Dec 18

Place name images

Below are acceptable examples of place name images. The preferred format has a place name, an abstract form and the logo.  All images must be 400 px by 400 px.

 

 

 

  1. Place name images are in the form shown above Images should be PNG and should have a transparency..
  2. Be creative.
  3. You must use the logo and the name.
  4. The logo and name should be legible at all sizes from 150 px to 400 px..
  5. The logo is found here: http://nesbittrealty.com, but it’s best to use the template below.
  6. Upload your images to the Media Library as shown below.  Make sure you properly label your images as follows:
    • Title: The tltle is the subject place name.  For example if the place is Annandale, the title is Annandale.
    • Caption: The caption should read: “Nesbitt Realty can help you buy and sell real estate in PLACE”  place.  Example:  Nesbitt Realty can help you buy and sell real estate in Annandale.
    • Alt: The Alt tag should read “PLACE real estate agents”.  Example: Annandale real estate agents
Click on "Add New" under Media Library

Click on “Add New” under Media Library

Tips:

  • Do not stretch or distort the logo out of proportion.
  • Do not try to be fancy. Simple is best.
  • Don’t break the text up.  For example don’t separate “Crystal” and “City” if you’re making a “Crystal City” image.
  • Readability is the most important thing.
  • Make the text as large as will fit in the image.
  • Double-check your spelling. Misspelled images are unusable and will be deleted.
  • Avoid “full-bleed” images. In other words, keep your design inside the image and don’t run your design to the very edge of the image.
  • Fill the space.  Don’t leave a lot of empty space in the image.
  • The height of the logo should be roughly the same size as the height of the biggest letter in the place name.

Click on the box to see the preferred color choices

The colors that work best in this exercise are found in this image. If you choose to use a color not in this palette you'd better have a strikingly good idea.

The colors that work best in this exercise are found in this image. If you choose to use a color not in this palette you’d better have a strikingly good idea.

Template

If you need / want a template you can use these. To use the template, change the font and move things around to better suit your tastes. Create your own background image or modify the existing image.

