You are here: Home / Archives for How-To Guides / Building a Website

Monday Q&A: What is a “One Click WordPress Install”? [Video]

February 15, 2010 by · Leave a Comment

We’re pretty big fans of WordPress around here. It’s such an easy to use, free content management system for your website with a plug-in system that lets you add totally new functionality to your site within minutes.

Question:

“What is a “One Click WordPress Install”?”

Answer:

Part of what makes WordPress so popular is its famous “one click install” which can be done using your web host’s control panel. In the video below, Eric Bramlett walks you through how to install WordPress in one-click using Dreamhost:

Tip: OnlineRealEstate101.com readers can save 20% off a yearly hosting plan with Dreamhost by using promo code ORE20OFF.

Photo Credit: swruler9284

This post contains affiliate links. Find out why we use affiliate links by clicking here.

Filed Under: Building a Website, How-To Guides, Media, Monday Q&A, Video, Website Tips, WordPress · Tagged With: , , , ,

Site Building 101: Selecting a Real Estate Search Vendor

February 3, 2010 by · 3 Comments

This article is part four of a five part series on building a real estate website with WordPress. You can view the rest of the series by visiting our guide at the bottom of this post.

You have one goal when building your real estate site: to generate leads. Converting web visitors into leads is the single most important function of your website because that’s the only way you can make sales so, when compared to everything else, visitor to lead conversion is paramount.

I can’t stress the importance of this enough because your website’s biggest lead generator, by far, will be your real estate search powered by the vendor of your choice. What can you do to maximize the lead generation potential of your search? Read on…

The Five Questions That Will Save You Hundreds Of Dollars

There are a ton of real estate search vendors out there. Before making a choice ask yourself these five questions about each vendor:

  1. Does their search product load fast? – Visitors don’t wait to view results. If it doesn’t load quickly your prospects will happily click away to a competitor who sprung for the fast loading search.
  2. Is the search interface easy to use? - If you can’t tell ask someone who is completely unfamiliar with computers to use each search to locate a home for sale in a specific area.
  3. Are there any fail-safes built into the system? - What happens if your particular search page stops loading or, even worse, fails to update the list of homes for sale on your site each day. Will your vendor know that their search has failed or will you have to discover it first?
  4. How easy is it to integrate their search into my website? - Does the search vendor offer multiple preset page widths that you can easily integrate into your website? Are there any search plug-ins available for popular website management platforms like WordPress to make integrating their search into your site easier? Finding a search is half the battle. Making it look classy and designed to fit your website’s style is the other half.
  5. Is there any way to edit my listings on a map or change incorrect address information? – As a new construction specialist this irks me to no end. When properties are new they don’t appear on Google Maps or other mapping services for a few years. In the mean time, you need to make sure you are accurately showcasing your listings including attributes like location on a map and correct city name. Sometimes mapping services will just find the closest address to the street name of your new homes even if it’s in an entirely different city.

My Search Vendor Recommendations and Experience Points

I have personally used two real estate search vendors: iHouseWeb (2007-2008) and Diverse Solutions (December 2008 – present) on HouseMeetsOwner.com. In my experience iHouseWeb was okay (just okay) but their real estate search was pretty slow. On the plus side, their customer service was decent and they upgraded their service to 3.0 shortly before I cancelled my subscription and moved over to Diverse Solutions.

Although I still use Diverse Solutions now it was a rocky road throughout my first year with them because point #3 above, built-in fail-safes, is a lesson I learned while using their search product. I ended up discovering my search hadn’t been updated since late June 2009 at the end of August 2009. It then took another week and a half just to get it fixed.

In 2003-2006 it might not have been that big of a deal that their search product hadn’t updated my database of homes for sale in months because prices were on the rise and buyers were plentiful. In 2009, however, when we were seeing double-digit price drops year-over-year practically every month, it was a crippling blow to my business.

