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Widgets – Why Use Them

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Second Self Virtual Assistance

Widgets are a great marketing tool.  Links and buttons work well, but widgets can enhance your sight, making it more visually effective as well as making your site more automated and user-friendly. 

Widgets can be fun or they can be practical.  These on-screen tools may provide games, videos, news, search or comment boxes, mortgage calculators, calendars, RSS feeds, listing slideshows, chat with me options and so much more.  Widgets bring live content to your static pages without you having to update the content offered. 

Widgets provide you with the means to enhance and spice up your website or blog-site by providing relevant information to your visitors and readers.  Adding widgets to your website can really make it stand out from the crowd when you are using a template website or blog-site for your business.  Many of the widgets available will allow you to modify the widget to your personal preference, giving your site a unique look and feel.

An example of using a widget to enhance your webpage is the use of a chat box widget. This widget allows your web visitor to talk with you while they are visiting your site.  This simple interaction can lead to all sorts of possibilities.

Here are some useful real estate marketing widgets:

·         www.singlepropertysites.com/widgets.shtml

·         www.housingwidgets.com

·         www.widgetbox.com/tags/real+estate

·         www.realbird.com/listing-widgets.aspx  

Here is a list of social networking sites that provide some type of widget or badge for their members:

·         www.linkedin.com

·         www.facebook.com

·         www.trulia.com

·         www.zillow.com

As a business professional who has found widgets very useful in my line of work, I hope you will find this information helpful.

Pamela Cendejas - Second Self Virtual Assistance

Winston Westbrook
Westbrook National Real Estate Co - Victorville, CA

Great stuff Pamela! I will have to go and check out some of these widgets for my website and blogs. Thanks for posting this up. 

Mar 04, 2009 09:32 AM
Silvia Dukes PA, Broker Associate, CRS, CIPS, SRES
Tropic Shores Realty - Ich spreche Deutsch! - Spring Hill, FL
Florida Waterfront and Country Club Living

Thanks Pamela. I've been using some of these on and off but didn't know about some others. I will investigate.  Thanks for sharing.

Mar 04, 2009 09:33 AM
Anonymous
Pamela Cendejas - Second Self Virtual Assistance

Winston - Look for another post with additional widget links soon.

Mar 04, 2009 09:46 AM
#3
Anonymous
Pamela Cendejas - Second Self Virtual Assistance

Silvia - They're addictive!  Thanks for the post.

Mar 04, 2009 09:48 AM
#4
Geri Sonkin
Douglas Elliman Real Estate 516-457-7103 - Merrick, NY
Long Island Real Estate & Staging Expert

I appreciate this post since I've been trying to install some widgets on my blog here and on Blogger and Wordpress.  So far I've had no luck.  Though I normally think of myself as relatively tech savvy I can't seem to make it work . . . yet.  I'll check your links.  Thanks!

Mar 04, 2009 10:46 AM
Dan and Amy Schuman
Howard Hanna Real Estate Services - Solon, OH
Luxury Home Specialists

Thanks for the post Pamela. I'll have to check these out.

Mar 04, 2009 10:50 AM
Patricia Aulson
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOME SERVICES Verani Realty NH Real Estate - Exeter, NH
Realtor - Portsmouth NH Homes-Hampton NH Homes

Not sure I would want to use this on my real estate website, unless there is something I don't know about these and that's probably the cast. ? Can you show me what it would do for my site, if anything please. www.patricia4realestate.com  Thanks,

Patricia Aulson/ Realtor    Portsmouth NH Real estate

Mar 04, 2009 10:57 AM
Kari Battaglia
Veterans Realty Inc - Venice, FL
Who You Work With Matters!

Thanks Pamela.  I have been some of these widgets on my website.  I will check out the other ones tomorrow.

Mar 04, 2009 01:17 PM
Anonymous
hockmanli

ITemplatez.com offers professional  web templates, flash templates ,swish templates, dreamweaver templates, and other web design productsavailable for immediate download.

Mar 04, 2009 08:55 PM
#9
Anonymous
Pamela Cendejas - Second Self Virtual Assistance

Geri - Installing widgets on blogs can be a little tricky.  One of my team members is genius with widget installation.  Let me know what problem you're having and perhaps she can give you some step-by-step instructions.

Mar 05, 2009 01:52 AM
#10
Anonymous
Pamela Cendejas - Second Self Virtual Assistance

Patricia - I looked at your website.  You actually have a widget on your home page.  Since we are a society of impatient people, a widget grabs attentions and offer a quick look or opportunity.  On my website homepage, I've added a Text Me Now widget that allows the visitor to send me a text while they are visiting my website.  They are also helpful to you in doing things such as tracking visitors.  T

Mar 05, 2009 01:57 AM
#11
Anonymous
Pamela Cendejas - Second Self Virtual Assistance

Hockmanli - Your link goes to an Under Construction page.  Let me know when it's up and running.  I'd like to check it out.

Mar 05, 2009 01:59 AM
#12
Anonymous
Darlene Siddons

here is another great tool for any VA or VA company....Vision Map Videos.....great for advertising anything!!!.....check them out and let me know what you think....

darlene

http://visionmapvideo.blogspot.com/

Mar 05, 2009 02:23 AM
#13
Geri Sonkin
Douglas Elliman Real Estate 516-457-7103 - Merrick, NY
Long Island Real Estate & Staging Expert

Pamela, thanks for the offer of help.  I have a single property website that offers widgets (much like VFlyer) for blogs and social networking sites.  They have an automatic add for Blogger but it doesn't work.  I also have the code to manually add it but have no idea where to insert it.  I would love to put it on my blogger blog and Wordpress.

Mar 05, 2009 06:03 AM
Anonymous
Pamela Cendejas - Second Self Virtual Assistance

Geri - I don't know about blogger.  As long as it's not javascript, you can add the html under a text box in the widgets section of your WordPress.com account.  WordPress.com doesn't allow javascript.  If it's a hosted blog on WordPress.org, you are OK.  You still put it in the widget section in a text box.

Hope this helps.

Mar 05, 2009 08:27 AM
#15
Anonymous
Pamela Cendejas - Second Self Virtual Assistance

Darlene - Thank you for the link.  Love it!  I recently hired a business coach who highly recommended Vision Boards.  Your's are very well done.  Puts the "old school" Vision Boards to shame.

Mar 05, 2009 08:30 AM
#16
Michael Neville
Keller Williams Realty Atlanta Midtown - Atlanta, GA
Intown Atlanta Realtor

Pamela - great stuff & thank you for the help.

Mar 07, 2009 04:15 AM
Anonymous
Pamela Cendejas - Second Self Virtual Assistance

Michael - Thank you for the post.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your Active Rain profile page is showing up in HTML only.  I just had a problem with my profile page, too.  Don't know what happened but thought you might like to know.

Mar 10, 2009 03:31 AM
#18