I checked with a couple web designers and I just cant afford it. I am going to go the template route, but what can I do to make lemonade out of the lemons?

Mr. Anderson,

There are many things you could do. For instance you could take a look at AgentServer.net, the price is more then reasonable and the websites are search engine friendly. Right now there's a 30 day special which you could take to test out the website before you decide to go with it.

30 Day Special Link: http://www.agentserver.net/30dayspecial.asp

Here is an example of one of the themes you can choose: http://demo.agentserver.net/

There are two plans, Basic Plan $24.95 and the other Pro Plan $45.95/mo. The Pro plan gives you free keyword specific search engine optimizing, which means you tell us which area you server and we find out the keywords we should optimize your site with.

I will forward some more information to your email.

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Real Estate Web Design

In response, I just want to put in a genuine plug for Doug at RNC. Doug owns this AgentsOnLine. No offense to the present poster, but folks, you can't get a better webmaster. His response time is amazing. Talk about multi-tasking!

Check out the new forum category called Products and Services and post your info over there please, in future.

I am Carolyne (and I approve this message - lol), the initial Moderator of Net Success. I had begun this forum category a few years ago, with the idea of sharing concepts and ideas.

However with the advent of spam and branding, it became a requirement that many posts be eliminated, and when the new moderators joined, they have been diligent up till now in sweeping - so today I asked Doug to formulate a new forum for Products and Services that are industry related, as there are some legitimate services we need to be aware of.

Doug was kind enough to provide two new forum categories, in fact. The other is for mortgage brokers, etc. So watch for items of interest to appear in the two new forums. Please tell your friends and colleagues.

I will post the press release that appears here in this response, as well, in the new Products and Services for REALTORS, as a starting point - then we can use that avenue in the future for such information.

If you know of a Product or Service that would benefit REALTORS, please tell them to post, or post on their behalf if you have and bricks, bats, and bouquets.

I am the owner and developer of MyBackUpBook.com and Carolyne Realty Corp. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/9/prweb162087.htm



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Small Company but we're BIG in Brampton. Relocation Transfer packages for anywhere in North America Homes For Sale All Sizes All Prices

(changed my mind, sorry)

[This message has been edited by Jflynn (edited 10-03-2004).]

It would help to know your budget. When it comes to a website, looks are not everything----to a point. The main thing you really need is the ability to make changes yourself. If you can't afford to hire a webmaster or seo expert, you will need to become one if you want to make money from your site. There are a couple of companies that specialize in sites for realtors. Ihouse, Advanced Access, point2homes, number1expert to name a few. My advice would be to get feedback from others that started out in the same position as you. Certain features will be more important than others, especially since not all search engines, like google, look at meta tags, they look more to other links and on page content. The companies I mentioned all have sites that you can customize yourself. I have an AA site and have done very well. However, if you think that you'll get a website and start raking in customers think again. I've had our site for five years and it just paid for itself a year ago. However, now 90% of my wife's business comes from the internet.

Visit the most comprehensive Las Vegas Real Estate and Henderson Real Estate website online. Or look at pictures of my Parrot

[This message has been edited by Jade456 (edited 10-03-2004).]

You can purchase a decent template for as little as $30. Then, you need to arrange for a web host, which could run $5 - $20 per month. You need a domain name, again $5-20 per year.

However, with a template you will have to have a program such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver to add your text. There are some nice templates out there, but if you then want to have a contact form or be able to display your IDX info on the site - you'll have to do some homework on CGI scripts and framing. If your Board of Realtors doesn't support IDX as a URL you can frame - then you might be better off entrusting the project to a vendor or experienced web designer.

I'm happy to answer any questions you might have - the folks on this board seem very savvy, so you can trust their opinions as well.

Good Luck!


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Regards,

Cheryl Allin
VirtuAllin Administrative Services
callin@virtuallin.com - (253) 565-3015
IVAA Certified Real Estate Support Specialist
Visit http://www.virtuallin.com Today!

We're spotlighted in ePOWER News - http://www.epowernews.com And in Tribnet:
http://www.tribnet.com/business/story/4552267p-4526628c.html

Ditto what Cheryl said above.

I'm fairly technical so have opted to teach myself all this. It's taken me over 10 hours of hard work so far but I'm pretty close to getting a handle on it. I figured out how to get a "contact us" script working (I used PHP instead of CGI) and I'm getting a handle on the framing issues. The templates are a non-issue.

I have found that hosting costs substantially less than her sugegstion, easily available at under $10 a year.

Ultimately the biggest challenge,though, is what you want the site to actually say and do.

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Jason in Dallas
Telecom Sales and Service Manager
RE license coming soon

Hosting and Maintenance and domain registration? FREE (but normally only about $100/year w/no contract)

I use e107 as a content management system (CMS). Cost? FREE.

