Your Unique Website:How to Build It YourselfFrom the perspective of Internet marketing, your unique website is the best way to communicate your distinctiveness.Your distinctiveness, or personal brand, represents you unique combination of resources that allows you to serve clients in your own personal style. Hiring A ProfessionalWhen I started to develop my first website there were 2 things I knew for sure.The first was that my website had to be unique. It had to reflect me and my business. And second, since I didn't even know what the the term HTML meant, it was obvious that I needed help in developing the site. So I hired a graphic design company with website-design capability. At the time, that seemed like a good decision. Now with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight, I realize that my site was more of ego-pleasing web presence than a realistic Internet marketing tool.  It was also a $2500 learning experience. Certainly the site was unique. When it was time to renew the domain name for another year, the site was almost what I wanted. Needless to say, I didn't renew that domain, choosing instead to build a new site—this one—myself. Don't Sacrifice Your Uniqueness For ConvenienceFrom my first website building experience, I can appreciate the appeal of websites designed and maintained by real estate companies.
These very large sites help them promote their brand. They also help ensure that everything that goes on these sites is consistent with the overall brand image. On the other hand, these sites also reduce agents to generic catalog entries. Apart from minimal agent-supplied copy, these sites offer little opportunity for individual agents to distinguish themselves and their personal brand. Top A One-Of-A-Kind SiteJoanna Gerber is a Sales Representative with HOMELIFE Kempenfelt Kelly, Realty Ltd. Brokerage in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. Here's her story: “When I just started this website journey in January 2008, I did a bit of searching myself. “There are few good systems available. I found out that there are 2, maybe 3 different site building providers that other Realtors use. “I
found that only Site Build It!
[SBI] gives you total control and the ability to create a
site that
is one of a kind. “My real estate site is working well: it got me to the top of search results for my keywords.
Check out Joanna's site. It's a good example of how you can create your own unique website. Top Build Your Unique Website...YourselfHaving built this site using SBI, I completely agree with Joanna's comments.In all honesty, my first site was a more unique website than this one. As regards this, my second site, it succeeds at what it was intended to do—attract visitors.  Statistically, in its first 2 weeks, it attracted more website visitors than my first site did in an entire year. Check it out for yourself: learn how Site Build It! can help you build a unique website...and all the other great benefits the program offers. Top Content is King When visitors arrive at your site, they are looking for information. Perhaps it's information about homes in your market...or maybe it is information about you and how you can help them. By providing the kind of information your visitors are seeking, you satisfy visitors and as a result pre-qualify yourself or pre-selling your services. Ideally when your web content satisfies visitors they will be sufficiently interested in learning more about how you can help them that they wil contact you. Of course, once prospects contact you, you wil provide them with what ever additional information they need and hopefully convert them to clients. There are 5 key elements to preparing visitor-satisfying content. By incorporating these elements into your content, you will have a truly unique website that satisfies more visitors and attracts more prospects. To Learn More...Real Estate Marketing BlogsTips for Real Estate Website Home PagesThis blog by Kathleen Allardyce, founder of Build Real Estate Results and Getting It Write, Inc. tells you what you need and don't need on your home page. If you would like some help in developing your own website, I'd be happy to coach you through the process. Top
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On the one
hand, it makes sense for
companies such as RE/MAX, Century 21, Prudential and other large real
estate organizations to build corporate websites. 
