Featured Blog User Manual
Contents
1. 35 Setting General Site Options itin itt rn ia 36 Setting My Reading Options ococoncconnccnonccnoncnononnnnnnnnnocnnnnn nan rare nn 36 Setting My Discussion Options A 37 ee ee ee use ehe 39 BAG s cs chaste Aalen elite 40 HOO crm 43 Welcome Featured Blog User Manual Welcome REALTOR com Featured Blog the ultimate blogging solution developed with Real Estate Agents in mind With Featured Blog you have the flexibility and option of creating your own content If you are integrated with REALTOR com Featured Websites you can have a posting automatically entered on your blog whenever you have a new listing or Open House Getting Started Explore the many content and organizational options from the Dashboard A default welcome post is automatically created to get you started This post introduces your blog time of creation and the blog owner s name and gives you a sense of how to begin Once you re ready to add content to and organize your blog here are some topics to get you started e Tips for Posting e Writing Posts e Managing Categories e Moderating Comments e Inviting Contributors Introduction to Blogging What is a blog What is inside a blog Can my visitors comment on my postings Blog is an abbreviated version of weblog which is a term used to describe websites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information A blog is a frequently2. Note Only GIF gif and JPG jpg images are currently supported The maximum size for the image is 1MB 7 Click on one of the following o Save and Continue Editing 18 Pages Save your content to continue working on it View a Preview in the screen below The page will not be added to your blog until you click Publish Save Saves your content but does not add it to your blog Publish Once you re ready to post content on your site click Publish Managing Pages Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner Use the Page Management page to edit and delete existing pages For each page the following is displayed ID Indicates the unique number that the Featured Blog database uses to identify individual pages Title Indicates the title of your page Owner Indicates which user of the blog wrote the post Updated Displays the date when the page was last modified and saved gt To manage a page 1 Log on to Featured Blog On the top menu click Manage On the submenu click Pages The Page Management page is displayed Do any of the following o o Click View to display the page as the rest of the world sees it Click Edit to edit the page This takes you back to the Write Page and allows you to modify the content of this page Click Delete to delete the post You will be prompted to confirm To search for a page enter the keywords of t
3. Use of Copyrighted Materials An explanation regarding the use of third party content on your blog For more information see Copyrighted Materials Blog Stats Lists your current number of posts comments and categories with direct links to the screen for managing those tools Latest Activity a concise summary and convenient links regarding current events at your blog e Posts The titles of the five most recent posts and links to edit them e Scheduled Entries The titles of all future dated posts when those posts will go live and links to edit them e Comments The five most recent comments a link to each comment on their respective post pages and a link to edit each comment e The Moderation Queue How many comments have been held for Comment Moderation and a link to moderate those comments e Blog Stats Some statistics on your blog such as the number of posts the number of comments and the number of categories gt To view your dashboard 1 Logon to Featured Blog 2 Onthe top menu click Dashboard Your dashboard is displayed Contacting Support for Featured Blog If you are unable to find an answer to your question call our support department during the following times Monday to Friday 6am 5pm PST or PDT United States 1 888 393 8944 International 1 800 401 9855 Canadian Customers Email FeaturedBlog realtor com Feedback blogfeedback realtor com Welcome Billing and Account Inquiries
4. The look of your standalone blog can be customized You can upload your own banner image or pick from the available stock images You can change the side bar widgets as desired and decide whether the side bar is presented on the left or ride Q How do l use the blog e g how do add content how do I respond to comments can turn comments feature on off how Featured Blog supports both what are called pages and posts Pages typically contain static content for instance a description of your services or the communities you serve Posts on the other hand are more dynamic in that you can add to them any time you like be it moment to moment daily or a few times a week Once you publish a post that you have written it becomes visible on your blog In contrast visitor responses to your posts will not by default be visible on your blog until you review approve and publish them You also have the option of setting up your blog so that the responses of trusted visitors will automatically be published Q Can include screenshots photos and other graphics within the content of my blog The Featured Blog platform enables easy updating of content including graphics It has been specially designed for the non technical user who does not know HTML Q How do add my picture to a post You probably want to add your agent photo to the sidebar instead of to a post Doing so will associate your photo with the blog a
5. If you have a username and password already enter it on the configuration screen Otherwise click on the request link and an account will be created for you You will then receive a welcome email containing your username and password RSS Feed Q What is an RSS feed 41 Featured Blog User Manual Really Simple Syndication RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content such as blogs news feeds or podcasts Through RSS you have the possibility of syndicating your content Q How do people subscribe to my RSS feed People simply visit your blog site and click on the RSS feed icon Alternatively you can provide them with the RSS feed which is http username featuredblog com feed rss2 Search Engine Optimization Q Will my blog increase the likelihood that search engines will find my web site How Yes blogs are very search engine friendly Featured Blog have Search Engine Optimization SEO features that increase the odds that your blog posting will not only get picked up by the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo but also get a high ranking Each post in your blog contains a permalink which makes it easy for people to your blog Generally speaking the more links there are the higher the blog will be ranked in a search engine Other elements that can improve your ranking include comments trackbacks and Really Simple Syndication RSS Q How will prospective buy
6. In nternet Explorer Click the Add to Favorites menu Select the folder where you want to add this link and click OK When entering your username and password select the Hemember me checkbox The next time you access your URL to log on your username and password appear automatically in the proper fields Featured Blog User Manual Copyrighted Materials Reproduction of copyrighted materials requires the author s permission Text should be limited to a few paragraphs must cite the reference and provide a link to the original If notified by REALTOR com or a visitor of a copyright violation the post must be removed immediately Failure to remove the content will result in REALTOR com removing the post Dashboard The Dashboard displays all recent activity at your site and the menu to access functionality like writing posts moderating comments and activating plugins It also contains quick links and real estate news from professionals Important If you are a contributor you will only be able to access the quick links to write a post and to update your profile The Latest Activity box that is described below is only available to the blog owner Welcome Important messages and a list of links to get you started in using your blog News amp Tips The latest information on using your blog and changes to the product Real Estate News for Professionals Links to hot posts and information specifically for real estate professionals
