Archive for January, 2007

Momma Said Knock You Out

Published
by
Chris McKeever
on January 31, 2007
in Ask a Tech, Projects, Reviews and Tools
. 2 Comments

Microsoft’s new operating system in close to 5 years has finally arrived! If you felt a tiny bit of sarcasm in there, you probably aren’t that far off. Vista, or as those in the know called it ‘Longhorn’, hit the shelves yesterday - or for those die hards at 12:01 Monday Night (or is that Tuesday Morning, I never can tell - I usually just say the next day starts when I wake up).

I really do not have much to say about Vista, I haven’t used it, let alone seen it in action. I do usually follow two commandments when upgrading any piece of software.

  • Is it really needed for the cost, and can my machine even handle it
  • For Operating Systems: WFTFSP

So what is WFTFSP. It is simply ‘Wait for the first Service Pack’. Why pioneer? Although, it seems that Mr. Gates has caught onto this golden rule, so they are already preparing a service pack.

Let me reiterate, if a service pack is already in the works - why not wait? I’d wait anyway even if it wasn’t already planned. This waiting period will give you time to see others trials and tribulations, and get a feel if it is even needed, and more importantly, if your computer will handle it. The last thing you want to do is force yourself into a hardware upgrade by buying software you didn’t really need.

Enjoy, and keep those pot handles turned in!

Update: Maybe this Decision Flowchart will help.

Burnination

Published
by
Keith Garner
on January 26, 2007
in Internet
. 4 Comments

trogdor.pngA few months ago, a few of the guys from FeedBurner stopped by to talk with the Realtor.org team. I sat in on it as I had heard a lot about FeedBurner and I didn’t know what they offered. If you’re unfamiliar with them, I’ll just quote them from their site:

FeedBurner is the leading provider of media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds. Our Web-based tools help bloggers, podcasters and commercial publishers promote, deliver and profit from their content on the Web.

For the purposes of CRT’s blog, FeedBurner does some analysis of who is reading our RSS feeds, what articles clicked through on, and what RSS reader they are using. They also simplify subscribing for the potential RSS reading user, add “flair” like “Digg This” and “add to del.icio.us” to posts, and have the ability to mix in other RSS feeds such as your del.icio.us tags. They have a bunch of other services that include helping with advertising on your feed and some podcast tweaking that we have played with. Recently they’ve unveiled some site stats that we’re also experimenting with.

I turned on FeedBurner about a month ago so we could have some data to talk about. As of a few minutes ago, we have 116 subscribers to the RSS feed. By their analysis, most of those who read our blog via the RSS feed are doing so via on-line RSS readers/aggregators such as Netvibes, NewsGator, or Bloglines. Of course, there are some other readers, such as Google, who don’t report how many users they are pulling from, so that is a know skew of the numbers. However, it was a bit suprising to me that over 60% of our blog subscribers are reading this way. People reading RSS via an application (like I do using Vienna on my MacBook Pro) are clearly in the minority.

Another service that FeedBurner provides is the ability to have people subscribe to your blog via e-mail. On a daily basis, new blog posts will be e-mailed to those who subscribe. On the top of our blog you’ll see a link to our “subscribe” page which is a form to sign up for the e-mail delivery of CRT’s blog. Without having mentioned it, we already have 5 subscribers. It’ll be interesting to see if the numbers change now that I’ve talked about it.

We’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg with our FeedBurner usage on CRT’s site. All the services I’ve mentioned are services they provide for free to most people. There are a bunch more free services we haven’t played with as well as some for-pay services that do more analysis. Its worth the time to check it out if you want to do some more tracking on your blogging.

Peripheral Marketing

Published
by
Chris McKeever
on January 25, 2007
in Ask a Tech, Internet and Tools
. 0 Comments

A recent conversation about online marketing with Mark stirred up a continuing discussion that I had in a previous life while at Prudential - Chicago. This same topic also got thrown around during one of the breakout sessions at the Executive Luncheon of the New Castle Board, which I attended yesterday.

Before I begin, keep this tucked in the back of your mind; When is the last time you really saw that ad at the top of your web-based email and it caused a call-to-action for you?

In my strong, yet humble, opinion, I feel that by the time a consumer gets to a place that they can search for properties (classifieds, aggregator, portal, etc) the opportunity for effective marketing has diminished. Simply because they have already found a place to search. Unless your marketing piece can prove to them that your search is better, they are going to stay where they landed. They are in search mode, probably not ‘pick an agent’ mode, Yet. Also, lets face it - the general internet user has almost grown numb to banner ads on a site, especially when they have already deemed a site to meet their current needs (flashback: web-email question), in this case searching for properties.

Mark made a metaphor that you can hang your hat on (paraphrased due to RAM allocation), ‘That would be like driving down REALTOR® Row and being faced with a dozen agents jumping up and down to get your attention.’ There is no tell-tale way to stand out at that point, its sensory overload created by a large amount of energy (budget) expenditure. So, if that isn’t the most efficitve place to advertise, where does one advertise?

Continue reading ‘Peripheral Marketing’

Useful Online Applications

Published
by
Ian Smith
on January 16, 2007
in General
. 9 Comments
google_calendar.jpg

 CRT started using Google’s free online calendar when it became apparent that we needed to be aware of others’ schedules but we all used different calendaring applications. Google calendar allows users of MS Outlook,Yahoo! Calendar and Apple iCal to import their events easily. With it people can still use applications they're comfortable with yet participate in a group calendar.

Google Calendar is an online application. It has much of the functionality found in calendars that are part of back office software suites but requires no administration. Each user adds events and manages their own calendar. One main benefit is that there is no software to install, any computer with a browser and an internet connection can access the calendar.

One downside is that Google offers no guaranty, your data could be lost. fortunately it can be backed up by exporting your events to the applications listed above- Outlook, etc. I suggest this be done on a regular basis if users update the calendar often.

Google Calendar was just what we needed in CRT to help us keep orginized. It doesn't cost anything and allows users to keep in touch remotely.

Here's how to get started.

Continue reading ‘Useful Online Applications’

RETS Renewed

Published
by
Chris McKeever
on January 11, 2007
in Announcements, Articles, Conferences, MLS and Projects
. 3 Comments

RETS, the Real Estate Transaction Standard, has been in active development for over 8 years signaling the industry’s, as well as the National Association of REALTORS®, vision to simplify data access of Real Estate listing information. Although RETS intended effect on the industry is apparent on many levels, its impact on it has only started. However, over the past 6 months, RETS has seen a major transition in every aspect of its development - ranging from leadership down to the aesthetics of the website. This marks its transition from infancy to adolescence.

Continue reading ‘RETS Renewed’

Radically re-thinking “Lead Management”

Published
by
Mark Lesswing
on January 3, 2007
in Articles, General and Internet
. 4 Comments

trust.jpgI have been away from the blog for a while now due to a personal intellectual battle.  It is the kind of thinking that tears you up; lots of "what ifs" and assumption challenging. 

Most REALTORS® working with the web wrestle with a problem called Lead Management.  They ask themselves "What can I do to improve the number of eyeballs on my site?".  To many, this means implementing an intricate (even complex) array of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and E-Mail campaigns to attract attention to their site.  These elements even show up in the relatively new blog strategies. 

Continue reading ‘Radically re-thinking “Lead Management”’