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REBlogWorld Lab Rats Connect
2009-09-15 21:26:00
Connecting with Lab Rats at REBlogWorld Is your blog taking off ? I’m going to REBlogWorld again this year.  (Oh you didn’t notice the BIG BADGE, Sign-up discounts and Twitter stream) I’m on a panel about Hyperlocal blogging with some other great RE Bloggers.  But there is more to REBlogWorld than just the speakers, sessions, and panels.  There is a lot of hall time as well to chat and learn and be around some of the most knowledgeable people in the world of Blogging and Social Media. Monetizing my blogs isn’t something that interests me as a RE Blogger.  I know a lot of the people attending the Blog World conference are there to learn more about how they can make money blogging.  As an RE Blogger I use our blogs as marketing and educational tools for buyers and sellers of real estate.  I’m not looking to monetize the blogs. This leaves me with some time during the regular conference.  I like going to the vendor section but you can only go throug...
More About: Connect

The Wapple Mobile Plugin
2009-09-05 15:51:00
A Holiday Weekend Toy for RE Blog Geeks I don’t make this stuff up, honest.  It is the wapple, not to be confused with the Whopper from Burger King or the one from WarGames. It has nothing to do with Apple even though there is a W in front of it.  This isn’t short for turning your Wordpress blog into an Apple  transforming it into a Wapple. The Holiday Weekend Good RE Blog Geeks have a hard time with holiday weekends.  It throws off our schedules.  We don’t live normal lives, so when a holiday weekend comes along there is more emotional trauma than relief.  In an effort the minimize the effects of this trauma I’ve found it beneficial to have something to provide a distraction.  A project, something to focus on, something to geek over for a few days, that’s just the ticket. Wapple Mobile Plugin The wapple is the perfect project.  It has lots of options on the setup screen, it does require a mobile device to check and view your changes and modific...

Keep Spam 100% off your blog
2009-09-04 20:00:00
The Trifecta to keep Spam 100% off your blog This week I’ve had emails or comments from two bloggers that are spending time and money removing spam comments or trying to prevent them in the future. I have 6 main blogs and at least 20 all together. I’ve never had a spam comment make it live on any of my blogs. Maybe I’m lucky, or maybe it is the way I have them setup. Here are the three things I have in place which have kept my sites safe from spam. Settings. Discussions. Moderate comments.The first three comments anyone leaves go to moderation (you can set this to any number you want). And I get an email for approval. Once I approve 3 comments their comments will be posted automatically (I still get an email of the comment)  This way I trap a lot of people leaving spam comments like “Nice Blog , keep up the good work”.  They are looking for a link back because the Lab (all my sites) are do follow blogs. Use Askimet plugin to trap spam. This traps 9...

Wibiya Toolbar Support – Get Satisfaction I’m not Satisified
2009-09-03 22:17:00
Be careful what you say to Get Satisfaction Tech Support I’m more than thrilled with the Wibiya toolbar. I’m not thrilled with the way the tech support and documentation is set up. But yesterday I was really taken aback when I found a question I had submitted to tech support at Get Satisfaction had been indexed by Google. What the Heck. Why are my tech questions even being submitted to Google for indexing? It works like this, when you want to submit a question to tech support you end up setting up a profile on a site called Get Satisfaction.  You submit your questions and suggestions through this site. I submitted one question and got a fairly quick response but it wasn’t accurate.  Along with “Why would you want to do that?”  Why would anyone want to fix a typo or correct a broken link?  Gee  I don’t know? I was also told in a response that I could “do that from the Dashboard”.  No you can’t do that from the dashboard.Â...
More About: Toolbar

The Wibiya Toolbar
2009-09-01 20:45:00
You might have been seeing the toolbar at the bottom of the Lab showing up on a variety of blogs and websites lately.  It is a beta application with the catchy name Wibiya.  You can apply for a beta invite by clicking on the toolbar itself which will take you to their site.  I got my invite a couple of days after applying. Here are a few things you should know. It is beta, there might be a few issues (but none I’ve seen so far that are deal breakers or site breakers for that matter) You can only have it on one site per email.  If you want to put it on two or more sites you have to have an account with a separate email address for each.  (I have gmail accounts for each of my sites) There is no documentation other than an online forum style of question and answer, nothing you can download and read In order to submit questions you have to join an online forum service and setup an account. When submitting a question you will be asked a “touchy feely” how do you f...
More About: Toolbar

