Thread: Blog Review

I just spent several months developing this site (I'm not alone on this). Yesterday I launched it and want anyones feedback be it positive or negative..as long as it's constructive.

http://LookRealty.com is the site and below you can click to see a quick 14 slide presentation. No sign up necessary.

http://www.slideshare.net/LookRealty...m-presentation

Thanks for any feedback. Really appreciate it,

John

I would raise the bar on the standards you apply to the images you allow your advertisers to use in the left hand column. Each portrait, in my opinion, needs a 1 pixel border.

One other thing about the site. Offer free advertising, or base the fees on referrals or clicks. There just aren't enough people to choose from. The site needs a bit more meat to get it launched right.

Thanks a bunch for chiming in. Appreciate the feedback. When looking at it I think we should add a border. It'll probably take a week as we have decided to go a new route with the site. Rather than zip codes we will be offering agents Whole Cities to blog and stat for.

Yeah. There will be advertising at the top of the site and the system is set up for it. I will be offering Free cities to early agents but as it catches on I will likely charge to insure the longevity of the site. Plus, it does take some maintenence and we do want to build up the sites popularity.

Thanks for the ideas and feel free to chime in again if something comes to you.

Regards,

John

describe my blog as "informative"

look at it here http orlandoreunionresorthomes . com/blog

Couple things fmike630; These are just my thoughts on "your blog".

1. It's not exactly a blog. This is called a News Feed. Completely different than a blog which is why I'm sure the developer placed the term "Real Estate Information" which would be correct. It is a nice format though.
2. National Statistics don't mean a thing locally but the Home Trends does. However, that should be titled Orlando since it is and would help the reader to focus in on that rather than guess at what it means. I'm not saying that the National Stats shouldn't be there but they are likely not as important to feature first rather than the local level.
3. I didn't see any personal information so if I came to this aggregate news feed I wouldn't know how to contact you if I did like the information. It needs clearly identifiable information or a clear link.
4. There are a lot of "WordPress" links that wouldn't mean a thing to a Buyer or Seller. I'd have them removed unless you are forced to promote Wordpress.
5. Some links are broken and therefore are useless and no doubt frustrating for the reader.

Hope this helps,

John Perkins, Broker

Thanks for your comments. If you had noticed I'm on page 500 of it. Only the past month or so I have decided to put Realtors information daily because of the hard work of writing original articles wasn't going anywhere.

The name use to be Orlando.

I agree that typically I would only show Orlando stats but my high end clients are diversified in other parts of the country so it is easier to just post it all than keep tract of which clients needed stats.

If you made a comment that is one way to contact me.

I should put some more of myself on it. There are links to my main page of http://orlandoreunionresorthomes.com.

This is not a news site I just wanted to have some live Real Estate feeds from the top resources.

well it takes time to upload but when it worked its really worth it, it's a good site..it really helped me a lot..

Hey Frank,

Nice site. Yeah, I was wrong. You've got blogs in there. I actually clicked through to find your stuff. You write great. Should keep it up but I think that's great you are to busy to do that. It's the way it should be. I still think you should have a header with your phone and a little motto that you provide real estate services.

Very cool as well that you have clients across the county. Can't say I ever had that in my 8 years.

Cheers!

John

and Realtors I have asked opinions on in the past have been very critical of my main website. I have changed my site from homes to sell to now try and rent some homes to help some owners maintain their homes. I am fortunate to be number 1 on my keywords in my farm area and that helps me with gain targeted organic traffic.

Im real busy now with renting. Im thinking of maybe opening a management company since I don't see a recovery in my market any time soon.

What are your thoughts on that?

Well I would say first that this is not an area I am an expert in at all. However, thinking Real Estate through I realize that you have to be diversified for any of the markets. Right now, there are a lot of listings and very little sales so rental properties are going to start coming up more often I think as Owners try to hold onto their propertles to see if they can get some equity back. So I do think you will do alright in that market. But I would never get out of your initial main business because it was good to you at one time. You just have to stay strong through each market.

I'd focus on either being a Buyers agent or dual agent if it's allowed in your area. Last, would be to promote your ability to do short sales as well as regular listings.

I did some short sales in a bad market in 2002 and was able to carry over until the market stabilized.

Right now, I'm not going to touch this market until February except that I may advertise a little in case my site doesn't take quick enough. I really want to get into the marketing side for agents which is why I had the site built.

On the website. I think it's fine. I like more simplified sites but the more involved ones do have an audience.