7. Users Do any of the following o Under the E mail column click the user s email address to send the user an email o Under the Actions column click View posts to view all the posts that were written by this author o Under the Actions column click Edit next to author whose profile you wish to edit o Select the check box next to the user s to delete and then select Remove checked users Click Bulk Update Inviting Contributors Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner When you invite contributors you give them the opportunity to submit posts to your blog Note that their posts will not be posted on your blog until you have reviewed and published them For more information see Moderating Posts To invite a contributor 1 2 32 From the Dashboard click Users On the submenu click Authors amp Users Users 3 Under the Add User From Community section enter the email address of the user you wish to invite to your community 4 Click Add User A personalized invitation is sent to the user s email address If the user is new to the blogging community the user will be required to create a username and password Note The new account gives this user the ability to contribute to your blog within the role you set It does not however create a blog for this person Editing Your Profile Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Own
8. uploaded The recommended screen size of your photo is 165x200 pixels See Adding My Picture for more information To remove your photo click the Remove Image button 4 Click Update Profile to save your changes Adding My Picture Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner On Your Profile and Personal Options page you can upload a photo to your blog home page Only jpeg gif and png formats can be uploaded The recommended and maximum size is 165x200 pixels Uploaded files cannot be larger that 2MB gt To upload a photo 1 Onthe top menu click Users 2 Onthe submenu click Your Profile 33 Featured Blog User Manual 3 Under My Picture click the Browse button Tip Only jpeg gif and png formats can be used Recommended photo size is 165x200 pixels 4 Navigate to your photo s location and click Open The location path and photo file name appear in the Browse field 5 Click Upload Image 6 Click Update Profile to save your changes Note If you upload a photo larger than the recommended size it is re sized to 165x200 while keeping the aspect ratio If you upload a photo smaller than the recommended size the photo size remains the same and is centered horizontally The vertical alignment of the photo is determined by the site content around it 34 Options Featured Blog User Manual Setting General Site Options Important This feature is only available
9. blogging system itself Things Bloggers Need to Know In addition to understanding that Featured Blog is based on WordPress Mu there are some terms and concepts you need to know e Archives A blog is a good way to keep track of articles on a site A lot of blogs feature an archive based on dates like a monthly or yearly archive The front page of the blog may feature a calendar with the dates linked to the daily archive for that date Archives can also be based on categories featuring all the articles related to a specific category Welcome Featured Blog offer default categories to facilitate consumer searches It does not stop there you can also archive your posts by author or alphabetically The possibilities are endless This ability to organize and present articles in a composed fashion is much of what makes blogging a popular personal publishing tool Syndication A feed is a machine readable usually XML content publication that is updated regularly Many weblogs publish a feed usually RSS but also possibly Atom and RDF and so on as described above There are tools out there that call themselves feedreaders What they do is they keep checking specified blogs to see if they have been updated and when the blogs are updated they display the new post and a link to it with an excerpt or the whole contents of the post Each feed contains items that are published over time When checking a feed the feedreader is actu
10. image 2 To hide all text and see only the image click Hide Text 3 To change the text color click Select a Text Color 1 Inthe color map click on a color 2 View the change in the header text 3 Click the Select a Text Color button to close the color box 4 To revert to the original text color click Use Original Color 5 Click Save Changes gt To select a header image 1 Under Change Header Image review the header images offered Click the radio button next to the image you like If you want to upload a custom image click the radio button next to the empty field 1 Click Browse 2 Navigate to the image you want to upload and click OK 3 Click Upload 4 Click Update Header Image e Uploaded image files cannot be larger than 2MB e The recommended screen size for custom images is 830x150 pixels e Images larger than 830x150 pixels will prompt a cropping option 2 To restore the original header settings 1 Scroll to the bottom of the Custom Header Image page 2 Under Reset Header Image and Color click Restore Original Header The header reverts to the original settings Any customizations to the text and or color are erased Customizing Your Navigation Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner On the Sidebar Arrangement page you can select location and functions available on your blog s sidebar the table listing your categories archives and admin informat
11. of the comment e E mail The email address given by the author of the comment e IP The IP address of the computer from which the author sent the comment e Comment Excerpt The first twenty words from the comment text gt To manage a comment 1 From the Dashboard click Manage 2 Onthe submenu click Comments 23 Featured Blog User Manual 3 Click Mass Edit Mode 4 For each comment select any of the following o View Displays the entire comment o Edit Allows you to edit the information in the comment o Delete Check the box to the left of the comment and click delete to remove the comment permanently A pop up window asks for confirmation 5 Click Delete Checked Comments Deletes all comments whose boxes are checked Note that you cannot undo this action Or Click Mark Checked Comments as Spam Marks all checked comments as spam and removes them from the site A pop up window asks for confirmation Note View Mode allows the same decisions but only allows individual editing Exporting Posts and Comments You can export all of your posts and comments into an RSS feed XML file You can then reuse this content for your Web site or for another blog You can export your posts and comments from two locations While managing your export options or while viewing your site gt To export your posts and comments managing export options 1 Logon to your Featured Blog 2 Onthe top menu click Manage