Some places and names

  1. Alexandria
  2. Arlandria
  3.  Del Ray
  4. Eisenhower lley
  5. Carlyle District
  6.  Eisenhower West
  7. Old Town
  8. Abingdon Row
  9. Alexandria House
  10. Braddock Place
  11. Cameron Mews
  12. Canal Place
  13. Canal Way
  14. Chatham Square
  15. Colecroft
  16. Harbor Terrace
  17. Harborside
  18. Liberty Row
  19. Marina Towers
  20. Old Town Commons
  21. Old Town Crescent
  22. Old Town Gateway
  23. Old Town Greens
  24. Port Royal
  25. Potomac Greens
  26. Potowmack Crossing
  27. Prescott
  28. The Henry
  29. Torpedo Factory
  30. Watergate of Alexandria
  31. Arch Hall
  32. Fords Landing
  33. Hunting Creek
  34. Old Town Village
  35. Pommander
  36. Porto Vecchio
  37. Prince Street Club
  38. St. Asaph Square
  39. Old Town Alexandria
  40. West End Alexandria
  41. Cameron Station
  42. Center Park
  43. Fort Ellsworth
  44. Watergate at Landmark
  45. Parkfairfax
  46. Seminary Hill
  47. Belle Wood
  48. Cameron Heights
  49. Chelsea
  50. King’s Cloister
  51. Seminary Hill
  52. Quaker Hill
  53. Seminary Ridge
  54. Seminary Walk
  55. The Plaza
  56. Shirley Duke
  57. Alexandria Overlook
  58. Beverly Hills
  59. Dalecrest
  60. Fairlington
  61. Greenhouse Condominiums
  62. Kingsgate
  63. Parkside at Alexandria
  64. Place One Condominiums
  65. Arlington
  66. Arlington Ridge
  67. Aurora Hieghts
  68. Ballston
  69. Alta Vista
  70. Ballston 880
  71. Ballston Park
  72. Continental
  73. Hyde Park
  74. Liberty Center
  75. The Monroe
  76. Virginia Square
  77. Westview / Eastview
  78. Windsor Plaza
  79. Clarendon
  80. Cardinal House
  81. Clarendon 1021
  82. Lyon Hill
  83. Lyon Park
  84. Lyon Village
  85. Station Square
  86. The Hartford
  87. The Phoenix
  88. Clarendon
  89. Court House
  90. Charleston
  91. Colonial Village
  92. Courthouse Hills
  93. Odyssey
  94. Park at Court House
  95. The Vista at Court House
  96. Crystal City
  97. Bella Vista
  98. Crystal Gateway
  99. Crystal Park
  100. Eclipse
  101. Southampton
  102. Waterford House
  103. Crystal City
  104. North Arlington
  105. Rivercrest
  106. Pentagon City
  107. Rosslyn
  108. 1800 Wilson Blvd
  109. Astoria
  110. Atrium
  111. Belvedere
  112. Bromptons
  113. Highgate
  114. Palisades Park
  115. Turnberry Tower
  116. Waterview
  117. Wooster Mercer
  118. Rosslyn
  119. South Arlington
  120. Arlington Heights
  121. Alco Heights
  122. Arlington Views
  123. Columbia Heights
  124. Penrose
  125. Barkley Condominium
  126. Fairlington
  127. Nauck
  128. Green valley
  129. Shirlington
  130. Williamsburg
  131. Manassas
  132. Prince William
  133. Gainesville
  134. Haymarket
  135. Manassas Park
  136. Dale City
  137. Newington
  138. Mantua
  139. Fair Oaks
  140. Fair Lakes
  141. Potomac River
  142. Northern Virginia
  143. Southern Fairfax County
  144. Lower Alexandria
  145. Northern Fairfax County
  146. Lee District
  147. Mount Vernon District
  148. Sully District
  149. Dranesville District
  150. Mason District
  151. Springfield
  152. Springfield District
  153. Huntermill District
  154. Providence District
  155. City of Fairfax
  156. City of Falls Church
  157. City of Alexandria
  158. Merrifield
  159. Braddock District
  160. Northern VA
  161. George Washington Parkway
  162. Pentagon
  163. Pentagon City
  164. Columbia Pike
  165. Shirley Highway
  166. Jefferson Davis Highway

You can also use certain phrases or words

  1. Inside the Beltway
  2. Near the Metro
  3. close to shops
  4. condo
  5. townhouse
  6. house
  7. Ask a Realtor.
  8. Did you know?
  9. real estate tip
  10. quiet
  11. convenient
  12. comfortable
  13. luxury
  14. luxury condo
  15. luxury home
  16. luxury townhouse
  17. Great schools!
  18. community
  19. Northern Virginia Experts

Or you can use zipcodes

  • 22201
  • 22202
  • 22203
  • 22204
  • 22205
  • 22206
  • 22207
  • 22209
  • 22213
  • 22301
  • 22302
  • 22303
  • 22304
  • 22305
  • 22306
  • 22307
  • 22308
  • 22309
  • 22310
  • 22311
  • 22312
  • 22313
  • 22314
  • 22315
  • 22320
  • 22321
  • 22332
  • 22333
  • 22334

 

Dec 17

Organizing posts

Click on Settings >> RSS Multi Importer

Click on Settings >> RSS Multi Importer

Click on Manage Posts. Then click on >> to go to most recent posts.

Click on Manage Posts. Then click on >> to go to most recent posts.

Don’t edit any posts that are marked “DO NOT DELETE”.  That means they’ve already been edited.

Click on the posts that have a price and address.

Click on the posts that have a price and address.

Use Bulk Actions to select "Do Not Delete" for each post. Then use "View" to open each post in a new tab.

Use Bulk Actions to select “Do Not Delete” for each post. Then use “View” to open each post in a new tab.

Enter zipcode into Tags. Delete text block as indicated.

Enter zipcode into Tags.
Delete text block as indicated.

 

Add Tract and City to categories. Add property types to tags. "Residential for Sale" is a tag.

Add Tract and City to categories. Add property types to tags. “Residential for Sale” is a tag.

