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

Outside.in Is a Great Tool for Collecting and Sharing Local Info

The Pro has spent the last hour or so playing around with this cool new tool called Outside.in, which collects information pertaining to local community news, blogs and goings on....uh, and there's a lot of real estate stuff too.  You can use it (and contribute as well) to stay up to date on changes in the hood or inform your neighbors of your next open house. 

Good ole Curbed mentioned it today and got us going.  Its pretty decent so far!  Outside.in is putting the "i" in realty, if you ask me.  If you ask them...

outside.in is designed as a bridge between information space and real-world space -- a place to see in a single glance all the interesting things that are happening around you.

I know, I know...sites with forums and bookmarking and maps and such are all over the place these days.  So what's one more gonna hurt- right?  Well, so far it looks like there could be something a little different that may prove to be useful to some of you real estate blog Pros out there.  Give it a whirl and let this Pro know what you think.
I took the liberty of trying out a new polling tool from Polldaddy (which is pretty cool and terrifically easy to use).  Try it yourself on your blog if you like.  It's easy as 1..2..3



Outside.in
Polldaddy

Technorati Tags: Outside.in, local, tool, real estate, community

Google Reader Launches New Interface

You real estate blog Pros out there may enjoy this new (friendlier) interface on Google Reader.   Personally, I find the Reader to be a helpful tool for staying up to date on real estate this and that via RSS.  Here are a few of the changes:

• Expanded view and list view
  
• Simplified sharing functionality
  
• Improved read-state management
  
• Infinite scrolling
  
• Unread counts
  
• Mark all as read
  
• and a bunch more...
  

Check out the new Google Reader here



Technorati Tags: google reader, news

Flickr WebImager lets you slice and grab the web

Today, Pro will let you in on a secret:  Grab slices of the web and upload them to your flickr account with Webimager- then post them where ever you like. Once an image is in your flickr account, it has its own URL- you should be able to post this image's URL anywhere that will allow HTML.  This is the perfect tool to use for comments on real estate property or just keeping track of whos linking to you.


For example, justiNYC keeps track of his linkages like this


Technorati Tags: flickr webimager, tools, tips, flickr, images

An RSS tip for all you soon to be Pros

Randy Morin from RSS blog published a terrific set of RSS guidelines (pdf file) which he recieved from another blog buddy, Nick Gogerty of Inclue! Thought it might be good to share the wealth and keep it going.  Today's my birthday!!!- sorry i haven't more to share....The Pro will make it up to you next week!






Technorati Tags: RSS guidelines, RSS,

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

Some helpful sites for you aspiring Pros: Free File host list, Photoshop tutorials and Google Calender Mobile

An amazing blog for gmail and google-type hacks, Ghacks posted a fat list of sites that offer free file hosting and even went so far as to tell us the following for each site:

Reg: Does the site require a registration before you can use their services ? Registration means free registration of course.

Filesize: Is there a maximum size for a single file, in Mb ? No res = no restrictions

Space: How much diskspace is allocated for the user
? If there is no registration the max filesize has been taken as max
space allowed. No res = no restrictions

Bandwidth: Are there bandwidth limitations ? no res = no restrictions, d=max downloads, h=per hour

Filetypes: Are certain filetypes not allowed to be uploaded ?

Hotlinking: Does the site allow hotlinking ?

Expires: Are the files auto-deleted after a time,
if yes the number of days are shown. If the number is unknown yes will
be shown. Sometimes files only get deleted after inactivity for a
certain time, if thats the case a “i” is added to the
number. Sometimes file get deleted after a certain number of downloads,
if thats the case a “d” is added to the number.

Very helpful!

Google Operating System Blog told us of the new features for Google Calender that lets you check your schedule from anywhere via mobile phone.

* if you're in the US, you can access your calendar from your mobile
phone. You just have to send a SMS to 48368 (GVENT) with the text
"next" to see the upcoming events. Send "day" to get all of your
scheduled events for the present day and "nday" to get all of your
events for the following day. You can even create events, just send the
details in a format similar to this: "Go to dinner at Chef Cafe
tomorrow at 9pm".

Total Tutorial -a fantastic resource for those interested in learning everything that there is to know about Photoshop, Flash and PHP.   This may be a tid-bit much for the average real estate agent, but it never hurts to try dive right in!

Technorati Tags: tips, tricks, Photoshop, tools, google calender, hacks, Flash, tutorials

A tip for realtors regarding links and linking correctly

The RealtorWeblog posted a useful tip yesterday for realtors regarding linkage.  With Google apparently "cracking down on unrelated links" (per Matt Cutts of Google), it may be time for you to think about who you trade links with.  Realtor Marketing Blog has a few suggestions for who to jump in the linking game with:

