Websites that Your Company Provides

Great advice!  It takes hard work and time to climb the rankings on the web!

This is truly priceless advice. When I entered the business that was one of the first things I thought of and I am glad that I avoided that. Keller Williams actually encourages us to get our own domain names and point it at the site that they provide us. It is therefore a win/win.

I started off day one with my own website, email address, my phone number on the business cards.  I love my brokerage and plan to be there forever, but I do have the option if something better comes along.

Awesome advice.  I have my own, plus the company one, plus am linked to the one dedicated to the office.

Gayle - This is great advice! You can get your own domain quite cheaply and it's always with you! We had a tech class at our office, Prudential Texas Properties, and I was surprised at the number of agents who don't have their own site. Blogging totally sent them over the edge! Protect your business! Our office sites are very good, but nothing like having control of your own!

Good point. At Keller Williams we have great tools to build nice websites and hopefully generate leads. However, If I ever decide to go to another company, that website will be gone.

One thing that I've done is to buy domain names from godaddy, and direct them to the website I'm using. For instance, I have a point2agent site that I like a lot, and I have several domain names pointing to it like brewerrealtygoroup.com, or franklininvestmentproperty.com. And  I also have the Keller Williams site as my primary site (my clients say it is easier to search for homes), and I have Larrybrewer.com, and Coolfranklinhomes.com directed to it. All of my signs and business cards have larrybrewer.com as my website.

If I decide to leave Keller Williams, I can redirect all of those domain names to my Point2agent site immediately, and my clients just think I've redesigned the site, again.

Gayle - Excellent post. I'm surprised that so many agents use a yahoo, hotmail, aol or similar email address. Getting your own domain is NOT that expensive and it's yours for as long as you pay for it. I think it's one of the single most important investments you can make.

Gayle, great advice. One that most agents wouldn't think about. I view a lot of web sites and quite a few are cookie cutters provided by the company. Not that they are bad but they appear to be the same web site as their counter part in the same company so they don't stand out from the crowd.

There is a path, and a few of the stops along the path are:

• company branded site and email (LBailey.C21nwr.com and LBailey@ c21nwr.com)
• Personally branded, but company templated site (LaneGetsResults.com)
• Our name as a domain (LaneBailey.com and Lane@ LaneBailey.com)
• Separate domain which would be more directed towards our niche, and could be sold upon retirement (GarageHomesUSA.com)

>>Please note, all links are dead, my purpose wasn't to get links in here<<

It seems that these are the steps most of us go through in order to get to the final goal, a site that resonates well with out consumers, and can be a stand alone business when we decide not to be in it any more.  

Gayle:  I completely agree!!!!  My broker has pushed me when I started with him to use their site and email. I have fought it all the way.  If you use their site and email, you are building their business more than yours, and if you leave, you are up the creek!

I'm sure you immediately discovered the other downside.  If the site would have been yours you could have quicly modified the pages with your new information instead of having to slog through the whole process again.

If an agent currently has a company based website that they can modify then they probably have access to the html behind the pages.  It might not be a bad idea to save the html for each page in a .txt format.  Then if you leave, you can simply paste the html into blank pages on the new site, modify as necessary and et voila - you've at least got something in a hurry.

 

Excellent advice.  I've been with a franchise for the past 6 years because among other things, I love the name recognition that comes from national marketing.  But, a couple of years ago I began to change the way I was branded and changed the focus so we were in the spotlight and not the franchise.  I have had the profile on our office and franchise website but have made sure to only promote my own phone number, fax number, website and personal email addresses.  I recently moved to ERA from REMAX and for my clients, nothing has changed... my contact information is the same and my Internet presence is virtually unchanged. 

This is one of the FIRST things learned in the E-Pro classes.  Everyone does not think independently though.  Your bringing it to the attention of others is good advice in the Rain!