Custom Website vs. Template Design

I'll chime in on Israel's comments, as did my old acquaintance, Win Singleton.

Pardon my French, Israel, but your comments really chapped my butt (as we say in Texas)! You wrote:

"All technology training is outdated by the time the instructor teaches his first class, that is how fast things change:"

That's news to me, Pal! I'm doing a seminar for the Idaho Assn. of REALTORS next week, and I've just spent 4+ hours revising the outline I did for them last year. Why? Because technology changes, and my duty as an instructor is to give attendees the "latest and greatest" when I show them how today's technology can make them money, save them money and save them time.

"Of course, instructors usually do not offer any proof of their credentials, but I do."

A pretty broad statement, Israel. Like Win, I offer proof of my credentials. In my case, Senior Instructor for the CRS 206 technology course (you don't get to be one of only 5 nationwide instructors for this course without having excellent material and excellent teaching skille) and President/Founder of the CyberStars(r), an international group of 200+ top agents who use today's technology to dominate their marketplaces. I learn from my CyberStars(r) and incorporate what works today into every course I teach.

I'm sure you are good at what you do, Israel....but you might give a little more thought before posting sweeping generalizations...

And....I apologize for writing this at all! Those who know me know that I'm an easy-going guy and that I usually just tend to my side of the street. My posting a "rebuttal" like this is rare...must have been because I got up at 4 a.m. this morning to make sure the content for my seminar next Thursday is up-to-the-minute.

It's a great day (dawn is breaking) here on the lake in Reston...hope it's a great day wherever you are, too!

Hmmm, where is your proof, HMMM? BTW, my rather impressive client list includes RISMedia (real estate news google search) Vistaprint (Steve outgrew me years ago), and it is the right hits, my hits that I seek, not the wrong hits, I am not a realtor, anyone looking for social media website design is a very good prospect for me. You sir ,have not offered your credentials, only challenged mine; I suspect that you do not know who I am: I was the first one ever in 2001 to say "you pick the words, I will guarantee the results" and became a famous controversial figure because I was ridiculed by geeks all over the world (guys like you) because I had the outragious gall to think that it would be OK with Google to have such a business, LOL. We sold over $4000,000 of the service I invented in the first three years, with no capital at all (it was done with free ads in those days, was Adsforfree.com)

You could not pick a better way to submarine your credibility than to challenge mine, Summit Web Design, (gee, I wonder of you have an ax to grind LOL) and where are your web design credentials??!! LMAO!

LOL! You fell for it, Allen, BTW, you screwed up your formatting when you pasted from your editor, makes you look like a novice!
Well pardon my English, Mr. Professor: but do you really think that I thought that either one of you would appreciate my statements? Do you think this moving convo is an accident? Do you know anything about blogging?
Wake up, buddy: this is the blogosphere: anything (within reason) goes!
Like most professors, you know very little about marketing, and the speed with which things change! Now, that being said, you probably know way more than your students. And to answer the question, yes, the training I did for Exit realty nearly a year ago is definitely dated, although I made an effort to deal with concepts and unchanging strategies rather than specifics.
I am no better than you, professor, I must keep up with change daily: and you are no better than me, in spite of my lack of formal education: however, as many successful readers here can confirm, sometimes guys like me resist change less, move faster, and are humbler and more receptive and respectful to others than some formal snobs who take everything personally: LOL, it is not personal, it is the Internet! LMAO!
OH! And as for the training you provide for NAR, up-to-date information with no ax to grind? Let's save you the embarrasement of even going there, shall we?!

Win, you make many valid points.

One thing I would like to throw out to folks is this: good template sites are capable of being properly optimized; one does not need to go custom.

The problem is that it is hard to know exacltly WHICH templates are good for SEO! After playing with who knows how many thousands of them, here's our "SEO FRIENDLY" template site list (of major supplies):

Point2, RealtySoft, Number One Expert, Advanced Access.

Sites to avoid: Top Producer, Realtor.com, Superlative, One Park Place. In most cases, these sites are all subdomains, contain too much flash, or have staffs unwillng to implement the minor changes needed for the site to perform. This is not uncommon among templates: just recently, a MAJOR supplier refused to expand their keyword tag to comply with Google's recommendations as to character limit size after repeated attempts by us to get them to do so. That manufacturer just doesn't get it.

My most frequent complaint from clients about template sites is that in some cases, customer service is non-existent: it is nearly impossible to raise a PERSON on the phone to ask a question of. Ever since Dominion's acquisition of AA for example, that is the most common complaint we heatr about them.

In sum, it is our observation that the right template can perform as well or better than custom sites, which are often plagued with the "not invented here" attitude that retards corrections and implementation of methods that work.

We give every courtesy to webmasters, and are not in the design business.

Best regards,

Mike Parker

Quoting Allen F. Hainge:

I'll chime in on Israel's comments, as did my old acquaintance, Win Singleton.

Pardon my French, Israel, but your comments really chapped my butt (as we say in Texas)! You wrote:

"All technology training is outdated by the time the instructor teaches his first class, that is how fast things change:"

That's news to me, Pal! I'm doing a seminar for the Idaho Assn. of REALTORS next week, and I've just spent 4+ hours revising the outline I did for them last year. Why? Because technology changes, and my duty as an instructor is to give attendees the "latest and greatest" when I show them how today's technology can make them money, save them money and save them time.