12. to the blog Administrator or Owner On the General page under the Options menu you can control some of the most basic configuration settings for your site your site s title and location who may register an account at your blog and how dates and times are calculated and displayed gt To set your general options 1 On the top menu click Options 2 On the submenu click General 3 Optionally edit the following information o Weblog title Enter the name of your blog limited to 60 characters Most themes will display this title at the top of every page and in the reader s browser titlebar Featured Blog also uses this title as the identifying name for your Syndication feeds Tagline Enter your blog s slogan or Tagline here limited to 120 characters A Tagline is a short phrase or sentence used to convey the essence of the weblog often eyecatching E mail address Enter the email address to which you want Featured Blog to send messages regarding the administration and maintenance of your blog Note that this is different than the address you supplied for the Admin user account the admin account email address is sent an email only when someone submits a comment to a post The address you enter here will never be displayed on the weblog 4 Under Date and Time optionally edit o UTC time is Displays the current UTC Controlled Universal Time This field cannot be modified here Times in the weblog should d
13. topproducer com o New Neighborhood Type the neighborhood s name Double check that you aren t duplicating a neighborhood that s already been entered Maximum length of a neighborhood name is 40 characters 4 Click Add Neighborhood The new name appears in the Neighborhood category list under your city 15 Pages Featured Blog User Manual Creating Pages Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner Use pages to organize and manage any amount of content Similar to posts pages can have Titles and Content and can use your site s template to maintain a consistent look Pages vs Posts Posts are time oriented objects You write them at a specific time and that time defines their context Pages on the other hand are most often used to present information about yourself or your site that is somehow timeless information that is always applicable Page Uses You might write a post describing today s news Short term interest rates have gone up but on a page you might write context that is less time dependent Choosing your mortgage broker Some examples of pages to create on your site may include Copyright Legal Information Reprint Permissions Contact Information About Me About My Site and Accessibility Statement gt To create a page 1 From the Dashboard click Write 2 Onthe submenu click Write Page 3 Enter the page s details o Page Title Enter the page name
14. updated personal website featuring diary type commentary and links to articles or other websites Blogs range from the personal to the political and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects Featured Blog is intended for real estate professionals commenting on different aspects of real estate Generally speaking though there are exceptions blogs tend to have a few things in common e Amain content area with articles listed chronologically newest on top Often the articles are organized into categories e An archive of older articles e Away for people to leave comments about the articles e A list of links to other related sites sometimes called a blogroll e One or more feeds like RSS Atom or RDF files Content is the reason for any website Retail sites feature a catalog of products University sites contain information about their campuses curriculum and faculty News sites show the latest news stories For a real estate blog you might see information on open houses how to tidbits reviews on a neighborhood or commentaries on the state of the housing market On a blog the content consists of articles also sometimes called posts or entries that the author s writes Some blogs have multiple authors each writing his her own articles In Featured Blog blog owners can invite others to contribute to their blog Typically blog authors compose their articles in a Web based interface built into the
15. 3 Onthe submenu click Export 4 Click Download Export File 5 Click any of the following o Open To view your posts and comments in an XML file This will enable you to view the RSS feed before saving it o Save To save the RSS feed in an XML format o Cancel To stop the export process and close this window gt To export your posts and comments viewing your site 1 While viewing your site scroll to the footer of your screen 2 On the footer of your screen click Entries RSS Your posts and comments are displayed in an XML file 3 To save this RSS feed as an XML file under the File menu click Save As and select the folder where you want to save it Or To save the RSS feed URL select the URL right click on it and click Copy You can then paste this URL on any RSS reader Tip To promote your blog content you can add the RSS feed URL to a Web box in your website REALTOR com Featured Websites facilitates this by allowing you to display an RSS feed in a Web box 24 Presentation 25 Featured Blog User Manual Selecting a Header Image Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner On the Custom Header Image page you can select the header text and image for your blog Navigate to this page via the main menu by selecting Presentation then Header Image gt To change the header text 1 Under Your Header Image review the default text offered in your blog header
16. Customer Service For all inquiries about your account and billing please contact us during the following times Monday to Friday 6am 5pm PST or PDT United States 1 888 393 8944 International 1 800 401 9855 Canadian Customers Email FeaturedBlog realtor com Posts Featured Blog User Manual Writing Posts Writing a post using Featured Blog is simple Follow the instructions below to write a post Before preview publishing save then preview the content by opening your draft and clicking in the upper right corner to verify the look and feel Each post must be filed under one or more categories This aids in navigation and allows posts to be grouped with similar content By default a post must be listed under one of the Audience buyers sellers or realty professionals categories Each post can also be listed under custom categories gt To write a post 1 Logon to your Featured Blog On the top menu click Write On the submenu click Write Post Note If you have posts that you have written and saved as Drafts they will be listed here Click on the title link to edit the post 4 Onthe Write Post page enter the post s details o Title Add the post s name You can use any words or phrases Avoid using the same title twice as that will cause confusion You can use commas apostrophes quotes hypens dashes and other typical symbols in the title Example My Site Welcome to my Site Featur
17. Featured Blog User Manual Table of Contents WeICOMe fies ae sha A Uo eU EB 1 LEE 2 Introduction to Blogging 1 tA e RAE 2 Logging OM A EE 3 Gopyrighted ET 4 Dashboard EE 4 Contacting Support for Featured Blog 4 O 7 WRITING e CC oe pc Eo te HR ehe 8 Tips OF De TM EN 9 Managing GC 10 Moderating Posts 5o et ERE RI CREE D t A ei eremi 11 Exporting Ge Ee Re unn n b e RCM 11 leet e WS Ee e ERI a i ati ee 12 alee n ea EA A Uie i E a e E e e e e b Een 13 Managing Categories rere e de er os 14 Adding CERS EE 14 Adding a Neighborhood RE 15 PAGES E aia cde 17 Creating Pages uui He i c e te c rd Ec eat eo e e add counted 18 Managing Pages Aura are tette a e uir e o eic ee ec i reed 19 LR lu TE EE 21 AboutiGomiments a 4o demde deuten ee tig 22 Moderato Cos ene edo S 22 Managing Comments nti eee en A ede ai e ecce eoe Alibaba 23 Exporting Posts and Commlents 2 nta nb aue et 24 Presentation au e a RUE eee IP ven a ee p eines 25 Selecting E Me Ee lu e EE 26 Customizing Your EN EE 26 Sie LEE 29 Activating the Spam Blocker 5 aie qn oe oa een a Em cL e eoi 30 WS GPS P 31 Managing USers 3 i oii e EE RUM na e Edi REP 32 lnviting GontrlDbUtOrS cercos uir nU UN EE UE ERU ERU D 32 Editing Your Prof tc D DNE ERO de EDI di 33 Addirig My PICIUEG RENE R A DEMANDE IRAN 33 Options
