Tucson By Choice!

I visited Surf City, NJ this summer.  I wrote a post to Localism/Ocean County/Surf City.  My Darlin' and I found a wonderful little bayfront restaurant on the mainland in Cedar Run, NJ.  Another Localism post.  I think I've written posts to Localism for every town I've visited outside Arizona since July 2007, when I joined.  It's a way of giving back to Active Rain, and to the Rainers I've met around the country.

I'm a "glass half full, and continuing to fill" kind of guy.  Reflecting on the success AR has brought to me since I joined up...

I have a question.  You may have the answer.

Does posting to Localism outside my home territory of Tucson, Arizona help fill my glass with Google juice?

I probably ought to just ask Karen George in Arizona; she's one of the brightest people on Active Rain on the subject of Search Engine Optimization.  

It makes good business sense to rely on relationships we've cultivated--those we know to be reliable.  I absolutely treasure those of you who, like Ms. George, fall into this category.  You're the vein of gold in Active Rain's rich ore.

Arizona drew prospectors to my Tucson Mountains at the beginning of the last century because there was gold to be found, often near pockets and veins of quartz.  Getting it took time and effort.  So does mining the Active Rain Network.

One of my resolutions for 2008 (the word implies determination and an unwillingness to be distracted) is to spend time each day on Active Rain looking for additional resources of the human kind.  With 63,440 members in Active Rain, I know you're out there. 

I just haven't met you.  Not yet.

Mike in Tucson,
Tucson Mortgage Lender
 

This post won't teach you anything about HTML meta tags.  Active Rainers have already paved that street.  This post is a success story for my brand, Mike in Tucson.  Three things converged to bring about that success:  

• the genius of the Active Rain business model,
• Active Rain members who read and comment on my blog, and
• little things called "tags."

I found Active Rain in July.  Inman News did an article on AR's explosive growth.  I signed up.

Writing is right up my alley, but I didn't know diddly about how search engines work, why a particular result comes up first on a Google search when I "google," or anything else about websites.  For a month, I floundered around, writing about this and that, and capturing a limited readership.

In September, Renee Burrows of Las Vegas posted Moving Up to Tag Cloud Purgatory.  She included it on the group Active Rain Newbies, and I read it.  Bingo!  I understood the power of tags, and immediately went back, a few posts per day, and cleaned up my tags.  Here's what I did:

• I re-examined my business brand of four years, and dumped it.
• I created a new brand: Mike in Tucson. Tucson has 38 Michael W. Jones's, but only one Mike in Tucson.
• My web guy, Donte' Ormsby of FX Studios, began work on MikeinTucson.com
• I signed off every post with Mike in Tucson.
• I tagged every post with those same three little words: Mike in Tucson.
• As often as possible, (when the content supported it) I signed off each post as follows:  And that's the real estate opinion of this Tucson, Arizona mortgage lender,  Mike in Tucson.  My tags are tucson, tucson mortgage, arizona,and mike in tucson.

Most importantly, I kept on blogging on Active Rain.  Google can't find you if you're not posting content to your weblog and tagging it. 

• If you subscribe to my blog, you know me as "Mike in Tucson."
• When I comment on your blog, you see "Mike in Tucson." 
• If you have a sidebar from mybloglog.com, there I am!
• If you call my cellphone, you'll hear "Hi!  This is Mike in Tucson..."

Last week, several of my readers got a call from me during the business day.  "Hi, is this _________?"  A moment of silence as they tried to register the voice...  "Yes?" was usually the tentative response.  "This is Mike in Tucson."  "No way!" was typical of the responses.  Remember that not one of the AR members I called had ever had a phone call from me.  And yet not one of them, in the midst of their own busy day, replied "Who?"

Today, I went to Google's home page and typed in (you guessed it) Mike in Tucson. 

I clicked "I'm Feeling Lucky." (If you've never clicked that button, you need to know that it takes you to the first page out of all possible choices.)

Up came my Active Rain profile!  Clicking Google Search will give the same results, but it's not as dramatic--not as much fun!

So go back up to Renee Burrow's link.  Read her post, leave a comment telling her why you came, and go to work cleaning up your tags.  If you're a Newbie, like I was in July, the results will open your eyes to the combined power of Active Rain, blogging, tags and Google.  Your phone will start to ring.  Mine has!  If it works for me, I know it will work for you.

And that's the real estate opinion of this Tucson, Arizona mortgage lender,

Mike in Tucson