First thank you to everyone who gave me advice on my site below in my topic 'help getting my site crawled',

Sigh well I have been experiencing a few glitches with my current company and I am actively seeking a better idea. First of all as you mentioned I noticed some error messages when some people try to access my site.

The good news is google picked it up at least for my site name (keywords: central nj housing, on 2nd page).

I need a website company or webmaster that can help me create my site where I can pay monthly and not all at once, cause I can't tie upa lot of money right now into my site.

Also, I would like a company who can help me build forms and databases for me for an additional fee of course, but ones that are customized for my site. For example, if you look on my site under 'Volunteer Opportunities', I would like people to be able to input their own information and have it automatically entered into the database. It is very important for me to have these areas of my site as I am big on volunteering, activism, etc. I would also like to have sections for local businesses to post classifieds and an area message board for new jobs, apartment rentals, etc. I need something for people to be able to post stuff themselves.

Its also EXTREMELY important that whichever company I use allows me to upload scripts. My current site does not allow me to do this and there is not much my brother, who runs an SEO business, can do to optimize my site for me unless I can do this.

My current company has also stopped giving me as much customer support since I came off my trial period.

I have advanced access, but I think there are much better service providers out there. You can try point2 or www.real-estate-optimization.com

just came across this site and thought of sharing that it might help.

www.webworksfirst.com

Hello Cheryl,

You might want to look into having a designer or your brother load up Mambo or Mambo with the Open Realty component to your web host if your host offers PHP/MySQL. It's fast, reliable and easily modified to suit your exact purposes.

I've been working more and more with MamboOR lately and it's just a really clean, reliable way to put up a website with all of the functionality you mention.

Plus, with a good CSS template, you can have any look/feel you desire.

I hope that helps - I'm sure some other Mambo or Open Realty afficianados will pipe in.

I went to Open realty and it looked cool but honestly I could not figure out where to go from the home page. Whats available there?

Cheryl hope you have moved forward in your search to find a web host. If you do a quick search in Google you will find a ton of web hosts and whoever you settle with should be cheap $10-20 per month. what you would probably want is unix or linux hosting as most scripts are built to work on those platforms. If you are just looking for a web form that you can have a customer fill out and have the results mailed to you these are plentiful on the internet and are free to use so a web developer should have no problem setting it up for you.

If you need a site built call the local computer training centers in your area and tell them what you are looking for and that you are willing to pay some money to get a site built with forms and whatever else you are looking for, this would probably cost around $30/hour.

From your description I agree with VirtuAllin that Mambo with the OR addon would be a good choice. Go to the support forum http://open-realty.org/support. There are a many good developers. I can recommend Jared and Awddesign (screen names), both have a lot of experience with both OR and Mambo. There is also a topic for people to request bids on the work they want.

I was playing with the Mambo/OR template, loaded it up and I just love it! However, since I have a lot of projects going on, I hired a terrific elancer who has taken a graphic design I did for my client's site and converted it into the Mambo template.

It's really pretty snazzy - he did a fantastic job and I'll be using him again. Take a look:

http://www.essexre.com/cms

We haven't loaded all of the content - nor have we added our meta info, but it's coming together nicely.

This is a super easy way to go - and much less expensive than a full, custom website - plus, you get the added benefit of owning the design!

Hi, Cheryl.

I don't know if you've had any luck yet. If you're still looking for a designer, we're a company from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada that specializes in real estate web design.

You can try us at www.homesight.ca (we're fine-tuning the site, so it should be up by Friday), or email me at bezedit@hotmail.com (after Friday, solutions@homesight.ca).

Our sites are unique in their ease-of-use and simplicity in design. It's easy on the eyes and even easier to navigate. I know that sounds like a commercial, but it's true. We've set it up so that you can go in and update the site as if you're writing email, or putting pictures on a CD.

You can pay in monthly installments, and we offer full hosting services, as well as content editing and online advertising services. I honestly think it's the best deal on the net, especially considering all the service you get.

If you want to see an example of our work, go to Ryan Verhoeff\'s real estate web page . Just keep in mind that the client did not purchase our editing service, so I take no responsibility for his poor grammar/spelling ;P

Hope you find what you're looking for!

Sincerely,

Hannes Bezuidenhout
Home Sight Solutions


PS: Yes, you do own the content of your site if you purchase a package from us.

Oh, I probably should've mentioned that we build databases as well.

Basically, you tell us what you want, we'll tell you how we can do it, and we decide together how to proceed from there.

Alright, enough rambling. Good luck!

- Hannes