I've never made one before so all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks! http://www.nwlocalhomes.com

Right off the bat, I do not like that thing talking to me. Nothing makes me scoot out of a website faster than that.

I know some people think it's cool but lots of people think it's annoying.

On a more positive note, it does look clean and tidy. You need more text though or you'll have a devil of a time getting found in search engines.

Instead of that virtual person, I would suggest putting a slide show of listings or that open house or something there that people will be looking for when they come to your site...trust me, they're not coming to have a cartoon guy talk to them.

I have site pal as well on my web site. I actually would like to have the customized versions. I also would like to have streaming video, podcasting, and blogging added to my site.

Anything you can do to look different is good I think. One thing I probably should do though is have site pal only talk the first they go to the page automatically.

The important thing is what do your customers think. Ask their opinion on the virtual guy.

http://www.JohnRHorton.com

lol as soon as i get some customers I'll be all over that cool. I wanted to get the site together before I started shouting it off the roof tops. Thanks Perky, I just thought that sitepal would make it memorable and it only plays that once but I can understand how it might put some off. So links aren't as good as paragraphs of text?

The little virtual guy is fine, it's quick and is not looped into playing over and over again. Sites with constant music playing I click right out of, even if I have the option to turn it off I find it annoying.

Yes you need more content on your site but content is endless because you also need to add fresh content to keep up with the search engines (hence blogs = fresh content). Content gets stale and falls out of favor with search engines. SEO is a pain, thats why I hired a marketing company with writers so they can write content for me and add it to the site.

gotcha. To this point my site is free, I don't want to pay until I get some money in my pocket. I don't know how to put a blog right onto my page so I idx my wordpress blog onto it. Not sure if it makes a difference.. eventually I figured it would be best to have someone make my webpage and have them keep it up 2 date with fresh content. All of that takes money though.

Kalib-
Nice to see a fellow P2A site.

If you log on to the P2A message board you will find
a ton of help to get your site tip top.

Your site needs quite a bit of work.
1.Switch to a Vertical Menu only.
2.Utilize all 15 pages.
3.Create an "About Me" menu button.

My P2A site has a Google PR of 3/10 in only
3 months! Look at it and see how I maxed it out. I will
soon get the paid site and 250 pages.

Tom

please explain.
1. why only vertical? This creates less room for my idx on the homepage.
2. Thanks, I thought I could only use 10 pages.
3. Why an about me? Who actually reads those?
4. How long does it take to get any pr at all? i'm at 0

Just curious and thanks for the help! As I said, first time with a web site

another question, is i have those same lifestyle and home development pages they give you with the site, doesn't it hurt to have the same info as everyone else though?

From what I have read it does hurt but I am no expert on this topic. I could be wrong.

The IDX does not need to be on your home page....Just add a MLS Search button, if they want to search they will.

ok thanks, do you know how long pr takes to get goin?

It all depends on your market, every market is different.

K20-
Vertical is the norm. It is familiar.
15 pages for the standard site-Don't put IDX on the homepage...
make it a menu item.
Pics help people complete the "story" of your site.
PR-Is a mystery
Tom