A web site builder is like an auto manufacturer. A web site builder only makes web sites. A web developer makes web sites and knows how to generate TRAFFIC to those web sites. Thinking a web site builder and a web developer are the same, is like thinking an auto manufacturer can build you a super highway and give you a limitless supply of gasoline. Web site builders can't do that. Most web developers can't do that either. Only people who have put in countless hours of work at not only BUILDING web sites, but learning how to drive TRAFFIC to them, can do this.
The average person thinks a web site builder and a web developer are the same thing. My explanation above probably didn't make the light bulb go on for a lot of you, so let's try this from a different angle.
Most people think that all they need is a web site. Any old web site will do. And then, somehow, RIGHT after it goes up on the Internet, all these CUSTOMERS will immediately start flying right to it.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
That web site is on the Internet, yes. But nobody knows it's there. Nobody can FIND it when it first gets online. And oftentimes, nobody EVER finds it. (If you've ever gotten a "web site" from any company or individual, and it never did a darned thing for you, then you worked with a "web site builder" - not an experienced "web developer".)
Web developers DEVELOP a "personal web" for their clients.
And it is exactly like building a spider web. The web site sits in the middle of the spider web. And initially, there are no other strands that connect to it. In time, a good web developer will add THOUSANDS of strands to the web. And each strand represents customers coming to that web site, from one specific location on the Internet. Some of it might come from the world's search engines.
So let's start there...
In order to really take advantage of the traffic that search engines can drive to a site, a person has to be well-versed in what is hilariously called, "Search Engine Optimization".
That's like calling the Encyclopedia Britannica a book. To find out more about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and why it's NOT what you think it is, click here.
There is so much involved in this esoteric art/science, that it cannot be summarized with three little words, or in a two-hour seminar held by some web site builder who figured out, 10 years ago, how to get the No. 1 ranking at Google for the search phrase, "real estate in Newark NJ".
Having ONE high ranking for one puny little search phrase is pointless. Rankings don't last. Rankings are rotated quite frequently at all of the "Big Three" search engines, these days. (The "Big Three" search engines are better known as Google, Bing & Yahoo!)
The "Big Three" search engines ROTATE the rankings for various web sites on an increasingly regular basis. And, oftentimes, they rotate them DRASTICALLY.
One minute a site will be ranked No. 4 for a specific search phrase. Five hours later it will be ranked No. 73. And then it will be ranked No. 134.. And sometimes it might disappear from a particular search engine's site index COMPLETELY. (For a while, anyway.)
My web sites eventually rank high for HUNDREDS, in some cases THOUSANDS, of different search phrases related to my clients' businesses. And the funny thing is, most people are so demented, that they think that if they could ONLY have a really high ranking, for just ONE specific search phrase, that it would immediately make them rich.
It WON'T make them rich, not in the real estate game. Trust me on this. I've spent 10 years religiously poring over my North American clients' search engine statistics, and the average person out there in the world who has no practical experience in these matters, is absolutely clueless.
And ignorance will flat-out kill you when it comes to this - or any other - business.
What you DON'T know, definitely CAN hurt you...
One of my current client's web sites gets over 1200 visitors, on average, every single month of the year, just from Google alone. (You can read more about him, and how I single-handedly turned him into an Internet super star, who owns his specific real estate "niche" - right here.)
But, the interesting thing is, over the last year, he's gotten traffic from over 7000 (seven thousand) DIFFERENT search phrases, from scores of search engines worldwide. And some of these search phrases generate more traffic than others, sure - but there are 6 billion people in the world, and if you think that they ALL think like YOU do, you are sadly mistaken.
My point being, I don't know how many times I've talked with a prospective new client, and they were all hung up on being No. 1 for a particular search phrase - nothing else would do for them. People are so demented, that they believe the entire world is going to do a search for their web site using the exact same search phrase that is stuck in THEIR particular mind. And nothing could be further from the truth.
