Hassle-Free Way to Find Home Improvement Contractors
By Carl Martens | April 29, 2008
Wouldn’t it be nice if when you had a home improvement need pre-screened and recommended contractors came to you willing and able to serve you? This isn’t a dream, it’s reality!
I bought my first home back in December. The house has an in ground swimming pool in the back. The only experience I’ve ever had maintaining a swimming pool was in college when we used Jell-O packets to “maintain” our pool. I had no idea what needed to be done in order to get the pool up and running.
I decided to search the internet, I Googled, “roswell pool service” which brought me to a landing page for ServiceMagic (although I didn’t realize this at the time). I called the number provided on the site and the receptionist answered identifying she was with ServiceMagic…I was a bit confused…I thought I was calling a vendor directly. She informed me of their service and how it works; she’ll put my information into their database and then contact three pre-screened service providers on my behalf who would then call me. Not even a minute after I got off the phone I received a call from the first vendor…he ended up referring me to someone else because my pool had a vinyl liner and was not already filled. Upon hanging up with this vendor I noticed a voice mail I had received from another vendor.
…to make a long story short, the vendor that left the voice mail got my business, he came out the very next day! Unfortunately, the weight of the filled pool resulted in the rip of my old and weathered liner…the good news, installed this vendor is going to charge me less than $1,900 for a new liner, accessories, and the install!
The next time you are in need of a vendor, give ServiceMagic a try…it really works like magic.
On a side note…does sex appeal help with online blog marketing???
Disclaimer: The pool-boy pictured has no affiliation with ServiceMagic or any of its affiliates.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
How to Hyperlink to a Listing (other than your own)
By Carl Martens | April 25, 2008
Sarah Boone emailed me with a great question. She wanted to start an email campaign and send to a distribution list of about 100 (if it were more than this I’d suggest using iContact to prevent being flagged as a spammer) advertising a particular listing or listing(s). When you want to advertise a listing that isn’t your’s you don’t want to send your client (or future client) to a competitors website…do you? No. If it were your own listing you’d just send them to the URL of the listing on your website using a hyperlink to that listing’s URL. So what do you do when you want to link to a listing that isn’t yours???
Insert an image into an email message and hyperlink to the buyer report following the steps detailed below:
First off, it is good practice that if you are using someone’s listing for marketing purposes, such as sending to a distribution list on your own email stationary or e-newsletter that you get permission from the listing agent.
Once you have permission to use the listing, login to 1st Connection, locate the property you’d like to use by entering in the search criteria.
You should arrive at the following screen:
Select the listing that you are interested in by checking the box associated to that listing (notice I checked box 2)
Now click on the button below labeled, “E-mail Listing(s)”
If you were sending to just one person you could send direct from here, but it would not include your personal email stationary or e-newsletter template (which is what Sarah wanted to do)
Send the email to yourself, include a subject (”jkjdkajkd” will do just fine)
Click on the link that says, “Buyer Full Page”
The URL for the newly opened internet browser window is what you want to use for your hyperlink. Copy and Paste this URL into the hyperlink field of whatever editor you are using.
Topics: E-mail Concepts, Grab Bag, HTML, Internet Marketing, Widgets & Plugins | No Comments »
How to Create a Gravatar in 10 Easy Steps
By Carl Martens | April 24, 2008
I see that some of you have already figured out how to setup a “My Blog Log” profile and wanted to encourage people to setup a “Gravatar” (globally recognized avatar) as well to help put a face to your comments. A Gravatar will display your photo on any site that you leave a comment on that is using the Gravatar plugin. I suggest using either a photo of yourself or your company logo…keep this consistent with any profile image you setup (ActiveRain, MySpace, Facebook, MyBlogLog, etc.)…doing this will help create your brand recognition on the internet.
1. Go to www.gravatar.com
2. Click “Sign up now!”
3. Enter in the SAME email address that you used to post your comment on this site and click signup
4. Go to your email’s inbox and locate the confirmation email and activate your account
5. Enter the SAME email address again, give yourself a nickname (all lowercase…I usually first name plus lastname, no spaces and include middle initial if need be), and enter a password
6. Add a picture of yourself (avatar) by clicking on the link “Add one by clicking here!“,
7. Locate the image file you’d like to use from your computer’s harddrive, the world wide web, or Wordpress (I suggest getting the image from your computer’s harddrive)
8. Crop the image, this can be achieved by moving the slider that is located below the image
9. Choose a rating
10. Select (by clicking on) the photo you want to use as your Gravatar and click Confirm
You’re done!
Topics: Widgets & Plugins | No Comments »
SoftRealty Gets FMLS Approval!
By Carl Martens | April 23, 2008
The title says it all folks…SoftRealty’s FREE IDX service is now fromally approved as a participant in the “FMLSweb Approved Data Vendor (ADV) program! At 4:01PM SoftRealty’s founders David Carroll and Douglas Hurst received word of the great news. We are looking forward to using these guys and I suggest everyone gives them a serious look.
More to come later!
Topics: IDX Service | No Comments »
Great Web Resource for Real Estate Agents: Fulton County GIS
By Carl Martens | April 23, 2008
What does GIS stand for? Geographic Information System. The Fulton County GIS is a collaborate effort of the GIS staffs of the government of Fulton County, Georgia…and the website ROCKS!
The Fulton County GIS website allows for visitors to use interactive mapping software to produce map screen shots depicting; elevation contours and labels, 100-year and 500-year flood plains, steep slopes, lakes and ponds, and much more! Now when a client asks if a house is on a steep hill or in a flood plain you can use this site to not only answer correctly, but also produce an image (by right clicking your mouse and selecting “save image as…”) that you can then send to your client that will really impress them.
I have saved some screen shots of my house, 580 Creekwood Crossing E in Roswell below…great news, in 500 years my property might be considered waterfront…I knew it was a good long-term investment!
Click on an image below for a larger more detailed view
Parcel view
Parcel view with elevation contours and labels
2007 Ariel view with 500-yr flood plain (in red)
Topics: Technology | No Comments »
