So, lets talk about some about some more new options you may have noticed that we’ve added to allow you to customize your dsSearchAgent even further.
New Options
- You can now set Acres as the default measure of Lot Size. This affects the “Lot Size” Criteria in the Search Tab.
- You can now turn off the pre-built Header in your Welcome and Listing Update emails.
- Additionally you can customize the Welcome Email subject line
- Now that we added Price Drops to the Property Details, we recognized that some of you may not want to see this on your IDX, so we’ve added an option to turn off Price Drops.
- If you need to limit your IDX search results to a specific state, you now can. Just add the state abbreviation to this new option in Control Panel.
- In your Welcome and Listing Update emails you can use mail-merge fields. These fields are [[Contact.<Field Name>]] and [[Agent.<Field Name>]]. You can get the <Field Name>s for Contacts from the title of each field when you edit a Contact in Control Panel. Here are some examples:
- [[Contact.First Name]]
- [[Contact.Last Name]]
- [[Agent.First Name]]
- [[Agent.Last Name]]
- Finally you can now customize all of the links to your IDX (from emails, rss, etc.) to link to the page you frame dsSearchAgent on your own website.
Custom Links
Custom Links now, by default, do not “lock” the Visitor into the result set the Custom Link defines. So effectively Custom Links only give the Visitor a “starting point” for searching. This removes the confusion and frustration for the Visitor, when visiting Custom Links. If you wish, you can go in and “lock” these results when you edit the Link in Control Panel, this will cause the Custom Link to behave as before.
Quick Search Module
We’ve added a new Quick Search Module for you to use. Quick Search Modules allow you to put a simple form on your site that allows the Visitor to choose some basic criteria, then are brought to your IDX Search and shown the results based on the criteria they chose.
RSS Feeds
We now we offer an RSS feed for your own listings, with no limit to the number of items in the feed. This effectively allows you to export your own listings to an RSS format feed.
As far as the Feeds themselves go we’ve added a few things to keep them fresh:
Price change is shown in RSS feeds (where available)- Community and Tract is now shown in RSS (where available)
- Links from RSS (and Emails) now consume the “Framed Page” option in your dsSearchAgent Options. Keeping visitors coming back to your site, instead of just dsSearchAgent.
I still don’t see an option to move the ‘opt out’ function to the bottom of the email, from the top. We’ve had many complaints from clients who are accidentally clicking the opt-out as they mouse over the email. I’ve even done it myself. I’m not aware of any Spam laws that require the current placement, and I’ve not seen any other services with that placement. Please make this change soon!
Thanks,
Dennis
Have requested sevareal times a new single listing module that will allow us to select a specific listing and feature it on a web page. You can visit homes4uintampa.com to see how I am utiling these listings. it would allow me to place select homes as features without having to do alot of backend work. Your rotating link is a little to busy looking when it rotates through properties….
keep up the good work, I love the functionality of the program!
Please let me know if this module can be created, even if I have to pay for it!
@Dennis – A while back we were having a problem with the email recipients clicking the spam button in their email reader which in turn eventually started blocking emails from reaching these recipients and others on that network. As a test we put the unsubscribe link at the top for a while to see what would happen. The number of people clicking SPAM in their email reader dramatically dropped. So we left it there. Now that was almost two years ago. I think its time we re-look at this and see what we can do.
@Mark – We will be coming out with more modules in the near future. The most recent just happen to be done at the time of the this release.
Just wanted to second the request for a module that could feature only one property.
It would be nice to have the ability to just feature a front view of the property by itself without scrolling, or to feature a scrolling widget of exterior and interior photos of the property.
Basically, a better way to feature a single property would be welcomed – the current options are all geared towards multiple properties.
Thanks, Dan
I also meant to ask if there is a way to customize the appearance of the “Quick Search” module. I would like to make the text a little smaller, to better fit with the overall feel of my site.
The Quick Search photo you posted above seems to have been customized (black background) – maybe I am just missing something.
Thanks! Dan
Re: RSS Feeds
A full feed, option, inclusive of a complete property description would be good. As well as having the photo of the subject property linked to the IDX details of the subject property. This would help create a “stickier” environment that should translate into more leads generated and make the RSS feed pages more useful to visitors. Should also increase the SEO juice a bit.
Just my two cents worth.
Thanks, Tom.