BiggerPockets Founder's Blog

There have been many important changes to BiggerPockets over the past week and we wanted to share these with you.

Forum Changes / Upgrades:

We just launched a drastic change to the look and feel of the BiggerPockets Forums. After years of having the same design, and a ton of feedback from our membership, we've reorganized how things are found on the forum.

Here's a list of the changes:

1 - We created new Sections called Categories that are color coded. Within each section are now sub-sections, and within those are individual forum categories.
2 - For each Section, we've added a navigation area on the left sidebar called Jump to Category, which will quickly take you to the section you seek.
3 - We've added a Popular Tags area in the left sidebar so members can quickly follow discussions under the tags they are interested in.
4 - We moved our Stats section to the left sidebar from the bottom of the page.
5 - We added a new search feature at the top of the forums.
6 - We added RSS buttons for the feeds of each forum category, so members can subscribe to those that interest them.
7 - On each individual forum category page, you can now see the description of that category so there is no confusion as to the purpose of that category.
8 - We moved the Related Topics to the bottom of the forum topics as requested by our members. 

We're working closely with the membership to make this change as easy to digest as possible, and are open to suggestions, as always.  Nothing is locked in stone, and we do have a few tweaks to make to the final layout of the new forum front page, but you have the general idea of where we're headed now.

New Forum Topics

In addition to all of the structural changes to the forums, we've actually removed some forum topics that weren't being utilized and have added some new ones.

The additions include:

- Political Talk - Found in the Off-Topic area, this forum was born out of a need to separate the heated political debate on the site from everything else.  Enter if you dare! 

- Buying Real Estate - Found in the new General Real Estate section of the forums, this forum was created so the non-investors could have a place to discuss any issues related to the purchase of a home.

- Selling Real Estate -  Also found in the new General Real Estate section of the forums, this forum was created so the non-investors could have a place to discuss any issues related to the selling of their homes.

We felt that BiggerPockets has become well known as the go to investing site, but that others might feel unwelcome.  We hope that the Buying & Selling forums, as well as our new real estate professionals area (for real estate agents, lenders, & contractors) might make those who may not have considered participating on BP, think twice.  I hope so!

Forum Awards

When we announced the new Awards system on the site, our awards page showed a tally of all who received any given award, but there was no way to tell who all the winners were.  We've since added a directory of all award winners for any given award.

Just go to the Awards page and click on any award, and you'll see everyone who won that award.  You can sort the list by date the award was granted OR alphabetically.

Influence Fully Implemented

When we first announced our Influence system, we had only deployed it to include activities on the forum.  We've since added to the system to include activities on the blogs, bulletins, profile, etc. Members can now gain influence from Referring New Members  by invite, referral link, or by importing their colleagues through other mail systems.

A subsequent post will include all possible scoring for you to see.

Additions to Our Stats Page

Our Site Stats page now shows those members with the highest influence score (a great way to see who has contributed the most to the community), and you can see those site members who are currently online.

PRO Account Upgrades

Thanks to a great suggestion from Nick J. (motiv8td), we've added the ability for our PRO members to see any external links that are sending people to their profile, blog, and property listings.  Once a visitor goes to any of those places through an external link, it will show up on your dashboard stats tab.

We know that our PRO members will find this addition to be incredibly useful!

Not Enough to Digest?  More to come!

As our long-time members already know, we're always working to improve the user experience on BiggerPockets! Be sure to let everyone know what we're up to, and that BiggerPockets is the place to be for real estate investors, professionals, and anyone else with an interest in the world of real estate.

 . . . doing so gets you some great influence points!

Thank you, 

Joshua Dorkin, Founder/CEO

Introducing BiggerPockets Awards

Yesterday we implemented our new, system-wide award system, designed to stimulate even more activity and participation from our members. With awards designed to reward the top participants in all areas of the site, those who help keep the site running smoothly, and more, we hope that our members will get their competitive spirit going and participate even more here on BiggerPockets. 

We're hoping to stir up your competitive spirit!

Those members who have earned an award will see it on their profile in the awards section, and will also have a tally of the total number of awards next to their forum posts. Here's a sample of some awards taken from my profile:

You can see all of the awards, what they mean, and how many have been given away on our Awards page.

What are you waiting for?  Find out what awards are available and start working to get them!

Profile Updates:

In addition to adding awards to our member profiles, we've also redesigned our profiles to make them cleaner and a more spacious. We hope you like the changes!

This post has been a long time coming . . .

One of my pet peeves in life is when people leave you a voicemail that has no information.  I hate it when my friends do it, but I find it completely rediculous when people do it when calling a business.

Tell People Why You're Calling!

Over the past several days, I've gotten voicemails at BiggerPockets that go something like this:

"This is John at 212-555-5555.  Call me back"

I'm serious. What on earth is that about?

If you can't take the time to explain why you're calling, do you really think someone on the other end is going to take the time to call you back?  In most cases and at most business, they would.

I'm taking a stand.

BiggerPockets will not return your call if you can't have the common courtesy to explain who you are and why you're calling.  It isn't that hard, people.

Be Professional When Calling Others, Folks!

Here's all you need to say:

"Hi, this is YOUR NAME HERE calling from YOUR COMPANY (if you've got one) at 212-555-5555.  I was calling because YOUR REASON HERE.  Please get back to me when you have a chance."

Not only will that get you a call back from someone at BiggerPockets, but it is just good phone etiquette.

For those of you who have left messages with us and wonder why we don't get back to you, I think you know the reason now.

