Real Estate Blog Lab

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The last post here at the Lab talked about using flickr slide shows to add a collection of large images to a blog post without taking up additional bandwidth or storage space on your hosting account.

But when you do this, because you aren’t hosting the image, it will not be indexed by Google for your site. If you don’t want to give up having your images indexed but you don’t want your blog to load slow because of the size of these images there is a way to have the best of both worlds.

I talked about this once before in Lightbox Your Way to a Quicker Load when I wrote about using the Lightbox plugin to display a small image and when clicking on the small image you can see the larger one.

If we expend that principle we can display a single small image on screen but build links in the post to an entire set of images placed behind the single large image.

Here is the code:

<p><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3045greatroom2.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Great Room”><img src=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3045greatroom2sm.jpg” alt=”greatroom” align=”left” /></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3091mediacenter.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Media center”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3040greatroom1.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Great Room”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3055kitchen.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Kitchen”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3075dnook.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Breakfast Nook”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_2975alivingroom.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Living Room”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_2993blivingroom.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Living Room”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3104pianoroom.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Piano Room”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3001master1.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Master Bedroom”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3007master2.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Master Bedroom Master Bath”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3028%20masterbath.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Master Bath”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3117backpatio.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Covered Back Patio”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3306playarea.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Play Area”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3310apool.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Pebble Tec Pool”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3313fireplace.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Custom Outdoor Fireplace”></a><a href=”http://www.orovalleyhomes4sale.com/Risky/images/DSC_3321front.jpg” rel=”lightbox[risky]” title=”Front View with Catalina Mountains”></a></p>

Here is what it looks like:

Click on the image to see all the images of this property.

There is one reference to the front image but then you just keep chaining background images to the string which builds the set of images going into the hidden slide show using the Lightbox Plugin.

It doesn’t slow the initial post load time and provides you Google indexed links to each of the images referenced in the set.

The best thing, you have very large images, easy for viewing which makes your blog stand out.

Finally, I just discovered that if you are using WP 2.5 the latest version of Lightbox won’t work. You have to run the earlier version 1.7.

If you are running 2.5 and can’t find a copy of 1.7 leave a comment and I’ll email you the zip file. I hope they get the bugs in this fixed soon. For now 1.7 seems to work just fine with 2.5.

There you have it. A quick way to include a set and slide show of large images which reside on your hosting server and will be indexed by Google.

The other day we had clients that said, “The picture on the computer are so small it is hard to get a sense of what the rooms are actually like.”

This is great for listings. It is also great for slide shows like the one I put together in the last post. Flickr or Lightbox, your choice.

So Terry, there you have it : )

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Post Tags: Flickr , images in post , large images , lightbox

Many of you are already have a Flickr account. Did you know you can use your Flickr account to enhance your blog or website?

With a Pro account for $25 a year you can have unlimited uploads and unlimited sets of images. It is easy to upload and manage images and once they are uploaded you can easily organize those images into sets.

There is a slide show option for showing images in a set. When you click that option the set opens a new window with large images for viewing. It displays a URL to the slide show. (I would recommend you upload images at least 1024 X 768) The free account will size them down to this if they are large.

Large Images for your Blog Post

This is a really cool feature for blog posts.

• Take photos of local attraction (building, park, event, listing, issue, etc.)
• Upload the photos to flickr]
• Create a set for those images
• Write your blog post
• Include an image and a link to the slide show of the set

This provides you a way to get really large images on a blog post without sacrificing bandwidth or load time from your own hosting.

It makes your posts more interesting by providing detailed images of the topic.

Here is a quick example of how this works

Cactus in Bloom

All over the Sonoran desert cactus of different size color and varieties are in bloom this spring. They bring a special kind of color to the desert. This image is a pair of buckhorn cholla taken late in the evening. To see more images of cactus in bloom click the flower or the link to: Sonoran Cactus in Bloom.

If you want to try this out you can get a free flickr account. The free account only allows 3 sets to be created, but that’s enough to get you started and test it out.

Bonus Gem: Create your flickr account name something like TucsonAZRealEstate. It appears in the URL for your images.

The only downside to this: Your images aren’t indexed by Google linked to your site. If this is something you don’t want to give up and bandwidth and load times are not an issue there is a way to do it and still not slow down the load time for the blog or post.

You don’t need a flickr account and all the images in the group will be indexed.

I’ll show you how to accomplish this in another post.

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Post Tags: Flickr , flickr account , large images in blog post

I noticed about twenty minutes ago a change in PR being reported in my toolbar.

The Lab has a PR5 (today).  One of my other blogs has moved from 3 to 4 for the home page.

I haven’t checked any of the others yet.

I’ll also be looking at inner pages and posts for changes up or down.

Just thought I’d pass it along.

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Post Tags: Google Page Rank , PR Update

Manage still exists but Options is gone. The Options have been scattered about various places on the Dashboard. Settings, Plugins, Users are now top right. They aren’t on a tab just sitting there to themselves.

Tags, are “Managed” but I’m not sure how or to what purpose. When I click on the tags tab I get pages of nothing. Just blank lines one after another. I should probably read about this somewhere. NO! reading manuals and FAQs are for old farts. Today it is supposed to be click, click, click. Oh, I got it. I destroyed my blog and my content will never be found on the search engines, but then again, I’m just writing about my dream of the giant pimple on my A$$ last night, so no great loss.  However, if you have to contribute than information on your dreams or giant pimples you might want to be a little cautious using the click click click method.

Editing Comments

The edit comments option is no longer visible as an option. Once again we are left to click, click, click to see if the ability to edit comments as been removed. We can approve, unapprove delete, but there is no longer an edit option. However, if you click on the name of the commenter the edit window opens. Another bright idea.

Remove Max Width Plugin

This little plugin is a godsend to anyone that doesn’t want there wordpress admin panel slammed up against the left margin with lots of screen real estate being unused. If you are like me you will want Remove Max Width Plugin.

Plugins Upgrade Automatically

Now I’ve found something about 2.5 I absolutely have fallen in love with beyond any doubt. 2.5 not only lets you know when there are new versions of existing plugins available it give you the option to: Do it the old way by yourself or Upgrade Automatically.

I tested half a dozen Automatic Upgrades Everyone executed the process flawlessly. I have one more to upgrade and I’m hesitant to do so because of all the setup parameters which I have to record before upgrading to make sure the upgrade doesn’t think it knows better than my settings and help change things I don’t want changed.

Wordpress 2.5.1 is out

Seems I took so long writing this post the next version is out.  If you already have 2.5 installed you should install 2.5.1 There are some security issues and the upgrade is easy.  I’ll confess I didn’t disable the plugins.  I just replaced the files and when I logged in it said I had to upgrade the database, which was 1 second long.  So far so good.  Suppose I better post this before version 3.0 is released.

I’m not getting crotchety am I?  Don’t Answer That!

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Post Tags: remove max width plugin , wordpress 2.5.1 , wordpress plugin automatic update

There are plenty of spammers and short cut artist in the net taking a good tool and using it for less than honorable purposes. So why not take a Trolls tool and use it for a good purpose.

Marc Rasmussen made a good point about wanting to put his efforts into commenting where it will do the most good for both the blogger and the commenter.

“I’m one of those guys….kinda. I found your blog through a dofollow search in the new Google beta search. I didn’t really know this existed but a friend of mine showed me.

So now I am writing a comment for a little link juice but I did read your post as well as a few others. Great blog.”

If you are going to read and comment why not do it where there is juice coming to you for providing content to the discussion.

Now before we go too far down this road you should realize that even with a do follow on a blog it doesn’t mean there will be any juice.

• First, the post if new has no juice to give.
• Second, if this post is not indexed there is no juice to give.
• Third, even if it is indexed if it has no PR there is no juice to give.

