Keeping your website up-to-date is important for a number of reasons. One is security of your database and information and another is usefulness of the latest plugins and the browsers visitors use.

It’s much easier to stay instep with the updates than get behind. If you haven’t updated your WordPress platform for some time, it’s a good idea to check the comparability of your theme first.

The latest WordPress Version is called Sonny Stitt. The Version is 3.3 and it was released yesterday, December 12, 2011. You can update your WordPress website from the site’s back end. Please don’t forget to back-up your database first.

If you need help updating your WordPress Website, please contact us. We will:

• Back-up your data-base and store it in your folder.
• Perform theme compatibility check and report issues.
• Perform update to the latest version.
• Update all relevant plugins

We’re keeping our ear-to-the-ground for you. You keep on doing what you do best!

We discussed the first Transformer already which will stay on the market as an entry level model. However, the new Transformer Prime’s 64Gig storage with speedy performance via the Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor is starting at a mere $600. Both of these products set a new bench mark for, not just performance, but value. But here’s the big difference. The keyboard, dock adding more memory and 10 hours of battery life.

I have a number of Youtube channels and a Vimeo Channel so I get your real estate home tour video updates as they are uploaded, if they are uploaded. So I go to your website to see how that same latest video is posted there. I click on the Video Tour Tab and notice that only an external link is offered to the video!!! Holey lost traffic Marketing Man! This blows me away!

Curiously, like a cat smelling it’s own up-chuck, I click the video link to see where it goes. As expected it opens a new window away from your website.  I am now on some butt-ugly video company’s website looking at your listing! Why? What kind of nincompoopish reasoning is behind taking me away from your website? Did you know you can display a video right in the listing’s details without sending people away from your site?

Link to Butt-Ugly Video Tour Website

I know what’s happened. You were sold the full java script enabled video package complete with galleries and mortgage calculators and map views and more; You already have all that available at your own website! Why pay for it twice?

Look, all you need is to embed the video into your website. And here are 3 reasons why…

Water Down your SEO Juice:

If you link to another site with your listing then there are now two website domains with that listing dividing up the Search Engine Optimization. Your website and the Butt-Ugly Video Company’s website and I am sure Butt-Ugly Ltd is very happy about all that traffic. Without you, they would have no traffic. Don’t let them sell this the other way. I bet they said something like “we’ll link it to your website so you’ll get more traffic”. No, not the case. I have also seen these sites without a link back.

Allow Your Customers to Drift away:

Many times I notice that the Butt-Ugly Video Company’s website offers all the same tools that your website has. Let your buyers discover the tools on your site so they can keep searching there. Don’t let your website visitors think (even for an instant) that your site doesn’t offer these tools. It looks like they are selling the listing and you are their assistant contact person.

Let them Mess up Your Visual Branding:

Your visual branding is completely different on the Butt-Ugly Video company’s website that you just sent your buyers to. Oh sure they add your name and throw up (pun intended) your mugshot but it’s their brand they are wrapping you around and it never works.

A couple of other things to consider

When a customer comes to your website and clicks the video tour tab, they really expect to see the video. No really. They expect that because every site can have video – including yours. If Butt Ugly Videos Ltd tells you their video tours can not be embedded, end the conversation.

Using something like Youtube to serve your video from is terrific because it is a strong social sharing website that is linking into your website. The video can remain after the listing is gone. Also, savvy users and newbies alike expect to see your videos there. The ability for them to comment, “like” and subscribe is very powerful and goes a long way to creating a tribe of followers.

How to solve this

Some video companies have different packages and perhaps they have a cheaper price for not offering the separate Butt-Ugly website.  I know that there are scripts needed to display some of these 360 degree tours that can not be embedded. My answer to that is don’t bother with it because nothing is going to replace seeing the home in person. All you need is a video so buyers will want to schedule a viewing in person and make an offer. I’m not seeing “Buy Now” buttons beside listings yet.

The best thing to do is save yourself some money and find a person who has a camera and some video editing skills. They make a video – you uploaded it to Youtube and simply embed the video into your website. Award winning music videos have been shot with less.

If you need help with any website administration please let me know. We do Web administration also becoming known as Virtual Website Assisting and used to be called Web Mastering.

Comments are appreciated!

When the iPhone first appeared I was often asked, “do I need to get an iPhone now?” The answer was of course a resounding no and I would go on to explain the ever changing landscape of other touch screen smart phones. So I thought this new category would would be handy. I work with Real Estate Professionals, Fitness Instructors, Doctors and Lawyers. If you are in one of those businesses and looking for tech tools that are cheaper and better than the standard everyone else is using. Keep checking back.

Our first entry is the first ever alternative to the iPad2 that is worthy of talking about: Asus Eee Pad Transformer

First let me start by saying I am not and this is not an Apple Anti love-in to counter the world Apple orgasm taking place at this writing. That’s why the category is not called Apple Alternatives.  At some point Apple may actually be included in this very category if everyone switches camp (remembering the Palm at this point).

It’s taken a while for anyone to catch up to the innovation of the iPad and Apple in general and wins on that account hands down. Any touch pad to be released into the wild from this point on will undoubtedly be compared to it. Just making something that does the same thing as the iPad is not enough. Why even look at such a product? No, What ever comes out now must be better and cheaper than the iPad to make any sort of splash in the slate/pad universe that Apple has created. The Asus Eee Transformer does that. If you are looking for an alternative to the iPad2, watch this review and you will see what I mean.

Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver
RICHMOND/SOUTH DELTA/GULF ISLANDS DIVISION presents:

SOCIAL MEDIA

Don’t Miss this Dynamic Presentation & Panel Session about
How Technology & Personal Branding can Help Grow Your Career!
Learn How to:

Business
Card Draws
Great Prizes!