18. You can use any words or phrases Avoid using the same title twice as that will cause confusion You can use commas apostrophes quotes hypens dashes and other symbols Example My Site Welcome to my Site o Page Content Add text links images and anything else you want on your page Use the buttons to add effects such as bold italic bullets and more If additional information is needed like when creating a link a pop up window appears for you to fill in the details 4 Under the Page Parent section optionally select the hierarchy of this page If you want your current page to become a SubPage or Child of the Parent Page select the appropriate Page from the drop down list If you specify a Parent other than Main Page no parent from the list the Page you are now editing will be made a Child of that selected Page When your Pages are listed the Child Page will be nested under the Parent Page 5 Under the Page Order section optionally select the order in which this page will be displayed You can enter any number starting from 0 The page with the lowest number will be displayed at the top 6 If you wish to insert an image 1 Place your cursor where you want to insert the image in the Page Content field 2 Click the Upload tab to browse and upload an image 3 Click Browse to view your recently uploaded image or click Browse All to view all your uploaded images 4 Click on the image and select Send to editor
19. ages Click on the image and select Send to editor Note Only GIF gif and JPG jpg images are currently supported The maximum size for the image is 1MB Posts 7 Click on one of the following o Save and Continue Editing If you would like to save the post but continue working on it click this button You will see your post in the PostPreview screen The post is not listed until you click Publish o Save Clicking the Save button will save your post The post is not listed until you click Publish o Publish If you are ready to publish your post to your site click the Publish button This option is only available to the blog administrator Tip If you are an experienced HTML author you can write edit your post in HTML mode Click on the HTML HTML icon to launch the HTML Source Editor When you click Update the post appears in the Post field with your formatting Remember to save and publish your post when you finish Tips for Posting You can say or show the world anything you like on your Featured Blog site Here are some tips you need to know to help you write your posts in Featured Blog Practice Accessibility To be compliant with Web standards for accessibility be sure to include ALT and TITLE descriptions on links and images to help your users such as lt a title Top Producer href http www topproducer com gt Top Producer lt a gt Use Paragraphs No one likes to read writing that never pa
20. ally looking for new items New items are automatically discovered and downloaded for you to read Just so you don t have to visit all the blogs you are interested in All you have to do with these feedreaders is to add the link to the RSS feed of all the blogs you are interested in The feedreader will then inform you when any of the blogs have new posts in them Most blogs have these Syndication feeds available for the readers to use WordPress Featured Blog uses WordPress a popular and feature rich blogging tool WordPress has a complete set of Help topics that range from getting started to advanced troubleshooting tips Useful Blogs To get a sense of how blogging works while also learning useful marketing tips check out http realestatemarketing101 topproducerblogs com Logging On After purchasing your Featured Blog account you ll receive a welcome email informing you how to log on This email contains the web address of your blog and your login credentials a username and password 2 To log on to Featured Blog 1 2 o o m o Tips Open your preferred browser Internet Explorer or FireFox Type in the URL website address for your blog Tip This address was sent to you in your welcome email Navigate to the Login section of the screen In the Username field type your username In the Password field type your password Click Login To access your website quickly add it to your Favorites list
21. blog Administrator or Owner When a new comment is posted Featured Blog sends you an email notifying you that a new comment has been posted In this email it contains the comment and possibly the name and email address of the person who submitted the post Within this email you have three options e Accept the comment Click on the URL to accept the comment You may need to log on to your account before you can accept this comment e Reject the comment Click on the URL to reject the comment You may need to log on to your account before you can reject this comment e Mark a comment as spam Click on the URL to mark the comment as spam Tip Featured Blog sends new comment notices to your email address Be sure the address on your account is valid You also have the option of moderating your comments directly with Featured Blog gt To moderate your comments 1 Logon to Featured Blog 2 Onthe top menu click Manage 3 Onthe submenu click Awaiting Moderation The submenu displays in parentheses the number of comments that are waiting to be approved For example if you have two comments that are waiting to be approved the submenu is displayed as Awaiting Moderation 2 4 Below each comment select one of the following o Approve To accept the comment This comment will be displayed on your blog o Spam This will identify the comment as spam and will delete the comment after you click Bulk Moderate Comment
22. determine how much got imported Manage gt Posts and remove those sections from your saved RSS file and then re import Blog entries can be imported but comments cannot Categories Featured Blog User Manual Managing Categories Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner Each post in Featured Blog is filed under one or more categories This aids in navigation and allows posts to be grouped with others of similar content By default a post must be listed under one of the Audience buyers sellers or realty professionals categories Each post can however also be listed under custom categories The Custom Categories page allows you to create and manage custom categories to assist your readers to find posts You can also add neighborhood categories under a city to file regional content on an even more detailed level Category Names Each category name must be unique Even if two similar categories have different parents they must have unique names Category Organization The Categories table lists all of your categories by row Categories are displayed hierarchically and alphabetically subcategories are displayed beneath their parents and are prefaced by long dashes These dashed are not part of a category s name they are there only to show hierarchy The table of categories contains the following columns e ID Like posts and pages categories have a unique identification number They cann
23. e the RSS feed URL select the URL right click on it and click Copy You can then paste this URL on any RSS reader Tip To promote your blog content you can add the RSS feed URL to a Web box in your website REALTOR com Featured Websites facilitates this by allowing you to display an RSS feed in a Web box 11 Featured Blog User Manual Importing RSS Feeds Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner Using Featured Blog you can extract posts from any RSS 2 0 file into your blog This is useful if you want to import your posts from a system that is not handled by a custom import tool gt To import an RSS file 1 NO a Rom Save the RSS feed you wish to import on your local machine This is the RSS feed source and comes from the site that has the content you wish to import into your Featured Blog A simple way to get the feed into a text file is to find the RSS link for that site click it and view it in your browser then copy paste that to a text file Log on to Featured Blog On the top menu click Manage On the submenu click Import From the list of systems to import click RSS Click Browse button and locate the file containing the feed you wish to import Click Upload file and import Note When importing an RSS file keep in mind 12 Depending on the feed and format you may not be able to import the entire RSS feed on the first attempt One option is to
