The Essential PowerPoint Template to

CUSTOMYOUR LOCAL BLOG

A publication of

Welcome to your REMCamp local blog.

When you joined REMCamp we automatically set up your local marketing platform.

Online – designed to capture new clients who are online Local – designed to attract local residentsPlatform – integrates social and search

This presentation will show you how to customize your blog for your local area

INTRO

You need to put together a few things to really make your blog pop:

5 Iconic Local Photos or Images – you need 5 high resolution local photos that we can use on the home slideshow. It could be a cityscape, local attraction or landmark.

5 local blog posts – write a blog post, between 200 – 300 words, about each one of your five photos.

10 Best Things To Do Report – compile a list of the 10 best things to do in your town or neighborhood and add them to the 10 Best Template

About Page – write a short description about why you live in your town. It’s about real life, how it makes you feel and why you love living where you live.

THINGS YOU NEED

In 2014 everything will be visual. More images, more photos and more video.

To take advantage of the trend we want your blog to be extremely visual. So take as many local photos and videos as you can and tie each visual to a blog post or story about living in your neighborhood or town.

It’s OK if you don’t take great pictures or videos.

Make a list of local photographers and ask them if you can share and post their photos. In return make sure you credit them for each photo and create a backlink to their site.

VISUAL

An iconic image of your City or TownVISUAL

Neighborhood like Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.VISUAL

In 2014 everything will be local. Hyper, Hyper, Hyper local.

It’s that way already but you need to focus on hyper local content because that’s what your visitors want to read.

Plus, and this is a big plus, you can’t compete with the large real estate portals on generic real estate search terms. They have all the SEO in the world and dynamically generate thousands of local real estate pages each and every week.

But you can whip them when it comes to hyper local search. Particularly around things to do and living life in a local area.

LOCAL

STUDY > UrbanCompass.com

STUDY > AirBnB.com

Locals are interested in Local - local news, local events and local things to do.

They go online looking for information and actively share it with their local friends. Your challenge is to catch their attention online (by posting content they want to read) and then capture their contact details before they wonder off for their next fix on their ADHD browsing habit.

It’s a delicate balance. You’re casting the net wide and trying to sort out the big fish (real estate prospects) from the small fry (general browsers).

It’s a little more work than you might like to do but the alternative is to head over to Zillow or Trulia and pony up for some advertising.

Things to do

Want to skip ahead? Here’s what we’re going to cover.

SETUP5 … Name 6 … Tagline7 … Domain8 … Forward URL9 … Mask URL10 … Lead Capture11 … IDX

CUSTOM13 … Dashboard14 … Theme Options15 … Home Page16 … Headings17 … Header / Footer18 … Social Media19 … Featured Neighborhoods20 … Placeholders22 … User Info23 … Home Slideshow

TOOLS24 … Media29 … Posts30 … Pages31 … Plugins32 … Appearance33 … Agents34 … Neighborhoods

Website Set Up

• Your Company Name• Your Name• Your Cell and Email• Your physical address• Your Domain• Your Domain Registrar• Your Domain Account Username and Password (if you want

us to set up)

If we haven’t yet set up your website, we need the following info:

Website Set Up• Your Blog Name• Your Blog Tagline• Your Neighborhoods• Your Social Media Links• Your IDX Provider• Your Email Manager

Dashboard

It’s a normal WordPress dashboard with a few extra tabs. The most important tabs are the Placester tab and the Theme Options tab.

Everything starts with your dashboard

Blog Name You choose the name for your blog. You buy and own the domain. Then you forward the domain to the blog URL we set up for you on the main www.REMCamp.net site.

Domain ForwardingLog in to your domain account. Click on the Forward Domain tab and forward the domain to http://yoursite.remcamp.net

“YourSite” is the name of your REMCamp blog. We name our blogs after towns so a blog for Denver Colorado would be http://denver.remcamp.net

Domain Masking

This means that when you forward your domain called Denver365.com to http://denver.remcamp.net your visitors will still think that they are on Denver365.com

We will mask your domain name so that your blog uses the same name as your customization options. You visitors will not know that they are on a sub-domain site on REMCamp.net

Placester

The Placester tab is the top tab. Be aware that it controls much of the content that you see on the site. Also be aware that it is very important when you add IDX and real estate listings to the site.

We use themes designed by Placester. Click on the Placester Tab

Placester > Lead Capture

Click on the Lead Capture Tab and add your email address. All contact leads will be sent to this email address.

Placester > IDX / MLS

This is where we can connect your website to your local MLS and provide listings through their IDX feed. Enter the name of your MLS, your Company Name and your MLS Agent ID that you use to login to your MLS. We’ll take care of the rest.

This feature requires a separate subscription with Placester.

Click on the IDX / MLS Tab

Placester > CRMYour website has an API integration with Contactually and Follow Up Boss. Both services are third party services that require a separate subscription and agreement with the service providers.

Theme Options

We’re going to walk you through the steps you need to take to customize your theme. Click on the Theme Options tab on your dashboard.

Note that in some cases the Placester Theme Options will override the native WordPress options and style sheets.

The theme we used is the Plymouth Theme by Placester. The Theme Options tab controls the theme customization options.

ThemeThis is the Plymouth Theme by Placester.

We customized it to create a hyper local blog. It’s unique to REMCamp.

The major limitation is that it works best with IDX. This requires a subscription with Placester.

ThemeAs you can see we changed the theme to give it a local look and feel.

We also re-engineered under the hood to make it SEO friendly and to include all the right category, tag and permalink structures.

Theme Options > Home Page

As an example, if you include a link to the Testimonials then you need to first add a testimonial to the site. Or if you check the box to feature real estate listings then you need to add real estate listings or an IDX feed.

