Many of our members provided us feedback on how to improve our website. We listened to their comments and gave our site a makeover by adding many features. This newsletter will guide you to the updates and most important tips on how to market your business using the tools available to you on our website.

Registered members ratings: Non-registered users may no longer rate appraisers' listing. A user may rate a listing by creating an account first. Accounts are activated once the email verification process has been excecuted via email notification. Once an account has been activated, a registered user may rate a listing. If you have been rated by a registered user, you have the ability to see who rated you and what rating you have received. Just log into your account and click on "continue". In the "Statistics" portion of your control panel (account page), you will see an entry for "Registered Members Ratings" with a drop down window listing all registered users who have rated your services with the rating score in parenthesis (5 being the highest score).

Since this new implementation, appraisers listed on our directory can rate other appraiser members by becoming a registered user. This was not permitted in the past as appraiser members were concerned that their competitors may rate them low in order for the latter to be ranked high on our directory. As ratings are now only possible by becoming a registered user and as all ratings are logged and can be verified by the appraiser receiving a rating, there is no need to disallow rating of appraisers by appraisers. We understand that appraisers do hire other appraisers for appraisal work outside their area of expertise, and therefore should be able to rate the appraiser member they hired through our directory.

To become a registered member, which is different from an appraiser member, click here. An appraiser member is an appraiser listed on our directory. A registered member is one who can rate appraiser members and manage favorites.

Add to favorites: Registered members also have the ability to add any appraiser member to their list of favorites. You can now add any listings to your list of favorites and have them be one click away. No more looking for your favorite appraiser. To add an appraiser to your list of favorites, click on this icon. If you see this icon on the listing you are viewing, it simply means that the listing is already in your list of favorites. To remove an appraiser from your list of favorites just click on this icon. You must be a registered user to take advantage of this tool.

Online mailbox: The online mailbox tool was added for Silver and Gold appraiser members. Silver and Gold members can view their email messages online by logging in to their account. Only registered users are now able to email Silver and Gold appraisers. This was done to prevent spammers from contacting our Silver and Gold members. Once a registered user contacts you via the messaging tool on your listing, an automated email is sent to your registered email notifying you that you have received a message. To view your messages, login to your account and click on "Mailbox". You can view, print and erase an email, print and view an attachment, and report abuse/spam with a click of a mouse. Any email which you report as spam will be investigated. If verified as spam or abuse, the registered user will be notified and asked to comply with the terms of use. A second offense will result in the termination of the user’s account.

Remember me: A remember me tool was added to the login pages. Checking the "Remember Me" or "Remember login" box will securely store your user ID on the computer you are currently using. For your security, only your username will be saved. You will still be required to enter your password to access your accounts. To turn off this feature, simply uncheck the box at any time. To protect your account, you should not use this feature when accessing your account from public computers such as those located in a library or Internet cafe

Banner creator: The online banner creator tool was added for Gold appraiser members. To use this feature, log into your account, click on "Continue" to continue to your account page and click on "Create banner online". The banner creator tool has a preview pane at the top of the page where every changes you make are immediately posted in the preview pane. Once you are satisfied with the banner, click on "Save" and your new banner will be uploaded for your listing. Banners are located on top of every page, except the home page of the site. They rotate randomly on the pages of the site and on the pages of the areas you service. We noticed that 30% of our Gold appraiser members have not uploaded a banner to their account and are missing a great marketing tool to attract visitors to their listing; either because they did not have the expertise to create a banner or they did not want to pay someone to create a banner for their business. This tool makes it easy for any novice to create a banner and it is free for our Gold appraiser members.

Logo creator: The online logo creator tool was added for Gold appraiser members. To use this feature, log into your account and click on "Continue". The logo creator tool is located on the very bottom of your control panel (account page). Just click on the link "Create Logo Online". The logo creator tool has a preview pane at the top of the page where every changes you make are immediately posted in the preview pane. Once you are satisfied with the logo you created, click on "Save" and your new logo will be uploaded for your listing. Logos are located on your listing page. Logos with a slogan are another way to attract visitors. This tool makes it easy for any novice to create a logo and it is free for our Gold appraiser members.

Tooltips: Tooltips were added as a means to offer users with quick help. Just place your mouse cursor wherever you see this icon to read the instructions/tips.

Captcha: Captcha, which is an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, were placed on all submission forms, such as "Add a Review" and "Send Message". This was done to protect you from receiving automated spam emails and making the site more secure from spammers. The "Send Message" tool only available to Silver and Gold appraiser members, lets registered users contact you via email. Although this tool has an antiSPAM feature which prevents email harvesting robots from retrieving any type of email information from our site, as e-mails are hidden within both the link and displayed address, we made it even more secure by adding a Captcha feature. Anonymous visitors are no longer able to email our Silver and Gold members.

SOSAppraisers.com: Your listing appears on two sites: e-AppraisersDirectory and SOSAppraisers. When you update, edit, upgrade your listing, both sites are affected. SOSAppraisers was launched in January 2008 and was done to increase and give your business additional online exposure. Paid members do not pay any additional fee to unlock additional tools on these sites.