Getting Your Own Web Site

This subject is so chocked full that it deserves a series of articles. So here is the second in a series. As I stated in the first article there are three basic ways to get your own web site.

Build and Maintain it yourself.
Hire someone to build a custom web site for you.
Purchase a template site.

This second article is focused on #1. Building and Maintaining it yourself.

What is the purpose for a web site? Certainly the first question you need to decide is, what do you plan to accomplish with a real estate web site? You may already have the answer to that one.

Build a better relationship with my customers.
Generate new customers.
Give more exposure to my listings.

Ok, keep these goals in mind as you create your web site. There will be a test later.

Setup the mechanics.

First: get a domain name. Check out http://www.godaddy.com . They sell domain names for as low as $8.95 a year. There are many other companies as well and they all have their pluses and minuses. Choose a name that will be easy to remember and that will have a tie-in with you. Generally the “.com” names are the best. Some people get the “.net”, “.org”, “.info”, “.us”, or “.biz” but these are still not well known. Remember, this is the name you will be advertising in everything you print. Make it something easy.

Second: Sign up with a Web Service Provider. They will host your web site on their servers. They must allow you to point your domain name to your site. It might be easier to get your domain name and web service from the same people. I’ve been using http://www.server101.com since 1998 and I like them.

Setup the Design

Look at various real estate web sites that are out there. Especially look at the ones that have won awards. There are many examples of successful site designs. Here is a list of the top 100 real estate web sites. http://realestateabc.com/top100/top100.asp?Cat=8 as ranked by Real Estate ABC. Keep in mind your goals. What items of this design will help me build better relationships with my customers? Is it uncluttered and easy to use? Is there something there that the customer will want? What does the customer want? Do they want to search for houses in your area? Can they do that with this design? How will this design help me generate new customers? Does this design capture the viewers email address? Also, does this design allow me to show-off my listings?

If you still want to create your own site you can and may purchase a template from companies that provide them. There is a list on my resource page at http://www.retechschool.com/Links.htm Look for “Templates”.

Write the pages

Now that you have the design you can create the web site. There are multiple options to write it.

Learn html and write the page using a text editor like Wordpad or some similar program.
If you have Microsoft Office with Word and Publisher, you can create a document and do a “save as” to a web page format (html). It writes the html for you. Once you save the file then you copy it to your web service provider’s server.
You can purchase a web site creation program that is designed to assist in writing web pages and publishing them to your web site. Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe GoLive and Dreamweaver are a few of the more popular programs available.

Publish the pages

Once the page is created you must publish it to your web site. This is as easy as clicking the “publish” button on your software or you may need to copy the files to the web server. Most web site servers use the UNIX operating system and it is easy to copy to them using a program that uses File Transfer Protocol (FTP). WS_FTP is the most popular FTP program in use and is free. Find it at http://www.downloads.com .

Maintain the site.

If someone logs onto your site they may leave their email address. You need to follow up every day and see if you can provide more information. Most of these types of users are used to Internet speed. The faster you return their query the better your chances of working with that customer.

Your listings change and they should also change on your site. These must always be kept up to date. You must also change the data on your site from time to time just to keep the interest of the viewers. If you have used a web site creation program this is where it will really pay off. Changes are easy to make and publish using these types of programs. The investment will pay for itself the first or second time you change your site.

Creating your own web site can be rewarding and satisfying if you can find the time and are so inclined. However if you looked at the top 100 sites in the link up above you will find that the top three were not broker created. But is it your goal to get rated in the top 10 real estate web sites? “Keep the main thing, the main thing” when creating your web site. Don’t loose site of what you’re trying to do and remember what you expect to gain from your web site.