Archive for Content – Sites/Blogs
I was on ActiveRain recently and saw Tim Maitski displayed as a featured member. He was billed as the “Video Agent Guy”, and I wondered what that meant. So, I visited his ActiveRain profile. Tim is branding himself as the Video Agent Guy for several reasons.
For one thing, he has a website called VirtualBuyersAgent.com. He sells himself as the agent who will do a video tour of any home a buyer is interested in and displays it on a web page just for that buyer.
For another thing, he has a website called VideoAgentGuy.com. That real estate website is a blog that Tim uses as a video blog. He tapes videos while he’s driving around Atlanta and posts them on this blog.
You need to remember that Tim lives in Atlanta, and given the traffic situation, I know he probably spends quite a bit of time in the car – perhaps even stuck in traffic.
Take a look at that video blog. The first thing you will notice is that each blog post contains a video and a summary of the video content. He’s doing the right thing from the perspective that the summary will be used by the search engines, and it’s also useful for people who don’t want to spend the time watching the video.
What do you think? It’s a very unique approach. To do something like this, you’d need to be very comfortable talking on camera. You’d need to find a way to rig the camera in the car. And, you’d need to be sure you could talk and drive at the same time. Tim seems to do quite well doing both.
On one hand, it does make good use out of the time you spend in the car. On the other hand, I’m not sure I wouldn’t kill myself. Would you do something like this?
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This is just a quick tip because something came up in a discussion today and I thought others might benefit.
A client was saying that he wished he could compose his blog posts in Word, but whenever he did that, the posts looked funny once he copied them to his blog.
This gets back to the rule about never copying from Word directly into any Internet vehicle. You remember that one, right? If not, here’s the scoop.
When you copy something from Word, there is underlying code that is copied with the content. You don’t see the code, but it’s there. Sometimes a blog or website platform will try to interpret that Word code by asking you to copy the content into a special window. However, I’ve found that things don’t really work out exactly the way I want it.
The bottom line is that the cleanest way to add content to a website or blog is to add just the raw content, then use the tools in the editor where the content is going to format the text.
The way you end up with just the raw content is to copy from Word to a text editor like Notepad. Then, copy from Notepad to your blog or website. Why does that work? Because a primitive text editor like Notepad doesn’t understand formatting code, so it strips the code away and you’re left with just the text.
Once you have the raw text in the editor of your website or blog, use the editor there to bold, add bullet points, etc. Your content will look just like you want it to.
If you do format in Word so you know how the content will look, you need to know about bullets and numbered lists. While the underlying code for lists is stripped away, Notepad doesn’t remove the actual bullets or numbers.
So, when I’m copying from Word, I will:
- Save the document with the Word formatting intact
- Remove any bullets or numbers
- Copy the content
- Paste the content into Notepad
- Close the document in Word without saving the changes
That way, I have raw content to copy to Notepad, but the document itself is still intact in its Word version.
Any other tips for dealing with transferring content from one medium to another??
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Get the GreatSchools.net Info Widget
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It’s been a while since I posted anything about school information. But, you can review the information on this blog about GreatSchools.net cobranding. The cobranding opportunity allows you to keep visitors on your website while they review detailed school information.
If you’re not familiar with GreatSchools.net, I think you’ll find it to be a very good school resource.
- GreatSchools.net lists a wide variety of schools in most places — not only public schools, but a large number of private schools, also.
- You’ll find Parent Reviews, information on Test Scores, Teachers, Spending per Pupil, and District Overviews.
- The Compare feature is also very helpful for people relocating – it allows the visitor to compare area schools based on several criteria such as Test Scores.
I recently discovered that GreatSchools.net has developed a widget that you can place on your website. Learn more about the school widget.
While the widget does open a new window directly to the GreatSchools.net website, it is free! And, since the site focuses on schools, you won’t find advertisements from other real estate agents. So, I’m more comfortable with this widget vs one that doesn’t do much more than give your competition some exposure.
Give it a try. Let us know how you like it!
Help Me Help You
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In an effort to make this blog as relevant to your needs as possible,
I’d like to know what’s on your mind.
In the right column, you’ll see this image:
And, below that, there’s a link to ask a question or suggest a topic for a future blog post. You can choose to have your name and a link to your website in the “answer post”, or you can remain anonymous.
So, what’s driving you crazy these days?
Drop me a line and I’ll let you know when a post concerning the issue you raise is being published!
As you may know, there’s a category on this blog called Content Sites/Blogs. You’ll find it in the menu just under the header image. If you’re wondering what types of information or tools you can add to your website or blog, checking that category will give you lots of ideas.
I recently came across a site called HousingWidgets.com, and it is a great addition to the Content category.
The site has evidently been around quite a while – the copyright is 2007 – but, it’s not been that visible on the Internet as far as I’ve seen. There’s also an indication that Trulia is responsible for creating and maintaining the site.
There are a wide range of widgets that are useful for real estate sites or blogs. Though, the first thing I think about when considering downloading something from the Internet is security. I didn’t see anything on the site indicating that someone evaluated the widgets that were contributed, and I wouldn’t automatically assume that everything on the site works well just because Trulia is involved.
So, my suggestion would be that you certainly take advantage of the site, but take a look at the profile for the person who uploaded a widget you’re interested in. If the profile looks hinky, I would think twice.
And, if you do use one of the widgets, take a moment to go back to the site and rate it. If you find something that works well, or one that doesn’t really do the job, let your fellow agents know!
