Suzanne's Blog

Working Magic on a Point2Agent Site

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:28:38 -0600

When Petersburg VA real estate agent Mike May came to me for a custom Point2Agent site design, he was working on reactivating his real estate business after having spent several years focusing on his investment properties. Mike wanted his site design to encompass his use of "Amayzing" in various taglines, such as "Amayzing Homes" and "Amayzing Results". He also wanted a site that would be appropriate for his children to use if they decide to join his real estate business.

I worked up several design concepts to "pay off" his "Amayzing" taglines, including an Indiana Jones theme, a circus theme, and a fortuneteller theme. I especially had fun with the fortuneteller theme, so I was thrilled when Mike (as well as his family) chose it for his new site. I also created a new logo for Mike, as well as letterhead, envelope and business card designs.

Mike has done an exceptional job with both writing his own content for his site as well as working with my copywriters to create more content. Before we moved his domain from his old TopProducer site to his new Point2Agent site, he had been averaging about 2-3 visitors per day. Since launch of his new site in August, 2008, his traffic has climbed to 20-30 visitor per day. And thanks to some nicely optimized landing pages with custom content, Mike's site has achieved page 1 position in Google search results for a variety of keyphrases, such as "Lake Chesdin real estate" and "Petersburg VA historic homes" while attracting buyer interest for both these niches.

Originally I was concerned that the fortuneteller theme might be too much for Mike's conservative Virginia audience, but low home page bounce rates have eased those fears. Instead, Mike's "amayzing" new site seems to evoke lots of smiles and chuckles. And hey! In today's real estate market, any excuse for a smile will do, right? So, if you need a smile today, visit Mike's site at MikeMay.com.

Web site design © Suzanne Stephens 2008

Tell me about Real Estate Cyberspace Society

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:12:22 -0500

A client has asked me if she should join the Real Estate Cyberspace Society, and I know nothing about it except that their web site makes my eyes hurt. What can you tell me about it?

Point2 sites CAN be SEO'd!

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:05:02 -0500

This morning I learned from a real estate agent that Advanced Access people have been telling their customers not to switch to Point2 because Point2 sites can't be optimized for the search engines. Folks, don't believe this; it's total b.s.

If in doubt Google the following keyphrases and look for the Point2 sites listed:

Mobile AL real estate -- BarbaraReevesRealtor.com
Phoenix homes for sale -- JoeJanus.com
Daphne AL real estate -- BarbaraReevesRealtor.com and BarbaraSellsDaphne.com
Amelia Island short sale -- KathySellsNassau.com
real estate Utah -- RealEstateUtah.com and UtahsHomes.com
Cabelas Trophy Properties -- OutdoorProperties.net

Also, if you're worried about a site losing its ranking when moved from AA to Point2, both Barbara Reeves' sites and Joe Janus's site are former AA sites that have been moved to Point2.

How Much Did Your Custom Designed Web Site REALLY Cost?

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:52:40 -0500

Last week I had an interesting conversation with a new client. He told me that he had originally planned to have another Point2 vendor design a custom Point2 Web site for him. His decision had been made primarily on the basis of cost: the other vendor's work is somewhat less expensive than mine.

Before finalizing his decision, he called several of my clients as well as several of the other person's clients to ask if their web sites had paid for themselves.

He learned that none of the other person's web site designs had paid for themselves with increased leads and that all of my clients except one felt that their site designs had paid for themselves.

(My one exception was a client with a new site that gets little traffic; I continue to work with this client daily in an effort to boost their search engine rankings as well as helping him learn to blog and getting him to blog here on ActiveRain, which immediately yielded two good leads.)

What this means is that people who hired the other person, whose rates are lower than mine, actually ended up with more costly web sites. And if they are missing out on a lot of leads, the true cost might be much higher than just the difference in cost for our services.

All web site designers are not created equal. There are thousands of people out there masquerading as web site designers who have absolutely NO training or experience in graphic design and marketing communications. As soon as the major graphic design programs, Quark, Photoshop and Illustrator, were ported to Windows in the mid-90s, the market was flooded with unqualified print designers, then the situation worsened when "WYSIWYG" Web site design programs came on the market. I sometimes wish that Web site designers had to be licensed just like real estate agents! Since we're not, do your research!