Sort Each Post by Price Category

The price categories are:

  • Affordable = less than $400,000
  • Standard = from $400,000 to $800,000
  • Luxury = from $800,000 to $1,300,000
  • Super Luxury = $1,300,000 and up
Sort each post by pricing category.

Sort each post by pricing category.

 

Click “update” or publish.  Then record the URL in Google docs in a spreadsheet to keep track of your work for billing.
Repeat until every post is finished.

Posts that have no text

If you open a post it has only some code and a picture.  Do not modify or change this post. The picture should look something like this:

Carlyle

 

 

 

Nov 13

Attempting to use Feed to Post from WP RSS Multi-importer

Apr 21

Adding images to the media library

It’s really important to properly title your images, caption your image and give alternate tags to your images when you load them into the Media Library. If you don’t do this then your images won’t be found when we need them. This also helps Google find your images. Click on any of the screenshots below to see a larger image.

media dashboard

Notice that thes pictures were not titled.

From the screen above I click on “EDIT” to get the “Edit Media” page. Here’s one of the pictures that needs to be corrected.

This page needs correction.

Notice the "Title" was named by the computer. There is no alternate text, but this image has a caption.

Here’s the same image after it was corrected.

proper method

The title is the location of the shot. The alternative text is a phrase describing what is in the shot. The caption is a sentence that relates to the shot.

Here’s a link to the actual image.

Sep 02

Community Post

A “community post” is a post about a community.   Every community post starts with a good title as described here.  Always avoid opinions in community posts. A community post is nothing but an aggregation of facts about a neighborhood. The article should contain:

  • Transit or commute options.  Is the community near a metro line?
  • Schools.  What schools serve the community?  Include a link to the school.  You can find a list of the schools to link to here.  (Scroll down.)
  • What is the construction? Townhouse, house, condo? Brick, siding?
  • What year were most of the homes built?
  • What amenities are worth noting?
  • Unique features about the neighborhood?

Don’t write in bullet points.  Do write in clear concise sentences. Don’t use flowery language. Do use correct spelling and punctuation. Include a link to the community itself. In total your article should only be 1 or 2 paragraphs long.

At the end of the article add “Homes for sale in” the community you’re writing about and then add listings. Its quite possible that you don’t know the first thing about the neighborhood you’re writing about.  If so add the listings, publish your work then look at the listings to do your research.  Always make your listings as localized as possible.

Add a picture to your post.

Finish by tagging and categorizing your post.

 

Jul 08

Control Panel

Access the Control Panel here.  If you need access you will be provided credentials.

screenshot

Hover over the "Search Agent" to find the "Links" button. Click on "Links".

 

Click on the image for a larger version of this screenshot. The Links panel has a list of custom links, many of which I and other bloggers like you created.  If you need an RSS URL simply use the search feature to find the area you’re looking for.  Then right click on the RSS icon to copy that URL.  Alternatively click on the RSS icon and you’ll see the actual RSS and you can grab the URL at the top of that page.  If no link exists for your area, you’ll need to “Create a Link.”

screenshot

Start by naming your search, selecting "RESULTS PAGE" and "Time on Market Ascending"

Take care to name your search.  The Title doesn’t do any actual searching.  It’s just a name for your search.  On “Landing Page” select “Results Page”.  Then select “Time on Market Ascending”.

screenshot

Use map tools to scroll into the target area.

Scroll down then use the map tools to zoom into your target area. Colonial Acres is in the Mount Vernon area, so we’ve zoomed into Mount Vernon.

screenshot

Use the search criteria to find listings

Now we enter the actual search criteria to find the listings we seek.  In this case I entered “Colonial Acres” into the Location.  Then I clicked “constrain results to map” which means that we’re only going to find Colonial Acres homes that are in the Mount Vernon area shown on this map.  We do that because America is a big country and there a lot of Colonial Acres.  We’re only interested in Colonial Acres homes near Mount Vernon.  However, and this is important, if you map is showing the wrong area you might not get any or all listings in your search.

