How is your bloggING?

I would like to hear from the real estate agents, SEO's and others that have been blogging on Active rain for some time. Have you seen any visible effect on your PAGE RANK, website traffic - in fact your overal business.
What are the best way to blog on Active rain to draw traffic to your site. Is blogging to increase traffic from a COPY and marketing standpoint different than blogging to increase Ranking, or are they both mutually dependent?
I have been blogging for the past 4 months or so and i have manage to increase my ranking for keyword HUNTSVILLE ALABAMA REAL ESTATE to around # FOUR position in Google. Of course, i have down other things such as social media and article submission, but i am interested in hearing the effects on blogging on your real estate business.