Look for a designer who actually has college level training in graphic design/marketing communications as well as experience working for advertising agencies and graphic design studios. Also make sure your designer has many years of experience designing web sites in addition to print design experience.

A site designed by a fully qualified graphic designer may cost you more initially, but as a long term investment, it may turn out to be a "freebie"!

Kudos to Clients Who Pay Attention!!!

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:23:12 -0500

As a Web site designer and Web marketing consultant, sometimes I feel as though my primary role is to nag, nag, nag and then nag some more. So I love to see that my clients are paying attention to and using my advice.

Recently one of my nagging themes has been about blogging often. I've been encouraging Amelia Island REALTOR® Jim Williams to blog on his and his wife's Point2 site. Their site itself is young and has been bouncing around in Google, everywhere from page 1 to page 7. Apparently this pattern is common now with new sites.

Needless to say, I am gratified that Jim has worked up the courage to take the blogging plunge. One of his first posts on their Point2 Amelia Island real estate blog was about Kathy getting her foreclosure specialist certification. Earlier today, I copied that article, edited it a little, and posted it in their Active Rain blog. And look at the results! I see that we need to tweak their title tag, but this is great for a newbie effort. Interestingly, their site also jumped from page 6-7 to page 3 for "Amelia Island real estate" today. I don't know whether than can be directly attributed to Jim's blogging, but I'm sure his efforts didn't hurt.

Congratulations, Jim!

Content & the Magic of Long Tail Searches

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:35:47 -0500

One of my favorite soap boxes to hop up on has to do with the importance of adding original content to your Point2 site. It seems like at least once a day, I'm on the phone with or emailing someone to recommend adding lots of original content to his or her site. I often direct people to Barbara Reeves and Joe Janus' sites as great models for site content.

Both Joe's and Barbara's sites contain an unusual amount of original content. Barbara has written most of hers herself, while Joe has a copywriter friend help with his site.

Great content helps engage site visitors so that they'll keep using your site and eventually contact you about buying or selling. It's especially helpful to people who are relocating to an unfamiliar area.

A second very important reason to add original content is that it helps attract the search engines. The more content you add, the more you are likely to attract the type of searches often referred to as "long tail" searches. These are searches on unexpected keyphrases, those keyphrases for which your site may not be optimized.

Joe's site was originally on Advanced Access. Last fall, I helped him move it to Point2. Since then, he has been religiously adding new pages, both about architectural styles common in the Phoenix area and about popular upscale Phoenix neighborhoods. Since November 2007, his number of unique daily visitors has almost doubled, reaching a respectable 105 average daily unique visitors.

Last May, people reached Joe's site by searching on over 1800 different keyphrases. Many of them were the type of keyphrase you might expect, such as "Phoenix homes for sale." But an amazing number of them were for totally unexpected words and phrases, some valuable, such as the names of prominent Phoenix builders and architects and of upscale neighborhoods such as Arcadia and CamelBack Canyon, and some of questionable or no value, such as "Spanish style TV trays."

But the nice thing about traffic, even if it doesn't bring buyers to a site, is that traffic breeds traffic. In other words, it makes a site appear more authoritative to the search engines and more likely to rank well.

Joe has graciously agreed to allow me to give you a "backstage view" of some of his Ultrastat search stats from last May. The image shown is a composite of Ultrastat search keyphrase info for around 1/4 of the keyphrases used to reach his site. Check out some of the ways people found his site; could you have predicted and optimized for some of these keyphrases?

Since Joe's site is focused on architecturally unique homes, much of his content might be inappropriate for your own site. But check out the number of people who come to his site via searches on neighborhoods like Camelback Canyon, Biltmore and Arcadia. Does this give you some ideas for improving traffic to your site by adding original content about your own market area?

Meet Some REALTORs(R) with Hot Lead Generating Point2 Sites

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:22:25 -0500

All of you who are Point2 members are invited to join in on a coaching session this Thursday. We're doing something new for Point2, a roundtable style Q&A session that will include several of my clients who have great lead generating sites.

