Web Site Conent and Calculators

[angela_rey]

'afternoon,

Do you guys pay for the real estate content from like realestateabc.com and other sites?

I'm NOT A WRITER, and I'm in need of content for my site, and it seems like everybody wants money for it. I would rather have free content w/ ads. Call me cheap, but commisions have not started to come in yet!!!!!

Angela

[judyo]

I purchased realestateabc's content for my limited free websites just to provide more for my site visitors. I don't think it helps my sites out at all with SE placement & am just hoping it doesn't hurt (duplicate content). Right now I have these as links from my site.

However, I am going to try to create my own type of tutorial (of course without quite as much depth) for the future. I am working on a 3rd, more area generalized site & I'm switching to a new company next week that also offers a free site.

[angela_rey]

Have you seen the information on www.usinspect.com they let you use their information for free (with permission). I'm thinking of making my site with some of this information.

Do users notice if an agnet has the same information as 100 other agents (cookie cutter information) or do they not notice?

Angela

[kyle422]

Angela,
I have had success just using other peoples articles and changing arrangement and use the thesauras in Word to alter just about every word. Seems like it would take a while, which it does, but my writing skills don't much make good terms on paper. (p.s. that's me trying to be funny)
No seriously, I have trouble writing articles I'm happy with. Just make sure that you don't plagiarize and look out for Dup content penalties. Use this tool to check your work as you go. http://copyscape.com/

[kyle422]

Here is good mortgage caluculator.
http://dave.imarc.net/source.php?url...calculator.php

[KSA]

Hello all,

If you want someone to edit things that you've written, let me know. Fees for just editing something that's already written aren't usually that high.

Also, you might want to check out Bankrate(dot) com for free mortgage rate info and calculators.

The page to sign up is a little buried on their site, but if you go to this page: Free Bank Rate Info you'll be able to get the HTML for current mortgage rates, mortgage rate trend graphs, rate tickers, calculators, and news headlines.

Once you put the HTML on your pages, the charts are all updated automatically.

Kathleen

[CafeMonkey]

Angela,

My experience has been that people don't care about your articles, they go to an agent's site to see houses. Have good pictures and nice descriptions of properties, and people will ask about those properties.

[judyo]

This was borught up on another forum I'm on. If we're supposed to create unique content for our sites for SE's, then we have to do it, right? I can only provide a certain amount of my own/office listings on a site (my template site's below offer shared listings with others using that web host that agree to share).

Also, a client of mine complimented me recently on some articles/links I had put on my site so she really read through some of it. I also think that first-time buyers might really read some type of step-by-step tutorial and mortgage/credit/financing information.

I believe we have to provide more than just pictures and listings.

[CafeMonkey]

I totally agree Judy! You can't "just" put up a few pictures and expect sales!

Also note, I am not an agent, and I don't actively solicit leads...

Noone has ever emailed me asking for more information about an article at my site. The articles (at my site) are strictly for SEO purposes, or to KEEP someone at my site for a longer period of time.

But I DO get emails about properties. Again, I've NEVER intentionally asked for buyer info, but they STILL write to me for more info!

I can only provide a certain amount of my own/office listings on a site

Is that a technical limitation? I would think that most respectable software would let you put lots of listings online!

If you mean that you only HAVE so many listings available to put up, I'd challenge you to think outside the box... I keep some properties on my site for months after they sold. If someone inquires about it, I just "haven't updated the site yet, but what neighborhoods are you looking in? I might have someting else for you..."

I will also stop at a FSBO and offer to put them on my site, free of charge. I take my own picture, get a description from the owner, and put it online. They appreciate a free web listing, I get another house for my site... And if I were an agent, it might make for a good opportunity to work on a listing!

Just my experience, and I love to hear yours!

-Andy

[angela_rey]

How do you approach the FSBO? That's not a bad idea. It will give other sellers how I can put virtual tours and stuff on my site.

Great idea!

Angela
www.angelarey.com