It doesn’t take much more than attending a WordCamp to get your blogging juices going again.  So, thank goodness I’ve attended WordCamp Kansas City (#wckc) this weekend because this blog has been dying a slow, painful death.  Certain blogger friends of mine need to keep their trap shut and quit yapping about the lack of content on this blog.

When I attended NerdCamp last year in Fayetteville, I collaborated with another friend (who unfortunately isn’t here in KC) on a GoogleWave live blog.  Funny how a year later, GoogleWave isn’t even mentioned.  RIP GW, you had so much potential.  Although I’ve dropped the ball big time on the live blogging at this NerdCamp 2, there are some awesome links of people who are live blogging it.

Check out my fellow Springfield Twitter Chick Linden’s notes here.

Or you can see what’s happening at The Guavalicious Life.

See Justin Sainton’s slide deck on SlideShare about rolling Groupon deals up into your WordPress site.

Social couponing is becoming all the rage and I have to admit I have succumbed to the game of Foursquare.  However, I am not opposed to playing the #fakefoursquare game as I love anything that consists of hilarious content on the internet.

So there is the new buzz word “social couponing” and the reason for my new obsession with the game of Foursquare is two-fold.  The reasons are not to stay up on the latest social media trend, because technically, I’m kind of a year behind on this one.  But the two reasons are: 1) coupons and 2) to impeach The Donald as the Mayor of Dizmang Associates. (As of late December 2010, goal achieved!)

Who doesn’t love coupons? Free appetizers at a restaurant just for checking in.  Free 32 oz. fountain drink at the local gas station for every 3rd check-in, $25 bucks off any purchase of $75 or more at Express, $10 off Turbo Tax at Office Depot, free chips and salsa and Chili’s etc etc. It just keeps gettin’ better.  By checking in, there can be a lot of benefits, in addition to playing the game, collecting badges and knocking off the current mayors.

There are several geosocial sites out there, including Scvngr, that can also be beneficial.  I did a recent podcast with Keith Crawford of Know The Network about the geosocial aspect of real estate.  My goal in using it for real estate is to set up our vacant rental properties as checkin hotspots.  If I could talk the owner into offering some sort of coupon or Andy’s Frozen Custard certificates, it might sweeten the checkin process, nonetheless I digress…. But if people start checking into our vacant properties to view them, it’s going to push out our company and web site to all of their followers on Facebook and Twitter and we will be known as the go-to people for finding property.  Okay so the plan needs to be tweaked and developed a little, but we’ll get there eventually.  What are your thoughts on geosocialcouponing? (Not a real word, but go with it.)

I thought I had found a really good e-commerce solution for selling crap online with the Shopp Plugin.  I take that back, it’s not crap that I’m selling.  It’s digital downloads of the checklists, forms and letters we use in Real Estate and Property Management for the day job.

Boy was I ever wrong with thinking that Shopp plugin would be a good solution. I have never had a WordPress plugin frustrate me so much as the Shopp Plugin did.  They don’t even deserve the link juice, so if you’re interested in finding out more about them, then just Google their name.  Before I really dug into the plugin, I had even referred them to a good friend, who praised Shopp at a recent WordCamp type meeting.  And now, I am kind of kicking myself for suggesting it.  I am sure that Shopp is great for sales of tangible stuff, but using it for digital download sales… it’s no go.  And their online “help” desk (I use that term loosely) should be called online sarcasm desk.  A woman named Yvonne was so condescending when I reached out to them for help that ultimately she was the reason why I went looking for something else.

Don’t waste your $55 bucks on Shopp.  I HAVE FOUND SOMETHING BETTER!

WP eStore plugin is so easy to use that even non-coders and/or somewhat-coders (like myself) can easily use it.  I was up and running in less than a couple of hours and had already sold my first form.  Granted, the form sale was to The Donald himself, but at least it worked!  WP eStore was only $40 bucks and is well worth every penny.  Thank you Tips & Tricks HQ!  And so long overpriced-hard-to-work Shopp plugin and your insolent mod squad of a help desk.

Yes, I am talking about Things.  And no, this is not one of the materialistic posts about the things I want. I’m talking about the uber-cool “Things for Mac.”  It’s my super human exhaustive To Do List that is somewhat helping me keep my sanity in the office and is my answer to those who ask me “how do you get it all done?”

Things For Mac Screenshot

There is even a Things for iPhone app that syncs beautifully with Things For Mac wirelessly over a wi-fi connection:

Things for iPhone Screenshots

All of this is great because as usual, I’ve got quite a few irons in the fire.  Not only am I managing over 200 single family residential rental properties (luckily, we’ve hired a little help for that department and got rid of a few bad apples), but I’m also helping The Donald teach education classes to other REALTORS® and therefore writing a bunch of new courses.  Plus keeping up with the schedules of the little ones and the hubs, the list can get out of hand pretty quick.  So here is what works for me.

