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An a la mode XSITE (or any other web site plaform) will always have a few more limitations on what can be done than designing and coding a web site from scratch. Personally, I think the real trade-offs are entirely worth it, most trade-offs are mythical - especially if you get help from a web designer and, in fact, the XSITE weighs in as the clear victor over 'from scratch' sites on real cost and actual return.
For one thing, I don't know that most designers that design and/or code a site entirely from scratch fully exploit the resources available to them. I've seen all kinds of 'from scratch' sites that were shortchanging the site owner in terms of features, search engine optimization, and capabilities. I'd much rather see a fully optimized XSITE than a merely 'good' site built from scratch - any day of the week.
Limitations of "from scratch" Web Sites
1. Costs: To have a site built from scratch that approaches the quality of the XSITE's initial appearance, and provides at least on the surface, it's basic functionality, you're looking at $2500-$5000 and/or a monthly fee (more about fees below). Sure, you can get a kid to design it, and it'll look like a kid designed it (and hopefully he's around again when you need him). But there are other issues - these are just a couple:
2. You lose more than half your marketing potential by losing the integrated tools built into the XSITE that are often even more important to marketing and growing your business than the 'front end' of the site itself - tools that make it so much more powerful than a 'from scratch' site, because you've got a team of programmers working on them, not one or two guys. For instance, you could have forms on a custom-built site, but they wouldn't integrate with XSellerate in any way or have any way to add people automatically to an XSellerate campaign. You could make listings pages on a custom site, but you'd have to update them by hand each time and they wouldn't have any of the special listings tools that work only on the alamode network, like listing exchanges that promote your listings on other XSites. No one will find you via the XSites Network (if you're not listed in it, and you have an XSite, you really should get that listing setup properly). If you currently think of your site as just a web site, just email, just a dot com - then truly that's all your getting.
3. Your site is on a slippery slope to obscurity. This one is huge! Sites that aren't updated frequently tend to drop off in the rankings. It's not enough to be the first listed when you search "Hezekiah Mortgage Agency" - how many of those do you think there are in the world anyway? But if you search Palaluma, New Mexico Appraiser, and you come up on the 50th page, who do you think is going to call? Try searching for yourself under your cities and towns that you cover -[e.g. mortgage dallas or real estate tuscon] and see where you really are. What a lot of designers do is sell you the initial site design, and maybe then a contract to stick around and make any changes you want, while they're overcharging you for your e-mail, dot com, and so on. And lo, they're willing to talk to a la mode for you, which is very little hassle for them. But when's the last time they asked you if you had any new material to put on your site, and gave you industry-related ideas to keep your site content constantly updated? Did they give you a way to jot down anything you want and have it automatically published to your site on demand? Why not?
Blog: The XSITE's blog tools make it extremely easy for you to update your site with your latest thoughts on the industry, what's happening in a certain real estate community, or local news & events. Copy/paste in new material or jot a few notes - If you're a real estate professional, jotting a blog entry is about the easiest thing you'll do all day long. It automatically publishes itself to your site. No web designer needed. Sure, someone like me could take your money for that - that's not what I do. I help you get the site looking lavish, make it more effective, and optimize it for search engines and, if you want, I'll stick around for significant things, and help empower you w. tools you already have.
With a site built from scratch, you either have to have a web designer make all the changes, or learn how to code. But who is going to write up new content all the time, and how often is that designer really going to make those changes. If you start having thoughts at 6pm three times a week that, normally, you'd just type into your blog for automatically publishing on your site, the price is going to go up if you're not using a la mode's blogging tool
Certainly. A lot of people use vanity domains - something left over from the tradition of "making a name for oneself" or "putting one's name on one's work", both admirable qualities. But this is an age of search engines, of Google, and what matters is search terms. Sure, you might be found under your company name in a search engine, and even take top listing. Of course. How many Frank Halligan Appraisal Services LLC are there? You'll be found by those people who already know your company name and are just using the search engine like a phone book. But if you want new business, I'd get a domain name made up of the kind of search terms you think your prospects are using to find a professional - like
Well, there's more to a brand than just the logo, but the logo sums up and represents your brand, and becomes the heart of it. The real brand is a combination of your style and business attitude. That said, a logo is pretty darned important. It's how you “brand” your presence on the web – it's the visible symbol of your difference from every other professional on the web in the same industry.
Certainly! We can match the colors exactly, and even use complimentary colors to enhance the effect.
You're in luck – the same kind of content appeals to both human visitors and to search engines that send you human visitors, so this is easily answered. You need content that's original or unique (never paste in other people's content – search engines penalize for it, and your visitors will find it boring). You need content that's relevant (to your industry or your locale). You need content that changes frequently (e.g. blogging).
