Whose site do you envy?

[sarahk]

I'm infamous for being a bit harsh in website reviews but I'm just trying to help... really.

I'm curious though, as to whose site you envy, and why?

Sarah

[frobn]

I'm infamous for being a bit harsh in website reviews but I'm just trying to help... really.

I'm curious though, as to whose site you envy, and why?

Sarah

Sarah, in what way are you harsh. In other words what criteria do you use when you review a site. I know for myself, I don't pay much attention to design of a site beyond a consistant look and feel. I then look at the design architecture and semantic markup because that is where most sites fail.

[Phoenix Realtor]

My favorite site is PhoenixHomes.com... kidding...

I really like DallasHomes.com. A little Flash use and a lot of information. Anyone been there? What did you think of it?

[Jade456]

I like the look of most of seo guy's sites. They are always very nice looking and slick.

[Phoenix Realtor]

I do like one of the ones his team designed. JimMessenger.com, I like the graphics and beleive it or not, I really like the denim(sp?) background. It goes well with the lifestyle here in Phoenix Arizona's Sonoran Desert. Remember, Morgan is SEO and his team is design, copy writing, coding and links.

[Jade456]

True, I just don't know who actually codes his sites. Who ever does the flash, knows his stuff.

[Real Estate Forum]

I'm infamous for being a bit harsh in website reviews but I'm just trying to help... really.

I'm curious though, as to whose site you envy, and why?

Sarah
My own designs suck so bad, if I allowed myself to be envious, I would start screaming and never go online again. hehe

[Phoenix Realtor]

Stop. Your stuff is nice too! The thread was about "who's site we envy" and there are a million real estate websites out there, no way everyone is coming up #1! ;)

[Canadian Realtor]

The Jim Messenger site, as decently looking as it is, does not display correctly in FF. There are also many validating error including the flash. I have been able to get flash to validate on some sites.

As far as whose site am I 'envious' of, all of them, as mine is still not completed...

:)

I do like one of the ones his team designed. JimMessenger.com, I like the graphics and beleive it or not, I really like the denim(sp?) background. It goes well with the lifestyle here in Phoenix Arizona's Sonoran Desert. Remember, Morgan is SEO and his team is design, copy writing, coding and links.

[webmaster]

I cant say I "envy" a lot of realtor sites as Im not a realtor, but looking at hundreds of them every day, I can say that there are some really nice ones out there from both a functionality standpoint and some have some really cool effects.

Here a couple of highlights on my list (None are mine as that would be lame)

http://www.homesinboston.com - I love their map! mouseover each area you get a title, description and sometimes even picture. One of the coolest effects I've seen on a map.

http://www.kristalsellsdenver.com/ Very simple yet I feel the information availability is amazing and I would venture that she has a huge lead conversion percentage. She puts a lot of work into her site as does her team and she is one of my hero's on the real estate web dev side

Actually im going to leave it at 2 for now and see what other people post

[Chief Tutor]

I have to agree with Morgan for http://www.kristalsellsdenver.com/ . I have always envied that site. Not necessarily for the looks but the commitment this realtor has shown to the web and that she clearly has a team making hte right moves.

[STVP]

Here is what i envy www.surfline.com :D

[Phoenix Realtor]

I can't believe that no one else likes DallasHomes.com besides me. That map on The Pemper's site that Norman made is pretty darn cool.

STVP, have you ever seen dolphins, or sharks or anything big like that playing in the surf when you were out there?

[HHI Golf Guy]

STVP, have you ever seen dolphins, or sharks or anything big like that playing in the surf when you were out there?

I see sharks playing with dolphins all of the time, although their games don't last too long :D

[HomeSurfer]

I think when you "envy" a site, it is for something you don't have or cannot obtain easily. Often results. Like search engine positioning, or delivering traffic to customers, or multiple links, or programming ability, or graphics know-how, or corporate backing, or age, or...something.

I look at sites and think, "that's cool"...but not usually with envy.

[gemini]

True, I just don't know who actually codes his sites. Who ever does the flash, knows his stuff.

I think this is the flash design team http://www.unflux.com/

[Phoenix Realtor]

Definately them. I saw info about JimMessenger's site there.

Did you see the flash intro they did for the nuclear company? Pretty cool how they accelerate the particle and then smash it into the stationary one. I really liked it, in fact, I watched it twice. But besides flash, that particle smashing stuff has always interested me. I mean really, who thought one day "Let's take something we can't see, accelerate it faster then we've ever traveled and then smash it into another particle that we can't see and see what happens.

[Real Estate Forum]

I rarely envy anyone. I find it inspiring when I see a site that appeals to me. It's the extra push that I need to see people outdo me :)

[gemini]

roger that. I felt kinda wrong about the subject since I don't envy other web sites, but I do find better ones and learn from them. Better web sites are motivating. Envy is a wrong word for me.