The goal here is to cast as WIDE a spider web (or net) as possible. Let the competition get hung up on ONE specific search phrase - I'll rank high for hundreds of them, eventually (or even thousands of them), and I'll beat their brains out every single time...
So, yes, I generate search engine traffic to the lead-generating web sites I build for my clients in WAVES, because I understand what search engine optimization is all about. And search engine traffic is fine, yes, we WANT as much traffic as we can get to a new web site. But in time, the amount of traffic that comes to a web site, if a web developer really knows what they are doing, is DWARFED by the amount of traffic that comes from numerous INBOUND LINKS, number one. (From advertisements, and from places on the Internet where other web developers simply placed a link to your site, without asking for permission, they just do this because they LIKE your site - and doing this creates an "inbound link" to your site.)
This all takes time, patience, an extremely
expansive amount of knowledge, and a killer plan...
I have a "personal web" that I've developed for a floating homes expert in Portland, Oregon. (He's the client I mentioned earlier in this article.) I have been spinning a giant "web" for this particular client of mine for almost nine years now. And it is flat-out huge. Every year it gets bigger. And stronger. And more prolific.
And the No. 1 sender of traffic to his web site? IT'S HIS OWN WEB SITE . What do I mean by this? His site has been visited by so many people, for so long now, that vast numbers of people have BOOKMARKED his site. They have made it one of their "favorites" on their computer. And they return to it again and again, in droves, to look for homes. It is now an authority site, in its "niche". (I won't get into what that means, because this is not a seminar...and I don't give seminars, only phony gurus do that...people like me stick to their craft and make bank.)
The point here is, when you work with a world-class web developer, they KNOW how to build a web site that WORKS (one that has been tested, retested, tweaked and streamlined), and they also know how to DRIVE TRAFFIC to that site in waves, over time.
So...the next time you get a marketing email from a "web developer" - most of which you probably delete from your inbox without even reading them first, which is undoubtedly about as dumb a move as any real estate agent can make, especially if they are STARVING for business, which most of you are - but anyway, the next time you GET a marketing email from an actual "web developer", do yourself a favor and READ it first, because thinking that all "web developers" are the same, is as ignorant as thinking that all real estate agents are the same (or all plumbers, or all lawyers, etc.) - some are simply better producers than others...you can read about the 13 other most commonly held ignorant notions real estate agents have about my business, right here...
Also, the next time you DO get a marketing email from a "web developer", or you run into somebody who is allegedly in my business, and they say they are a "web developer" or a "web designer", ask them if they drive waves of traffic to the sites they create, or if they just design web sites. And ask them if the sites they create are constantly tested, tweaked, expanded and redesigned to make them better and better - like mine are. And ask them if they've generated over $200 million in online real estate sales - like I have. Ask them HOW they drive traffic to sites.
Most of them will look at you like a deer in the headlights and say, "Uh...yes...my sites are tested...I drive traffic to my sites? Um..., yes...um...I do some SEO."
And let that be a RED FLAG, whenever you hear that ("I do some SEO", or "I do SEO") - AND BEWARE - because whomever you are talking to, well, all they do is build web sites, or they drive a piddling amount of traffic to them, merely by accident. They are not web developers.
And usually, they build really PRETTY web sites (that nobody ever sees). And really pretty web sites can kill your online real estate business. (To find out exactly why this is true, click here.)
If you want to make money on the Internet quickly and ABUNDANTLY, you have to work with an experienced, prolific, seasoned, WEB DEVELOPER - someone who truly knows what they are doing.
And I know. beyond a shadow of a doubt, exactly what I am doing...feel free to click another link below, and prove that to yourself. Talk is definitely cheap. But seeing is believing...
Call me today for more information. Be glad to meet with you too. I'm currently in Austin, Texas - where I have relocated permanently. But I can do an online presentation right over the Internet for anybody, anywhere in the world - as long as they have an Internet connection and a telephone.
My name is Chris Ullman, I am an expert at marketing real estate on the Internet, and my mobile number is 512-450-8836. Call me today and I'll shoot straight with you about how I can help you make money.
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