24. ed Blog may need to modify the text for the link to the post a feature called the post slug Post Editing Area Add text links images and anything else you want in your post Use the buttons to add effects such as bold italic bullets and more If additional information is needed like when creating a link a pop up window appears for you to fill in the details 5 Select Categories for your post You must select at least an Audience The options are o o o Audience All posts must have an audience category selected buyers sellers or realty professionals Content Appears once an audience is selected Use the Content categories to organize your posts by subject matter Region Appears when a Content category other than General Information is selected Offers the ability to list a post under a specific geographical location City and neighborhood are optional Hot Topics Appears if there are any Hot Topic categories listed on the system Select a hot category if your topic fits the subject matter Custom Categories Add a custom category if the topic you need doesn t exist Tip Keep custom categories broad enough to contain several posts 6 If you wish to insert an Image 1 2 3 Place your cursor where you want to insert the image in the Post field Click the Upload tab to browse and upload an image Click Browse to view your recently uploaded image or click Browse All to view all your uploaded im
25. elect the category s parent For example you may have a category called Photos but want to add Oregon Coast and Ice Storm as subcategories Photos would be considered the parent category Subcategories show up on your blog s page but are nested under their parent o Description Category descriptions are optional Some themes take advantage of category descriptions Having descriptions may or may not modify the way categories are displayed for your site Even if they are not used by your site s theme you may still find them useful from an administration point of view 4 Click Add Category to save this category The new category appears under the Custom heading Adding a Neighborhood Neighborhoods are a useful way to organize posts relevant to an area smaller than your city This is particularly useful for large urban areas You can create a neighborhood for any city available under the Neighborhood list gt To add a neighborhood 1 From the Dashboard click Manage 2 Onthe submenu click Categories The Custom Categories page appears 3 Underthe Add Neighborhood section o State Province Select a state or province The city list changes to reflect the relevant choices o City Select a city from the drop down list o Neighborhoods Check that your neighborhood isn t already in the list Four names are displayed scroll down to see more names If you notice a typo in a neighborhood name send an email to feedback
26. er On Your Profile page specify your email address password and other personal information The required information is your email address for administration purposes only This email address is not displayed on your site nor sent to other sites Only your registered blog users can see your email address All other personal information is optional and private gt To edit your profile 1 Onthe top menu click Users 2 Onthe submenu click Your Profile 3 Optionally edit the following information o Username You cannot edit your user name because it is used as your Username during the login process The User Name can not be changed even by an Administrator First Last name Your first and last name are automatically filled in when your blog account is created These fields can not be edited E mail All users are required to list an email address in their profile This field is populated automatically when your blog account is created You ll receive new comments and administrative notifications at this address Only registered users of your blog will have access to this email address Website Edit your website address By default this is the address of your blog Update Your Password You can change your password by entering in each of the two text boxes Leaving these text boxes blank will keep the password you are currently using My Picture Add a photo to your blog home page Only jpeg gif and png formats can be
27. ers and sellers find my blog There are four main ways that consumers will find your blog 1 As just noted Featured Blog have Search Engine Optimization SEO features that enable search engines to more easily find your blog the result being that it will get higher placement and a likelihood of more traffic 2 Selected posts on popular topics may be syndicated to a high traffic page at Blogs Realtor com thereby giving you huge marketing exposure at no charge These highlighted posts at REALTOR com will also link back to your blog and or your website depending on how you ve configured them 3 You can drive traffic to your blog by advertising it as a valuable service and source of information in all your other Internet based and print marketing collateral 4 If you develop an excellent blog that serves your readers needs they will act as your ambassadors spreading the word both in person and over the Internet Support Q can t remember my username password how do retrieve it Please check your welcome email for your username and password If you no longer have your welcome email but remember your username you can reset your password by going to username featuredblog com wp admin and following the Lost your password link If you do not know your username contact Customer Support Q Who do I contact if have problems with my blog Contact Customer Care with any questions about your blog Customer Care can be reac
28. g use to write posts If you want more users to write posts you can add them from the Authors amp Users page From this page you can also edit your personal information such as your email address and add or delete users from your community In the User List by Role section of the Authors amp Users page Featured Blog lists all of the authors of your blog as rows in a table with the following columns ID The user ID of this author All users have a unique identification number which Featured Blog uses to identify users internally It is not significant from a typical user s point of view It can be handy to know however if you are writing a new template and are using the author and related Template Tags Username The username of each person as defined by his or her profile Name The first and last names of the author if specified in her or his profile E mail The author s email address If clicked you can send the author an email message Website The Web site of the author if specified in his or her profile If clicked it will launch the Web site in a separate browser Actions The number of Posts written by this author Click and a link which when clicked will take you to the Manage Posts page and list all of those posts When the Edit linked is clicked you will be able to edit the information found in that author s profile gt To manage a user From the Dashboard click Users On the submenu click Authors amp
