Your best option is to do both.  Blog on your main wordpress blog (which should be the center of everything) and then use AR to backlink to strengthen it. And, use AR to learn how to blog better and get ideas from your peers.

BTW, you can get started on wordpress for way less than most people realize.  Here's an article I wrote a couple of weeks ago on how to get started for $4/month.  You can upgrade later by paying a designer to make it look nicer, but at least you get started and start building domain authority and backlinks.

How to start a wordpress blog for less than $4/month. 

I just blog here. I tried wordpress but I really didn't understand it that much and I didn't want to make the effort to try to figure it out.

First get your own domain working then active rain. Ar might not be here in 10 years but your personal site will still be up and running. Plus you need your personal site for your marketing if you want to look like you are selling re in the 21st century.

Back in the day, we did both Rainmaker and WordPress. Active Rain helped us with being found on Google but I think that's less of a factor now.

Why not do both?

1. AR has a much better support network, with hundreds of coaches ready to lend a hand.
2. AR is easier to use so you can spend less time with setting stuff up and more time on your business.
3. And they also have a great referral network.

I only blog on Active Rain.  Doing both would be too much for me.  However I agree with others that AR isn't your own platform and if it went away so would all of your blog posts and you don't always have control over that. With that said, if AR went away today I would just stop blogging.  I remain on AR and blog because it's a whole package including social media, a community, etc but we have other successful ways we receive leads and clients than blogging, so for me personally, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I no longer did it so for me just AR is worth it. -Kasey 

AR all the way and also do wordpress. 

   Both!

Doing both is fine.

 I'd recommend both.  ActiveRain has pretty good google juice, you'll learn a ton here, and build relationships.  As you go, you'll want to write on your own WP site, too.  I think using both, linking between them, and even using them for different topics is the best way to go.

you need to do both.... ActiveRain will give you immediate Google Juice.... your own wordpress will give you Google Juice, but it will take more time than AR....

Active Rain

Don't limit yourself. You need both!!! AR is good for backlinks to your WP Site. Call Corinne Guest, Managing Broker for help. 

Most do both, I did both but abandoned my WP to simply blog here. But Rainmaker is kind of a must if you are serious.

I think it will be easier to learn AR first then start your WP. If you do it both at the same time you will be overwhelmed. Will you be able to write for 2 blogs? Posting duplicate will get you no where on Google.

Here it's easier to start with tutorials, then work your way up to WP.

Whats in it for me question is at work here. My experience has been good and remains consistent for the purpose intended. Maximum exposure on the search engine circuits with ActiveRain, Wordpress twitter etc. Maximize!

You have some excellent advice from Debbie Gartner. 

I would suggest to do both.

Why not start here, get familiar with blogging, then build your own and do BOTH!  It works for many of us!

I agree with Nina Hollander 

You should DO BOTH!

However, make sure you OWN your url.

Here is the thing, if you want the public to see it, you must be a rain maker. Next you can do both platforms, the difference is nothing beats the ability of Active rain to get my blog in front of consumers generating real leads that are just mine. After referrals, my Active Rain blog is my leading source of new clients 

Don't be overwhelmed - just do it but be consistent.  My choice is ActiveRain because it is simpler/easier for me and the support I have found here over the years yet there is no problem with WordPress.   Good luck.  

Thank you for your post. I'm parked and reading.

I agree both.  Using ActiveRain to blog and pointing back via links to your own domain will help your domain get some traction.  The traffic on AR makes google love them.

Rainmaker for sure.

You need to have a section on your website. 99% browsers are interested in your service or listings. 1% may try to figure you out how good a realtor you are.  There are endless realtors claim they are top producer never had a sale or website. Google ranks the established website(age, activities) first. So you need to order and establish domain, or domains before they will even bother to rank you.  In this case, AR paid membership gets your 2 blogs out(max) today not a year or two years later.

do both

You should be doing both, but change the posts slightly to gain better SEO boost

Create a site with Wordpress is probably best. AR has constant tech glitches, so when that happens, you can just post to your website. There are other platforms as well where you can blog, like linkedIn Pulse, Medium, Blogger, etc

Shanelle Cahill Debbie Gartner has a good response.

Start with rainmaker account

My understanding is, it takes a while for your site to gain "authority", and as Debbie said - probably good to have both.

Shanelle Cahill my answer may be biased! I love ActiveRain - and the Google Juice I get from my market report posts could not have been done without ActiveRain.

Go for Rainmaker account for sure.

Good Luck.

Do both if you can.

I agree with Debbie Gartner but the real key to success is to do it and do it well. Simply having a site and not posting good quality information won't get you where you want to go.

My advice is to do both.  I built my own wordpress site, cost me all of nothing to do it (I already had the domain name and hosting).  With active rain, you get price breaks for every 100,000 points earned until you get to 500,000 points and you get a free account.

I post my blogs on my blog, my social media outlets, active rain and realty times.  Like Debbie Gartner said, it gets me a good amount of backlink juice.