How to Redesign Your Active Rain Blog

By NikNik · April 4, 2008 · 5 Comments 

I love bling! And not just to wear; I love it on all my blogs and networks.  In fact, I had Reggie hook up my ActiveRain sidebar to match the MyTechOpinion Blog v1. So naturally, I was excited when Brad Carroll informed me I could customize my Active Rain Blog layout. With so many sites to maintain on the Web, this is a great way to brand yourself and provide consistency among all your blogs and networks.  

To learn how to customize your ActiveRain blog, click here.

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Does Google have the perfect Gadget for your Real Estate blog?

By Reggie · January 3, 2008 · 3 Comments 

Over the Holidays I took some time to look closely at Google’s new Gadgets for your blog. I was very surprised to see how many gadgets were out there. These Gadgets are the same offered on the popular iGoogle. I immediately thought about the real estate agent looking to add a bit of flare to their blog by providing relevant data to their geographic area. Many of the Google gadgets allow the blog owner to customize results by zip code.If you are more interested in using Gadgets for your own self promotion, you could always develop your own.

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RSS and Pipes are the Future of Real Estate Content

By Reggie · October 21, 2007 · 5 Comments 

Lately I have been hearing a lot of talk about a technology called Yahoo Pipes, and what it can do to streamline RSS feeds. So today we are going to demystify RSS and Pipes for your benefit!

Let’s Talk RSS
To start, you must be noticing it gets harder and harder each day to keep up on all the great content accross the web. You likely know that Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an easy way to keep up with this ever changing content. Rather than going out to each of your favorite sites one by one to see if they have new and appealing content for you, RSS is designed to bring the content of the sites you subscribe to right to your desktop via a Feed Reader. So rather than individually visiting 25 blogs in a row…simply open your reader and browse all content from one location. Your content comes to you!

Yahoo Pipes Technology Explained
Ok, now that you understand RSS let’s talk about Pipes. The term originally comes from UNIX and means roughly the output from each process is chained together creating a new output. Think of aggregation. You can say that pipes are the natural evolution of the RSS feed. Think about the current state of the blogosphere. Today you write a post on ActiveRain, tomorrow on Zolve, then Trulia and of course there is that guest post you recently did on another blog favorite. Plus this whole time you have been posting on your own blog. So how do you take all this content and mash it up into one feed for your readers? Introducing Yahoo Pipes.

Yahoo Pipes will aggregate and mashup content from around the web using RSS, data sorts, filters and translation. (Did I mention that no programming is required?) So in the example I mentioned above, the pipe you create could be a mashup of all your posts in one place—filtered by your name.

Let’s Build a Pipe
To get started, go to Yahoo Pipes and register for your free account. Once you have logged in, click the “Create a Pipe” button. You’ll notice the canvas appears. Start by simply dragging the module titled “Fetch Feed” from the library pane on the left side onto your working canvas. One by one enter the feeds that you would like to combine. Click the “+” sign to the left of URL to add another feed. Repeat the steps as necessary. Now drag out modules from the library such as “Sort” and “Filter”. Make sure you connect each module by its connecters. Once you have customized your pipe, click the save button and name the feed. Now click properties and give your feed a description and tags. Congratulations! Now save and publish your feed.

See an example of a pipe here. This is a combination of NikNik’s posts here at MyTechOpinion and the HelpMyAgent blog. See tutorials here.

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Cyberhomes PDF Report Aids Real Estate Agents with Local Market Statistics

By Reggie · October 12, 2007 · 2 Comments 

There has been a lot of buzz on the Street about Cyberhomes recent partnership with AOL. If you have not heard, Cyberhomes is now AOL’s exclusive provider of home valuation and listing content. However that’s not what this post is all about. For some time now Cyberhomes has been offering it’s free PDF Report to Real Estate agents and consumers alike. This report is packed with useful statistics for important pricing and buying decisions. For example, the 18 page PDF reports contains zip-code level information such as buy/sell indicator, building starts, rental vacancy, local unemployment, median and average home prices, sales count by price range, local school and neighborhood info, etc. This report can be customized by using the refine value tool. (i.e. custom comps, home upgrades, subject property adjustments.)

