Go Beyond MLS » Vlad Zablotskyy

Reply.com Not On A Good Side of Contra Costa District Attorney

Vlad Zablotskyy — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:11:00 +0000

Many real estate agents familiar with Reply.com, might find the bellow piece of information rather interesting. The information is posted on BBB.org website on Reply.com profile. I will however put it here in it’s entirety. I don’t believe that $70,000 in fines will put a dent into Reply.com’s finances. After all Reply.com did file for IPO and once Reply.com’s stock starts trading there will be rivers of milk and honey flowing in San Ramon and surroundings…. Or something to that effect, unless the “IPO spoof” was really a “for sale” sign.

Enough said, here is what apparently took place in the beginning of this year:

On January 21, 2011 the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office entered into a Final Judgment and Permanent Injunction with Reply! Inc., Case no.: C11-00208.
Without any admission of wrong doing the injunction applies to Reply! Inc., its agents, employees, officers, managers, representatives, successors, and assigns when acting on behalf of defendant.
Reply! Inc. is hereby permanently enjoined and restrained from directly or indirectly doing the following during telephone solicitations of real estate agents for the sale of real estate leads (Leads).
a. Representing that use of Leads may result in an average or anticipated close rate, unless Defendant is able to produce data based on the experience of customers who have purchased Leads from Defendant supporting any such representation.
b. Representing that Defendant’s lead service can be cancelled at any time unless defendant also discloses: that written notice of cancellation is required; the period of time that will elapse before the cancellation is effective; and that, until the effective date of the cancellation, the real estate agent will continue to receive leads and be billed for such leads.
c. Representing that real estate agent will not be charged for invalid Leads or will receive a credit for invalid leads, unless Defendant also discloses the time limit within the request for credit must be received;
d. Representing that credit will be given for invalid Leads, unless Defendant also discloses that no credit will be given as long as the name and telephone number provided with the Lead are valid, even if the Lead does not respond to the real estate agent or does not want to be contact.
e. Representing that Leads are “valid”, “validated”, “good”, “screened”, “qualified”, “verified”, or words to that effect, unless Defendant discloses: (1) the validation, screening, qualification, verification or other such process is automated and as a result some Leads will have invalid names or telephone numbers, (2) even for such invalid Leads, the real estate agent must make a request for credit within the time limit for such request and in accordance with company policy, (3) Leads are not screened for credit worthiness; and (4) some Leads may not respond to the real estate agent or want to buy or sell real estate.
f. Representing that any Lead will actually be interested in buying or selling real estate, unless defendant also discloses that Leads are generated through Defendant’s websites and affiliated websites, and consist of people who are looking online for real estate information.
g. Representing that any leads consist of people who are seeking a realtor or expect to or who expect to be contacted by a realtor, unless Defendant also discloses that: a Lead is created when a consumer completes and submits a form on the Internet requesting real estate information; including home valuations, and provides a phone number at which they can be reached; and (2) Defendant does not guarantee that the consumer will actually be interested in buying or selling real estate or that the agent will make contact with the Lead.
h. Representing that the real estate agent may accept or reject Leads.
Reply! Inc. shall pay civil penalties in the amount of $40,000.00 and investigative cost related to this matter in the amount of $30,000.

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Denise Lones Says She Was Subjected To “Cyber-Harassment”

Vlad Zablotskyy — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:33:50 +0000

I know many of my friends in real estate have been following the Lones vs Daniel Rothamel saga for quiet sometime now. I am not sure what to think about the video bellow. Denise Lones appears to be insisting that her law suit against Daniel should have remained a private matter. What do you think? Dou you believe she is correct to insist that no one had the right to talk and/or write about her lawsuit against Daniel? Watch the video and share your comments:

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Last Time About Ben Behrouzi, LeapFish or Dotnext… Promise!

Vlad Zablotskyy — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 15:23:31 +0000

Ben (Behnam) Behrouzi, the CEO of Dotnext Inc., and his startups (namely ePerks and LeapFish) had been often at the center of my attention in the past three years. I had good intentions to abandon the topic in the past. But there was always something in the back of my mind that prevented me from staying away from Mr. Behrouzi and his schemes. Just little over two years ago, the CEO of LeapFish and Dotnext Inc., being dissatisfied with the outcome of the lawsuit he brought against me, he purchased two domain names (vladzablotskyy.net and vladzablotskyy.org) with a clear intent to damage my reputation – a threat that Mr. Behrouzi has never carried out. As of today it appears that Mr. Behrouzi will not be renewing the above mentioned domain names. This of course leaves me with no reason to continue my coverage of Mr. Behrouzi and his “startups”. Should the above mentioned domains be renewed, I will make sure to post an update.