29. gt To manage a post BOO 5 Log on to Featured Blog On the top menu click Manage On the submenu click Posts To change a post s properties click 5 Categories Displays the category to which the post has been assigned 6 Comments Displays the comments that were written for this post 7 View Displays the post as the rest of the world sees it 8 Edit Edits the post This takes you back to the Write Post page and allows you to either modify what you ve written or to change any of the post s option settings 9 Delete Permanently removes the post You will be prompted to confirm To delete several posts at once o Select the checkbox beside the ID for each post o Click Delete Checked Posts Finding a Post To display posts from a specific month select the desired month from the dropdown box and click Show Month Alternatively you can search for a post using the Search Posts field Click Search and all of the matching posts will be displayed in the table 10 Posts Moderating Posts With Featured Blog you have complete control over the content in your blog When your contributors submit postings these posts will not appear in your blog until you review and publish them All posts that are waiting to be approved are displayed on your Dashboard Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner gt To moderate a post 1 2 3 Log on to Featured Blog O
30. he page in the Search Pages field and click Search All of the matching pages will be displayed in the table To create a new page click on Create New Page This will take you to the Write Page page 19 Comments 21 Featured Blog User Manual About Comments Want an interactive Web site Wouldn t it be nice if the readers of a Web site could leave comments tips or impressions about the site or a specific article With blogs they can Posting comments is one of the most exciting features of blogs Most blogs have a method to allow visitors to leave comments There are also great ways for authors of other blogs to leave comments without even visiting the blog Called pingbacks or trackbacks they can inform other bloggers whenever they cite an article from another site in their own articles All this ensures that online conversations can be maintained painlessly among various site users and websites With Featured Blog you have all these features and more You also have complete control over the content in your blog When your visitors or contributors submit comments on the different article posts these comments will not appear in your blog until you have approved them Moderate comments by deleting unwanted ones approve valuable ones and making other decisions This can help you tackle comment spam a common problem in the blogging community Moderating Comments Important This feature is only available to the
31. hed at 1 888 393 8944 Monday Friday 6am 5pm PST or PDT 42 Index C Category adding i ettet et trt tiene 11 Managing c 11 Comments C lerem 15 EXPOF NG MeN nennen nennen ern 8 17 managing eeeeeee e 16 moderating ueeesnnnerssnnnnerennnnen nennen nenn nenne 15 ei tel 28 Contributors c cooooccconcconocanonaconacanancnonananarnnana corno 23 E ele Ve LU EE 3 D Dashboard etes 3 Discussion eic 28 H Header Le le 19 IMAGE EE 19 NOX GE 19 O Options A AET 27 SE iaa aa era eE eed 27 website integration esseeeees 27 P Pages e 11 0 0 E 13 MANAGING EE 14 Password tele ti zc M 24 Photo lolo lalo MePA irt e tnter 24 A enea aei 24 FEMOVING ENEE 24 EE 24 Plugins Gpam Blocker 21 Posts exporting ee 8 17 managing eeeeeeeenn ernennen 7 moderating ooooocccnnoncccnonaccnonanananinarcnnnnnrnnnnnnnos 8 M ps Ie 6 ineo cm 5 Presentation header image eese 19 navigation een 19 Profile een 24 R RSS Feeds exporting een 8 17 RSS Feede A 9 S Sidebar COM sibs cies Mt 19 POSITION a hingen 19 Site Options RER 27 Syndication esssseeeene 27 U A c SE base ee 23 W Website integration seen 27 43
32. iffer by Enter the number of hours by which your time differs from the displayed UTC time This will ensure that your articles and weblog maintain and display the correct time This is useful when you and your server are in different time zones For example if you were living in Tahiti then you would enter 10 in this field You can use the Date and Time Gateway http twiki org cgi bin xtra tzdate to look up your offset from UTC 5 Under REALTOR com Featured Website Integration optionally activate o Open links to my posts Select this option if you want readers to view your posts from other websites and RSS feeds in your REALTOR com Featured Website blog page This still lets readers view the content while getting the complete picture of your business This option is selected by default when your blog account is created Posts on your standalone blog site will still be displayed on that site Website URL Once you select Open links to my posts a text box appears Enter the REALTOR com Featured Website URL where readers will see your posts For example www mywebsite com This field is populated automatically when you add a blog to your REALTOR com Featured Website account If you have a blog first you must fill this field manually Use the Check URL button to validate the URL you entered Important The integration option only works with REALTOR com Featured Website URLs 6 Click Update Options to save you
33. ion Navigate to this page via the main menu by selecting Presentation then Sidebar Arrangement If your blog has multiple pages select the Page Navigation checkbox to add a navigation bar for these pages 26 Presentation Tip If you navigate to another page before saving your changes all customization will be lost gt To customize your sidebar 1 6 Under Sidebar Arrangement review the Available Widgets to decide which items you d like in the sidebar Click and drag a widget box from the Available Widgets to the Sidebar 1 section 1 Click the configure button 2 Press Enter to accept to type a display name for the widget Repeat step 2 for each widget you want in the sidebar Click and drag the widgets in the Sidebar 1 section to put them in the order you desire Under Select Sidebar Position select which side of the screen to display the sidebar Left or Right Click Save Changes Important If you want easy access to your Dashboard be sure to add the Admin widget to your sidebar gt To add custom text to your sidebar 1 a Add your pre formatted widgets to the sidebar to determine how many custom text boxes you want to add Under the Text Widgets section select the number of widgets from the drop down menu Click Save The selected number of text widgets appear in the Available Widgets section Le Text 1 Click and drag the text widget to the Sidebar 1 Click inside each text widget and wr
34. ite s feeds o For each article show Determines whether or not the feed will include the full text of each post or a summary which could save bandwidth 6 Brokers can select to Display Automatic Posts from their agents websites This option is only available for REALTOR com Featured Websites 7 Click Update Options to save your changes Setting My Discussion Options Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner On the Discussion Options page under the Options menu you can set your administrative options related to comments posted on your site Check the options you want to use to regulate and control comments Email me whenever Anyone posts a comment When someone posts a comment on your blog you receive a notification email A comment is held for moderation When someone posts a comment on your blog that requires your approval you receive an email advising you to moderate the comment i e approve or delete Before a comment appears I must approve the comment This ensures that no comments appear on your blogsite before you approve their content This function is useful to prevent spam or inappropriate comments being added to your site Comment author must have a previously approved comment Comments by contributors who have already been approved will be posted to the site automatically Comments by new contributors will prompt an email for moderation 37 Appendix Featured Bl