My guest speakers will include:

Barbara Reeves, BarbaraReevesRealtor.com, BarbaraSellsDaphne.com

Joe Janus, JoeJanus.com

Wayne Collens, who manages his and his wife Kim's brokerage site RockiesWest.ca

Linda Jefferson, GoArmyHomes.com

Diana Russell, RealEstateUtah.com

It's from 1 to 2 pm Eastern this Thursday, May 8. If you are interest in listening in, contact Tanya Spilchak at Point2: tspilchak@point2.com

This will be a great opportunity for you to interact with and learn from some REALTORs(R) who've done a great job using their Web sites to grow their businesses.

New Low Cost Semi-Custom Designs for Point2 Web Sites

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:42:47 -0600

If you target a niche market, my newly launched program of designs for Point2 Professional or Point2 Premium sites may be perfect. They are designed to help REALTORs(R) like you who target one of more niche audiences achieve a highly professional image at a small fraction of the cost of having me design a full custom site for you.

Each design will be available for use exclusively by only one client in a particular regional market area but may also be used by agents in other geographic areas. A Point2 Professional or Point2 Premium site is required.

The first design offered is for agents specializing in equestrian properties. This design can be installed on a Point2 site using the Paramount template. It is aimed at English style "horse people." A design with a Western equestrian orientation is also planned.

Future plans include designs targeting golfers, age 50+ retirement, families, mountain vacation home buyers, beach/waterfront/boating property buyers and more.

Welcome Densay to AR!

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:19:29 -0600

Please help me welcome new AR member Densay Sengsoulavong. Densay is office manager and a marketing expert with Realty Direct Wilmington (NC). I've had the pleasure of working with Densay to create a custom-designed Point2 Web site for their new luxury homes division, Signature Homes Wilmington. Densay either took or rounded up most of the photos on their site, making my job a lot more fun! He even went so far as to get to their first new luxury listing on a Saturday morning in time to catch a sunrise photo from the tower above the home -- that's giving it 110%!

Joe Janus, Point2's Site of the Month

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:37:17 -0500

Congratulations to one of my very favorite clients, Phoenix, AZ agent Joe Janus, whose Point2 site at HomesWithExceptionalStyle.com (or JoeJanus.com ) has been named Point2's site of the month for November.

Joe's site features an interactive menu that allows searches by the buyer's preferred architectural style. His architectural style content has garnered lots of "long tail" Google search visitors. It also has a custom-designed RSS feed on the home page as well as a custom-designed Point2 blog that give him a venue to call attention to architecturally unique homes that have come on the market.

Musicians or Blues Fan? Take a music break.

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:14:34 -0500

My husband Dave, besides being a very talented graphic designer who specializes in album cover design, has another business, SDPickups, making hand-wound vintage style guitar pickups. Recently Dave has has posted demos of a couple of his products on YouTube. The latest is a jump blues style demo of his newest pickup, the Pig Ninety, played by his friend Vyasa Dodson of the Insomniacs out of Portland, OR. The Insomiacs just got a recording contract with Delta Grooves Music and start a West Coast tour next week. They were named Best New Act of 2006 by the Portland Blues Association. No one as young as Vyasa (Vee-Oss) should be so talented!!! Check it out!

Vyasa's demo
Platinum PAF demo 1
Platinum PAF demo 2 features Dave Stephen's fine guitar pickup

Enjoy! And please leave a comment -- Dave will be thrilled if you say something nice!

Font Manager for Intel OSX?

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 14:25:05 -0500

I've tried several different font managers on my Intel Mini and so far none have worked well. It seems that fonts may show up in Photoshop but not in Flash or vice versal. Can any of you recommend a good solution?

Top Producer Email Graphic Specs?

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:36:00 -0500

Do any of you know what size JPEG is required for use as a custom banner on TopProducer email?

My client needs a custom header and the sample she sent me doesn't make much sense. It's somewhat narrower than it would need to be to fit the table cell in which it is positioned, so there's an ugly gap at the end.

Thanks for your help!

Suzanne

System outages

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:42:27 -0500

I've been going slowly insane thanks to system errors preventing me from working on Point2 clients' sites for the last couple of days. Is it just me or are you having the same problem? I'm getting this both in Edit Pages and, yesterday, in attempts to post to the message board.

