This week, I decided to do something a little different in our Custom Theme of the Week series and highlight several great holiday custom themes that our property management users have created. As you may know, the vFlyer Theme Editor not only allows you to choose the colors and fonts of your themes but also to upload your own background images. The themes I’ve selected here all utilize holiday-themed background images (some of which are animated GIFs, which add a special twist) to great effect. I hope you enjoy these fun and festive flyers as much as we at vFlyer have!

• Eaton Village Apartments in Chico, CA
• Brookwood Club Apartments in Jacksonville, FL
• Canyon Ridge Apartments in Rockwall, TX
• Richmond Green Apartments in Houston, TX
• Sierra Glen Apartments in Citrus Heights, CA
• Sutter Creek Apartments in Arlington, TX
• The Californian Foutain Apartments In South Coast Metro, CA
• Autumn Chase Apartments in Bothell, WA

Thanks to everyone who made such great holiday custom themes this season. And thanks to all the vFlyer users who made custom themes this past year. 2009 saw the creation of hundreds of custom branded themes, only some of which we showcased in our blog. We’re excited to see even more branded themes in 2010! If you’re interested in having a custom branded theme created for you, contact us at support@vflyer.com.

And finally, Happy Holidays from the vFlyer Team!

While this post is coming a few days later than usual, I say better late than never. With that, I’m happy to announce that last week’s custom theme of the week goes to Tasha Moss at Urban Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska. Tasha has created a brand for her company that is fantastic. One look at Urban Omaha’s website shows you this. Tasha’s theme uses the same look and feel as her website and fits perfectly the type of listings she specializes in: modern, upmarket condos, lofts, and townhouses in downtown Omaha. And I love the simplicity of her header image: just the company logo, phone number, and website addess (in other words, the really important stuff).

If you’re interested in getting your own custom branded theme, vFlyer can help! We have in-house designers who can create a custom theme for you based on your specifications. If interested, simply email support@vflyer.com. The regular price for this service is $149. There is a special through the end of the 2009 for just $99.

We’ll be back this coming Friday with another Custom Theme of the Week, so if you’ve created or seen a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, by all means, let us know!

It’s been a busy season at vFlyer. One of the recent changes we made was an overhaul of our affiliate program, in which web publishers can earn money by referring people to vFlyer from their websites. We greatly simplified the process of setting up an affiliate account. You’ll now find an Affiliates link on our website that takes you to our affiliates page, where you can sign up to be a vFlyer affiliate. The sign-up process is incredibly easy and takes just a few minutes. Once you are appoved as an affiliate, it’s simple to place banner ads on your website (see the image below for some examples) or a simple text ad. We also provide you with detailed data on the number of conversions that have come from your website and how much you’ve earned. We’re offering a whopping 50% commission for the first four months of a monthly subscription and a 20% commission of an annual subscription for any conversions that come through your affiliate links.

Also, we tag any visitor to your website that clicks an affiliate link with a 60-day cookie, which means that if someone clicks your affiliate link or banner ad and then signs up for vFlyer within 60 days, you’ll still earn a commission.

If you have a website, blog, or other web property and are interested in promoting vFlyer and making some extra money, sign up to be a vFlyer affiliate! If you have any questions, please contact affiliate@vflyer.com.

Seeing as it’s almost Thanksgiving, I want to give thanks to all of our users who have created custom themes over the last year. We’ve seen lots of spectacular themes made with our Theme Editor and have spotlighted just a fraction of them on our blog. To those of you who have created custom themes, thanks for taking advantage of a great feature of the vFlyer service and for making awesome-looking flyers.

WIth that, I’m happy to announce that this week’s Custom Theme of the Week goes to Mike Davis at The Car Store in Everett, Washington. His theme has a really nice header image that he modified from the header on his website and that has a nice balance of text and images. I like it because it provides ample information while looking very professional and well laid out. I also like that the colors in the theme all work well together.

Another great thing Mike does is he uses his custom theme on his Account Profile, making a very nice looking inventory website. This is a very useful feature of vFlyer for auto dealers.

