Hey dummies
I use the word “dummies” loosely guys, relax. Some people, even several readers of this very site have no website, no blog and don’t social network. Why? Because it’s scary as hell if you don’t know what you’re doing. Sure, we can talk about advanced social media marketing methods, but some people are still back at the starting line while others are creating the new finish line. So let’s talk about how to help the less tech advanced dive in without their getting hurt.
Simple website builders
Today, I wanted to share two options with you that you can easily whip out when your coworker says “I can check my email but I don’t know about all that web stuff,” to which you can say, “let’s spend lunch together and I’ll show you how to make an online business card also known as a website” (because many brokers across the nation offer terrible, horrible, no good, very bad websites).
One option:
A real estate specific website builder that is gaining traction in the world of templated sites is Milobox which claims to be the easiest way to “build, customize, and continue to maintain a premium and professional web 2.0 real estate site without any technical experience.” That sounds like a pretty cool way for a newbie to set up a site, right? It support IDX, allows users to create unique propery pages, flyers and has syndication options. It looks like agents with some of the large brokers have turn-key options. So don’t let your website-less friend suffer, show them Milobox!
Another option:
So maybe Milobox isn’t sexy enough for you or your friend trusts you to really make their site sparkly, then you should check out MoonFruit.com which has drag and drop editing features and is free (even hosting is free, they swear there’s “no catch”). If you use Twitter, you’ve heard of moonfruit (they’re gaining traction with a Twitter contest) and if you haven’t looked at it, I’m very impressed at the ease of use and how sexy some of the free sites are worthy of any shopper’s eye. This one will take a *little* more technical knowledge, users will need to at least be able to figure out how to do something the equivalent to creating a Twitter page.
So do we have an accord?
Johnny Depp asks in Pirates of the Caribbean if we have an accord and I like that line, so I ask the same of you now- as a tech savvy person do you promise to help those who are cold, lonely and websiteless? If you’re one of the websiteless, do you promise to click the “submit tip” button up top to email us or leave a comment that you’re sad and websiteless and as a community, we can help you get set up? Do we have an accord everyone? Save the websiteless today, it’s free and easy and you’ll sleep better.
(5 votes, average: 4.80 out of 5)
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Consumerism, Geo-mapping columnist
Marketing columnist
These are 2 great examples of free sites. Personally, even though I do not use them, I like the interface of MoonFruit better.
Good Design is simply not easy to accomplish. Real estate agents are many times limited by the technology tools they have to work with. These services are clunky to work with and allow agents to make simple changes to their website like banner images, color schemes, and other very limited tweaks. It’s one of the reasons why Real Estate Agent websites look like cookie cutter cut outs of the same bad design.
Services like the ones you listed are a great step in the right direction to helping real estate agent websites look less template-based while focusing on building a great online presence. Also the price is right.
There are several things to know about web 2.0 websites. First, Google likes some of them, but in general it’s very difficult to optimize web 2.0 website in your local competitive market with key words like “anytown real estate”. So, my advice for anyone who starts web 2.0 website check your target key words first and analyze what free websites compete for good web positioning with regular websites. Second, there are two most important things to do consistently, I mean every day, to promote your web 2.0 website effectively – find at least 5 real estate related blogs, create your signature including website name and comment as much as you can, then write press releases and upload them with at least 5 press release websites.
So do we have an accord?
Only if we can parley first;-)
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Tom, why do you need parlay? We have no accord, I cannot guarantee you will not be harmed in the meantime. Sorry. lol
Great suggestions! I tried using both and have to give the edge to milobox since it has already built in tools for realtors. I was surprised at the quality of the property pages along with the syndication options, very nice! Thank you for providing this great resource.