Happy, healthy and prosperous 2011 everyone!Similar Posts:

LeapFish.com Pays $85,000 in settlement and flees to Los Angeles.

Vlad Zablotskyy — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:21:43 +0000

Against all odds, against predictions of tech industry insiders and against my own speculations, LeapFish.com, a company I have covered extensively over the last two years, is still around. This Internet startup and a self-proclaimed “fastest search engine on the planet” avoided filing for bankruptcy and, according to most recent court documents, have payed $85,000.00 in the settlement of the lawsuit between Christie Cortellessa and Dotnext Inc, the parent company of LeapFish.com. Even thought the case is not officially over yet, all things indicate that LeapFish will put this one behind them soon.

Meanwhile the company has announce both on their official blog as well as via Twitter their intention to open new office in Los Angeles:

LeapFish.com announces opening of a new office in Los Ageles on Twitter

According to a blog post at http://blog.leapfish.com/ that announces the move, the company is hiring Inside Sales Professionals, Client Services Professionals and Search Marketing (SEM) Professionals.

Am I the only one who finds it strange that an Internet company would move away from Silicon Valley? Evidently I am not the only one. Even former LeapFish.com telemarketers appear to be surprised:

Back in San Francisco area the trouble for LeapFish is far from over. There is one more ongoing lawsuit in California Northern District Court- Ellis v. DotNext Inc. Can that be a reason why LeapFish.com is moving to Los Angeles?

Of course there might be some benefits from being near Hollywood celebrities. A tweet by Ashton Kutcher or Ellen DeGeneres can send millions of visitors to LeapFish. Easier said than done? Perhaps. Some Hollywood celebrities have already been heavily criticized for promoting companies that engage in questionable practices, which may make other celebrities more cautious.

No matter how you look at it, the future (if there is any) of LeapFish.com is still clouded in question.

Disclosure, everything written above is exclusively my personal opinion.Similar Posts:

In The Spotlight: Josh Dorkin and BiggerPockets.com

Vlad Zablotskyy — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 16:39:04 +0000

I am not a real estate investor. I managed only to last as a real estate agent for about 3 or months back in 2005. But you do not need to bee a real estate investor or real estate professional to know about BiggerPockets – an online community of real estate investors. All you need is a slight interest in real estate investment and Google. Chances are that if you have ever researched something related to real estate investing, you have stumbled across BiggerPockets.com.

I am always fascinated by a good website but more so by its founder(s). Every time I visit one, I immediately start to research who was behind it. So was the case with BiggerPockets a few years back. As soon as I visited the website for the first time I wanted to know who was behind it. It is extremely inspiring to learn from people like Josh Dorkin, the founder of BiggerPockets.com.

Josh started the the website in 2004 and today BiggerPockets is an extremely vibrant community of real estate investors with over 60,000 active members.

If you are like me, wondering why did Josh start such a website, watch the video bellow:

In addition to being a great learning place for beginner investors BiggerPockets features hundreds investment properties.

And here is another short video in which Josh tells you how you can benefit from being a part of BiggerPockets- the community of real estate investors:

I am not sure if I ever venture into real estate investing myself. If I do, BiggerPockets will be the first place I will turn to and not the “real-estate-”gurus”-who-sell-their-books-on-TV”. BiggerPockets is a community of real investors many of whom are more experienced and more successful that any given “guru” you see selling their books on TV.

I understand that Josh is planing to make plenty of new videos for BiggerPockets- so I might be posting few of those in the future.

Now go and explore this wonderful resource of real estate investing!Similar Posts:

This Website Can Be Yours! Starting Bid On Ebay – $15,000!

Vlad Zablotskyy — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:03:28 +0000

After rather lengthy deliberation on how to price this website for sale, I have decided to list it today at $15,000 on eBay as 10 day auction.

If you have no time to read the eBay listing, here is a short run down of things:

Go-Beyon-MLS.com is being auctioned on as is basis.
In addition to the website (both domain name and content and control over RSS subscriptions) the winning bidder will also assume control of Twitter Account as Facebook Fan Page (consider it as a free added bonus) associated with this website as neither will be of any use to me once the website sells.

