Being a Rainmaker costs but becomes free after 500,000 points. I believe you can still join for free however your posts are only available to other AR members - spending the money is worth it for the exposure in the search engines

It is free to sign up, but costs money f they want to become a "RAINER". I can say it is worth every penny and encourage them to get active as they get a $10 discount for every 100k points earned and once they hit 500k points, it is FREE

no free until you hit 500k points now.... I think I paid for 2 years.... but I spent all of my time here...

I joined in 2010 and I paid until I reached 500,000 points.  Sign in daily, comment/interact, ask/answer questions, invite others all on a consistent basis and they can achieve FREE membership a lot sooner than I did.  

I didn't join until 2011 or thereabouts and had to earn my free account with 500,000 points. I don't believe there is any more blanket free account available.

Paul, late to the advice party today, so nothing further ot offer!

Paul, it was free to everyone to start. I think they started charging in like 2009 or something. I believe they grandfathered in everyone that had been an already active member when it was free if the member had logged in and posted within the previous 6 months. I remember that I had taken time off and then came back and had to pay because I missed the cut off of interaction and posting to be grandfathered in. Bummer! But it is still worth it. They can be members and write members only posts for free but when they want to start having their content public they have to become a rainmaker and pay. I took a year and a half off again I am so dumb, I don't know why I do it...I would have a free account by now) and came back and the end of January. I have acquired about 70,0000 pts since then and I don't do 10 blog posts a week. I should....-Kasey

Paul Antonelli they get a free account after earning 500,000 points. That sounds crazy but I've only been blogging actively since December and I'm already over 200,000! It is possible to earn a free account in less than a year and they will develop some good blogging habits in the process.

Ditto Michael Jacobs ! Just Do It! 

Hi Paul Antonelli .  It was free when I joined too.  There is still FREE membership but the posts are not indexed to the public.  They remain viewable only by AR members.  Anyway... After I took a long hiatus for personal reasons, I discovered a fee had been imposed until reaching the 500,000 point level.   I did go ahead and subscribe and felt it was well worth the various benefits, including public indexing and have your articles rebloggable by other members.    The monthly fee is steep but the annual membership fee is a very good value.     I would encourage your team members to seriously consider paying for the service.

You have received some good answers.

As the others have pointed out, it's free once you hit 500,000 points. If someone has the time to blog and engage here, you can hit that 500,000 mark in 1 - 2 years.   

It was free at beginning, now you pay until you reach 500,000 points.

Go with Michael Jacobs 

Exactly what Jeff Dowler said - bite-the-bullet and DO IT!

 Free when you reach 500K points.

 If you bust it, you can reach that number in 12 to 18 months.

Jeff Dowler has my answer

You have received a lot of great advice. Follow Michael's guidance.

It's free after 500K points, so they have to actually use it to get the free benefits!

Paul Antonelli Many good answers already. Good luck.

Jeff has it.

As Mr. Jeff Dowler wrote

Paul,

Jeff Dowler has your answer.

No more, it was free when it was new and many were grandfathered in even though they did not have 500,000 points.

We pay to play. Rainer accounts are free however those accounts are only seen by members.  

Free after 500,000 points..well worth the time, investment if you want to kick your game up in real estate a notch or two!

As a fairly recent new member: free membership, but you are at the "rainer" level and nothing you post will be publicly viewable.  For rainmaker it costs either an annual fee or a monthly fee.  With every 100k points earned the MONTHLY fee decreases (wish I had gone that route with the speed I earned points).  Once you hit the 500k mark, you're free for life.

Jeff Dowler has the answer. There's a free membership and a more visible to the pubic paid membership until you hit 500,000 points.

Yes that is true for many years. It's free after 500K in points. 

Thank you for sharing the  advice. 

Enjoy your free membership, great timing for you!

Being a rainmaker costtill 500,000 points.

AFAIK - it's free to sign up but if you want the outside blog you have to pay until you get to 500k points

Jeff Dowler nailed this one!

Right.  That changed in 2009...so they are a bit late.  Of course, they can earn free membership, use a shared acct, etc.

Also, for what it's worth, it costs less now than when I joined in 2010.

BTW, the site started in 2006 (not 2005).

It is free if you post for members only. To post publicly you have to get to 500k if you do not want to pay money.

Paul Antonelli - well, membership is FREE FOR LIFE at 500,000 points and you can get 500,000 points in less than a year, if you are 'fully involved' with ActiveRain. And annual membership is not that expensive to best of my knowledge.

Paul - AR was free when it was just getting started, and those that started back then were grandfathered in. Not sure when they started charging, but it has been some time now. You can still earn a free membership after you reach 500,000 points. I would say it should take an active member about a year and a half to two years to get to the free status.

There are limited free accounts, but they started charging for rainmaker accounts in 2009, that become free after earning 500000 points.

There is still the free membership. However, to be found by search engines, it would be wise to purchase and become Rainmaker. Great ROI and it becomes free once one reaches the 500k milestone.

There are free memberships (but no SEO as your posts are only available to members) and if you blog like crazy, comment daily, participate in contests you can reach 500,000 points in a year or more. Then you can switch to Rainmaker status though I reccommend you doing that from the start so your have SEO power that will fuel your business.

There has been a cost for many years.  It decreases at various point tiers and is eliminated at 500,000 points, unless there have been some recent changes.

I'll follow Michael Jacobs advise too.

Paul Antonelli I believe Jeff Dowler has your answer.

Lucky to have joined when free and cranked out the posts, earned the points so it stayed that way without the surcharge.

Suggest you ask your employees to sign up in social media training class.

A few will take it to the next step. It is a free internal website until you have paid a nomial fee to get it to Google.

No.