Web design advice sought!!

[Morristown]

Hello,

I am seeking some advice on getting a decent, relevant, nice looking, tweekable, able to be found when searching certain towns in my area via search engine, and of course lead generating/able to be integrated into something like top producer type contact manager.

I do not have tones of money to spend, but would like to be able to get a good web presence for my little corner of New Jersey.

Websites that have a presence in my area are as follow:

They are competing for mostly towns that I do not intend to compete for on the web. So will not have to directly compete with them and i realize that they are all using NUMBER1EXPERT which I will not be using. There has to be a way to compete without using NUMBER1EXPERT.

I only intend to vie for traffic from 2 of the towns that the above do, and then there are 3 other towns I will via for as well. Have to do the overlap on the 2 towns becouse they are right in the middle of my mail farm area and I have the chance to dominate that since no one currently has a mail marketing plan that hits this area more than 1 or 2 times a year.

companies I am looking at are:

Top producer webpages

and z57.com

Thank you for all your help and advice.

Jim

[Micheal Pannell Realtor]

Call rew they sell templates and make really good sites.

[Morristown]

May sound stuppid and I am guessing you are refering to the guys that run this site, but how does someone contract them. and also see some examples of that they do for a certain cost. also looking for a idx solution.

Jim

[jbferris]

All of those sites were designed by www. number1expert .com ... Why not contact them to do web design? Sorry REW!

[Morristown]

Well first off, they are not getting good placement becouse they are NUMBER1EXPERT designed websites, they have good placement becouse they are very relevant, in the cases of at least several of them they are paying for placement, and becouse they look good, and are easy to use/fast loading.

I am newer to NJ market and as such do not meet the requirments for NUMBER1EXPERT website yet. Here is another website that looks good though becouse it uses flash it has a harder time with the search engines

I guess I am looking more for a templet that I can tweek and add info and more pages from week to week.

I know that the tricks that have been used to get good placement in the past do not really work so well now and as time goes by will have less and less impact and that the best way to get good placement is to have good, origional information, that people want. Since there are not realtor websites devoted to several of the towns I am covering I think I can have that website. Really I do not have a bunch of money to spend up front, but over time I do have the money and since I am heavily doing mailings and other things I can promote the sight to some extent as well.

I will contract REW as well to see what they have to say, but still any advice and real experences are very welcome.

Thank you,

Jim

[jbferris]

I have the link to REW templates but I received it in an email after I contacted them for more info so I'm not sure if I'm supposed to give it out. I find that REW templates are nicer than the templates shops like perfectory . com because with sites like perfectory it can become too artistic and pretty with very little function (I'd say that about Jesse Kaye's site as well). People want a straightforward, easy to use interface that's like every other site out there because they are familiar with those layouts. Once you change the song for uniqueness you screw up everything... Conform!

[judyo]

I haven't checked those other sites but from sites I have checked in the past I'd say be very careful. Some of the nice, pretty sites cannot be read by search engines and it will be difficult if not impossible to ever get them to rank well organically.

Some large template sites are already in trouble with search engines and you need to figure that out. I love my REW sites so you have to do some homework and make your decision.

[Morristown]

What about Z57.com any dealings with them.

they seem to have lots of good ideas. though $947.00 to set it up and then $68 a month is higher than most of what i have seen in other places.

Not at all trying to advertise them at all as I am not sold on Z57 at all, but I do want to get something setup with out having to spend many many hours of my time to get it started in the first place only to have it look like I did it myself.

Thanks,

Jim

[SEO Nick]

Jim, if you're still looking to contact us....

(250)753-9893 or Nick@realestatewebmasters.com. I can hook you up with the sales department.

[Calgary Agent]

Jim -

Save yourself a lot of time and frustration and pass over all those other providers .... . Can you access listings for all your target areas via one MLS (idx feed)? The solution to your problem is right here with REW. For not a whole lot more than what z57 charges, you can have a killer REW template (with idx plugin). Please note custom idx solutions (as well as custom sites) will cost more, but if you want to dominate the SERPS in your area, REW is the way to go. At the same time you can compete with the other sites you listed for position in towns you'll compete for.

Best of all .... REW sites are completely customizable, SE's love them, and they'll scale well as your business / territory grows.