Georgia REALTORS® partners with the Local Boards and ® REALTOR Firms to provide quality, affordable continuing education courses. Blogging for Business, Part 2: A Setup Course for Beginners #59067 Sponsored by: Georgia Association of REALTORS®, GREC School #271 Partners in Education Program Visit the Georgia REALTORS® website to learn about membership benefits, continuing education opportunities, networking events, and more! (www.garealtor.com) NOTICE: The following material is copyrighted and is provided to you for one-time use only in this GAR-sponsored course. You may not reproduce or redistribute any portion of this packet without the express written permission from the GAR Professional Development Department. 2016 STUDENT NOTICE The Georgia Association of REALTORS®, Inc. is approved by the Georgia Real Estate Commission (GREC) to offer continuing education, sales postlicense, and broker prelicense courses. The GREC school code number is 271 with a renewal date of December 31, 2019. The Georgia Real Estate Commission has approved this course for three (3) hours of continuing education credit. GAR school policy defines an instructional hour as 50 minutes. To receive continuing education (CE) credit for this in-classroom course, the student must: be on time sign in with the course facilitator before the course begins be present in the course during all instruction periods return a completed evaluation to facilitator at the end of course not have taken this course for continuing education credit within the past 366 days. There is no make-up session for this course. Cell phones and other electronic devices can be distracting. Use of communication methods such as text messaging, E-mailing, web surfing, etc. is prohibited while class is in session if it poses a distraction to other attendees and shall be grounds for dismissal. Taking pictures of PowerPoint slides requires the permission of the instructor. Entrance qualifications and standards of completion will not be based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, familial status, handicap, sexual orientation, or gender identity. No recruiting for employment opportunities for any real estate brokerage firm is allowed during this course or on the premises while this course is in session. Any effort to recruit by anyone should be promptly reported to the Director of Professional Development; Georgia Association of REALTORS®; 770-451-1831; 6065 Barfield Road; Sandy Springs, GA 30328; or to the Georgia Real Estate Commission; 404-656-3916; International Tower; 229 Peachtree Street, NW; Suite 1000; Atlanta, GA 30303-1605. 10-2016 Blogging for Business Resource Guide Blogging: The Setup Course for Beginners 1. Get in Position – Content Strategy There are several places to find good content to write about. Real Estate a. NAR (Industry news, Online magazines, Valuable Resources) b. CNN Money c. Forbes and Bankrate.com d. Local Paper e. Set up Google Alerts for conversation threads of your niche (www/google.com/alerts) f. Trulia and Zillow (see Voices Activity and Advice respectively) g. Study great real estate blogs mentioned in this course. Neighborhood News a. City-data.com b. GreatSchools.com c. Neighborhood Scout d. Yelp for local reviews Home Information a. HouseLogic b. Real Simple c. HGTV d. DIY Network 2. Publishing Options – Start here a. The Blog Publisher (i.e. Blogger) b. Open Live Writer (formerly Windows Live Writer). Now an open source platform. Thanks Microsoft. c. MS Word 3. Image Options 1 FREE a. www.Pixabay (Instructor’s favorite free option) b. www.freedigitalphotos.net Public Domain Images. Free to use. Royalty free. “Public domain images are top quality, high resolution (up to 20 mega pixels). All images are copyright friendly – safe images, not copyrighted, no restriction for their use, no rights reserved.” c. www.public-domain-image.com Microsoft Office has images d. www.office.microsoft.com e. Take Your Own Pictures PAY OPTIONS a. www.bigstockphoto.com - 8 Million Photos & Vectors***see www.retailmenot.com for coupon codes before you purchase credits b. www.istockphoto.com FREE Resizing and Editing Options Irfanview software Paint.net 4. Design Options Software – Free – Xheader Software – Cheap – GFX Writer (from Incansoft) 5. Lead Capture and Opt-in Box www. iContact.com www.Constantcontact.com DEMO 6. Make it Pop! 1. Add YouTube videos (YouTube Creator Academy) 2. Podcast – Visit lifehacker.com/how to start your own podcast 3. Photo Gallery (Find an Image host) a. Flickr b. Google Photos c. Instagram Tools for Instagram Users 2 STEP-BY-STEP PARTICIPANT’S GUIDE Blogging for Business Part 2 Juanita McDowell, InMotion Real Estate Institute Instructor and Consultant 5/24/2016 Copyrighted Material. Do not copy without written permission from InMotion Real Estate Institute. Table of Contents SETTING UP YOUR BLOG ............................................................................................................................... 3 CREATING A PROFILE ................................................................................................................................ 3 SWITCHING TO A CUSTOM DOMAIN ............................................................................................................ 3 DETERMINING YOUR BLOG’S SETTINGS........................................................................................................ 4 Setting Appropriate Time and Date .......................................................................................................... 4 SETTING UP BLOGGER COMMENTS .............................................................................................................. 4 Understanding Comments ........................................................................................................................ 4 Determining Who Can Comment on Your Blog ........................................................................................ 5 Configuring Comment Notification ........................................................................................................... 5 SYNDICATION FEEDS AND EMAIL FEATURES ................................................................................................ 5 The Site Feed Feature and Atom Syndication ........................................................................................... 5 Email and Mobile ...................................................................................................................................... 6 YOUR BLOG DESIGN ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Important Gadgets to Add to Your Blog ................................................................................................... 7 POSTING, EDITING, AND MODIFYING BLOG POSTS ...................................................................................... 8 Understanding the Post Interface ............................................................................................................. 8 Creating Your First Post ............................................................................................................................ 9 Notes and Reminders: ............................................................................................................................... 9 Editing Your Posts ..................................................................................................................................... 9 FORMATTING YOUR POSTS ........................................................................................................................... 9 Selecting and Sizing Your Fonts ................................................................................................................ 9 WORKING WITH IMAGES ........................................................................................................................ 10 “Learning to blog is like learning to drive; just take it slow and steady.” BloggerDesign.com 2 SETTING UP YOUR BLOG 1. Go to www.blogger.com. Sign up for a Gmail Account (www.gmail.com) if needed. 2. Click on New Blog. 3. Enter a Blog title. Blogger will be using this in two places (1) on the blog itself and (2) on your Blogger profile. Hint: Consider matching this to the community you plan to serve or the service you plan to provide (i.e. information source for a particular city). If you are undecided, name it anything right now; you can modify at a later date. 4. Enter a Blog address. You can name your blog address something different than the title but I don’t recommend this. Keeping it the same makes it easier for your readers. 5. Type in the word verification and hit continue. 6. Choose a Template. You can always change this later. 7. Start Blogging. CREATING A PROFILE 1. You can use your Google+ Profile or create one specific for Blogger with a plug- in. THE BASICs SWITCHING TO A CUSTOM DOMAIN 1. Visit www.godaddy.com and purchase a domain name. Ask tech support to assist you with domain forwarding. 2. Or, purchase directly from Google. 3 DETERMINING YOUR BLOG’S SETTINGS Setting Appropriate Time and Date 1. Click on your Blog Title. Click on Settings. 2. Click the Settings tab then the Basic sub-menu. Here you can add a description and set your privacy options. SETTING UP BLOGGER COMMENTS Understanding Comments 1. Go to the Settings Tab 2. Click on the Posts and Comments tab along the sub-menu of the Settings tab. Your readers use