• Engage with people
• Build a following
• Build relationships
• Leverage your brand
• Add value to your business through online media
• Hear about the ROI of Social Media

Keynote Speaker:

Tom Everitt

Tom Everitt
is a dynamic speaker, a Medallion Club Master Member, a Big Brother and a family man. Tom believes that REALTORS® can achieve their goals and tell their stories using today’s technology and social media at a fraction of the cost of past marketing efforts.

Sponsored by:

Lisa Manwaring

Lisa Manwaring
Mortgage Broker/Owner, The Mortgage Alliance Meridian Southwest Mortgage.

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We have written about this amazing email newsletter software’s trackable social sharing abilities before and you can read about that here. Social sharing from a newsletter campaign is just the beginning. Aside  from that there is the ability to create and upload your own templates, choose from a list of free templates or have us design a custom template that matches your brand and all with client personalization. You have a choice of  monthly rates or a free account with a low pay as you go rate so you don’t feel pressured to use it.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment.

Before I dive into the details, here’s a preview of the new Social Sharing report. You can click it for a full-size version.

Our providers have been thinking long and hard about the best way to add this kind of social integration for the TribalYell Eflyers System. As always, the goal was to keep the sharing process as simple as possible for you and your subscribers. Here’s how it works.

In-email sharing made easy

The easiest way for your subscribers to share your email newsletter  is by adding a “Tweet” or “Like” button to your campaign. Then with a couple of clicks any subscriber can share your email with their friends or followers. To do this, we’ve introduced two new tags that you can easily add to your existing designs.

Add a “Like” button to your campaign

Just add the following tag anywhere in your email design and we’ll instantly turn that into a working Facebook “Like” button.

<fblike></fblike> turns into

When your subscriber clicks on this button in their email, we’ll load the following lightbox where they can “Like” your campaign and see which of their friends have also liked it. Here’s an example of this in action:

If you don’t want to use the standard “Like” button, just add your own text or image between the tag and we’ll turn that word or image into a link that, when clicked, loads the lightbox like the one above.

Add a tweet button to your campaign

Let your subscribers tweet about your campaigns using the new tag below.

<tweet></tweet> turns into

If your subscriber is a Twitter user, clicking that button takes them straight to a compose window with the tweet pre-populated with your campaign subject and a shortened URL linking to the web version. Here’s how that one looks:

Just like the Facebook Like tag, you can add your own text or images between the tags and that will be used instead of the default tweet button, giving you complete design flexibility.

Sharing made simple for our clients

If we’ve built templates for you, we can easily add permanent “Like” and “Tweet” buttons to them that work for every email newsletter you send. We’ve also made it simple for clients to add their own share links to any campaigns they send using the editor.

Get the word out from within Campaign Monitor

Our new social tags aren’t the only way to get the word out about your latest campaign. You can also share them yourselves right from Campaign Monitor. The report for every email you’ve ever sent now includes a new “Share” button in the top right corner. Here’s how it looks:

Clicking the “Share button” will open the popup where you can share on Twitter or Facebook with a single click.

Whenever that URL is mentioned on Twitter or “Liked” on Facebook, we’ll track the results for you. You and your subscribers can share your campaign any way you like and we’ll handle the rest.

Real-time reporting to bring it all together

While there are lots of different ways to share your campaign, we bring it all together with the new Social Sharing report. This includes who tweeted about your campaign, who liked it on Facebook and who forwarded your email on to friends. Basically, whenever anyone shares your campaign, we’ll show you who it was and how they did it.

The report is broken up into two parts. Up top we’ve got a summary of the activity so far across Twitter, Facebook and email forwards.

Below that is a real-time list that pulls all of this together into a single activity stream. See what people are saying about your campaign on Twitter, who’s sharing on Facebook and which subscribers have forwarded it to their friends.

For each subscriber that tweets, we’ll show you their Twitter avatar and a link to the tweet in question. We also link to the subscriber snapshot and display a gravatar if available for anyone who “Likes” your campaign or forwards it on to friends.

There are loads of other subtle features in this report, but I’ll leave some of them for you to discover once you start sharing. We hope you have fun with this new feature. It’s a brilliant way to learn more about who is sharing your campaigns with the world, and what they’re saying about you in the process.

More about Tribal Eflyer Service

At TribalYell Integrated Branding, we offer everything you need to create and send successful email marketing campaigns. Deliver beautiful emails, manage your subscribers and track your campaign results, all from within your browser!

It’s new, as self serve as you want and it’s free. There is no monthly subscription. You are only charged a small fee per eflier and email in that campaign.  TribalYell Efliers [Beta]

Send beautiful emails

• Build your own campaigns
• We provide a custom template designs
• Choose which customers to target

Great looking reports

• Great looking charts on the results
• See who opened, clicked and forwarded
• Drill down to individual subscribers

Manage your subscribers

• Easily add your own subscribers
• Handles unsubscribes & bounces automatically
• CAN-SPAM compliant

Target specific customers

• Create segments for targeted campaigns
• Segment based on location, interest or
  anything else you store

View the results anywhere

• Mobile friendly version
• Access results from anywhere

No experience required

• Simple interface
• You don’t need to be a ‘coder’

TribalYell Integrated Branding shows you the basic differences between the Index page and the Master Template of a myRealPage Website. MyRealPage is a company that builds websites for real estate which is a highly developed CMS platform, listing engine and mobile search tool all wrapped up into one. Tribalyell helps people brand them, edit them and use them.