We’ll be back in two weeks with another Custom Theme of the Week, so if you have a custom theme or have seen someone else’s and think it should be celebrated, drop us a line at support@vflyer.com.

After a brief hiatus of the CTOTW series, we’re back in style with a lovely custom theme from Sheldon and Rachel Hart of the Columbia River Gorge area in southern Washington. I love their header image: practically a work of art in itself, it contains a dramatic illustration and only the most important information that the authors want to convey to their potential customers, in this case, their website address. It’s beautiful in its simplicity and effectiveness. The rest of the theme, from the color scheme to the fonts they chose, are in perfect harmony with each other. And it’s just a great looking flyer, with high-resolution photos, a handsome logo, and a good amount of information; it’s thorough without being overwhelming.

For a useful introduction to creating and using custom themes, take a look at this series of short video tutorials on our website.

Through the end of this month, we’re offering a free custom branded theme to any auto dealer or service provider with an annual subscription. If you fall under one of these categories, contact support@vflyer.com to claim your free theme. If you have a monthly subscription, we can create a custom theme for you for a discount price of $59.

Again, kudos to Sheldon and Rachel for making such a nice custom theme. If you want your custom theme spotlighted or have come across a custom theme that you think is great, let us know! We love to see the fantastic themes that our users are creating.

Our friend, Ryan Hinricher from Investor Nation in Memphis recently told us that he wanted to be able to email a set of featured listings to his mailing list. We thought it was a great idea, so we introduced the feature for all vFlyer business subscribers. This means that in addition to being able to email a single Flyer through your vFlyer account, you can now create a list of up to seven listings and send the list in a single email. You can choose from four different layouts for the email and apply any standard themes or custom themes in your account to the email. Here’s an example of a featured listings email:

Pretty cool, right? You can access this new feature by clicking the Account tab, then clicking the Email Flyer List sub-tab. To create a list, simply click Create New List and choose the Flyers and/or Teasers that you want to include. Then choose the layout and theme for the email, type a subject line, enter or import the email addresses you are sending to, and send it off.  We even provide the HTML content of the email in case you want to send via another email service. 

We hope you enjoy the new Featured Flyers email option. If you have feedback on it or other feature requests, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

On Sunday night, we launched a new mobile landing pages for iPhone, Blackberry, G1 by Google (Android), and other mobile platforms. The new format is tailored to mobile devices and makes it significantly easier to view a Flyer from an iPhone, G1 phone, or another mobile phone.

Now, if you send a Flyer link to someone and that person opens the link on his or her iPhone, it automatically redirects to the new mobile format. This makes navigating the Flyer from the iPhone a snap. There are easy-to-read tabs for the Flyer overview, features, map, YouTube video, links, and other components of the ad. You can even share the Flyer on Facebook and Twitter in just a couple clicks.

As the number of iPhone users (and Android phone users, for that matter) continues to grow, the new mobile format will become increasingly important for vFlyer users because more and more of their colleagues and prospects will be accessing their Flyer content on these devices.

We hope to add more mobile features to our service in the near future. If you have any feedback on the new mobile format or ideas for other mobile capabilities, let us know by sending them to support@vflyer.com.

When we received an email this week from vFlyer subscriber Christa Ross, we couldn’t help but admire her wonderful custom theme. As an agent with RE/MAX Select Realty in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Christa has done a fantastic job of branding herself as “Your Certified Green Agent” (as you can see on her very nice website) and has taken that branding and applied it to her vFlyer content in a very elegant way. Her branding is unique, instantly appealing, and truly contemporary. I’ve written before about the importance of branding yourself so that potential customers remember you and recognize your ads when they see them, but I can’t overstate how critical this is, especially when so many others are advertising their products and services online. If you have a website already with your branding on it (as Christa does), it’s an easy jump from there to creating a custom branded theme in the vFlyer Theme Editor. Creating consistency in all your online marketing content reinforces your brand and makes it more likely that you will increase your number of leads and, consequently, clients.

