It’s official: summer is here! To ring in the new season, we’re spotlighting a very summery custom theme this week from Brian Long of Sea Coast Executive Properties in sunny Encinitas, California. Brian’s custom theme says summer to me: the bright blues and yellows, the sun-and-sea feel of the branded header, and the sandlike page background he uses. This is the vFlyer equivalent of a trip to the beach. It’s a well-integrated theme that, like most of the other great themes we’ve featured, prominently displays the most important information in the header.

Great job, Brian, and thanks for bringing a bit of SoCal sun to us up here in the foggy Bay Area.

Seasonal custom themes are a lot of fun to make and can be an effective marketing tactic. Try creating one this week using vFlyer’s custom theme toolkit. If you have a summer-themed, well, theme, feel free to let us know. Who knows, you may be one of the lucky ones to see your theme on our blog!

This week, we’re featuring another custom theme created by a vFlyer designer based on the user’s existing branding. In this case, the user is Gregory J. Spalasso, founder and principal of Gregory Preston Development Group, an Architecure Planning Construction firm in San Ramon, California that specializes in high-quality custom homes.  Gregory contacted us earlier this week requesting a custom theme based on his website;  our designer was able to produce two versions of his custom theme that same day. Gregory’s website is spectacular and perfectly suited for a vFlyer custom theme; I love the elegant,  minimalist look of the logo and the use of different shades of gray throughout.

Gregory’s flyer also demonstrates how service providers can collaborate and cross-promote with vFlyer. In this case, he is advertising a house for sale that his firm designed and providing the listing agent’s contact information. In today’s real estate market, this kind of collaboration, coupled with new and creative ways of marketing listings, is essential. vFlyer’s marketing toolkit provides the customizability and collaborative capabilities to make this kind of cooperation very easy. And a great looking custom theme is the perfect finishing touch!

If you’re interested in having vFlyer create a custom theme for you, you can fill out our request form by visiting our custom themes page. And if you have a custom theme that you think deserves to be highlighted, let us know by sending it to support@vflyer.com.

The iPad has indeed arrived, and based on last Monday’s announcement that Apple has sold more than two million iPads since it began selling the device in early April, it looks like it’s here to stay, for a while at least. While it’s not yet clear exactly what place the iPad will take in relation to laptops and digital readers such as Amazon’s Kindle, the enthusiastic embrace of it is surely an indicator to tech companies that they need to make their content iPad-compatible.

For this reason, vFlyer just introduced an iPad format of our listings pages. The iPad format is a Javascript-based version of our Flash-based premium flyer layout. Apple stopped supporting Adobe’s Flash platform for the iPhone and iPad in April, meaning that Flash components in any website will not display on these devices. The Javascript-based version we developed presents the same smooth transitions between photos but in a new iPad-friendly format. Best of all, our system automatically detects when a flyer is viewed on an iPad and displays the iPad version with no additional steps required by the end user.

vFlyer already introduced an iPhone format for its listings last year and we’re excited to roll out this new iPad format. So as we’re all excitedly watching what happens with the iPad in the coming months, those iPad users among us can at least enjoy admiring our users’ beautiful vFlyer ads. To learn more about these and other vFlyer capabilities visit vFlyer Listing Marketing Service.

Happy Friday! Our Custom Theme of the Week is a beautiful theme from Sancerre Apartments, an Alliance Residential community in Kirkland, Washington. I must say, this is one of the best custom themes I’ve seen in a while. It starts with a great evocative logo, for one, which they do a nice job of incorporating into the branded header. I also like how they make their phone number so prominent in the header. While it can be tempting to stuff the header with information, sometimes “less is more” (apologies for the cliche). If you want prospects to call you, then making your phone number large and clearly visible on your header is a surefire way of encouraging them to do just that.

Sancerre’s theme also makes good use of color, with the olive green flyer background playing off the black page background nicely. The theme as a whole gives off an aura of sophistication, which I imagine is just what Sancerre Apartments was going for.

Summer is a great time for custom themes! It’s a chance to get creative, add splashes of color to your flyers, and give your listings a bright, sunny feel. Try creating your own custom theme, or if you want, we can create a branded custom theme for you for as little as $99. Just fill out this form with your theme specifications and our designers will get right on it.