You can buy them at the store and stick them on your screen. I have 7 on mine.

Martha,

I agree, I have the half star thing going as well. I don't know how to get past that either (outside of Gary's suggestion). But my scores keep getting better. Who knows?

And the Gold Star represents? And which store?

I look at it as an eclipse and think it looks beautiful.

Thank you Martha, I needed a chuckle today.  I'll be watching to try to find out the answer, as I've got a frozen half star thing too.  I suppose it's better than not having it though.

I think we all have a half star!  Its the ultimate carrot on the stick!

Hey, Tom has carrot on a stick?  I only have stars...bummer.

I don't ever remember seeing it end with a full star?

I know we have bigger things to worry about but sometimes this nonsense helps put it all into perspective. right?

Wave of magic wand......all have whole stars!  You're welcome.

I am ranked 18th in NC and have been as high as 11th or12th, and still straining at 3.5 stars toward that 4 star goal.  I TOO WANT THE OTHER HALF!!  

I just ranked your post with 5 stars.  At least I can do that for you!

i am also at 3 1/2 stars have been there since i first joined, I have been #1 in my state and in the under 100 range for country and world for over a month now and im still 3 1/2 stars... I want four also 5 would be nice but jsut to see it move would make me happy!

does ANYONE know how it star system works? I bought the stars but on another site im at stars are bad, so the sticky stars wasnt a good thing for me  LOL

Be careful what you ask for---you could go down to 3 stars!

I see stars everytime I speak to someone who has no concept of real estate! Half & full ones and they are even animated! Kinda like a .gif or .swf file. :)

STAR RANKING: 4.5 STAR 6000+

                     4 STAR 5000-5999

                     3.5 STAR 3500-4999

                     3 STAR 1800-3499

                     2.5 STAR 1100-1799

                     2 STAR 750-1099

                     1.5 STAR 500-749

                     1 STAR 250-499

                     0.5 STAR 0-249

These are the rankings according to the handshake. I'm not sure how they rate the site for points. My site came in the top 100 Worldwide at 78 two weeks ago, travelled all the way up to 19th and the last couple of days dropped to 76th. with just minor changes to my site lost 400+ points in just a matter of days.

Ok, this is weird, I just looked and I have 4 FULL stars. I am not kidding. This morning I had 3 1/2 and was scored at 4877, now I am at 5045 and have 4 full stars. I can't believe it!!!

Ha!  My wand's a little rusty.  I've been trying to do my job like "real people" do.  But at least I got one!

Thank you, Cathy.  You're welcome, Mary. LOL

WOW - 4 stars - I look every morning and frown at 3.5 stars

congrats****

I would like to see all of us with no stars or rather five full stars.  I rate well in my province, country and the world but I really do not like that these internal ratings are published on the public site.  They imply that an agent is good or bad when in fact they have nothing to do with your performance as a Realtor but rather a webmaster.  I think they are misleading to the public.

Can you imagine an agent with 30 years experience being rated with 1 or 2 stars?  The public can only assume that they are not good at their profession.  

If we must keep them they should be internal only.

Martha, I do something then wait a few days as I don't know if I am making headway or not. But recently added the amber alert and it blew out my whole front page so I just redid it. Just rewrote the front page waited a few days.

It's all in the wrist.....lol

Although you may think they're good to keep private, I think part of it is a way to motivate you to maximize your website, I tihnk when you see more stars, they'll equate to more results.  I'm 3.5 stars, and maybe this post will bring me to 4 ;) , but the more I use it, the more benefit I'll probably see.

Another question, how can we see who is ranked ahead of us?

Patrick, I go to www.p2homes.com and hit agents in my area and it shows me and those above and below me.

Wow, until I read all of your comments, I was always so proud of my 3.5 stars....oh well, we can only do what we do and hope for the best. First one to get 4 stars, please post your secret for the rest of us stuck at 3.5:)

Patrick.

Further to Mary's suggestion, you can go to this site and see the top 100 PI rated sites:

http://p2a.point2.com/performanceIndex.asp

Wow, Phil was that you on that chart, I found alot of contributors here in the list. Good going guys.!!! I am so proud of all of you and Jay is #1 Big time!!

I cannot imagine how to get half a star. I have been at 3.5 the almost 4 now 3.5 what do you have to do. We were dead in the water all winter now I see a little light in the tunnel. It is May I am in this 20 years never saw this before so late in Spring. Just give me half a star I will go about my business and not complain.

I sold houses belonging to other agents, but my listings have not sold  is that the problem do you get stars for that.

Are the stars to do with handshakes or visitors?  I approve all handshakes in my selling area, so not much I can do for those who don't handshake back!  If it has to do with visitors we can all go to Martha's site and see if she gets that full star.  :)  If that works head on over to mine LOL

Jana

Psst...you guys wanna know a secret...

Come closer, I'll whisper it to you...

I started posting on the message boards and my PI score went through the roof!  I blew WAY PAST my 5000 points needed to get my full star.  I think I went up to like 5800 in a manner of a week or so.  I don't know if that is what did it, but that was the biggest change I made.  

Now, don't tell anyone in Oklahoma!  :)  My biggest goal with my PI index is to stay #1 in my state!  (Well, now that I have four whole stars.)

Marcia

It seems to me that your listings count towards getting points, as well as if and how much you contribute to the P2 community. Also how well your web site is set up, and also what kind of traffic you get on the site.

I made it to 3 1/2 stars, and have been droping since. Got a listing that hasn't sold.

Alas, woe is me!