Any vFlyer business subscriber can create a branded custom theme and use it in his or her Flyers and Account Profile. For a useful introduction to creating and using custom themes, take a look at this series of short video tutorials on our website. If you have an annual subscription, we can have one of our designers create a custom theme for you at no charge. If you have a monthly subscription, we can create a custom theme for you for a discount price of $79. If you’re interested, contact support@vflyer.com. Both of these offers are good through October 31, 2009.

We’ll be back next Friday with another Custom Theme of the Week, so if you’ve created or seen a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, let us know!

Over the last month we’ve been running a promotion for free custom branded themes to our new and existing annual subscribers. We got a flood of requests for themes from our members and were only too happy to supply them! The promotion ended at the end of August, but I wanted to highlight some of the great custom themes our designers created last month:

• Donna Baker at Dickson Podley Real Estate in Monrovia, California
• Red Oak Property Management in Manchester, New Hampshire
• Michael Cervelli Real Estate in North Bergen, New Jersey
• Goldleaf Development in Madison, Wisconsin
• Mosser Company in San Francisco, California
• Stead Automotive Group in Richmond, California

Though the theme promotion has ended, we are extending our discount offer of $59 for a custom branded theme for any vFlyer subscriber through the end of September. So contact support@vflyer.com if you’re interested in getting your own custom theme like the beautiful ones above.

We’ll be back next Friday with another custom theme of the week, so if you’ve created or seen a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

This week, I wanted to showcase a custom theme designed by our very own design team at vFlyer. It seems only fitting, given that this month we are offering a free custom theme to the first 50 existing annual subscribers who contact us and the first 100 new annual subscribers. (For more on this promotion, click here.) I chose a theme from Donna Baker at Dickson Podley Real Estate in Monrovia, California. Donna’s theme incorporates the design of her website (which is great, by the way) so that her vFlyer listings are perfectly integrated with her other web content.

While any vFlyer user can create a custom theme, and any business subscriber can create a theme using a branded header image, it makes it a lot easier to have a professional designer create a custom theme for you! If you’ve been considering upgrading to a vFlyer business subscription, or switching from a monthly to an annual subscription, this month is a great time to do it. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of having consistent branding across your online marketing content, and this is your opportunity to get a custom branded theme for free! The promotion ends on August 31.

As always, we’ll be back next Friday with another custom theme of the week, so if you’ve created or seen a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

Welcome to the future of online advertising. Don’t stay silent in the crowded online marketplace. Speak up and give voice to your advertisements with our new innovative vFlyer Voice service. vFlyer Voice allows you to easily record voice narration that will play when people view your Flyers. Adding narration to your listings elevates them from simple slide shows to all-out virtual tours.

Did I mention that vFlyer Voice is incredibly easy to use? How easy, you ask? It’s as simple as answering a phone call. To record your voice messages, simply enter your telephone number in the vFlyer Voice application and our system will call you and enable you to record your narration over the phone. It’s really that easy.

You can record voice annotations for each photo in the slideshow or record a single message for your entire Flyer slideshow. The choice is yours. See vFlyer Voice in action…

One voice recording for each photo

One voice recording for the entire slideshow

vFlyer voice is available only to vFlyer business subscribers, so if you don’t have a business subscription, upgrade today to take advantage of this groundbreaking advertising tool. Why stay quiet? Speak up and unleash the power of your listings with vFlyer Voice.

Our custom theme of the week comes to us from Olga Katon at Park Place Real Estate Services in Chicago. This is one of my favorite branded themes I’ve come across for a few reasons. First, I love the look of the branding: urban, edgy, and sophisticated but also fun at the same time. Second, I like how well Olga utilizes the space of the header; she includes not only the company name and logo but also the office address, phone number, and email address. Third, all the colors in the theme work really well together.

I should note that this is the third Chicago-area company that we’ve highlighted in our Custom Theme of the Week series (the other two being Caliendo Automotive and Vranas Properties). Chicago must be a very design-oriented city! We’ll have to see if other cities (New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston…) can compete with Chicago in its output of great custom themes.

