The Emerald Hills Blog

Emerald Hills Blog on Twitter

Follow Me!

Good news!  For those of you follow the Emerald Hills Blog and are also fans of the incredibly popular micro-blogging site Twitter, you’ll be pleased to know that you can now follow the Emerald Hills Blog on Twitter.   Twitter is a great medium to broadcast small updates or real estate news that wouldn’t normally justify a full post on the blog.   Here’s what you’ll get:

• All Emerald Hills Blog posts will automatically be posted on Twitter.
• Alerts on new listings and closed sales as they happen (instead of waiting for the “What Sold and What’s New” feature on the weekend.)
• Relevant news and links about Emerald Hills real-time.

Just take a peek at the lower left corner of the blog under “The Very Latest”, and you’ll see exactly the kind of information I’m referring to.  So, if you’d like to follow the Emerald Hills Blog on Twitter, just click on the little bird above!   You’ll be glad you did.

Something old, something new….

If you read this blog with any regularity, you’ve obviously noticed the change to the look and feel of the site. This all started a few weeks ago when I decided to do a massive overhaul of my other blog, The White Oaks Blog, where I changed the look and structure of that site entirely. (Now I know how the creators of Facebook feel when they changed their site.) It wasn’t a terribly popular decision, but the new background allows me to experiment with some things that I couldn’t do before.

Well, if the new face of the Emerald Hills Blog looks familiar, it should. I am using the same backdrop (aka “theme”) that was previously on the White Oaks Blog. Why? First, I simply like it.  I have looked at hundreds of 3-column themes, and this one is still my favorite.  And after toiling with it for many hours, I’m extremely familiar on what it can (and cant’) do.  Second, it allows me to do some things that the previous Emerald Hills Blog theme doesn’t. Here are some of the improvements you’ll see:

• Links.  You’ll be able to see hyper-links that are inserted into the articles much better.
• Home Search.   You’ll soon see dedicated pages that have all the homes for sale in Emerald Hills and Farm Hills with a single click.  No need to leave the site — it’s all right here.
• Easier Navigation.    With this site, it’s much easier to navigate and ultimately find what you’re looking for.

Trust me, I’m not a fan of change solely for the sake of change.  I hope you too see the improvements of the new site.

Work in Progress

Although the look has changed, I will still be tinkering with the content over the next few weeks so that I can take full advantage of the new features.  So please be patient if the things are continually moving around.  In the meantime, please let me know what you think of the new look!  Feel free to leave a comment below…

For those of you who read the Emerald Hills blog via a web-enabled phone (iPhone, Treo, Blackberry, etc..,) you may have noticed a change in the appearance of the site…the most significant of which is that the site loads much more quickly, and it’s easier to navigate.   This is not an illusion — I have changed the functionality of the site to make it much more friendly to smart phones.

The best part about this is that there’s nothing you need to do.   The web address for The Emerald Hills Blog remains the same, but you’ll notice that the title of the site will read “The Emerald Hills Blog Mobile” when you access it from a mobile device.    All of the content from the original site is there, and you even have the option to switch back to full browser capability.   Check it out and let me know what you think.   I have incorporated the same feature on my San Carlos White Oaks Blog, as well as the  San Francisco Peninsula Blog.

I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed, but I think I have finally solved the RSS Feed problem.  It took the better part of the weekend but after testing the new feed extensively, it seems to be behaving normally again.

For those of you who were subscribed via email, I went ahead and “re-subscribed” you, so you should have received an email to once again verify the link.   For those of you who prefer a feed reader, go ahead and click on the RSS icon in the upper right sidebar — it should work fine now (famous last words!)

Thanks for your patience on this, and for being loyal readers of the blog!

By the way, any thoughts on the new site appearance?   Do you like the new look, or the previous dark green theme?

To those of you to subscribe to the Emerald Hills Blog

I don’t need to inform you that the feed software that delivers “new” content to you is acting very strangely. I received yet another random post from a few months back that the software somehow thinks is new. I apologize for these unnecessary emails and updates to your feed readers.

I have exhausted all other options to fix the problem. The last resort is to completely delete the feed and rebuild it, which is what I will do this evening. So…….

