We are excited to announce the addition of FrontDoor as a syndication partner for Residential for Sale Listings. FrontDoor is the newly-launched and highly anticipated real estate website of HGTV, the television network that gave us House Hunters and Designed to Sell. Following the lead of those shows, FrontDoor takes a comprehensive approach toward the buying and selling of a house.  In addition to listing millions of properties for sale around the country, it provides useful, accessible tips to sellers about raising home values, home staging, and other topics, and to buyers about what to look for when shopping for a house. 

We recently added the real estate marketplace CyberHomes as a syndication partner site, which means that real estate for sale listings can now be automatically submitted there! This is great news, as this website is a rising stars in the world of online real estate marketplaces. CyberHomes (which is the exclusive provider of real estate listings to AOL) offers detailed information and statistics on homes for sale, neighborhoods, and metro areas around the country as well as market trends. It also provides useful reference material for buyers and sellers of homes. Be sure to update and republish listings to take advantage of this new service benefit.

We recently completed an extensive review of all the widgets we offer and made a number of changes and fixes that improve the look and performance of the Flash version of those widgets. The Flash version (as opposed to the Javascript version, which we also generate for each widget) is the one most compatible with the largest number of websites. Changes we made include a streamlining of the contact information and photo and logos on Basic Gallery and Basic Flyer widgets; the removal of Price and Location labels when those fields have no values in them; a better display of summary information for each listing; improved alignment of the widget title and flyer titles on the vertical Recent Listings widget; and improvement of the scrolling function on the premium Sliding Gallery widget. Here are a few examples:

Widgets are an effective and (best of all) easy way to create more exposure of your listings because you can easily embed the HTML code for the widget in your website, blog, and/or social network profile.  These improvements we made should give vFlyer users all the more incentive to configure widgets and put them on those sites!

Many of you have probably noticed changes to your vFlyer account homepage since Thursday morning. We did an overhaul of the account homepage and made it into a dashboard where you can access the Craigslist HTML for any of your flyers, email and print any of your flyers, access the HTML for any widgets you’ve created, and more. You can think of your account homepage as a kind of “mission control” for your vFlyer account, which is how it should be! Now you no longer need to go through multiple steps to get the Craigslist HTML for a flyer, track the activity of a flyer, or do other flyer-related tasks - it’s all right in front of you when you log in to your account.

We hope this makes using vFlyer even easier. If you have feedback for us on the new dashboard, let us know.

If you’ve ever had your unsaved work on a flyer lost because your session expired while you were writing a long description, then you know how frustrating it can be. That’s why we recently introduced an autosave feature in the Flyer Editor and Photo Editor that automatically saves any work you’ve done on a flyer after 29 minutes of inactivity (or activity only in the description field). It’s still a good idea to click the Save Draft button every ten minutes or so in case you encounter a network problem or some other error, but the autosave feature provides added security against losing work you’ve done. 

Note: The autosave feature only applies to the Flyer Editor and Photo Editor.

Many of you have probably seen already that vFlyer now supports Wellcomemat as a video host. Wellcomemat is a kind of social networking site built around videos and devoted to the Real Estate market. You might call it “YouTube for Real Estate.” Thousands of real estate agents and brokers and other people selling houses use Wellcomemat to host the videos they make for their houses and properties. Now, as a vFlyer customer, you can embed Wellcomemat videos right into your flyers! It’s easy - just follow these steps:

1. You’ll first need to open a Wellcomemat account. It’s free and it will allow you to upload videos to the site.

2. Once you’ve created your account and uploaded a video to Wellcomemat, click the MENU button in the bottom right corner of the video.

3. Click Get URL/Link, then click Copy URL.

4. Log in to your vFlyer account and create a flyer.
5. In the video section of the Flyer Editor, select Wellcomemat from the drop-down menu and paste the URL for your video in the box.

Note: Video embedding is available only to vFlyer business subscribers (vFlyer Starter and above).

Trying to get more done in less time? Of course. That’s why we recently introduced a multi-photo upload feature for any flyer created on vFlyer.com. It makes uploading gallery photos a snap! Simply click the Setup Photo Gallery link in the Flyer Editor and then click the Upload Multiple Photos link. From there, click the Browse button and select the photos you want to upload while pressing the Ctrl key. Once you’ve selected your photos, click Upload. Voila! Your gallery photos are uploaded in one fell swoop.