I make this post sticky and will update it as the auction progresses and I find that some important questions should be answered and clarifications made.

I will also use this post to make a daily note about this auction, just like the one bellow:

Firday, October 15, 2010 minutes after listing went live: There is barely any activity as far as views/watchers are concerned only 2 views and you guessed it – 0 watchers. Hopefully things will change soon.Similar Posts:

The End Of Dotnext and LeapFish???

Vlad Zablotskyy — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:47:05 +0000

Shortly after publishing the previous post, an anonymous comment was submitted via contact form of the website.

Here is what it said:

just so you know, Ms. Slader is the only employee left at Dotnext. Everyone was let go yesterday

Note to new readers: Dotnext Inc is a parent company of LeapFish.

The Contra Costa Time in fact confirms that Dotnext has been “downsizing” while quoting the CEO of the company:

….”The company has downsized,” said Ben Behrouzi, a Danville resident who is founder and principal executive at DotNext….
…At its peak a few months ago, DotNext had about 100 workers. Now it has about 15, Behrouzi estimated. Numerous employees were let go this week…

The real reason for downsizing and possible bankruptcy maybe directly related to a lawsuit…

Cortellessa vs Dotnext Inc

For the sake of brevity(you can find all the documents of this case on Alameda County Superior Court’s Website), I will only provide copies some documents. Bellow is the copy of the original complaint:
Cortellessa vs Dotnext

According to court’s documents Ms. Cortellessa and the class action members in the above lawsuit were awarded a settlement of $85,000:
Cortellessa vs Dotnext – Judgement
However recently filed “Notice of Defendants’ Failure to Deposit Settlement Payment with Settlement Administrator Filed” says it all – Dotnext/LeapFish failed to pay:
Cortellessa vs Dotnext – Failure to Deposit Settlement Payment

A “Civil Order of Examination (Order) Issued” suggest that Dotnext Inc may have some explaining to do about inability to pay the settlement:
Cortellessa vs Dotnext – Civil Order of Examination

The above document which was filed on August 3, 2010 states that the Defendant Dotnext/LeapFish is considering “bankruptcy or other form of liquidation of assets”(to see the full size of the image bellow just click on it):

In the August 12, 2010 article by George Avalos of Contra Costa Times, CEO of Dotnext/Leapfish continues to deny any rumors about possible bankruptcy:

“We’re not filing for bankruptcy,” Behrouzi said. “We haven’t even considered filing for it.”

No matter what the end result of this ongoing lawsuit may be, those familiar with the story of LeapFish may ask what happened to the $10M LeapFish allegedly raised in the pre-launch phase? Of course the bigger question is whether or not LeapFish will be able to bounce back and recover from this “unpleasant setback”?

Disclosure: The above post is my personal opinion and does not represent official position on the issue of any of my clients or my business partners. Comments (if any) bellow do not represent my opinion nor do they represent position on this topic of my clients and business partners.

Related Posts Elsewhere:
Cuil No Longer – Leapfish To Deadpool Next? – Andy Beard predicts LeapFish heading straight into the deadpool.
Leapfish To Deadpool Next? – the one and only Lord Matt agrees with Andy’s prediction on his fantastic website.Similar Posts:

Bloggers Are Disgusting & Twisted… According to LeapFish Employee.

Vlad Zablotskyy — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:54:12 +0000

LeapFish has been given a cold shoulder on many occasions by the leading technology blogs. However, today the things you say on the internet tend to stick around, something LeapFish management and employees fail to understand over and over again.

Ms. Slader, who according to her several online profiles is an executive assistant of Dontnext, Inc. as well as company called LeapFish.com wrote the following Tweet:

I rarely challenge people about what they say on twitter, unless their profile clearly states association with a particular company or institution.

Here is what Ms. Slader’s profile says as of the writing of this article:

Therefore my challenge to Ms. Slader was purely based on her representing a particular company, otherwise Ms. Slader would have never learned of my existence:

Ms. Slader took my comment as a threat:

While overlooking the vicious and very personal attack on my hair style (see my twitter profile picture to see what I am talking about) I would like to clarify one thing, should Ms. Slader cared enough to read this post. My tweet was not to threaten or scare anyone. What I really hoped for, in fact, was that Ms. Slader would get the hint and delete that hasty tweet, before it added more embarrassment to LeapFish’s already struggling reputation.

