Getting Value from BiggerPockets? Here's How You Can Give Back!

[Joshua Dorkin]

Over the years we've had countless success stories here on BiggerPockets. Many people have shared those stories with us, many have donated to the site to give back, and many just contribute as their way of saying thank you.

I've had quite a few conversations with people who have asked how they can help us out and give back to BiggerPockets. Here are a few ways that you can help.

How You Can Give Back to BiggerPockets

1 - Contribute and share your knowledge with the community - Not only are you helping us help others, but by doing so, you're also going to help yourself with visibility, credibility, and as a result you will gain new colleagues, new partners, and ultimately, more business.

2 - Share our content - Our forums, blog posts, articles, and all of our other content have sharing buttons for Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. By clicking these share buttons when you see content that you find to be valuable, you're helping us to spread the word about that content, and at the same time, helping the people in your circles to find great information. It takes a few seconds to share -- please help us out by actively doing so!

3 - Tell others about BiggerPockets - Simply tell the people that you know in real estate or who are interested in real estate investing about the site and what we're trying to do -- help investors succeed. For bonus points, you can talk to any groups that you're a part of -- like your local real estate club -- about BP and why they should join up.

4 - Invite your friends and colleagues - Whether you do so by #3 above or if you use our system's Invite Colleagues function (found in the Network menu), bringing new users to join the site is a great way to give back and help.

5 - Link to BiggerPockets from your blog or website - There's no better way to endorse a website online than by linking to it from your own website or blog. Whether you link to your personal profile, company profile, or any of our other resources or pages, you're helping us to spread the word.

6 - Share your success story on our site and off - If you've found any value from our site -- be it deals you've done, money you've saved, or colleagues you've made -- you're one of our success stories. By sharing your success story on our forums, you're helping us let others know the value they can find here on BP. For bonus points share your success story on your own site, as a guest blog post on someone else's site, or via social media -- of course, we hope you'd link back to the site (see #5) in addition!

7 - Record a video on YouTube about why people should join - These days everyone seems to have a web-cam. Why not let others know the value you've found here by recording a video of yourself telling others about the site. We LOVE testimonials, and video testimonials are an incredible way to help out!

8 - Write a tutorial about how others can use the site - What better way to help give back to the site than helping to teach others how to use it to build their business. Do you have any tips that you think others can benefit from? Whether you write a tutorial on BP, or on your own blog, or even if you do a video tutorial, you're not only helping us, but you're also helping your peers. Cool tutorial topics might include things like "top 5 ways to gain colleagues on BP"; "how to build a profile on BP that attracts partners" and so on.

9 - Compile lists of valuable BP threads and articles on specific topics - There are over 400,000 forum posts and thousands of articles here on BiggerPockets. While we do our best to categorize this information, the sheer volume makes it a challenge. It would be incredibly valuable to us and to the community at large to have users compile the threads and articles on specific topics, to simplify how we all find this information. If you're a landlord and want to help compile all the great content on tenant screening, for example, and then put them together in a list in a forum post -- say the ultimate list of tenant screening information -- you'd be doing a huge service to us and others.

10 - Talk about the value of BiggerPockets while on other sites, blogs, social networks - There's nothing more gratifying then knowing that your supporters are talking about your business. While it feels good, doing so also keeps us at the front of people's minds. By talking about BP across the web, you're helping us to get the word out.

11 - Donate - It takes a lot of resources to build BiggerPockets, and we're constantly working to improve it so it offers you the tools and services to assist you with your business. A great way to give back is to donate money. You can also donate your time and energy, but we've covered that in the previous 10 points.

12 - Upgrade to PRO - By upgrading to PRO, not only do you get access to all the features that come with it, but you're also supporting the community. (Thanks to Don Konipol for the addition)

Can you think of any others? What are you doing to help out?

[Mark Ferguson]

@Brandon Turner shared one of my HUD articles when I first started blogging and it helped me tremendously. I had a ton of hits from twitter and facebook.

I mention BPO all the time on my blog and being a pro member is a great way to get traffic to my blog. I can put my blog in my signature and that generates links from BP which is a great way to get traffic and search engines love to see links from big sites come into your blog.