If you already embed YouTube videos on your website, you may want to know how to make the video automatically start playing when a visitor lands on your video page. Well, it’s actually pretty easy to do and I’m going to share this little trick with you. Basically, it’s as simple as adding the tag ?autoplay=1 to your video’s embed code. You’ll want to insert the tag right after the video id#. Take a look at the example below:

Default HTML Code for Embedded Video: 
 
Code to Autoplay your Embeded YouTube Video: 

Note that we added the autoplay tag immediately after the video ID# and before the closing quotation mark.

Also, keep in mind that if you have more than one command, for example, if you already have the command to not show related or suggested videos when your video is done playing which would be tag ?rel=0, you’ll need to use a & instead of a ? to add an additional command. In other words, the first command is preceded by a ? and each additional command is preceded by a &. So to add the autoplay code, you would use tag &autoplay=1. See the example below:

Code to  Autoplay your YouTube video AND turn off related videos: 

Pretty easy, right?

1. Make sure your loved one is always powered up with the very cool Powerbag Deluxe Back Pack with Battery for Charging Smartphones, Tablets and eReaders. The backpack comes with built-in battery chargers that will make charging your iPhones, iPods and iPads on-the-go, easier than ever!

2. For that special man in your life, The Ravi Ratan Cufflinks are not only stylish but also feature a 4GB USB drive in each cufflink.

3. If you want to offer the same style and function as the Ravi Ratan cufflink but for the special woman in your life, The Swarovski USB Heart Necklace will be the perfect gift.

4. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 Digital Camera doubles as the perfect Valentine’s gift AND as the perfect wide angle lens camera for today’s residential real estate agent. With 24mm ultra wide-angel and 16x optical zoom, the Panasonic Lumix is the best point and shoot camera option for capturing important real estate photos.

5. If your loved one enjoys listening to their iPod at the gym, then they’ll love the HEX Watch band. The HEX Watch Band essentially allows them to transform their iPod Nano 6G into a stylish watch which makes the perfect accessory for someone who doesn’t want to have to hold or risk losing their device.

6. The JAMBOX by Jawbone will be loved by men and women alike. This portable wireless speaker and speakerphone easily connects to your mobile phone, computer, tablet, iPod or Bluetooth device so you can listen to music, movies, games, talk on the phone or take conference calls from anywhere.

7. Flashback to old-school arcade style gaming with the iCade Arcade Cabinet for iPad. You’ll be sure to enjoy hours of fun battling it out with your sweetheart on games like Asteroids, Centipede and Battlezone (games available as in-app purchases when you download the Atari Greatest Hit app).

8. Keep it simple with matching Valentine’s Day “Love” iPhone 4 Covers.

Wishing you all lots of love this Valentine’s Day! What’s your idea of the perfect Valentine’s Day gift – Traditional or Tech?

1. Karl’s Mortgage Calculator: Staying in budget is everything for buyers and that’s why Karl’s Mortgage Calculator smart phone app is the perfect tool for agents and their customers. With Karl’s Mortgage Calculator, you’ll be able to easily graph, chart and calculate mortgage payments for your buyers right from your phone.

Compatible: Droid

2. Keynote: The Keynote app allows you to create and present beautiful presentations for your clients and colleagues straight from your phone, iPad, or even iPod touch. You may also connect to an HDTV for larger presentations while previewing your slides and notes from your device with the Presenter Display feature. Choose from design templates with choices for animated charts, tables, transitions, fonts, plenty of style options and the ability to easily import photos. You can also easily share you presentation by exporting it as a Keynote ’09, Microsoft Power Point or PDF file. This app will take your presentations to a whole new level! The app will cost you $9.99, but it’s worth the investment!

Compatible: iPhone

3. Photosynth by Microsoft: How often to you list a home with a grand staircase or beautiful ceilings and your photos just don’t do the space justice? Well, with the Photosynth smart phone app, you’ll be able to create beautiful photo panoramas by stitching together multiple photos of a space, and provide an interactive 3 dimensional view for your listing that will truly highlight all the listing has to offer. Strangely, Microsoft has only produced an iPhone version of this app, but plans on releasing a Windows based app soon.

