ActiveRain (AR), a large network of real estate professionals just announced they have launched “Outside Blogs”.

Here is the initial announcement from Brad Andersohn, Active Rain Community Builder and GeekEstateBlog contributor.

What is an Active Rain Outside Blog (AROB)? That’s ARspeak for a blog that lies outside the confines of the ActiveRain domain.

Sort of.

It looks like the outside blogs are simply posted to a sub-domain of AR. For example, if I wanted my AROB to be named “Jay’s Blog” the domain would wind up being http://jaysblog.activerain.com.

There is a provision to use an existing domain name, but it’s unclear to me if such a URL is simply pointed to the AR sub-domain. If is is pointed, then there are of course no SEO benefits to having your own URL.

In less than an hour after Brad’s post, there is already a flurry of comments, with AR members basically salivating over the prospects of having an “outside blog” (for the record, and not that it matters, the term “outside blog” has always bugged me. It sounds silly).

I suspect there will be hundreds more comments in the coming days and this will be all the rage and talk on AR for some time.

The system seems well thought out from an “inside” perspective. It looks like Rainers write posts as usual on their AR account then simply check a box (or boxes) to select if the post is submitted to AR, OBs or Localism, AR’s other, consumer based (in theory) platform. Post can be submitted to 1, 2 or all 3 of these platforms (which raises the age-old duplicate content issue IMHO).

It should be very simple for experienced Rainers to set up an AROB with a few clicks. In fact, I just logged into my basically abandoned AR account and set up my AROB in literally 30 seconds. It can be found here: http://PhoenixREGuy.activerain.com Note I did not add my personal photos, but that would have been a simple upload, pushing the time to probably about three minutes.

There were only two basic themes to choose from, more are promised later.

Comments from existing posts on AR are automatically ported over to the AROB posts.

AR membership is pushing the 100,000 mark, and there is no doubt that many, many people will deploy AROBs in the coming days, weeks and months. Cost is free, which I believe is a change from when AROBs were first being discussed. If I recall correctly, they were originally planned to have a trial period followed by a nominal cost.

There are some nagging questions I have that would be interesting to get thoughts and opinions on.

Do AROB’s support trackbacks/pingbacks? These are, IMHO, a fundamental component of “outside blogs”. The interconnectivity that occurs when one blog links to another is an important function, and if lacking on AROBs, is a serious detriment.

How are unique URLs set up? Are they simply pointed to the AROB?

How are comments and comment spam moderated and controlled? There is a “captcha” on the AROB, but if that’s completed, a comment will post immediately.

Is there a duplicate content concern if a post is submitted to the main AR site, and an AROB, and to Localism? It’s hard to see why it wouldn’t at least be a concern.

Short of adding a header and changing colors, there appears to be almost no way to really customize an AROB. Are there any plans to add “widgets” and what developers will work on widgets and future themes?

And finally, what will the impact be of thousands of Active Rain members unleashing outside blogs almost simultaneously? Once the buzz dies down (and that buzz will be significant) will the masses be happy with the similar look, feel and functionality between AROBs. Will there be enough differentiation between AROBs so that they don’t get “stigmatized” (for lack of a better term) much like Blogger blogs have. Will people other than AR members consider them “real  blogs”? (and does that really matter?)

The Active Rainers are sometimes rabid in their support for AR. I have no doubt they will jump all over this, and shout the virtues to the world. I just wonder if any “outsiders” will hear it.

Edited to add: 15 minutes after launching my AROB, this is what I saw when I went to it. Are the AR servers already slammed?