August 27, 2010
If the past decade were a color, it would no doubt be green. Green is everywhere now: in supermarkets, on television, and of course in the auto industry. This week, we’re highlighting an awesome custom theme created by The Green Car Company, an innovative and environmentally responsible auto dealership located in Bellevue, Washington. The GCC specializes in diesel vehicles for biodiesel use, Volkswagen TDI vehicles, smart cars, bikes, and parts and service for eco-friendly cars. They also have one of the coolest dealership websites we’ve seen in a long time.
The GCC’s custom theme matches the branding on its website perfectly. I love their logo and the font they chose for the header text. Also, using different shades of green is a nice touch (and fitting!).
As I’ve said before, branding is key in online marketing. vFlyer’s Theme Editor provides an easy and effective way to incorporate your branding into your listings. Try creating your own branded theme today, or contact us and we can have our in-house designer create one for you.
August 20, 2010
In our Custom Theme of the Week series, we’ve mostly highlighted themes that have a very different look from the 15 or so standard themes we offer (usually because they match the branding of the company or individual). But what about those users who like the way our standard themes look but also want to add their branding to the theme? This week’s custom theme illustrates how this can be done. It comes to us from Jerry Jennings at Westgate Property Management in Nashville. Jerry’s custom theme looks very similar to our Carrot standard theme: same background, fonts, and colors for the most part, all of which can be achieved through the Theme Editor. It also displays a simple, elegant branded header with the Westgate logo and slogan, a nice integration of an attractive standard theme with the branding capabilities of a custom theme.
Jerry’s flyers also show high-resolution, well-staged photographs, an essential for excellent internet marketing of real estate and rental properties. The vFlyer online marketing service enables you to upload up to 26 photos per flyer, and the better the photos, the better the ad.
As always, keep those custom theme submissions coming. We love seeing all the great custom themes that our users have created. What a talented bunch!
July 30, 2010
This week’s featured custom theme comes down to us from Hood River, Oregon, where our friend Maui Meyer and Copper West Properties are located. Copper West Properties is a company that’s very much tied to the Hood River area and that connection to the place is a big part of its company identity. They created a wonderful custom theme that not only incorporates the branding from their website but also captures the landscape of Hood River. I especially like the backgoround image of a topographical map of the area they use. It makes perfect sense for a company for which its location plays such an essential role.
Nice work, Copper West!
We’re planning to feature some themes for the summer in the next couple weeks, so if anyone has a summery custom theme they want featured, send them to us at support@vflyer.com. And if you haven’t done so, now’s the time to check out vFlyer’s branded listing tools and create your own custom theme today!
April 9, 2010
We have another great vacation rental custom theme this week, this one from Northern Shores Vacation Rentals in Traverse City, Michigan. It has an excellent header image that integrates their logo, website address, and a brief description of their business very nicely. They also make good use of one of vFlyer’s stock background images (the wavey blue page background), available to any vFlyer user. And the colors of the theme convey the light, beachy look that they’re going for. Their flyers make me nostalgic for my days in Michigan (go Wolverines!).
We’ll be returning next Friday with another custom theme of the week, so if you have a fantastic custom theme that you want the world to see, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com and you may get your theme on our blog!
April 2, 2010
Happy (belated) April Fool’s Day! This week’s excellent custom theme comes to us from Mark and Corrina Bartikoski of RE/MAX Results in Wayzata, Minnesota. They created an elegant, refined theme that matches the branding on their wonderful website, www.coolshax.com. The header image displays their logo and (prominently) their website address, a sure way to drive traffic to their site. And I really like the black and white gradient they use as their page background; it adds (to borrow a popular design term) drama to what’s already a lovely theme.
The photos in Mark and Corrina’s flyers are also textbook examples of how to present a property for sale. The photos are all high-resolution and the rooms are all well-lit and beautifully staged. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of having quality photos in your flyers. Think about it: this is the first glimpse your potential buyers are getting of the property, and the photos are the first thing they’re going to use to evaluate it. If they see grainy photos of poorly-lit, messy rooms, it’s far less likely you’ll be hearing from them than if you have crisp, inviting photos in your flyer as Mark and Corrina do.
Excellent work, Mark and Corrina.
That does it for this edition of our Custom Theme of the Week series. As always, if you have a great custom theme that you want spotlighted, or if you’ve seen someone else’s great-looking theme, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.
December 18, 2009
This week, I decided to do something a little different in our Custom Theme of the Week series and highlight several great holiday custom themes that our property management users have created. As you may know, the vFlyer Theme Editor not only allows you to choose the colors and fonts of your themes but also to upload your own background images. The themes I’ve selected here all utilize holiday-themed background images (some of which are animated GIFs, which add a special twist) to great effect. I hope you enjoy these fun and festive flyers as much as we at vFlyer have!