Compatible: iPhone

4. Splice: The Splice app will allow you to create and even edit videos from your smart phone without ever having to use a computer or laptop. You’ll be able to create videos using your videos, photos, and even music from your iTunes library. Editing features include an assortment of visual effects and transitions, and the ability to add text, titles, voiceovers and more! The perfect app for the on-the-go REALTOR!

Compatible: iPhone

5. Clesh: If you’re an Android user looking for video editing capabilities, than Clesh Video Editor is a great option. This is a cloud based video editor that provides an assortment of editing capabilities and features, and even allows you to publish your videos directly to Facebook and YouTube with no advertisements.

Compatible: Droid

6. CamScanner: If you ever wished you could create PDF docs from anywhere, than your wish has come true! The CamScanner app basically turns your phone into a portable scanner. Simply use your phone to capture an image of any type of paper document (e.g. notes, agreements, receipts, whiteboard discussions, newspaper or magazine articles, etc.) and the app will instantly transform it into a PDF document for you. The perfect app for the mobile agent’s paperless office.

Compatible: Droid

7. Color Smart: Have you ever struggled with helping your buyer get past a horrible paint color? If so, the Color Smart app will be your new favorite tool. Simply take a photo of a room and the app will virtually paint the walls for you. No more trying to imagine and even better yet, no more trial and error. This app will allow you to see if you like a particular color on the wall before you actually buy the paint.

Compatible: iPhone

8. iLiving: The iLiving app will be a fun to share with your clients. Like the Color Smart app, it can help your clients visualize a space in a different light. In this case, the iLiving app allows you to take a photo of a room and place furniture into the room to see what the space looks like with new furniture and layouts.

Compatible: iPhone

Hope you have fun with these apps and remember to come back and let us know what you think.

Do you have any other apps that make your job as a REALTOR easier?

In my Video Internet Marketing course, I teach students how to get started with an internet presence on YouTube and how to optimize their videos for search engines. However, one of the biggest challenges for real estate agents is getting past the shyness of being in front of the camera. Well, I think it’s important to emphasize that you can still utilize video in your marketing without always having to be in front of the camera. Here are some great options:

1) Create video slideshows using a service like Animoto for Real Estate. This is great for creating video tours of your listings using still photographs or for even creating video slideshows that highlight you and your business. Animoto video slide shows are easy to create too. I wanted to try out their service, so I created a free account which allows you to create a 30 second video slide show. I uploaded my photos, picked a song from their free music library and clicked Publish. The video was created within a few short minutes.

Once you create your video, you can post it on YouTube, share it on Facebook and even upload it to your website or blog. Check it out!

Make a video of your own at Animoto.

You can also download the Animoto app on your iPhone.

2) Create video tutorials using screencasts of what you see and what you are doing on your computer screen. For example, you can create a video tutorial library for your website on how to complete important real estate applications and forms. All you need is a microphone and screencast software like Jing, and you are on your way to creating video tutorials.

3) Create neighborhood tour videos that highlight the homes and community including neighborhood amenities, nearby shopping, schools, popular functions (e.g. farmer’s markets and events), etc. You can even add video testimonials of people who live in the area discussing why they bought a home in the area, how long they’ve lived there, and what they like most about their community.

These are just some of the ways to incorporate video into your marketing efforts without having to be in front of the camera. So be creative, stop delaying, and start your video marketing today!

Do you have any creative ideas for real estate video marketing?

Docs To Go Premium allows you download, view and even EDIT your Microsoft Office files from your iPhone or iPad device. Once you make your changes, simply save them to your original Dropbox file to keep your files in sync. A quick heads up though –this is no 99 cent app. This productivity app will cost you $16.99, but it’s worth that and more!

The Documents To Go Premium app offers one more way to remain productive for your real estate customers!

