The Mortgage and More Blog

One of our greatest features is the fact that we are constantly evolving. When we come across a great tool, we test it out to see if it fits our real estate network and would be a benefit. What is even better than that is when one of our members sends us a message on a tool they have come across that will be a huge benefit to our site. That actually occurred this morning and I would like to thank Ramona Strojevs of Burlington HomeForYou, your connection to Burlington ON real estate.

Ramona had came across a great application this morning and then pasted a link to that on my own wall on FaceBook. She had found Tynt. I immediately went to work checking out this new potential tool for PREP. My first instinct was that I really did not want to have a new tool that we would have to go through each and every account to get it added to our members’ sites. My first path was to go to WordPress.org and see if there was a plugin for easy integration. Fortunately, Tynt had been integrated into a plugin called easy tynt.

Once I got it loaded into PREP, I went to work testing it out. What I found was just extraordinary to say the least. In today’s world where people take content from your site without thinking much about it, this tool will alert you to that very fact. If you look to the left, you will see a screenshot from the plugin that I took this morning. If you can’t make it out, just click on the picture and it will open to original size in another window. Being able to track the content from my site that has been copied and applied elsewhere on the world wide web is a huge benefit. Also being able to tag that content with a license is an even bigger benefit.

With that said, the benefits do not stop there. Another great feature is the SEO benefits that you can actually track using this new tool. Each and every time that someone copies content from your site, you will get a link back to the original content. The more that this happens, the stronger your content becomes. However, it does not just have a positive effect on your content. It also creates more links to your site. That in itself makes the plugin well worth the time to set it up.

So, let’s talk about setting it up on your PREP account. You can ONLY use this if you have an account that is MAPPED. No sub domains or sub directories can be used. Once you are logged onto your dashboard, follow these instructions:

1. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu under ‘Post’ in WordPress.

2. Click on the Easy Tynt settings link in your WordPress settings to configure Easy Tynt. Easy Tynt will not work until this is completed.

3. Visit http://www.tynt.com and log in or register a new account.

4. Chose the options you are interested in. I suggest looking at the Attribution Link. We are using the ‘Attribution No Derivatives’ License.

5. Once everything is setup to your satisfaction, copy the provided “YOUR SCRIPT” code into the Easy Tynt settings in your WordPress dashboard. Hit “Update Options” and you are done!

Now that you have done that, all you need to do is login daily to check your stats. Everything else is done for you. Once again, I would like to thank Ramona for sharing this awesome tool with me this morning.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

PositiveRealEstateProfessionals.com Adds Tynt To It’s Tools is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

When it comes to landing pages for your site, there are quite a few options. The three main ones that I have encountered are Static, Blog, and Flash. Personally, I hate Flash pages as a landing page, but for the purpose of this article, I am going to keep my personal feelings to myself. With that said, over the last year that our online real estate network has been in existence, we have moved from the Blog Page being front and center to a static page. When we create a new account for our members, a static landing page is standard in our membership fee of $150 per year. So, to get back on track, lets take a look at the three types of landing pages mentioned in this article. A huge advantage to having this type of page is you can actually build a sitemap of your site in a format that is user friendly. When I say “sitemap” I am not referring to a standard sitemap, but instead, an article that links people to the things that they want to find on your site. Also, you can focus on keywords for your site easier.

Static Pages

Typically, a static page is one that remains the same (see image to the right). While you can change the content fairly easily, it usually remains the same. One advantage of this is that the page is cached in the world wide web and typically opens quickly. Static pages can be created easily and saved in databases as html files. The common use for static pages for blog sites is to give the appearance of a CMS (content management system) feel or type of site. This is what is commonly referred to as a website.

Blog Pages

A blog page is common in sites that are built using WordPress, Blogger, Vox, and others (see image to the right). Blog pages are pages which generates a list of your most recent posts or articles and places them on one page. While all of these platforms have a different layouts and functions, the blog pages are typically set to function in the same manner. Posts are kept in a chronological order that you can click on and go to the individual article. The big disadvantage of having this page front and center is that if you are away for some time and do not post, it is apparent to everyone immediately.

Flash Intro Pages

Flash into pages load animated content first while loading the main content in the background. The main problem with this type of page is that NOT everyone has a Flash Player on their computers. Even though that might sound prehistoric, it is a fact. In the end, if they can’t load it, they can’t see it. While Flash pages can be pretty and can also take the site to another level, if no one can see it, then it is as dumb as having a Picasso and leaving it in the closet. For this very reason I think it is bad to have this as your landing page. Another disadvantage to having flash is when people are using dial up (yes, it still exists) then it takes forever for that page to load. Regardless how people are connecting to the internet, they all want a FAST experience. Flash does not offer that.

In closing, the type of landing page that you chose is basically up to you. Your web site developer should be able to expand on this subject more, but I hope that I have provided enough for you to make an informed decision.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Landing Page – Static versus Blog versus Flash is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

Whether you hold classes, set up at local events, or simply want to promote an open house you are hosting then The Events Calendar is the perfect tool for you. This tool allows you to not only add the specifics of your event to both your blog and your calendar, if you enter a specific address it will embed a Google map in your post! If you have experienced underwhelming attendance at any of your events then this tool can help you to get more publicity and provide a map to help boost attendance. In addition to increasing attendance at your event, it will also help to garner more Google juice through the use of Google tools!

See the two images below for both visual and written directions on how to use this tool; clicking on either image will enlarge them. THIS TUTORIAL ASSUMES THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY INSTALLED THE EVENTS CALENDAR.

How To Use The Events Calendar is a post from: Test Account

©2010 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.

It is with great pleasure and pride that I am happy to announce that our online real estate network, PositiveRealEstateProfessionals.com, has come to an agreement with Jeremiah Mumbower. We are officially making him our newest Facebook Guru. We are excited in this newest edition to our staff and want to publicly welcome Jeremiah aboard. It has been a long time coming.

If you are wondering what added value that Jeremiah brings to our team, then check out his business page on Facebook. To give you an idea of Jeremiah’s background, he is a clip from his bio:

“My story I was laid off from Intel in Oct. 2009. I found the social media network facebook was in awe! I use to have my own business in the cleaning industry did my own marketing and media design found that I really enjoyed working on computers and software. I had a love for the social media in the past but, I saw that facebook had business pages. I had a feeling that this was something unique and some thing of the future. I told myself at this point I was going to learn facebook period. I have learned the business pages and the options and capabilities by studying this technology social network 3 months worth. I acquired my knowledge of software/computer components and networking computers over the last ten years. I have a love and natural knack for technology. Well here I am now making Facebook business pages for people.”

We are excited in what Jeremiah can do for our members. While his services are a premium, he has agreed to discount them for our members. To have your Facebook business page constructed professionally, Jeremiah will offer our members a price of $150. This is a $50 discount from his regular charge. While we will still offer the basic Facebook Business Page help, if you are wanting more done, then please contact Jeremiah.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK.

Jeremiah Mumbower Teams Up With PREP As Facebook GURU is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

It is with great pleasure and pride that I am happy to announce that our online real estate network, PositiveRealEstateProfessionals.com, has come to an agreement with Jen Monastero. We are officially making her our newest Community Recruiter. We are excited in this newest edition to our staff and want to publicly welcome Jen aboard. It has been a long time coming.

So, what does a community recruiter actually do you ask? Well, that is quite simply to answer. Jen’s main focus is to help us continue to recruit members to our online real estate network. For those of you that do not know Jen, she has spent several years in the mortgage industry. Most recently, she has jumped on a start up called Know your Pro. I first met Jen about 2 years ago when our paths crossed on ActiveRain. At that point and time, I knew that she would be someone that I could definitely work with and respect. Today that thought has become reality.

While Jen is still focused on Know Your Pro, her sole responsibility with us is to help us grow. In turn, PREP will also be promoting Know Your Pro as we believe that they are onto something over there. If you are not a member of their site, I would highly recommend becoming one. Enough said on that matter.

Please join me in welcoming our newest admin, Jen Monastero.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Jen Monastero Joins PREPS Team as a Community Recruiter is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

Lets face it, your website, be it for personal or professional use reflects who you and your business are. Most people realize this and in an effort to make it more accurately reflect who they are use the easily customized HTML coding intended for sidebars. Whether you are integrating a (Face Book Like button), local weather widget coding, or any of the numerous other features that can be added to your sidebar, the process is very easy and definitely helps to personalize your website. In this tutorial you will learn how to integrate this coding into your website’s sidebar.

For those of you who are visual learners there is a graphic at the bottom of this post that should be helpful. To view a larger image of this graphic simply click it!