Therefore, even if you do find a blog with do follow it doesn’t mean you will be getting any juice. At best it is like having an orange (the blog) and you might get a single drop of juice (your comment on an indexed post) at some point in the future. If the post falls out of the index the single drop of juice dries up with it.

Now, once you realize how much work can go into searching for do follow blogs and posts to read and comment on knowing there might be a little juice coming to you in the future but not knowing for how long. Is this really the best place to be putting your SEO efforts?

If you still think it is then why not go ahead and use a tool like Comment Kahuna. I won’t recommend it because:

1. This is software they give “free” that I have to install on my computer. What are they trolling from me that I’m providing them for free?
2. Anyone that thinks it is white hat to use a tool to leave comments just for backlinks are not people I want to provide access to my computer system.

I”m not familiar with the Google Beta Search Marc mentions in his comment. It might be something to check out for me, I would rather spend my efforts in writing more quality content which will bring readers an in turn indexing which puts a lot more juice in my Orange than a single potential drop of juice coming from a comment on a blog I have no control over. Hum, just a thought!

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Post Tags: backlink troll , Do follow , Google-juice , trolling for backlinks

We get busy. It happens. I know because it happens to me. I have a routine I usually go through at the start and the end of the day. It varies little, making sure everything is up and running for the hours I’m shut down.

Sometimes though a piece of that routine gets clipped. Maybe it isn’t checking the hittail search results for a few days. Sometimes it isn’t logging into the Google Webmaster Tools and that is the one I want to encourage you to check daily.

I use a Google sitemap generator plugin which generates a new sitemap with every new post and pings Google. I still manually submit it most of the time, but not always. It had been several days since I had checked the Webmaster Tools and I was surprised when I logged in to find the Lab’s sitemap had ERRORS!.

I had just published a post which would generate a new sitemap so I hand submitted it. A few minutes later it came back with ERRORS and a strong suggestion to verify the sitemap before submitting it again.

I loaded the sitemap file into a browser and it showed errors as well. Rather than try and spend time finding them, which I would if I had too, I went to the plugin option page and hand generated a sitemap. This one validated and I submitted it. In a few minutes it returned a status of OK.

But what if I hadn’t checked. What if my sitemap was sitting out there for weeks or a month and had errors in it. Probably a glitch during the read write. But whatever the cause it isn’t a good thing to overlook.

Sometimes it is the nail in the tire that brings the whole car to a halt.

This is the Monday morning reminder. Put this on your list “Check Google Webmaster Tools” and don’t forget routine maintenance is as important as increasing performance.

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Post Tags: Google Webmaster Tools , routine maintenace , sitemap

Lately, I’ve seen more and more comments coming into the lab and my other RE sites there were obvious to me the post hadn’t been read at all.

Today I ran across this “Free” tool for creating instant great backlinks to your site. The little video created to tell about this “tool” has some obvious mis-statements about how Google works. It also promotes this free tool as white hat. It could be, but more “Grey Hat” in the way it is being promoted.

It is a tool to “Troll” for keywords you want to rank for on blogs. Next you can use this tool to quickly fill in the comment required fields and leave a comment which will bring you wonderful “Google Juice”. The tool will indicate which blogs have no follow turned off. You want those blogs because they provide more juice than the ones with no-follow turned on.

But there is one thing they are not recommending, in fact they seem to blatantly thumb their nose at the idea of “READING THE POST”. Why would you want to read the post. After all you are only commenting to get backlinks.

Until now when I’ve seen comments that were obviously just trying to get backlinks (I knew they hadn’t read the post by the comment) I have dumped them in the spam folder. But not anymore.

Google isn’t the only one who can Black List

From now on any comments I see which are pure trolling for backlinks or it is obvious they have not read the post will have their email Black Listed. All comments will go directly to the trash for disposal.

One little thing they didn’t mention. IF YOUR COMMENT ISN’T APPROVED YOU DON’T GET ANY GOOGLE JUICE.

I would recommend to real estate bloggers.

1. DO NOT USE COMMENT KAHUNA
2. START BLACK LISTING BACKLINK TROLLS
3. START BLACK LISTING PEOPLE WHO COMMENT BUT HAVEN’T READ THE POST
4. CREATE A COMMENT POLICY (I think mine will be in the footer short and sweet)

Don’t Be a Juice Thief

The Google Juice I have is mine to share or give away. Try taking it without permission and you will be locked out.

Setting up a Comment Blacklist

Wordpress 2.5 Settings, Discussions

Before 2.5 Options, Discussions

Near the bottom of the page you will find “Comment Blacklist”

I’ve only used this for a couple of people in the past that seemed only have a four letter vocabulary, but I’m not afraid to put a black list into use.

Once again I find myself quoting my 5th grade science teacher.  “A Word to the wise is sufficient”

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Post Tags: Backlink Trolls , Comment Kahuna , Google Juice Thief

Don’t know where to go to find keywords or specifically what keywords to target? Like Zillow.

Personally, I’m not one for eating Dog. But if it is a dog eat dog world out there then here is a tool to make eating dog a little more palatable.

SEODIGGER.COM This isn’t what this tool was designed for, but to me it sucks at what it says it is supposed to be doing. (It is in beta and if you are willing to pay money I’m sure it will be better, eventually). (Okay, it doesn’t suck, it is a neat tool or it will be when it grows up someday).

What does it do? You key in your URL and it will tell you what your site is ranking for and the position. It also shows you the desirability of that keyword from KW and OT. Don’t ask me what they stand for, ask them, they are the ones that assume everyone knows what KW and OT stands for.

Here for me is the catch. The rankings are three weeks or more behind, History, Out of here, Old News, Yesterdays fish papers. You get the idea.

I don’t need this tool to tell me where I was three weeks ago. I’m not driving down the internet highway looking in the rear view mirror. I hope you aren’t either.

How would I use this tool (again if I were in to eating Dog that is)?

I would enter my competitors url’s in here and find out what keyword phrases they are ranking for and go after the ones I wanted.

If I were starting a new site in a location and didn’t know what keywords to target. I would do some searches see who pops up and run the top sites through SEO Digger. It makes more sense to me to drive forward and look in the other guys rear view mirror.

That’s what I would do if I were into eating Dog (which I’m not).

Finally,

I know what KW and OT stand for but if anyone wants to showoff express their knowledge of the two please feel free to share.

Zillow has nothing to do with SEODigger and Zillow has nothing to do with this post, but if I don’t mention Zillow at least one more time I won’t have any chance whatsoever of getting on the short list.

I hope I don’t sound crabby or out of sorts. I just did my taxes for 2007 right before writing this post. Anyone having an Aha! moment?

Tomorrow will be a better day can you SEODigger it? If you are eating dog please don’t mention it in polite company. And have a nice day, LIKE I CARE!

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Post Tags: Dog eat Dog , keyword suggestions , SEODigger.com , the short list , zillow

Here’s the deal Neal, if your name is Neal I’ll apologize up front.

Moderation is turned on for all first time comments at the blog lab.

Once you have achieved a level of trust your comments will post as soon as you submit them. Unless they have more than two active links in them, that puts them back in moderation.

The Do Follow plugin is active and the Lab is on a list of blogs that have the do follow plugin in place.

Unfortunately, there are some sniffing out the do follow and thinking these are good sites to salt a few comments around to get some link juice back to their site.

Not at the Lab.

• “Nice Post”,
• “Great Information”,
• “Cool Stuff”,
• “This is a really great post and I know many agents are too busy to write their own post so why not visit my site at #$^&(^(*&().com and we can do that for you”

Which some of you might notice was the one that gave birth to the “Don’t Be A Blog John” post.

None of these comments will every see the light of the Lab. There will always be those wanting to take the quick road. But here it will lead you to a statistic in Askimet.