Do you have a cool smart phone app that increases your mobile productivity? Please share

1. Suburb Scout: The Suburb Scout app allows real estate agents, investors and home buyers to search for neighborhood information that may impact the resale value of a home. The details include nuisances such as sewage plants, airports, nuclear plants, landfills, prisons and rail road crossings. Compatible: Droid 
2.  Safe Neighborhood: The Safe Neighborhood app allows you to view the National Public Sex Offender Registry to identify possible sex offenders in a particular neighborhood. Compatible: Droid 
3.  Sex Offender Search: The Sex Offender Search app for iPhone users also allows you to identify sex offenders in a neighborhood using the National Public Sex Offender Registry. Compatible: iPhone 
4.  Crime Stats: The Crime Stats app allows you to look up crime rates for specific cities or run a search based on your current GPS location. This is great app for road trips or traveling to help you decide on the safest areas to stop, or for helping your clients rate a specific area. The app even allows users to do a side-by-side comparison between two cities. Compatible: iPhone 
5.  Walk Score: The Walk Score app rates the walkability of specific locations and includes a map of nearby amenities. As REALTORS know, commute time and walkability are critical elements in home buying decisions. This app will allow buyers or renters to see the exact distance from restaurants, grocery stores, schools, public transit, movie theaters, parks, libraries, coffee shops, bars, and more. Real Estate agents may even download Walk Score maps to their website. Check out the Walk Score for Real Estate Agents for more information. Compatible: iPhone 

These apps are a great resource to share with your clients. They’ll appreciate your thoroughness and you’ll save yourself time by ruling out the deal breakers! Do you have any Neighborhood Deal Breaker apps to share?

Wishing you all a healthy, successful and prosperous New Year!

1. Yelp – I know I’ve talked about Yelp before, but a list of restaurant apps wouldn’t be complete without mentioning it again. Yelp has to be my favorite app for finding restaurants, reviews and directions. Compatible: iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, and Web based smart phones.
2. Urban Spoon – The Urban Spoon app is another great app for finding restaurants. If you’re in an area you are not familiar with, use Urban Spoon to search for restaurants using your current GPS location or filter by neighborhood, cuisine or price. You can also access reviews not just from fellow consumers, but from newspapers and bloggers too. Compatible: iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, and Web based smart phones.
3. Open Table – The Open Table app is pretty cool! It takes your standard restaurant app to the next level by allowing you to actually book a restaurant reservation directly from your phone. You’ll be able to read the reviews, restaurant information and even get directions to the Open Table restaurants in your area. As an added bonus, for each reservation you make and keep, you can earn Dining Reward Points which can be redeemed for OpenTable Dining Cheques redeemable at any Open Table restaurant. It’s like a reward card for restaurants! Compatible: iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, and Web based smart phones.
4. Cor.kz – The Cor.kz app is a must have for the wine connoisseur!  With this app, you’ll be able to search more than 1,000,000 wines and read over 1,800,000 reviews. Whether you’re at the grocery store and want to scan the barcode, or at a restaurant and want to use their side by side wine comparison to choose what to order from the wine list, this app is an awesome tool.  Other features include adding wine selections to your wish list, consumption history so you’ll never forget the name of a wine you’ve tried and loved, Cellar Management to track your inventory, Social Network Connections to Facebook and Twitter, the Reference tool so you can look up definitions for common wine terms and much more! Compatible: iPhone
5. TVFoodMaps – If you’re a fan of the Travel Channel and Food Network, than you’ll love the TVFoodMaps app. This app will help you find the restaurants featured on your favorite TV shows like Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, Man vs. Food, Best Thing I Ever Ate, Unique Eats, Throw Down with Bobby Flay, No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, and many more! Plus, you’ll be able to read reviews, get directions, and in some cases, even watch the show’s restaurant segment on YouTube. Compatible: iPhone and Android
6. Check Please – When the bill comes, Check Please will be your favorite app. Not only does the app feature a tip calculator, but it also helps you split the bill among multiple diners based on the number of people you specify and the rate at which you want to tip. This will come in handy when you’re dining out with large groups for the holidays. For travelers, this app also switches currency based on your location. Compatible: iPhone and Android

 I hope you enjoy these apps. Best wishes for a wonderful holiday and Happy New Year! Wishing you all growth and success in Real Estate next year!

In this tough market, it’s critical to pay attention to the online world of blogging, social networking and business review sites to stay on top of feedback about your business. With so many people using online sites to find or learn more about businesses and real estate agents, just one negative review from an upset client can ruin your chances of landing a new client. Just the other day, I was on Yelp.com and for fun looked up real estate agents in the Dallas market. To no surprise, I found several instances of customers leaving extremely negative comments about their REALTOR. What was most alarming to me was not the negative feedback, but the fact that there was no customer relations response from that agency attempting to resolve the issue.  It’s extremely important to offer a response to try to resolve the issue or the very least apologize. But remember, it is even more critical that you never respond defensively or unprofessionally. What you say on the internet, can stay there forever. In the end, you may not be able to resolve the issue, but it’s important to remember that your potential future customers are watching and a positive gesture will go a long way to showing you care about your customers.