I also believe that Ms. Slader did not come to a conclusion that “bloggers are disgusting & twisted” on her own, but rather was influenced by her boss(es) or coworkers. Perhaps while taking notes during one of company executives meetings? Therefore it makes more difficult to explain her vicious and personal attack based on disliking my “fictional haircut”, a courtesy of YearBookYourself.com. I only wish I had such a beautiful set of hair!!!

The moral of the story??? Do you know if your secretary is active on Twitter or Facebook? Do you know what is she/he saying? Does it make your company look bad? Should you ask her/him to make their tweets private and hidden from the outside world???

In my opinion, Ms. Slader would be better off calling out, Matt Brown, Robin Wauters, Jolie O’Dell, Trace Richardson, Marshall Kirkpatrick and few others rather than making a “blanket” statements directed towards bloggers in general. Could it be that Ms. Slader is not aware of the fact that LeapFish.com awarded numbers of bloggers with Wiis, personal computers, iPads and plans to award $50,000 in cash in exchange for “good” publicity?

Disclosure: The above post is my personal opinion. No one paid or offered me any gifts to write the above posts.I believe Ms. Slader is good and hardworking individual. I believe Ms. Slader’s opinion of bloggers may have been influenced by others, perhaps even her boss(es). It is possible Ms. Slader made the above statements against her own will.Similar Posts:

Selling Your Website or Blog: eBay vs Flippa.com

Vlad Zablotskyy — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:06:25 +0000

When I wrote about my intention to sell this blog, I certainly did not expect to still be it’s owner more than one month down the road. I would like to thank those offering feedback. Most of those providing the feedback agreed that when it comes to decidea price/value/worth of a website, the buyer will have a final say.

Exposing this website to as many potential buyers as possible may not be as easy as initially envisioned. Part of me sincerely hope that the future owner of this website will be one of the regular readers or subscribers. I understand, however that my hope may not realize. Meanwhile two website come to mind where I can sell this blog: eBay and Flippa.com. I am still uncertain which one to use.

Selling Website or Blog on eBay
Being the King of online auctions it is no wonder eBay attracts thousands of sellers who try to sell website or blog. Yesterday (July 6, 2010) for example 1,591 auctions ended in the category “Internet Businesses & Websites“. The bad news, however, is that only about 120 the those listings actually sold. Two highest auctions ended in $8,100.00 and $13,990.00 – one of these buyers did not get a good deal in my opinion. While eBay certainly can expose you “website or blog for sale” to a larger “audience”, there is good chance you may end up selling you website to some one with very little experience as far as websites and Internet business are concerned. This is certainly not my Intention. I do not want to sell this blog for more than it’s true value is. I was surprised however to see so many auctions ending not being sold for as little as $0.99- surely the domain name along should be worth more than that.

Selling Website or Blog on Flippa.com
Flippa.com is a relatively new website and unlike eBay is exclusively dedicated to buying and selling websites.
It of course attracts completely different kind of buyers and sellers – both buyers and sellers on Flippa.com know what they are doing. It appears that half of the websites listed at Flippa.com end up being sold. Take for example the listing from yesterday, July 6, 2010, out of 89 ended auctions 47 were sold. Even though Flippa.com has a slightly higher listing fee ($19+5% success fee)- it offers more flexibility when the length of the auction is concerned. If you list your website or domain at Flippa.com as public auction you can have it active up to 30 days and up to 6 months if you list your website as a “private sale”.

Since I have never sold a website or domain before, I created following poll to find out if you prefere Flippa over eBay:

As of today, I am leaning towards Flippa.com….Similar Posts:

Make Your Google Local Listing “Stand Out” For $25 Per Month

Vlad Zablotskyy — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:00:16 +0000

It was not the question of “if” but rather “when” would Google finally monetize on their “free” service called Googe Places (aka “Google Local Ads” and “Google Local Business Center”). If you have not logged into your account today, there is a surprise waiting for you. Google is offering you to “yellow tag” some features on your listing for a flat $25 per month fee. Depending on your choice, a yellow tag will appear in your listing, which should encourage internet users visit your website, browse your business’ photos and videos or read the “Google place posts“:

I was trying to find, without any success, a business using this new “advertising” opportunity with Google. Maybe because it is new.

Should you jump on using this new “yellow tagging” advertising? It all depends. If your listing is already getting good results, above described yellow tag can draw more eye-balls to your listing. The good news is that you can give it a try for one month to see how well will it work for your business.

Have you seen these “yellow tags” around yet?

