A little while ago, myRealPage added an automatic “Retweet” button to its blogging support. Today, we are adding a new Facebook Share button. Very much like the “Retweet” button, Facebook Share button can be esily enabled by a simple checkbox in the Blog Weblet settings: no further configuration or copy-and-paste of any code necessary.

(To enable the Facebook Share button, simply select a checkbox in your Blog Weblet settings):

Thanks to Tiffany Cloud [@TiffanyCloud] of http://cloudhomes.com/ for asking for this feature.

-- Brought to you by myRealPage.com

MyRealPage has opened up its platform to allow other blogging software to talk to your blogs which you host with MyRealPage websites. This is a very exciting and powerful feature which may lead you to look at blogging through an entirely different light.

In a hurry? Then watch this video to get a quick taste of what this is:

If you had blogged in the past, you would probably agree that most standard web based blogging editors leave much to be desired. Be it Blogger, WordPress, and yes, MyRealPage built-in blog editors: they are all a far cry from using software like Microsoft Word, or even Google Docs; or OpenOffice. The interesting thing is that there are a slew of blog editing software out there, many freeware, like Windows LiveWriter and FireScribe, that do a much better job with blog authoring ( I found this interesting list: http://mashable.com/2007/10/22/10-desktop-blog-editors/ ). And now you can use most of them to edit MyRealPage blogs! Why get so excited if you could already do this with the built-in editor? You see: 3rd party blog editors have many, many more features that are typically available with even well-recognized built-in blogging software. For example Windows LiveWriter ( http://download.live.com/writer ) can let you:

• Apply special effects to your photos, tilt them, add Polaroid effect, shadows
• Create and publish Photo Albums, integrate with Flickr and others 
• Quickly insert Maps and Videos
• Cross publish to Twitter, Facebook and many others
• Edit your blogs offline (on a plane, for example) and publish when you reconnect to the internet
• Add a multitude of plugins to extend and personalize your blogging experience
• and much, much more…

In addition, this new feature will allow other websites, like http://hipcast.com to automatically publish your podcasts and videos to your MyRealPage blog.

So how do you connect a 3rd party blog editor to your MyRealPage blog? Conceptually, it’s similar to connecting an Outlook or Thunderbird to your mail. You need to create an “account” and configure it with some parameters. We will publish a stand-alone HOWTO on this, but here is a little sneak peak to get you going.

THE INFORMATION BELOW HAS BEEN UPDATED on June 25, 2010:

Simply use this information:

Your Blog URL: http://[your-website.com]/blog.html

Your username: Your Private Office Username

Your password: Your Private Office Password

(Note: if you have created a custom blog page with a specific blog, use that page if you want to connect your editor to that blog)

For other online services, like HipCast, you can use this URL: http://[your-website.com]/xmlrpc

I would like to extend a special thank you to Bo Kauffman of http://winnipeghomefinder.com/ who seeded the idea for this feature. Thanks Bo! I hope your HipCast account works as expected now. If you have a suggestion or comment, post it here to send it to us at support-at-myrealpage.com.

(Oh, and by the way, I have authored this post with Windows LiveWriter! :) )

Brought to you by myRealPage.com

• Testimonials
• Awards
• Reports
• Links
• Snippets (the new addition)

1. You have a feed-enabled page, such as your Testimonials page, Awards, Reports, or your special custom page with the Snippets weblet (that contains favorite quotes, for example); OR you have your own listings, office listings, or predefined public searches.
2. You add a "News Weblet" to the page where you would like to "feature" your content and connect the "News Weblet" to the feed-enabled page or listings in step 1.

Blogging is a great online tool to promote the dynamic nature of your website, offer your opinion on a subject of your choice, be heard! If you offer interesting content, your web visitors will come back for more, search engines will favor you, and you will get the satisfaction of having an audience!

• Create Unlimited blogs, Unlimited postings and publish them on Unlimited number of pages
• Allow comments to be posted by web visitors; invite feedback, stay connected to your visitors
• Stop automatic "spambots" from posting annoying ads in your comments (that "goobly-goo" text image that you need to re-type before you post, it's called CAPTCHA, and that's what it's for!)
• Filter and approve comments to prevent manual spam or abusive content from making its way into your blog comments
• Syndicate your blogs by offering an RSS feed to web visitors
• Ping back well known blog aggregators, including custom ones that recognize blog pings
• Save and publish your blogs later, only after you review them; unpublish postings if needed
• Provide full archive links, blog category links, and links to other blogs you may have
• Oh, and yes, it's included in your standard package at no extra charge. Enjoy!

Great, but what about Automatic Listing Blogs? Well, in addition to the above, this is what you can do now:

• "Opt in" to have MyRealPage automatically monitor your listing activity nightly and publish all or any of the following changes: New Listings, Sold Listings, and Open Houses.
• Remember that, in many markets, MyRealPage listings are brought in from your MLS Board automatically, so this becomes a fully automated process: no ongoing input from you is required
• Customize and personalize your Automatic Blogs by editing the templates, including adding images, in order to promote your specialty and brand
• Create automatic blogs "manually" if you would like them generated "right now!" or for your older listings; or experiment with the templates...
• Listing location and neighborhood information will show up in your Blog Navigation, thus linking your Automatic Blogs to Neighborhood keywords (this is good for search engines)
• Include these automatic postings into your main blog so that they show up alongside your manual postings, or dedicate individual page or pages to the automatic blogs
• Oh, and yes, it's included in your standard package at no extra charge. Enjoy!