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How to 'cheat' with Wordle (the word cloud website)

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Shoreline New Hampshire & Maine

By now lots of us have likely heard something about www.Wordle.net, the website that lets you build a "word cloud" like the one below which is made of words used in a post. The most used words appear larger and seldom used words appear as smaller.

While that is a very cool application to add some color and visual interest to a post, there may be occasions where you want words other than the most used ones to appear larger and more prominent.

There's a very easy way to make that happen by simply 'cheating' when you paste your word cloud in to Wordle to transform it. In this example I'm deliberately only using the words "Knoxville Real Estate" and "Jim Lee, Realtor" one time to illustrate my point.

Here's the normal Wordle with all the words in this post as you see it.

knoxville tn homes for sale provided by knoxville area realtor jim lee

Now let's suppose for whatever reason you want the keywords I mentioned above to appear more prominently in your word cloud.

Simply by adding them multiple times ( I added each one 6 times) you can dramatically alter the output of your Wordle world cloud should you have a reason to want to.

Here's the same word cloud as above with the added keywords mentioned above.

knoxville tn real estate, knoxville real estate, and knoxville homes for sale

And to capture the above Wordle files I used MWSnap, a free screen capture utility that has a lot more functionality than simply using the print screen key on your keyboard and it's my favorite price, FREE!

BTW, even though MWSnap is freeware someone had to work to develop it. I made a contribution to that person from the site I downloaded it from.

Happy cheating. ;)


PS, I saved the above images as .JPG files which also gives you the option to insert (slip) your own keywords in the image description and title when you insert the file into your post.

 

 

 

 

Posted by

Jim Lee , REALTOR®, Certified Residential Specialist (CRS)

http://JimLee.com  RE/MAX Shoreline

100 Market St., Suite #200, , Portsmouth, NH 03801 Phone: (603) 431-1111 x3801

Visit New Hampshire Maine Real Estate.com to search homes, get Seacoast area information, and find out how great living on the New Hampshire and southern Maine Seacoast really is.

 

Follow RealtorJimLee on Twitter

Show All Comments Sort:
Christine Donovan
Donovan Blatt Realty - Costa Mesa, CA
Broker/Attorney 714-319-9751 DRE01267479 - Costa M

I'm cuious as to the uses to this other than to make visuals.  Is it to understand how often the keywords are used?

Nov 08, 2009 02:52 PM
Deena Cottingham
GreenApple Staging & Images, Calgary Staging & Photography - Calgary, AB
Home Stager & Photographer

There's always more cool things to learn about on the net! Thanks for sharing!

Nov 08, 2009 03:10 PM
Jason Crouch
Austin Texas Homes, LLC - Austin, TX
Broker - Austin Texas Real Estate (512-796-7653)
Jim - Love this idea! Thanks for sharing the cheat! ;)
Nov 08, 2009 03:31 PM
Mark VanBuskirk
Cassidon Realty - Lehighton, PA
PA REALTOR Specializing in Carbon & Monroe County

Something else to try! hmm!

Nov 08, 2009 08:53 PM
Joyce Thomas
The Thomas Group Brokered by eXp Realty - San Tan Valley, AZ
Your Home Sold Guaranteed!

Very cool.  More great information.  Now to implement it!  Thanks again!

Nov 08, 2009 11:52 PM
Robert Savage
Bakersfield Property Solutions - Bakersfield, CA
Bakersfield Short Sales, Property Management, Cash

Thanks for the information. I will add it to my toolbox.

Nov 09, 2009 12:19 AM
Anonymous
jane terrell

thanks for the tip!  I have never known how to do this before and have already spent 30 minutes playing!! 

Nov 09, 2009 12:31 AM
#43
Home Loan Search.Online
Home Loan Search Online - Newnan, GA

Very cool tool. I haven't heard of this before but I seen a lot more images like these lately.

Nov 09, 2009 01:00 AM
Patricia Aulson
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOME SERVICES Verani Realty NH Real Estate - Exeter, NH
Realtor - Portsmouth NH Homes-Hampton NH Homes

Hey...interest post today.   I've not heard of this before.

Patricia/Seacoast NH

Nov 09, 2009 02:10 AM
Kristi DeFazio
RE/MAX Advantage - Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado Springs Rea lEstate 719-459-5468

This is so cool! Thanks for sharing, I am off to check it out now.

Nov 09, 2009 02:46 AM
Brad Andersohn
Retired Executive Director of Education at eXp - Boulder Creek, CA
ActiveBrad - 707.646.1876

You cheater!  lol~  :-))

Seriously though, I can see where copying a blog post and pasting it into wordle could really help one see if the word cloud in their post is sending the right message and focus based on their word content. 

When I used my last couple posts to test the theory, the biggest cloud word wasn't a word at all, I guess I use this one way too much!! haha~

:-)

 

oh well, that's my signature and at least you know I'm happy!  :-)

 

Nov 09, 2009 03:50 AM
Jim Lee, REALTOR, CRS
RE/MAX Shoreline - Portsmouth, NH
Buying or Selling? Ann & Jim are the local experts

Thanks Brad,

BTW, are we still having the AR paid bloggers get together at Ruths Chris Friday night at 8:00?

I need the limo to pick me up around 7:15 at the Embassy Suites.

See you then. ;) (I'm happy too)

Nov 09, 2009 05:31 AM
Bryant Tutas
Tutas Towne Realty, Inc and Garden Views Realty, LLC - Winter Garden, FL
Selling Florida one home at a time

Hi Jim, Are you picking TLW and I up at the airport for the paid bloggers get together? I think we need to talk to the guys about getting a little bit of a raisse. What do think?

Nov 09, 2009 06:32 AM
John Novak
Keller Williams Realty The Marketplace - Las Vegas, NV
Henderson, Las Vegas and Summerlin Real Estate

Tag clouds are a great way for people who process information visually to get a good look at their content. Thanks for sharing this tool, Jim!

Nov 09, 2009 07:54 AM
Jim Lee, REALTOR, CRS
RE/MAX Shoreline - Portsmouth, NH
Buying or Selling? Ann & Jim are the local experts

The AR limo should be available when your flight gets in; I'll ask the driver to come pick you guys up too.

Should be a fun evening of great food, great wine, and blogger/AR talk.

I think a modest increase in our usual stipends would be in order; let's bring it up for discussion.

Nov 09, 2009 08:05 AM
C. Lloyd McKenzie
Living Albuquerque - Albuquerque, NM
Living Albuquerque

Jim,

At first glance I skipped over your blog.  I keyed in on "Cheat." I glad I took a second look at it.  I will definitely check it out.

Nov 09, 2009 12:44 PM
Dana Devine
Charles Rutenberg Realty - Apollo Beach, FL

really kool stuff jim thanks for sharing...i like cheating...well knowing more than the next person

Nov 10, 2009 07:04 AM
DeeDee Riley
Windermere Real Estate - El Dorado Hills CA - El Dorado Hills, CA
Realtor - El Dorado Hills & the Surrounding Areas

Very cool, Jim.  Thank you.  I think you could make some pretty catchy note cards with that too!

Nov 11, 2009 04:59 PM
Michele Connors
The Overton Group, LLC Pitt & Carteret County - Greenville, NC
Your Eastern North Carolina Realtor

Oh great...I stumble on this as I am shutting down for the night... There goes my plans to clean :-)

Off to Wordle and to play around with the FREE ideas. Thanks Jim !

Nov 19, 2009 10:53 AM
Mike Barilone
RE/MAX Legends - Lawrenceville, GA
Lawrenceville Georgia Realtor

Thanks Jim - very interesting! 

Nov 24, 2009 02:47 AM