Should you list all your aparment from a building on one listing?

August 1st, 2007

As a first tip in this category I’m going to talk about what’s better from listing multiple apartment from the same building into one or more listings on DRListings.com

From an SEO point of view, it is better to describe all the apartments from an apartment building on Read the rest of this entry »

Google Analytics search engines tracked and how to extend the list.

July 26th, 2007

So here is the default list of search engine that Google Analytics support in its system.

google, yahoo, msn, aol, lycos, ask, altavista, netscape, cnn, looksmart, about, mamma, alltheweb, gigablast, voila, virgilio, live, baidu, alice, seznam, yandex, najdi, aol, club-internet, mama, seznam, search.

Now let say, like us, that some of your visitors are coming from xxx search engine and that you know it because you have access to the stats from your hosting service provider. So according to google, you just have to Read the rest of this entry »

Some info about things that have been done on our Dominican Real Estate Network.

July 13th, 2007

Yes I have been silent here but not on PHP coding and web design.

We have moved our advertising section under osCommerce.

We have created new real estate advertising products and services. Like the DRL Data CoreLite which is the fastest way for our clients to add their listings to their own web site. There is also a PRO version which is Read the rest of this entry »

The intranet killer… Skype.

April 8th, 2007

If you are connected to a home network or even a little office network that share an internet connection that looks unstable. Try first to close Skype and then read the following article about how Skype can use your bandwidth and block your web access.

Blueprint: Circuit-to-Packet

Entering via UDP, TCP, or even TCP on port 80, Skype is usually very successful at passing typical firewalls.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Google Analytics Manager from PluginLab

December 23rd, 2006

I just found this little tool while looking for something else, as usual, and I wanted to share the information with all of you. It is called Google Analytics Manager. It is a Dreamweaver extention and it helps putting the tracking code in all the pages of a given site. And as a bonus, it’s free like the Google Analytics web application. If you want more info, se the PluginLab Product page.

Earthquake MAG 4.5 07-NOV-2006 14:11:25 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION

November 7th, 2006

This morning, we have experience an earthquake here in Dominican Republic. I was in front of my computer when the floor started to move under me. It have last a few second and then stopped. So, I started to search for it on the internet to find out its magnitude. I have found it on the IRIS Seismic Monitor web site. You can also see a zoom version of the Caribbeans here. The informations are refreshed constantly.

It is quite usefull and interesting.

Open-Realty Addon list.

November 5th, 2006

Here is a list of all the Addon that were submitted in the Custom Addon - Releases section on the OR forum.

I will add more text and comments later on.

YouTube Addon 1.0.0 Released

November 2nd, 2006

Just to be sure everybody will know it and also find it, I decided to create this post. So, Yes I have finally released my YouTube Addon. You can find it here on this web site on this page. It was originally made for Property Center a Real Estate agents company located in Sosúa, Dominican Republic. They have agreed with me to release it as an Open Source OR Addon. For more details and documentation follow the above link and for support, come to the Open-Realty Addon support forum on the Open-Realty web site.

OR YouTube Addon

October 31st, 2006
My OR pages

This Addon was created for Property Center a real estate agent in Sosua, Dominican Republic.

They have agreed with me to release this addon for free to the OR community and any person who is using OR for any kind of web site. The addon is licenced under the MPL, the GPL, and LPGL.

This addon is based on the work of the VTour URL addon create by Mick.

Table of content

Sections

Description

This addon enable you to show a YoutTube video attached to any property in your database listing. The video can be embedded inside the detail description page of the property or open up in a new popup window. This setting is configurable from the admin control panel.

You need to have an account on YouTube and be able to create your on Video.

If you are working with WinXP then you can create your Video with the Windows Movie Maker application that comes with it. From the Start menu open Program\Accessories\Windows Movie Maker

Demo

See this page on the Property Center web site to see how it is embedded on listing detail page.

If you are using it, send me an email and I will add a link to the web site where you are using it for others to see some other demos.

Documentation

How to Install

Just download the YouTube addon zip file, uncompress it in the addon folder of your Open Realty installation.

How to use it

  1. You need to go to the OR admin page on your web site and click on the “Edit Listing Template”.
    Edit Listing Template
  2. Add the YouTube URL Addon field to all the classes that you want to attached a YouTube Video to.
    Select the field “YouTube URL(addon_youtube)” as shown below
    Listing Template Editor
    Then select all the classes that will have the YouTube Video. (See the arrow)
    apply to classes
    Save your changes!

You need to put this tag {addon_youtube_link} in your listing detail page
(/template/your_template_name/listing_detail_*.html).

The admin panel

If you would like to set the behavior of your YouTube Video, go to your admin page. Then click on the “URL YouTube Addon Config” link at the bottom of the admin panel, just under all the icons in the Addons section of the admin panel.

URL YouTube Config

You will end up on the “Addon YouTube Configurator” as shown below. Configure everything to your taste and save the changes.

YouTube Config Panel
Your done and ready to add some YouTube videos to your properties!

Adding a YouTube Video to a property

Go on the YouTube web site at the page showing the video that you want to attached to your property and copy the URL given just on its right.

Where to find the YouTube URL.

Then Paste the full URL in the YouTube URL field on the “Modify Listing” page of your property of interest inside the OR administration.

Fill up the field.

Download

You can download an XHTML versions here YouTube Addon 1.0.0 XHTML compatible. or alternatively if you want support for older browser, you can download this one here YouTube Addon 1.0.0

Support

You will be able to get some support for it by browsing the Custom Addon - Help thread in the Open Realty forum. You can always contact me by email or PM me in the OR forum.

A little optimization research on Google Trends . . .

October 31st, 2006

Some search queries on Google trends.

First what’s the best “hôtel,maison,villa,condo,appartement”
maison,maisons
in English Hotel,Homes,House,Villa,apartment,Condo
house,houses

Second lets compare “appartement à louer,maison à vendre”.
apartment for rent,house for sale

Conclusion,

  1. Avoid the plural form
  2. More people are looking for house than apartment.
  3. In English Homes is more or less the same as houses even though those words should not mean the same thing.

. . . to be continued.