ActiveRain Tutorials: August 2009

I just finished reading Erin Golding's post: How on Earth Do You Blog So Much and in there, she made the following statement:

(I can't figure out how to embed videos into my ActiveRain blog so if anyone can help, that would be great).

I wanted to make sure she got the answer, so the first thing I did was read through the 80 comments thinking for sure someone had left a link to a post on how to do this.  To my surprise there was none.  To my even bigger surprise, when I searched ActiveRain for an post I couldn't seem to come across an updated blog post with information on how to do it.  So, Erin, this tutorial is for you!

If the video is too small to view, try watching in HD.

Many have asked how to add, remove & change the order of your widgets on your outside blog.  So, today I put together a short tutorial on how to do all of this.  If you are not familiar with how these widgets work, watch this simple 3 minute video & it will walk you through step by step.

If you are having trouble viewing what I do on my screen, click the full screen tab & watch.

If you are not familiar with what some of these widgets are, visit these posts in my widget series where I explain the some of the most popular widgets available for your outside blog:

Widget Wednesday~ Tips to Enhance Your Outside Blog- Part 1

Widget Wednesday~ Tips to Enhance Your Outside Blog- Part 2

Widget Wednesday~ Tips to Enhance Your Outside Blog- Part 3

ActiveRain Updates a few new features

There were a few changes and updates made to the network yesterday both internally and for members.  Just wanted to make sure you knew about them in case you hadn't noticed already.

• The first of which is pretty obvious are the New Badges.  They have been moved from covering the upper corner of your photo and placed below the photos now.  This should help those members whose photos were being interfered with by the old badges.

• We've added the RSS feed now for the "featured posts" that appear on the homepage. Non logged-in users can only subscribe to a feed of "public" featured posts. Logged-in users can subscribe to an additional "public + members only" feed of featured posts.
  
  To add the RSS feed to your reader or to get the proper link to do so, just click on the RSS Icon    located in the address bar of your browser.  I use Google reader for all my RSS feeds, but you can use any RSS reader or feed device. 
  

Here is the RSS link if you need it for the "Public Posts" - http://activerain.com/index.rss

• There's now a New way to earn points: every day, a member can earn 100 points for "logging in" to ActiveRain. These points will be awarded even if a member has opted to remain logged in.  This applies to every member.  You can now be rewarded points just for showing up to the community, but we hope you'll continue to engage with others through Blogging and commenting.

As many of you know who have been here a while, we are continuously trying to improve and better the network and community for our members and visitors on a daily basis. Some of these features and updates may seem trivial, but combined, they do add value to the site overall. Enjoy!

Today is an exciting day for ActiveRain as we release a great new feature. As of today, you now have the ability to add a signature line to all of your blog posts automatically!  Many of our members have the same tagline or image that they like to use on each & every blog post.  With this new feature, you are able to create your own custom signature line that will automatically appear on every post you write.

How It Works

You will write your signature/tagline/footer once & save it.  Then whenever you post something new to your blog, it will appear at the bottom of that post.  You can place all of your about me information as well as any other buttons, icons, or custom signature pictures that you may use into this block.  It will save you lots of time. 

Before, to add your custom signature, you would have to copy & paste the signature from an old post into the new one.  And if you used something containing HTML, the process was even more laborious.  All of that work has been simplified into one easy step now.

How to Set Up Your Signature

Start by logging into your account.  Then, click on the Settings tab along the left side.  You will then scroll down to the signature box that will look similar to this:

Fill in the signature box with whatever information you wish to have shown in your signature.  Remember, whatever information you place in this box will be shown on ALL of your posts.  So take that into consideration when placing the information in this box.  You do not want to put something like "for more information on this listing, contact me" because all your blog posts are not listings.  This box allows you to insert HTML codes, images, & links along with your content, so be sure to take full advantage of these.

On the other hand, DO NOT ABUSE THE SIGNATURE! If you place too many graphics & videos & paragraphs upon paragraphs of information with links, you will slow down the loading speed of your blog.  Also, if your signature lines are 3 times the length of your posts, then consumers will be turned off.  They visit your blog for information & quality content.  If instead of finding bunches of content they only find small bits followed by giant signatures, they will lose interest in your blog & move onto someone else.

