Real Estate Marketing

The Genesis of Real Efforts

About a month ago, I realized that although I have learned a tremendous amount about the internet over the past 8 years and helped a number of clients to online success,  I myself have not made enough money to continue this endevour, raise a family as the primary bread winner and live in Southern California.

Although I came to this decision with a bit of a heavy heart, I knew it was the right decision and as always, I won’t regret the decision. 

The decision did not come quickly. After some unfortunate decisions which I made back in the fall of 2007, it was clear that I needed a new direction. As such, I began making sure that the clients which I had taken on over the years which were not in the real estate industry were properly taken care of. This process took about 3 months and in January of this year, I began the full time search for an opportunity were I could implement my newly developed skills.  Over the course of January and Febraury, I interviewed for a number of very interesting positions, but for one reason or another did not get the position. 

During this process however, many people asked me what I had done over the past few years and what skills I would bring to the new position. This got me thinking and made me realize that although the company Site Tutor was a Search Engine Friendly Design and Development company,  my strenghs came from my acquired knowledge base of learning about Hosting, Web Coding, Databases , Online Marketing and specifically Search Engine Optimization. 

As I thought about this more and more, I realized that not only did I need to focus my effortts on one industry, but I needed to consolidate my efforts and brand myself as a true “Internet Marketing Consulant”.  In addition, while I enjoyed working with small companies and individuals who are just learning, their budgets did not support my efforts to support my family.   

So I made a decision which I beleive will take me about a 12 months to implement.  More Tomorrow.

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Screenshots Received

I received the initial design mock-ups from the designer. Take a look below to see links to the various deisgns. The next step is to choose a base design and make any changes to the design. Once you have made the changes to the base design of the website, the developer is then ready to develop the website.

http://www.secondplatform.com/client/sitetutor/perfectpropertywebsites-home1–5-3-2k8.jpg

http://www.secondplatform.com/client/sitetutor/perfectpropertywebsites-home2–5-3-2k8.jpg

http://www.secondplatform.com/client/sitetutor/perfectpropertywebsites-home3–5-3-2k8.jpg

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Website Design Screenshots

Once you have chosen a winning logo from your logo contest, you now need to choose a designer / and developer for the website. This part is very tricky because in general, designers are not good developers and developers are not good designers.

Over the years I have run into only 2 good designers whom are also good developers. They are not programmers, meaning they don’t create database driven websites, but great designers who also know how to build search engine friendly websites in HTML, ASP or PHP. The individuals whom I have worked with in the past whom I would recommend are listed below

Shannon Fermainian - Second Platform Web Design

Victor Spindler - Internet Ideals Web Design

If you have individuals you are interested in working with, make sure they have the following skills:

• Website Design and Navigation Skills (Different than print design or logo design etc..)
• Use Includes Files in the development of the website. This makes it easier for updating in the future.

OK, so you chose your designer. The next step is to provide them with a website outline so they can create a screen shot design for you to review. The outline should include the following:

• The color palette of the colors you want to use. This will come from the logo or you can also use a color chart. The color chart I have used in the past are located here….Color Charts

• The information you want in the header. This is important because the header is the same on each page.
• What type of Navigation you want to use. Horizontal Navigation, Vertical Navigation or Both.
• Layout of the content area: 1 column, 2 columns or 3 columns.
• What information you want in the footer located on the bottom of the page.
• A sitemap of all the major pages being developed for the website. The sitemap is a list of all the pages on the website, but for a developer / designer, it is the blueprint for the website, just like blueprints are used to build a house.

Once the designer has this information, they can then use their creative genius to create a design of the Home Page of the website.  In  regard to Perfect Property Websites, I will be using designs from Second Platform Designs.  I will post the mock-ups so that you can see the various choices.

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