We are very thrilled to publicly release the first beta version of our IDX and Listings WordPress plugin. This plugin is designed to give your WordPress blog or website the full power of myRealPage Listing solution, including support for Reciprocity (public searches*), Virtual Office Website (VOW*), Predefined Searches* for your niche listing pages, and much more.The plugin is specifically designed to inline the listing content inside your WordPress pages in order to make it fully visible to search engine crawlers and make it SEO friendly. We have taken special care to generate descriptive dynamic titles for pages that you don’t directly control, such as Listing Details pages into which your visitors will navigate by browsing listing.
Currently, the plugin provides IDX WordPress integration in select regions in Canada and the US, including: Greater Vancouver area, Edmonton and Calgary areas, Saskatchewan, Victoria, Vancouver Island, San Diego, Greater Phoenix area in Arizona, Chicago and some others (call us for full details: 1-866-512-3876 or drop us a line to support@myrealpage.com)
myRealPage WordPress plugin utilizes the power of WordPress “shortcodes”: special placeholders which are dynamically turned into useful content by the WordPress rendering engine. Our plugin comes bundled with a very flexible and powerful Listing Shortcode Wizard which will help you create all sorts of listing configurations, including functional and visual options, such as custom width for the listing content, basic color theme, custom sort order, and much more. The Listing Shortcode Wizard also includes a Preview button to make sure you got your configuration right.
Use the Shortcode Wizard to include such listing content as:
Your and your office listings, including your listings optionally split by status and custom defined categories, as well as combined with other hand-picked listings
Any predefined search, on its own or combined with hand picked listings
A number of hand-picked listings which you can look up in Shortcode Wizard by MLS® numbers
An individual listing, including specifically details, photo, video or map view (great for building single property websites)
A standard or custom configured search form
We have also bundled out-of-the-box support for twentyten theme which comes as the default theme in new WordPress versions, as well as Thesis 1.8 theme which appears to be one of the more popular ones out there. If you are CSS-savvy or work with a designer or developer, you can also adapt this plugin to work with other themes: read more on our technical blog.
Recently we have added a couple of cool features to our Virtual Office Website (VOW) product, such as “Login with Facebook” and “Login with Google”. Today, we are adding the ability for your web visitors to also sign up and login with their Yahoo ID.
Why Yahoo? Well, it so happens, that Yahoo Mail boasts in excess of 250,000,000 accounts! Now, combine that with the likelihood of your visitors having a Facebook account (over 500,000,000 registered users) or Gmail account (over 90,000,000) and it becomes very likely that these signup and login shortcuts may prove very useful to your potential leads. And, as is commonly recognized, the easier it is to signup and login on your website, the more likely your visitors may end up doing just that.
Enabling the Yahoo link is very easy:
Let us know what you think: post your comments here or send us an email to feedback@myrealpage.com. We would love to hear from you!
We have published a few new features and updates that we wanted you to know about. We have posted full releases on our tech blog. Here are quick links for you:
MyRealPage plug-and-play listings for WordPress, Blogger, Point2Agent, Joomla, Drupal, or any other website. Pop it in like a YouTube video: simple as that!
MyRealPage has taken its entire Listings and IDX product and condensed it into a series of embeddable code snippets, much like YouTube videos. And much like YouTube videos, you can now simply embed any section of your Listings with MyRealPage into any page on your website hosted on WordPress, Point2Agent, Blogger, Joomla, Drupal, or any other: Read the full story on MyRealPage Tech Blog.
UPDATE: Blackberry version of this application has entered development. Read details here.
MyRealPage has launched a very exciting new feature: geo-location aware property searches on iPhone and Android-based phones. Last week, iPhone OS 3.0 has been released and iPhone 3GS has shipped. Just before that, Android "Cupcake" version has been released and HTC Magic launched. Hot on the heels of these events, MyRealPage releases mobile search designed for iPhone and Android based phones (such as HTC Dream and Magic). This is a very new and exciting application space for MyRealPage! We decided to deliver a fully featured set of HTML5 mobile tools that would include both useful search tools for your clients as well as powerful lead generation opportunities.
The new mobile application is now in beta and available for public use. While in beta, the mobile search will be available FOR FREE to all current subscribers who have a Listings subscription (including Listings-only subscribers). Even though an extraordinary amount of attention has been paid to details in this application, we expect that it will evolve and change through the beta period.
Here is a quick list of what you can do in this application:
Automatically locate yourself via GPS and see all available listings for sale in up to 1km radius around you
Have the application "follow" you by updating your position and nearby listings as you walk or drive
Drag the map to pan around and see the nearby listings automatically searched for you
Manually override your current location by entering the address of your choice
Login into your Virtual Office Website (VOW) account to see and do more
See full details of each individual listing, including all photos
Email listings to family and friends
Inquire about the listing with the agent/team/broker
"Star" the listing for later review through the Virtual Office Website (VOW) account
Sign up for a Virtual Office Website (VOW) account
Make a phone call and/or send a SMS message directly from the contact forms
We have also included a special request form for your web visitors to have the mobile link sent to their phones. The link to this form is currently located at the bottom of your property search forms. (And yes, it is capable of generating and auto-creating leads for you just like all other listing forms from MyRealPage).
We hope you and your clients will enjoy and have fun using this application!
