Beginning July 1, all California Realtors will need to include their CA DRE license number on any “solicitation materials intended to be the first point of contact with consumers,” as stated in a bill passed by the California State Senate (SB 1461). While the new amendment excludes electronic media, since vFlyer also provides print content for our users, we wanted to make sure that they had a way to include their DRE license number on their Flyers. That’s why we introduced an Additional Info field in the Account Profile, where you can enter not only your CA DRE license number but also other information, such as a mobile phone number. And given that different states have different laws regarding real estate advertising, the Additional Info field gives users more flexibility in terms of what information gets included in their Flyers and Account Profile.

You can find the Additional Info field on your Account page. Any text you enter in this field will appear in the Contact Information section of your Flyers (see images below).

Thanks to Chris Crane at Red Oak Realty, Kristine Johnson at Gallagher & Lindsey Realtors, and Jason Born of Signature Realty & Mortgage, Inc., for providing us with useful feedback on the new California law.

If you need assistance, call or email vFlyer Support.

This week’s custom theme comes to us from Otto Calta with Coldwell Banker Terrequity Realty in Toronto. What I really like about this theme is that it demonstrates how easy it can be to create a great-looking branded theme by taking a logo, uploading it as a header image, and then matching the header background color to the logo (see the second image below). The green/white/gray palette of the theme is really well-integrated with the look of the ThinkTorontoHomes.com logo.

For a fantastic example of a broker website, you should also check out ThinkTorontoHomes.com, the website of Otto and his team.

I also wanted to use this opportunity again to point out that vFlyer now supports Canadian listings. If you are an agent or broker in Canada, you can include the full address of your listings as well as the price in Canadian dollars.

I can’t stress enough the importance of getting your brand out there on the web. It’s the one thing that will distinguish your ads from your competitors’, and it lends a high degree of professionalism to your online listings. So create a vFlyer custom theme this weekend! For a useful introduction, take a look at this series of short video tutorials on our website.

We’ll be back next Friday with another Custom Theme of the Week, so if you’ve created or seen a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

Yesterday we made two additions to our arsenal of vFlyer Listing Widgets: a 100-pixel wide and a 200-pixel wide auto-scrolling multi-item Widget. Unfortunately, these images are not animated.

The two new Widgets give our users more and better options for integrating their vFlyer content into their websites, blogs, and social networks. The new Widgets are especially useful in blogs, where often the sidebar is the default location of widgets and other components. In particular, bloggers on ActiveRain should find the new narrow scrolling Widgets quite valuable.

Also, the new Widgets don’t include vFlyer branding on them, which makes it even better to incorporate them into your website, social network profile or blog.

The new Widgets are part of our line of Premium Widgets available only to vFlyer business subscribers. If you have a vFlyer Personal account and are interested in upgrading your account to take advantage of the new Widgets, you can do so by clicking here.

To preview these widgets, click to the vFlyer Widget Library.  Scroll down to the Scrolling 100px and Scrolling 200px widgets.

On a related note, we will be adding a new series of short video tutorials on vFlyer Widgets soon. We hope that with the introduction of the scrolling sidebar Widgets and new video tutorials, we see lots of fantastic vFlyer Widgets out there this summer!

This week’s custom theme comes to us from Vranas Properties in Chicago. They did a fantastic job integrating their logo into the theme, and I love the color palette they use. It looks as though it were created by a professional web designer! That’s what’s so great about vFlyer’s Theme Editor: it makes it very easy for any vFlyer member to create professional, branded marketing content without having to hire a designer to do it for you. (Although I should mention we have seen some amazing custom themes created for our members by graphic designers.)

Any vFlyer business subscriber can create a branded custom theme and use it in his or her Flyers and Account Profile. If you haven’t created a custom theme yet, now’s the time to try it! For a useful introduction to creating and using custom themes, take a look at this series of short video tutorials on our website.

We’ll be back next Friday with another Custom Theme of the Week, so if you’ve created or seen a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

Happy Friday! This week’s custom theme is from Richie Caliendo at Caliendo Automotive. I love the header image in this theme, with its classic-car look and elegant black background. This is one of the best auto dealer custom themes I’ve seen yet! Also, Richie takes advantage of our Showcase layout for Craigslist (see picture below), which has a nice big photo at the top of the Flyer to give the prospective buyer a better view of the car. The Showcase layout is one of 9 Craigslist layouts available to business subscribers when they use a custom theme. Other information and photos of the vehicles are displayed below the huge photo at the top.

Great custom theme, Richie!

Once again, for a useful introduction to creating and using custom themes, take a look at this series of short video tutorials on our website.

