Realty Web Design Resources

Getting Started
Planning, Practice and Talent (continued ...)

Practice: Who hasn't heard the phrase: "practice makes perfect?" The saying is popular because it's ever-so-true! If you'd never built a home before, you wouldn't just buy the house plan and the construction materials, drive over to your building lot five minutes later, roll up your sleeves and start building a house -- would you? Imagine just how disastrous that could be!

Don't make the common mistake that happens all too often on the Internet -- you know: buying the software, jumping right in and building a hideous web site. Argggghh!!! All that does is make a businesses look like grade-A- fly-by-night operation. Saving time and money at the expense of giving a bad impression is not a good idea. Really, I'm not kidding. If you're serious about building your own web site, get some practice first!

Practice for Free: Chances are, if you've been surfing the 'net for a while, you've heard of free web hosts. Whether you've heard of them or not, getting a free web host is an easy and inexpensive (FREE) way to practice building a web site. It also helps you to become more comfortable with how web publishing works, and lets you experiment on a web site that doesn't represent your business! (Free web hosts generally show ad banners that may not enhance or complement your business.)

In the future, we'll post a list of a few free web hosts you might want to checkout. In the meantime, try the search term: 'free web hosts' using your favourite search engine. I'd recommend building a fun-site, perhaps a web site about your favourite hobby, or something else that you're interested in. Work on it until you've got something that you think looks great. Show it to your friends, your family, anyone that wants to give you some constructive (and honest) feedback. If your panel of critiques don't give you a raving thumb's up, go back to the drawing board and keep at it.

Talent: In spite of all the planning and practice in the world, some folks just don't have an artistic eye. I'm going to shoot straight from the hip here, because this is important: If you don't have the artistic knack, stick with what you're good at, be it selling Real Estate or singing in an opera, and leave the layout and design of your web site to the experts. It's not worth the frustration, and it's certainly not worth the risk of having your web site give the wrong impression to potential customers.

Many professional designers charge less to design a web site than you currently pay for your 'real world' Real Estate marketing materials (flyers, newspaper ads, business cards, newsletters, etc...) -- and the investment in a professionally designed and promoted web site generally yields much more value.

Whether you decide to build your own or hire an expert, having a professional looking Real Estate web site can benefit your Real Estate business in countless ways, and demonstrate to potential customers that you are wise in the ways of marketing. After all, good marketing sells real estate, and that's what it's all about.

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