35. ite your custom text Click Save Changes 27 Plugins Featured Blog User Manual Activating the Spam Blocker The latest version of auto generated soam appears as comments posted on blogs These comments rarely contain useful content and are often used to direct customers to their website The Spam Blocker plugin prevents auto generated comments from being posted on your blog By requiring contributors to type in a verification code presented on the screen the spam blocker ensures comments are posted by individuals gt To activate the Spam Blocker plugin 1 Logon to Top Producer Blogs 2 Onthe top menu click Plugins The Plugin Management screen appears 3 Locate the Spam Blocker plugin 4 Under the Action column click Activate A message appears on the screen to indicate the plugin has been activated gt To de activate the Spam Blocker plugin 1 Logon to Top Producer Blogs 2 Onthe top menu click Plugins The Plugin Management screen appears 3 Locate the Spam Blocker plugin 4 Under the Action column click Deactivate A message appears on the screen to indicate the plugin has been deactivated 30 Users 31 Featured Blog User Manual Managing Users Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner Every blog has at least two types of users the Admin the account initially set up by Featured Blog and the User the account you the author owner of the blo
36. n the top menu click Dashboard In the right box under the Drafts section click on the post Note that this section will also contain drafts that you created but have not published Optionally edit the content of the post For more information see Writing Posts Click Publish if you wish to submit this post to your blog Exporting Posts and Comments You can export all of your posts and comments into an RSS feed XML file You can then reuse this content for your Web site or for another blog You can export your posts and comments from two locations While managing your export options or while viewing your site gt To export your posts and comments managing export options 1 2 3 4 5 Log on to your Featured Blog On the top menu click Manage On the submenu click Export Click Download Export File Click any of the following o Open To view your posts and comments in an XML file This will enable you to view the RSS feed before saving it o Save To save the RSS feed in an XML format o Cancel To stop the export process and close this window gt To export your posts and comments viewing your site While viewing your site scroll to the footer of your screen On the footer of your screen click Entries RSS Your posts and comments are displayed in an XML file To save this RSS feed as an XML file under the File menu click Save As and select the folder where you want to save it or we To sav
37. og User Manual FAQ Introduction Q What is a blog A Weblog or blog for short is a frequently updated website where entries or posts often no longer than a paragraph are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order A real estate blog unlike an online forum is owned by an industry professional This means that if you re an agent the blog is branded with your agent identity and you control the discussion topics and provide the main posts These posts are then commented upon by visitors to the blog and you have the option of approving all reader responses before they are posted to your blog Blogs are as easy to use as email They require no technical expertise or support staff All you have to do is write and post your entry Q Why do need a blog How will it help me be more successful There are many benefits of using a blog all of which involve helping you to provide better service expand your client base and increase your sales Blogs can enable you to e Build a community resource website that becomes a prospect magnet e Expand your sphere of influence online by creating a dialogue between willing participants e Foster trust and cultivate warm prospects who are much easier to convert into clients and referral sources e Develop an online professional network that can provide answers for every kind of real estate related question or need e Demonstrate your professional e
38. one of two different modes View Mode the default and Mass Edit Mode View Mode The default View Mode shows the full text of the comment and offers links to edit or delete the comment and to view the post to which the comment refers If you click Delete you will be prompted to confirm A deletion can never be undone Comments which have been marked for Moderation are also displayed but are shown in light gray text For more information see Moderating Comments Mass Edit Mode Mass Edit Mode allows you to preform mass deletion of posts If you want to delete several posts at once you can select those posts checkboxes and then click Delete Checked Comments at the bottom of the table This mode is most useful when you are searching for comments from a particular author e a spammer or for comments containing certain words or key phrases Example You have been flooded with comments from a certain individual and wish to delete all of them The following steps will eliminate all of those unwanted comments gt To delete multiple comments 1 Type the author s name into the Show Comments That Contain text box and click Search 2 Select the check box located at the top left corner of the table This will select all the comments in the table 3 Click Delete Checked Comments Note that this cannot be undone In Mass Edit Mode the table of comments displays the following columns for each comment e Name The name given by the author
39. ot be edited e Name The name of the category Each name must be unique e Description Categories may have an optional description By default the description is shown to viewers when they hover over the category s link e Posts The number of posts which are members of the category e Action Use the Edit or Delete buttons to change your categories Default categories cannot be deleted gt To manage your categories Log on to Featured Blog On the top menu click Manage On the submenu click Categories B bo m For each category you can click o Edit This will allow you to modify the category s name description or parent o Delete This will allow you to delete the category Deleting a category does not delete its posts Instead these posts are moved into the default category which is defined in bold in the note below the table of categories Adding a New Category Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner Categories will appear on your blog once you have posted something in them Empty categories will remain invisible gt To add a category 1 From the Dashboard click Manage 14 Categories 2 Onthe submenu click Categories The Custom Categories page appears 3 Under the Add Custom Category section enter the following o Category name The name must be unique Maximum length is 55 characters o Category parent If you are creating a subcategory s
40. r changes Setting My Reading Options Important This feature is only available to the blog Administrator or Owner 36 Options On the Reading page under the Options menu you can adjust how many posts are displayed on the main page of your site You can also adjust the technical features that determine how the information from your site is sent to a reader s Web browser or another application gt To set my reading options 1 From the Dashboard click Options 2 Onthe submenu click Reading 3 Optionally edit the Front Page settings o The latest posts Select this option if you wish to display your posts in a chronological order with the latest posts listed at the top of the front page o A static page Select this option if you wish to display the same content on the front page You can then select from the drop down list the page that you want to display on the front page Also you can select the page that will contain your latest posts Note that the pages need to be created before they appear on this list 4 Optionally edit the Blog Pages settings o Show at most This option allows you to adjust how many posts are displayed per page on your site There are two things that you can adjust the number in the text box and the selection from the dropdown list days or posts 5 Optionally edit the RSS Feeds settings o Show the most recent Indicates the number of posts people will see when they download one of your s