More things you can do with Simple Sidebar Navigation
2009-08-27 03:23:00
Simple Sidebar Navigation Take Your Sidebar off the tracks There are so many ways you can use this plugin. The one I employ on most of my blogs is the section for the simple top navigation. But if you want to create truly dynamic sidebars this plugin (with some thought to layout) this will do just about anything you ask it to when it comes to creating custom sidebars. Take a look at Kristal Kraft’s Denver Dwellings site.  She uses this plugin and you will find so many variations of sidebars configurations that I wouldn’t recommend even trying to count them.  They are all done with this plugin.  And she has the Advanced text widget to handle a couple other tasks also  written by Max Chirkov. Kristal has a theme with two sidebars which means the variations available to her are something she has to have  a database to track.  I’m not kidding, (yes I am). If you want to create  custom sidebar configurations for your blog.  These two plugins will do the heavy ...
More About: Simple , Things

Pied Piper Icons in Your Sidebar
2009-08-26 01:37:00
Follow Me, Follow Me It is an aberration of what Donkey said in Shrek.  But it is what many are wanting to have on their blogs to increase those that follow them on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  It is like collection friends (I guess).  You can do this straight or with a sense of humor, it is up to you. This post is the result of an email I received this morning inquiring about a plugin to do this: “Scott wrote: Hi Dave, Do you have a recommendation for a plugin/widget I can use in my right column that has a “Follow me on” then has a logo of twitter, facebook, RSS symbol, etc?  Do you know if there is a specific plugin for that or is that more custom?  Thanks in advance.” The Sociable plugin is kind of what Scott is wanting but I have a feeling Not Really. It isn’t very hard to do this for your sidebar.  Here is what you need for this project: The images for your logo/icon The link for your social site (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) A Text Widget t...
More About: Icons , Sidebar , Piper

Mobile, Mobile, Mobile Theme
2009-08-03 20:26:00
Mobile, I said it months ago, I’m saying it again. The more I browse with the berry, the more I’m finding so many sites with theme’s and code that don’t play well on a mobile device. Get a Mobile Plugin I started with Mobile Press but have moved to Alex King’s WP Mobile Edition Plugin. It is a two step plugin: 1. install the plugin 2. install the carrington mobile theme in your theme directory. But once it is installed your site will load lile a rocket from a mobile device. New Theme Check Mobile You did it, you got a new theme for your site. It is pretty and the eye candy is fantastic. Have you looked at it from a mobile device? I was working on a site recently that looked great on a PC, but from a mobile device a graphic in the layout that looked good on a monitor became a dark strip right down through the middle of the post content. It was nearly impossible to even read the content. Not only that, but some theme code will put the header, sideba...
More About: Mobile

Custom Post Template Plugin
2009-08-02 00:14:00
Really Big Picture of a Copper Leafed Tree I installed and tried a couple different custom post template plugins.  This one actually works quite well.  I don’t know if it is the name Custom Post Template that does it or not.  I do know that since WP 2.8 there are quite a few plugins that have stopped function.  Some that still do function have “issues”. This one, while not stated as 2.8 ready, appears to be functioning quite nicely. Custom Page Templates Custom page templates are handled by the native code inside WordPress.  It is easy to create a page template and call it when you want it.  They are found with a little header code as I mentioned in the previous post.  But Post Templates are not a part of WP as of 2.8, maybe we will see this in 2.9, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.  Why?  Because you still have to know how to create the template, not just call it. And each template page or post has to be tailored for your theme.  There is no generic t...
More About: Plugin

Dump the Sidebar Go Wide
2009-07-26 02:54:00
Another IDX Solution I wrote a couple of months ago about IDX Iframes Don’t have to break your theme In that post we learned how you can use a lightbox effect to open an IDX solution with your blog in the background.  For those of us using lightbox plugins it is simple.  But if you aren’t using a lot of photos on you site you might not have a lightbox plugin already installed. There are some that simply won’t like the look of the lightbox effect.  I don’t know why anyone would prefer to have the theme broken but . . . Today, let’s talk about another solution. Create your own Page Template There are a lot of tutorial on how to create a page template.  I’m only going to talk about it briefly here.  I’ve found them pretty easy to create and setup on several of my blogs.  One specifically for the IDX Solution which would fit if I didn’t have the sidebar on the page. Easy enough, create a Page Template that didn’t include the si...
More About: Wide , Sidebar

Launching A New Theme
2008-06-09 03:46:00
There are any number of reasons you want or need a new theme for your blog. Some themes limit functionality and some are not easy to upgrade or customize. The reason for change isn't as important as the process you go through to successfully change the theme of your blog.
More About: Theme

Disqus your Comments
2008-05-31 00:20:00
I went to the Disqus website and created an account and set up two blogs and installed the Wordpress plugin here at the lab. Then I got to thinking before I clicked remove all comments, just what does that mean remove all comments? Therefore I made a strategic decision, this Lab experiment would be done on one of my lab rats and not on the lab itself.
More About: Comments , Twitter

Rotating Header Images
2008-05-29 07:28:00
Keeping things fresh, adding new content and providing a little eye candy in the process makes coming to your blog an interesting experience.
More About: Images , Header , Rotating

Google PR Update Appearing
2008-04-29 02:24:00
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 ...
More About: Google , Update

Trolling for Links vs Being a Backlink Troll
2008-04-22 21:42:00
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 Troll s tool and use it for a good purpose. Marc Rasmassun made a good point about wanting to put his efforts into commenting where it will ...
More About: Links

Check Your Google Webmaster Tools Often
2008-04-21 19:47:00
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 ...
More About: Google , Tools , Webmaster Tools , Webmaster , Check

Comment Kahuna Great Way to be Banned
2008-04-20 05:59:00
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 ...
More About: Great , Comment , Banned

Don?t Be A Real Estate Blog John
2008-04-04 21:25:00
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.
More About: A Real Estate , Estate , Real Estate , Blog , John

Control Key Plus Scroll Equal BIGGER Text
2008-04-04 02:24:00
Late to the Party, are you kidding me, for most of my life I didn't even know there was a party.
More About: Text , Equal , Control

Hyper Local Target Marketing with Images
2008-03-11 21:03:00
If you don't take picture and aren't interested in Photography keep reading. The principle I'm going to talk about has a wider application than just photography. However, if you have or want to start a Hyper Local Real Estate Blog I would recommend you get a camera and start taking pictures of what is going on in your community.
More About: Marketing , Images , Flickr , Target

Hyper Local Target Marketing Driving Traffic or Herding It
2008-03-10 01:41:00
Traffic Addiction Deprogramming What is your market? WHAT is your MARKET? WHAT IS YOUR MARKET? Yes, I'm shouting at you to break the spell or Traffic Addiction. You can not target your market if you have not defined your market.
More About: Marketing , Traffic , Driving , Local , Target

Splogs A Rite of Passage
2008-02-29 02:58:00
When I first started blogging about 18 months ago I heard the term "splog" from time to time in a rather derogatory manner. I had no idea what splogging and scrapping were all about. Then I heard the term "Content Thieves" now that made sense.

Google Content Analysis Tool
2008-02-29 01:01:00
I was in my Google Webmaster Tool s yesterday clicking around as the PR update continues to make its way from data center to data center. I've often found a correlation between PR updates and "New Google Toys" to play with in the Webmaster Tools. Content Analysis with emphasis on Meta Tags and more.
More About: Google Webmaster Tools

PicLens One Sweet Add on for Your Browser
2008-02-20 04:39:00
PicLens is hard to describe until you try it and once you do you will never look at images the same way again. You can't use it to view all images (YET) but we can only hope. It works with IE 6+ Firefox (Windows and Mac) or Safari browsers. It works with Google Images, Flickr, Yahoo, and more.
More About: Sweet , Browser

Kicking a New Post to the Top of the Search Engines
2008-02-03 16:53:00
You can in some cases get a post that isn't indexed found in search engine results. Is that cool or what!
More About: Search Engines , Post , Search , Engines , Kicking

Google Sitemap Stats
2008-01-31 17:42:00
Google went away from the supplemental indexing or at least from reporting the supplemental results. Which left some of us wondering what might be going on. Personally I like having everything in the index or at least most pages and post are doing better these days.
More About: Google , Sitemap , Google Webmaster Tools , Stats , Google Sitemap

My Blog Log - Goes Yahoo Gray
2008-01-30 19:21:00
MyBlog Log was purchased recently by Yahoo . I thought okay no big deal, till I had to log into my account and start making changes, like they didn't know what my avatar is so I have to create a new one. Like I can link to my Yahoo account if I want to, etc. etc.
More About: Gray , Yahoo!

Restore your WordPress Database From Mysql 4 to Mysql 5
2008-01-30 02:26:00
Is your blog showing its age. Was it created with mysql 4.0 or earlier? Then you know what it is like to click and wait and click and wait to do anything. Follow these simple none destructive steps and you can turbo charge your blog and bring it into the present century and learn how to backup and restore your MYSQL database while you are at it.
More About: Wordpress , Database , Mysql , Restore

IE 7 fonts on Firefox and ALL OF YOUR APPLICATIONS!
2008-01-19 21:13:00
The last post here at the Lab was about the font legibility on IE 7 vs Firefox . I looked and looked to find a way to make them as bold and easy to read on FF as on IE 7 to no avail. But now I have a solution and you can get this same ...
More About: Applications , Fonts

Firefox and IE 7 Display
2008-01-14 19:29:00
I’ve waited for a very long time to update IE to version 7.  Our local MLS software was not compatible with IE 7 when it first came out.  I recently checked again to see if any of the recent work they have done on the software changed this.  It is now functional with IE 7 ...
More About: Firefox , Display