1. Calmly – Writing App

When I write blogs, I typically use a notepad program before publishing to my WordPress website. I find it easier to focus using the plain, no frills, no distraction approach of the simple notepad.
That is until I stumbled across this online writing tool: Calmly. Calmly is professional text editor that is so inviting to just WRITE.
You can format content, add images, save your work, etc. But it’s the simple writing interface that me won over.
Check it out – maybe it’s a match for your blogging needs as well. https://calmlywriter.com

2. HemingwayApp – Readability Tool

If you are concerned with the “readability” of your blog posts, then this is a great desktop app for you.
The HemingwayApp grades your readability on a grade scale of 1 to 24 (higher is worse). Then it highlights the text in your post that it recognizes as troublesome. It even offers suggestions and solutions for your writing.
I don’t use it. But it does seem useful enough to recommend. http://www.hemingwayapp.com/
(Edit: I just used it to clean up this post a little. Worked like a charm)

3. IrfanView – Image Editor

I have been using this light-weight image editor for 20 years.
It is fast, and easy once you get a hang of using keyboard shortcuts (instead of mousing through the menus).
I use it to resize, crop, and optimize every image I publish. http://www.irfanview.com/

4. CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer

I think I have a pretty good handle on writing headlines that get clicked. But it’s always good to get critiqued and get some additional advice on how to improve.
It’s simple – just paste (or type) in your headline and this app spits out a thorough analysis of your effort.
I used it to see how it works… but haven’t relied on it since. I could see it being useful to new bloggers that want to make sure their headlines are effective. http://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer

5. Piktochart – Infographic App

I recently posted about the undeniable effectiveness of infographics in social media.
This free tool has a ton of bells and whistles to create stunning and informative infographics. There’s a bit of learning curve, and making a nice infographic is a time investment, but it is nice to have a tool like this to work with.
Typically I use Photoshop for my graphic design work, but I am impressed with this tool and plan to give it a try for my next Infographic. https://piktochart.com/

6. Canva – Graphic Design for Dummies

Love this tool.
It makes graphic design fun, easy, and successful for those who don’t use Photoshop, and don’t have a lot of time.
Basically, if you want to say something with graphic design and get it shared onto your blog, or in your social media sphere, you need to try Canva. http://canva.com

The post 6 Real Estate Blogging Tools and Gadgets Worth Considering appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Those huge photos on your website are driving away your visitors.

Creating a strong first-impression-emotion in your audience is a great strategy to keep visitors on your site. But when that first-impression-emotion is annoyance your bounce-rate will skyrocket.
The current trend is to use large, full-width, high-impact images to create emotion in your visitor. But improper use these images are killing your website.
I see it everywhere. Click to visit… wait, and wait for the top of a site to load.

Expect that 7 seconds is the very longest your new visitors will wait for a page to load. For repeat visitors it is a little longer at 10 seconds. But both of these load speeds are unacceptable; you should be impressing your audience in the first 3 seconds, no excuse.
Google states that it takes load speeds* into account with their SERPs Ranking.
Granted, there are many factors that can slow your site (server speed, coding, plugins, redirects, etc.) but as a casual website owner, it is the improper use of larger images that you can quickly overcome and avoid.

How To Optimize Images On Your Website.

Let’s take a common scenario just to illustrate how effective the following steps can be.
Here is a standard photo taken with an iphone.
When you click on the image, you will notice how large it is (actual dimension is 4032px by 3024px). The largest, common resolution dimension of monitors today is 1920 x 1080. That image is 200% larger than your largest common monitor is going to display.
The image also comes in at 4.3mb (its file size).
The average size of a webpage in 2016 is 2.5mb
That means the image I have uploaded is 172% larger than the average webpage!
The fastest sites are loading less than 2mb, total.
If I were to use this image, as is, it would crush loading speeds. And yet, it’s common to see sites using multiple images of this size on a page.
So what can we do about it?

• Resize
• Reduce
• Optimize

For resizing and reducing, I use a tool called IrfanView. But you can use just about any image editing tool to get similar results.
The file size is governed by 3 things. The dimension, the resolution (dots per inch, or DPI), and the stored data (everything from a time-stamp to camera type depending on the file type).

Resize (or crop)

First thing, let’s bring the dimensions of the image down to your optimal size.
If the image is intended to be full width, then it doesn’t need to be wider than 2000px (Remember: The largest, common resolution dimension of monitors today is 1920 x 1080). If the image is meant to be placed within content, then consider how wide it needs to be, and crop it to that exact size. This is always going to be less than 1000px. The computer image at the top of this article is just 700px.

