The Diverse Solutions Blog

Browser compatibility is a very tricky thing. The websites you visit all are built upon historically loosely adhered web standards. On top of that, the browsers you use every day, until recently, standards haven’t always been a priority. So, what the heck am I trying to say?! Basically, it’s a tough job sometimes, but because each browser tells us who and what it is, we’re able to code around browser inconsistencies, and provide a user experience identical between browsers.

So, what’s the technical issue you ask? Well, think of it this way, we’ve all eaten a microwave dinner before. Each dinner has a set time that you need to leave it in the microwave for. Well, what if someone went into the grocery store, and mixed up the instructions on all of the microwave meals? Everyone who bought those meals would either get a cold dinner, or a 15 minute cleanup job after the dinner exploded. This is exactly what some of you are experiencing with our products.

Our colleagues at Advanced Access have an incompatibility in their 3.0 product thus rendering up to date Internet Explorers (specifically version 7) useless in areas of the product. Now, we’re NOT trying to pick on anyone, we are simply trying to support our customers (AA, if you’re reading this, and anything I have said is inaccurate I will correct and cite any errors). To deal with this, they have had their users tell Internet Explorer to advertise that it is an older version than it really is (specifically telling IE7 to say it’s IE6). Well, fortunately this doesn’t cause frozen meals to explode, but it does make it impossible for a web developer to provide a consistent user experience for these fake-IE6-but-really-IE7 browsers.

Luckily not everyone subscribes to Advanced Access services, however every person that has followed their advice may be dealing with more and more websites that either look strange, or just plain don’t work.

So, after that lengthy explanation, if you ARE an Advanced Access switcher and aren’t sure if you’ve told your IE7 to say it’s IE6, go here: http://www.useragentstring.com/ and if it reads Internet Explorer 6, but you know you’re running 7 (hint: if you can make tabs in your IE, you have 7+) then you need to follow the instructions below.

The two ways we know that you may have changed your User-Agent string are via an installation downloaded from Microsoft, or via a “registry” file.

To find out if you’ve installed the Microsoft file go to “Add / Remove Programs” in your “Control Panel”, accessible from your “Start” menu. In “Add / Remove Programs” look for “User Agent String Utility” (click pictured at right for detail). If you find this item, click on it and press “Remove”, then follow the on-screen prompts. Afterwards, you should be a-ok.

If you do not have the Microsoft utility installed, it’s likely you have changed your registry. Because the windows registry is such a fickle beast, we really need to talk with you over the phone on how to correct any registry problems you have. This is because messing with your registry can sometimes be harmful to your computer, and we would like to diagnose the status of your Internet Explorer and registry before we advise any action.

Ok, that’s about it. I know this is extremely confusing, so if your User-Agent string doesn’t match up at http://www.useragentstring.com/ and you don’t know what to do, call us!

Yesterday was a big day for us. First, we finally released our new admin (yay!), and second, we saw an announcement that Google finally released API tie-ins to their Street View imagery (see my post on Geek Estate or the original announcement). Although we had been getting requests to integrate Street View into our IDX solution (demo) for quite some time now, the imagery was previously only available through Google Maps. However, with the new announcement and release, developers can now hook into the Street View imagery directly.

I / we have been incredibly busy lately, but when we saw the announcement, we knew we had to get this out to our customers ASAP. Well, I’m really happy to announce that it’s already been integrated! Check out this $2.7M Newport Beach beauty to see an example.

While I think it’s a really, really cool feature, there are limitations. First and foremost, it’s (obviously) only available in areas where Google has street view imagery. For example, just because we service the Charleston Trident MLS doesn’t mean that Google has street view there. Second, the placement and centering of the street view imagery is an inexact science at the moment. Our code currently tells Google’s servers where the house is, and they tell us if they have imagery there and then show it. Unfortunately, when Google does find a match, we don’t really know if the match they found actually represents the streets around the house. All that said though, it’s still an absolutely amazing technology that we are very grateful to Google for.

For now, it’s only enabled on our demo account, but if you drop a comment at the bottom with your name and a link to your dsSearchAgent IDX solution, I’ll be more than happy to enable it on your own account. We’ll should be able to add the option to enable / disable it on your own accounts to our new admin either today or Monday.

————————–

Update: You can now easily enable Google Street View in our Control Panel.

We are wrapping up our beta of dsControlPanel today and going ahead with a soft release of dsControlPanel. To recap, our dsControlPanel is a combination of our dsAgentChat, dsSearchAgent, and dsAgentReach individual administration areas. Not only can you find all your tools in one place now, but we’ve also added a bunch of new features, and even mashed some of our features up. You can read my run-down here.