Thanks for listening.

INTRODUCING INFLUENCE & FORUM VOTING

We’ve established a point system for the forums (soon to expand to our entire site), which takes into account a member’s participation.  You can gain both positive and negative influence based upon what you do on the site.

The goal of this influence system is to reward those members who not only help their fellow users, but also those who help the forums to run smoothly.  As you can see from the chart below, those who participate by posting will gain influence points.  The real points come, however, when others deem your posts as helpful (by voting – see below), or when you help us to rid the site of junk/spam. 

On the other hand, as you can see, the impact of spamming the site, not following the rules (we need to edit your posts), or worse, is severe in terms of your influence points.

Voting

Influence Point System:

Action: Net Gain/Loss

Vote Post Up: 1
Each reply to your post gets you: 1
Post New Topic: 5
Reply to topic: 4
Have your Post voted up: 10
You mark a post as spam; no gain unless removed by admin or mod. If removed: 20, if edited: 10

Have your post deleted: -50
Have your post edited -10
Banned from individual forum -200
Banned from all forums -1000

Amongst other reasons, we created our BiggerPockets PRO accounts to give members the ability to inprove their marketing on the site.  I wanted to write a brief post letting our current and future PRO members know how to best utilize some of the great features that come with being a BiggerPockets PRO. 

An Enhanced forum Signature, Including Your Company's Logo

I believe that one of the most powerful benefits of becoming a PRO member is having an advanced forum signature.  While regular members have the ability toinclude a line of information in their signature, which can include contact information and a website link, this is standard with a PRO signature. 

PRO members, get an additional line where they can add any additional information (email, phone and website link are standard), AND best of all, they get their company's logo posted at the bottom of all forum posts, linking back to their company's profile.

This exposure is INVALUABLE for anyone with their own company, or for anyone who is looking to help spread the word about the company they work for.  By simply participating on the forums, you get your brand in front of the eyes of our thousands of daily forum visitors.  

Easily Find New Leads Using Your BiggerPockets Stats

In the Dashboard of our PRO members is a section devoted to Stats, where our PROs can see that latest visitors to their profile, blog, and each property listing on BiggerPockets!  This information provides our members with a powerful tool for scouting new leads.

Properties:

By seeing the latest people who visited your property listings, you can then contact these people by PM to find out about their interest.  Perhaps they were just curious onlookers, but perhaps the property is just what they are looking for.  Either way, you can establish a relationship with someone who, by looking at your property listing, has shown that they have some kind of interest in the properties that you've got available.

Profile & Blog:

Similar to above, there is usually some reason that someone visits your profile or blog.  Odds are that you've written something, or you have something in your profile that is of interest to them.  By knowing who these people are, you can then get in touch to figure that out.  

Contact Made Easier as a PRO

While regular members are restricted to send a PM to those people that they are colleagues with, our PRO members do not have those limitations.  A PRO member can send a PM to any other BiggerPockets member (provided they are not blocked by that member), and by using the data I mentioned above, you can really start to work those leads and easily get in touch with people.

That said, we will not put up with anyone using the PM system to SPAM other members.  We will not hesitate to remove the PM privileges of any member, basic or PRO, if we determine that you are using the PM system to send unsolicited offers, ads, deals, etc.

Your Profile Highlighted on the Networking Page

Our PRO members get their profiles highlighted at the top of the Networking page.  Not only will people get to see your name and location, but also your occupation, a link to your company's profile (if you've created a company profile) , and a link to your website.

More to Come . . .

There are many other features that come with being a BiggerPockets PRO member, that can help with your marketing and lead mining.  We'll come back to you and delve into some of those in the near future.

Not A PRO Yet? Upgrade to BiggerPockets PRO Today!

Improve Your Real Estate Marketing by Blogging on BiggerPockets

Many months ago, we launched our BiggerPockets.com blogging system as a way for real estate investors, professionals, and others in the business to share their thoughts, opinions, and knowledge. Of course, as a result of that participation, the goal was to help these bloggers get noticed.

BiggerPockets Blogs are fast and easy to set up, and now bring a new perk:

Top Bloggers and Blog Commenters are Highlighted to the Community

We felt that it was important to let everyone in the community know who those people were that contributed the most to the BiggerPockets blogging community, and have thus added the Top Participants this Month feature.

On the right side of the main blogs page, you'll see a box with the Top Participants this Month, which shows the five (5) most active bloggers and the five (5) most prolific commenters.

So What are the Perks for Being on the List?

If you're on the list (which looks back at the last 30 days, not the previous month), you'll get your name and personal avatar posted, which link back to your profile AND a link to your website will also appear in the list!

You can see that participation equals FREE PR for your profile and website link!

Are There Other Reasons to Blog on BiggerPockets?

1. BiggerPockets has a vast and captive audience.
2. SEO link back potential to help your offsite web properties.
3. Networking with others — Social Network isn't the future, it's here to stay. You have to be part of the conversation or you don't exist.
4. By providing helpful and meaningful content, members who blog actively on BiggerPockets will gain benefits including broad exposure for you and your business.
5. Do-follow links to your favorite websites
6. Make money! Our bloggers can make money by showing ads on their blog.

What Are You Waiting For? Jump on the BiggerPockets Blogs community and start posting your own blogs and engaging in conversation with others by commenting! You'll see the benefits yourself!

NOTE: If we feel that you are "gaming" the system by posting "junk" comments or blog posts to inflate your count, we will either remove your ability to participate, or we may remove you from the site completely.