We’ll be back next Friday with another Custom Theme of the Week, so if you’ve created or seen a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

We’re introducing a new blog feature, the “Custom Theme of the Week”. We have so many great custom themes that our members have created using the Theme Editor and their own creativity and resourcefulness, we decided we had to show them off to the rest of the world. This week’s custom theme is from Ryan Hinricher at InvestorNation. Ryan made great use of an uploaded background image and a header image that’s seamlessly integrated with the background. I especially like the upward-pointing arrow in the logo and the contrast of white and blue between the header and background; it gives me a whole new way of thinking about what’s possible with the Theme Editor. Everyone on my team is quite impressed by this custom theme. Nice work, Ryan!

vFlyer’s Theme Editor enables any user to create his or her own custom theme and any business subscriber to upload a branded header image to a theme. It’s a great way of making your Flyers stand out from the rest, and the branding capabilities for business subscribers provide a vehicle for putting your brand front and center on your Flyers. For a useful introduction to creating and using custom themes, take a look at this series of short video tutorials on our website.

We expect to post a new theme every Friday, so keep an eye out for more fantastic custom themes. And if you’ve created a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com!

As the nation is preoccupied by the continuing economic crisis, the nomination of the first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court justice, and the (diminishing) prospect of a LeBron-Kobe matchup in the NBA Finals, I wanted take a moment to fill you in on an exciting new development at vFlyer: the automatic posting of U.S. listings to Kijiji.com for vFlyer business subscribers. Now when you publish a Flyer in a real estate, rentals, or autos category, you can have it posted to Kijiji automatically. The best part is, this happens almost instantly in the case of Housing. In other words, in the time it takes you to go from your vFlyer account after you’ve published a Flyer to Kijiji, it will probably be posted there already. (Note: we’ve noticed a delay for auto listings, so it may take up to 24 hours for vehicles. Some delays may occur for real estate or rentals.)

This is great news for vFlyer members as Kijiji is fast becoming one of the leading classifieds websites in the country. Kijiji (which means “village” in Swahili) is owned by eBay and has already established itself as the top classifieds site in Canada; it’s now looking to do the same in the U.S. We’re thrilled to be one of the first syndication providers to offer automatic submission to Kijiji and look forward to helping the site grow even faster. And our business subscribers will benefit most from having their listings reach an even wider audience. So everybody wins!

If you are a vFlyer business subscriber, you can enable automatic submission of your real estate, rentals, and auto listings to Kijiji by clicking the Update Syndication Settings link on your account homepage, checking the box labeled Kijiji, and clicking Update. For Flyers that you’ve already published, you will need to re-publish them in order to have them posted to Kijiji.

Again, we’re thrilled to add this feature to the vFlyer service. If you have questions or feedback for us about it, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com!

Update: Monday, June 8, 2009 – This marketplace partnership is referenced in our recent service announcement.

Earlier this week, we implemented the vFlyer Account Scoring System that shows you how well you are utilizing the wide range of features and capabilities in your vFlyer account.

You’ll now see a percentage in the top right section of your account homepage; this is your Account Score. Clicking the link labeled Improve your Account Score allows you to see which capabilities you are taking advantage and which ones you’re not. This provides a guide for taking advantage of more capabilities and thus improving the effectiveness of your marketing.

Our hope is that the new scoring system helps our members get even better results. We want to see lots of 100% scores! If you get your score up to 100%, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

I also wanted to share that we introduce a new marketing page that provides some of the benefits of the Agency Edition of the vFlyer service. Please take a look when you have time.

The last few weeks have been busy at vFlyer and I wanted to fill you in on some of the great new features we’ve introduced in that time. There are four new features and capabilities in particular that I want to highlight:

First, we added 8 new Craigslist layouts for our vFlyer business subscribers when you publish a Flyer using a custom theme. Now you can choose how your flyers will look on Craigslist. You want bigger photos? Check. You want creative and attractive layouts? Check. See for yourself… New Craigslist Layouts. Also, visit the vFlyer Support Wiki for information on how to use these new Craigslist Layouts.

Second, we enhanced our print content for our vFlyer business subscribers. Now when you print a Flyer that uses a custom theme, you will get a whole second page full of photos. This feature was added due to the popular demand of our users. You see… we do actually listen to you. There are more print layouts on the way.

Third, we added a new narrow blog layout for our vFlyer business subscribers. The blog layout is 480 pixels wide and thus fits most major blog sites including Active Rain and Localism. When you publish a flyer with a custom theme, you can access the blog layout HTML by selecting Blog from the HTML drop-down menu. Then all you have to do is copy and paste the HTML to the blog of your choice. It’s that easy!

Last but not least, you can now share your Flyers on Twitter. When you publish a Flyer, a Share on Twitter link will appear under the More Options section on the right side of the Publish Successful page. We have even created a special shortened URL for Twitter that fits well within the 140 character limit. If you want to get the word out about your Flyer, use Twitter and you can connect with millions of others. For more information on the rapidly increasing popularity of Twitter, check out this article from TechCrunch.