So, to get to the new admin, simply navigate your browser to http://controlpanel.diversesolutions.com and you will login with the same username and password you already use in our other admins. Additionally we’ve also put a big yellow notice on the dashboard of each of the affected admins, announcing the change and providing a link to auto-login.

Now, being this is a soft-release we’re allowing you to continue to use the old administration areas just in case, but only for a week. So on April 10th if you attempt to go to your old admin area, you will be forwarded to the new dsControlPanel. And the “Old Admin” link will be removed from the dsControlPanel navigation.

I’m sure many of you are going to say “how the heck do I use this thing?!”, so instead of calling, emailing, or quitting, we’ve provided you with demo videos. From anywhere in the admin you can click on the icon to get a popup of all our help videos. Additionally, each section that has a video will also have a icon directly to the left of the icon. We’re hoping these videos answer most of your questions. Let us know if you can’t find help for something.

We’re really proud of dsControlPanel and we hope you enjoy the new functionality and usability. Thanks everyone, and please, tell us what you think.

On an almost weekly basis, I get asked, “How can I get more visitors to my website?” In response, my answer is always, “How often do you update your website?” The greatest thing about having your own, personal website is that you have complete control over everything that goes on it; having that control and being responsible for the content can also be the biggest pitfall. Today’s website visitors can smell the stench of a stale site from a mile away.

In order to keep your own site free from the mold and mildew that have grown on many other real estate websites, you need to keep it updated. I’ve gathered a few tips that you can use to keep your website from getting stale.

Keep your content both original and fresh

This point is very simple — the more content you have on your site, the more visitors you will get. This does not mean that you can or should just copy someone else’s content and then slap it on your own site. Your content needs to be original, and it needs to be changed on a regular basis. Keep in mind that people would like to see something new each time they visit. Even simple color or layout changes can make a big difference in how your site is perceived.

Review your site on a regular basis

If you saw a car on the street with a cracked windshield, missing headlight, bald tires, and a fading paint job, your first assumption would be that the owner doesn’t maintain the car properly. The same idea is true with a website. Broken links, bad typesetting, and distorted pictures are the result of bad website maintenance, and it reflects badly on you, the webmaster.

I suggest reviewing your website at least once per month for these types of issues. You need to go through every page of your site to make sure these kinds of things aren’t occurring. You will want to check for things such as general functionality, working contact forms, a working home search / IDX application (try ours!), and properly working home evaluation and mortgage tools.

Track your results

The best advice I can give you for tracking your results is to add enough contact forms and statistical tracking code to your website so that you’re always getting both direct and indirect feedback. Visitors are almost always the best source of ideas and suggestions on what you can do to improve your marketing efforts. However, since not everyone will fill out a feedback form, you’ll want to use Google Analytics (or something similar) to track how successful your website is on an objective, number-driven basis.

Good websites are never finished. With proper maintenance, good websites will become great websites!

About two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to attend the 4Realz Internet marketing educational seminar as a sponsor. The event I attended was held at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The venue itself is an amazing place; I fully encourage everybody who can visit to do so. In fact, the center actually plays host to many schools for field trips, and so with the excitement of children in the air, the seminar kicked off promptly at 8:30am.

The seminar itself, hosted by Dustin Luther (Rain City Guide and Move.com) and Jim Marks (Virtual Results), is currently touring the west coast with the goal of helping the agents who attend better utilize their Internet marketing dollars and efforts. The class I attended lasted until 4pm, and not a single minute felt wasted! The course covers a great deal of material including everything from social networking to ROI. Throughout the seminar, agents are educated on the importance of understanding what consumers expect, and as Jim, states “different is better.”

Additionally, the two pointed out the importance of “original content” to establish better web presence during their seminar. I completely agree with them and can assure you that having original content on your site is an incredibly important subject. As many of you know, we have a very aggressive SEO (search engine optimization) program here at Diverse Solutions, and one of the key elements in our marketing packages is custom content. Basically, the more original and unique content you have on both your website and blog, the better chance you’ll have to be recognized by search engines and subsequently rank above your competitors.

As I thought about it a bit more, I decided to create a way for agents to better take advantage of this knowledge. For the remainder of the month, we will be offering 10 pages of custom content that can be added to your web site or blog for just $500; normally, we charge $1200 for this package! All you have to do to take advantage of this offer is just let us know what topics you would like us to cover (real estate related, of course). Our professional writers will do the rest. The offer is a great opportunity for individuals who recognize the importance of Jim and Dustin’s advice as well as those who may be considering implementing a marketing strategy in the near future.

