Dear CyberAgent user,

2008! A warm welcome back to all our CyberAgent users and readers! We trust that you all had a wonderful festive season.

They say that Christmas comes only once a year. Not here at USP Designs. While most of you were on holiday we kept on going making sure that we offer the best service and opportunities to all our clients through our CyberAgent application.

My new year gift to you; 5 tips that you can take with you in 2008.

Tip 1 - Tell a story with words
What you say about the property is the most importing factor. Capture the buyers imagination first time. Think “Perfect outside space for a sunset braai with your friends” rather than “South facing terrace”

Tip 2 - Tell a story with pictures
What you photograph must enhance the story told by your words. Picture a photograph of a dining room with the dining room table set for a meal ready to eat. Do you like this? Now compare this with an empty table with a dog in the back ground. Do not laugh! We see this on a daily basis

Tip 3 - Talk their language
60% of Internet browsers visiting our websites are International visitors. Speak their language. You cannot communicate with them in Afrikaans

Tip 4 - Inform them
What is nearby is important. A map is excellent but it does not tell you everything. Location.. location.. Location! Many decisions and choices made by a buyer are about the location of the property and not about the property itself

Tip 5 -Keep up to date!
The Internet plays a vital tool. It has turned property advertising on it’s head. Print and magazine advertising no longer work as well as what it worked years ago. Online techniques and applications also change. Make sure that you keep up to date and have a good understanding of what your service provider offers.

And the best gift al all; your properties are now updating to 20 websites! Is there Estate Agencies and Estate Agents that can afford not to say YES to CyberAgent.

Greetings!
The editor

Email address harvesting on the Internet and spamming (and scamming!) is always on the increase - therefore you'll be glad to know that we have in the past few weeks changed the methodology used to display the email hyperlink on the websites. The way we're doing it now, is still 100% compatible with the normal user, clicking the link to initiate an email - it can however not be picked up by an email harvesting programme. These harvesters scavenge websites, looking for any new email address and simply adds it to their huge directory - from which they then attack with spam and all kinds of misleading scams. Just one more way we're going the extra mile - looking out for you!

>> Click here to visit the CyberAgent Anywhere Blog

Dear Valued Customer

Thus far USP Designs have never set any restrictions as supposed to disk (storage) and traffic (amount of incoming and outgoing traffic with e mail usage) on our domains.

Taking our various hosting packages in to consideration, we wish to offer you the most effective plan for your business needs, specifically for e mails as this is very essential.

However both disk and traffic usage have resulted into a cumbersome issue, and we need to manage it more effectively on our server, pertaining to the hosting package you have, to prevent any problems that could arise in future.

There are 2 very important aspects we wish to bring under your attention, which we require from you;

Firstly it is needed that the allocated disk space assigned to your domain does not exceed. Therefore where necessary, we will be assigning appropriate mail quotas, and in some cases might need to add a maximum message size on incoming mail. We would now be monitoring this aspect more closely, and should you in any way exceed the disk space, you'll receive an e mail with various methods and/or recommendations to reduce the disk over usage, mostly this will require mail that have not been downloaded, which still resides on the server to be deleted.

Also taking spam mail in to consideration, there are certain filters we can set on the dedicated server for spam mail to be deleted within an allocated time, but we are asking that the "spam bucket" on individual mail accounts get cleared on a regular basis (instructions below)

Secondly we need to focus on traffic, we are being charged for the over all traffic usage each month on our dedicated server. A large number of domains we host are far exceeding their allowed traffic per month. We will therefore be charging an amount of 0.12c per month on each MB of traffic usage that has exceeded. A report can be drawn on the control panel of each domain to view both disk and traffic usage statistics, we can provide you with the details to also access the control panel of your domain in order for the results to be viewed. The control panel will also allow you to manage various accounts on your domain.

Note on cleaning spam bucket :
Logon to the webmail account of an individual mailbox, by using the same format as in the link used as an example

http://mail.your-domain.com

Once logged on to the Konsole-H page log in to webmail with the e mail address and password of the specific address

The interface is very simple to use, on the menu go to >Folder Options, then select the "spambucket", use the dropdown list to select all items and click the delete link, alternatively place a ticket next to the "spambucket" from dropdown list select empty folders

Yours Sincerely
Dillon Gray
Domain and E mail administrator

• My pictures don’t show on any of the websites
  
• All my Data in CyberAgent just disappeared
  
• How do I print a Blank Listing Report?
  
• Which number is my property reference number?

Our support desk has added a Question and Answer section to our CyberAgent website, www.cyberagent.co.za. Already we have over 40 Q & A's that we are sharing with our CyberAgent users.

How to use it?

Click on the button on the main page and it will take you to the Q & A section Scroll down on the main screen; you can add any questions that are not there by clicking on ask a question. The answer will go through to the questioners e-mail address & will be added to the list if not already there CyberAgent training.

You can also mail any questions you have to support@cyberprop.com

You can now add text to pictures by using your CyberAgent Anywhere or your CyberAgent desktop application;

How to add text by using CyberAgent Anywhere

It is now also possible to add text to pictures within CyberAgent Anywhere as with our CyberAgent desktop application.

The following can be adjusted;

• Font
  
• Font size
  
• Font Colour
  
• Horizontal alignment
  
• Vertical alignment

If you are happy with the outcome of your picture after you have previewed it you can "Apply" the changes. A backup copy of the original picture is created in order to restore at a later time should you wish to "Undo" your changes.

How to add text by using CyberAgent desktop application

Property Manager - Pictures

It is now possible to add any text to pictures.

The following options are available:

• Font and font size selection
  
• Font colour
  
• Horizontal alignment (Left, Center and Right)
  
• Vertical alignment (Top, Center and Bottom)

It is also possible to have multi line text. With multi line text, the text will only be aligned top and left.

A preview is available and once you are happy with the layout, you can "Replace" the current picture with the preview. Before the picture is converted a copy is made of the picture. This will allow you to revert back to the previous version of the picture.

How to find it:

In the Property Manager, click on the "Pictures" button. On the right side of the form, click on the "Add Sold Text" button to activate the text screen. When closing, if asked to save, select Yes to save changes to the property record in order to force a record update to the Internet with the next Website Update

Very Important

You will need to download new files in order to make use of this utility. After updating to the latest version, go to the Website Update Form. If you see a button on the right, "Download Picture Files", click on it. It will download the files needed in order to use this utility.

We now provide you with FREE training session in the following areas;

• Gauteng
• Kwazulu Natal
• Western Cape
• and the Garden Route

During these training sessions more information will also be provided on:

• CyberAgent Anywhere
  
• Keep me Informed Function
  
• New developments in CyberAgent
  
• New Update Manager
  
• REEP (Real Estate Evaluation Portal)

Property trader is a free real estate magazine, targeting all sectors of the South African residential property community. The publications provide compelling local market editorial with informative national features and columns delivering a truly unique perspective for those of you interested in the property market. As a group we currently publish in excess of 60 million pages of advertising per month via more than 400 000 issues weekly in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Kwazulu Natal and Mpumalanga.

Your properties are now advertised online with Property Trader as part of your monthly CyberAgent subscription!

www.propertytrader.co.za

With inventories up and transaction numbers down, the real estate industry is understandably jittery going into the new business year.

But, says Dr Willie Marais, national president of the Institute of Estate Agents (IEASA), agents should be focusing instead on bolstering consumers’ confidence, and doing more to help them understand the underlying strength of the SA property market.

>> Read More

A warm welcome to all new Agencies December 2007:

We trust that by now you are well aware of what CyberAgent can do for you. If you need any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Fanie at support@cyberprop.com or phone us at: +27 (0)11 955-9100 or 086 112- 9237

Most Internet enquiries:

&

Now you can update directly to SAhometraders when you do a property update in CyberAgent.

USP Designs (Pty) LTD and SAhometraders have formed a working relationship that now allows CyberAgent Users to update to SAhometraders without double property capturing.

USP Designs have negotiated a reduced monthly subscription of R250.00 excl. VAT to SAhometraders for all CyberAgent users.

If you are interested contact Sandy on 011 955 9100 or complete the form on this link and we will contact you shortly.

http://www.cyberagent.co.za/traders.shp

Institute garners global recognition

“This is a real feather in our cap,” says IEASA national president Dr Willie Marais, “because we are one of the newest and most junior members of ICREA. It is also significant because it means that we are internationally recognised as the representative organisation for estate agents in our country, and because we also represent the continent of Africa in ICREA.” Marais will represent IEASA on the ICREA exco.

The appointment was announced at the recent US National Association of Realtors (NAR) convention in Las Vegas, where IEASA was also praised for the manner in which it conducts its courses for the Certificate of the Residential Specialist designation.

“In fact,” notes Marais, “our CRS model is now going to be rolled out internationally and five of our SA trainers have just attended CRS train-the-trainer sessions in the US. They are Peter Venter, Victor Scherman, Joanne Strydom, Juanita Parsons and Neil McLaggan. ”

At the NAR convention, he says, delegates from around the world also demonstrated a growing interest in SA and the country’s property market. “Hundreds of people flocked to our table during the international meet-and-greet session to ask for information about SA and to discuss opportunities in the local real estate market.

“Their interest was partially sparked by the prospect of the Soccer World Cup in 2010, but there were many others who were keen to explore their perception of a peaceful country with a good economic future.”

Nine IEASA members were also recognised and applauded during the “International Night Out” function at the NAR convention for obtaining the Certificate of the International Property Specialist (CIPS) designation.

The CIPS course was presented for the first time ever in SA during the IEASA 70th anniversary conference earlier this year, and the effort garnered the Institute yet more recognition – the CIPS Course Sponsor of the Year award.

“We were surprised at this but of course delighted,” says Marais, “and it adds fuel to our plans to be able to offers the CIPS designation through SA trainers within the near future.”

Article from: http://www.ieasa.org.za