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.
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Ever since I saw the implementation of Facebook Connect on TechCrunch, I wanted to look into implementing it on my blogs as well. However since I was not very active on Facebook, I did not start digging into it until a few days ago. There are are number of solutions available for bloggers today should they decide to take advantage of Facebook Connect.

For now I have settled with the Facebook Connect WordPress plugin by Sociable. The Sociable plugin requires Facebook API so before you start using it, make sure to create new application in Facebook developer section of your account. You may also want to hack this plugin- see in the bottom of the post where described how I did it.

Once installed and configured the Facebook Connect plugin will allow your visitors to logging into your blog using their Facebook credentials. They choose to allow the Facebook Connect application (your blog), to post the comments they leave on your blog to their Facebook account as well.

The Facebook Connect plugin by sociable has a widged that you can place in the sidebar of your blog where the visitors can login as Facebook users. Once logged in, they will also have an option to invite their friends to visit your website without actually leaving your blog.

Another unique feature the plugin provides is the community page, which is hosted right on your blog.

There is however one huge downside wit the plugin. It does not word that well with WP Super Cache plugin. Unless of course you can hack WP Super Cache plugin in such a way that it would serve dynamic pages to Facebook users once they’ve logged in on your blog. If you come across such a hack, please let me know.

Hacking the plugin to display the facebook login button somewhere around your comment box.- do this at your own risk.

Another shortcoming of the Facebook Connect plugin by Sociable is that the sidebar widget is the only place where the login button is displayed. Unfortunately the sidebar is not exactly the first place your visitors might examine when visiting your blog. They many leave a comment without realizing they could have shared it on Facebook. Placing the Facebook Connect login button in vicinity of the comment box can serve as a reminder that they could use their Facebook ID to comment on your blog. Unfortunately I had to come up with my own hack to accomplish that- copy and paste to code below into your comments.php file:

This is how my comment box looks now with the code above inserted:

It is probably my worst ever attempt to hack anything. Hopefully some one can come up with a better hack. With the above hack, after successful login, the page if refreshed on the very top. Bringing the visitor back down to the comment box would be so much better- but as I said, I suck at coding.

For the list of other Facebook Connect plugins and solutions for other blogging and content management platforms make sure to visit Facebook Connect Plugin Directory.

While some of my friends are using Entrecard for networking, I am still very sceptical about the service…

The mechanics of the Entrecard are quiet simple. After your blog is approved, other blog owners can “drop” their card on you or purchase an ad on your blog with Entrecard credits.

I presume if you have plenty of time on your hands, you can drop your card on other blog owners all the day long. It may increase a chance that that a blog owner, on whom you dropped your card, may pay you a visit back, and this where Entrecard reminds me of a traffic exchange scheme.

You can however “purchase” advertising on blogs that use and Entrecard widget with the credits you and your blog earns, or the credits you can purchase from Entrecard.

Unfortunately, in the Real Estate category there are very few blogs that I would like to exchange traffic and/or banners. And so far the banners “bought” on my blog are from the blogs that are not quiet relevant to my own blog.

It is interesting to see that in order to advertise on my blog it will cost other Entrecard members 4 credits per day. If one was to buy the credits, he or she can advertise on my blog for 250 days for only $6.00. Quiet a difference from the rate I offer currently to my potential sponsors.

Of course these figures may change in the future, and I would like to know how does Entrecard determine their rates. But to be completely honest, I don’t see myself staying with Entrecard. I am taking it for a spin (no more than 3 months), so I can say I tried it. Let see if Entrecard will change my mind.

If you are using Entracard please share what do you think is the best practice when using that system.

I have been member of MyBlogLog since December of 2006 (feel free to add me to your contacts). You probably recognize the widget that shows the latest visitors to this blog located in the side bar.

Through this widget I have met and connected with many outstanding bloggers, business owners, real estate agents and just your regular every day Joe and Jane. In fact it is one of the first place I check every time I work on my blog. Just to see if there was some one new today on my blog or to be absolutely humbled by the fact that some one found my blog interested enough to pay another visit. Never have I imagined I will be banning some one from appearing on that widgets. In fact I never new exactly how to do it. So I learned today…

To my surprise it was very easy. Just hover with your cursor (aka mouse) over the picture of the person you would like to ban. A small red square with a white “X” (as shown in the snapshot below) will appear in the upper left corner of the persons avatar- you have to click on the red little square:

You will be taken to a confirmation page on MyBlogLog website. On that page (see another snapshot below- click on it to see the full size) you have to click the button that says confirm:

That’s it now you know how to ban some one’s avatar or picture appearing on your website. You might have to repeat the above steps if you have several blog listed on MyBlogLog and each blog having its own widget- although I am not 100% sure.

Over the past few months I have been slowly falling in love with ActiveRain. The first time I have ever came across this real estate network, I did not know what to make of it. I did not join ActiveRain right away because I did not feel there was a place for me. I had no interest renewing my real estate license and was under impression the network is reserved to real estate professionals exclusively. I am not sure why I had this perception, but after joining ActiveRain I quickly realized that this community is very open minded and most importantly not limited to real estate agents exclusively.

However in this article I would like to point out that real estate professionals can probably benefit the most from ActiveRain. And here are just few points why.

• Blogging. Every member upon joining the community is given their own blog. If you were thinking to start blogging yet was not sure you were ready to invest resources and time into it, ActiveRain blogs is a place where you can try to “wet your feet” as far as blogging is concerned. While their blogs may not offer all the bells and whistles that you can normally get when hosting a blog on your own domain. It does offer the basics and can get you started.
• Instant Audience. One of the best part about blogging on ActiveRain is that you have an instant audience for your blog. Even a newbie to ActiveRain like myself can often get 10+ comments on their initial posts. To me the most rewarding part of blogging is an audience that is engaged.
• Networking. As I am writing this post there are 108,851 members on ActiveRain. My guess that majority of the members are real estate professionals or working in the field closely related to real estate. If you ask me that is an impressive number of members!
• ActiveRain’s Popularity. Before joining any online community or forum, I am always trying to look at the “popularity factor”. The more popular certain website is, the better chance to gain some extra visitors to my own websites. According to statistics from Alexa and Compete (see the charts below) ActiveRain is outranking Inman by quite a margin:
  
  Click on the image below to see detailed statistics on Alexa:
  
  
  Click on the image below to see detailed statistics on Compete:
  
• ActiveRain Referrals- a place to share and find referrals posted by other ActiveRain members. If you are on a “hunt” for leads, why not to browse referrals by other agents rater than spending money on lead generating schemes?

To conclude, I simply would like to repeat my earlier statement- I am slowly falling in love with ActiveRain. I am also confident you will appreciate ActiveRain as well. If you are already a member, visit my profile page and add me to your associates, I would love to connect with you on ActiveRain.