With the addition of the new Century 21 design theme, vFlyer now offers six premium broker themes to business subscribers! We have themes for the following brokerages:

Century 21	Keller Williams	Alain Pinel
Coldwell Banker	Prudential	REMAX

Premium broker themes are available to all vFlyer subscribers (vFlyer Starter or better).

DotHomes is a real estate search engine with European roots. It is the first consumer-facing product of BytePlay, a London-based search technology company. The site is unique in that it lets consumers quickly search for real estate across multiple countries including the United Kingdom, South Africa and most recently the United States. Although it may be new to some Americans, dotHomes has a huge following overseas. It has the largest database of estate agent listings in South Africa and the second largest in the United Kingdom. We applaud dotHomes on their move into the US market and are happy to have them as a distribution partner! vFlyer users can syndicate their real estate listings to dotHomes by simply selected them as destination marketplace in the Automatic Submissions section of their flyers.

Tags: Real+Estate, Realtors, dotHomes, vFlyer

Every morning after my cup of coffee, I startup my RSS News reader (I use Wizz RSS which is Firefox addon that is accessible right from my browser) and see what folks have been blogging about vFlyer.

Using RSS to Keep Track what Customers are Blogging about You
There are a number of blog-specific search engines including Google, Technorati, and Feedster, as well as some news-specific search (Yahoo! News and Topix). All of these search engines let you access your results as an RSS feed. So for example, the URL for the RSS feed from Google that allows me to search for any occurrence of “vFlyer” in the Blogosphere looks something like this:

 Accessing blog (and other) searches via RSS feeds is a great idea for professional sellers (real state agents, auto dealers, i.e.) to keep tabs on what others are blogging about. Its easy to do and it gives you quick access to news about you or your company!

Creating a Single Property Websites for Less than $5 and other User Posts
As a member of the vFlyer team, I always like to see what people are blogging about vFlyer. Us marketing folks like to keep tabs on this sort of thing and I usually run into all sorts of interesting posts promoting different aspects of our service. Recently I ran into a couple of great posts in the last couple of weeks that I thought I would share:

• How To Create a Single Property Website for Less than $5
  I loved this post by Texas Real Estate Blog’s Jason Blackburn who carefully and in great detail explains exactly how to build a Single Property Website (using vFlyer) for only $5.00 and in less than 20 minutes!
• HGTV’s “Secrets to Sell” features vFlyer-power Property!
  This was news to me! Apparently this home (see vFlyer, see Craigslist vFlyer) is being featured on HGTV’s “Secrets that Sell” TV show! and Amy White of Eagle Realty is using vFlyer to promote it! Amazing the things you learn! I love the way Amy uses the Enhanced Craigslist template to include large photos of the property! Congrats Amy!
• 10 Cool Widgets for Bloggers and #5 is…
  Nice short list of “must-have” widgets for bloggers that includes vFlyer listing widgets as a wall to increase sales!

Yesterday I mentioned that we recently added Yahoo! Real Estate to our line up of distribution/syndication partners! What I forgot to mention was we also recently added dotHomes, a new real estate search engine to that list! I will feature both partners in upcoming days/weeks for those unfamiliar with these two real estate marketplaces! We should also be announcing additional distribution partners in the weeks to come!

Tags: real+estate

Premium themes are where its at! I an a big believer that “It’s all about the brand!” and vFlyer definitely allows you to communicate your brand and identity to the world! I have talked about our premium themes in the past. These are themes are available to all vFlyer subscribers (with a vFlyer Starter account or better).

Here are some good examples of how you can really “brand” your vFlyers using premium themes:

• Keller Williams Theme
• REMAX Theme
• Prudential Theme
• Coldwell Banker Theme
• Alaine Pinel Real Estate Theme

This level of brand customization is hard to find anywhere else so be sure to take advantage of it! The examples above also feature the premium layout option also available to vFlyer subscribers.

Tags: real+estate, themes, vflyer

vFlyer now syndicates your Residential For Sale and Rental Property listings to Yahoo! Classifieds (Yahoo! Real Estate).