***

Update: I just had a call from someone at Point2 who acknowledged that they've had some issues for the past couple of days. He said that they are currently talking with their vendors trying to resolve the issues. (Unfortunately, he couldn't take my suggestion that they switch to a php based system seriously.)

Wilmington NC Luxury Home Photos Needed

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:51:27 -0500

I need photos of upscale Wilmington homes for a web site design project. If you have or know of anyone such as architects or interior designers/stagers who have photos they would let me use in exchange for a credit line, please let me know. Thanks.

What to Do When Your Blog or Graphics Are Stolen

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:11:00 -0500

When you write a blog yourself, take a photo, or create an image in Photoshop, you automatically own the copyright to your creative work. As you all know, that won't keep someone from stealing it and posting it in their own web site or blog.

Until a few years ago, there was little recourse other than expensive, time-consuming legal processes including Cease & Desist letters and lawsuits. Thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, we now have a practical, cheap way to stop copyright violators. The DMCA's Safe Harbor Provision protects an online service provider from liability from copyright violations by its subscribers or users if the provider expeditiously takes steps to block access to stolen material upon submission of a complaint.

You probably don't need a lawyer to file a complaint. I've filed them myself and the process is fairly easy. First, contact the service provider or check its web site to find out the name of the person or department to whom you must submit your complaint, the service provider's "registered agent." Also find out if the company has any special procedures for submission of complaints: will they accept complaints by email, by letter, etc.

Next, write your complaint and submit it. The following elements are required for DMCA complaints:

-Must be signed or contain a digital signature by the owner of the copyright or the authorized agent.
-Description of works claimed to be infringed.
-Description of location for alleged infringing works.
-Sufficient information to contact the complainer.
-Statement of good faith belief that the use is not authorized by the owner/agent.
-Statement that the information in the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, the complainer is authorized to act on behalf of the owner.

Typically, the service provider will respond by blocking access to or removing the copyrighted material, then notifying the offender and giving the offender and opportunity to file a counter claim.

For more detailed information, see page 12 in the following summary of the DMCA legislation:

http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

The DMCA takedown provisions are the only example I can think ofin which the government has actually made it easy for ordinary people to protect our legal rights. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the takedown provisions and use them when appropriate.

How to Seal Laminate Floors?

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 18:17:48 -0500

REALTORS(R) have proven to be so knowledgeable about issues concerning floors and pets, that I'm hopeful someone can answer a question for me. I've researched it on Google but haven't found anything:

Do you know of a product available to consumers in the U.S. that can be used to seal the seams between sections of laminate flooring during installation to prevent dog urine from seeping into the seams?

Suzanne Stephens, Point2AGent Design Partner

Copyright: Blogging Rights and Obligations

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:36:50 -0500

I just noticed that my attorney Ivan Hoffman has an article on his site about copyright law and blogging that may be of interest to some of you:

http://ivanhoffman.com/blogging.html

Suzanne Stephens, Point2Agent Design Partner

San Diego VA/copywriter

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:54:31 -0500

I would like to provide some names to a Web design client in the San Diego area who may need someone to write local information pages for him. Please contact me if you are interested.

If you happen to be fluent in German and could translate your articles from English to German, that might be a benefit, but not a necessity.

Suzanne Stephens, Point2Agent Design Partner

If Clara Had Taught Everyone Art, We Wouldn't Need Copyright Laws

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 10:54:04 -0500

One of the blessings for which I am most grateful is the opportunity to have studied art with Burlington, NC artist and teacher Clara Zimmerman Clayton. Wednesday afternoons lessons at her studio were the highlight of my life from when I was in the 5th grade through high school graduation. I learned skills from Clara that I still use everyday in my work, even decades later. There was one particular lesson I learned from Clara from which everyone could benefit, regardless of their artistic or creative skills: respect for others' work.