Once you have filled in the signature box with the information, be sure to click the update button below.  If not, your new signature masterpiece will not be saved & will not show up when you visit your blog to preview.

The Final Result?

After clicking update, visit your blog & see your new work of art.  I hope that our members are as excited about this new feature as I am!  Please do me a favor, after setting up your own custom signature, stop back by this post & leave a comment witha  link to yours so we can all view the new masterpieces.

Here is mine:

Below are some of the most Frequently Asked Questions I receive through the Contact ActiveRain support service.

Why can't I make public posts? Writing public posts is one of the many benefits of having a Rainmaker Membership.  Brad Andersohn wrote a great post about the Activerain membership program.  To learn more visit the following link: ActiveRain's NEW RainMaker Membership Plan

Why would I want to become a Rainmaker?  What are the benefits & what results can I expect?  The ActiveRain Rainmaker is more than just a membership! There are so many benefits to becoming one.  You can read those benefits here: The ActiveRain Rainmker Getting Results

Effectively Posting Your Listings to Your Blog.

Posting your listings to your blog is something that any agent loves to do.  It provides exposure for the listing which makes the seller happy & also gives your blog an additional posting of content.  However over the past few months of being on staff I have encountered this question more times than I can count. "How do I post my listings on my blog?" Because of this I have written this post that will walk you through what you should & shouldn't be doing when posting your listings on your blog.

What Not to Do When Writing About Your Listing

Before I share how to effectively post your listings to your blog, I want to start with a few things not to do.  The biggest No No is to just copy & paste directly from your MLS.  Copying & pasting can cause coding issues to your blog where giant paragraphs of funny text shows up. Also, this a violation of our Community Guidelines.   The second way many post their listings is through using some sort of outside service where you input your listing information & are provided with a piece of html code that creates a pretty flyer like the one to the right.

While there are plenty of wonderful services available to place your listings on your blog, (postlets, vflyer, realbird, etc) they are not always the best way.  Before I go any further, let me make this statement:  There is nothing wrong with using those services!  They are a great for posting your listings to many social media platforms like craigslist, twitter, & facebook.  But in order to make your listings more attractive to consumers & also search engines, using those sites hold you back on your blog & here is why.

• Lack of content: Many times those services have a limit on the number of characters you can use in the description.  They also do not allow you include links in the flyer.  Since you can't link you are missing valuable opportunities for link juice.
  
• Lack of Creativity.  While they create really pretty looking flyers that can be visually appealing, they hinder you from using any type of creativity in the layout or added features to your listing because of the set template.  The ability to add extras to the flyers in out of the question.
• Layout Issues.  Have you ever placed one of these flyers on your blog & the entire layout of your blog goes haywire?  You know what I mean, your profile picture is at the bottom of the page, your post title runs over a picture, and text is going everywhere?  Well this is caused by the html coding you inserted having the incorrect dimensions.  Most everything you post on ActiveRain needs to remain under 550 pixels wide to keep from encountering this issue.  Unfortunately these flyers are normally set for wider dimensions that the maximum allowed on ActiveRain.
  

Tips to Writing an Effective Listing Post.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, the best way to write bout a listing is to write an original blog post about the home.  This way you are giving unique content about the property.  You are the creator & can make it look & feel however you want.  Here are 4 simple tips to increase the appeal of your listings for both consumers & also search engines:

1. Include Community Info.  Before you take the time to write about your listing, I would suggest taking time to write about some of the other local things in the community.  Write about local attractions, amenities in the neighborhood, restaurants, & anything else about the neighborhood.  By writing these hyper local posts before writing about your listing you will then be able to incorporate these things into your listing post.  This provides great ways to link posts together & build some major google juice.
2. Post plenty of Photographs.   Pictures help showcase your listing.  Adding these to the post bring things to life.  Remember the importance of labeling your photos when placing them into your post.
3. Don't be afraid of giving too much information! Many times agents fear that if they give you all the details of the listing that consumers will not contact them. Posts that include more content than the average listing posts will be the blogs that consumers come back to again & again.  Because of new technologies, consumers can find just about anything they want to know about a property online.  So if you do not give them the information they are needing, they will move onto someone else.
4. Try adding a slideshow or video for an extra wow factor.  Slideshows & videos give just an added dimension to the post.  It allows the consumer to take a break from reading & just watch.  Be careful though to not make the video too long or you can lost their interest.  I would suggest keeping both around 2-3 minutes max.
   
5. Title the post correctly.  One of the biggest problems I see when looking at a post that is for a listing is that the title is done all wrong.  It is so important to Address your listings properly for search engines.  If you just title the post "Reduced 3BR 2BA home to $389,000" you are definitely not helping the search engines to understand what your post is about. 
   

Add these 5 simple tips when writing your next post about a new listing & watch the difference in results.  Consumers will spend more time reading & learning as well as google will like it more.

Sharing Your Bookmarks Across Multiple Computers.

Over the past few weeks I have had many of our members here ask how they can save bookmarks on our network.  If you didn't know, ActiveRain offers you a really easy way to bookmark all of your favorite posts on the network & save them for future reading or referencing when you are working on an adding some awesome feature to your blog.  If you are anything like me, you use more than one computer on a fairly regular basis.  One of the awesome benefits of using the ActiveRain Bookmarks is that it allows you to access these bookmarked post from any computer that you sign into.  Right now I would guess I have around 75-100 different posts bookmarked on ActiveRain. If you are not familiar with ActiveRain's great bookmarking feature and how to use it, here is a post I wrote a long time ago on How to Bookmark Posts on ActiveRain.

This past weekend, I decided to take total advantage of South Carolina's Tax Free weekend & go out & finally replace my laptop.  My good old Dell Inspiron served me really well during my real estate selling days.  I took that thing with me everywhere.  But, from years of using & aging, the technology is starting to slow down, and a few of the keys are needing to be pushed just a little bit harder to type.  Plus, my father who is still selling real estate in Myrtle Beach needs it for work.  So, I made a trip to the local Best Buy & picked up a 15" Macbook Pro.

With the easy bookmarking feature of ActiveRain I had no concern of keeping my bookmarks on the network.  But what about my bookmarks that aren't on ActiveRain? So, I opened firefox & looked for an add-on.  That is when I came across Xmarks.  This free add-on has allowed me to seamlessly share every single bookmark I have saved on the desktop computer with the laptop.  Not only did it sync my bookmarks, it also brought over my bookmark toolbar.

So whether I am sitting at my desk, or out somewhere on my laptops, I have all my bookmarks on both computers in the exact same locations.  What is even cooler is that Xmarks can sync across different browsers.  This means I can not only sync from my desktop to my Laptop, but I could also transfer from Mac to PC if needed.  This add-on also works on Internet Explorer, Firefox & Safari web browsers. 

How it works.  Once you download & install the application onto your computer you are then asked to create a free online account with Xmarks.  Once you have your account set up, you will be prompted to automatically upload your bookmarks to their servers.  Then, go to another computer & repeat the process.  Then, whenever you make changes to your bookmarks, simply sync on each computer & and your lists are updated.

Here is where this add-on gets even cooler.  Have you ever had a computer crash & lose everything?  I know I have had that happen & was so beside of myself trying to remember everything that I had lost.  Because Xmarks keeps a master list of your bookmarks on their servers & not just on your computer, Xmarks works as a backup solution for your bookmarks.  No more worrying about losing your bookmarks or not being able to access a needed link because you bookmarked the site on another computer. 