Marcia I actually learned forward while reading your post!  What to do with me?  Well I have decided to visit all of your websites so let me know tomorrow if it made any difference :)

Jana  

I use to be in the top 10 in my state but then I went on vacation for a month and did not have much activity over the past few months.  Now I'm trying to get back into the top 100....

In the past I had a bunch of listings and had a continual stream hitting my website from my weekly newsletter and I used the referral system a few times.  Me and the other realtors noticed are scores went up 50 points right away but after a week started dropping like a lead ballon.

I'm still working on getting a grasp of the new system.   ANy help would be appreceiated

Laurie - I agree with you.  P2 has no business to publicly post agents "stars" for consumer eyes.  The ranking system is based on how well you use the product they have and not on your ability or experience as an agent.

You, in essence, are being rated on your personal business decisions. Example, you decide to "fire"  the seller  (your personal decision) so you remove your listing and your rating goes down.  It happened to me - 25 places in one night!  

Gail, I couldn't agree more, I was at 4999 and 3.5 stars, sold a listing and started dropping in ranking. The star system has nothing to do with the quality of my real estate work and it should be private. Martha, thanks for starting the thread, excellent points.

What happened with the vote?  Point 2 sent around a survey on this subject but I don't recall any publication of the results.

This really bothers me.

Point 2 - what do you have to say on this subject?  Are we going to see the star system removed from public view?

What do the rest of you think?  Should we actively as a group ask P2 to remove the public rating?  I have no problem with other P2 agents seeing it - we know what it means, the public doesn't.

Howard - do you realize you missed your 4th full star by only 1 pt.? (5000 is the magic number) - bummer!

BTW - I was referring to my state ranking dropping 25 PLACES not 25 points (that I could probably handle).

Laurie - I know it has been discussed on the message boards between the agents but I haven't seen any input from a moderator.  Perhaps it is posted on the "advisory" committee threads but us peons are blocked from seeing the postings.  

Martha,

I suspect foul play.  Somebody out there is robbing our stars.  I just got a 5 star last night on my post and this morning I see only 3.5.  

I demand an investigation at once!!!

john

Points...Change your website often

More Points..Blog

More Points..More Blogs

More Points..More Handshakes no't have pending my approvals

More Points...Links to you

More Points..More pictures on your listings

More points contribute to community..reliberation and message boards

More Points..send out bios

More Points..more neighborhoods.

More Points..spend all  your time doing all of the above.

who cares if you don't sell real estate. lol But you will have your stars!

OK I didn't do anything different then I already was doing, which was bloging about 2-3 post a day, keeping up with my listings, and keeping up with my prospects. But I did go thru my blocked handshakes and found a couple more that I unblocked and the next day I have gone from the 3.5 stars to 4!!!!!  Went from 4800 to 5006!!! and over the last few days I haven't done anything with handshake (the two I have pending aren't star rated or have any listings yet i always give them about a week to do something with there site, since so brokers just make the site and the agents do do anything with it.) and as of this morning I'm still 4 stars @ 5006.  

over the past few weeks I did stop blogging and i watched my ranking from #1 in my state, under 100 in my country and under 200 in the world to #6 state, 400's for country, and 500's for world. I started bloging again made a few changes to my site about 3-4 days ago and I'm back up to

Your State/Province Rank 3rd

Your Country Rank 235th

Your World Rank 346th

Soooooo, i am finding different actions affect different things! My site is also now on the 2nd page of google when you search  Owasso homes!!!! and i haven't paid a dime to no one except my monthly $40 to P2!!!!

And i only spend about an hour in the morning on it... when kids are getting ready for school and getting on bus!!!! so yep still selling homes! 5 months in the business and have 7 listings, going to my 3rd closing Monday, and have done close to 1 million in production in and average home price 150k-200k market already!

I get usually 1-2 out of state clients from my p2 a week. and i have learned SO MUCH from these boards! and follow advise.

Good luck!

Will the stars move me up on the google search? If someone gets to the P2 site and looks for an agent or homes in my area, will the stars help me get a customer?

It appears that some post comments only in hope of improving their PI score.  I do very little posting. Instead I've explored and use the many tools available from P2 to help develop my site and generate prospects. The more prospects I can work the better my chances are at turning them into clients.  This can only be accomplished by driving people to my site. Learn the tools we all have available and put them to use. I am still learning what's available and have a long way to go but I am generating prospects and have gained clients.  After all, the ultimate goal is to gain clients..right.

Homes.com doesn't even have an agent directory. They also don't have free sites. I pay $59/month for a site that's not as easy to edit as my P2 site that I pay $39/month for.

As my PI ranking goes up, so does my Google and Yahoo placement. Also there were 1,654,072 P2 page views last week. I want the ones looking in Michigan to see my site first. It's a good source for aquiring business. I whish Homes.com had a similar directory.

WOW! Thanks for the insight and for the laughs! I've been stuck at the half too and it does bug me but I never said anything! Thanks for the thread - it was a nice break for a few minutes! :) There are definately things I need to do more often!

Mindy

Whoa, bummer!  I've been gaining in the points like crazy this week, and now I read that the points counter is being repaired!  And I had such high hopes of seeing the other half of that star in the next day or two.  Now I'm left to wonder if I had actually done something right with my website, or if I'll be losing a chunk of points when it gets fixed.  No matter, time will tell.  I'm in it for the duration and I'm bound to see that full star someday.

Well, I did lose several hundred points during that repair, but then my score started climbing back up.

This morning I found that I had received the other half of that 4th star.  Exact score today is 5002.

Hope I can keep the score up there, my website has gained in popularity and provided some prospects, but I'd like to see more serious buyers.