Blog of W&R Studios
In the past we had just used this blog , Lightning | Twice, to talk about Dwellicious. But we found that to be problematic since Dwellicious has both a consumer side as well as a professional side; Dwellicious Pro.
So we created a new blog dedicated to Dwellicious exclusively. It’s called “Chew On This!“
To find out what’s it all about come by and visit the site!
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This morning, we released a new addition to Dwellicious Cool Tools – an interactive financial spreadsheet for each of your bookmarks using the Zillow API for real-time rates and local area tax and insurance estimates. We also addressed two long standing concerns we’ve had, and I’m going to go over these in detail here.
Ever since we launched, we’ve heard from users that the one of the coolest Dwellicious features was the Cool Tools – a suite of decision making tools for each bookmark, including maps, street views, discussion thread, easy sharing to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, WordPress, valuation, comps, neighborhood demographics, schools, Walk Score, property photos, and neighborhood photos. Some of the customers we talked to, however, were unaware that these powerful tools existed. We narrowed this down to the fact that the Cool Tools button was located in the lower right of each bookmark, on the opposite side of where your eye naturally goes: to the photo and the title link.
We tried serveral subtle changes to make the Cool Tools button stand out more, but some users still did not notice it. The new version of the bookmark now adds two unobtrusive elements when the mouse is over it: a “Click here for Cool Tools” overlay appears on the left half of the photo where the eye is naturally focused, and the Cool Tools button on the right lights up in a contrasting color. With the extra space in the image overlay, some interesting information is also added – the total number of photos available for this bookmark.
Clicking anywhere on the photo or the Cool Tools button will now take you to the decision making tools. The ‘Comments’ link directly under the photo will also now take you directly to the Cool Tools Discussion tab.
When the Cool Tools page appears, you will immediately notice another change: the contents of the Share tab has now been moved into a more visible spot in the right hand column. The Share tools allow you to share your bookmark with friends and family on Facebook, MySpace, WordPress, Twitter, and e-mail with one simple click. This has been a popular feature, but we’re trying to make it more visible to users and encourage use by moving it out from under a tab. The tag list was also added right above the Notes field – something that previously was only available on the bookmark list page, but was requested to be added here as well.
You will also notice a new Cool Tool – the Finance tab. This utilizes a new Zillow API that breaks out principal, interest, tax, and insurance using real-time interest rates and local tax and insurance values to come up with a realistic monthly cost for your chosen property. I’m really happy with how qucik this API works, making it real easy to try “what if” scenarios by changing the price and down payment percentage, then clicking the Update button. Notice the use of AJAX to update the spreadsheet in a quick and visually appealing way. Try it yourself!
We hope you like the changes we’ve made to Dwellicious. Many of the changes we make are due to good feedback from our customers, so make sure you keep sending those in – feedback at dwellicious dot com.
- Dan Woolley
We’re happy to announce that Dwellicious now works with Diverse Solutions IDX sites. Until now, Dwellicious smart bookmarks were designed to work with the most popular large real estate portals. We are constantly adding more sites, but since IDX sites commonly run under an agents own domain name, there were some tricky issues we had to work through. We worked the last couple of weeks with our friends at Diverse Solutions to ensure a good, clean interface with Dwellicious. Agents can now add a handy Dwellicious chiclet to their detailed listing views by selecting that option in their control panel. Their clients will now be able to bookmark listings on their site, as well as other major search portals around the web.
Diverse Solutions has long produced some of the most innovative and cutting edge IDX sites on the web. We’re hoping that the addition of Dwellicious integration makes it even easier for agents and their clients to organize, share, and discuss their search for homes on the internet.
Dan has been busy, Dwellicious now works with the following sites.
homefinder.com
sdlookup.com
zipvo.com
and…
estately.com
johnlscott.com
cbbain.com
If you have any suggestions please drop us an email! siterequest at dwellicious dot com
My wife did the voice over work this time…
Over the Thanksgiving holiday you get to visit with family and hear stories, some stories you have heard a million times, others for the first time. Here’s a story my Mom told me about her and my Dad, which is one I had never heard.
First off my Dad and Mom met each other while in the Army. My Dad was a photographer, he tells me that being in Korea as a photographer was still the best job he ever had. When my Dad left the Army he traveled with my Mom around the country doing seasonal gigs. Might be hired as the photographer for Santa, or the Easter Bunny, take pictures at a school for “photo day”, or league night at a local bowling alley. Back in the day, as a working photographer, you needed to shoot and develop the film yourself. Being trained in the Army my Dad knew how to do all of this. My Mom was his pretty assistant.
My Dad finally ended up hooking up with some friends who got a contract to work the World Fair in New York City in 1964. They had a perfect business going. Here’s how it worked.
They would hire young guys to going out in the fair grounds, usually in front a famous landmark, and take pictures of young couples or families. In what I would call an “ambush” they startled couples with a flashbulb going off. Then the photographer would begin his sales pitch of whether they wanted to buy the photo he had just taken. If the photographer made the sale he would then have the couple pose for another photo, “just in case”, and take another picture.
What really was happening was that flashbulbs were cheap, film was not. When the photographer would initially “take a picture” of the couple all he was doing was getting their attention with the flash of light, so that he could give them his sales pitch. When they agreed, then, and only then, would he use film. The second shot, where the couple posed, was the only photo taken.
Speed was also part of the pitch. Couples could either retrieve their photo the next day, at one of the photo kiosks around the fair, or have them mailed.
So each day a runner would send film over to an apartment, where a dark room was set up, outside the fair grounds. My mom would then place the photos, which sometimes my Dad would develop, in cardboard frames and either send them back to the fair for pickup or mail them out to the young couples and families who purchased them.
This seems to be a perfect model for an internet startup. First it helps if you have the skills to handle all parts of the job. In my Dad’s case he knew how to take photos and develop them. A perfect match of the creative and technical. Which as I’m writing this makes me realize that this is what I strive for too.
Their photo selling model also makes sense for marketing your product online. First you grab their attention with something “flashy”. Make sure this “flashy” item isn’t too expensive. Give them your pitch, close the sale, and then deliver it to them right away.
Of course my Mom would also point out it, it also helps to have a pretty (and smart) assistant partner.
Introducing our first Dwellicious screencast! I ended up using a program called iShowU HD. I was very happy with how well it worked, and how it integrated with iMovie 08.
I really hate just the static screenshot with a voice over. You normally can’t read what people are typing and they just get too boring. With iShowU HD I was able to zoom-in to certain sections of the screen so you could see what was being typed, and it broke up the action to keep things moving.
I decided to do music in the background with titles describing the action (no voice over). I knew the music had to be an instrumental. I’m a big John Coltrane fan so I just picked out a song that worked, which to me was “My Favorite Things”. It seemed fitting for a site letting you pick out your favorite homes.
Depending on your internet connection you might want to press Play, then Pause it and wait for it to load so you doesn’t get too choppy.
We are creating other videos that may be more “traditional” (would love some input on this). But I wanted to start off with something fun.
iMovie 08 was helpful when I put together the last 30 secs of the video where I created a “build up” with a series of text place-cards and logos then ended on credits.
I also did a “REMIX” of the screencast with different music and no titles. I extended the last bit to last almost a minute. If you are interested check it out here.
Enjoy!
Over the weekend Pete Cashmore, CEO of Mashable wrote a post about Dwellicious. Mashable, for those of you that don’t know, is a popular blog (about 5 Million page views each month) focused on social networks and new websites. It’s one of my favorites sites to find out what’s new on the web, so I thought it was very cool to get a post about Dwellicious on their well respected site.
Like any “review” it is interesting to see what someone (especially outside the real estate industry) found interesting about the site and what they missed. I was impressed that they picked up on our “smart bookmarks”, meaning the bookmarks update when things change about the listings. But I was disappointed that they didn’t pick up on the decision making tools we include for each bookmarked listing.
What they also didn’t know was they were seeing only half of the application. We have a few other tricks up our sleeve when we start adding the broker/agent back end. Which I promise will be amazing.
My Google alert for “Dwellicious” is going crazy right now as the Mashable post is being picked up by other new services and other bloggers are writing their own riffs on the story.
But this is exactly why Dan and I wanted to start out with a web application like Dwellicious. It’s fun to big on a bigger stage, but we also need to be careful what we wish for.
The last 3 digits are 777!
Jackpot!!!
: )