SEO the Link Text fine but not here

Yeah someone came up with the bright idea to put keywords in the link text. There are lots of places I do this as well. BUT NOT IN THE COMMENT NAME FIELD.

Any comments I find with this going on get the name changed. I’ll do my best to find the name of the commenter and replace it. Sometimes they still slip though, but if I find them I will change them. Please use your own name or handle.

WHY?

• Its my blog : ) Just wanted to throw that one in.
• I want to comment back to a person, not “Peoria Real Estate” (as an example)
• I’m already giving a link back with Do Follow (DON’T GET GREEDY)

None of us like greedy seller, or greedy buyers. Some times we hate working in Real Estate (LIKE MOST DAYS ANYMORE).

Then why turn around and want more more more. I won’t turn Do Follow off. But I will seriously consider canning the whole comment if I don’t see a name in the name field and the comment adds nothing to the discussion.

When I see a comment with an SEO Real Estate name it makes me wonder if the comment is genuine or just an attempt at an SEO Shortcut.

Newbies get more of a break. I was one once, and I got plenty of breaks when I did something out of ignorance and not design. And yes, we know who you are : )

Finally, sometimes you will see a comment like those I’ve mentioned above. Either I haven’t found it yet, or the commenter was in such a hurry to leave the comment and write another they didn’t put in a valid URL to their site.

Sometimes I leave those. Hey, we take our humor where we can get it.

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Post Tags: comment moderation , comment spam , do-follow-plugin , SEO Shortcut

Please, please, please, if you have a blog be a blogger, but don’t have a blog and pay someone to blog for you. It will hurt you more than anything else because in the end you will appear to be a phony.

Your blog needs a voice. YOUR VOICE

Blogging isn’t like any other kind of real estate marketing. If you have a great business card that draws attraction you have made a smart decision. If you have paid a web programmer to build you a great web site. Again a good business decision. But a blog, by it’s very nature is different, it is personal, it is to have character, your character. If you blog as part of a community it is no different now it is a community character being developed of which you are one part of the voice. Try and have a blog and hire someone to do the blogging for you comes off as unprofessional. It is like hiring someone to write your term papers for you in college. Some things you should do yourself or not do them at all. YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE A BLOG.

You don’t have to have a blog, You don’t have to have a blog. There are many many very successful real estate agents that don’t even know what a blog is or what it means. You don’t have to have a blog to be a successful real estate agent.

Don’t be a Blog John

Don’t pay someone to write your content for you. Don’t provide this level of disservice to your readers. They want to connect with you not someone you hired to write content so you could get a “Lead”.

Look at this from an inside the industry blogging approach. What would everyone think if I set up an “Active Rain” account then hired people to wrote posts there for me.

Would you see that as a good business decision or would you see that as something else. What kind of impression do you think I would make on the Active Rain Community?

There are companies out there prostituting themselves claiming for a fee they will write your local blog content for you. If you have never blogged and you don’t know what a blog is but you want one then let me tell you something you should know.

When people read your blog they expect:

• That you wrote the content
• That you are knowledgeable about the content

What do you think the impression will be the first time you get an email, or better yet a phone call from someone wanting to talk to you about your post from this morning and you don’t have a clue what they are talking about. What kind of impression is that going to make on this “Lead”/potential client.

If you don’t like to write, if you don’t have the time to blog then don’t blog.

Don’t muddy the waters on what real estate blogging is all about. It is about transparency, it is about communication, it is about your local community and why people would want to live there. It is about taking pride and interest in the place you live and work and sharing your professional and personal insights. IT IS NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE ABOUT GETTING YOU “LEADS”.

If you have a blog as described above it won’t get you leads and you will help destroy a great marketing tool for real estate bloggers. More than that you will hurt yourself, your integrity, and your business.

If you have a blog or are thinking about having a blog then be a blogger, but don’t be a Blog John.

Check Out “The Art of Blogging: Business or Pleasure” for more insight into this topic.

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Post Tags: blog john , Blog voice , real estate blogger , Real Estate Blogging