UPDATE, June 25, 2010: Apparently Google has been rolling out tags from city to city since April 20, 2010. I understand, however, that at this time not every one has this option in their Google Places Accout… yet.Similar Posts:

Would You Pay $234,706 For This Blog?

Vlad Zablotskyy — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:10:01 +0000

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to downsize as far my websites and blogs are concerned. You probably guested alredy, Go Beyond MLS will be for sale soon, maybe days from now. To be honest I have never sold a website before, so this list of online website value estimators was rather handy to help me write this post. As you can see bellow the estimate range from over $200,000 to $103 (some of the widgets bellow may change by the time I publish this post though). So here are some of the estimates along with my thoughts on some of them…

Markosweb.com estimate www.go-beyond-mls.com at over $200,000
Yes I am with you. I could not believe what I saw either. Sure I would like to think this blog is worth that much, but most likely it is not worth that much. One never knows, however.

When I showed this to my wife, I told her that I am willing to give my car to any one who might be willing to make this offer. She said she would give hers as well. So if you decide to make this offer you will receive a bonus, two sedans in “as is” condition!

Dane Carlson’s widget estimates the worth of this blog at about $25,000.

My blog is worth $24,839.76.
How much is your blog worth?

Dane Carlson’s blog value estimator has been around for some time now.

I remember coming across this widget about 4 years ago and as many other bloggers would check it out to satisfy my ego and dream of the time my websites would make me filthy-rich.

Not sure how correct this estimation is, I would however seriously consider an offer of this amount.

But my guts are telling me that when I list this website for sale and bids will not likely to reach this amount. Only time will show.

No cars as a bonus with will be given to any one who offers this amount, sorry.

Good folks at Websitevaluecalculator.com think this blog is worth only $103?

My site is worth $103.
How much is yours worth?

Come on guys, give me a break! Really???

Considering the yearly cost of domain, plus the web hosting costs your guesstimate is laughable at best. I do want to recover some of that.

Besides if I made the estimate considering ad/affiliate revenue along it would be worth much more than that.

In fact, I believe that the link from this post to your not so cool website value “guesstimator” is probably worth more than that!

Seriously guys, give me a brake.

Initially I wanted to comment on every estimate in this post, however most of these estimators rely on a third part tools and are not always accurate. Most of them are designed for no other purpose than “link-bait”. Neither would I recommend that you would use these tools if you ever decide to sell your blog or website.

I am sure you can find all the tools I mentioned so far and the ones bellow amusing and entertaining. The truth is I will rely on none of them to determine the amount I think this blog is worth.

If you are interested in purchasing this blog, or just be a spectator of an interesting auction (most likely via eBay) you should do one of the following: subscribe to this blog, follow this blog on Twitter or become fan on Facebook.

Bellow are some other guesstimates of this blog’s worth:

URLAppraisal.net guesstimates Go Beyond MLS worth at $17,110.83:

$17,110.83

How Much is Your Site Worth?

Websiteoutlook.com guesstimates the worth of Go Beyond MLS at $14439.40:

My site is worth $14439.4.
How much is yours worth?

DNScoop.com guesstimates the worth of Go Beyond MLS at $3,450:

My Site is worth
$3,450

How much is
your site worth?

Sitevaluecalculator.com guesstimates the worth of Go Beyond MLS at $3,520:

Site Value
Calculator

Values this site at
$3,520

Ninjawebappraise.com guesstimates the worth of Go Beyond MLS at $3,582:

My site is worth $3,582.
How much is yours worth?

Yourwebsitevalue.com guesstimates the worth of Go Beyond MLS at $6,316:

Sootle.com guesstimates the worth of Go Beyond MLS at $36,719:

This website is worth
What is your website worth?

Valuemyweb.com guesstimates the worth of Go Beyond MLS at $1,962:

$1,962

Website Calculator

There probably dozen of other similar website “valuation” tools I could have used, but I seriously see no purpose of doing so. At the end the value of this website will be determined by the highest bid/offer. Admittedly, I am very excited about the entire process. If you are interested as well, stay tuned to hear more news on the subject soon.Similar Posts:

Free Press Releases at PRLog: Benefits and Drawbacks

Vlad Zablotskyy — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:07:22 +0000

I have learned about PRLog years years ago, maybe two. If my memory serves me well, I received some marketing materials from them regarding the launch of PRLog and their sister site Article Library at http://artilib.org/. While the idea was interesting, did not look further into using PRLog because I did not believe they will be able to compete with the websites like PRWeb – another leading press release distribution website. PRLog has improved since, and I have been using their services for the last two months.