Thanks to everyone who made such great holiday custom themes this season. And thanks to all the vFlyer users who made custom themes this past year. 2009 saw the creation of hundreds of custom branded themes, only some of which we showcased in our blog. We’re excited to see even more branded themes in 2010! If you’re interested in having a custom branded theme created for you, contact us at support@vflyer.com.
And finally, Happy Holidays from the vFlyer Team!
December 11, 2009
Our custom theme of the week comes from Stacie Linka at Big Bear Cabins, a vacation rental company in Big Bear Lake, California. Big Bear Cabins has a stellar website and a well-defined brand that fits perfectly with the Big Bear Lake setting. Stacie’s theme nicely matches the website and works well with the excellent cabin photos she includes in her flyers.
In vacation rentals, you’re selling not just a short stay in a house but the whole idea of a place, and Big Bear Cabins’s theme helps convey the sense of the rustic comfort of Big Bear Lake. Nicely done, Stacie!
As the holidays are almost upon us, I’ll be highlighting some seasonal and holiday themed flyers in next week’s post. If you have a winter or holiday theme that you want showcased, feel free send it to us at support@vflyer.com.
July 31, 2009
Our custom theme of the week comes to us from Olga Katon at Park Place Real Estate Services in Chicago. This is one of my favorite branded themes I’ve come across for a few reasons. First, I love the look of the branding: urban, edgy, and sophisticated but also fun at the same time. Second, I like how well Olga utilizes the space of the header; she includes not only the company name and logo but also the office address, phone number, and email address. Third, all the colors in the theme work really well together.
I should note that this is the third Chicago-area company that we’ve highlighted in our Custom Theme of the Week series (the other two being Caliendo Automotive and Vranas Properties). Chicago must be a very design-oriented city! We’ll have to see if other cities (New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston…) can compete with Chicago in its output of great custom themes.
As always, 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.
July 24, 2009
Happy Friday! Our custom theme of the week comes from Astrid Zelaya, Consultant at Rent-One. This is such a well-composed theme where each aspect – the header image, background image, theme colors, and the other design elements – works beautifully with all the others. Also, Astrid takes advantage of our Showcase layout for Craigslist (see picture below), one of 10 Craigslist layouts available to business subscribers when they use a custom theme (and my personal favorite).
This Flyer is also a good example of a commercial real estate ad created through the vFlyer application. vFlyer now offers templates for office, industrial, and retail space, commercial land, shopping centers, and multi-unit buildings. The combination of vFlyer’s branding capabilities and these new categories is great news for all you commercial brokers out there.
Fantastic custom theme, Astrid! Keep up the good work!
If you have a vFlyer account and you haven’t yet created a custom theme, give it a try this weekend. You can create a custom theme in literally 5 minutes, and it will give you access to features of the vFlyer service that you couldn’t access before. Here’s a video to get you started.
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.
June 12, 2009
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.
June 5, 2009
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!
April 12, 2008
Here is a great marketing idea that involves images enhanced with Watermark Plus and flyers: Creating a set of before and after images and including them in your vFlyers as an effective way to show-off your business skills.
A growing number of small business owners are using vFlyer to promote their businesses. Whether you are in the construction, home staging, health care, landscaping or provide other professional services to consumers or business, using before and after pictures helps communicate qualities that are otherwise difficult to “illustrate”, things like attention to detail, quality of work and the ability to deliver great results to prospective customers – try it today.
Tags: small+business, marketing, watermarks
April 10, 2008
This week’s vFlyer of the Week is this Hyper Blue 2006 Mini Cooper. Jeff does a great job with using both his great photos and the premium layout to give prospective buyers a complete “360 degree view” of his extra clean beauty!
Tags: vflyer, mini+cooper
February 26, 2008
I have written about the flexibility of vFlyer many times! With our support for custom attributes and fields you can use vFlyer to pretty much sell anything! The other day I noticed a company using vFlyer to sell cargo containers of all things! Their vFlyers do a great job of promoting 20’ and 40’ cargo containers for Safe & Secured Storage! You can pick up a container for as little as $1,950 and have it shipped overnight by FedEx! I wonder what it costs to FedEx a forty foot cargo container these days?
February 22, 2008
Michael Friedenberg of Frank Howard Allen Realtors uses the new premium flyer layout to market the Perfect Small Farm! I like Michael’s choice of layout and I like the “completeness” of his flyers including a great photo, large galleries, and a good company logo!
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