Kevin Kaley’s KW Tech Blog

We sometimes get hamstrung trying to put a picture on a web page or in a blog usually for two reasons: 1 - the platform we are uploading to won’t let us upload from our computer (like this blog) or we have run out of room in whatever library the site has for us (KW/eAgentC website). Or, if you are like me, you create a page on the fly in your KW website, you want to drop in a picture, but, you haven’t uploaded it to the library, so you have to stop what you are doing, open the library, upload…

Here’s a solution! There are several photo/image sharing sites that can help; Photobucket, Flickr and Imageshack seem to be the most popular. No commentary here on which is the “best” - like most things it will come down to user preference, though for most of us, myself included, we probably won’t use any of them enough to discern a difference. But, if you have feedback on any of these or other services, please share your comments!

In short the way these sites work is by uploading an image (note I say image - this could be a jpg scan of a document or anything that can be converted to an image file!) to the selected photo sharing site. Once there, it can be accessed, or referred to by another web page. For example, when I try to place an image in this post, I click on the insert image icon, and rather than seeing he familiar “browse” button, instead it asks for an “Image URL”. Here’s where the photo sharing site comes in. Upload an image to the photo sharing site, and it will generate a URL for you, simply copy that URL into the Image URL field and bingo, you have an image on your blog! Just like this:

You can even create a link out of the image. Simply click on the image, then click your “insert hyperlink” icon complete the hyperlink properties dialog box, and poof you now have both an image and a link to another web page.

I use Photobucket, not because I did any research, it just happened to be the first one I came across when I needed a photo sharing site in a hurry. These sites are invaluable if you are going to post to your eAgentC blog, and I very frequently use it for placing images on my website.

In my coaching I have started to encourage Team Leaders to use this method to post their training calendars to their office website. They use Snag-it to capture the calendar image, upload it to the photo sharing site, create a new page in their website, insert the image URL from the photo sharing site to the new web page, and it’s done in less than 5 minutes. Once on their website, then the link to it can emailed out. Here’s an example link to the March 2008 Keller Williams Realty Atlanta Northeast Training Calendar.

It’s not as complicated as it seems…

Take your business to the next level with MAPS Masterminds! MAPS Masterminds are a great way to share (give and receive) ideas about your business with those in a similar situation as you. The basic flow of our Masterminds starts with an afternoon general session in which a basic theme is discussed, then the following morning, the group is subdivided into smaller groups with similar production. These smaller groups focus on 3-5 key topics and discuss among themselves ideas to address issues that are common to the group. From these discussions, you will come away with more ideas than you will implement. That’s OK! Pick the top 3-5 best ideas, come home and incorporate them.

Mastermind Session 1:

  Tech Mastermind: April 28th – April 29th
  OP Mastermind: April 28th – April 29th
  Agent Mastermind: April 29th – April 30th
  TL Mastermind: April 30th – May 1st
  Productivity Coach Mastermind: TBD
  (No MCA Mastermind during Session 1)

While I am by no means a “programmer”, or a code guru, I do know a little bit about HTML coding. Just enough to be able to tweak web pages, HTML emails and a few other simple processes. While a page of HTML code looks like it’s undecipherable, if you actually stop to read it, it can make some sense.

The biggest hurdle is understanding what the “operators” are. Years ago, I stumbled into a great tool to help with basic HTML usage, it’s called “HTML Barebones“. This is not for someone that wants a career writing HTML code, rather for folks like you and me that simply need a quick reference - it’s kind of like a dictionary for HTML. I have the file downloaded and saved in my documents and open for reference as needed. If you tinker with, or want to tinker with HTML code I suggest you do the same.

No lecture here on HTML, but, I will offer a couple of insights. Not all platforms (eAgentC website for example) will recognize all operators. I tried once to insert blinking text, and it did not work, (nor did it in this blog) big deal - move on! Also, remember that operators have a starting point and an ending point, they are usually contained in brackets: the opening brackets look like this <>, and the closing bracket contains a forward slash </>, whatever is between the brackets is formatted as the operator instructs.

Please, as a real estate agent, don’t spend your life coding and decoding HTML, but, if you want to do some fundamental enhancements and get a better grip on how your web pages work, “HTML Barebones” can be a great helper!

To illustrate how to embed a picture into a blog, I created this post during a class.

Edit:

OK, so I grabbed a photo from my desktop, and it happened to be this one. Since you asked, here’s the story behind it…

Our ALC and leadership attended FSO (Franchise Systems Orientation) in Austin in February, 2006. On the way to the airport, James Hamby, the big guy on the left, announced that someone would be coming home with a tattoo, ostensibly to match the one he got while in Austin the previous fall, for Mega Agent Camp. We all chuckled and went on. On the first night, we were out checking out 6th Street, and “happened by” the Golden Apple Tattoo parlor, the site of the first tattoo during Mega week. We proceeded to chat with Shane, the went on down the street. About a block away, we ran into a group of FSO attendee’s from Michigan. James went into sales/challenge mode with the tattoo, trying to convince someone to join him. Katherine already had 1 (maybe 2, I don’t recall) tattoos, but, James wanted a new initiate. Sensing that Calsie was vulnerable, I looked at her and said, “If you’ll do it, I’ll do it!” She squinted back at me and said, “You’re on!”