Here is the path to add HTML coding to your sidebar:

Dashboard>Appearance>Widgets>Text>Sidebar (Drag to desired sidebar and add HTML coding)

1. Login to your Dashboard.
2. From your Dashboard hover over the Appearance tab. This will allow you to click on the gray dropdown arrow to the right of that tab.
3. Click this gray dropdown arrow.
4. You will now want to click on the Widgets tab (under Appearance). This will open up your widgets page.
5. Drag a Text widget to your Sidebar or open an existing Text widget in your Sidebar. IF YOU OPEN AN EXISTING TEXT WIDGET BE SURE NOT TO DELETE (OR REPLACE) THE EXISTING CODE UNLESS YOU WANT TO GET RID OF THE EXISTING WIDGET.
6. Insert the HTML coding and hit SAVE.

That is it! Visit your site to see the new widget you just added.

Inserting HTML Into A WordPress Sidebar is a post from: Test Account

©2010 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.

When I logged into Facebook this morning, I was greeted with the picture to the left. I am sure that many of you have already seen this. I am also sure that many started out the same way I did; looking for the path to add the “like” button to your site. With that said, I decide to write a post for all to read and learn. After spending nearly an hour trying to find this, I thought that I would save you all the headaches of tracking down how to install this little tool to your site.

Before I go into deep detail, I thought I would share what this button can and will do for you. If you look to the right, you will see this button in action on our real estate network. As you can see at this point, not many have used it. Over time, the number will grow and people will be able to share our network with their facebook friends a lot easier. All one needs to do is to click the “Like” button once, and it adds them. Below is an excerpt from the facebook page explaining this a little better:

The Like button enables users to make connections to your pages and share content back to their friends on Facebook with one click. Since the content is hosted by Facebook, the button can display personalized content whether or not the user has logged into your site. For logged-in Facebook users, the button is personalized to highlight friends who have also liked the page.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at how we add this neat little tool to our own sites. If you look to the immediate left, you will see the picture of the Like Button Generator. As you can see, I have filled out the fields that I need in order to create this button for our main page. Now, in theory, I could do this for each and every page that I wanted to on PREP, but at some point, you run into overkill. This is one of the reason why we use “sociable” on PREP. It already has Facebook’s share function in it.

Once all the pertinent information is entered, all you need to do is click on get code. Once that is done, it will generate 2 codes; one is an iFrame code and the second is a JavaScript code. Personally PREP stays away from the JavaScript coding as it can lead to some security issues, especially for a multi user platform such as ours. Once this is done, all you need to do is add this into a “Text” widget in your sidebar of your site. If you do not have access to do that, then contact your webmaster and they can instruct you more on this subject.In some cases this can require coding added to the theme itself or some adjustments to certain parameters that can only be done by an admin or webmaster. In our case, each and ever member has the ability to add this on their own site and place it any where on their sidebars without having to contact us. With that said, if you run into issues, please feel free to call us and we can walk you through the process.

OK, now that we have the why and how to out of the way, let’s get down to the where. I thought long and hard of how I could help each and everyone of you get this tool on your site the easiest way. With that said, I decide that I would just iFrame their page into this post. Hence, you will be able to generate your own code right from this article and there will not be a need to bounce around. I hope that you find this both helpful and useful.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

How To Add Facebook Like Button To Your Site is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

In our faced paced world technology changes very quickly. The face of business and many business models undergo constant change. In the past a professional only had to know how to navigate the world of their profession with little real need to understand other arenas. The internet, its reach, accessibility, and wealth of information have changed the very landscape of business today.

A professional, in any field, must wear many different hats. It is not expected that one be an expert in many different fields but that a professional be proficient in the fields essential to perform their tasks with proper and vigorous effort. To help Positive Real Estate Professionals members and non-members gain a working knowledge of the SEO basics necessary to represent their interests and their clients’ interests on the ever change World Wide Web, PREP admins have decided to offer a SEO for Beginners webinar. For more information and to register for this webinar click HERE or cut and past this link into your browser http://positiverealestateprofessionals.com/products-page/webinars-classes/seo-for-beginners/

SEO for Beginners is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

As always, we here at Positive Real Estate Professionals try to stay on top of the latest tools and integrations for our real estate network. Today is no different as we are prepared to offer The Events Calendar to each and every one of our members for FREE. We have tested this events calendar to see how it would integrate with our online real estate network, and frankly I am pleased to announce that it has passed each and every test that I have thrown at it.

Below is the description straight from the plugins page on wordpress:

The Events Calendar plugin enables you to rapidly create and manage events using the post editor. Features include Google Maps integration as well as default templates such as a calendar grid and event list for streamlined one click installation.