We hope you enjoy these new features. As we continue to enhance our services to make vFlyer better and better, feel free to offer any suggestions you have on how we can make vFlyer work best for you. Send your feedback to support@vflyer.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

We want to announce the launch of a new feature of the vFlyer service called vFlyer Backpack. It’s a “bookmarklet” that can be stored in your web browser as a bookmark or hyperlink. vFlyer Backpack allows you to “carry” your marketing content with you wherever you go on the web. For instance, if you’re posting a Flyer to ActiveRain, now you can just go to ActiveRain and, once you’re on the blog posting page, open vFlyer Backpack from your browser, select the flyer and then drag and drop (or copy and paste) the HTML to the posting form. It is much easier than having two browser windows open.

vFlyer Backpack is also valuable for posting Flyers to Craigslist, Backpage, eBay, blog sites, and other websites.

Here’s a link to some instructions and demos for installing and using vFlyer Backpack: Click here.

We’re very excited about this new feature and hope it helps you post your marketing content on the web more quickly and easily. If you have questions or feedback about vFlyer Backpack, contact us at support@vflyer.com.

We were excited this morning to learn that Sally Forster Jones of Coldwell Banker Previews International in Beverly Hills was selected as the co-listing agent for late television producer Aaron Spelling’s mansion in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Beverly Hills. This is significant because Mr. Spelling’s house is currently the most expensive on the U.S. market, up for grabs at a whopping $150 million! According to the Associated Press, it’s the largest home in Los Angeles County at 56,500 square feet and sits on a more than 4.6-acre lot. It’s estimated that there are over 100 bedrooms in the house.

Apparently Mr. Spelling’s widow used her dog Madison to help her pick the best real estate agent for the task of selling the house. She had the dog brought into the room each time she met a candidate agent and watched how the dog reacted. According to reports, if Madison didn’t like an agent, Spelling crossed the agent off the list. Sounds like Jones passed the Madison test with flying colors!

Sally Forster Jones is a top producer for Coldwell Banker with over 30 years of experience in the business. At one time or another she has been involved in just about every aspect of real estate sales, from property management to development to owning her own brokerage. She is listed in Who’s Who in American Real Estate, representing the top 1% of the top 1% of all agents nationally. And on top of all that, she has created a very nice branded theme using the vFlyer Theme Editor!

On a related note, as my name is Aaron Sperling, occasionally people confuse me with Aaron Spelling, so I feel an extra special connection to this listing. Now if I just had that $150 million…

We’re proud to have a vFlyer member gain such a prestigious listing. Congratulations Sally!

I’m excited to announce that vFlyer members can now post links to their Flyers to Facebook right from their vFlyer accounts! It couldn’t be easier - after you publish or re-publish a Flyer, on the Publish Successful page, you’ll see a link labeled Share on Facebook. Click this link and you’ll be taken to your Facebook account; if you’re not already logged in, you’ll be prompted to do so. Once in your account, you’ll see a link to your Flyer and a thumbnail of the main photo posted to your profile. It’s about the easiest way to get your listing content onto Facebook available.

Here is how it will look on Facebook

Don’t forget that you can post your vFlyer Widgets to Facebook from your vFlyer account, also quite easily. To do this, once you’ve created a Widget in your vFlyer account, click the Post to button and select Facebook. You’ll then be prompted to log into your Facebook account if you’re not already logged in. And then you’re done! Your Widget is posted to your Facebook profile. It’s just that easy.

Here is how it will look on Facebook

This is another service enhancement suggested by one of our members. Keep the suggestions coming.

Many of you have no doubt seen this already, but We recently redesigned the logged-in homepage to make it cleaner and easier to navigate. We changed the Flyer and Widget Dashboards so that they’re both accessible within the same frame via different tabs and added an Image Dashboard where you can easily upload images and access images you’ve already uploaded and enhanced using our Watermark Plus image enhancement program. In addition, we added a News Feed to give you updates on what’s new with vFlyer and a feedback widget so that you can send us your questions, comments, and suggestions right from your account.

We hope these changes make your experience of using vFlyer even better. If you have comments about the new logged-in home layout, feel free to send us a message through the feedback widget!

I am pleased to announced the first of many service releases to support members outside the U.S. This release focuses on the needs of Canadian members. First, we added support for Canadian addresses and currency. Second, we added support for automatic submission of Canadian listings to Backpage.com and Vast.com. We expect to add more partner sites for Canadian listings in the coming months. Third, we updated our registration process to enable Canadian users to enter their postal code and timezone so that we can provide traffic reports and display times on your listings accurately. I am certain that we will receive more suggestions from our new and existing Canadian members. Thanks in advance.

Here is an example of one of the first published flyers with the new Canadian support: