SDB Club Benchmark Real Estate

Again today, I’m reading through posts in a very popular and proprietary real estate technology forum, and a discussion about a certain “Website Brand” yielded these comments :

- “I’ve been using [Brand] since 2004″ then this member and others go on to say
- Visitors make great comments on the site
- Listing clients love it
- My site is low maintenance, no babysitting it
- [Brand]‘s technical support is excellent
- It’s easy to make site changes
- And THE KICKER – The person with the site since 2004 says “I’ve also received a few good leads from it that have turned into sales.”

Sorry, but if, in 5+ years, all you can say about your website is that you’ve gotten a few good leads to sales, why bother?! Sure, whether they realize it really isn’t going to be seen by thousands, if the listing prospect likes how your site displays their home, then it may help you to get some listings.

But, if my site isn’t generating A LOT of leads that go to sales, I’ll spend my time, effort and money on something else that does! It’s nice that site visitors say they like the look, but if they’re not doing a transaction and generating a commission for me at some point, what’s the big deal?

When I moved to my current home in a resort/vacation community, I came over a few months early, took my test and got a license. Then, about 45 days before actually moving, I built my website. At that time, almost nobody was blogging, so it was a static site, something I wouldn’t do today. My first calendar year, in a brand new area with no acquaintances, I generated $50,000+ in income straight from that website. I don’t meet, greet, schmooze or join to get business, so 100% of those commissions came from that site. I also put several hundred prospects into drip email from leads directly from that site.

Don’t judge the value of your current site provider by “pretty.” Don’t recommend them because they’re easy to reach on the phone, or “very helpful.” Don’t consider their service and site platform a success because your visitors say it looks great. Judge on one criteria alone…does it generate income, and does it do it consistently?

Now, with my blog platform real estate site, I expect even more from it. I do NO print marketing for leads, no image ads, and still don’t schmooze for business. I’ve handed out less than 20 business cards in the last year, and every one of those was requested, not offered. You can build an entire business, with six figure commissions, on a blog platform website at a cost of less than $12 per month for the site and software. It’s up to you if you want to keep buying refrigerator magnets and mailing postcards at a much higher cost.

But, if you don’t select your site platform based on the income it can generate, you’re using the wrong criteria.