where to start learning

[theguy]

I just became a Realtor about 3 months ago and definitely feel that having a website is important. I bought a domain name and paid for hosting from godaddy. here is my dilemma I have no idea how to build a website. I know I could just pay someone to make one for me, but wheres the fun in that?

Im 23 so I have grown up using comps and feel very comfortable using them. Can someone tell me where I can start learning how to build my own site?
thanks in advance and Happy Holidays

[Ryan Ward]

Lots of ways to answer this. Let's start with budget. For about $25/year, you could build one with WordPress. It's a blog, but, it's easy to make one a website and you will have control over everything except mls listings. For that you would need to frame in a solution.

or you could use a program like Dreamweaver.

[webmaster]

I second the WP Blog if you are a do-it-yourselfer, it's got a lot of community support, and you can do a lot with it.

Eventually (Hopefully) you will become so busy (The rewards of your effort) that you are not able to maintain what you have started, and that is where a professional firm takes over and you will likely switch away from WP or turn that WP into just your on site blog, but as a starting platform, you can't really go wrong.

[Smuck]

I just became a Realtor about 3 months ago and definitely feel that having a website is important. I bought a domain name and paid for hosting from godaddy. here is my dilemma I have no idea how to build a website. I know I could just pay someone to make one for me, but wheres the fun in that?

Im 23 so I have grown up using comps and feel very comfortable using them. Can someone tell me where I can start learning how to build my own site? thanks in advance and Happy Holidays

Borrow some money from Mom or Dad and buy a REW template. Then hang around the REW forums and pick up knowledge little by little, and get to know some fine folks that frequent here. Then, if you have time, spend $25.00 per month and start learning through the many tutorials at lydia.com (tens of thousands of tutorials!).

This is what I did and my wife and I have had our fair share of success!

[metaylor9]

I second the REW template idea. Maybe it will be for you, but I don't think building an attractive user-friendly website is that easy without some prior knowledge of programming/web design. On top of that you will need to learn, digest, and implement SEO on your site. All of this and trying to learn the ins and outs of real estate seems a bit overwhelming to me.

[coastal]

How much computer skill do you have?

If you have NEVER made any type of website before I highly recommend just purchasing a template. How much free time do you have?

I made my first two real estate sites myself but I had built hundreds of other sites before that and had some experience promoting sites. I'm doing really well these days and I let other people do most of my web work now. I just come up with ideas and let them implement them.

I put in almost 10 hours a day working on my sites for over a year before they were bringing in lots of leads and I already had some idea of what I was doing.

When you figure your site is not going to bring in much business without an MLS/IDX tie in you are screwed unless you think you can learn php, asp, and database programming in a short period. This was the point when I realized I had done all I could with my sites on my own before I outsourced for database programmers.

Unless you are looking for a time consuming hobby it is best to leave it to the pros.

[Steve Didier]

In my opinion, if you want to develop a site that is going to be a great lead generation tool, have it done professionally. Learning the business of real estate and how to convert the leads your site brings in is going to take up a lot of your time. I would leave the web design to the pros at this point.

You will definitely have plenty to do on the website - keeping it current, writing for your blog, researching the communities you are going to service, etc. I think that will provide the "fun" you are looking for as well as give you the opportunity to give the site your personal touch and feel.

Good luck!

[ChiliPepperWeb]

Open-Realty is another good low cost option to build a starter site with. Lots of features and different templates you can apply, relatively easy to manage, and it does include a listings builder. As your budget grows you can find ways to expand the functionality of Open-Realty or move on to more customized solutions.

[Cleo]

I would take the Christmas special that REW is offering now!

[Joesheikh]

I would say go with a template website first and once you get comfortable updating and learning how html, css, and any type of programming works, you can start getting crazy. I would recommend books but its easier to learn when your actually playing around with things and seeing what happens. Cheers