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a pretty website won't get you leads

By Christopher Ohlsen

Mortgage and Lending with Credit Werx, LLC.

September 03, 2008 05:43 AM

I got a pretty website that I thought would really produce a lot of business for me. I thought that the fact that there are 18 lead capture forms on each page that it would naturally collect a lot of leads. I was sold on the site by the things that the sales rep told me; most of which ended up not being true.

I purchased my site from Superior Internet Solutions around 4 months ago and so far it has collected around 7 leads total. Not terrible I guess but I was expecting more. I thought that I would be able to tweak the site... but I do not have access to the HTML as I was told i would. All that I can do is add information to the pre-existing architecture of the site but I cannot actually modify the architecture.

The site is real pretty and I have added a ton of information in an attempt to make it a Plattsburgh real estate authority. My goal is to drive traffic to the sites but so far I have not had much success with regard to that.

My ability to modify the site is restricted... So if any of you have some suggestions on how to drive traffic to a site like this please let me know. Thanks for reading!

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Betina Foreman

WJK Realty - Austin, TX

Realtor, C.N.E., with WJK REALTY

All sites have their ups and downs. Consider yourself lucky to get 7 leads in four months. Some sites end up with ZERO! Hang in there!!

Sep 03, 2008 05:51 AM

Christopher Ohlsen

Credit Werx, LLC. - Malone, NY

Betina - Thank you for the encouragement. I did close one out of the seven and 3 of them were out of my market area in states that I am not licensed so I could not do the loans. Times are tough so I am sure you are right. I will hang in there and I will keep trying to improve the content within the site. Thanks again!

Sep 03, 2008 06:04 AM

Justin Ukaoma

Vizion KC - Kansas City, MO

Kansas City Real Estate Investments

I had a similar situation happen to me. I ended up scrappng the entire site and starting over. I would reccomend checking out hubspot.com

www.vizionkc.com

Sep 03, 2008 06:07 AM

Jeffrey DiMuria 321.223.6253 Waves Realty

Waves Realty - Melbourne, FL

Florida Space Coast Homes

hook up with point2agent they are a better webhost and you will get more leads (I get around 10 per week!).

I can send you a free site if you like...you can upgrade from that if you like it.

Sep 03, 2008 06:08 AM

Leslie Prest

Leslie Prest, Prest Realty, Sales and Rentals in Payson, AZ - Payson, AZ

Owner, Assoc. Broker, Prest Realty, Payson,

On the other hand, pretty is better than ugly...

Advice- get one you can control.

Sep 03, 2008 06:41 AM

Christopher Ohlsen

Credit Werx, LLC. - Malone, NY

Justin - I checked out Hubspot.com. I may end up using them, the service that they offer is interesting. How is it working out for you?

Team DiMuria, Katy Texas Realtors (Prudential Gary Greene Realtors) - I just signed up for a Point2Agent site... but I am not a Realtor® or licensed real estate sales person. I do advertise a lot of listings for Realtor's® that I work with in the area. Point2agent won't let me list those properties without verifying my real estate sales license. Thank you for the suggestiion though.

Leslie - Thats for sure...lol. I know... Short of having one custom designed I am not sure if any of the venders out there offer anything like this and custom design can be a bit pricing when you start having sites with databases designed. I am looking for something inexpensive... although I know the old addage about "getting what you pay for"... so I may just do that yet... but if I can find something reasonably priced that I can completely control I will be all over it. Thank you for the comment!

Sep 04, 2008 01:07 AM

Paul Jones

Kansas City Regional Homes - Olathe, KS

PIC Properties - Kansas & Missouri

My wife does my lead generation site. It is simple and to the point. It works for us but we use a real estate site to drive our traffic. Not sure how that would work for mortgage.

Sep 04, 2008 01:31 PM

Anonymous

Not Yet Licensed

I just signed up for a Point2Agent site... but I am not a Realtor® or licensed real estate sales person. I do advertise a lot of listings for Realtor's® that I work with in the area. Point2agent won't let me list those properties without verifying my real estate sales license.

Hi Christopher,

My clients are real estate agents. However, some of them partner with their preferred lender on their internet marketing. They typically split the investment 50/50. Couldn't you do the same thing to satisfy Point2Agent?