Reduce DPI

The web doesn’t demand high DPI levels like print does. 72 is standard, and you can even get it down to 60 DPI if you don’t mind the image a little less than crisp.
Here you can see those settings
Just those 2 adjustments above have brought the image down from 4.3 mbs to 954kbs (22% of the original). Cropping it a more sensible height (750px) reduces it further to 549kb (13% of the original)

Optimize/Compress

And finally, by running the image through a file optimizer, I am able to strip the unneeded photo data bringing the final file size down to 499kb. (11.6% of the original)

I use a desktop tool called FileOptimizer but there are less intimidating image optimizers/compressors that you can use online like the following:
jpegmini.com
compressor.io
optimizilla.com
499kb is still a big file to have on a webpage, but after running some speed tests, it looks to load at around 0.2 seconds. So, that’s certainly acceptable, especially if you are hoping to get your visitor’s attention with a high-imact image. As a comparison, the original image was loading at 1.1 seconds.

What if I have a website full of over-sized images?

The last thing you want to have to do is go through your entire website, and resize, reduce, optimize, and replace dozens and dozens of images.
If you are using WordPress, you’re in luck.
There are at least 2 plugins that will make things easier for you.
Ewww Image Optimizer
Imsanity
Why we love them:
These plugins automatically resize new uploads and library images to a reasonable size. This is ideal for users who don’t want (or understand how) to scale images before uploading.
Imgix is another amazing option (that works with or without WordPress).
What Imgix does is like magic. Upload any image size you like, and this service displays an optimized, resized, version of that image dynamically adjusted for any device. When your site loads on a desktop, a desktop appropriate image size is displayed. But when your site is loaded on a mobile device, Imgix loads a different version of your images that is appropriate for mobile. It’s amazing.
*Note this is a paid subscription service.

Very important note about IDX Listing Images.

You should also be sure to use this same approach to optimizing images for the listings you input in the MLS.
When you showcase your “Featured Listings” on your website, through your IDX program, it displays the images as they were uploaded to the MLS. You are going to suffer the same load speed challenges with these images on your website as you would with images directly uploaded to the website.
^{*Google is deliberately vague as to which particular aspect of page speed impacts search ranking – but I think it is safe to assume that if your site’s content is not quick to display, it is not satisfying Google’s aim of getting their results in front of their users as quickly as possible.}

The post Large Images Are Killing Your Real Estate Website appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

During some of our blogging/social media webinars, we have been known to give honest, first impression reviews of websites submitted by our attendees.  No punches are pulled and the feedback is often direct and unfiltered. I’m sure some feelings are bruised, but they are asking for an honest assessment and we give it to them.  The feedback we have gotten from attendees on the website reviews has been overwhelmingly positive.
I bring this up because of all the common infractions we see in the real estate blogs submitted for review, the lack of imagery in the articles is most apparent.
There are many elements to developing blog content that gets read, but arguably the most important (after the headline) is the inclusion of interesting imagery.
Most online readers need an instant connection and continuous stimulation (eye candy) in order to gain and maintain their interest.  Leveraging an image (or 2 or more) to enhance your message can mean the difference between a 5 second glance and a 3 minute read of your content.
Here are some sound tips and tools for finding, editing, enhancing, and inserting images.

Where Do You Find Great Images For Your Blog Articles?

The wrong answer is Google images.
You must resist stealing, borrowing, improperly and/or ignorantly using images on your site.  Regardless of how easy it is, how little the odds are that you’ll get caught, or whether you knew your were illegally using the images or not, it is still against the law.  The penalty for getting caught illegally using just a single image can cost you of 1000s of dollars.  Here are a few articles to scare you straight.
In fact, there’s a browser plugin called TinEye that allows you to do a  reverse image search, exposing other uses of an image on the internet.  It’s amazing.

The Most Sound Resource Should Be Your Own Camera.

Every real estate agent should know their way around a camera and keep one in the car.  Taking better than average photographs of property is an essential skill.  Now apply this to the world about which you are blogging.  Our regular guest author Teresa Boardman personally snapped the majority of the images she uses in her blogging.

Browse Affordable Stock Image Websites

At around $1 an image you can’t go wrong or broke selecting images from millions of quality images.
Here are a few of my favorites:
123RF.com
iStockPhoto.com
VectorStock.com
EveryStockPhoto.com
BigStockPhoto.com
DreamsTime.com
Fotolia
In addition to the pay-per-picture options above, Stock.xchng is a great library (400,000+) of free stock images. (continue reading below for more free image resources) Please note: Not all  of the images presented in their database are free.  The results of searches provide both free and premium results.
The premium results require a financial investment.
Disclaimer: Use images from all of the above services at your own risk.
There are detailed restrictions, rights, usage options and licenses for every image your download from these services.  Read each carefully in order to understand your rights.  I specifically suggested the above because as far as I understand, once purchased, you have the right to use them in your online marketing efforts, including blog articles as long as they are not used for pornographic or unlawful purposes such as spreading hate, discrimination, or defamation.

The Little Known Creative Commons Option

The Creative Commons Copyright License allows the work (in this case, image) to be taken advantage of as Reusable Material.
The work is still owned by the individual creator, however it may be freely reused without the creator’s permission according to the terms of a CC Copyright license.
In most cases a simple attribution (“Photo by Artist Name and a link to their website if possible) to the original author of the work is all that is required for it’s lawful use.
Again, you must not violate the terms of use as disclaimed above, and double check the license of each and every image you consider reusing. If you want to be super secure in your use of an image, you can always email the author to ensure your lawful use.
Preferred Creative Commons Databases:
Wylio (Awesome CC Search – Hat tip Bill Wilson)
Wikimedia (your rights to use images)
Flickr Creative Commons (Attribution License)

Expired Copyrights & Public Domain Images

Images in the public domain got there because they either had no copyright, it expired or it was released to the PD by the original author.
Currently, for images that were published before 1923 in the United States, their copyrights are expired and free to use in a medium such as your real estate blog.
Here is great list of Free To Use Public Domain images:
StockXchng (over 400,000 images)
TotallyFreeImages.com (~500,000 images)
PublicDomainPictures.net (over 10,000 free images)
StockVault.net (Over 20,000 images)
Photos8.com (over 12,000 free images)
Sunipix.com (over 10,000 images)
FreeStockPhotos.biz (over 10,000 images)
PDPhoto.org (1000s of images)
Bestphotos.us (1000s of images)
CopyrightExpired.com (large collection of illustrations from popular sources pre-1923)
HistoryPicks.com (Large database of free to use historical photos and illustrations, pre-1923)

Fair Use of Copyrighted Works

The biggest concern that I have with people using copyrighted works and claiming “fair use” is that fair use is actually determined on a case by case basis.
My suggestion is that if you are unsure as to whether or not you are protected under a “fair use” scenario then you should avoid using the work for fear of subjecting yourself to legal challenges.
Some Examples of Fair Use
Parody
Criticism
News Reporting/Commentary
Teaching
So it seems, that if you are making fun of, criticizing, reporting on, or teaching about something that would be enhanced with a copyrighted work, then you are protected by fair use.
For example, I could include the logos of any of the services/websites/tools that I have mentioned in the article because I am teaching and providing commentary on them.  Or, if a real estate company just launched a new iPhone application, I could use both iphone and the real estate company’s logos or product images as a reporter of the news.  And finally, if I wanted to photoshop an image in such a way that I am parodying the work then I am also (potentially) protected.
There are so many grey areas and stipulations, however, when it comes to being protected under the fair use law that I recommend further reading, or complete avoidance.

Asking Permission of the Photographer or Artist.

Coming across the perfect image doesn’t always happen in the stock image databases.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t legally use it. Being granted permission is sometimes as easy as a quick email or phone call to the artist.  I would expect an attribution requirement at a minimum, but for the perfect image it could just be worth the effort.

Clip Art, If You Must

To me, most clip art cheapens a blog article.  But if you want to poke around and look for that exception, feel free using this list of Public Domain (free) clip art databases:
ClipArt-History.com
http://www.PDClipArt.org
http://www.OpenClipArt.org
http://www.WPClipArt.com
In case you missed it above, I must stress that you are responsible for the lawful usage of any images you find online.  I have tried to provide you with excellent resources for affordable and free images to use in your blogging, but I can’t be certain that all images you find are indeed licensed in a manner that permits you to do so.  Use these services and images at your own risk.

Image Editing for Your Real Estate Blog – My Favorite Tools

Cropping, resizing, flipping, colorizing, brightening, framing, etc. need to be easy in order for most to take the time to do it.
The following list are the free tools we use and train our clients to use.
IrfanView (Funny name, amazingly easy and versatile desktop program.)
Photoshop Online (takes some practice, but it is crazy good – online editor)
Pixer.us (easy and basic online editor)
PicMonkey (robust online editor)
If you are a dedicated blogger, I highly recommend becoming familiar with these types of programs.  When your blog articles are the first impression received of your business online, it only makes sense to put your best foot forward.  Styling images to look great and fit within your articles is crucial.