– If you subscribe to the blog via email, I will manually re-subscribe you. Just like you did when you first signed up, you’ll receive an email asking you to verify the link. Once you do that, you’ll be back in business.
– If you subscribe to the blog via a feed reader such as Google or Yahoo, you’ll need to resubscribe once I have rebuilt the blog feed. Once I put the “new” subscription notification at the upper right of the blog you’ll know it’s ok to re-subscribe to the feed.

Once again, I apologize for all the extra work.   I reaaaaaaaaaaaly hope this fixes the problem and you won’t be getting spammed any longer.

Keep your fingers crossed…

There will be some changes coming to the Emerald Hills Blog later this week.  I decided to “brighten up” the look of the site a little bit — the dark background was starting to look a little drab.   Hopefully, you’ll like the new look.   Also, a big reason for the change is to (cross my fingers) solve the bizarre behavior of the RSS Feed and Subscription functions on the current site.    Those of you who subscribe to the site know very what sold during the week of 9/7 because my site keeps telling you that each and every day.   I hope these changes will fix that.

If you are a subscriber, I will be deleting the current feed and replacing it with another.  This means:

1. If you subscribe via email, I will manually enter your email addresses back into the site.   You should get an email at that point asking you to verify your subscription (just as before.)
2. If you subscribe via a blog reader, you will need to re-subscribe once you notice that the site has changed.

Sorry for the inconvenience this will cause, but hopefully the “new and improved” site will solve the problems and look a little better.   Thanks for your continued loyalty to the Emerald Hills Blog!

Editor’s note:  This is the second in an occasional series of posts that will include tips on how to get more out of this blog, and perhaps your other favorite websites as well….CG

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you have probably figured out that I post something new every few days.  Some times more often, some times less…It really varies depending on what’s happening in the market, and how much time I can devote to the blog.  I also author The White Oaks Blog so keeping both of these sites fresh keeps me pretty busy!

You’ll recall from Blog Tip #1 that subscribing to the blog is a great way to be notified when something new is posted.  But are there still reasons to check in with the site in between my erratic blog posts?   You bet!    That’s where the “widgets” come in.

“Widget” in web-speak is a generic term for a snippet of code that’s put on a website or blog to accomplishes a very specific function.   It can be anything from a local weather update, to showing the latest mortgage rates, or even news feeds from other sites.   So all of the items in the left and right sidebars of The Emerald Hills Blog are considered widgets.  I know this may sound really elementary, but you’d be surprised how many people skip the sidebars entirely because they think the widgets are actually advertisements.   Nooooooooo way.

I have done some considerable digging to come up with widgets that are relevant to real estate and local news.  I hope you find them useful and informative.  The  best part about them is that many are updated continuously.   So if you like the news on the “side,” you now have a reason to check back more often!

See you on the next Blog Tip….

In case you might not have noticed, I added a new key feature to the Emerald Hills Blog.   At the top of the right side-bar, you’ll see a section titled “NEW!  MLS Home Search.”   This new MLS software has a bunch of really cool features, the first of which is the single-click access.   If you click on the “Home Search: Emerald Hills” link, you’ll immediately see a neighborhood view of ALL the homes currently for sale in both Emerald Hills and Farm Hill Estates — all with one click!

I shopped around quite a bit to find the best MLS Search software to integrate into the blog, and I really feel this is it.   In addition to the single click access, here are some other great features:

• Email Notification:  Like any good search engine, this one offers email notification.  Once you register and set up a search, the search engine will automatically email you and changes that happen in your search.
• RSS Feed:   If you’re already getting too many emails, this software is the only one I saw that offers your home search as an RSS Feed — see the post below about RSS and subscriptions.   This is a great feature.
• Modify:    Once you click on the link, you’re free to modify the search any way you wish — just use the slide-bars on the left side to change the parameters.    There are no restrictions — you can even search in any city you wish.
• Views:   I’m a “visual” person.  I always prefer graphical representation, and this is where this site really shines.   As I mentioned above, the search displays a “neighorhood view” of the listings, so you see everything on a map at once.  But you have the option to view the neighborhood in four different views:  Map, Terrain, Satellite, and Hybrid.

Feel free to check it out!  There’s no registration required to search the listings I have lined up, or to modify it to your liking.   You’ll need to register only if you wish to save your search, or if you’d like to get email notifications.   And don’t worry about your email address — I hate spam as much as you do, so rest assured your email will NOT be used for any other reason except the home search function.