While most of her classes blend together into a happy memory, one stands out above the rest. During one of my first classes with her she asked me to draw a simple white vase sitting on a tabletop in pencil. Some time after I started drawing, she came by to observe my efforts and to suggest some improvements. There was something she wanted to demonstrate on my drawing. But rather than drawing directly on my own drawing herself, she first asked if I would mind her showing me what she meant. Then she put a piece of onionskin tracing paper over my drawing and then drew her suggested correction on the onionskin.

During the seven years that I studied with Clara, I never saw her touch a student's artwork. No matter how inept our efforts, she treated each of us as if we were budding Picassos. If everyone had learned respect for others' creative work from Clara, we would no longer need copyright laws. It would never occur to any of us to copy someone else's work and use it as if it were own.

Suzanne Stephens, Point2Agent Design Partner

The "I Paid for It, I Own It" Myth About U. S. Copyright Law

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 12:35:33 -0500

Many business people lack even the most fundamental understanding of U. S. Copyright Law and are at risk of inadvertently committing copyright violations. This lack of understanding could result in costly lawsuits.

The "I Paid for It, I Own It" Myth

One of the most misunderstood aspects of U.S. Copyright Law is that when a business owner pays someone (the Creator) to create a work, such as to take a photo, write an article or code a program, the business owner then owns the rights to that work.

Ownership of copyright automatically goes to the business ONLY when the Creator is an actual employee of the company. That is, the Creator is not in independent contractor as defined by the IRS.

If the Creator is not a bona fide employee of the company, then the Creator automatically owns all the rights associated with that work. The only exceptions are when the Creator has transferred rights to the work in writing prior to creating the work. There are several forms of transfer, which I won't go into in detail, but the essence of the law is that that rights can only be transferred in writing and that some transfers, such as a Work Made for Hire agreement, must be made before the work is created, not after.

Suppose you pay a freelance photographer to take a photo for use on your web site: depending upon the terms of your written agreement, you may not not have permission to use that photo elsewhere, such as in your print newsletter or a marketing brochure. You may also not have permission to make "derivative works" based on that photo: in other words, you may not have permission to alter it in Photoshop or to use it in a collage with other photos, to display it without the photographer's copyright designation, etc.

You also may not have the right to give permission to someone else to use the right. So, if someone contacts you for permission to use that photo, you must refer that person to the Creator rather than giving permission yourself.

Attorney Ivan Hoffman has written an excellent series of articles on copyright law that can help business owners and creatives understand the complexities of U. S. Copyright Law.

More resources:

http://www.copyright.gov/

http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_copyright_law

Reciprocal linking warning

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:33:49 -0500

In case you missed it, I want to call your attention to an important message from RealEstateWebMasters client Marc Rasmussen:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/131121/Excessive-Reciprocal-Linking-Google

If you have not already done so, I recommend that you disable the "links" page shown in the standard footer on P2A sites: To remove them go to:
Edit Website > Website Editing Tools > Generated Pages > and then uncheck the 'Links' box.

Suzanne

Suzanne Hathcock Stephens
Point2Agent Design Partner
http://www.SuzStephens.com�

The Best SEO You Never Did

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:30:25 -0500

Last week I wrote about the #1 most essential element to pay attention to when learning how to optimize your site for the search engines, title tags.

Today, I want to tell you about the least important element, keyword meta tags.

Though systems like Point2Agent often give you meta keyword tags to edit, you can probably ignore them to no ill effect. That's because none of the major search engines have read keyword meta tags since at least 2002. That's right -- they ignore them!!! And if some SEO "expert" yells at you about how important they are, he probably just wants you to pay him to tweak them. Don't waste your money -- or your own time.

If you want to optimize your keyword meta tags, save that task until everything else is finished.Chances are, you won't miss any visitors except possibly a few from some of the most obscure search engines. But you should be focused on optimizing for Google, because it's currently the top search engine and may be the source of as many as 85% of your search visitors.

I practice what I preach: there are no keyword meta tags on my own site, yet it still ranks on or near the very top of Google search results for all relevant keyphrases. And if you search Google for SEO experts (not that I consider myself to be in those exalted ranks), you'll see that many of them don't use keyword meta tags either, unless they happen to remain on older pages.

Don't get me wrong: keywords and keyphrase are very important, but not in the keyword meta tag.

