New Recent Reader Widget from MyBlogLog
By NikNik · February 16, 2008 · 3 Comments
You may have noticed our new “Recent Reader” widget from MyBlogLog. If not, take a look. The design has been updated and now you can access additional information about your readers. When scrolling over a reader avatar a flyout box will appear with reader details. You can then find out more about your visitor by easily clicking through to their MyBlogLog profile and community pages. The new widget is also infused with a quick link for adding visitors to your contacts. In addition, MyBlogLog readers can simply add themselves to the site’s community by selecting the “add” button at the bottom of the widget.Currently, MyBlogLog offers a choice of seven colors and 2 layouts for your widget. You will need to adjust the flyout box based on your blog layout. There are a couple of known glitches:
- Iframe Blocks Flyouts: If you’re displaying the widget code in an iframe, set your flyouts value “none”.
- Mac Firefox - Flyouts vs Flash: This is a Firefox bug w/ CSS transparency and absolute positioning.
MyBlogLog has plans for those of us who prefer optimum customization and promises we’ll be able to upload our own skins very soon. Also, stay tuned for major changes on your MyBLogLog profile. In the coming weeks, your profile will be getting a facelift and new integrated features….taking your profile from static to dynamic!
Getting Started: To update your “Recent Reader”widget, go to your MyBlogLog community page and click on the “widgets” link under your community description.
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Tags: widget, colors, widget code, MyTechOpinion, technology, mybloglog
Marketing Your Real Estate Blog
By Reggie · January 18, 2008 · 2 Comments
Recently I was invited to the Inman Connect in New York to speak on a panel about “Marketing Your Real Estate Blog”. As you may know this can be a tricky topic. Please enjoy this video:
Remember that marketing your real estate blog will come in many forms. Here are a few more ideas:
- Start with properly formatted HTML
- Create remarkable and link worthy content
- Syndicate original content: Ezine Articles, GoArticles
- Social Bookmarks: StumbleUpon, Digg and Del.icio.us
- Participate in communities: ActiveRain, Zolve, RealTown, Trulia Voices, etc
- Guest post on popular blogs
- Analytics Software: Google Analytics, Clicky, CrazyEgg
- Conduct interviews with opinion leaders
- Widgets: MyBlogLog, WidgetBox
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Sidebar "Bling" Cross Promotes Your Online Presence
By Reggie · December 10, 2007 · 11 Comments
These days real estate professionals are members of social sites, online communities, blogs and more. So how do we deliver a consistent brand and message over so many tools? Also how to we channel interested parties to our other communities? One way is to use a similar sidebar for each application.
Introducing the BLING Widget for Real Estate Agents
Since we have not seen the perfect sidebar bling application for you real estate agents, we developed one for you to use. You will notice in “Step 7″ I instruct you to use the full path to the icons. This is so that you can use this code on real estate networks like Activerain, Facebook and more without making further changes.
Here is an example of the buttons I have created for your use.
(Buttons from left to right: LinkedIn, Facebook, RSS, Activerain, Zolve, MyBlogLog, Google MyMaps, Friendster, Trulia Voices, Zillow and RealTown Real Estate Network.)
DOWNLOAD ZIP FILE OF BUTTONS HERE.
IMPORTANT: If you are adding this to your blog, please make a backup of your template before beginning so you can easily restore things if you need too.
Step 1:
Create a new folder on the root directory of your website or blog and title it “bling”
Step 2:
From the icons I’ve created, choose the specific icons you want to use on your sidebar widget and add them to your newly created folder titled “bling”. (Note: Choose either the .jpg files or the .png files. PNG files have a transparent background.)
Step 3:
Start by opening notepad or your HTML editor. Now you will be adding the code from each step to the blank notepad document. Please add each snippet of code to notepad in the order below. If you are advanced, the complete code is avaliable here.
Step 4
Copy the code below. Now paste into the notepad document we opened in Step 3. The code we just copied is for the header of our widget. The widget title is”Find Me Online” If you would like to use a different headline, replace those words with your own. You can also update the header and border color by replacing the hexadecimal (6 Digit) color with one from this chart.