The next morning at FSO, we greeted Mo Anderson prior to the start of the class, and told here that we had lived up to her charge the day before. She asked us up to the front of the class to tell our story. You see, at the end of the class the day before, she told us that there were over 200 people here from all over the country, and that night we should go out and not only make new friends, but, to go make a memory. A memory that when we are 90 years old sitting in our rocking chairs we could look down and remember. Unless I lose my right leg, when I’m 90 years old sitting in my rocking chair, I will, literally, be able to look down and recall that memory…

PS We were all stone cold sober!

Get a free boost to your business!

MAPS, the coaching arm of Keller Williams International, has several upcoming FREE calls for you to participate in. These calls are value packed and offer insight into hot topics for the times.

Click on the image below to read more and register for any or all of these calls!

Top Producer 8i has been released!

First of all, this is not a full blown analysis of TP 8i, just a few comments and suggestions. I have been using TP 8i off and on for several months as a beta tester. In it’s beta stage, it was painfully slow. Since they’ve gone live and switched it to a faster server, the speed has picked up. The biggest thing you’ll notice when logging in, is the graphical interface, much nicer and “Windows-like”:

There are a couple of notable features included so far that are very helpful - you can open multiple windows to accomplish things without completely stopping what you are doing - very nice! There are more options available to you from each screen, no more digging around to figure out how to do something, though they have moved a few things, but once you get the idea, it flows much smoother now.

For “power users” you’ll notice that there are a few key features missing, such as the ability to do an “advanced search” and the ability to do the last edit to a mass email - what I mean by this is, when you send a mass email from 7i, the last thing that happens before sent, is you get all of the merged emails on your screen, if you want, you can page through and add additional comments to individual emails. Both of these “missing” features are noted by the 8i development team and should be fixed shortly.

So, the question is… Do I switch to 8i now, or wait? My answer is… it depends! If you are relatively new to TP, I’d go on with 8i, no sense in learning 7i knowing that eventually, you’re going to change to 8i. For older users, you can switch between 7i and 8i. So, I’d suggest taking a look at it, and if you get stuck, or frustrated (I have more than once!), just log back in to 7i to get it done. At this point, there is not a data transfer, so anything done in 8i shows up in 7i and vise-versa. I almost always have both open at the same time, though, if you are “in” 7i it will log you off 8i. If you go back to 8i, it will log you off 7i, just like if you were to leave it open for several hours and come back to it. All you have to do is log back in, and you pick up where you left off.

Last comment - if you have a suggestion for the 8i development team, please send an email to support@topproducer.com or use their online form here.

Due to popular demand, I will be teaching a class in my Market Center (KWMC292 - Atlanta Northeast) on Friday, March 7th from 1-2pm EST, on using the program “Snag-it” to enhance your E-mails, specifically using Top Producer and Outlook.

Most of the time, I use the graphic at the top of this blog as the header for my emails, but, prior to that, I used the top of my KW website, with my photo attached, in fact, this:

Lots of folks have asked me how to do this, and like so many “tech” things, it’s really not that hard, once you know how, and have the right tools. 

Since I have to ability to broadcast this across the Internet, I thought, what the heck - why not? So, if you’d like to join the class, please click the register now button below to register. Please note, this is in “Webinar” format, to listen, you’ll need to dial in, and it’s probably a long distance call, so make sure that you can access long distance from wherever you are dialing from.

For those of you that don’t know me, if you are expecting flash and glitz, I’ll probably disappoint you, but, if you are interested in roll your sleeves up, brass tacks info, you’ll enjoy it!

Click here to register for the Free Snag-it Webinar!

If you have a question about KW Technology, MAPS Coaching, or training, please ask (comment) here. Suggestions also appreciated!

So, you go to Family Reunion and collect bags full of business cards from agents all over the country. You come home and make a pile of them. You stare at them for a while… Eventually you convince yourself that they are now “old” and you have lost the opportunity to do anything with them, and put them in the circular file (trash can). Sound familiar?

I hosted 2 free webinars before Family Reunion to address this common process. Of course, the procedure I present can be applied to more than just Family Reunion business cards!

If you missed the webinar(s), not to worry, click here to view the recorded version. Please note that I failed to edit the beginning of the recording, there is about 2 mins of “dead air” at the beginning…

You can get a free blog for your EagentC/KW website, just like this one!

All you have to do is:

Log on the the KW.com Intranet
> “My Information”
> “My Website”
> “3.0 Add Your Content”
> “3.10 eAgentC Blog and RSS Feeds”
> Sign-Up/Login to your eAgentC Blog powered by Top Producer.
> “Sign up” at Don’t have a blog? Sign up for eAgentC blog now.”
Complete the information request
> “Request Blog”
Done.

You will receive an email with further instruction on how to log in to your new blog.
* Hint - in the “Desired Username” field on the information request form, consider using a name that reflects your theme or area of specialty such as snellville-homes, short-sale, highland-park, etc. This may help with search engine ranking. You can always go with your name - I did!

Good luck and happy blogging!

Did you know that MAPS offers a Fast Track course on Blogging for Real Estate?
Email me for more info!