The PRLog review by Janet Meiners Thaeler inspired me to take another look at their services. But today I would like to list a few benefits along with drawbacks of my own about using PRLog.

The Benefits:

It’s Free
To submit a press release to PRLog does not cost you a penny. In today’s economy it’s a plus I suppose.

Your Press Releases at PRLog go live with a click of the button.
I have used the PRLog for 5 press releases so far- all of them went live right after I clicked the “publish” button. This can be useful if you need to get your news out fast and do not have time to wait through the approval process other website have in place.

PRLog is ranking well in Google and their traffic is on the rise.
I have noticed that all of my press release were crawled by Google within minutes of them going live. One of the press releases has a Google Page rank of 3 while four other press releases have page rank of 2. According to Alexa PRLog’s traffic has been rising steadily over the last several months and according to Compete they are averaging about 1 million visitors each month.

The Drawbacks

Poor click through to your website.
Press releases at PRLog seem to get more views as the “age” – considering that one of the goals of a press release is to “announce” news, it is somewhat backward. Even as the views of your press releases increase I also find that click through to your websites do not.

No control over the anchor text in your links.
When publishing a press release at PRLog, your links are just converted to a clickable URLs. Considering the possible SEO value you maybe able to get from using PRLog, the ability to have control anchor text should be considered by PRLog developers.

PRLog press releases do not get republished on other sites as much as one would wish…
In comparison to other similar websites, press releases from PRLog do not appear to draw much attention from publishers and webmasters. EzineArticles.com will get you better results as far as this goes.

To conclude I wish to say that PRLog has come a long way. If your advertising budget does not allow you to purchase press release services, PRLog should be considered as an option- you can’t beat the free price tag. However you should not expect great results on a single press release at PRLog.Similar Posts:

Get Well Joe!

Vlad Zablotskyy — Tue, 11 May 2010 18:38:21 +0000

Joe Ferrara

This morning as I was gazing at my Twitter account, I saw a tweet about Jay Thompson’s post – Joe Ferrara Needs Our Help. Not the news I wanted to hear today.

According to Jay’s post, Joe was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and is currently in an Intensive Care Unit in a New York hospital.

I have never met Joe in person. Joe however left a lasting impression on me during the few phone conversations we have had in the past.

My wife and I wish Joe a speedy recovery. If you can help Joe and his family with medical bills make sure to click the button bellow – Jay Thompson is coordinating the donation fund for Joe.

Make sure to grab the following code to post the donation button on your website:

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Go Beyond MLS Facebook Page

Vlad Zablotskyy — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:20:45 +0000

After Matt’s fantastic introduction to what I think will be number series of posts about Facebook Marketing- it is finally time to announce the Facebook Page of Go Beyond MLS, even thought Matt did it in some ways. The main reason for not promoting this page before, was my own confusion about pages an apps on Facebook.

A while back I have tried to use a WordPress plugin called Facebook Connect by Sociable. To use this plugin an application was created for this blog on Facebook for the purposes of showing latest Facebook visitors, register new users once they left a comments etc. In the end I gave up on using the plugin since it had some flaws at the time I did not want to deal with.

In short, I confused them (Facebook Apps and Facebook Pages). However, after creating a Facebook page for Chocolate Belles, a business I have been advising about internet marketing over the past two years, I found a new appreciation of Facebook Pages and how useful can it be for any business. But I have to leave it at this, sine Matt plans to share more useful tips about Facebook and all it has to offer to help you with you online marketing efforts.

In the meanwhile if you do not see your picture in the widget bellow, chances are you not yet the fan of Go Beyond MLS on Facebook, please join us and don’t be shy to interact with us on Facebook.

Go Beyond MLS on Facebook

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More Nofollow Tags On Twitter: Is This Beginning Of The End For Twitter?

Vlad Zablotskyy — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:14:16 +0000

UPDATE, March 2, 2010: After experimenting with a plugin for Google Buzz, I have decided not to use on at this time. All available plugins as of now offer to ad comments to Google Reader items- this potentially can scatter the discussion all over places. Hopefully a better solution will be implemented soon.

With the arrival of Google Buzz, I began to question whether or not I should continue to concentrate on Twitter. I hope I am not the only one. Two days ago Twitter decided to intruduce even more “nofollow” attributes this time to their internal linking structure. I understood (but did not agree) when they introduced the first round of nofollow attributes to their links, I guess as young startup you needed to do what you needed to do.