The Home Page Tab controls the content and style of your home page. It’s a little technical so we reconfigured it so it’s ready to use out the box.

Theme Options > Home Page

As an example, we disabled the YouTube and Testimonials widget. You can enable the widget. But if you if you enable the widget make sure you first add a testimonial to the site. Or if you check the box to enable You Tube videos then make sure you link to a You Tube video.

Theme Options > Headings

The Headings Tab controls the headings on the Agent and Services Page. Not very important!

Theme Options > Header / Footer

You can either add a logo or just use add the blog name. The blog works best with a small logo or just the blog name and tag line. Make sure you change the word “town” to the name of your town.

The Header / Footer Tab controls the name of your blog plus the tag line plus the footer.

Theme Options > Social Media

The links are pre-set to link to REMCamp’s social media sites. You need to change each link to link to your social media sites.

If you delete a link then that icon won’t show on the home page.

This is where you link up to all your social media sites..

Theme Options > Featured Neighborhoods

This is a tricky feature as it impacts how things display on the home page.

When you first launch your blog leave this feature blank. Post at least 5 blog posts and create at least 4

Neighborhood Pages. Then play around with the theme option and add your featured neighborhoods.

This is where you set your featured neighborhoods

Theme Options > Placeholders

You need to set your own images as placeholders. Make sure they reflect you and your area. It could be a picture of you standing next to a local icon or

an image with your for sale sign in the picture.

A Placeholder is the default image that will be inserted when you don’t

add an image.

Theme Options > User Info

Your user info will be the default info used by the theme. Take your time and fill out all your personal details, including a detailed bio.

You need to add your user info.

Theme Options > User Info

And make sure you fill out all your Company Info and Contact details. These details will be

used all over your blog, including on your home page and on page headers

Theme Options > Home Slideshow

Your slideshow is very important. It appears on the home page and It’s the visual first impression that

greets your visitors.

We preloaded 6 images on the blog. You need to change the images to use your own iconic local

images. The slideshow is the focal point of the whole blog so make sure you use high quality and visually

attractive images.

The Home Slideshow allows you to add 6 images to the home page.

Theme Options > Home Slideshow

1 –Add 6 Iconic Local Photos (best definition possible). Upload the images through the Media> Add New feature2 – Add a header caption for each image3 – Hyperlink each image to a blog post about that image. This is a little tricky because you first need to write a blog post about that image. You can read more about that in the Post section but basically we want you to add a new blog post, upload a photo to the blog post and then write a one paragraph post …. A picture and an a paragraph.

Do the Following:

Appearance

We preset the widgets and menus. You don’t need to change anything … unless you want

to.

Take a note about where to find the menu and widgets.

The Appearance tab controls your widgets and menus.

Appearance > Widgets

You have around 20 widgets that you can add to your blog. Just drag and drop. One limitation is that some of the widgets are

controlled by the Placester theme and can’t be edited

Play with the widgets

Appearance > Menus

The Home Menu controls the tabs in the top toolbar / header.

You can change the menu to add or delete your own tabs. You can also drag and drop them to change their order.

I want you to customize each menu by adding your town name to the tabs.

We use a Home Menu

Plugins

Take a moment to look at the plugins available in the Plugin section. You can not add your own plugins. If you have a plugin that you really want to use then let us know and we’ll see if we can add it to all the sites.

Plugins are controlled by the Master Blog and can only be added by the Super Admin.

Posts

The preloaded posts have no value to you. You need to add your own posts.

You need to add 6 posts as soon as possible. The posts must be no more than a local photo and one paragraph that describes the photo.

The blog comes preloaded with a number of posts

Posts

Take a photo of an iconic local image or event and upload the image to your computer

Click on the Posts>Add New Tab Add a Title Click on the Add Media Tab and Upload your photo Write a paragraph about the photo Add the photo to the featured image section at the

bottom right of the post.

How to Write a Post

Posts

Take a photo of an iconic local image or event and upload the image to your computer

Click on the Posts>Add New Tab Add a Title Click on the Add Media Tab and Upload your photo Write a paragraph about the photo Add the photo to the featured image section at the

bottom right of the post.

How to Write a Post

Posts > Categories

You need to go through each category name and customize it for your town.

As an example there will be a category called photos. You need to change the category name by adding the name of your town or

neighborhood.

If your town name is Miami, Florida then you must change the category name from “Photos” to “Miami Photos”.

Category names are pre-loaded on your blog.

Media

This is where you will upload your iconic local images. Make sure you use keywords to describe the images, load the largest file possible and try and use photos with the highest resolution possible.

Your blog comes pre-loaded with a number of generic images. You can find them under the “Media >Library” tab.

Media

Bill Holt shares photos from local photographers on his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/outerbanks

Step 1 - Engage with the photographer on Facebook by liking, sharing and posting commentsStep 2 – Ask the photographer if you can post the photos on your blog. Make sure that you fully credit the photographer and include a backlink to their site.

Local photographers are a great source for beautiful photos

Reports

The Report Templates need to be customized for your local area.

Your blog comes pre-loaded with a number of report templates. You can find them under the “Media

>Library” tab.

Pages

You need to click on each page and customize it to your area. In particular you need to replace the word “town” with the name of your town.

You also need to spend the time to write an excellent About page.

Your blog comes preloaded with a number of Pages

Your blog is ready to roll.

Daily, add one new photo and paragraph post.

After a month you will have everything you

need to write a 10 Best Things Report.

After a year you will have the Ultimate Guidebook

for your Town.

… AND YOU’RE DONE!