Just a quick little blog post to let you know I happened to stumble across this WordPress plug-in that creates an interactive Editorial Calendar for your blog posts! Schedule, create and publish from 1-5 weeks out and see it all on your calendar. There is a great screen-cast below to see how it works.

This can be used as an efficient way to keep track of those great real estate blog post ideas, add in and schedule other users blog posts (for multi-author blogs), and be able to see the status of each blog post for up to 5 weeks out on the calendar…very cool! You can also download the plug-in from the WordPress plug-in Directory.

As you know I’m all about streamlining and automating as many tasks as you can; this is one little great tool to help you do that. Check it out!

The WordPress Editorial Calendar Screen Cast from Zack Grossbart on Vimeo.

SEO. I have a love/hate relationship with SEO. I can’t seem to get enough, and yet it’s always changing.

As more and more real estate professionals turn to using WordPress as their real estate website and/or blog, and have more control over their content, their interest in learning and analyzing their Search Engine Optimization practices is central to their success online.

And as many of us scour the web for information and articles to keep us up to date on the latest SEO tips and must haves it’s always nice to find information that is clear, is about real estate SEO, and also differentiates between myth and reality. Today (via Facebook) I saw Tribus Real Estate’s  Eric Stegemann’s latest  blog the Top Ten List of Search Engine Optimization for Realtors.

The “back to basics” proven real estate SEO tips are there, as well as expanding upon the WordPress specific tips like perma-links and writing content for long-tail searches.

I also asked Eric what his thoughts were on indexable IDX solutions, and opened up a Laura “Can of Worms”   Check out what Eric had to say, and hopefully my line of questioning will spur him to his next blog post! Thanks Eric!

When considering your real estate website options, its easy to get overwhelmed. You need a website, you need a blog, and you need it to be branded and nowadays..you don’t want to spend a lot of money on customization and hosting.  Self-hosting a WordPress blog or website has become a mainstream solution for both, but for “do-it-your-selfers” there is still quite a learning curve. Everyone is talking about it, but its still not that easy. BUT, it just got a little bit easier!

Brian Gardner with Studiopress.com has been one of the masters of WordPress Theme designs for quite a while now. His designs are known for having “clean code” which in itself creates the optimum environment for having great search engine “readability”. He has once again created a new theme, only this time its specifically with the Agent or Broker in mind!

AgentPress has arrived to make it easier than ever to switch to a WordPress platform. Check Out the Demo to see for yourself! If you’ve been considering using WordPress for your outside blog and need a clean, elegant design the AgentPress theme has amazing built-in features, is SEO optimized and allows you to combine a compelling platform to market your listings, your blog content all is one stunning package!

The other great thing is that Brian is constantly pushing the envelope to bring new features, more flexibility, and an even greater menu of options.

So if you are looking to make the jump form an old website platform, and step into your own self-hosted, SEO super-charged website, where widgets, bells, whistles, IDX searches and all that good stuff can be added and customized to bring you not only a website, but a blog as well. 2 in1..can’t beat that.

For more on the advantages of using WordPress for real estate websites..this is good reading! If you have any other questions, about customization, or moving to WordPress, feel free to give me a call. (operators are standing by;-) )

Here are some demos to other StudioPress Real Estate Themes

The Agent Theme

The Genesis Theme Layout

P.S. This website was built and customized with the Agent Theme