WhirligigHD Help Blog

Video Chapters!

2010-10-21T08:44:00.004-05:00

Yes...we are doing chapters now! For only $10 extra, we will "Chapter" your video like the one shown below. This covers the cost of going through the video and adding reasonably named chapters at the property locations. This makes it easier for visitors to find, or go back and review any part of the video they may want to focus on more.

Putting you on the cutting edge...making you look better!

Thank you Janet Johnson!

2010-02-16T06:48:00.002-06:00

Love working with Janet - always on top of her game! You can connect with Janet at

608-695-1281

Dear Patrick,
I've written this recommendation of your work to share with other LinkedIn users.

Details of the Recommendation: "I can count on Patrick to produce great pictures, panoramic views, and videos for my new listings. He is flexible in scheduling and prompt at getting the results to me so I can bring my listings up with the maximum number of pictures. I consider Pat to be part of my team!"
Service Category: Photographer
Year first hired: 2005 (hired more than once)
Top Qualities: Great Results, Personable, Creative

For more recommendations or to connect with me, visit here

2010-02-04T15:57:00.001-06:00

Subscribe to my Scribd account and get all my latest brochures - there's one for you! http://ping.fm/kSZ7X

2010-01-13T18:25:00.001-06:00

http://ping.fm/FQbh0 Here are some links to some new eye candy ;)

A Couple Realtor.com Tips!

2010-01-07T20:35:00.003-06:00

Here you go folks...you can thank the #1 video editor for these little tips! Thanks, Mark!

1. If you are part of the Enhancements/Showcase upgrade with Realtor.com, each listing you can easily add a headline! Instead of "Wow what a beautiful home!" try "Contact 'Your Name' at 'Your Phone#' "

Now your listing will show on the search results with a phone# that is blazingly obvious...

2. Info. from Realtor.com Site - Full Motion Listing Videos - get more sellers to sign on the dotted line 73% of buyers say that they would be more willing to list with an agent who offered to shoot a video 100 million Americans watch over a billion online videos every month, make sure they are watching...

If you need help with posting your WhirligigHD videos into Realtor.com, contact us!

2010-01-05T22:03:00.000-06:00

Four new brochures and counting...there's one in there for YOU! Click here to view them!

2009-12-16T06:56:00.001-06:00

http://ping.fm/nocRj A whole new meaning to the "24 hour open house".

2009-12-13T15:37:00.001-06:00

http://bit.ly/REVideo Here is a post about RE Video - a couple of major points highlighted - full article is linked.

2009-12-13T15:19:00.001-06:00

http://bit.ly/Video2010 Great article from Inman News today about Video - things we can help you with!

2009-12-10T21:15:00.001-06:00

http://bit.ly/WhirligigHDPlaxo Come join me on Plaxo! It rolls everything you do all into one stream - check it out!

Even more flexibility in your virtual tour

2009-12-06T09:18:00.004-06:00

We listened again and have come up with a way for you to open your tour to a specific page. While we don't recommend this, we understand this is something worth-while!

It's not that we don't recommend it...we just think the normal landing page is best because it is MOBILE.

The "normal" landing page is designed to open in mobile browsers and display all pertinent information about the property - including description, 8 photos (that can be enlarged), and information about you. Also, the other items can be displayed in a mobile browser - like any documents you want to upload or even hyperlinks you add in the description.

However, we know you may want to have it open to the photo gallery, panoramas, or even the video tab. Once in the tour, visitors can click anywhere.

So...let's say you want to have the tour open to the Video tab by default. Here is all you need to do.

We provide you a link to the tour - you only need to add &show=video at the end of the URL and that's it! The tour link now opens to the video tab by default.

Adding &show=photos or &show=panos or even &show=map will take visitors to that portion of the tour by default.

So this link would take you to the normal landing page:
http://www.whirligighd.com/vtour/vtour.php?action=listingtour&listingID=300

This link would take you to the same tour but open the video tab first:
http://www.whirligighd.com/vtour/vtour.php?action=listingtour&listingID=300&show=video

as always, let us know if you have any questions or feedback!

Current MLS photos

2009-12-03T12:14:00.004-06:00

Someone sent me a funny picture of a bad Real Estate photo - things you don't want to do for your sellers. If you're not going to hire out to do photos, at least we can all agree that technology has come a long way that there is no reason to have any photos like these here.

