HomeQuest

Tyler on Sunday, June 21, 2009

New special map icons are available for HomeQuest hosted IDX sites.   You can now have different icons for coffee shops, shopping, schools, parks, events, blog posts, happy hour, and restaurants all shown right alongside the listings on your map.  Clients visiting your website will be able to browse neighborhood listings while seeing and reading the custom content you have included with that neighborhood.  Demonstrate your knowledge of an area to your potential clients by including pictures and information about local schools, parks and other attractions.   The difference between a normal blog post and a special icon post on the map is only which category is used.

Why have custom icons?  As an agent, you find yourself selling a neighborhood to a family just as much as you have to sell the house.  To sell a neighborhood, just blog about it and your map posts will do the talking for you to any website visitor.

How do I get started?:

To use the special mapping icons, you must have specially named Categories added to your system.  Any post included in one of these categories will display with a special icon.

Adding the Categories (Do this step once)

Note: You must add these Categories, they do not exist by default.  Make sure to keep the exact name or the special icon will not display.

Special Category Names:

• Listing
• Miscellaneous blog post (anything that the system does not recognize)
• Coffee shop
• Shopping
• Happy hour
• Restaurants
• Schools
• Events
• Parks

Categorizing a post (Do this everytime you want a post to show on your map):

Add a post (from Write > Post) like a normal blog post.  (Note: Make sure to geocode the post, only geocoded posts appear on your map.)

When you categorize the post, make sure to use one of the pre-defined special categories listed above.

Example: