Poor Webmaster Personal Sites

[Stephen Horrillo]

Then you have not been around much.


See URL below. And we make enough so that our income is well above the US
average.

So you're telling me you don't spend money to get people to come to your
site? Your "above average" income is coming mainly from customers searching
the web, finding you then buying Solar?

BTW, I used to be a solar contractor and sold thermal solar for many years
before I got into real estate and my cheesy site at
http://www.angelfire.com/alt/solarwaterheaters/ still occationally gets
enquiries to this day.


--
Warmest regards,

Stephen Horrillo, Realtor / C.Ht.
For MLS & Computer Training: http://www.BrokerAgentTraining.com
Realtors Earn Over 100% at EXIT: http://www.over100percent.com

 

[John Bokma]

I've used Camtasia and that gives me the choice to use Flash or AVI
which can be converted into many other file formats. What makes Flash
better than a movie file?

Flash can contain vector graphics, which can compress way better compared
to AVI. For example, most cartoons could be compressed way and way better
using their original vector format compared to rendering and then
compressing them (and without those ugly artifacts that result from the
aformentioned compressing).

Also, a movement in a vector movie can be just a simple
rotation/translation/etc. E.g. a spinning rectangle can be:

draw a rectangle at 0,0, width 100, height 200, colour yellow
rotate 1 degree
rotate 1 degree
rotate 1 degree
etc.

 

[Windsun]

That is true. For the first time in years, today I turned off Flash.

Odd isn't it, that advertising to get around pop up blockers may be what
kills Flash as a viable website medium.
[/QUOTE]

 

[Windsun]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So you're telling me you don't spend money to get people to come to your
site? Your "above average" income is coming mainly from customers
searching
the web, finding you then buying Solar?

Yes, that is exactly what I am telling you. We spend maybe at most $1000 a
month for advertising, mainly on Google and Overture ads. And we are in the
process of cutting that back now also to about half or less, as we are too
swamped and running low on product. We spend zero on print ads, except once
a year for yellow pages and about $50 6x a year in one specialty magazine.

We started as a B&M store 25 years ago, now about 80%+ of our sales are from
the internet.

 

[Stephen Horrillo]

Yes, that is exactly what I am telling you. We spend maybe at most $1000 a

month for advertising, mainly on Google and Overture ads. And we are in
the
process of cutting that back now also to about half or less, as we are too

swamped and running low on product. We spend zero on print ads, except
once
a year for yellow pages and about $50 6x a year in one specialty magazine.

We started as a B&M store 25 years ago, now about 80%+ of our sales are
from
the internet.

Well, there you go. You're spending over $1000 a month. What sort of return
did you get before you spent anything?

--
Warmest regards,

Stephen Horrillo, Realtor / C.Ht.
For MLS & Computer Training: http://www.BrokerAgentTraining.com
Realtors Earn Over 100% at EXIT: http://www.over100percent.com

 

[Windsun]

Well, actually, the ads seem to have made little difference. In fact, I just
got off the phone with my partner, and we are seriously considering dropping
the PPC ads to some token amount, like $10 a month, since the return seems
so low on most.

95% of our sales come from organic searches. We have been selling - and
making money - on the internet since 1997. We never used any ads at all
until about 15 months ago. Up until Jan 2004 our total advertising spending
for all formats was under $50 a month.
[/QUOTE]

 

[Stephen Horrillo]

95% of our sales come from organic searches. We have been selling - and
making money - on the internet since 1997. We never used any ads at all
until about 15 months ago. Up until Jan 2004 our total advertising
spending
for all formats was under $50 a month.

Well then that gives me hope. Thank you.

--
Warmest regards,

Stephen Horrillo, Realtor / C.Ht.
For MLS & Computer Training: http://www.BrokerAgentTraining.com
Realtors Earn Over 100% at EXIT: http://www.over100percent.com

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Being that Microsoft is the standard

Dammit! I must've missed another RFC. And I can't seem to find The
Microsoft Standard anywhere at W3C. Apparently there is A Seekrit
Kover-Up going on.

 

[Ben Jamieson]

I've used Camtasia and that gives me the choice to use Flash or AVI which
can be converted into many other file formats. What makes Flash better than
a movie file?

Interactivity. Both from a user perspective and a backend perspective.

Ever seen an AVI that queries a databases and generates new frames from
the result when you click on a certain area?

You can do this to a limited extent with quicktime, but nothing beats
flash for building web based rich applications. You can remove the
limitations of HTML/XHTML completely, providing a level of
functionality and interactivity you cannot create in any other medium.
Combined with a back end database and/or XML, Flash becomes an
incredibly powerful tool.

Admittedly, much flash content on the web is purely for looks. I built
my own company site in flash (with a fully valid XHTML/CSS version of
course) to showcase what I *can* do, not what is necessarily right for
all my clients, and in fact, I usually recommend my clients stay away
from it as it *isn't* right for their business. However, the site I
built includes animation, interactivity and pulls every single peice of
text from a back end CMS - none of which can be done with a movie
file....

Now, as for those silly "flash intro's", the 'developers' who create
those are the scourge of the web development industry....