Well, there's been a real change over the past 2-3 years in how web sites are treated by search engines, and that translates into a change in whether or not your site will ever get found in the first place. Like it or not, static sites (the old-fashioned business web site that rarely changes, however unique it may be) are getting almost completely marginalized by dynamic sites (sites with constantly updated content, like blogs). In short, anyone with 5min a day to update their site or blog can out-market nearly anyone else with a static web site that rarely changes. Do you really need to blog? You do something like it, if you want your site to become and stay popular and draw significant business traffic. Most corporations, though they usually can't seriously outblog a private individual, have realized this:
Well, there are a couple of kinds of social networking environments. One type is for directly linking to other people – whether clients or colleagues or potential future clients and colleagues. The benefits of this type of social networking are well known. Used in conjunction with your web site and other marketing tools, the value can be enhanced exponentially. The other type of social networking is the social bookmarking kind, which depends, in large part on your web site content being dynamic (see “Do I really need to blog?” above). It is perhaps one of the most powerful forms of social networking, and can result in your marketing efforts going “viral”, if you're willing to do the work to achieve it.
In and of itself, it can have some minor marketing value but, combined with social networking, it can be immensely valuable.Youtube is perhaps the best example of this. Take a 2-3 minute video of your neighborhoods with some commentary, discuss the market, the industry, the area (same as you do on your blog), and upload your creation to Youtube with a title, a link, and an invitation to comment. Then you include the Youtube video on your own site. If you can get a discussion going on Youtube about the piece, you'll usually draw traffic. Make a video a month, and you've got a marketing method.
Online Training Webinars (60-90 minutes)
available 24/7 - currently free in most cases - about 60-90 minutes
Mortgage Brokers
Appraisers
Appraiser E-Books (.PDF)
Articles for Mortgage Brokers (and everyone)
Search Engine Optimization
Use your voice mail to drive web site traffic. "I'm not in the office right now, but feel free to leave a message or visit my web site at www.___.com
Put your web site in the signature or tag-line of all your e-mail messages. Why miss the chance to market yourself?
Put your web site on your business cards, correspondence, forms, etc.
Ask new clients how they found you. Track those that find you on the web.
If you're using aol, yahoo, gmail, etc., why advertise for the other guy? Why not yourname@yoursiteaddress.com ? We can help with this.
Creatively market your site. Leave a business card with restaurant tips. Teach a free local class through your library about the real estate industry and use your web site as an example. When you sign a child's permission slip from school, or when you fill out an information card of any type, include your web site next to your name, even if there's not a space for it.
Ask other business owners to carry a link to your site on their home page. That's called an inbound link, and search engines like Google tend to rank you higher for it.
Let's look at some ways to use your XSite with existing clients, overcoming any reluctance to use your site, with the goal of saving you time and money. Per our conversation, I'm sending you a reminder of some of these recommendations. I've also included a link to our free recorded webinar training on (via streaming video) that explains these in more detail.
Just log in to your XSite's Admin Login (Go to the front of your web site and scroll to the very bottom to click Admin Login). Once you've logged in:
* Note, if you''re making significant changes to the page, and it's been a while since you've done this, check the box for "Submit this page to search engines" and then click SAVE.
* Note: if your internet connection is prone to timing out on you, and you're going to spend more than five minutes at a time editing your page, click the Save and Continue button every few minutes while editing.
Frequently, we're asked if the XSite and XSellerate are the best solutions to marketing, lead capture, and interaction with clients. In fact, we're asked so often, we decided to devote a page to this question.
Quite frankly, if you're a real estate professional, there's nothing that even comes close to the benefits and value of the XSite and XSellerate. By comparison, the other competitor products are at the shallow end of the pool. When you consider the way XSite:
What else is there, really, that comes close? There are other products but, for real estate web sites, those products don't measure up. If you're a doctor or lawyer, there are other options. Even then, there are strong points to recommend an XSite. We've done them for everything from charity to cosmetology. But if you're in real estate, you owe it to yourself to go with the right tool.
Again, the fact that we use an XSite too, should tell you something -- about the product itself, our thoughts on it, and our experience with XSite technology.
If you're considering a 2nd web site, keep in mind that alamode has some really good options for those. Contact your alamode salesperson, and they'll fill you in.
A word on XSellerate: it's hard to beat the integration that the pair (XSite/XSellerate) provide. Lead capture pulls contacts into the database, and XSellerate markets them. We design custom XSellerate templates - just let us know your needs.
Premier specialists in customization and SEO for a la mode XSites.
This is an XSite: We recommend XSites. We build non-real-estate sites too!
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