"Of course, instructors usually do not offer any proof of their credentials, but I do."

A pretty broad statement, Israel. Like Win, I offer proof of my credentials. In my case, Senior Instructor for the CRS 206 technology course (you don't get to be one of only 5 nationwide instructors for this course without having excellent material and excellent teaching skille) and President/Founder of the CyberStars(r), an international group of 200+ top agents who use today's technology to dominate their marketplaces. I learn from my CyberStars(r) and incorporate what works today into every course I teach.

I'm sure you are good at what you do, Israel....but you might give a little more thought before posting sweeping generalizations...

And....I apologize for writing this at all! Those who know me know that I'm an easy-going guy and that I usually just tend to my side of the street. My posting a "rebuttal" like this is rare...must have been because I got up at 4 a.m. this morning to make sure the content for my seminar next Thursday is up-to-the-minute.

It's a great day (dawn is breaking) here on the lake in Reston...hope it's a great day wherever you are, too!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I AGREE Alan

I think Isreal needs to lighten up and stop all this slamming back and forth I can see he is good at what he does but that doent mean we have to agree with EVERYTHING he says and does. AND this shouldnt be an arument forum rather an open debate.

So, can we get back on track Isreal??

Where are your rankings for what you do?

Quoting Social Media Marketing Guru:

By the way, templates not customized and optimized are worthless because they do not rank on the search engines, and any IDX solution (I recommend ihomefinder or wolfenet, just don't buy their expensive design option) can be integrated into a widget, and customized to fit in with the Wordpress theme you choose. That is what I recommend.

Israel, I know that many have replied after me; so I'll let that be what it is. I wanted to simply chime in and say that you may be grouping "template" companies into one category, and it's not accurate.

You say that templates must be customized and optimized, though I am not entirely sure what you mean by that. (Meaning, I think you are making this sound more difficult than it is in an attempt to get more business). Content needs to be customized, and listings should be added, etc... but default templates on their own are not an issue (not Advanced Access templates anyway). As I said in a previous thread, we block the template code from search engines.

Beyond that, if anyone wants a custom website, but with the easy tools to quickly add listings, content, etc, we (Advanced Access) provide a "Custom Template" which is blank and completely custom. This is free and automatically included for all clients. We have several clients doing this with our help or the help of a Virtual Assistant. For example, http://www.michaelanddeenorris.com/ hired a Virtual Assistant to design a site for them, and then used our free Custom Template option.

Anna Bourland
Advanced Access
Marketing and Public Relations Manager
714-685-5125
abourland@advancedaccess.com

There is nothing wrong with a template to begin with. What I am referring to is the fact that a website must be found and seen to have a purpose. These days, that means that the website must be the source of a feed of constantly refreshed topic specific information properly formatted and fed to the search engines and the world in the right way including pings.

If this all sounds like and incredible pain in the ass, then do hire a virtual assistant as Anna points out here (correctly so), because most of you simply are not going to do what needs to be done to compete online, just as I am never going to get around to doing my own bookkeeping, and I am certainly not going to buy or sell property without a Realtor!

No offense intended, Anna, and nobody really wants to hear what I am saying anyway, so they will continue to try to convince themselves that they can compete without that much trouble, LOL.

Israel Rothman, Click on Social Media Marketing Guru to view my profile.

We don't disagree that a site needs to be more than just "live" to be useful. For some, getting a website is a big step and it takes them a while to take the next step and do more with it. For them they are learning and working toward a goal. It isn't a waste because they are one step closer to understanding how to manage their business in a more productive way. For Advanced Access we do cater a lot to agents who are afraid to do what they need to with their sites, which is why we email the heck out of our clients with marketing tips and information to help them. Our marketing package has evolved as well to not only do SEO for them, but to teach them how to really get *results* from their site. It is true, many marketing packages are rankings focused, but with personalized search and other factors, it's just not enough anymore. This is how we as a company feel about real estate websites, and it is why I take the time to reply and chime in - people will do what works best for them, and I don't think any of us should say that one type of site or brand of site has no merit. As providers we all share a healthy competition for business, but there is no need to go in a negative direction. I think all we accomplish then is confuse potential clients wondering how we will treat them once they are a client.

Just my 2 cents... of to compile today's Marketing Tip for Advanced Access...

Anna Bourland
Advanced Access

Marketing and Public Relations Manager
714-685-5125
abourland@advancedaccess.com
http://www.advancedaccess.com
http://www.advancedaccess.com/blog

I'm reading this discussion and wondering if Lisa ever got her question answered regarding a site for both her real estate and mortgage business.

My thoughts are that whether you go custom or template, make it right for your business and the way you work. I haven't had good luck with compatability across all the browsers with template sites. I typically use Firefox (the leading browser today), Safari, or Google's Chrome. I keep an old version of IE6 on my computer so I could manage the changes myself.

SEO is entirely different than the custom or template site you choose. The companies offering you a website may or may not have inherent SEO benefits. But, the reality is, you need to targetthe users you want to go after and optomize your site for that.

Back to Lisa, sounds like you may need to map out what you want to accomplish for your real estate and mortgage site - like sketch out what you envision for your website (if you haven't already done so). You can browse the different templates on z57 or advanced access or any of the others to see if you find a match. Or, just find someone local to get it done for you.

Dan

www.updatelane.com