So today I have replaced the Tweetmeme button (courtesy of Tweetmeme ) with new and shiny Google Buzz button (courtesy of Hameedullah Khan). The Tweetmeme button was moved to the button of each post. This is just a symbolic gesture of my personal dissatisfaction of the way Twitter is “innovating”, I have nothing but love for Tweetmeme.

Twitter has bigger issues to deal with….

For Twitter trying to manipulating the flow of the Google juice at this stage of the game is really childish, and if that is the reason for the latest change I just feel sorry for Twitter. Really guys, is this the best you’ve got? Now if the recent change was made as a further attempt to eliminate spam my question is the same, is this the best you’ve got? There are ways to eliminate spam without punishing your users.

There is also another factor, and I maybe completely wrong about it… I appears to me that many of my online are starving for a more meaningful way to keep the conversation going (which in my opinion is impossible to have on Twitter). So if you compare Twitter and Google Buzz from that perspective, Google Buzz wins hands down, and if you thought Google Buzz is no threat to Twitter you should really think again.

Now back to the new and shiny Google Buzz button- you need to use your GMail/Google Reader to interact with it. You can also follow Go Beyond MLS on Google.Similar Posts:

Optimize Your WordPress For Smart Phones With WPTouch

Vlad Zablotskyy — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:55:04 +0000

The cell phone I currently have is not exactly what you can call a “smart phone”, but every so often I like to check and see how my websites and blogs look on my phone. According to Google Analytics, I am not the only one to try and access my blog on my cell phone. During last year there were 83 attempts to access Go Beyond MLS using number of mobile devices:

While the above numbers are not something to brag about, I still was surprised to learn that there were attempts to view this blog on mobile devices.

I am sure that the experience of the above users was not the best one. Navigating this blog from a mobile device has probably proven to be a complete nightmare… Until a few days ago that is.

If I have implemented changes correctly, this blog is now optimized for mobile browsing and users should see it in manner shower in the picture to your right. How did I do it? Simple. I used a plugin called WPTouch (developed by Dale Mugford & Duane Storey of BraveNewCode). You can also download WPTouch at WordPress plugin repository.

The reason I decided to go with WPTouch is that it offers easy way to customize the feel and look of the “mobile version” of your WordPress, if you like to keep the color scheme that resembles your website for example. Currently the plugin allows you to customize colors of title, header, sub-header and links. I wish however the developers would also allowed changing the background image/color right from the plugin’s dashboard:

The plugin also offers an easy implementation of AdSense mobile ads. Just enter your AdSnese publisher ID and your AdSense channel and you all set:

Your AdSense ads will be published on every “single post” of the “mobile” version of your website:

WPTouch is the most advanced way to optimize your WordPress for mobile phone users and visitors that I have seen so far. It does not seem to conflict with any of the other plugins I use on this blog. The developers, however, included a list of plugins that are not supported and may not work well with WPTouch- you can see that list in the plugin’s dashboard.

A special thanks goes to Zac Johnson for introducing me to WPTouch.Similar Posts:

Thesis Theme Supercharges Your WordPress

Vlad Zablotskyy — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:21:27 +0000

As a WordPress user, I have come across many premium themes. Some were good, some were not so good. Several tims I was close to buying at least one of the premium themes (I believe it one of them was called “Revolution”) but none of the premium WordPress themes satisfy my website’s needs. So instead of going with a premium one I used to chose a free theme, and then tweak it, and tweak it, and tweak until I was satisfied with what I saw. The problem of course was that some WordPress theme developers have their own style (an some have no style at all) when it comes to coding the theme. The end result is that in many cases, one can waste considerable amount of time looking for example at CSS files and trying to figure out what controls what.

When I first heard of Thesis, I pretty much dismissed it as one of those premium themes that will not do much for my websites. However I was fortunate enough to have a closer look at this theme on a website of a friend of mine. Needless to say Thesis is on the top of my shopping list. The video (subscribers might need to visit this post to see it) bellow explains better than I ever could why I am falling in love with Thesis.

Click here to see more videos about Thesis, including video about it’s Design Flexibility and SEO benefits.