Just my thoughts as always

Ben

 

[Ben Jamieson]

One thing for sure I've never met a Realtor
who's ever had a site that pulled it's own weight never mind made a profit
for them, and I know A LOT of Realtors.

I've actually built a site for one Realty company in my native location
that *saves* them around US$150K a year in internal software costs
alone - its allowed them to dump all their proprietary MLS systems,
contact managers and the associated annual licence fees that go with
them for over 40 seats.

The initial set up of the site cost 1/3 of this, and the ongoing annual
investment is a fraction. Therefore, they're making at *least* $120K a
year extra profit from their website.

They have also generated numerous leads that led to sales of multi
million odllar properties. These leads would not have existed without
their website.

For most[1] businesses, their web strategy is primarily about *saving*
money, not generating money. If their chosen web developer knows
his/her business, and business in general, this is how they should be
guiding their clients.Guidance like this breeds incredible client
loyalty.

As always, blah blah...

Ben


[1] Porn, pharmacies, casinos, low-cost-mortgage-financing.coms etc do
not apply!

 

[Stephen Horrillo]

They have also generated numerous leads that led to sales of multi
million odllar properties. These leads would not have existed without
their website.

I wonder if you're taking credit where it may not be due. If they are paying
for advertising to get people to come to the website then the leads would
have existed without the website. If they simply put their phone number and
email address on the advertising they would have gotten the leads anyway.
The people would have just been forced to call instead. If that's not the
case then you must be real good or there's something your leaving out. I've
known hundreds of Realtors who all have websites that aren't producing any
leads to speak of even though they were told it would. It goes back to my
original question. Are they buying visitors or are the prospects coming
*because* of your website creation and SEO skills? What's their url? I'd
love to see a site that directly makes money for Realtors.
--
Warmest regards,

Stephen Horrillo, Realtor / C.Ht.
For MLS & Computer Training: http://www.BrokerAgentTraining.com
Realtors Earn Over 100% at EXIT: http://www.over100percent.com

 

[Stephen Horrillo]

I've actually built a site for one Realty company in my native location
that *saves* them around US$150K a year in internal software costs
alone - its allowed them to dump all their proprietary MLS systems,
contact managers and the associated annual licence fees that go with
them for over 40 seats.

I've never heard of a 40 seat Realty company that spends 150 K on software.
Where I'm from there's no getting around fees to use the MLS and very good
software comes with the annual dues (about $800 a year for the broker). For
$17.5 a month the software becomes a contact manager and a whole lot more.

What's their url?

--
Warmest regards,

Stephen Horrillo, Realtor / C.Ht.
For MLS & Computer Training: http://www.BrokerAgentTraining.com
Realtors Earn Over 100% at EXIT: http://www.over100percent.com

 

[Windsun]

I came across a site for a large company (Fortune 500) a few days ago that
had one of those flash intros. I am on a fast DSL and it seemed to take a
long time, so I used one of those site checker websites that tells you how
long it will take to download.

7 min 43 sec on a 56k modem.

Now that is just stoopid.

 

[Stephen Horrillo]

I built
my own company site in flash (with a fully valid XHTML/CSS version of
course) to showcase what I *can* do,

What's the url?

--
Warmest regards,

Stephen Horrillo, Realtor / C.Ht.
For MLS & Computer Training: http://www.BrokerAgentTraining.com
Realtors Earn Over 100% at EXIT: http://www.over100percent.com

 

[sprattoo]

Nooooo more blue web sites

Im blue la ba dee la ba DIE

wait... dammit my site is predominantly blue!!!!!!
I am a microsoft monster

 

[sprattoo]

It might work... like you may be able to function while the big-ol file is
downloading. but a couple of things come to my mind (mind you im a novice
myself)

Why would you want to suck up your bandwidth having every visitor on the
site D/l a monster file? The site might function while the D/L happens...
but who cares? I would rather have an MP3 file d/l or a higher quality
stream d/l to preview the music and you could do that with a link / file
size as was suggested. The user could opt for a low bandwidth or high pass
sample.

also the other thing that struck me was it looks like all the band images
are from one photo shoot... or from one picture. Doesn't the band set up to
play anywhere other than in front of a fake brick wall with tepestry in the
church? If the message to to make a christian rock band look cool and in
touch with the youth and getting their message across..... It would be my
intent to have the band look and work like the youth they want to connect
with. It looks like the band is trying to gain the acceptance of the over 60
crowd.
I.E. when I look at a band members pic...wheres the personal up close images
of these people on the streets? at the beach? The more successful christian
rock bands (even though just typing those words makes me cringe)
de-emphasized the christian and accentuated rock band. Grab some pix of the
band playing out, do individual photo shoots. I know hot chix go to
church... (sometimes). hehehe. Theres no religious rule against the band
members looking hot, saleable and desirable.


_______________________________
Everything from fishing to Freaks
www.sprattoo.com
_______________________________

 

[Charles Sweeney]

Gosh, this is a busy thread.

 

[William Tasso]

Gosh, this is a busy thread.

it's all these poor webmasters with personal sites.

 

[Charles Sweeney]

This must be a record, 359 posts, and still ON topic!