41. s o Delete To reject the comment This comment will not displayed on your blog o Deier until later If this is selected when you click Moderate Comments nothing will be done with the comment It will remain in the queue and not be displayed on your site Tip If you want to apply the same action to all the comments click on the hyperlinks located at the bottom of the page You can mark all the comments for approval as spam for deletion or as deferred 22 Comments 5 Click Bulk Moderate Comments when you finish reviewing your comments Managing Comments Important Only the blog Administrator or Owner can manage all comments If you are a contributor you can only manage your own comments In the Manage Comments page you can modify or delete your comments By default the table of comments displays the twenty most recent comments At the bottom of the page is a button to View the Next 20 Comments Tip Instead of cycling through all of your comments in groups of 20 search for a set of comments Enter the keyword text into the Show Comments That Contain text box and click the Search button to display all matching comments The search function searches through all comments text author name author email author URL and author IP address Clearing the Show Comments That Contain text box and then clicking the Search button will reset the display and show all comments The table of comments can be set to display in
42. s a whole and will save you the time of having to add it to each post One of the sidebar widgets is a profile and it s designed to support a photo Use the image upload feature Q How long can content stay on my blog Is there a file size limit like my email account Content will stay on your blog as long as your blog account is active There is a limit of 10 MB excluding the 2MB banner and 2MB agent photo Q Can other people post to my blog Yes if you invite others to be contributors to your blog they can write posts on your blog As the blog owner you must approve every post written by a contributor before the post is displayed on your blog Q Can add listings to my blog Featured Blog is not intended to be a website so there is no facility to explicitly support listings You can add listings as a blog post However experience shows that blogs are most effective and popular when used as an information source not as an overt marketing vehicle So only in rare instances would you want to post listings Use with Website Q Can I link my blog to my website You can iframe the blog into your website link to it or show it as an RSS feed If you use a REALTOR com Featured Website you can iframe your Featured Blog in which case additional features such as enabling permalinks and redirecting to your website are supported Q How do add my blog to my REALTOR com Featured Websites Simply add a blog page type
43. there it can be seen by many and crawled by search engines Taking things back Featured Blog User Manual is harder once it is public Take a moment to read what you ve written before hitting the Publish button When you are ready share it with the world Managing Posts Important Only the blog Administrator or Owner can manage all posts If you are a contributor you can only manage your own posts Use the Manage Posts page to edit and delete existing posts If you have any drafts started they will be listed at the top of the page Clicking on the title of a draft will load the post for further editing On the Manage Posts page the fifteen most recent posts are also presented as rows in this table For each post the following is displayed ID The unique number that the Featured Blog database uses to identify individual posts When The date and time the post was or will be published Title The title of your post Categories All of the categories of which your post is a member Each category shown in this table links to a page on your blog which shows all of the posts in that category Comments The table tells you how many comments have been made regarding the post The link in this column takes you to the Manage Comments page and allows you to edit or delete comments from this post Author Which user of the blog wrote the post Action View or change the content of each post You can also delete posts permanently
44. uses for a line break To break your writing up into paragraphs use double spaces between your paragraphs Featured Blog will automatically detect these and insert lt p gt HTML paragraph tags into your writing Using Headings If you are writing long posts break up the sections by using headings or small titles to highlight a change of subject In HTML headings are set by the use of h1 h2 h3 h4 and so on By default most Featured Blog Themes use the first second and sometimes third heading levels within the site You can use h4 to set your own headings Example lt h4 gt Subtitle of Section lt h4 gt With double lines before and after Featured Blog will make that title a headline in your post To style the heading add it to your style css style sheet file Use HTML You don t have to use HTML when writing your posts Featured Blog will automatically add it to your site but if you do want control over different elements like boxes headings and other additional containers or elements use HTML Spell Check and Proof There are spell check Plugins available but even those can t check for everything Some serious writers will write their posts in a text editor with spell check check all the spelling and proof it thoroughly before copying and pasting into Featured Blog Think Before You Post Ranting on blogs is commonplace today but take a moment and think about what you are writing Remember once it is out
45. xpertise local market knowledge and community involvement as well as create a unique personal brand e Improve your search engine placement and drive free traffic to your website s e Reinforce all of your drip marketing campaigns In short blogs are an easy and inexpensive way for you to communicate with prospects and clients in a direct informal and genuine tone that will encourage interaction and build trust all via a medium they re comfortable using Q What are no nos in blogging Blogs form part of your personal brand so you need to make sure that your posts project the professional image of integrity credibility trustworthiness and industry know how that will attract readers So any content that detracts from this professional image should be avoided Additionally although blogs are marketing vehicles as well as sources of real estate information it is best to avoid giving yours posts a sales and marketing tone Availability of Blogs Q Who can request a blog Any member of the National Association of Realtors can request REALTOR com Featured Blog Q How much does a blog cost There is no charge for REALTOR com Featured Blog Using My Blog Q What will be the URL of the blog Can I change it The URL of the blog will be username featuredblog com This cannot be changed However you can contact your domain registrar for re direction assistance 40 Appendix Q Can customize the look of my blog
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