<panic!>

I’ve been working on a few different web sites for work the last 30 days and I’ve been doing a lot of the development in WordPress using the Thesis 1.7 theme.  I hit full on panic mode tonight when I was trying to tweak a custom function and added some bad pieces of code unknowingly to the theme footer.  I clicked on my “Big Ass Save Button” (of which I have renamed to a little bit classier version) and went to check on my site and poof! EVERYTHING on the site went blank.  I started breathing into a paper bag as I could not even login to the WordPress backend, like I said EVERYTHING was blank and nothing would load.  O….M….G….

So, if this happens to you, here is how you fix it:

1) Login to your host (cPanel) backend and re-name your Thesis file.  You can find it in your File Manager by clicking on Public HTML > wp-content > themes.

2) Select “Thesis_17″ and rename the file.  I just added four random numbers behind the 17.  This will cause WordPress to reset your site to the default theme allowing you to be able to log back in and getting rid of the kiss of death blank site screens.

3) Once you are logged into the WordPress backend.  Click on “Appearance” > “Editor” on the left hand side of the admin screen.

4) In the top right hand corner, select “Thesis” from the drop down box under “select theme to edit”

5) Click on “custom_functions php” in the right hand column.

6) Find the botched/bad code in the editor window and delete it.

7) Click “Update File” at the bottom.

Repeat step 1 above, except this time change your Thesis file name back to the original “Thesis_17″.  Meaning, erase the random numbers you added.

9) You’re almost done… Now go back to “Appearance” > “Themes” and activate your Thesis 1.7 Theme.

10) And now you’re done. Yay!!

I must tell you though, I had help getting to this point by perusing the WordPress support forums on this issue and also by reading this site.

</panic!>

I’m becoming a WordPress Junkie and have now attended two different Wordcamps within the last 30 days (#wcnash and #wcfay).  This past weekend I spent the day in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  The Wordcamps are probably considered Nerdcamps by those that don’t know or understand the WordPress platform for blogging and web site design.  They are a small group of people (50-100 people) that are dedicated to sharing their knowledge and learning more about the functionality of WordPress, who meet to talk techy stuff.

I got to know some great people while in Fayetteville this past weekend.  First, I got to know a fellow #sgftwitterchick, Jenny.  Jenny with a famous phone number.  We had an easy two hour drive across the border and there were no GPS errors like my previous Wordcamp road trip.  Then I met a kindred spirit, an evolved mommy who was absolutely hysterical.  And when I say kindred, I don’t mean in the mommy type way, but in the type 1 way as she told me a heart-wrenching story about how type 1 diabetes affected her life with someone she loved.  In addition to these fun, witty women, I also met Q-tip and his creative friend who let me in on their Google Wave for live blogging the event.  (Q-tip is not what you think, it is an alternative name I gave him to not use his real name on this blog. It is meant in the sincerest form of respect.) I’ve embedded the Wave if you want to read the collaborative group effort conference notes.

But only read it if you’re a nerd like me.

This isn’t necessarily one of my shining, glory moments in this story I am about to tell you, but it is one that will make you think twice before calling me one smart cookie.

I like to pride myself on having a sense of direction. I have a good idea on which way is North, East, South and West just like I know you should Never Eat Soggy Waffles.  Last week I traveled to Nashville, TN for a two day conference for Real Estate Barcamp Nashville (#REBCNASH) and Wordcamp Nashville. (#WCNASH).  Nashville is approximately an 8 hour drive almost directly east of Springfield, MO.  So if you travel on Highway 60 east of Springfield, you cross the great state of Missouri, go through a hodge-podge of small Kentucky towns, you’ll end up in the beautiful city dubbed the country music capitol of the world.  Not too hard, three states and just a couple of highway changes.

On a side note, the “camps” were amazing and worth the trip.  As expected out of an REBarcamp, I gained lots of knowledge and new ideas from my fellow colleagues in the real estate field.  And Wordcamp was a whole new thing for me where I could camp out (in a wi-fi enabled, air conditioned room) with fellow tech nerds who love the WordPress platform.  Holla!

I was lucky to have a friend come with me and we chose to the make the long trek back to Springfield after the closing sessions.  We left Nashville at approximately 5:00pm which put us crossing the Missouri State border and the dead simple, westward 4 lane highway back to Springfield around 9:00 pm.  It was dark and quiet highway and that is where I lost my beloved sense of direction (I can only guess).

Somewhere I decided to take an exit and drove 26 miles out of my way.  I didn’t realize it until I saw a sign that said “Welcome to Arkansas!” I yelped (not socially as in “Yelp!ed”, but as if I had been a kitty with my tail stepped on).  I looked at my friend and we both gasped “how the heck did we end up in Arkansas?!”  I guess I got sidetracked and lost my sense of direction.  The only way back to the right highway was to go back the 26 miles.  I think I made that 26 mile trek back in about 12 minutes because I was so mad at myself.

Go ahead and laugh.  But you can’t say that you’ve been in four states within 8 hours.  I’m now registering for Wordcamp Fayetteville.

Yeah...I'm not supposed to be here.