As always, we’ll be back next Friday with another custom theme of the week, so if you’ve created or seen a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

Beginning July 1, all California Realtors will need to include their CA DRE license number on any “solicitation materials intended to be the first point of contact with consumers,” as stated in a bill passed by the California State Senate (SB 1461). While the new amendment excludes electronic media, since vFlyer also provides print content for our users, we wanted to make sure that they had a way to include their DRE license number on their Flyers. That’s why we introduced an Additional Info field in the Account Profile, where you can enter not only your CA DRE license number but also other information, such as a mobile phone number. And given that different states have different laws regarding real estate advertising, the Additional Info field gives users more flexibility in terms of what information gets included in their Flyers and Account Profile.

You can find the Additional Info field on your Account page. Any text you enter in this field will appear in the Contact Information section of your Flyers (see images below).

Thanks to Chris Crane at Red Oak Realty, Kristine Johnson at Gallagher & Lindsey Realtors, and Jason Born of Signature Realty & Mortgage, Inc., for providing us with useful feedback on the new California law.

If you need assistance, call or email vFlyer Support.

We’re introducing a new blog feature, the “Custom Theme of the Week”. We have so many great custom themes that our members have created using the Theme Editor and their own creativity and resourcefulness, we decided we had to show them off to the rest of the world. This week’s custom theme is from Ryan Hinricher at InvestorNation. Ryan made great use of an uploaded background image and a header image that’s seamlessly integrated with the background. I especially like the upward-pointing arrow in the logo and the contrast of white and blue between the header and background; it gives me a whole new way of thinking about what’s possible with the Theme Editor. Everyone on my team is quite impressed by this custom theme. Nice work, Ryan!

vFlyer’s Theme Editor enables any user to create his or her own custom theme and any business subscriber to upload a branded header image to a theme. It’s a great way of making your Flyers stand out from the rest, and the branding capabilities for business subscribers provide a vehicle for putting your brand front and center on your Flyers. For a useful introduction to creating and using custom themes, take a look at this series of short video tutorials on our website.

We expect to post a new theme every Friday, so keep an eye out for more fantastic custom themes. And if you’ve created a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com!

The last few weeks have been busy at vFlyer and I wanted to fill you in on some of the great new features we’ve introduced in that time. There are four new features and capabilities in particular that I want to highlight:

First, we added 8 new Craigslist layouts for our vFlyer business subscribers when you publish a Flyer using a custom theme. Now you can choose how your flyers will look on Craigslist. You want bigger photos? Check. You want creative and attractive layouts? Check. See for yourself… New Craigslist Layouts. Also, visit the vFlyer Support Wiki for information on how to use these new Craigslist Layouts.

Second, we enhanced our print content for our vFlyer business subscribers. Now when you print a Flyer that uses a custom theme, you will get a whole second page full of photos. This feature was added due to the popular demand of our users. You see… we do actually listen to you. There are more print layouts on the way.

Third, we added a new narrow blog layout for our vFlyer business subscribers. The blog layout is 480 pixels wide and thus fits most major blog sites including Active Rain and Localism. When you publish a flyer with a custom theme, you can access the blog layout HTML by selecting Blog from the HTML drop-down menu. Then all you have to do is copy and paste the HTML to the blog of your choice. It’s that easy!

Last but not least, you can now share your Flyers on Twitter. When you publish a Flyer, a Share on Twitter link will appear under the More Options section on the right side of the Publish Successful page. We have even created a special shortened URL for Twitter that fits well within the 140 character limit. If you want to get the word out about your Flyer, use Twitter and you can connect with millions of others. For more information on the rapidly increasing popularity of Twitter, check out this article from TechCrunch.

We hope you enjoy these new features. As we continue to enhance our services to make vFlyer better and better, feel free to offer any suggestions you have on how we can make vFlyer work best for you. Send your feedback to support@vflyer.com. We look forward to hearing from you!