Respectfully,

Bruce

Sep 06, 2008 12:18 AM

Laura Kombrink

RE/MAX Alliance - Collinsville, IL

How are you marketing your site? Do you reference your AR blogs on the site with a link? What other businesses are you linked to?

I'm using Point 2 as are some of the others that have commented. I don't get 10 leads a week, however my site has only been up a little over 2 months. The leads that I do get from my website tend to be long term leads. The traffic to my site seems to increase exponentially, which is incouraging.

Sep 06, 2008 01:37 AM

Susan Deering

Beautiful Spaces - Calgary, AB

Pretty doesn't sell, but having it marketed properly is what you need. You need to have lots of meta tags, and to be recognized by the search engines. If not, your website will never be found unless someone has your direct web address. Talk to local website marketers to see what they can do for you. And be aware, it does take time for this to happen and it does take a lot of updates to keep it higher up in the search engines lists. I don't really get it myself, that's why I've hired someone to do it for me...

Sep 06, 2008 03:55 AM

Christopher Ohlsen

Credit Werx, LLC. - Malone, NY

Paul - I have seen some really simple sites perform well. Tru-Close for instance has some very simplistic looking sites that really pull. I was thinking of trying to set up something on the web indicated that I will present the file to 4 lenders and the lowest rate and fee wins; kind of like what LendingTree and all of the LT clones do. Those kind of sites really seem to sell.

Bruce - Not a bad idea, I may see if one of my Realtor® partners will allow me to use his/her license number to verify credentials to market listings on Point 2. First I will have to make sure that I am following compliance guidelines in order to do it.

Laura - I have referenced the site here on AR several times and I also have some backlink affiliations with other companies such as title companies and Real Estate firms. I am getting some traffic and I just got another lead today so that makes 8; still, I would like a lot more traffic! I would like to pull in 30 - 40 leads per month and I know that I am going to have to regroup in order to come up with a system that does it for me at a minimal cost.

Susan - Sound advice; thank you. Unfortunately I do not have control over the site. Something I am going to see if I can change. I am going to see if I can have the controls released because I would love to pay a company to do all of this for me... I feel now as though I should not have gone with the company that I did... I was misinformed during the sales portion of the setup process. there are some nice things about it... but still, I do not like not having control over the site and I was told initially that I would.

Sep 08, 2008 04:27 AM

Mike Klijanowicz

Cummings & Co. Realtors - Perry Hall, MD

Associate Broker @ Cummings & Co. Realtors

GET RID OF IT AND GET A POINT 2 SITE! I did and it is FREE and I get about 15-20 people who register on my site each week...

Sep 11, 2008 01:52 AM

Anonymous

Tom Otto

Chris,

Please read the following and save yourself from embarrassment:

Completely agree with what you are saying. This is a company that is built on lies. Don't feel bad, they promise their employees one thing and then screw them up. Should have known that it was coming. All you business people out there, if you get a call from Superior avoid it. This company will want you to believe that they have state of the art facility and will promise you the world to get your business, but once you sign the contract your money is gone for good. All they want to do is get your money so that they can buy expensive trips and gifts for their own loved one's. They pay their employees merely enough to survive and expect the employees to be completely loyal to the company. Business owners of America, I would not be surprised if we come to find out that they are running a sweat shop in Bangladesh. Poor people of that nation. These blood suckers are going to exploit them in all the way they can. The three culprits of this operation are Chris Blank, Terry Faruq and Scott Kirkpatrick. Their local number is 858-436-1180 and their respective extensions are 300 for Scott Kirkpatrick, 301 for Chris Blank and you can try 360 or 370 for Terry Faruq.

Once again DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY

Dec 09, 2008 05:23 AM

#13

Richard Stabile

Re/Max Real Estate Limited - Oradell, NJ

Bergen County New Homes Builder Realtor

I made my own site and it wasn't pretty, I didn't know quite how to do it. I learned as I went along and made a lot of mistakes. However over 8 or 9 months, I got quite a bit of business from it.

Richard

Dec 10, 2008 02:45 PM