I read loads of Internet post of so called real estate professionals that turns out to be more hype than reality. I have been on the Internet for over 12 years, and over 85% of our income is directly Internet related, I 've made a lot of observations that directly impact my Internet business, and consult with real estate web developers, programmers etc. One of the main factors once a website is found on a search query is the load time of the page. If the page does not load quickly, the buyer move's on. No sale! It is a frustration factor. So no matter what materials are contained in web page, the rule I used to use when dial up predominated the market was a 14 second load time. Since broadband usage now comprises over 52% of all users, I've raised the bench mark to the audience I would like to reach. However there are limits.
Many of the speakers, and seminar hosts today focus on the glitz in the business rather than the limitations of the technical realities and limiting factors of selling real estate or actually selling anything on the Internet. It is interesting how much BS gets a pass. High five, and attaboys/girls are the norm. But then again these seminar hosts, moderators, and so called "experts" do not sell real estate on the internet, They sell services, and seminars. Perhaps they can hook you up with a coach for a monthly fee, or have you enrolled in a Internet boot camp, or enroll you in a pay per click plan that will never work! All for a nominal fee of course.
I was recently looking at a so called # 1 real estate sites of the year, loaded with Awards, and Accolades to the MAX! And as I was looking at the site, I realized the load times of the web page was off the charts! I mean this website was so loaded down it might as well be the the anchor for the Titanic! I am talking about load times of over 280 seconds!!!! No graphics were optimized, there were distracting flash plug ins, cookies, script errors that all added to the mix. Lets come into the real world people! Why do we give awards to something that does not work.
If you have a real estate website, it is good to run some test once and a while to make sure it will ever work. Here are some free tools I use to check load times.
RE/MAX Paramount Properties 678-595-5283 Direct
Or 888-940-0074 Toll Free Office
Atlanta Real Estate Agents, Alpharetta GA Homes for Sale, Dunwoody GA Homes for Sale, Atlanta Real Estate & Atlanta Homes for Sale 
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Very nice tools... Thank you for the post, Jim!
It took 2.233 seconds to load my website! Yeah!
If you really want to succeed, and not just to hear what you want to hear, you need a social media hub, like active rain, of your own, to target your demographic marketplace.
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Jim,
Nice tools! I didn't know about these and I have now already bookmarked them.
You wrote, "I was recently looking at a so called # 1 real estate sites of the year". I would really like to know where those sites were, out of curiosity. Since there are very few legitimate organizations passing out "real" awards for web sites, most "awards" are really just a way to gain inbound links to the other web site giving them out. "Just copy and paste our HTML code in your web page and it will display our wonderful award graphic showing your visitors your achievement for having a great web site." Ha! Maybe P.T. Barnum was right after all... there is a sucker born every minute!
Anyway, great stuff as always!
Win knows that. This is what i did this moring, what have you done lately.
http://activerain.com/blogsview/2555869/welcome-to-green-country-oklahoma-how-to-be-the-media-for-your-town
Israel Rothman - upLog.org (SocialMediaSystems.com) Thanks for sharing...I created 2 new WordPress Blogs today!