(Quick note on the Condo Search:  Since there are so few condos for sale in Emerald Hills and Farm Hill Estates, the software will default to a wider map area when there are no condos available for sale.)

I hope you find this new module useful — drop me a comment and let me know what you think!

Editor’s note:  This is the first in an occasional series of posts that will include tips on how to get more out of this blog, and perhaps your other favorite websites as well….CG

Blogs are definitely a peculiar breed of website.  Unlike a normal major news website (like Yahoo, CNN,) blogs aren’t usually updated every single day, although there are always some exceptions.  In fact, I can tell you from first-hand experience that I don’t post new content every day.  As you can tell from reading this blog, the pattern of what, how, and when I post an article is very irregular.  Sometimes I’ll post 3-4 articles a week at regular intervals, and other times the blog may sit idle for the better part of a week (this tends to happen when the busy season hits.)

As a reader, this makes it challenging to know when to check back in to see if the author has penned something new.   It’s time consuming and a little frustrating to thumb through your bookmarks one at a time and manually read through each of your favorite websites, only to find that it looks exactly the same as it did yesterday.    This is where subscriptions come in.

Subscribing to Websites:

Subscribing to a website is very akin to using TiVo to record your favorite programs on TV.  Program it once, and then boom…the new episodes from all of your favorite shows appear under a single menu…automatically!  TiVo (and the generic DVR) totally changed the way we watch TV.   Similarly, website subscriptions are totally changing the way we surf the ‘net.  The “Tivo-esque technology” that is used for the web subscriptions is a little technology called RSS.

RSS = Really Simple Syndication

Without going into too much detail, RSS is a method for re-publishing (or “re-syndicating” as the name implies,) the content on a given website.  Think of it as an index, or summary, of what is published on that site.   RSS packages the site’s content and makes it available as a “feed.”    A feed is very much like the stock ticker you see running across the bottom of your TV screen.  They’re both live summaries of what’s happening.  Instead of using a TV, you use a web program called a “Feed Reader” to view your feed.  If you’d like to dig deeper into the what’s and why’s of RSS, check out this very well written article on the subject:  All About RSS.

I use RSS quite extensively on my blogs.  In the left sidebar, you’ll see various feeds from the likes of the Mercury News, CNN Money, BankRate.com just to name a few.  Since they are true RSS Feeds, they are updated real-time thus giving the readers new content continuously!

How To Subscribe

Fortunately, subscribing to a blog or website is VERY easy.  The symbol you see on the left is the universal symbol for RSS — so if you see this button on your favorite site, it’s good indication that the site offers the ability to subscribe.  So click the symbol and get started!

Most subscription are offered in two different forms:  Readers and Email.   I’ll discuss both very briefly here:

• Feed Readers:  A feed reader is a custom “page” that you create by subscribing to various different feeds.  The job of the reader is to gather, or “aggregate” the feeds into one easy to read page.  That way, if you want to get the latest updates from the 10 or so sites you’re following, you only have to check ONE site — your feed reader.  Think of it as your own “custom” webpage that has only the content that you subscribe to.    All the big web companies offer feed-readers:  Google, Yahoo, and dozens of others.
• Email Updates:  The second very common method to subscribe to a site or blog is via good ‘ol fashioned email.  When you sign up for email updates, you’ll get an email with a summary of the new post.  If it’s a topic that interests you, simply click the link in the email and you’re taken right to that article on the site.   One of the nicest features about email subscriptions is that you only get an email if there’s new content.  If there’s nothing new, you don’t get an email.  I personally use this feature to keep tabs on several sites that I follow.

Subscribing to THIS Blog

I’ve made it SUPER easy to subscribe to my blogs.  In the right-sidebar at the top of the blog, you’ll notice a widget titled “Subscribe to the Blog.”  In that widget, you have the option to pick a feed reader, or simply enter your email address and start an email subscription.   If you opt for the latter, do so knowing that your email will never be used for any other reason than to deliver feed content.  So, no spam, no annoying follow-up emails!  So log-in, subscribe, and let us do all the work!

I hope you found this Blog Tip useful….  Stay tuned for other tips in upcoming posts — if you subscribe, that will be easy too