Listings Management System Manual - Posting and Editing Listings

The Listings Management System is a simple and effective way to post and edit your real estate listings any time you like from any computer with Internet Explorer, Photoshop and an Internet connection. Instructions on how to do both are below.

Posting Listings
(Estimated time to post one listing with 4
photos once the steps are learned: 10 minutes)

Step 1: Logging in. Go to your admin tool. This is at your website address, but in the admin directory. For example, if your website address is www.jonesgoodell.com, then your admin section will be at www.jonesgoodell.com/realty/admin

Your admin tool will look like Example A below. To login, enter your Login Name and Password and click on "Log In." If you've forgotten your password, put your email address in the bottom field and click on "Submit Query" to have it emailed to you.


Example A



Step 2: The Administrative Area. Once you are logged in, you will be taken to a page that looks like Example B. It is pretty self explanatory. One note, the "Home" page link takes you to your site's home page.

Example B



Step 3: Adding a Listing. Click on "Add a Listing." You will be taken to a page like Example C below. Usually, the fields like "Title" that says "Lawson Rock Village Home" would be blank, but I filled them in as an example. To add a listing, you fill in the fields like you see below. There are some things to keep in mind as you do so:

  • There are 3 REQUIRED fields: Title, Island, and Price. Fill these in every time. If you don't want to post a price, put in, "Inquire," "Negotiable" or anything you like.
  • If you choose "Yes" for the "Featured Listing" dropdown, this listing will show up on the home page under Featured Listings. If you add more than 3 featured listings without turning off one of them, then the oldest will not show up on the home page. Also, if you choose to make a listing a "Featured Listing" then you will need to also fill in the last form on this page entitled, "Short Description for Featured Listing."
  • The "Price" format is xxx,xxx and the dollar sign is inserted automatically. The comma isn't inserted, so add it. You can add text there as well, like "89,000 or Best Offer" or even just "Make Offer"
  • It's OK to leave whatever fields or check boxes you like blank, other than the three required ones, since the titles also won't show up if you do. So the listing won't look bad.
  • If you make them "Inactive"  Inactive listings don't show up.
  • The Short Description is for the Section Pages, like the Homes Section (that the visitor sees) which lists all the homes for sale at once down the page.
  • The Long Description is for the Listings Details Page, (that a visitor sees) which has just the one listing and everything about it there.

After you fill in all the fields that you want to, click on the "Submit" button. It will take you to a page that says, "You have created the listing. Now you may edit it." Click on that link. You will be taken to a page that looks like Example D to begin adding your photos.


Example C



Step 4: Adding Photos. Click on "Edit Images" on the page that looks like Example D. You will be taken to a page that looks like Example E.

Example D



On the page that looks like Example E, click on browse, find a photo you optimized for this listing, and double click on the image name. The photo name and location will fill in under "Send this file:" and you can click the "Upload Picture" button.

Example E



After you click "Upload Picture," you will be taken to a page that looks like Example F. The small picture (thumbnail) is automatically generated, as you can see. There are two fields under the photo. The first is "Rank." If you want this photo to be shown first on the page, give it a lower number like 1. If you want it to be one of the last photos, give it a higher number like 10. If you leave it as 5 and other photos have the same number, they will be randomly ranked.

The second field is the caption field. There you can type in a short caption that will go under the photo, like, "Lawson Rock Pavilion". After you change the ranking and type in a caption, then the click on the "Update" button.

After the page reloads (it will look the same with the fields filled in) you can click on the "Browse" button, find the next photo you want to upload, then double click on it. The photo location will be filled in the field and you can then click the "Upload Picture" button.

Repeat the above process to add more photos, change their rankings and add captions. You can add up to 12 photos. After you are finished adding photos, click on the "Return to Edit Listing" link at the top of the page. At the top of that page (see Example D above) you will see a "Preview Listing" link to see how your listing came out.

NOTE: Make sure that you only upload resized (500 pixels across) and optimized photos, 72dpi or you will break the page or run out of server room. See the Photoshop tutorial for instructions to resize and optimize photos.


Example F



Editing Listings

It is never a problem to correct errors in your listings, raise prices, add or delete photos or make any other changes you like. At the top of every page in the Listing Management Tool, you will find an "Edit Listings" link. That link takes you to a series of pages where you have all your listings and you can click on any of them and make changes using the same steps above.