If you would like to check out the Cyberhomes PDF report, simply visit Cyberhomes and search a property. Once you see the neighborhood mashup, click the link titled Detail Page on the balloon. Make any refinements first, and then click PDF Report.

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Email Newsletters for Real Estate Agents

By NikNik · August 29, 2007 · 4 Comments 

Real estate newsletters are a very popular form of communication. Email newsletters can be a great alternative for busy real estate agents who want to try another marketing medium, save on printing costs and reach a larger audience. Brand yourself as the local expert and offer community information. Include your latest listings and inform your clients with real estate industry news. A concise newsletter with several small informative snippets is the way to go! In addition, you can direct your subscribers back to your website and blog, as well as capture new leads. But before you can do all this, make sure you have collected, and continue to collect, email addresses and update your contact database regularly. There are a variety of online marketing websites that can help you take it from there. Try these similar, yet different marketing solutions on for size:

1. Constant Contact
   Choose from a variety of professionally designed newsletter templates. You’ll need to insert pictures, contact info AND your own industry articles. Cost is based on your email list size. So the range spans from $15 a month for a list 0-500, all the way to $225 for lists up to 25,000! You can also create unlimited surveys and invite participation from your email list or website visitors.
2. iContact
   iContact is an email marketing service that provides you with the ability to design a template, insert your content, send, and track email newsletters, RSS feeds, surveys, and autoresponders. Pricing starts at $9.95 per month for 500 contacts to $699 a month for up to 100,000 contacts!
3. MyNewlsetterBuilder
   MyNewsletterBuilder gives you the ability to incorporate multi-media within your newsletter: virtual tours, audio tours, rotating banner ads, and custom template design. Free 60 day trial. Offers additional services: website design, RSS Feeds Setup, SEO, and more!
4. EmailFusion
   If you have even less time to create content and you don’t mind spending a bit more, EmailFusion may be the answer for you. Besides having some amazing looking email campaigns, they offer professional pre-written content for your newsletter. And for those of us who prefer original content, you still have the ability to insert your own content. With EmailFusion, you can easily manage your subscribers and receive real time reports with detailed analytics. Pricing on their packages range from $39.95/month to $139/month, all include a $99 one time set-up fee.
5. Zookoda
   Great solution for real estate bloggers! Promote your blog and your brand! With Zookoda, you can send a daily, weekly, or monthly summary of your blog content. You can also manage your subscribers and enhance your blog with custom a subscription form. For those of you that know a little HMTL, use their Zootags to customize your newsletter. (Format your picture, logo, etc.) Oh, and did I mention it’s FREE! (BTW-We use it and we like it!)
6. Create your own with a Publisher template!
   This is a great option if you have an assistant or work in a team. And FREE! Create you own Publisher template and have your assistant fill in the local and community info, featured listings, etc. Bloggers, just copy and paste your blog content into your newsletter template. Send your email newsletter right from Publisher (File>Send Email>Send this page as message) and access your Outlook database! And for those of you that are using Publisher 2007, you can take advantage of their new email merge feature. Once you have set up a template, it’s just about plug and play!

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Relocation Guides: The Art of Information Compilation

By NikNik · February 1, 2007 · Leave a Comment 

Providing your clients with an up-to-date relocation guide for their new home town can be time-consuming, expensive, and downright frustrating. There are great resources out there that can help like Sunray Publications, a company specializing in making quality relocation guides. These can sometimes require a minimum order and be quite costly. Sunray does offer a more cost friendly choice with their new pocket relocation guides. However, if you decide to go the other route by creating your own area guides, there are a few tips and resources I can share with you (from someone who has done a few). I know what you are thinking, create one myself. Too much work! It’s not for everyone, but if you do choose to make one yourself, you will be able to easily edit, update and personalize it. And you have complete control over all your own content and branding. The following guidelines and resources can help you create your own area specific guide.

