At the top of the new listing forms you will see Foreclosure, Bank Owned, Short sale [...]]]> Last weekend I uploaded new forms with some new fields. I wrote this post and then did not file it under the RWRE Members category so it would show up on the login page. Better late than never I guess.

At the top of the new listing forms you will see Foreclosure, Bank Owned, Short sale and Display Address field check boxes. Foreclosure, Band Owned and Short sale default to no. The Display Address field will allow you to suppress the search by and display of a property address on RealWorld.

In the Advertising and Description section of the form there are now three fields for links to additional pages. The old featured listing link is now intended as a virtual tour link. Two new fields have been added. They are Video link and listing Web site link.

The new fields will support an upcoming redesign of the RealWorld search and listing detail pages. The new pages will include google maps (thus the ablity to suppress address display) and will prominently feature listing videos when available. The Foreclosure, Bank Owned and Short sale criteria will be added to the search form.

If your listings are fed from an RMLS broker specific feed, the fields will be included automatically. Otherwise, you should update your listings as you have time. The new detail page will not go live for a couple of weeks to give you time to edit your listings.

If you would like, I can update all of your listings to display addresses. Then you would have to only edit those that wish to not have the address displayed.

This is the first of several changes and new features I am planning this year. I will announce more as they get closer to reality. As always, I look forward to any comments and feedback.

So, a little about what I am planning to do with it (and wordpress).

I see a need for sites that [...]]]> I have settled on a new theme, Atahualpa. I can’t pronounce it or remember how to spell it, but so far it is proving very flexible, easy to work with and has a great support forum.

So, a little about what I am planning to do with it (and wordpress).

I see a need for sites that use data from a database other than the pages and posts that Wordpress (or any blog software) supports. I know it is possible to do this within Wordpress. I have see plugins that add ecommerce functionality and real estate listings to a Wordpress blog. But in addition to being very complicated, these look like they are almost their own themes or at least require modification of a theme to work. When I have time, I will install them and study how they work.

However, the approach I am trying is to incorporate Wordpress into an existing site. There are a couple of articles in the Wordpress codex about how to do this. Most of them discuss how to make Wordpress in a blog subdirectory look like your original site. Instead, I want to use the wordpress theme to style the entire site. If a client wants to change the look of their site, all they have to do is change the theme.

My test site for this is Tiffanywineshop.com. The original site has wine tastings (yse they could be blog posts) but the goal is to create an “almost” ecommerce site with thousands of wines categorized by variety and winery with the ability for logged in users to rate wines and keep lists of the wines they have tasted and like (or don’t like). All in all this is an excellent example of what I call a hybrid site. Multiple database tables with optional links to blog posts.

I had already created a basic blog for the site but when faced with a comment system and post management, it was obvious there were too many wheels that I shouldn’t be recreating. So, I installed Wordpress in a blog subdirectory. The Atahualpa theme allowed me to style the site very much like the original design. I modified the site header and footer views to use the plugin header and footer, added a mod_rewrite condition to  pass through requests to the blog subdirectory and things are looking very promising.

Once I am finished updating some of my code to use Wordpress functions (user registration and login, etc). I am planning on creating a generic framework to use for other sites. The first of these will be a real estate office or agent site with RMLS idx listing search built in. I think companies who are charging thousands of dollars for real estate web sites should be a little worried. With the new real estate site, agents will be able to have a very functional site with their choice of thousands of themes for $300 or so per year including hosting.

The problem with that is, any custom pages have to be translated and maintenance got to be a nightmare any time a page changed. It [...]]]> When we first installed OS Commerce for our ReloadingInternational site we tried installing and enabling several languages. Since the site is targeted at “international” customers, we thought this would be great.

The problem with that is, any custom pages have to be translated and maintenance got to be a nightmare any time a page changed. It finally got to the point we had to disable any languages other than English.

I had discovered a jquery plugin that we could use to translate specific parts of pages (or entire pages) using Google’s translation service. I just never quite got around to it.

A couple of days ago with the announcement of the Google Translation widget, Google solved the problem for me. It took all of 10 minutes and the site is now available in 39 languages. Here’s how.

Because OS Commerce includes several languages, it also includes a language selection box. The code for this box is located in catalog/includes/boxes/languages.php. All I did was replace the box contents with the Google widget code. Here is what my finished include file looks like: languages.php

We have had cases where English speaking customers have helped their non English speaking friends place orders so this should be a nice enhancement to the site.

My microblogging [...]]]> I have been giving a lot of thought to the idea of microblogging as a replacement for the email conversations I find myself having all the times. Things like setting up a tee time for golf between two or three friends. This currently happens in close-to-real-time email with everyone ccd all of the messages.

My microblogging clone would allow my “followers” to look at my personal tags (areas of interest) and follow only specific tags. For example, my golf buddies could follow my golf tag and would not have to put up with my musings about technology or business updates. A gold friend who is also a client could follow my golf and real estate tags. This would allow me to throw out a  “any one interested in playing” post, tag it “golf”, and my gold buddies would get it  but  clients and business associates who could care less about my golf would not.

I have not joined twitter, so I can’t say you could not use it to do this, but the NIH factor is enough to cause me to want write my own.

32. Branding is for … EVERYONE.

Whoever has … THE BEST STORY … takes home the most marbles. “Branding?” “Branding is a character issue. Next question?” It is almost that simple. And, thus, that hard.

Iʼm a branding fanatic. But not a branding “expert.” I acknowledge the power of a greatlogo. Brilliant [...]]]> From Tom Peters This I Believe:

32. Branding is for … EVERYONE.

Whoever has … THE BEST STORY … takes home the most marbles. “Branding?” “Branding is a character issue. Next question?” It is almost that simple. And, thus, that hard.

Iʼm a branding fanatic. But not a branding “expert.” I acknowledge the power of a greatlogo. Brilliant ad campaign. Coherent marketing material. A razor-sharp message. And so on. And on. Yet all the above misses the mark. “Brand” to me (personally) means: What Tom…stands for. Tomʼs character … behind his promise. Why I would want to…hang out with Tom. Why what Tom does…matters in the larger scheme of things. Tomʼs ability to…make a difference.

Branding, then, at its best, is about the…Big Questions. (Very Big Questions.) Call it/them: identity … character … raison dʼetre. Or (personally again): Tomʼs … Big & Compelling Story.
Consider:

“We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As information and intelligence become the domain of computers, society will place new value on the one human ability that canʼt be automated: emotion. Imagination, myth, ritual –the language of emotion –will affect everything from our purchasing decisions to how well we work with others…Companies will thrive on the basis of their stories and myths. Companies will need to understand that their products are less  important than their stories.”

-Rolf Jensen, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies