Websites

If you are thinking of a website or upgrading your existing one please visit my demo site at www.mikeblaney.com.

Ubertor websites are the most cost-effective way for small businesses and Realtors to have a professional and effective internet presence….without breaking the bank. Realtors pay as little as $ 37.00 a month with no contract to sign and commercial websites are only $ 9.99 a month.

As an Approved Vendor for Ubertor I am excited to extend a special offer that makes your decision even easier; the first 4 months for $ 1.00. Click here to register your website using my vendor code and let me know when you want to get started. Fantastic websites start at as little as $ 150.00. No really.

For existing Ubertor users I have compiled this list of 12 great enhancements and upgrades to update your website and attract more visitors.

1. Update to the new modern looking, easier to navigate, full screen template like this one you are looking at in the light red theme. Other colors such as blue, green and gold are available) The biggest difference you will see right away is the size of the listing photos. Click here to see the actual size difference. It will impress both the vendor and the buyer.
2. Add the Featured Listings widget to the home page (Click here and look on the right) This is a $ 295.00 value that I can offer as part of my basic package.
3. Activate the Active Listings Map (Click here) This is a great way for people to pinpoint where your listings are.
4. Add a Twitter Widget to the home page (Click here and look on the left) If you are not on Twitter I can explain the pros and cons help you sign up if you are interested.
5. Add the SEO package for anyone at the $ 55.00 or $ 77.00 level (no charge for the option, but there is a fee to optimize your website) This allows you to customize the page title with a keyword phrase and a unique title for each page which appears as a more compelling sentence in the blue link on Google. You can also set your meta keywords, meta description (shows in Google as black text) and page description which is used for the site map.
6. Add flash banners (Click here for a good commercial application of flash banners or go to my website to see samples of exciting new banners you can add to your website) If you are upgrading from an old style Ubertor website we can add new banners or upgrade your existing ones. Click here for a few samples.
7. Add custom Status and Badges (Click here and see the badge that reads “Incredible Investment”) There is a limit to the number of characters, but the font color and background can be customized.
8. Add a custom tab to your listings to highlight features or important information (Click here for a Special Features sample complete with photos)
9. Update your home page with search engine friendly content with outbound links. My home page is an example of one that is informative, is sprinkled with keywords and has links to other websites; all things that search engines look for. You need to write about yourself, the areas you work on, the types of homes  in the area and anything else related to real estate. This is what the search engines look for.
10. Start blogging with relevant content to attract buyers and sellers. Don’t believe me? Type a search on Google with the words “Ambleside open house” and I bet at least 9 out of the 10 results will lead back to an Ubertor blog. Ubertor blogs are MAGNETS for search engines and if you do not have the time or inclination and want to improve your search engine rankings then you can hire us. We have a number of “ghost blogging” options available that will get results. Check out our Guest Blogging Service
11. Add photographs to your website. By adding photographs with descriptive “alt tags” your website will be more interesting and the description gets indexed by search engines for image searches. If someone is looking for an image of your city they might be planning to move there! We have a library of pictures that we can use on your website or we can locate the right ones for you.
12. Add relevant content that search engines can index and will result in the right people finding your website. If you are stumped then let us do it for you. Typically we can add a page of content for as little as $ 45.00 per page. Examples are Important Community Numbers, Top 10 Lists for Buyers, Schedule of Events for your area, Community Information (with lots of outbound links), Checklists etc

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Have You Seen The New Template From Ubertor? Click here to see my new website using the light blue theme.

Ubertor has recently announced the availability of a new template that screams WEB 2.0!

Click for a larger image

It is a widescreen template with an excellent menu layout, 3 columns, customizable and comes in 14 different color combinations. (click here to see the blue samples)

As an Approved Ubertor Vendor I want you to be one of the first to learn about the new template that will supercharge your website…without breaking the bank or if it is your first website you
will probably never have to upgrade again.

Take a look at my sample website which features some of the enhancements including an optional flash banner which really catches the readers eye. The first thing you will notice is the full screen width, enhanced menu bar and 3 column layout.

The new template is modern looking, easier to navigate, full screen and displays information more effectively.

While an existing Ubertor user can upgrade to the new template just by going to Set-up – Template and choose “Ubertor Top Widescreen Beta” there is one small catch and that is your existing banners are too narrow for the new look. That is where I come in. I have dozens of banners you can choose from, some of which you can see by clicking here or I can modify your existing banner to work with the wider template. Click here for examples.

On a more technical note the home page can now be customized with a number of embedded widgets or small programs such as:

• Search Site
• Agent Info (Business Card)
• Blog Items
• Custom HTML
• Page Content
• Listing Category
• Single Specific Listing
• Fetch content from external URL
• Featured Listings

What does an upgrade cost for an existing user?
My fee for a typical upgrade is in the range of $ 75.00 to $225.00 depending on the number of banners that need to be modified. The low range assumes one banner. It also depends on the number of widgets (see above) you want to add to the home page.  It might be a good time to have me update other things on your website to make it more search engine friendly.

How long does it take?
Typically by the next day the new template is fully operational.

Does everything I have work with the new template?
Yes the template has been fully tested.

How do I get started?
1. Pick a color.
2. Give some consideration to the banner or banners you would like.
3. Call me at 604-618-5512 or 800-568-8338 or send me an email.

What else can I add?
Ubertor has announced custom badges for your listing photos. See an example by clicking here where it says Incredible Investment across the listing picture. I can also offer at no charge the Featured Listing option which is normally a $ 295.00 one-time charge. This alone pays for the new website.

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At the next Real Estate Technology Meetup I will be delivering what I plan to be a fast and lively presentation touching on a wide range of marketing tips for Realtors and I guarantee everyone will walk away with something that will help their marketing.

You will not only learn about dozens of cool tools, tips and techniques to help you in all aspects of your business, but you will also learn how to apply them to increase your business and save time and money.

The focus of the presentation will be on the 4 R?s and the 1 P of Realtor marketing. Prospecting, client Retention, client Referrals, Repeat client business and client Reactivation.

We will cover marketing tips related to branding, print advertising, online advertising, database marketing, social networking, email marketing, blogging, websites and web tools.
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As a marketing guy I get asked by Realtors and business owners about web sites every day. Depending on their technical capabilities and their marketing plan I generally recommend using a template with built-in content management to not only keep costs down, but to control their destiny.

If you are interested in a web site call me, Mike Blaney, at 604-618-5512 in Vancouver or toll free at 800-568-8338. You can also email me at marketingguy@shaw.ca. I can usually have a web site up and running in a few days complete with content for between $ 250 and $ 500 and if you choose the Ubertor option I can offer you up to 4 months at no charge!

I have recommended Ubertor to many clients and created web sites on behalf of many more clients such as Leslie Sutton, Annie Harkins, DiAnn Sleeman a mortgage broker and Clive Benjafield and Steve Mitchell to showcase a few and have always felt comfortable recommending the company because thousands of Realtors and businesses can’t be wrong!

Well it just got a whole lot easier to recommend Ubertor with their announcement today that they are offering a 30 day free trial and they are going to waive their set-up fees.

So if you are a small business and have always wanted a web site you can sign up for their Lite Plan and be operational almost immediately. The total cost is only $ 9.99 per month or I think $ 99.00 per year.

For Realtors you have the choice of their Basic, Premium or Plus plans with the primary difference being the number of active listings and the ability to have an additional agent, ability to customize the pages and the number of pages. You can switch from one plan to another without penalty so it doesn’t matter if you choose the wrong one.

Want to take your website to the next level? On the Ubertor Premium Plan you will have access and control over the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) that control the look and feel of your website. With a CSS programmer and the Ubertor Premium Plan you can completely
customize your website in the way that you want.

If you have time I would strongly recommend the Ubertor Blog as the latest in Realtor technology is featured there.

Following are a number of great tips that apply to any website that I have gleaned from a number of sources including the excellent blog at Ubertor, a leading website company that I work with on behalf of my clients:

Content Suggestions for Your Website

1. Get rid of all canned content and take the time to write your own text in its place
2. Write a good biography that talks about you, your education, past employment, places you’ve lived…
3. Include home page content that contains your full name, company name, neighbourhoods you work, phone number, etc
4. Add video about yourself
5. Get testimonials from clients, be sure to include their full names as it adds more credibility to the testimonial
6. Make your cell phone and email address known, have them on every page
7. Add a page to your website for each neighbourhood that you specialize in
8. Add links to products and services that you recommend
9. People love stats, keep your visitors up to date with market stats and conditions
10. Ensure that your full contact info are on your contact page (name, mailing address, phone, company name, fax, etc)
11. Add some photos of you and your clients, family, city…
12. Add neighbourhood videos that depict areas you work in
13. Discuss groups, boards, volunteer activity, meetups, classes that you participate in
14. Write quality content on your buyers and sellers pages to entice your website visitors to give you their contact information
15. Add a privacy policy

Listing Content

1. Add as many photos to your listings as you can
2. Add a feature listing to your home page, be sure to change it every few weeks
3. Add your sold listings to your site
4. Add property searches

Marketing Your Listings

1. Use Craigslist, Trulia, Zillow, Google Base, Kijiji etc to gain exposure to your listing and your website
2. Add a unique domain to promote your listings (its a great way to make the owner feel special – plus you could give the domain to whoever buys the home as a unique gift)

Blog

1. Add a blog: write about you, your business, your expertise, your area, etc
2. Subscribe your blog’s rss feed to feedburner.com
3. Add the feedburner email newsletter option that will email your subscribes your blog posts – for free
4. Get some blog interviews from interesting personalities (makes for good reading and adds more “stickiness” to your website
5. Answer common questions that you are asked right in your blog

Search Engine and SEO

1. Use Google Analytics to track your traffic
2. Update your title tags to be descriptive for each page of your website
3. Register a easy to remember domain name and point it to your website
4. Pay attention your listing description (for example: adding “Good-value” sells for 5% less than average)

Technology

1. Add Meebo to your site so that you can chat with your visitors
2. Use Google Maps to promote your listing
3. Subscribe your website to Google Sitemaps to ensure that Google is up to speed on your website’s activity

Marketing Your Website

1. Add your website URL to your email signature
2. Send out a press release announcing your new website
3. Don’t add banner or link advertising
4. No listings? Add your services to the “real estate services” section of craigslist.org (be sure to hyperlink to your site)
5. Make sure your companies website, your mls and any other site you have a profile on is linking to your website
6. Add a rentals section to your website and let your clients know you will help them rent