So monitor the blogs and forums in your area, as well as social networking sites and business review sites like Yelp.com. Also, remember to ask your clients to leave positive reviews for you on these sites as well. Lastly, be sure to create Google Alerts for your name and business name, so that you can automatically receive notices when your name is listed on a website.

Have you ever found negative feedback about your business online? How did you respond?

1.  Apple, Apple, Apple! We’ve all heard the news – The iPad, iTouch and iPhone have all made the list for the three most wanted gifts for children ages 6-12 years (but let’s not leave out the adults who want them too!). There’s just no way to get it wrong when you buy a gift from the Apple family.

2.  It can get a little tough using your new touch screen device when your hands are cold. That’s why these Smart Touch gloves are the perfect gift for anyone on your list! And at this price, they make a great stocking stuffer or an affordable gift to have on-hand just in case.

 3.  If you find yourself squirming over the price tag for an iPad, there are over 30 other tablet options on the market this Christmas. At just a fraction of the iPad cost, my favorite is the Amazon Kindle Fire. Some of the features include a cloud-accelerated web browser, free cloud storage for all of your Amazon content, thousands of apps from the Android app store, access to the Amazon library of 18 million movies, tv shows, music, books, and magazines, and great screen quality with an extra-wide viewing angle – all packed into the portable 7” tablet. Even more, if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can borrow books for free from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library!

4.  A wide angle lens camera is one of the most important investments for a residential real estate agent. If you don’t’ have one, you need to get one. A good wide angle lens camera will allow you to achieve photos that fit more of the room into your photo, making rooms appear larger and more open which as we know, can be the difference between making a listing or not. The best camera options for wide angle photography are digital SLRs, but those come with quite a hefty price tag and require a little more technical experience. If you are looking for an affordable, easy to use point and shoot option, I recommend the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1 with a 25 mm wide angle lens. Anything more narrow than 25 mm, just isn’t going to give you enough of the shot you need.

 5.  If you need a cool guys gift, the Sonos Play 5: All-In-One Wireless Hi-Fi Music Player will make any man happy! The Play 5 system comes with 5 integrated speakers powered by 5 digital amps for the ultimate sound. The system can be controlled with your iPhone, iPad or Android. It wirelessly streams music from iTunes, Pandora, napster, or any of your favorite music services or radio stations. Also, comes with free internet radio stations.

 6.  Move over Wii…the Kinect for Xbox 360 is the ultimate gaming experience. You can lose the controllers because with Kinect, your body is the remote control and your voice will provide the verbal commands like play, pause and rewind. This device will bring hours of fun with dancing, sports games and more the whole family can enjoy!

 7.  Logitech has taken the universal remote to a whole new level with the Logitech Harmony Link. This device turns your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or Android smart phone into a universal remote that controls up to 8 A/V components in your home. As an added bonus, you can view TV listings on your iPad and tune to your favorite shows with just one touch. How cool is that!

8. I love Cloud Storage, but having a USB drive on hand never hurts and this drive is too cool to not share with you all. The LaCie Iama Key Drive is a USB flash drive that looks like a key and fits on a key ring so you’ll always know where to find it! And, it’s made out of durable metal so you can trust it won’t get damaged.

9.  Looking for a great BlueTooth headset? Well, the Jawbone Era will not disappoint. This headset comes equipped with military grade noise cancellation, out of the box TapTap feature to answer calls, and the ability to download awesome apps and customized features like sending emails and text messages with your voice.

 10.  For those of you who have been searching high and low for ear buds that actually stay in your ear while running on the tread mill at the gym, the Skull Candy Fix In Ear Buds have arrived. These ear buds actually have a comfortable, secure fit and sound great too.

Hope this list helps you find the perfect gift for all of your loved ones (and maybe even a few extra gifts for yourself!) Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season! I don’t about you, but I can’t wait to play with all my new tech toys.

What are the must have gifts on your list for Christmas this year?