Launched my current site this Summer and we're running about 2,500 unique visitors/day with ZERO marketing budget allocated to site promotion.

Google "Branson Landing condo sales" and see who comes up in the #2 position...hehehehehe.

You CAN teach yourself to do this stuff if you try, and NOBODY should hire a webmaster unless they HAVE to. Their job is to keep themselves in business by creating problems with your website.

Moral? Do it yourself. It is a skill set well worth the investment many times over.

Psssst...search engine robots cannot read inside frames...rule #1 is to avoid using frames.

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Ken&Wilma
Coldwell Banker, ABRR LLC
Branson, MO

I just had to comment on your post here because there are a few things that really bug me about it. The first thing you mention in here is.

Web designers and developers create problems on your website in order to keep them selves in business.

I'm not sure where you got this information but you can not be more wrong about that. In fact what would keep someone with that company if they are always creating problems? There are thousands of companies out there to choose from. So if a designer created problems they would just loose that client.

Plus I believe all the companies guarantee their website. So if there was a problem with it, it would be fixed for free. I can't speak for all designers but I know we guarantee our work.

Another thing you mention is to stay away from frames because spiders can not crawl them.

This information is incorrect as spiders will and do crawl framed pages.

I believe in the saying let the professionals do their job. Also I'm quite surprised to hear this from a real estate professional.
This is same as if you were saying home buyers and sellers should not use a real estate professional to work for them because they will just create problems for them. We all know that is incorrect.
My 2 cents.


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Real Estate Web Design

First things first... Do you hold the same thought process on Realtors, that people should learn the skill set and bypass them

Second thing is I had a look at your stats and your not doing anywhere even remotely colse to the amount of daily unique visitors as you claim. Page hits don't count

Here's a live look at your own stats page http://www.silvermallard.com/stats.php?5

I'm not a huge fan of Alexa but according to them, the traffic on the site has plummetted over the past few months.

Your site looks pretty nice Please don't take this as an attack. I just wanted to set the record clear and make you think about a couple things in your original post.

Don't forget that there's always help for you here in the forums from some of us derelict web types


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Rich
VTWS Real Estate websites are among the top lead
generating Real Estate Websites in markets across the United States for Realtors and Companies alike.
Real Estate Search Engine Optimization

[This message has been edited by Rich@vtws (edited 10-10-2004).]

I just calculated my uniques/day and it averages out to 2344 and change. Alexa ratings come and go seasonally based on what else is happening on the Internet. Their traffic statistics are RELATIVE to what other sites are doing as well as what's happening on yours. For someone who doesn't know precisely what Alexa stats mean, it can be very misleading. Furthermore, Alexa changes their statistical formulations on a pretty regular basis, which makes them even more inconsistent.

If someone can truly gain the same skill sets and marketing power as a good real estate agent, then I say go for it...sell it yourself. I don't suffer under the illusion that everyone needs my services. There's plenty of demand for us based on the folks who lack the desire, ability, time, etc. to gain the skills, knowledge, and experience to buy/sell property on their own. Same can be said for webmasters and site designers.

I just happen to think web design/maintenance is a skill set that is well worth the time, money, and effort for any small business person to master themselves. Saying small business people don't need to master these skills is akin to saying they don't need to master the telephone, fax machine, etc. Our websites are now our #1 or #2 communications (thus marketing) tools. I would never advise anyone to neglect the knowledge and skill sets necessary to fully utilize and CONTROL their own comms/marketing destiny.

And I will readily admit that not ALL webmasters intentionally work to perpetuate their own usefulness, but MANY (in my experience) seem to do so. I've been doing Internet-based marketing and PR consulting for the past 5 years. I've worked with companies ranging from Ford Motor Co. and Smith & Wesson to very small entrepreneurs who were purely web-based. Webmasters who TEACH their clients to be self-sufficient are a RARE commodity. What y'all are doing here on this BBS speaks to your desire to help equip small business people with the tools and knowledge to properly manage their own IT resources, and that automatically sets you apart from the crowd. I should not have lumped all webmasters/designers into the same self-serving group in my original post. For that I apologize.

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Ken&Wilma
Coldwell Banker, ABRR LLC
Branson, MO

[This message has been edited by Ken&Wilma (edited 10-10-2004).]

When it comes to the title of this topic which is "Can't afford an optimized site..." you are somewhat right. If you can't afford to have someone do it then you do it yourself. I'd also like to thank you for clarifying that it was a mistake to mention ALL web masters.

Mr. Anderson, if you don't mind could you tell us what some of the prices you were quoted were? you don't have to specify the names of companies that quoted you these prices.


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Real Estate Web Design

[This message has been edited by AgentServer (edited 10-10-2004).]