That said, I do still recommend Diverse Solutions for two reasons: as of this writing there isn’t a better real estate search solution out there and DS’ product has been working quite well for me since they fixed it in September ’09. It seems they have also worked on improving customer support (one of their major drawbacks in my experience) in the Fall of 2009.

Update 2/28/2010: Diverse Solutions’ IDX failed to update listings on my website, HouseMeetsOwner.com, for the past 18 days which has gone unnoticed by myself and the DS staff. Because this type of failure can have a major impact on your business I have removed DS from my recommended list below.

So, Who Do You Recommend?

Play with every search product out there and choose the one you are happiest with. Here are a few good places to start:

If you enjoyed this post be sure to check out the rest of our Site Building 101 series below:

Site Building 101 Series:

1. Introduction to Building Your Real Estate Website With WordPress (Includes Cost Summary!)

2. Choosing a Domain Name and Web Hosting

3. Designing Your Website

4. You’re here!

5. How to Build an Email Drip Campaign

Filed Under: Building a Website, How-To Guides, IDX, Lead Generation, Marketing, Technology, Website Tips · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Site Building 101: Designing Your Website

January 29, 2010 by · 3 Comments

This article is part three of a five part series on building a real estate website with WordPress. You can view the rest of the series by visiting the guide at the bottom of this post.

The design process is the most exciting part about building a new website. Whether you go with a free, premium or custom theme (website design), your design options are virtually limitless with WordPress. We’re going to review the pros and cons of all three aforementioned options and how/when they should be used on a real estate website.

Free WordPress Themes: No Cost

The best, most trustworthy place to find free WordPress themes are at WordPress.org’s free theme repository. Another excellent resource can be found at Smashing Magazine where they frequently offer high quality WordPress themes for free.

Pros: The themes are free, some rival premium themes in quality.

Cons: Very limited selection for business users like real estate agents. Little to no support offered if you run into problems with a theme. Many free themes require that you leave the footer links (links at the bottom of the website) intact to promote the company that created the theme for free.

Premium WordPress Themes: $60 – $100

Premium themes strike the perfect balance of being inexpensive while still maintaining the high quality standards of a custom WordPress theme. There are a growing number of niche real estate themes being offered by WordPress developers like AgentPress, Gorilla Themes’ Broker, Open House and Smooth Real Estate and Agent Theme by StudioPress.

Pros: Nominal cost for a high quality WordPress theme (many with options tailored towards real estate agents) that offers web-based support to help you get up and running. Most theme licenses allow you to remove footer links making your website look much more professional. Multiple color schemes in some themes helps keep your website looking unique.

Cons: Minimal cost for a theme could lead to other agents in your marketplace using the same design for their website. Some premium themes still require more customization after purchase to make it match your brand/style.

Custom WordPress Themes: $2,000+

Custom WordPress themes are the crème de la crème of website design. Most agents and independent brokerages would be wise to start off with a premium theme and build out your web presence first before pursuing a custom website. Medium to large brokerages and top producers who insist on one-of-a-kind branding and website styling are better suited to custom design.

Pros: Totally unique website design which is great for brand identity. Custom features can be added to your site like an integrated listing search system and enhanced photo galleries for your listings.

Cons: Significantly more expensive than a do-it yourself premium theme. May come with pricey monthly or yearly maintenance costs.

If a custom website design sounds ideal check out Real Estate Webmasters and Dakno. Both are leading real estate website design firms used by top agents like Jim Olenbush and Kevin Tomlinson.

For brokers and agents who love the cost of premium themes but want a more custom look for their site there is a hybrid option: purchase a premium WordPress theme and then hire a designer to modify it to your specifications.

You really can’t go wrong with a premium WordPress theme or, if your budget allows, a custom website. Once you decide on which path to take there are a couple tips to keep in mind:

1. Use caution with free themes. - Most free themes aren’t really sufficient for use on a business website. This is mostly because free themes tend to be poorly designed or offer little to no support. I would only recommend using a free WordPress theme if it’s of very high quality and is from a trustworthy source (WordPress.org).