Mortgage companies

Home renovators

Mortgage brokers

Banks

home inspection

Realtors from out of town

Technorati Tags: marketing, linkage, realtors

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

Create an RSS feed for feedless sites and real estate hack tip

Sometimes there are those sites that just don't have an RSS feed to subscribe to. I know, crazy right!?!  Well, in a land far far away, many years ago there were these things called websites and they just sat there.  This was before there was such a thing as a blog and life wasn't very exciting, to say the least.  Well, those days have passed (thanks G_d), but there still are those dinosaurs out there that contain the info that we need.  As Pro bloggers, versed in the ways of RSS, this can be frustrating as we must always go through the motions and type in the URL, visit the actual site, sift through pages of babble to get what we want, blah blah blah.  What am getting at?  Precisely this:  There are tools out there that will allow you to create an RSS feed out of a site's data (as long as it changes from time to time), even if the site doesn't already have an RSS feed ready made for you to subscribe to.  Pro is going to tip you off to a tool that will allow you to do just that, first.  Then, he'll give you an example for how to use it that you won't find anywhere else- a hack, if you will- exclusively for all you bloggin real estate agents out there.

1) Take a look at Ponyfish
[
link via LifeHacker]
Ponyfish is a terrific solution for creating an RSS feed from a site that either A) is fairly old and just doesn't have RSS format B) is a company website that you might like to keep track of or C) (Pro's favorite) happens to be a site with content that changes dynamically (such as property search websites and databases), with a webmaster that would rather not make the content as easily accessed as say, one with an RSS feed.  They want you to visit their site!  Sometimes its because they want the adsense money that rolls in with every page view, sometimes its the nature of the content. In either case, a tool like Ponyfish can help you out.

2) The Hack:  Pro chooses not to point any linky fingers at particular real estate websites that can be hacked in this nature- partly because he would rather not single out certain sites that belong and are maintained by his friends.  But lets just say that you are a real estate agent and you'd like to be notified everytime a new property hits a particular database.  Go to Ponyfish and follow the instructions for creating a new feed.  Find the page on the web (within the site) that you usually go to when you want to see if anything has been added.  Enter that URL.  Create a feed and add it to your feed reader or RSS notification service and you're set.  Don't bother begging the webmaster to integrate RSS into his/her site.  They won't! Chances are, if they don't already have the service, they would rather not make it that easy on you.

I know...you must now use your brain.  Have fun!  It won't hurt. Pro promises...




Technorati Tags: RSS, hack, realestate, tools, tips

Spread the word about your service with RSS [part 1]

RSS

So you want to know how to spread the word about your blog...the best way to do that is through using a little thing called RSS (Really Simple Syndication).  RSS can be used to syndicate news from a webpage such as CNN or BoingBoing, yet info doesn't necessarily have to be news for RSS to be useful-although when I began blogging, I found it useful to think of my listings as news to my clients. I would tip my clients off to the fact that my listings would come to them as soon as they came available (if they went to my site and subscribed) and then from that point on, they needn't even visit my site. Whenever I posted something new that might interest them, it came to their feedreader, inbox, or cellphone.  For real estate agents and professionals, RSS has many uses. For example, someone looking for a house or a place to rent can simply use an agent's RSS feed to keep up with the latest listings. If they see an interesting item, they can click directly to the website for more information.  Basically, any data that can be broken down into smaller interlinking chunks should be workable into RSS format.  In short, RSS is similar to newsletters that web sites offer to keep viewers updated.

What's the point?

• The object is to create an RSS feed from your blog posts, so it is then readable in an RSS feed reader.
• An RSS feed can be strategically embedded into other blogs, making a 'blog within a blog' mashup, creating greater exposure for your content (more on this later)
• RSS is user-controlled, meaning if someone out there wants it, they will subscribe to it.
• Feeds can be monetized through Google Adsense program, allowing the blogger to earn income from their traffic.
• RSS feeds are subscribed to by interested readers and then checked regularly as one might check his/her email.  Google Reader is an excellent example of this type of RSS program.

How does it work?

• basically, certain types of HTML documents (such as blogs) can be broken down into smaller, distributable chunks (then referred to as XML) which are syndicated like news to your subscribers.
• Feedburner is my personal choice for converting your blog feed into a readable RSS feed. If you use Blogger, this requires converting your blog's ATOM feed (found under settings) into an RSS feed, which is then able to be read in a reader.
• There are services that will send your RSS feed updates to email, textmail, PDA, or even instant messengers to notify your readers of changes and additions to your blog.

The Advantages of RSS:

• Ever had an email bounce back? or just not make it at all?  Not a problem with RSS.  It has a 100% delivery rate!
• No spam!
• No list of addresses to keep track of and forget copy-n-paste email marketing.
• As long as you keep your "content" fresh, the search engines will gobble it up fast. This keeps you in line with traditional search engines.

Coming Soon from REBlogPro!

• How to offer multiple ways for readers to subscribe to your blog's RSS feed
• tricks for syndicating photos, listings, RENTED/SOLD updates, etc.
• Displaying RSS feeds on your web page or blog
• services that employ RSS and allow you to submit your feed

For a decent overview of the history of RSS and what it actually does, visit OReilly's explanation or Ezine @rticles has a terrific overview for real estate strategies as well.

And if you care to subscribe to this blog's feed, you can do it here:

technorati tags: RSS, tools, tips, realestate, XML, feedreader