You can also access your list if bookmarks directly on the server without having to download them to the computer.  Example:  You are over at a friends house & you want to share that awesome Barbecue Chicken Recipe Video that yours truly made. You don't have your computer with you so you have a few options:

1. You wait till you get home & try to remember to look it up in your bookmarks, but end up forgetting & only sharing 3 weeks later when your friend pesters you again for the recipe.
2. You open Google on your friends computer & start doing searches to find the recipe.  Because there are so many search results you spend 30 minutes searching for the correct one, because you KNOW from making it yourself that it is the BEST Barbecue Chicken Recipe.
3. You call your spouse who is at home & bug them to go to your computer, boot it up, search through your bookmarks & find the recipe.  Then, wait patiently as you have to spell letter by letter your friends email address for them to email you the link.  You & your friend sit waiting for 20 minutes and still no email comes through because your spouse had a typo in email address. 
   

While these are options you would normally do, the results can be very time consuming & frustrating.  If you have your account set up, you could simply visit Xmarks.com and pull up your own bookmarks right on their website.  In a matter seconds you can login, find the link in your online folder & share with your friend the link. Once you upload to the server, you can access from any computer at any moment.

So, check out Xmarks, it is the easiest way to share your bookmarks across multiple computers.

Twitter is quickly becoming the most used platforms out there for social media & interaction with consumers.  I spend almost as much time each day on my twitter account as I do here on ActiveRain.  In fact, they are normally running simultaneously on the two monitors.  Over the past few months I have watched thousands follow me & start their twitter career.  I cringe each time I hear someone say, oh I just signed up for twitter because I can then send out links to my blogs.

I have already covered why this is a bad idea a few weeks back in the post Are You Optimizing your ActiveRain Blog on Twitter? So, today I wanted to give a few tips I have learned over the past few months of using Twitter.  First though I must admit this:  I am by no means a twitter expert or guru.  I am just someone that enjoys the network & uses it regularly. That being said, here are a few things to help you incorporate your blog effectively into twitter:

1.  Do Not Send a Link to Your Blog on First Contact. I know this goes against every single thing you have ever been taught about marketing in real estate but trust me.  This is a big NO NO!  Those that use twitter regularly will immediately block your account if you send them a message immediately after connecting that says: "Hi, thanks for connecting with me.  I look forward to connecting.  Visit my site at http://worstpersonontwitter.com" Messages like this SCREAM to consumers that you are gonna try & sell them something.  You know how excited you are when the telemarketer calls you during dinner to tell you about the free vacation you won?  Well, that same feeling is what the person you sent that message to is feeling. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have seen someone write: "@XXXXX just spammed me w/their site!  They are Blocked!  When will they learn?"

Instead of sending a message instantly trying to get them to visit your site, try connecting with them.  Read some of their recent messages.  You will find something that you can relate to, or interact with them about.  Comment back to them about that & begin the relationship that way.  Once the ice has been broken & you are interacting.  Then you can send information about your blog posts.  Which brings me to my next point.

2.  Be Creative with how you market your blog.  Sometimes you have to be creative about how you get the message out & drive traffic to your blog.  Instead of just saying, Please visit my Real Estate Blog, or Check out My Blog, you need to get creative and unique.  If you make it sound more informative & less of an advertisement, you will be way more effective.  Here are a few examples of tweets that I did the other day about my post Is Being Right Always Right? The Good, the Bad & Really Ugly of Social Media each of these messages also included a shortened link to my post here on ActiveRain.

• Is it Always Right to be Right? (link)- This one was Retweeted 4 times.
• The Good, Bad & Really Ugly of Social Media (link)- Retweeted 3 times & One of those even reblogged my article.
• Thanks to @barcelona for taking the high road for once! (link)
• In Case You Missed it, United Breaks Guitars :) (Link)
  

Then, in addition to these that I posted over a 48 hour period, there were other members who posted tweets:

Jon Washburn-Great post on how Social media changes entire reputations of Companies - overnight. @myrtlebeachblog http://bit.ly/5NSCV 

Lisa Oden- http://bit.ly/5NSCV <---[ Impact of social media to your brand - a MUST read ]

Because I have built relationships with my connections on twitter, my post that I wrote about 4 times throughout a 2 day was republished 9 times for others to see. This also does not take into account the countless responses I received about the post directly through twitter.  The key is to be creative with how you send out the messages.  If I had just tweeted: Just posted on ActiveRain: Is Being Right always Right.... Probably the response rate would have been much lower.