2. Know what you’re getting BEFORE you buy. - Find out how the product/service provider will answer your support questions before purchasing their product. Also, don’t be afraid to spend an inordinate amount of time playing with a theme to make sure it’s the right design for you.

If you enjoyed this post be sure to check out the rest of our Site Building 101 series below:

Site Building 101 Series:

1. Introduction to Building Your Real Estate Website With WordPress (Includes Cost Summary!)

2. Choosing a Domain Name and Web Hosting

3. You’re here!

4. Selecting a Great Real Estate Search Vendor

5. How to Build an Email Drip Campaign

Photo Credit: Torley

This post contains affiliate links. Find out why we use affiliate links by clicking here.

Filed Under: Building a Website, How-To Guides, Premium Themes, Technology, Website Tips, WordPress · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Site Building 101: Choosing a Domain and Web Hosting

January 27, 2010 by · 11 Comments

This article is part two of a five part series on building a real estate website with WordPress. You can view the rest of the series by visiting the guide at the bottom of this post.

Today we’re going to touch on the two most important parts of a website: its domain name (i.e. www.yoursite.com) and the web host you choose to deliver your site to visitors.

Domain Name

Your domain name represents your business brand so the bulk of your time building a website should be spent deciding on what you want your domain name to be and what kind of content you’re going to have on your site. Most obvious domain name choices (i.e. MadisonWIrealestate.com) will be taken already so you’re going to have to get creative. Here are three tips to help you create a memorable domain name:

1. Make sure your domain name is short and easy to remember. - When I created my first real estate site it was http://www.realestateinthenycsuburbs.com. Wha? Exactly. Too wordy and not easy to remember. Although a bit more abstract, http://www.housemeetsowner.com is shorter and much easier to remember. It also builds helps build my brand should I ever opt to create an independent brokerage.

2. Don’t use your name or something that can’t be sold in the future. - This is a personal preference but I think it’s short sighted to build a web presence using yourname.com. If you ever wanted to sell or lease your real estate business/assets in the future it’ll be very hard to rebrand your site from yourname.com to the new owner’s name.

I like Sue Adler’s approach to her newest site, http://www.njexperts.com, because it has a lot of flexibility and can be resold to any brokerage/agent in the state of NJ should she relocate in the future.

3. Skip connector words that are easy to leave out and hyphens (example: in, the, and). - When you compare www.realestateinthenycsuburbs.com to www.housemeetsowner.com you can see how memorability changes between the two. The connector words like “in the” aren’t as easily remembered and more apt to be left out. Ideal domain names are three to four words, maximum.

Where to register domain names: I have a strong preference for GoDaddy.com when it comes to domain purchasing and management for two reasons: GoDaddy is one of the leading domain registrars in the world so you know they’re trustworthy and they have a user friendly interface to manage your domain names. All of my domains are registered and managed through GoDaddy.com.

Web Hosting

Choosing a web host, the company that serves your website to visitors when they visit your domain name, is the most important part of building your website. A reliable web host will ensure your website is up and running 99.9% of the time meaning you maximize the potential of converting visitors to leads.

Not all web hosts are created equally. I moved from three previous hosting companies before finally settling at Dreamhost which I’m quite satisfied with.

The top three things to look for in a web host are:

1. Excellent uptime and reliability (99.9% minimum).

2. Even better customer service. – Send in a few questions to the sales department via email and see how long they take to respond. This is a better way of gauging customer service because Googling reviews of hosting companies tends to lead to unscrupulous affiliate websites with fake reviews and recommendations.

3. Easy to use control panel. – Most hosting companies use cPanel which is pretty decent. Dreamhost has a custom control panel that I find to be a bit nicer and easier to use when it comes to things like one-click WordPress installs and creating website email accounts.

All of the popular hosting companies offer some type of unlimited hosting or similar that’ll suit the needs of most real estate sites.

Hosting Recommendations

GoDaddy.com - I’ve used GoDaddy in the past and their hosting is a great value at $5.59/month but their server PHP was still at 4.3 while every other host used PHP 5 and I didn’t love their customer support as a more advanced user. If you don’t know or care about PHP then GoDaddy should be fine.