So that's one less SEO task to feel overwhelmed by. Was that easy enough?

Suzanne

Suzanne Hathcock Stephens
Point2Agent Design Partner
http://www.SuzStephens.com

CAPS make me crazy! Is your caps lock key stuck?

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 14:18:39 -0500

Lawyers and real estate agents have one thing in common that absolutely drives me nuts: the habit of typing text in all caps.

Why do REALTORS(R) (whoops, there goes those caps again!) post listing descriptions in all capital letters? Why do lawyers put long passages of text in contracts in all caps? Do they not want people to read the text? I can understand that lawyers might not want people to read contracts, since many seem to be little more than exercises in obfuscation. By why on earth would a real estate agent type listings in all caps?

Advertising designers like myself know that type written in all caps is more difficult to read, so we reserve its use for very short lines of text, logos, headlines, etc. Has this basic, fundamental principle of typography somehow escaped the real estate and law businesses? Why would a real estate agent make it more difficult to read home listings? Don't you WANT people to read them? Is your caps lock key stuck down with bubble gum? Are your pinky fingers too lazy to reach for the cap key? Most of you know that all caps are considered to be rude shouting in email and other online posts. Why do you do it in listings??? Are you trying to be rude to prospective buyers? I just don't get it. Someone please enlighten me.

Let me repeat what I just said in case you are lower case challenged and didn't understand my question:

LAWYERS AND REAL ESTATE AGENTS HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON THAT DRIVES ME NUTS: THE HABIT OF TYPING TEXT IN ALL CAPS.

WHY DO REALTORS(R) (WHOOPS, THERE GO THOSE CAPS AGAIN!) POST LISTING DESCRIPTIONS IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS? WHY DO LAWYERS PUT LONG PASSAGES OF TEXT IN CONTRACTS IN ALL CAPS? I CAN UNDERSTAND THAT LAWYERS MIGHT NOT WANT PEOPLE TO READ CONTRACTS, SINCE MANY SEEM TO BE LITTLE MORE THAN EXERCISES IN OBFUSCATION. BUT WHY ON EARTH WOULD A REAL ESTATE AGENT TYPE LISTINGS IN ALL CAPS?

ADVERTISING DESIGNERS LIKE MYSELF KNOW THAT TYPE WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS IS MORE DIFFICULT TO READ, SO WE RESERVE ITS USE FOR VERY SHORT LINES OF TEXT, LOGOS, HEADLINES, ETC. HAS THIS BASIC, FUNDAMENTAL OF TYPOGRAPHY SOMEHOW ESCAPED THE REAL ESTATE AND LAW BUSINESSES? WHY WOULD A REAL ESTATE AGENT MAKE IT MORE DIFFICULT TO READ HOME LISTINGS? DON'T YOU WANT PEOPLE TO READ THEM? IS YOUR CAPS LOCK KEY STUCK DOWN WITH BUBBLE GUM? ARE YOUR PINKY FINGERS TOO LAZY TO REACH FOR THE CAPS KEY? MOST OF YOU KNOW THAT ALL CAPS ARE CONSIDERED TO BE RUDE SHOUTING IN EMAIL AND OTHER ONLINE POSTS. WHY DO YOU DO IT IN LISTINGS? ARE YOU TRYING TO BE RUDE TO PROSPECTIVE BUYERS? I JUST DON'T GET IT. SOMEONE PLEASE ENLIGHTEN ME.

Suzanne

Suzanne Hathcock Stephens
Point2Agent Design Partner
http://www.SuzStephens.com

Point2Agent and AA VA misrepresenting my work as her own

Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer (Stephens Design) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:20:09 -0500

A VA listed as an Vendor for Point2Agent and as the top-rated Advanced Access VA has been using my design work without authorization on her web site, implying that the work represents her own company's work. If you have hired a VA for web site customization recently and have questions about whether you might be getting my design work or someone else's, please contact me.

I have filed a copyright violation complaint with her Web host under the DMCA Safe Harbor act to get my work removed from her site, but the process takes a few days. If in doubt, please contact me.

Suzanne Hathcock Stephens

Point2Agent Design Partner

http://www.SuzStephens.com

360-666-0881