3.  Share more than just links to your Blog.  People on twitter love to read, watch videos, and listen to music.  So the more of that you share & build confidence that you provide stuff worth their time to click on, the more likely they are to click a link to a blog post.  What I do is during the day when I need a break from reading or typing, I will head over to youtube & watch a video or two.  If it is something that catches my eye, or makes me laugh like this video, then I will share it on twitter with my friends.  Those links to videos do a couple things.  First, they help me to take a break & relax from the monotony of the day.  They also help to spark conversations & interactions on twitter. 

Just like on my blog, comments & interactions is what builds the relationships & trust between me & my readers.  The same holds true on twitter.  As you build those interactions, you build trust & form relationships with others.  Once those are formed, they will in turn start to promote you & your business for you.

Every Friday there is a thing on twitter called #followfriday.  This is where you get to recommend your favorite people on twitter to others on the network.  Every week, I receive anywhere from 10-30 recommendations from friends on the network.  That means 10-30 people are advertising my account every week for me without me even having to ask them to do so.  All because of our interactions.

If you apply these 3 simple steps into your daily routine you can begin promoting your blog easily & effectively through twitter.  As you begin to master these three steps those that you interact will start doing the promoting for you! 

Have you been on ActiveRain for a while & wished that you could Jazz up your profile with some reall awesome graphics or picture?  Several members contact me regularly in complete frustration from trying to add a really great looking header to their profile. 

Have visited a blog &  come across a header that resembles one similar to this:

As you can see above, the photo I inserted does not even cover the whole bar & is so distorted & blown up that you really can't tell what it was.  So, I thought it was time to share with everyone how to design a really great looking header for your outside blog.  Granted, there are several ways to design a really awesome header, but for this exercise we are going to use a single photo.

There are so many different photo software programs you could use to create.  The key to making the process smooth & successful is using photo editing software you are familiar with. In the past I have used everything from Pro-Grade Adobe Photoshop to a cheap PC program called Microsoft Picture it 10.  In fact, my latest header was designed with a free online software program called Picnik.

How To Create an Awesome Header

The first thing you need to do is chose a photograph to work with.  You want to make sure that the photo you are working with is at least 960 pixels wide to start.  If not, things will become all distorted or not fill up the entire header box. Here is the original picture I chose to create my header.  The original size was entirely too large at like 1620 x 880.  So the next thing you will want to do is resize the photo to 960 pixels wide.

After choosing a photo & resizing you will then need to make some cropping adjustments to the photograph.  The dimensions for your header need to be 960 pixels wide by 134 pixels high.  Most pictures are not going to fit these dimensions exactly.  In fact, 99% of the photos you chose are going to need to be cropped to fit properly.  So, what you need to do is open the photograph up in any photo editing software & find the cropping utility.  Enter the correct dimensions & move around the selected area to crop out the section of the photo you would like to use.

Now that you have the photo cropped, you can either use that photo as is for your header.  Or if you want, you can add your logo or text onto the header.  Make sure if you are adding text that is a descriptive title & NOT Contact information.  All Your Contact info is on the side already.  If you place your email address or website URL people will become frustrated when they try to click on the header & it doesn't do anything they are expecting.

The Final Result?

This is how it looks on my ActiveRain Blog

Lastly, you can see it on my Outside Blog as well:

I hope this helps all of you that have been frustrated designing your blog header. For those of you who feel daring, you could using multiple photos like Debe Maxwell has on her blog. But process is much more complicated and advanced.

As always, do not feel overwhelmed by designing a Header!  This header was designed in less than 10 minutes time.  Also, Do Not Get Caught up on Photo Quality.   The photo I used was taken with my iPhone one evening while out on a bike ride through my neighborhood.  No fancy equipment, or editing software was used to enhance the photo.  I simply took the photo, did the simple steps in Picnik & uploaded.

So, now that you know how to jazz up your ActiveRain & Outside Blog, stop making excuses & get to it!