IDX Blogger Basics: Finding the Site Admin tool

Your IDX Blogger website is edited through the “Site Admin” tool.  The Site Admin tool is what you will use to add and edit your website content as well as change design, layout, and administrative options.  Your clients and website visitors will not see this Site Admin screen, this is only for you as the owner of the site.  To access the Site Admin tool, click the “Websites” tab in your HomeQuest account.  Each website that you have with HomeQuest will be listed here, and each IDX Blogger site will have a “Site Admin” button next to it.  Remember that each IDX Blogger site is independent and unique, so changing content and options in one will not do so to the others.

In your HomeQuest account, click the “Websites” tab.  Click the “Site Admin” button.

Creating new pages on your IDX Blogger website

You can create custom pages with static content on your IDX Blogger site to include extra information for your clients.  The information that you enter on your custom page is up to you, which can include text, images, slideshows, galleries, and even embedded YouTube videos.  The page that you create will fit your content automatically into the correct spot below the header and next to your widget bar.  Each page that you create is automatically added to your upper navigation links bar, but can be hidden afterwards if you do not want it to appear there (Click here to see more about hiding pages).  Follow the instructions below to create a new page on your IDX Blogger site.

How to add a page to your IDX Blogger website:

Step 1: From the “Write” menu, click “Page”.

Step 2: Enter the title and content of your page.  (Click here to see how to add images and media to this page.)  Click “Publish” when you are finished to add this page to your site.

Note: This is just a quick example, you will want to add more content and explanation than I have entered on this example site.

Step 3: Reload your website to see the new page that we just created.

Creating an “Archives” page

An Archives page in your IDX Blogger site lists all of your blog posts and pages.  Posts are listed by category, month, and most recent.  The Archives page is helpful to your clients because they are able to navigate to it for use as a site map, and they are able to see a list of many blog posts at once.  Archives pages are also useful for SEO purposes, since a search engine is able to index a lot of your content at once quickly and easily.  You are not required to have an Archives page.  You may already have an Archives page, but you can follow the directions below to create an Archives page for your site if you do not have one.

Creating an Archives page:

Step 1: From the “Write” menu, click “Page”

Step 2: TItle your page at the top, but don’t add any content.

Note:  Content added to this page will not display, it will be ignored since this is a special page.

Step 3: In the “Page Template” drop down section, select “Archives Page”

Step 4: Click “Publish”.

Your IDX Blogger site now has an “Archives” page displaying your page and blog links.

Editing existing posts

You can edit, manage, and delete any post in your IDX Blogger system after it is already published.  This gives you the opportunity to prune and modify posts to keep them up to date and relevant, fix mistakes that you noticed after publishing, or geocode older posts to benefit from having your blog posts appear with your IDX listings on the map.

Editing a post:

Step 1: From the “Manage” menu, click “Posts”

 

Step 2: Click the name of the post you wish to edit.

 

Step 3: Make your changes, then remember to click “Save”.

Using the Media Library

The Media Library allows you to take a look at all of the media (pictures, movies, and music) that has been uploaded into your IDX Blogger site.  This includes any picture that was inserted into a blog post or page.  You can also use this page to delete media, though it is important to note that if you delete the media here it will also disappear from the blog post or page that it was inserted into.

Adding and Managing Categories

Your IDX Blogger site has the capability to define Categories to put your blog posts into.  Each blog post can be added to as many categories as you want.  Read the instructions below to add categories to your IDX Blogger site, and how to categorize your blog posts.  There is also a “Categories” widget that displays the categories as links in a widget in the sidebar.  When clicked, these links will take you to a page where the blog posts in that category are visible.

Adding a Category:

Step 1: From the “Manage” menu, click “Categories”.

Step 2: You can use the form at the bottom to define a new category.

Categorizing a blog post: Scroll down from the blog post text editor box and find the Categories section beneath the Tags section.

Managing Categories: From the Manage Categories panel, you can check the box next to a category you would like to delete.  Once checked, click the “Delete” button above.  This will not delete the blog posts within that category, it will just remove that category from the posts and remove it from the selection list for new blog posts.

Changing the theme of your IDX Blogger site

Your IDX Blogger site “look and feel” is controlled by a WordPress theme.  HomeQuest has made several special theme templates to choose from.  Check back over time as more theme options become available.  It is important to note that these themes were specially developed for IDX Blogger, and third party themes are not available on the system.  Follow the instructions below to change your theme, click on the instructional pictures to enlarge them.

Step 1: From the “Design” menu, click on “Themes”.

Step 2: From the gallery of available themes, click on the new theme that you wish to use.

Step 3: A preview window will show your live site as it would look if the selected theme were applied.  If you are satisfied with the change, confirm the switch by clicking the “Activate” link in the upper right hand corner of the preview window.

Your site has been changed to the newly selected theme.   Click the “Refresh” button on your browser to see your new and improved site theme.

Managing Site Navigation

Each link in the navigation header of your website represents a page in your WordPress site.  In order to keep a clean header, you may “hide” pages from the navigation bar.  A hidden page is still fully functional, and you can link to it, but it will not appear as a link in the top bar.  The Site Navigation panel also allows you to drag and drop reorder the pages that appear in your navigation bar of links up top.  Follow the instructions below to hide a page from your navigation.  Please note that the same set of instructions can be used to “unhide” a page.

Step 1: From the “Manage” menu, select “Site Navigation”.

Step 2: Hover your mouse over the small arrows ( >> ) next to the page that you wish to hide.  The hide link will automatically appear.  Click the link and the page name will become partially transparent.  Click the “Update” button to apply these changes to your website.

The page has now been hidden from the navigation bar and will no longer appear.

Changing the home page on your IDX Blogger site

You can change your IDX Blogger home page (the page that people see first when they visit) to whatever page you want.  This means that you can select your blog, the public IDX map, or even a custom static page that you created as your home page.

Adding, Editing, and Removing Widgets from the sidebar

The sections down the right hand side of your IDX Blogger website are called “widgets”.  Widgets can be used to customize your site to fit your needs.  For instance, the “Agent Info” widget includes your name and contact information as well as your logo.  There are other optional widgets that you can turn on including a mortgage rate calculator, Featured Listings, and even recent blog posts.

Step 1:  Hover your mouse over the “Design” menu, and click “Widgets”

Step 2:  Use the widget manager to Add unused widgets (located on the left), Edit or Remove existing widgets (located in the blue bubbles on the right).  Widgets can also be reordered by clicking and dragging up or down.

Step 3: Remember to click “Save Changes” when you are finished.

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