Looking to track attendees, sell tickets and more? Go download the Eventbrite for The Events Calendar plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/eventbrite-for-the-events-calendar/). Eventbrite is a free service that provides the full power of a conference ticketing system. This plugin upgrades The Events Calendar with all the basic Eventbrite controls without ever leaving the wordpress post editor. Don’t have an Eventbrite account? No problem, use the following link to set one up: http://www.eventbrite.com/r/simpleevents.

The Events Calendar

• Manage event details right from your post editor
• Upcoming Events Widget
• Provides full template out of the box (month and list view)
• Extensive template tags for customization
• MU Compatible
• Google Maps Integration
• Posts are automatically moved to the top of the loop on the day of the event
• Calendar Month view with tooltips
• Includes support for venue, cost, address, start and end time, google maps link
• Optional Ticketing With Eventbrite Integration – http://www.eventbrite.com/ – though the Eventbrite for The Events Calendar plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/eventbrite-for-the-events-calendar/).
• Support for international addresses, time and languages: ** Swedish ** French ** Italian

Upcoming Features

• Option to disable re-posting of event
• Ical Feed
• Improved international features (calendar start day)
• Option to exclude events from main loop
• More bug hunting and support (huff puff)
• Improved error checking and reporting
• Calendar view widget
• Reoccuring events
• Sync with facebook events
• Saved venues
• Global event maps
• Dynamic categories (rather than requiring the use of event)
• Event subcategories

Now, here is how you can access this neat tool. First, contact our office if you are interested in using this tool as we have to turn it on individually. Then, login to your dashboard and scroll down to the “Settings” and look for “The Events Calendar”. Once there, simply click on it and set your options. When that is done, contact our office for your Events Calendar page to be set up on your navigation bar. We will structure it and then setup the redirection that is required to make the page appear correctly. Once it is done, we will test it to be sure that it works properly.

With that said, here are a few things that I see that will be a HUGE benefit. For any REALTOR® that uses this calendar and lists their open houses, the post will display a Google Map automatically to the listing. This feature is available for everyone that uses this new calendar. Another GREAT benefit to this calendar is it is managed right from your posting screen. This means that all you need to do is go to write a new post just like you normally do, add a prelude, and then simply input the day, time, location, and any other info that is important to this event. The tool will do the rest for you.

If you want to see one being used on our network, simply click here.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Positive Real Estate Professionals adds The Events Calendar is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

In addition to this Real Estate Network’s recent migration from Host Monster to Host Gator the admins of PREP have continued to search for tools to help enhance the performance, visitor and member usability, and overall satisfaction with the network as a whole. Just as 8 tracks gave way to cassettes, and cassettes gave way to cd’s, and cd’s gave are in the midst of giving way to iPods and USBs, so must plugins that were once quite popular and useful give way to the next generation. While you were selling houses, inspecting roofs, or pursuing the numerous other ventures that occupy our days, Zipli-Retweet went the way of the cd.

Zipli-Retweet was a very useful plugin for WordPress websites and networks. It allowed a visitor to your blog and/or website to use the enormously popular system to share with their friends on Twitter a particularly good, funny, scandalous, or whatever criteria tickled the reader’s fancy post you had written with the click of a button, the zipli-retweet button to be precise. Why you might ask would such a seemingly useful tool be replaced? To answer that we must look at some of the relevant information regarding the plugin. From a high of 112 downloads of the plugin to its current average of <1 a day, the popularity of it has been steadily decreasing. There is also a related stat in the form of its update frequency; it was last updated on 2009-11-12.With that said, many plugin designers recognize the limitations of there creation and abandon them in favor of an entirely new plugin. Please note that I am not attempting to disparage the plugin designer, many of these designers have regular day jobs and create these plugins for free.

Now if you will allow me, let me introduce TweetMeme. This Retweet button  is being touted as the latest and greatest available. It can be seen on sites as diverse as , , and So you may be wondering why would the admins of this network go with this plugin? It receives average 4 out of 5 user rating. It was last updated on 2010-2-24. It has also been downloaded 225,000+ times including 506 times today.

It has been activated sitewide but still must be setup by each member. From your dashboard, locate the TweetMeme header near the bottom of the left column (Refer to the image to the right). If you hover over it you will get a gray dropdown arrow that you should click on to reveal two options; ‘settings’ and ‘analytics’. Click on settings to setup this button. So how does this affect you as a PREP member? This button should definitely bring more traffic to your website and more traffic definitely means the potential exists for increased business. We would highly recommend that all PREP members utilize this excellent and FREE tool.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

And Now … Tweet Meme is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.