at the iTunes store.  I'm hoping this AR app will be available on itunes soon for you and others to download.  Just remember, you saw it here first.  The first Inter-Active ActiveRain iPhone Business Card.  (Almost sounds like a commercial...sorry)  In the weeks ahead, this could become one of the coolest and most popular iPhone apps in our Industry.  Am I too Optimistic...

I think this will be a great marketing and social media networking tool.  What better way to promote your company, get connected to the cellular world, create an application to perform exactly what you want and need, and allow clients, users, and friends to "Inter-Act" with you on many different levels.  My guess is that this will be a huge hit once it's public and made available to ALL iPhone users.  The added bonus?  All iPhone owners can call any other iPhone owner for FREE! Why?  Because all iPhone users are currently on AT&T.   iPhone Users and Projections.

My goal: Make sure the ActiveRain family and friends get first shot at this, so stay tuned...

Here are the TOP 10 FAQ's for the week of March 9th, 2009.  If you know of another member who may have some of these same questions or issues, please feel free to forward them this post.  It looks like a network with this many members and this many tools and options will never run out of good questions to be answered.  Thanks for all the continued support and comments, these seem to be helping reduce the amount of tickets and emails we normally get on a regular basis.  Special thanks to Jeremy Blanton for helping us get caught up in the support ticket booth.

Why does my ReBlog button say disabled?  I am logged in and have checked the box to allow reblogging? 

  This only appears in the Internet Explorer Browser, and it's only confirming that you can't ReBlog your own posts.  Nobody else can see that hover button title but you on your own Blog posts.

Brad,  What are the settings about?  I don't follow: what is their function?

  The settings page on AR allows you to customize your settings in a way that suits your personal needs.  This is where you add your Blog Title, widgets for your sidebar, description and keywords, twitter settings, general settings, email settings, and enable or disable Listing Router. 

I see members have pictures and movies on their Blog Sidebar.  How do I add these widgets to my Blog?

  A very common question asked by new members on AR.  The sidebar of your Blog is controlled at the settings page located on your "My Home" page.  Click "My Home", then the "Settings" link on the left sidebar.  The second box down (just below your Blog title) is where you place the HTML code for widgets.  Find Out More Here.

How do I add posts to my Outside ActiveBlog?   When I write them, should I do it on the outside blog? 

  This is one of the beauties of ActiveBlogs.  You don't need to write separate posts and take up valuable time.  You create your post on AR as you normally do.  Next, before you submit it, just like adding to the various groups, simply put a check mark in the box "My Outside Blogs" then check where you want it to appear. (See below)

I recently purchased an individual outside blog, but there's a link in the toolbar that says members.  Did I accidentally get a TEAM Blog?  Am I being charged more?  Can you help me?

  All ActiveRain blogs are now team blogs, and are being given to members at no additional cost.  They are now one in the same.  You will not be charged more.  The members link allows you to invite others from your Team or Brokerage (or groups) to contribute to your Blog.  This is if they choose to accept your invitation.  To invite a member, jusat click on the members link, and add just their AR profile name ONLY.  IE: activebrad.  This will send them an invite that will appear on their my home page.  Ways to use your individual/team Blog.

Hi, I am new to ActiveRain.  When I write a Blog post, my only options for viewing availability are draft, members only, or associates.  How do I get my post to be available to the public?

  Your free AR account only lets you post to "members only" or "associates" unless or until you upgrade to a rainmaker account.  At this point you will be able to create "public posts", capture more SEO, setup an outside Blog with your own custom domain name, and get unlimited tech support from the AR staff and more.  Here is a link that explains the "rainmaker membership plan"

I am using Internet Explorer because my MLS requires it.  I am having too many issues with a lot of sites including AR, since I only can use IE, what do you recommend I do?  Is there another Browser I can use without losing access to my MLS?

  This is a very common "Myth-Understanding!"  You can use multiple browsers on your computer.  They even run simultaneously.  You can run Mozilla FireFox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Flock, and many others, all at the same time if you like.  See How This Works Here.

Brad, I am a newbie here on AR, where can I go to find out information about all the things there are to learn here?  Is there an ActiveRain manual somewhere?  Who are we suppose to call for help?