Thanks again to both Dustin and Jim. You guys gave a great presentation, and I look forward to seeing you soon in Orange County!

(Note: If you’d like to attend the Orange County educational seminar, it’s only $49 for “the most informative 4-5 hours that you will likely ever spend on real estate education.” You can register here.)

Around here, working with MLS data all day, you tend to run into a lot of bad MLS photos. In the past we’ve linked you guys to Athol’s Bad MLS Photo of the Day, but we decided to start featuring some of the gems we come across as well.

Today we have for you, someone who may need help figuring out how to use their computer err camera. And yes, read carefully, someone took a picture of the photo on their monitor to put into the MLS. At least we know who to contact if we want to see what the house looks like.

More quality craftsmanship that needs to be showcased. And yes, this was the only photo on this listing.

Is that a gong or a giant paella pan? I’m still not sure what is going on in the background with the cat(?) but lets focus on the pan…I mean gong…I mean pan.

Is that the house we are supposed to be interested in on the left side of this fine piece of framed art?

Did this house have some structural support problems? Or has the REALTOR® fallen, and can’t get up.

Diverse Solutions is proud to announce our sponsorship of 4Realz Educational Seminars billed as “Valuable Internet Marketing Education for Realtors.”

Dustin Luther and Jim Marks have always been fans our dsSearchAgent Mapping IDX we just never knew how much. Evidentially they like it so much they ask if it was okay if they used it as an example of what TO use in their up coming REALTOR education seminars. The seminars are to focus on why Realtors are not succeeding on the Internet, and what they need to change and do, in order to be successful. Needless to say we were very happy with their choice.

Weeks went by then some great news came. They announced they were going to be having sponsors. We couldn’t think of a better way to get the word out about our IDX and help some REALTORS along the way. Not to mention after they explained the format and what they were going to be covering we knew it was going to be a success. So without hesitation we became an official sponsor. Little did we know that other power houses like Inman News, TOP PRODUCER, Zillow and Altos Research would also be involved. It doesn’t get any better than that.

4RealzEd.com will have 3 shows to start off with in the Southern California area with the first being in Los Angeles then to Irvine and San Diego. More cities will be scheduled later. Come out learn something new and talk with us. We’ll see you at the seminars.

3am

Everything is going smoothly with no noticeable slow down or loss of service during the upgrades. However, the maintenance on the admin/control panel is taking a little longer than expected.  It shouldn’t be much longer.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

4:30am

And we’re done.  Everything has been tested and is back to normal.  We shouldn’t have to do anything like this again for a while now.  Thank you for your understanding and support.

On the night of Feb 21^st we will be conducting server maintenance at our data center.  We are making numerous upgrades to our servers to increase speed and reliability.  While we do this maintenance between 11pm and 3am PST there may be short times of slow or sporadic service.  This maintenance will NOT affect your email service.  If you can not log into the control panel for any reason to get to your web mail during this time try accessing it from http://webmail.diversesolutions.com.  If in the rare case we do encounter any problems or delays we will post updates here.  If you have any questions please let us know.

Diverse Solutions IT Team

Overview

We have been hard at work improving the backend for both our mapping mls idx-solution, dsSearchAgent, and our contact & lead-management solution, dsAgentReach, for some time, and today we wanted to introduce to you some of the overall changes & additions to these programs, as well as announce our beta program.

Before we get started, for those of you who just want the bottom line, here is the short-list of what you’re going to see with in our new control panel:

• Streamlined Interface
• Improved integration & consolidation between dsAgentReach & dsSearchAgent
• New applications (Form-Creator and Lead-Pipelines)
• Complete re-tooling of incoming lead integration

Our main goal for this release was to fully integrate dsSearchAgent with our dsAgentReach & Lead Management products. This alone was the number one request from many of our customers, and by far one of the most useful.

Our second goal was to streamline the user interface of all our dsAgentReach applications. We decided to start from square one and take the user interface in a completely different direction. We think this new system will really help you to better organize and utilize your Leads & Contacts.

Third, we decided to change how we handle incoming-email leads, in addition to providing more avenues for lead aggregation. We feel that our new method and avenues will help streamline the lead-distribution process.

Beta Information

We also wanted to let you guys know that we’re starting a limited-beta program to help work the kinks out and ready the new control panel for wide release. If you would like to participate, you must already have our dsSearchAgent product. To request to be included in the beta, email your Customer Support Representative, or our general support line: support@diversesolutions.com. For those of you we’ve contacted to be in the beta, remember that you can post your thoughts and bugs in our forum.

That’s it for our overview. Again I’ll be detailing all this information in individual posts, describing our changes, and how each feature will work.