 

screenshot

Select the types of homes and hit Refresh Sample Results

Under property types you’ll most usually select Residential All.  Then click Refresh Sample Results. If you’ve done your search properly a few homes for sale in the area will populate in the panel.  Now you can click “Save Link”.  You can now find this link in the list of links as described above or in the Home Search panel where we normally insert listings.

screenshot

Thar she blows!

May 11

Adding a market snapshot / graph

Click on the images to see larger screenshots.

After you’ve created your own image / graph, upload that image to the Media Library.  Make sure you enter identifying information int the title and tag of the image.  Delete the graph generated by the button and add the image you created to the article.  Make the image “full size” or it might not be legible.

In the case of Altos graphs, it’s a little difficult to remove the Altos logo, and also unnecessary. However it is important to do a screen capture and upload a cropped image of the graph to the Media Library. The reason for this is because the graph will change every day automatically, but our article will not. We want the image because the image will match the text you put in your article.

May 10

Creating a “Yelp” post

A “Yelp” post is about businesses that serve a community where people might want to buy a house.  To write a “Yelp” post, start by picking an area.  For a list of the areas we serve, check:

It’s not helpful for our readers or desirable for our writers to start at “top level” locations like Alexandria or Arlington.  We prefer more localized searches like Old Town (which is in Alexandria) or Wooster Mercer Lofts (which are in Rosslyn which is in Arlington).  So use the Territory and Sitemap to drill down to a very specific neighborhood or condominium.  Once you’ve picked a target, get an address from a listing at the target location.  Title your article creatively as shown here.

Now, insert your Yelp data as shown in the images below. If necessary, click on the thumbnails below to see full-sized screenshots.

You can also use the option parameters to enter 1 specific category into your post.  After completing the steps above some code will appear in your post.  Publish or update your post and you’ll see the Yelp generated information in your post.

Next you’ll you’ll need to open up your article again and add some text above the code that calls Yelp data.  You might want to leave your published article open in one window while you edit the same article in another window.  This is because now that your article has populated with some information, you’ll need research one or two of the businesses that have high ratings.  Your article will be a paragraph or so long in length and include  a line or two of text about these businesses. If you can find it easily drop a link to the businesses site.  (Click here for tips on adding links.)

Most importantly, make sure that you add a link to the page on our site where you originally found the neighborhood, territory or condominium  which you have targeted.

Make  sure you properly tag and categorize your article and then publish. Now pat yourself on the back for a job well done. We like lots of tags and just a few categories.  Make sure the ZIPcode is one of the tags.

Mar 19

Check your spelling!

Spelling is important. Bad spelling, typographical errors and other misprints give the reader the impression that you don’t know what you’re talking about or that you don’t care about what you are saying.  If you’re not doing so already you may want to download, install and use Mozilla Firefox.  (It’s also free.)  Firefox has a built-in spell checker to help you when you are creating your blog posts. It’s also considered more secure than Internet Explorer.

Mar 16

Try to make your listings as localized as possible.

As described elsewhere, whenever possible, you’ll want to add listings to your posts. But one of the most important things about your listings is that they should be as localized as possible. Which is to say you don’t want to do listings in Alexandria if you can do Old Town Alexandria.  And you don’t want to do Old Town Alexandria if you can do Alexandria House (a condominium in Old Town).

You can search by tract, zip, area. You can search by home size, bedrooms and more to find homes and neighborhoods.

Most importantly, you’ll want to use a pre-saved link whenever you can.

inserting listing inserting listings

Popup when inserting listings

To see a list of “pre-saved” links click the tab indicated in red above.  Many condominiums, neighborhoods and communities have pre-saved links.  Nearly every school district is found in the pre-selected links.

list of pre-saved links

Pre-saved links are lists of properties that I have created and saved. That’s why they call them “pre-saved”. When you click on this tab you’ll find an alphabetized list of links to insert.

 

If you’re writing about a condominium community or subdivision/neighborhood, then select area type “tract”.  Then you’ll get a list of all the subdivisions in Northern VA.

The blue line is on the “show larger photos”.  Don’t ever check this. I think the smaller photos work better with our blog.