When trying Thesis on the website of a friend of mine, I immediately realized how easy and intuitive Thesis is. Most of the changes I made for example to the original theme that powers this blog, can be done via “options” in theses without need to modify themes files nor CSS. In addition it also can eliminate number of plugins you might be currently using. If you are looking for a suitable theme for your WordPress site, Thesis should be given serious consideration.Similar Posts:

Matt Brown To Co-Author Go Beyond MLS

Vlad Zablotskyy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:00:10 +0000

Matt Brown

In the past I asked a few guest bloggers to write posts for this blog. Today I am absolutely thrilled to welcome a permanent co-author and contributor. You probably have met him on Twitter and Facebook already and can recognize him by his signature hat.

Matt Brown (also known Lord Matt around the “Interwebs”) is an incredibly talented blogger, web hosting and domain management guy, SEO and Content Marketing professional and most of all my friend.

Matt offered to co-author this blog after I revealed to him that I was planing to part with this blog and put it up for sale. Yes Go Beyond MLS was on my mind when I was making my new year’s resolutions. But now I will hold off selling this blog at least for another 6 month or so.

According to Matt, my intention to prepare this blog for sale was nothing else but an attempt to put a coat of “cheap paint” to make it more shiny. I could not agree more.

With that said, I look forward to Matt’s contribution and future posts. If you are interested to learn more about Matt, you should follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

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More Spam From LeapFish???

Vlad Zablotskyy — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:00:45 +0000

UPDATE May13, 2010: Things pertaining to LeapFish.com, their founders and management, along with related startups are no longer of interest to me, therefore no further comments are allowed on this post. There are also more reliable sources out there (such as Better Business Bureau) to help you make an informed decision about LeapFish.

***You may also want to know that the Law Firm of Daniel Bakondi, in San Francisco, CA, is investigating a possible Class Action Law Suit Against LeapFish.

UPDATE Feb. 5, 2010: It appears LeapFish is no longer showing the link in the footer of their website to their “directory” I wrote about bellow:

This change must have been implemented today as Bing.com’s cached page of LeapFish from yesterday February 4, 2010 still has the link:

LeapFish has also implemented robots.txt file on their website disallowing web crawlers from indexing the directory:

Few days ago I tried to to get attention of Google’s Anti-Spam Czar – Matt Cutts via his FriendFeed account. I wanted Matt to comment about LeapFish’s latest directory- but I realize, it may not be Google’s practice to comment on these sort of things publicly. That or you need to be Michael Gray, Aaron Wall or Andy Beard to get some one like Matt Cutts to listen to you.

So what is my latest beef with LeapFish? Their spammy directory located at http://www.leapfish.com/dr/ – my apologies for not providing a live link, I consider LeapFish to be an unsafe website. It also appears by my estimates that Google is indexing this new directory at the rate of about 50 pages a day- there are about 200 pages in Google’s index from this “directory” as of this writing.

So I invite those who are still with me to explore some of the pages from the above mentioned directory. One of the first pages from the directory that jump at me was “Shopping”:

Clicking through to the page on LeapFish.com you are given opportunity to “narrow” your search- so I decide to narrow mine to “Death Care”:

What do you know?!!! Now you can narrow your search geographically- naturally I selected New Jersey the state I live in:

How about that?!! LeapFish knows all the counties in the state of New Jersey- naturally my next selection would be the county I live in:

How about that?!!! Turns out LeapFish is so intuitive it knows about every city in my state- so just for the heck of it I decided to check and see what kind of death care shopping I can do in Jackson, NJ:

And the relevancy of my final destination in LeapFish directory? Google search results associated with the death of Michael Jackson?

What can I say? I am extremely disappointed. I am sure few results of local funeral directors or even a local WalMart with the line of their latest caskets would not be as disappointing. Since LeapFish is using some APIs from Google, they could have really impress me by showing me a few relevant products using Google Base API.

So yeah, I am desperate for the attention from Matt Cutts. Matt could you please explain to me how this sort of “directories” improve the State of The Index? In my opinion the LeapFish Directory does just the opposite- LeapFish pollute the Internet.

If you are interested to find out more about LeapFish I highly recommend LeapFish Review by Better Business Bureau.Similar Posts:

Should I Cross-link My Websites?

Vlad Zablotskyy — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:55:03 +0000

This is something many web-masters struggle with. You create a new website that is going to knock every one socks off, but now you need Google and other search engines to notice it. The quickest way is to slap a few links on other websites you have that may already rank well and are well indexed by the search engines. But is it good idea? As Matt Cutts of Google explains in the video bellow, it all depends. If you have few minutes it is well worth watching:

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