GoDaddy is the best choice for absolute beginners because you won’t have to change your website’s name servers and you can manage your website all from GoDaddy’s control panel. You can get a 1-year domain registration for $1.99 if you buy it with a GoDaddy hosting plan.

Dreamhost - Dreamhost is my favorite web host because their customer support is amazing (most hosting companies won’t advise you on issues with WordPress, Dreamhost will) and they have the best dashboard for website management. Combine their excellent customer support with frequently updated servers and a nice dashboard and you can see why I prefer the service. Dreamhost web hosting starts at $5.95/month.

Money Saving Tip: OnlineRealEstate101.com readers can save 20% off a yearly hosting plan with Dreamhost by using promo code ORE20OFF.

Click here to learn more about Dreamhost.

If you enjoyed this post be sure to check out the rest of our Site Building 101 series below:

Site Building 101 Series:

1. Introduction to Building Your Real Estate Website With WordPress (Includes Cost Summary!)

2. You’re here!

3. Designing Your Website

4. Selecting a Great Real Estate Search Vendor

5. How to Build an Email Drip Campaign

Photo Credit: Jamison_Judd

This post contains affiliate links. Find out why we use affiliate links by clicking here.

Filed Under: Building a Website, How-To Guides, Technology, Website Tips · Tagged With: , , , , ,

Monday Q&A: How Much Does It Cost To Build a Real Estate Site With WordPress?

January 25, 2010 by · 7 Comments

Today’s Q&A launches our first post series: Site Building 101. The five part series (including this article) runs through the basics of building a site using WordPress including choosing a domain name and web hosting, designing your website, selecting a great real estate search vendor and creating an email drip campaign.

Question:

“How much does it cost to build a real estate website with WordPress?”

Answer:

When building a website for real estate you have two types of cost: fixed and variable.

Your fixed costs are:

  • Domain Name (i.e. yoursite.com)
  • Website Hosting (Serves your website to people who visit your domain name)
  • Email Drip Campaign Marketing Service
  • Real Estate Search Vendor

Your variable costs are:

  • Website Design and Maintenance (varies by skill level)
  • Website Marketing and SEO

Eventually your website hosting and email marketing service might become variable costs after you reach a certain growth point and need to move up to more expensive plans. For a brand new site or one that doesn’t get 30,000+ visitors per month the upcoming hosting plans will be perfect.

So, how much does it all cost?

Domain Name – $10.69 or $1.99 with hosting at GoDaddy.com

Website Hosting – $5.59/month at GoDaddy.com to $8.95/month at Dreamhost (we use Dreamhost for ORE101).

Website Design - Premium WordPress Theme – $60 to $100

Email Marketing Company – $19/month at Aweber

Real Estate Search Vendor – $25/month to $60/month+

Total Cost For First Year - $670 – $1,166

For first time website creators that might seem like a bit much. The bulk of your cost is going to come from having a real estate search (aka IDX) on your website but that’s also going to be your biggest lead generator so it’s absolutely necessary.

Also, when compared to a custom website, which typically run $5,000 – $10,000, a WordPress site is an inexpensive lead generating machine. If a custom website is something you’re considering for the future I recommend building a WordPress site for now and then, once you are well established online, invest in a top tier website.

Over the course of the next two weeks we’ll dig deeper into each of the costs associated with building a successful real estate website.

Check out our entire Site Building 101 series using the guide below:

Site Building 101 Series:

1. You’re here!

2. Choosing a Domain Name and Web Hosting

3. Designing Your Website

4. Selecting a Real Estate Search Vendor

5. How to Build an Email Drip Campaign

Photo Credit: Jakob Montrasio

This post contains affiliate links. Find out why we use affiliate links by clicking here.

Filed Under: Building a Website, How-To Guides, Marketing, Monday Q&A, Premium Themes, Technology, Website Tips, WordPress · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,