Adding Yahoo! to your list of automatically syndicated marketplaces is easy! Simply click Enable Partner Sites (located in the Automatic Submission area of your vFlyer) to select Yahoo! and other new distribution partners such as Zillow, HotPads, and Backpage. Once you have added new partners they will continue to appear under Automatic Submission.

I had coffee a couple of weeks ago with Jim Guise, who used to be a regional sales manager for Auto Mart Diablo Dealer. Jim has helped us better understand and support the needs of the used car market. Jim did a great job explaining some of the inner works of user car dealerships. “Turn” and Making Money According to Jim, a used car dealer’s profits really lies in their turn. “Turn” is a term used in the industry to represent the amount of time a used car sits on the lot. In general, if a user car dealer is able to turn a used car in 10 to 20 days – they make money, if they turn a used car in 20 to 30 days - they break even, and if it takes 60 to 90 days to turn a car – they loose money.
Acquiring Used Cars Used car dealers usually acquire their cars one of four ways:

• On a trade, when a customer trades in an old car towards the purchase of a newer one
• From a user car wholesaler, who purchase excess inventory from banks and other dealers
• At an auction, where dealers pay to have the car in the auction, and dealers pay to buy used cars
• From a private party, usually through classifieds

Marketing Used Cars Once a used car dealer acquires a car, they will spend on average about $300 in marketing cost to the car off the lot. “Low Gross” dealers will try and make at least $500 of profit on each car. “Middle gross” dealers look to make $1,200–$1,500 per car. “High gross” dealers, who look to make $3,500–$4,500 in gross margin per car, are rare in today’s economy. Used Cars and the Real Estate Market The down turn in the real estate market has actually hurt the use car market in recent months. Most affected are used car dealers in previously hot real estate markets like California and Florida. For example, San Francisco bay area BMW dealers who might have sold 1,000 cars in a 3 month period last year, are off the mark by as much as 70% in the same 3 month period this year! In the past, many home owners would refinance their home and use the proceeds to buy a new or used car – those days are gone for now!

So How Can vFlyer Help?
So how does vFlyer help a used car dealers become more successful in the increasingly competitive marketplace?

• Making your Product Look Good According to Jim, “You have got to make your product look and seem better”. Jim correctly notes that potential car buyers no longer “pack up the wife and kids” and cruise down to the local auto dealer”. Instead they start their search online! The Internet has become their ‘virtual lot’ and buyer are armed with more than just the MSRP! Auto dealers have the option of having their classified ads look ordinary or extraordinary – that’s where vFlyer can help!
• Bigger is Better Jim made an interesting point that in order to capture more of the consumer’s time and attention, bigger is better! Bigger photos, more photos, more information and more options! At vFlyer we allow you to include more photos in your gallery! You can customize flyers to add more information or options. Use the premium layout to make your ads really stand out! Use enhanced HTML templates for Craigslist that feature large photos on Craigslist and more!
• Market Cars on the Internet In the past, the biggest bulk of a used car dealers ad budget went into newspaper. With the advent of the Internet, this has all changed. A medium-sized dealer these days has a monthly marketing budget of $35K-$45k and as much as 25% to 35% is being spend on Internet. Cost-effective vFlyer allow you to significantly improve online distribution without the high cost associated with other marketing options. With vFlyer, you can get your entire inventory online the same day. Unlike TV and radio, the Internet is a point of sales (POS) vehicle that can work in conjunction with brand advertising to increase customer acquisition.

Many MLS Services allow you to add a link to a Virtual Tour for your Listing. In most cases, the MLS restricts the agent from linking to a Virtual Tour that contains their branding and/or Contact Information. vFlyer is pleased to announce that vFlyer now automatically supports an MLS version of the Premium Layout for business subscribers.

Now, when you publish a Real Estate for Sale flyer, we will generate two flyers for you: the flyer as you published it, which will automatically submit to any of our partner sites that you select in the Flyer Editor, and an MLS version of the flyer that hides the Agent/Broker contact information and branding. The MLS version can serve as a Virtual Tour on any MLS listing. You can access the MLS version in two places: from the Publish Confirmation page and from the Post Flyer tab in the Flyer Editor.

Location #1 – Publish Confirmation

Location #2 – Post Flyer

A big thanks to Dave Macklin of Butler Team Homes in Virginia Beach, VA for helping us develop the MLS version of the flyer!