Real Estate Blog Pro

Virtual Tours, Newsletters and Resources on the Fly! Now that's Pro!

Wanna create Virtual Tours like a PRO?  Integrate them into your blog or website?  Lifehacker told us last week about this kick ass new website called Mapwing and let this Pro be the first (ok, second) to tell you, It Kicks Ass. 


Mapwing simplifies all of the hassles involved with creating real estate VR tours.  No stitching of panoramics. No learning code in order to embed the 360 pano thingy.  None of that crap that you have to pay web designers bizillions of dollars to do for you.  Just follow the instructions to the T and you'll end up with a terrific looking floorplan with integrated Virtual Tour.  In the end you'll have the option of embedding it within your own website or emailing it to your clients! Its the perfect blog marketing tool.


Create newsletters on the Fly with Letterpop [found via Lifehacker] This is an AMAZING tool!  Look at the newsletter that I created for my father's surveying equipment supply company in South Carolina here.  This is perfect for real estate agents because you have so much flexibility with how photos and text can be displayed, you can have multiple pages and instantly email the newsletter to up to 500 people.  Give it a whirl!

A hefty list of blog resources can be found over here at Daily Blog Tips Blog.  You should definately subscribe to this blog's RSS because it always comes packin!'


Technorati Tags: newsletters, resources, links, virtual tours, Letterpop, Mapwing

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A Blog Stocking full of hacks, tools and tips and buttons

Long time no blog, Pros!  I must apologize for my lack of post-age, as I've recently taken a small break from real estate, focusing more on collaborative art and photography projects (including a book!! I will surely keep you up to date). I know, I know it was very un-Pro to have not tipped you off earlier.  I promise to be more Pro in the future.

So...right to business:

Found a few great resources to exploit in your never ending quest to save time.
250 Free Office Templates and Documents




Addthis.com offers a great tool for simplifying your social bookmarking life.

Also...here are a couple of great posts regarding Hacking your email in 99 ways [IT Security] and a variety of posts about real estate podcast marketing  and podcasting [RSS Pieces]

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Viewr Goes Live! Get your Video Egg On, Real Estate Pros

Could it be true? Viewr is live! The next highly anticipated real estate tool is finally available for your blogging and listing pleasure, dear real estate blog pros. We heard about Viewr back in July, with an update a month or so back and let's just say that the suspense has killed at least one of us.   With Viewr, agents will have a place to blog about their properties (or whatever else) and upload video content via  Video Egg software.  So far, the Pro likes it!

Viewr has a "global view on real estate" and the maps to prove it.  The (oh so very Web 2.0)interface is smooth and easy to use (so far). You can save your searched and your favorite listings.  It could be a good friend to a lot of you aspiring Pros out there.  Give it a whirl- set up a blog...see whats out there.  For god's sake, have fun for once!  Maybe real estate isn't such a drag afterall...just maybe.

Viewr


Technorati Tags: Viewr, Web 2.0, tool, real estate, New

Uncle Google brings New Beta for Blogger

You must have asked for it, cuz  you got it!  Blogger just went beta and Google is bringing some new features.  Also, you can now tie your blogger account to your gmail account.  

Some of the new stuff you'll find:

• Categorizing posts with labels
• Blog Readers - specify who can read your blog
• Appearance changing - templates, and managing changes without HTML

Pro wonders how this will effect the development of Picasa Web Albums.





[link via DownloadSquad]














check out the Blogger Buzz

Technorati Tags: google, blogger beta, picasa web albums

Are you a Blog Success?

Is your blog making you a real estate success story?  Here are a few of them to compare yourself to. [Inman News]  Congrats to all of this year's Innovation Award Nominees.

Picasa Web Albums released, A Yamanner Worm warning and a bit on Blogging for business

Google's Picasa finally release their online Web Albums thingy.  However, you must be invited, so sign up now with your Gmail account because it's first come first serve. This should be great for real estate agents who want to host property pics with links and such.  And it's still free [but there is an optionalstorage upgrade option ]! This has been a long time in the making.  Here's the blog link about it.  [and Lifehacker and an tester example]


QuickOnlineTips Blog may have helped the blogosphere out today tremendously by posting a warning about a javascript worm virus that travels via Yahoo! email.  Its called Yamanner Worm (or JS.Yamanner@m )and it can get onto your computer when a particular type of loaded email is opened.  Cases of the worm exploiting users have reportedly involved emails with a  subject line such as "New Graphic Site," according to QuickOnlineTips. Apparently those who use the new Yahoo! Beta email are safe. More on this read the Symantec Virus Threat Advisory.

Problogger had a great post regarding Blogging Business 101.  As usual, he answers many of the questions that we ask ourselves regarding how this whole blogging thing is supposed to help our business.  And because he isn't exactly a Pro business blogger (read his disclaimer), his advise is so much easier to digest. If you haven't check this Pro out yet, you're missing out!

Use these tips real estate agents and go forward in your blogging quest.  Remember that the Pro is always in your corner.  May the force be with you!


Technorati Tags: yamanner worm, yahoo mail, picasa web albums, business blogging, tips, warning

Textcasting: Podcasting for text will be BIG for real estate listing syndication

Almost a year and a half ago, LoftNinja began to maintain an all text blog for strictly listings-at the time, the blog was called Ninjalistings.*  He chose Blogger as the platform because its ownership (Google, duh) and began to use Talkr (a text to speech feed reader) so that his subscribers could download the listings to their iPod.  Just a few days ago, Library Clips Blog posted an entry about Textcasting (which is essentially the same thing) and confirmed further speculated that syndicating text via podcast could be the next thing!  Today, you can still recieve listings from the LoftNinja on your iPod...its still somewhat of a guerilla housing operation, but that's what makes it fun i suppose.


Today's Paper on your iPod [Slate]
Podcasting Listings are we? Hmmmm...sounds mighty familiar, don'tcha think?[Urbanfoto]
The fotoUR BLogger of the Day on iBlogthere4iM [Urbanfoto] (provides a bit of background and links to an interview with LoftNinja's friend- The fotoUR)

* its probably important to note that while one becomes a Pro [ie. zero experience---->learning process through self teaching], sometimes you will run into roadblocks such as getting hacked by outside entities.  In the case with LoftNinja and Ninjalistings (version 1), he hotlinked an image by permission from another blogger's site and one day that blogger's little brother thought it would be funny to insert a pornographic image in place of the original image (on like this: ) and all of a sudden the oh-so innovative real estate blog turned from respectable to smut.  Luckily he caught it right away, but had to delete the entire thing and start over....thus, the Typepad turn.  I tell you thins so that you will learn from the mistake.  1) Make sure your images are hosted safely in a place under your control and 2) Remember that there is always someone out there smarter than you- and if they aren't, thier little brother or sister will most certainly be.


Technorati Tags: textcasting, blogging, ipod, technology, real estate, housing, innovation, guerilla housing

Spread the word (Part 3): RSS Real Estate Feed Sites and where to submit yours

Real Estate RSS feed sites have sure blossomed over the past 2 yrs!  Considering the fact that Pro's friend, LoftNinja, was actually the first realtor in the United States (at least) to offer real estate listings via RSS feed [link has now moved to Ninjalist], this topic hits pretty close to home (pun intended). This post will show you how to put your feed into play, on sites that allow you to submit XML data.  RSS syndication is a terrific way to create content once and make it accessible in a million different ways.

RSS GOODNESS


Here are a few sites that will accept your feeds:
Check out RealtyFeeds

Check out RealtyFeed Search


Check out Edgeio



Some other interesting RSS related links:
RSSTop55 Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites [Robin Good]
you could spend some time on this one....it give nearly every possible site to submit your feed!
The RSS Blog [Randy Charles Morin's RSS blog]
you could do a LOT worse than to keep track of this guy- he's truly the king of RSS! This is his blog about RSS, OPML and the XML platform. He also has a killer blog search engine and several other tools and gadgets worth looking into. Not to mention, he's the creator of Rmail (as mentioned before)

[RSS Specifications] an informative blog with a focus on everything involving RSS.



Technorati Tags: RSS, links, feeds, RSS feeds, real estate, blogging, syndication, listings

See who links to your blog...and then link back if you like them.

That's what bloggers do!  Check out WhoLinked and customize your own titlebar and colors to see who links to you in real time. 

[link via RSS Blog via Micropersuasion]


Technorati Tags: linkage, blogging, management

Google Trends launches and its more fun than an open house on wheels!

Over at the Inman News, Pro found a post about a new Google trend.  Its called Google Trends (sorry, horrible joke). Now you can see what the rest of the world is searching for.


The new toy time sucker allows you to compare search terms and will show top results by city, region or languages. But thats not all it does! As Jessica Swesey points out, "Google Trends also charts out the trend history of search terms,
allowing you to see the highs and lows of the term usage. This could be
useful for keyword advertising managers in figuring out what terms are
hot or gauging a per-click price – it's also just fun to see the
rise and fall of certain search phrases."   Sooo, maybe its not such a HUGE waste of time anyway.
Give it whirl!  Pro did.  He searched for the keywords "real estate" and got the following chart:


have fun with this one...!


Technorati Tags: google, googletrends, search, tools

Reach out with both hands to your audience with Skype

Another terrific suggestion from the Pro's buddies over at Sellsius RE Blog regarding the use of Skype, in real estate blogging.  Sellsius bloggers suggest looking into Skypecasting, which is a lot like podcasting except your audience has the ability to respond and discuss topics in real time.  Or to put it another way,

It will allow real time online conversations with a community of
interested people. You can set it up to work on your blog or your
website. Want to hold a meeting with a group of clients, or colleagues,
scattered around the world? No problem, host a Skypecast. Just announce
the time of the meeting and everyone can skype (link) in. You have your
group meeting at absolutely no cost. -Sellius Blog

In Pro's opinion, Skypecasting (or something like it) could quite possibly become as popular as "traditional blogging" (whatever that is).  But its industries such as real estate that could make it popular.  Neighborhood experts and property gurus could become a whole other level of celebrity once the general public start to catch on to this technology.


Technorati Tags: skype, blogging, skypecasting

Get more info from your readers and make that sale with this easy form builder

Would you like to put a form on your site for your readers to fill out and submit?  Its a terrific way to find out who your readers are and put you in contact with them directly.  Well, let me introduce you to Sidewalk.  [link via DownloadSquad] Its an AJAX enabled form builder that's easy to create and simple to integrate onto your blog.  For a real estate agent, this is a powerful tool, as there is a good chance that the info that you gather from your readers will tell you a lot about the types of clients that your content appeals to. You'll have information to work with in minutes!

 Sidewalk forms can be embedded in any web page
just by copying and pasting a bit of JavaScript, which I think is one of its greatest selling points. When someone
fills out your form their answers are e-mailed to you as well as added to a web-based database where you can search the
responses and export them to CSV.

[link via DownloadSquad]

Tip: Email Marketing for Bloggers

Wanna play with some email marketing and drive traffic to your blog at the same time?  Try Zookoda!  Its an email marketing application designed specifically for bloggers. Zookoda enables you to send a daily, weekly or monthly summary of your latest blog posts directly into your vistors inbox. And...its free (found via swissmiss)!