These are all recent examples directly from submitted entries from several MLS sites. Many of them are for recent listings in our very own SCWMLS...I won't pick on anyone.

We can also agree that you don't have to look far for many examples like this. Remember, sellers give referrals.

Bottom line is this....DID YOU KNOW....

As a do-it-yourself customer of WhirligigHD ($15 per listing...no monthly fee), we give you access to a secure help blog that helps you take better photos - recommended equipment, how to take better panoramas, how to shoot better video, angles of attack, etc.

Yes, we have all the equipment and experience to make it look great...but we also understand $$ is an issue and you would rather wear two hats - Real Estate professional and photographer.

You shoot at will, upload everything to our site (including video, documents, photos, panoramas, hyperlinks, logos, etc.) and we'll submit your listings to our community blog network and even spread it out to heavily-indexed mapping sites and other major Real Estate sites.

Drum roll please...these took 10 minutes to find.

Click here to see the tour of photos

2009-12-02T11:48:00.001-06:00

http://bit.ly/MiddletonXmas Christmas tree shopping fun in Middleton, WI! Thanks Cathy Lacy and Pam Widen!

2009-11-20T09:44:00.001-06:00

http://bit.ly/Silverdome Let's see, Waunakee Wisconsin Condo or professional sports arena? What would you do with it?

2009-11-05T19:52:00.001-06:00

http://ping.fm/VmuGJ A double-whammy...visitors love it, and more syndication for Realtors!

Help yourself - it's about Web You.0

2009-10-12T17:08:00.006-05:00

Show that you ARE connected and drive traffic to your blog or web site. Heck, you can even invite people to connect with you through Twitter or Facebook.

Say someone is viewing your virtual tour. They can click on your name to take you to your personal WhirligigHD page. Our new interface houses a lot of information about you:

Name and Photo
Broker Affiliation
Phone number(s)
Find me on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Find me on Facebook
Blog link
Website link
List of your properties with us (add them all...it's easy and cheap and you'll get more exposure with our local blogs and Portal)
Video(s)
Testimonials
Uploaded documents about yourself

Make this your one-stop shop for all things you.

Don't have a web site? Make this one your site...purchase a domain name and point it to this page or just leave it the way it is!

Have a web site? Make this a compliment and pull everything in and complete the circle. Take advantage of it - it's free when you're a client.

Like we said - it's free as a client. Whether you accept our full-service or you opt to do everything yourself, you get it. Do-it-yourselfers -- it's only $10 per listing with no setup cost or monthly fees. We'll post your listings in our local blogs and portal. Pay for only what you use.

Google Launches New Picasa Update

2009-09-24T21:27:00.003-05:00

Yea! That's all I can ever say about Google's Picasa.

It's an amazing piece for the price - which by the way is FREE.

WhirligigHD prefers to use a web-gallery to upload your photos to, and we do that for many of our customers. For those that we still email them to, we highly recommend downloading Picasa here. Again, it's FREE and it's from Google.

It's a great way to download our photos, store them on your computer, manipulate if you must (we usually do that for you), export them, or even create your own web gallery.

2009-09-23T13:50:00.002-05:00

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and County Exec Kathleen Falk declares Women's Health Day in Dane County Wisconsin and Madison Wednesday Sept. 23rd, 2009 http://ping.fm/AJkdM

WhirligigHD Community Blog Network

2009-09-21T19:57:00.008-05:00

Here is a simple video to help you understand blogs in more detail...

Why do we bring this up? We blog for you! Look at the RIGHT sidebar of any of our blogs, and you will see that WhirligigHD has created a new, hyper-local community blog network just for you.

It's included with any full or self-service tour. We post your listing on the Dane County blog as well as the closest community blog.

We don't just stop there, either...we update the blogs on a regular basis to make this a one-stop shop for the community. Our goal is to give an accurate depiction of what it is like to live in that community with local listings, news, and other items of interest.

Want to become a contributing member? Contact WhirligigHD about how you can increase your exposure at the same time as being a leader in the community!

2009-09-11T19:22:00.001-05:00

We will never forget September 11th, 2001

2009-09-10T06:56:00.001-05:00

FREE:WI Realtors:Whirligig WRA Booth 4:DIY tour w/local syndication-Community Blog Network-14 blogs in Dane Co! http://ping.fm/PlTxY

Photos and other size limits

2009-09-08T21:14:00.005-05:00

Photos:

The best size photos for this site is 800x600 (or close to that). A good rule of thumb is to use the same size or slightly larger photos that you use for the MLS. You are allowed up to 35 photos for the slide show.

