9) Using Bad Internet Marketing Tricks.

I'm sure most real estate agents would agree with the following statement: "You cannot force a client to buy or sell a home." So, why would you think that you can:

a) force them to submit their name online by not granting them access to your listings?

b) force them to stay on your web site by disabling their browser's “Back” button?

c) force them to look at your marketing by popping up an unwanted window?

d) force them to "book mark this page”?

e) Force them to a page of your choosing by redirecting their browser?

In the end, all that is accomplished by these Internet ploys, is to really annoy the client and force them to "www.i’m-out-of-here.com"

8) ABUSING, not USING, privacy on the Internet.

One of the reasons that the Internet is such an attractive tool for most people is its anonymity. For home seekers, this means the ability to get on their computer at 2:00 am, in their pajamas, and cruise the net looking for their next home...without having to worry about a sales representative breathing down their neck.

Let's call our late-night home seeker “Mr. Pajamas,” and Mr. Pajamas does not want you to know his name. Use this to your advantage and give him what he wants...Homes. Don't try to force him to give you all his personal information - The most personal being his email address.

A quick word about email addresses. They are considered highly personal and private! You can send marketing brochures to someone’s home all day...but do the same to their emailbox, and you become the SPAM KING or QUEEN...quickly becoming the most hated entity on the planet!

Many of our clients have learned this lesson the hard way. Their expensive and well-crafted online forms get filled out in the following way:

Name: Mr. Purple Pajamas

email: mr.purplepajams@nowayjose.com

Address: You’ve got to be kidding me

7) Being the Link Meister.

What's easier to remember when you want to find out who your favorite baseball team is playing?

I2selldenverhomes4you.com

or

Cubs.com

This is a common pitfall that you should really avoid. The simple fact is that most home seekers do not visit your web site to find the latest news, movies, baseball stats or even the address to the local dog shelter, so keep those links off your site.

6) NOT Being Mr. or Ms. Helpful.

The web is full of very powerful and FREE tools to link from your website for use by both home sellers and seekers. These tools include everything from CMA reports and mortgage calculators to web sites that notify the world of an address change. Add these links to your site, and visitors will return.

5) Overdoing the “Flash.”

It is a fact that the average Real Estate agent is in his or her fifties...the average web user is not. Most web users are younger, more web savvy and more adapt at using the web then you are. So don't try to impress them with your Flash Technology.

Flash presentations are a great tool when used correctly, but 90% of the time, they are used to impress you and your colleagues, not your clients. Too often, a Flash presentation only adds download time and no real value.

Remember Mr. Pajamas. Do you truly believe he wants to sit and wait while his computer downloads the animation of Sparky the Dog barking out, "Ruse me, Roe Realtor, for all Rour Real Restate Reeds!"

4) Using “catchy” rather than professional.

OK...so this is YOUR choice. You are about to hand over a thousand of your hard-earned dollars to a web site designer. Do you go with the simple web site that features you, your abilities, your experience and your home listings, or do you decide on something more innovative, like adding a huge white sugar cube that slowly morphs into a dream house while playing "Home Sweet Home" to your home page?

I would suggest taking a look at your favorite web sites, like Amazon.com, MSN.com, CNN.com, Yahoo.com or Google.com. These web sites employ hundreds of well-paid and highly-talented web site designers working with armies of focus groups to capture the perfect look and feel for their millions of daily visitors. Most of these web sites DON’T feature morphing sugar cubes.

And now...drum roll please...the Top Three Pitfalls to avoid when building your perfect real estate web site.

3) Believing the popular sentiment: “build it and they will come.”

There is something like 300 gazillion web sites on the world wide web, so the real trick is getting your web site found. How do you do this? The easiest and most effective way is for you to market it yourself. Feature your web site address on your car, your signs, your business cards, your newspaper ads, your mother-in-law’s forehead, and make it central to your marketing efforts. That's it...no big whoop...yet most people overlook this simple marketing plan.

2) Sacrificing Quality for Price.

Using a 14-year-old amateur web site designer to build your web site in his spare time in his basement may save you some money, but your web site will look like it was built by a 14-year-old amateur web site designer in his spare time in his basement.

Custom web site design is expensive, and EXCELLENT custom web site design is extremely expensive. Web sites do not work like graphic design programs. You cannot not just drag an image from one part of the web page to another. Web sites are built in HTML, so if you want to make even a tiny change, a programmer must change the code.

1) Forgetting what it’s all about…HOMES!

As a real estate professional, you are in the business of Homes. Yet the home buyer or seller would be hard pressed to figure this out by looking at many agent web sites. The sites tend to either ignore, bury, forget to add/update or hide the homes.

We spend lots of time and energy tracking how our visitors use our web site, and the vast majority go straight to the home listings. All the rest tends to be window dressing.

The real web site secret is something that Mr. Pajamas already knows… he is looking for a home. Let him find it on your web site...so that when the time comes to make an offer, Mr. Pajamas will pick up the phone and call you.