  There are so many great resources and members on AR, I use the "search" function at the top of every AR page. There are a few locations you will find a more focused effort on support issues, the first being ActiveRainGuide.com.  You can also visit the HELP/FAQ Group located at the bottom of Every AR page.  Since you are new, I would definitely review the "Getting Started Link" on the Main AR Page (under the channels area)  and Lastly, you can visit My Profile on AR for some of my how-to's, tips, and tricks.  As a Last resort?  Support@ActiveRain.com

I got this page that came up on ActiveRain that said Intermission, what does this mean?

  On occasion, our programmers and tech support team need to make small enhancements or deploy new versions and releases of bug fixes, new features, improvements etc.  You were probably on-line while they were deploying the new ReBlog button onto the site. 

The Intermission screen is just our friendly way of saying, "Take A Break, we'll be right back!" 

It looks so much better than the screen that used to say, "Error - We're Down For Maintenance!"

Now it reads:

Where can I find the blog customizer tool?  I can't find a link for it on my home page.

  The ActiveRain Customizer IS on your "My Home" page.  It has been moved around a few times but has finally found a home right next to your ActiveRain Blog link.  Go to "My Home" and on the left sidebar, just below the word BLOGS, you will see "ActiveRain" and next to it a link that says "Customize", this is where you can add headers, background images, different colored fonts and text etc. 

Don't forget to check out the "NEW" Custom Blogs Page that went up at 2:00am while members were sleeping.

Later this week I'll be making a couple exciting announcements regarding our upcoming AR Webinar Training Series, the new ActiveRain Ambassadors and Badge, and something else I have been working on these past few weeks.  This is going to be a very exciting week with the announcements of some great "new" things coming to the "rain!"  Have a great week everybody. :-)

Week In Review - Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ's - Volume I
Week In Review - Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ's - Volume II
Week In Review - Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ's - Volume III    
Week In Review - Top 10 ActiveRain FAQ's - Volume IV

If one of the ultimate goals is to drive traffic to your Blog, (any blog or post) then what is a good way to do this?  Some of our daily AR tasks have included helping members set up these ActiveBlogs.  Bob Stewart and I have helped setup hundreds.  Take a look at some of these.  This is one reason why my response time on comments, emails, and calls has diminished. LOL~

So what is the best way to drive traffic to your outside blogs?  The clues are scattered all over this post.  (hint: use your mouse) First, you'll need to have an ActiveRain Outside Blog.  If you don't have one already, here's a two for one clue.  Check out ActiveBlogs.  If you wanted to add Widgets to your ActiveBlog, it's really this easy. 

Maybe you're just looking for some Important tips about the new outside Blogs.  Did you know that AR discussed these in detail on the air, and recorded it?  So what is the answer to this "Riddle" post?

The point I am trying to make is that there is great way to send traffic to your outside Blog and many of our members might be are missing it.  I have put clues all over this post.  If you have hovered your mouse or clicked on any of these links, then you have discovered the answer by now.  This is just one thing members with an outside Blog should be thinking about and doing.

We'll be starting our first AR Webinar Training Series on how to setup and maximize an ActiveBlog sometime next week (if setup by then)  We'll cover all this in detail and much more, but if you already have an outside AR blog, or are considering one, please take the clue you just got here, and apply it to your outside Blogs right away. 

I know you ALL probably got the answer to this "riddle"... You did get the answer right?

Using wix.com, I was able to create this ebook. It was initially created to try and help visitors and readers find posts on my Blog that might be helpful to them. In an effort to try and sort them out, and make them easier to find, I was able to use wix to better organize my tutorials, how-to's, and tips etc. Hopefully, it will make things easier for folks to find articles of interest, or anything else I have Blogged about that they might be looking for. This seems like an easy way to keep different Blog posts alive after a long period of time.

The eBook tutorial can also be found and is available on my ActiveRain profile, just in case this post disappears off my Blogroll, (which it will) as they ALL tend to do after time. You can find out more about Wix at Wix.com. It's easy, it's fairly user friendly, it's useful, and the best part of all, it's FREE!

Sorry about the big white space above, it's not a boo-boo, it was intentional and here's why...

The blank space above was needed for when you hover your mouse over the wix graphic on the right hand side of the eBook, you'll see that my "Magic Banner" will appear there.

I know this post of Wix is small, and it may be difficult for some of you to read who have eyes like mine, but I had to re size it so it would fit into this post and not blow out my entire Blog. The larger version over on my AR profile is much easier on the eyes, and is the proper size. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: All ActiveBrads posts are best viewed in Mozilla Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer version 7 or higher.