Step 5
Copy the text below. Now paste this code after the code above. We will be editing it as follows:
Replace [Insert URL of Personal Photo] with absolute/full URL to photo. (i.e. http://www.mytechopinion.com/images/reggie.jpg) (Tip: Ideal width is 75 pixels or less)
Replace [Insert Name] with your name
Replace [Insert Company Name] with your company or blog name
Replace [Insert Your Blog or Website URL Here] with your actual URL
Step 6
Copy the code below. This is the DIV for the buttons. Please paste to our open notepade file after the previous code.
Ok, now you will start to add the buttons for your widget. 4 buttons will fit on each row. If you are using more than 4 buttons, you can add another DIV by preforming Step 6 again. This will create a 2nd row of icons.
Step 7
Earlier you added the buttons for your widget into a newly created folder. Now find the corresponding code from the options below. Then add each desired to your notepad or open editor. Look for “<!–Insert Buttons to the left of this block–>” and paste the button(s) code before it.
LinkedIn
Replace [Insert LinkedIn URL] with the link to your LinkedIn Profile.
Facebook
Replace [Insert Facebook URL] with the link to your Facebook Profile. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.
ActiveRain
Replace [Insert Activerain URL] with the link to your Activerain Profile or blog. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.
RSS
Replace [Insert RSS URL] with the link to your RSS feed URL. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.
Zolve
Replace [Insert Zolve URL] with the link to your Zolve profile or blog. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.
MyBlogLog
Replace [Insert ByBlogLog URL] with the link to your MyBlogLog Community. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.
Friendster
Replace [Insert Friendster URL] with the link to your Friendster URL. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.
MyMaps
Replace [Insert MyMaps URL] with the link to your custom Google MyMaps page. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.
Trulia Voices
Replace [Insert Trulia Voices URL] with the link to your Trulia Voices profile. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.
Zillow
Replace [Insert Zillow Profile URL] with a link to your profile on Zillow. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.
RealTown Real Estate Network
Replace [Insert RealTown Profile URL] with a link to your profile on RealTown Real Estate Network. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.
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Ideas For Getting Readers For Your Real Estate Blog: Part 2
By NikNik · November 23, 2007 · 6 Comments
Besides writing thoughtful, innovative, resourceful and creative real estate blog posts that keep your visitors coming back for more, here are a few more ideas for gaining readership for your blog (view Part 1 of this Idea List) :
- Build your online networks: at ActiveRain, Facebook, MyBlogLog, LinkedIn and Zolve. Create and maintain a profile, add your weblog address, RSS feed, etc. Although these communities may have different features, all provide blog and blogger exposure by helping you reach out to your colleagues and client sphere—ultimately yielding a readership gain!
- Put a live link to your blog in your eStationery. Your blog address should be on all your real estate print marketing AND email marketing. So if you have eStationery or an email signature, be sure to make the most of it by including a live link to your blog. I favor custom eStationery headers like the one below. Suggestion: Don’t add more than 2 links as it may begin to trigger spam filters.
- Participate in blog writing contests: Step up your blog writing game and enter your recent posts in blog writing contests. The Carnival of Real Estate is a great place to start! You may not win but you’ll expose your crafty blog to readers who have not otherwise considered your ramblings a newsworthy source. Who knows if you raise your game enough, Lani Anglin may even award you the coveted Nacho Blogger Award! Note: Enter to win an Odysseus Medal or Black Pearl at your own risk. Apparently, my writing style is not up to par enough to be mentioned in the list of entries.
- Submit your weblog to online directories: Online directories take website/weblog links that are submitted by the author and categorize them. This strategy is easy because once you have submitted your site, there is little or no additional maintenance required. Usually directory submission is free, but a few do charge for their service or require a reciprocal link. Here are a few good ones to get you started: dmoz, Yahoo directory, Best of the Web.
- Talk about it! Whether I’m at the grocery store, a holiday party, presenting to clients, or stranded at the airport, my blog seems to work itself into the conversation every time. If you don’t already have a 3 minute elevator speech promoting your blog…work on one, and make sure you have business cards printed with your weblog address. Live it, Blog it, Promote it!
Got a helpful idea you’d like to share…tell me about.
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Tags: suggestion, MyTechOpinion, activerain, Directory, readership, mybloglog