Watermarking Images – Protect Your Art

Just because you are careful not to use work without proper licensing, doesn’t mean that others are as moral and law-abiding.   Tastefully watermarking your unique images can help protect you from theft and reinforce that you are in fact the artist as well as the author!
Using either the Photoshop Online or the PicMonkey applications you can easily add tasteful watermarks to your images in seconds.  Your first attempt may take you a few minutes to navigate through, but you’ll get the hang of it quickly.
The steps are easy.
1. Visit application of choice.
2. Upload image
3. Navigate to “Create” on PicMonkey or “Decorate” in Photoshop Online.
4. Select Text
5. Choose a location, font, color and size.
6. Adjust “Fade” (PicMonkey) or “Opacity” (PSO) to preference.
7. Save and Done.

How To Properly Add Images To Your Blog Articles

One of the other immediately recognized challenges we saw during our “first impression reviews” was the poor placement of images within blog articles.
Common examples of this challenge are:
Images are too small
There is no breathing room between the image and the text
Text is not being ‘wrapped around’ the image
Poor placement choice of image within the text area
The images are placed ‘below the scroll’
Less obvious challenges are:
No descriptive ‘alt title’ or image name added
Lack of a border around image
Failing to use the image as a Call To Action that links

Basic Suggestions for Placement of Images in Your Blog Articles.

1. Place your first image toward the beginning of the article.
I generally place mine above the first paragraph, but I also really like when the image is placed to the right side of the paragraph.
Placing the image in the upper part of the article guarantees that it will be noticed and you’ll gain the desired effect of including the image in the first place; it helps tell the story.
In order to get the image level/even with the first line of text (which I think looks very clean) you need to place the image before the first letter of the first word in the first paragraph.  From here you use the image formatting tools to align it to the right.  This will allow the words to wrap around the image that now sits to the far right of the container.
Similar to the first image, the rest of your article images should either be formatted to fit at the beginning of paragraphs (or similar break in text) OR placed between paragraphs in the case where you have a wide horizontal image.
2. Advanced Editing options make images look more professionally placed.
In WordPress, after you have an imaged located in your article, you can access the advanced options by clicking the image and selecting the Edit Image icon (tiny landscape).  At the top of the interface that appears select the option for Advanced Settings.  From here you can add a Border (I regularly use “1” to add a 1 pixel thin black line around the image) and Horizontal Space (I usually use “10” to give my images a 10 pixel empty space of padding from the article text).
3. Don’t be afraid to use large images and please stop using tiny images.
If you have selected images that are worth displaying, then showcase them properly.  Determine a common size that looks great in your articles and stick with that for most of your images.  Go bigger if the story is the image.  But little images just look like a cheesy afterthought without much consideration for their impact.
4. Name your images something that is relevant to the article.
Far too often I see images named something like IMG_1024.jpg.  The only way that image will be found in a Google Search is if someone happens to be searching by image number.  By simply changing the name to something more appropriate such as “6 Shipman Rd” (given it is a picture of a house) you can almost guarantee front page exposure. Consider the context and keywords of the article and use those.  There’s no excuse, it’s too easy to not be doing this.
5. When appropriate, link the image to something of value.
Generally, If something that attracts attention is clickable (within an article) it gets clicked.  Use your images as Calls To Action to related articles, categories, home searches, galleries, etc.  You’ve got the audience, now lead them where you want them to go.

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post The Essentials For Using Images In Your Real Estate Blog appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Photo Editing For Real Estate Blogs Couldn’t Be Simpler

By Teresa Boardman
Nothing dresses up a blog post like a photo, especially on real estate blogs.  Our readers really like to see some real estate when they stop by.
Most photos need some editing before they can be published on the internet.  They need to be lightened up a bit and made smaller, and it doesn’t hurt to sharpen them and tweak the contrast a bit, and crop them as needed.
Some of the photo editing software is pretty expensive and not all that easy to use.  I have been using picnik (http://www.picnik.com) for much of my photo editing  It is free but I am using the $25 a year premium version because I am worth it. Although the free version works well for photo editing, it is missing some of the cool photo effects, fonts and frames.
Picnik is on the internet and does not require any software download; just upload the photos and edit them online.  I can put frames around them, write on them and or apply photo effects.  When I am done I can save them in the perfect size and resolution for my blog.
The site is very easy to use, and many of the “automatic fixes” work just fine. Once a photo is edited it can be saved to Flickr, Facebook, blogger and several other sites. They can also be saved on my hard drive.  Another really cool option is that photos that are currently in your Flickr account can be edited using Picnik and then saved back into Flickr
Teresa Boardman is an exceptionally professional Realtor in the St. Paul, Minnesota area.
Her website: www.TBoardman.com
Her blog: www.StPaulRealEstateBLOG.com
Voice: 651-216-4603
Thank you Teresa.
As always, it’s a pleasure having you ‘on the Vine’.

The post Photo Editing For Real Estate Blogs Couldn’t Be Simpler – PicNik appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Jason Benesch, our resident twenty-something, distracted by something he stumbled across online, looks to paint the picture for what Realtors’ future clients are bound to ‘look’ like.
The message is clear, this maturing generation of First Time Home Buyer’s is not enticed by the “Old School.”

Beam Me Up, Jimmy

By Jason Benesch, Tomato’s Director of Technology.
As I watched this video on Web 2.0 and the shifts occurring online, it made me wonder what it was like before the telephone was invented.  You mean I had to write someone a letter; with a pen (or was it a quill?)?!?!   Once the video had ended, I quickly switched windows (control + tab) over to my iChat with my head still beating to the rhythm of the hypnotic techno that was playing over the screen cast.  I wanted to show Jim the video that had just inspired me with a million Web 3.0 ideas.   After waiting for maybe ten seconds without a response, my 21st century patience soon grew tired and I decided to email him.   He was not at his computer, but I knew that if I emailed him, his Treo (which he sleeps with) would go off and he would get my message.  While I waited for his response, I decided that I liked that song so much that I wanted to buy it.  Control tab over to iTunes where I can click on the store, power search for the artist, and have a one-click purchase for $0.99, which I have set up to automatically debit my bank account.  I press play on the song and within the first few notes, I hear a somewhat similar Southwest ding, meaning that I had an email.
Control tab, Jim wrote back, “Cool.  Write an article.”

So what should I write about?

Then it occurred to me.  Five minutes was too long to wait for a response from Jim.  Driving to Sam Goody takes too long to buy an album.  When I write this article, I don’t bother emailing it to Jim, I share it instantly on Google Docs. Phone calls, no way … and when are they going to invent that teleporter, cause I just hate driving in the city!
I am a 25 year old, MySpace citizen, YouTube watching, Internet stumbling, impatient, information crazed, generation x/y, product of two middle class baby boomers.  I have two iPods, a Mac Pro, a Toshiba laptop, and a new smart phone every year.   I have almost no memory of not being able to jump online to get whatever I want: answers, dates, music, directions, collectibles, clients, news… whatever.  I not only want information quick, but I also want it for free.  I mostly avoid sign-up/lead generation forms.  If I ever do enter information, it’s using a spam account (jasonbenesch(at)hotmail.com) which I never read.
Now… here’s the scary part:  I am saving money to buy a house, as soon as possible.
I certainly know what a blog is, we have four of them.  I know what an RSS feed is, I browse through about 30-40 everyday.  What about the newspaper?  I might read the sports section every once in a while, but I am careful not to dirty my white apple keyboard with the grunge that sticks to your fingers after handling the local rag.  So where do I get my information on the current state of the Real Estate market?  On the internet.  But I can’t stand doing a ‘San Diego Real Estate’ search; or even a ‘soccer cleats’ search because every site on the top ten results of Google are most likely commercial sites.

I don’t want to give you my information just so you can overload my email box with canned marketing (spam).  I don’t want you calling me; when I am ready to buy, I will call you.  Instead,  I will more often than not do a search similar to ‘are homes in San Diego overpriced.’  I click on the first link that comes up and it will be a blog. They have tons and tons of free articles about the San Diego real estate market and more importantly, they aren’t asking for any of my contact information.
My generation has the mentality of avoiding paying menial costs, revealing our identity, and committing to membership. It is the convenience of the internet that is to blame.  The past barriers of expense and membership are frequently circumvented by ‘gaming’ the system.  Our approach is that we expect to be able to get the information and data we want without having to make any solid commitment. Our generation has learned how to seek out and find information online and we don’t stop until we are satisfied or exhausted.
Our knowledge comes from the intelligence of the mob.  There are websites that let us view user ratings on news, bookmarks, urban definitions, wines, burritos, beers, and videos.  I want to have that same experience when searching for my first home.  Show me what the community thinks.  Show me what the Realtors think.
Give me the data the way I am used to receiving it.
If your business model does not in some way connect you to this growing market mentality, you are essentially alienating yourself from the next wave of first time home buyers.  Leveraging your knowledge and offerings in a platform that encourages the participation of the mob, and consequently makes it easier for you to be found and engaged, will establish yourself as a trusted source of information and you will thrive on the internet.  For today, proper blogging gives you that capability.
—
Thanks Jason.  Now get back to work!

The post Beam Me Up Jimmy – A Look At Tomorrow’s 1st Time Home Buyer appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.