Flipping through a magazine the other day, I saw a QR Code on an advertisement and I was immediately intrigued. I had read about QR Codes but I hadn’t really seen them in the wild yet, so I was excited that I had stumbled up one.  They look a lot like the picture below and it was conspicuously placed next to a pair of shoes for sale.

QR Codes are barcodes generated for use in all sorts of things such as print, billboards, signs and even business cards.  Anything that you can print or post to, you can place a QR code on.  QR stands for “quick response” and they are to be used on-the-go with your mobile phone.  The idea is to scan the code using an app on your phone and instantly receive information about the product.  That information may be a phone number, a clickable web site, contact information that immediately adds to your address book, or a calendar event that automatically posts to your calendar.

So imagine driving by a real estate listing (or in my company’s case, a rental property) and you see a sign in the yard.  Now you want to know how much the house is listed for, but you don’t really want to call the agent.  However, the agent is tech savvy enough to place a QR Code on the sign or rider and you can scan it on your mobile phone as you drive by.  Wah-la you have all the information about the listing delivered instantly to your phone.  See! You will start to love QR Codes too.

I downloaded the QuickMark app for my iPhone from the App Store thanks to the suggestion of a friend.  It cost me 99 cents and so far I have been somewhat pleased with the purchase.  Granted, I’ve only been creating my own QR Codes and scanning them to test it out.  (I know, I’m a little bit of a nerd.)

It will be interesting to see where this goes and how we will use it, afterall it intrigued me enough to buy the shoes mentioned above.

Remember, I’m still a newb at this.  Got any suggestions for me?

Go ahead, give it a scan.

You have been warned that this blog is a melting pot of weird things that I have going on in my life. And if you’ve been a long time reader/subscriber (of which I thank you for), then you already know that you get the most random things out of these posts. Today is no exception, you’re gonna hear the geeky side of me come out a little bit. Just remember that not all geeks are dorks. And not all dorks are geeks. In my case…it could go either way.

I’ve been learning to code in Objective-C in order to get the Dizmang Properties GetPaul iPhone app launched. It will be a very minimal app but will have the ability to pull our available rentals if you’re in the market for one. However it’s more of a project goal for me as I love to learn new things.  It’s been a pretty interesting ride thus far.  I started this in late December and really thought that I could have it done by February 1st.  But considering that February 1st is tomorrow, I don’t think I’m going to hit my anticipated deadline.  I guess I didn’t take into account all the other stuff I have to do for work, such as 2009 year end reports for all of our Investors, closing out the year, taxes, and a whole load of other stuff.  I sorely misjudged my time commitment.  Oh well, it will be finished when it is finished.

Our app will be a free app.  The goal of it (besides my self satisfaction of accomplishing and completing a new project) will be to keep our available rental properties rented.  Three months ago we had 40 vacant rental properties (out of the 200+ that we manage) and that hurt us big time. Today we are down to only 9 vacancies, which puts us and our Investors in a much better position.  It feels good to finally get property rented.

Things you need to know about programming an iPhone app:

1)  You have to use the Apple SDK (software development kit) that uses Cocoa frameworks and the programming language is called Objective-C.

2) You must use a Mac to develop the iPhone application.  And yes, it looks pretty sweet on my new 27″ 1TB iMac.

3) It takes approximately two months to develop a good app.  Unless you are pressed for time because of other commitments (see mine above), then you just need to take your time and it’s done when it’s done.

4) The Apple SDK download is free, but you must pay $99 to Apple to submit your app to the App Store when it is ready. I’ll let you know once I get to this point.

5) There is a weird feeling of accomplishment when you finally see the app coming together in the simulator (see pic below).

Of course there is way more to it than what I’ve described here, but I felt that I needed to share with you what I was working on.  I’ll keep you posted along the way.  Maybe I should focus on just updating the Dizmang Properties web site.  That thing sucks.  I’m just saying.  (Yes, I am also the developer of that outdated piece).

I’ve been a bad blogger.  It’s been almost one month since I have updated my beloved blog here.  However, my cage was rattled today by my boss who encouraged blogging in our latest video for work.  Our work recently has included preparing for several upcoming seminars on property management and Web 2.0 that is heavily handed in explanations of social media.  Blogging is huge component of those seminars…hence the reason for the video.

Blogging can be very effective, especially for the real estate professional that is on a tight budget.  You see, search engines constantly scrape the interwebz for fresh content.  Blogs offer this constant fresh content (that is if you update often) to these crawling search engines.  The more you blog, the more the search engines recognize you and push your content and your name to the top of their search engine ranks.

I didn’t realize this until business started increasing for my company back in 2006, shortly after we began blogging.  Most of the calls that we were getting were coming form the internet.  People had read my blog and Paul’s blog and watched our videos too.  So I randomly Googled the term “property management springfield, mo” and was shocked when I saw that Dizmang Properties was listed on the first page.  And, we hadn’t paid any kind of SEO expert a dime to get there!  When I started looking at some of the stats, I then realized that it was our blogging that got us there.

So…here’s to blogging.  And hopefully it’s a good inspiration and motivation to keep up with my own blogging.