Whether you are creating a county or city guide, you should start with an outline. I would begin in Word and when you are finished compiling your info, transfer it into a Publisher template with design of your choosing. Publisher has great templates that you can customize easily, or just start from scratch. Section 1 of your outline should be the introduction to the city/county (history, background, interesting facts, life today). Make sure you list the website for the specific city or county as well (you will get much of your information there). In section 2, list all the major civic offices and contact info including City Hall, Public Works, Chamber of Commerce, DMV, etc. People always find statistics interesting as well, so include a brief section 3 of items like population, elevation, median home price, total number of housing units, etc. You don’t have to go wild, just a few fun facts that you find will do. The US Census fact finder site is helpful here (factfinder.census.gov).

Section 4 of your relocation guide is extremely useful information and should include all utilities, city/county departments, and emergency contacts such as: animal control, cable/satellite television, fire department, gas & electric, garbage, library, police department, post office, recycling, water, etc. Use the county and city websites to search for this information. You can make an additional section to spotlight special venders to share as a referral list. Other helpful websites for compiling this info may include www.discoverourtown.com and www.relo-usa.com.

In section 5, provide the contact information for the parks and recreation department as well as a list of nearby parks and recreational areas. I like to use www.epodunk.com for this. You can use their park search feature to find parks within a certain distance around your city or county. I usually select within 15 miles. You can even visit and list the park website (if applicable).

In section 6, list all the school district contact info (you can usually find this on the city/county website). There may be several school districts, or even nearby districts that also serve students in your area. You will also want to list all contact information for public and private schools in the area. You can find this info on the city websites, district websites, or if you live in California, visit www.schoolwisepress.com, and for nationwide school info, check out www.greatschools.net and www.schoolmatters.com.

Lastly, the area you are collecting info on probably has something its known for or something special about it that new homeowners would REALLY like to know. So in section 7, include any area specific info like a list of wineries, yearly festival info, transportation highlights, etc.

When you have finished compiling your info, you will need a snazzy design and pictures for your relocation guide. Go out with your digital camera and start shooting! Including local pictures of downtown, landmarks, parks, schools, neighborhoods, etc. will really customize and breathe life to the city or county information you are providing in the guide. Remember this is just a guideline, so feel free to be as creative or brief as you like. After you have completed your beautifully branded, custom relocation guide, don’t forget to update it regularly (or at least yearly)!

Resources in Review:

• City & County Websites
• Local School District Website
• http://epodunk.com/ (Good overall info, but fabulous park information)
• http://factfinder.census.gov/ (Census info, great for population, total housing units, etc.)
• http://www.bestplaces.net/ (Good overall info, median home price, cost of living, economy, etc.)
• http://www.ersys.com/ (good statistical charts & comparisons)
• http://www.greatschools.net/, http://www.schoolmatters.com/ & http://www.schoolwisepress.com (school scores and other info)
• http://www.discoverourtown.com/ (city specific lodging, attractions, dining, & local business contacts)
• http://www.relo-usa.com/ (city specific website links)
• Sunray Publications http://www.movinginformation.com/RelocationGuidesGeneric.htm

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eStationery – EMAIL WITH A PURPOSE

By NikNik · January 5, 2007 · 4 Comments 

Yes, I’m sure you already have a purpose in mind when you are carefully crafting an important email for a client. But why not bring professional purpose full circle by accenting that important text with your own custom eStationery. Whether you select an eStationery header, signature, business card, or some combination of the three, you will definitely leave a lasting impression. More so, you will be making each email an effective tool with a rightful purpose. And don’t take my word for it; eStationery is becoming a standard of top professionals in Fortune 500 companies.

There are many wonderful templates out there you can customize to some degree, but I suggest that if you’re going to do it right the first time, hire someone who can provide you with custom design work. There are plenty of talented marketing specialists out there that can truly captivate what you and your company are about. Many can match or breathe new life to your company brand, as well as provide the super tech bells and whistles that will definitely get you noticed. Yes, bells and whistles beyond including your contact info, glamour shot, and company logo. You can direct traffic by including a few hyperlinks. But get crafty here. Your personal and company websites are a must, but how about a mapping link to provide clients with directions to your office. Other popular links include: buyer and seller info, search the MLS, featured properties, relocation info, etc.

So by now, I’m sure you are feeling the eStationery love that I do. I should, I have designed and created several thousand. It’s one of my many talents! At least I think so. Anyway, go forward now and make those emails have a greater purpose. If you haven’t received many emails with eStationery go to http://www.estationery.com.au/ and http://www.stationerycentral.com/ to view their templates. If you have questions regarding eStationery feel free to leave me a message.

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Create a Google Toolbar Button for Your Real Estate Blog

By Reggie · December 24, 2006 · Leave a Comment 

Google’s Toolbar is very popular and they’ve made it easy to add your blog articles to your reader’s toolbar. All we need to do is make a custom button feeding off your RSS feed. This button not only makes visiting your blog easy with a one click shortcut, but it also itemizes your recent topics.

Start by opening notepad, and copy the code below into the new notepad document:

<?xml version=”1.0″?>

<custombuttons xmlns=”http://toolbar.google.com/custombuttons/”>

<button>

<site>http://www.YourSiteHere.com</site>

<title>Your Title Here</title>

<feed refresh-interval=”3800″>http://www.Site.com/feed.rss</feed>

<description>Enter your brief description here</description>

<icon mode=”base64″ type=”image/x-icon”>Insert base64 output here

</icon>

</button>

</custombuttons>

Now we need to make a few edits to customize the Google button for your blog.
Start by editing the bold areas of the code above:

1. Replace http://www.YourSiteHere.com with your blogs URL.
2. Replace Your Title Here with the title of your blog.
3. Replace http://www. Site.com/feed.rss with the path to your RSS or ATOM feed. Keep in mind Google requires RSS 2.0 or Atom Feed 0.3/1.0 XML.
4. Replace Enter your brief description here with a brief description of your blog. This description works like a tooltip, and pops out when a user moves their mouse over your button.
5. Now you need to think about the icon you would like to use for the toolbar. (Hint: images with 24 bits of color –RGB work best.) Once you’ve identified the icon or picture you’ll use, click here to convert your image to base64. Then copy the code it produces, and paste it over the text the reads Insert base64 output here.
6. Now its time to save the notepad document we’ve been modifying. Click “File” then “Save As.” Now give the file a friendly name and add .xml after the name. For example, I named my button MyTechOpinion.xml.

Great, you’ve customized everything you need for a working button. Now you can do a few things:

• Upload the xml file we just created to your server. (My Example: http://www.mytechopinion.com/google/MyTechOpinion.xml )
• Add a link on your blog that adds the button to your reader’s toolbar. Here is what the link should like: Add MyTechOpinion to Your Google Toolbar
• Submit it to Google’s Custom Button Gallery

To visit the Google Toolbar 4 API Documentation, click here.

To view the MyTechOpinion button and related Real Estate articles, click here

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Mapping: How it’s improved searching for homes online

By Reggie · June 17, 2006 · 2 Comments 

In the past when searching for homes online you mainly came accross home photos, content and if you’re lucky, a virtual tour. How things have changed! Many have said 2006 is the year of the map. In the recent past, online mapping has made a dramatic jump forward with Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft all jumping into the open source mapping arena. Of course, the first question you may ask is “How does online mapping help the online real estate experience?”

Imagine searching online for a home. You find a home that peaks your interest. You’ve seen the pictures, but you are not sure where the street is located. Using new mapping technologies you’ll easily see streets, school data, distance to strip malls, freeways, train tracks, towers and more. There are a few companies supplying pre-built packages. The first to come to mind is RealBird.

RealBird, established in 2003, offers a map-based search tool that can be easily branded, customized and added to any real estate website. Choose from Map-based Search or Publisher. RealBirds’ Map-based Search is a powerful IDX property search tool. See example here.

RealBird Publisher does not tap into IDX data. This system has agents enter their listing details once and they will get automatic exposure to 1000’s of syndication partner sites including Google Base (Google’s Classified System), Edgeio.com and more. These listings then show as interactive hotspots on your own maps. On June 14th, 2006 RealBird announced they’ve added the ability to upload video of the property with audio narration from your hard drive, digital video camera or your mobile phone.

If you are in the central valley, IDX Central is your best bet. This Interactive map tool is clean and possibly the most attractive I’ve seen. And just like RealBird you can see from a birds eye view.

Other Options:
MLS Finder

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