Panoramas:

If you are uploading panoramas, we currently support 180-degree partial panoramas best. We are working on a solution to be flexible for any size...but for now please refrain to 180-degress. You are allowed up to 10 partial panoramas.

Files:

Under the Files section, you are currently able to upload up to four documents, PDF, brochures, etc.

Adding Captions:

Yes, you can add captions to each photo to be displayed under the photo! Simply use the "caption" text box under the uploaded photos. Be sure to hit "update" at the bottom of the screen!

2009-09-07T07:14:00.001-05:00

Wishing all the workers out there a Happy Labor Day!

2009-08-22T15:06:00.001-05:00

Thanks to all my Realtor friends...get a full-motion video tour/photos for $99. Details here: http://ping.fm/Yqjs2

Adding Agent Detail

2009-03-04T19:56:00.002-06:00

Once you are a verified member, you can login and go to "edit my account". If you don't know how to become a user, check out this blog post here.

In the agent edit screen, fill in as much information about yourself as you can! We will take care of making it look professional and provide you a map of your listings.

Most of this is self-explanatory - enter in phone numbers, information, and even testimonials. A few of the added items that need more explanation follows.

Twitter username is just that...type in your username is all so people can find you by that.

Twitter feed - simply login to your Twitter account and go to your HOME page. Down on the right-hand side you will see "RSS Feed". Just click on that and copy and paste that URL (the long address in the address bar) and paste that into the Twitter feed for your WhirligigHD account. It should look something like this:

http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/17866073.rss

Facebook Name is just that - enter your Facebook name so people can look you up and connect.

Facebook Badge - once you login to your Facebook account, you can create a "Badge". In your profile page down on the LEFT side of the screen, you will see a link "Create a Profile Badge". Simply following the directions and once you are complete, copy and paste the code provided to you by Facebook into the Facebook Badge box for your WhirligigHD account.

Video Embed - if you have a Vlog or a special video about yourself or company or whatever and you want to share it with visitors, simply find the "Embed" code for that video and paste it in this box. Paste several video embed codes if you wish!

Blog Feed is similar to the Twitter feed. Find your personal or favorite blog and go to the RSS Feed link (if available) and paste that URL into the box.

Files - you will also see "Files" near your picture at the top. You can click that to upload documents about yourself to be linked and downloadable by visitors. This is your chance to show yourself off!

Control Freaks Welcome!

2008-10-01T10:53:00.005-05:00

Time to take control of your virtual tours! We hope you will find our system clean and easy-to-use to display all of your property information!

First things first. Go ahead and add yourself as a new user by going here...hit "Agent Signup". Please include information for all the starred items, including uploading your company logo (keep it small!). If you are not sure what to do with the Facebook, Twitter, video, or even blog items, leave those go for now - we'll discuss those here.

Once you sucessfully create yourself as a user, we'll respond to you within a day to make sure you are a legitimate user and not some "bot".

Once you are accepted, you can login anytime here http://www.whirligighd.com/admin/

Once logged in, you have a few options. The main ones are "Add Listing", "Edit My Listings" and "Edit My Account". If you want to create a new listing, simply click the "Add Listing" button and it will take you to the listing screen where you can add the property information, add photos, panoramas (virtual tours) and even embed a video.

Keep in mind there are limits to the size of photos you need to upload. A good rule of thumb is to use the same size you load into the MLS, or 800x600 photos.

Panoramas are pretty much limited at this point to 180° - so please only upload partial panoramas for now.

More information on photos and limits

Video "embed" code should be copied and pasted into the Video box in the listing screen.

Once all is done, you can click the "preview" button on the top of the listings information page. This will take you to your tour. This main tour you see is your BRANDED tour. To get an MLS-compliant non-branded tour, simply add &show=off at the end of the url and that will remove your personal information.

For instance, a branded tour will look like this:

http://www.whirligighd.com/vtour/vtour_test.php?action=listingtour&listingID=196

The unbranded one will just add the &show=off at the end for this:

http://www.whirligighd.com/vtour/vtour_test.php?action=listingtour&listingID=196&show=off