MyRealPage has overhauled all of its Virtual Office Website (VOW) forms and made the whole VOW signup "choreography" a great deal simpler. The motivation behind the update was to make the signup and login process for the Virtual Office Website (VOW) as easy and fun to use, as possible. The new forms have been brought in line with the new "lightbox" look-and-feel and appear in-place in the webpage without the need to navigate to a separate place to login or signup. It is now possible to complete the entire signup process without leaving one page. A considerable amount of attention was paid to ensure that the web user was given the most expected user interface interaction and the easiest path to become a member.
Besides the visual and functional overhaul of the VOW forms, they were also tightly weaved into the public search pages (Reciprocity). In fact, it is now possible to structure the entire website without having a separate "Members Only" link but rather advertise all signup paths via public searches. The "Members Only" link can still be used for regions where Reciprocity is not allowed by the local Real Estate Board, or if the website owner chooses to "lock down" listing search access and make it available to registered users only.
The VOW forms not only sport a new fun look-and-feel, but also provide an in-depth functionality; such as, among other:
In-place lightbox effect with animations; their focus makes the signup and login flow very intuitive
Fully automated password recovery system
Fully automated signup process with the option to verify account via an email link or in-place
Tight integration with saving searches while not logged in or signed up
Tight integration with all "lead-in" links that invite a web visitor to become a member, such as "Add to Favorites"; the web visitor will never need to navigate away from their current page
Fully automated account expiry extension system
Intuitively presented options for the user in case of the account being unverified, locked, or expired
Helpful support of logged in VOW users when they try to use other listing forms, such as "Listing Inquiry" or "Email Listing": they don't need to enter image verification codes and their personal info is pre-filled.
We hope you and your web visitors will enjoy the new forms. This functionality will benefit all current MyRealPage subscribers, as well as "Listings Only" customers.
Continuing with the focus on enhancing lead generation and usability of its Listings System, MyRealPage updated its Virtual Office Website (VOW) Toolbar and Listing Favorite Toolbar with a new look and enhanced functionality. The updates were designed to boost the usability of the Listing Tools, as well as maximize their potential to generate web leads for our website owners.
MyRealPage has been a long-term provider of Virtual Office Website (VOW) solutions for real estate agents, teams and brokers in both Canada and the United States. Most notably, as part of all MyRealPage website packages (where regionally available) and stand-alone listing subscriptions, our customers' web visitors can:
Sign up to become members of the Virtual Office Website
Save their searches, edit them at will, based on a variety of search forms; from graphical Google Map based "draw-and-search" to traditional text-oriented forms
Choose to be notified about changes in the search properties, such as price changes, new listings, etc.
Bookmark interesting listings, add comments, rate and categorize listings
These tools are now made visible in public searches in all listing pages. When selected, they will invite web visitor to sign up or login, providing an easy conversion path for an anonymous user to become a well-qualified lead and a potential real-estate client.
We hope you and your web visitors will enjoy the new and improved look and feel of the Listings Tools. These updates are provided to all MyRealPage website users with Virtual Office Website features (where regionally available), as well as "listings-only" subscribers.
Maintaining the focus on making your web listing searches and tools be the best they can be in generating well-qualified leads, MyRealPage updated its Listings system to bring Virtual Office Website (VOW) signups and logins closer to your listing searches and forms which are open to general public.
Traditionally, in regions where the Real Estate Board rules allow both Reciprocity and Virtual Office Website (VOW) programs, the promise of fuller, more up-to-date information, as well as a host of online tools to organize and save searches and favorite listings; be notified of market changes in saved searches, etc; provide a sufficient incentive for your web visitors to sign up for Virtual Office Website (VOW) access. By cultivating such signups, you cultivate your leads and turn them into clients and more business.
Now, MyRealPage listings pages include VOW toolbar in both Reciprocity and VOW pages, so your visitors don't need to navigate into special sections of your website to obtain VOW access: they can get it right in Reciprocity pages, including all your Predefined Searches which you publish through Reciprocity. By bringing the VOW toolbar, signup and login closer to where anonymous access to your listing searches occurs, MyRealPage brings the potential leads closer to you.
New Search forms for Greater Vancouver, Northern BC and Fraser Valley
MyRealPage has released a number of new search forms targetting Greater Vancouver, Nothern BC and Fraser Valley areas. In particular, MyRealPage has added a "Simple" search form for all three regions which provides simple traditional search controls for those that prefer such an interface to "rich" map oriented searches. In addition, Google Map Search forms have been packaged for Northern BC and Fraser Valley. As is the case with all search forms that are available by MyRealPage, all of them can be used to save searches and create Predefined Searches.
The new updates are provided to all MyRealPage customers subscribed to its Listing solution at no extra cost.
You can now register custom domain names which can be pointed to different parts of your website.
For example: "www.gowithjaneqagent.com" can be pointed to go to "www.janeqagent.com/signup.html" or "www.janeqagent.com/special.html". This new feature provides additional flexibility and promotes search engine ranking based on the words included in your domain name. You can find this feature under "Website" section in your Private Office.
Control your page flow after user login
You can now specify in your login weblet what page your website user will be shown upon successful login. For example, the user can be shown a Virtual Office Website page (if such product is available in your region). This configuration option is available in the "Login Weblet" configuration screen.
Pre-defined searches
You, as an agent, may specialize in certain kinds of properties and you may want to advertise these via a link or simply by allowing your users to quickly jump to the listings which are your specialty, for example "High End Condos", "Downtown Lofts", etc. You can now capture these specialized listings into one or more "Pre-Defined Searches".
You can construct the search using any of our currently available search forms and save it under a name of your choice. Each such search will also have an associated URL which can be attached to a custom button, link or an image on your website. Now you can have listings automatically displaying anywhere you want on your website based on a building address, price range, area or property type.
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