[Real Estate Forum]

Nah, the title is good. A lot of people envy, that is human nature. I have just realized that envy is a waste of time if you do it without working on getting better yourself :)

I do envy at times, no doubt, we all do.

[Real Estate Forum]

I'm infamous for being a bit harsh in website reviews but I'm just trying to help... really.

I'm curious though, as to whose site you envy, and why?

Sarah
I forgot who started this thread ... it was Sarah, go figgure :)

[darren]

All the sites mentioned look cool.. including the dallas site..

They are a few sites that look great, and that I envy, but they suck in the SERPS which is what counts isnt it :D

[Real Estate Forum]

I envy him (http://www.realestateforum.com/member.php?u=135) for his rankings ;)

[gemini]

Nah, the title is good. A lot of people envy, that is human nature. I have just realized that envy is a waste of time if you do it without working on getting better yourself
Envy - a feeling of grudging admiration and desire to have something possessed by another. Usually this feeling has place to be when you can not have something that another has. I don't know why, but "envy" sounds wrong.. not ethical. People start doing $hit when they envy, but can't achieve. Desire to have something possessed by another and desire to achieve, not just "to have", are very different. I don't really think I can argue on this at all since I'm not major in English.

[HomeSurfer]

Thanks for the envy...

Our good rankings are almost an accident. Five things contributed.

First, I'm a writer. Because of my experience, I understand real estate and mortgage stuff. If you ask most Realtors, what is written in newspapers and such is "off the mark" by a bit. Our stuff isn't. I wrote it to be "real" so that visitors would like it, and because I genuinely believe in the role of real estate agents, they liked what I wrote, too. And search engines had something to grab on to.

Second, in the beginning we didn't have any money. To get traffic, people had to link to us. We set up a site that encouraged this.

Third, because I read an early article about the "next generation" of search engines, I was prepared for Google in advance, so I focused even more on incoming links. I even wrote an article called "What REALTORS® Should Know About Search Engines" that appeared in Realty Times in June 1999.

Fourth, we had earlier changed our directory from HTML pages to a database with JavaScript because the directory had grown too large to handle unless it was in a database. Almost two years ago, an important web site developer convinced me to remove the javascript so the links would benefit his agents more. As part of the process, I converted the entire directory back to HTML.

Fifth, I get advice from time to time from people who actually know what they are doing.

Before that, all our pages performed well except the directory. Now the directory pages generally perform pretty well.

[gemini]

Great source Terry - it is one of the best directories out there!
Have you been thinking about dynamic pages, but optimized urls? Or you already have them its just you generate HTML pages automatically? I have this kind of option in my directory and I think it should be good, but I never tried it.

[HomeSurfer]

The directory pages are created dynamically by our program. One click of a button "publishes" all the dynamic pages for a particular state, changing them from database query pages into .html format with page titles and descriptions.

Then I do some personal wizardry.

One flaw is that when we first created the pages, we didn't instruct the program to remove any spaces in URLs. Still, it doesn't really seem to hurt too much and I don't want to "go back" and change it now.

But...you seem to be doing fine with your directory. Sometimes I'm envious of your rankings, especially in some of the highly competitve areas.

Now...all you have to do is tell me how you do it.

[Real Estate Forum]

Google seems to love this domain (RealEstateForum.com)

Now we have to wait to get all pages indexed and see what hits. Chances are it will be a lot of real estate terms depending on the types of posts made in here :)

[gemini]

But...you seem to be doing fine with your directory. Sometimes I'm envious of your rankings, especially in some of the highly competitve areas.

Now...all you have to do is tell me how you do it.
I'll take it as a compliment Terry :) I just happened to target 4 highly competitive areas - that's why you can see my directory appearing sometimes on the surface.

Now... if you want to give me a job or would like to partner with me - I'm all ears :D

[Phoenix Realtor]

I have a lot of high hopes for this forum!

[gemini]

Great name, smart owner, good people - it will be great don't worry! :)

[Real Estate Forum]

The search engine spiders are crawling the new pages like crazy. Let's see how long it will take :cool:

Thank you for the compliment, guys! It's great running your own forum without someone else interfering.

[MaxSinclair]

Sorry that I missed this great thread. A little late in the game, but here's my contribution. Not a realtor site, but something pretty cool. it's called colorstrology.com.

[lebron23]

I really like the NBA site., because the graphics are so good, and the combination of color is cool.

[danb]

My favorite site is PhoenixHomes.com... kidding...

I really like DallasHomes.com. A little Flash use and a lot of information. Anyone been there? What did you think of it?

Its cool but I am never a fan of flash... Phoenixhomes.com... nice

[Desmond]

I envy the guys that started Google. They now can afford an army of highly trained, super-intelligent chimps to do their bidding. Muahahaha... Now if only they could be taught to fold the laundry correctly! :D

Serously, joking aside, I envy this site. I mean props whoever first came up with it. Great concept with a super simple way to execute it.