a la mode news & marketing tips — November 23, 2005

How to write dynamic web content

As you know, your XSite comes with unlimited professionally-written content pages, which you can edit as needed to make them more personal or more geared towards your market.  But you may also want to write your own content pages from time to time.  But writing content for the web is different than writing an essay for English class.  Web surfers rarely read web pages word by word; rather, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences that appeal to them.

Because you only have a few seconds to grab your visitors attention on the web, here are some tips on writing effective content pages:

Reel them in with a good headline.  Grabbing your XSite visitors' attention with a compelling headline is the most important ingredient to good website content — and it can often be the most difficult part to write.  When writing your headlines use words that appeal to your target market and remember the age-old K.I.S.S. formula: Keep it short and simple.

Use the inverted pyramid style.  Treat your content page as a news article and provide a summary of your information in the first paragraph so your readers will know the direction of your discussion.

Write as though you're having a conversation with your readers.  You're not writing to impress, you're writing to communicate so keep your sentences simple.

Use the active voice not a passive one.  For example, instead of "I know I will be able to find the right home for you" say "I will find the right home for you."

Make it "scannable."  Add subheads and bulleted lists to break up your copy and make it easy to scan.

Eliminate fluff.  Avoid using filler sentences that do not contribute to your discussion.

Proof read!  Spelling or grammatical errors in your web copy make your site look unprofessional and will likely turn off your visitors.  Read the copy out loud or have someone else to proof read it.  And don't rely on spell check as it won't pick up errors that may have been spelled correctly, but do not make sense in the copy.  (For example, if you wrote "Finding the perfect home it my business" instead of "Finding the perfect home is my business").

To add your own content page to your XSite, go to Step 6 in your Wizard, click on the "Custom Pages" tab and click on "Add A New Page."  You can write your content on the page using our robust editor that includes everything you might see in a word processing program like Microsoft Word.  Plus, you can also add your own images, outside links, Flash files and other media files with just a few clicks!

Meet the winner of our Porsche Boxster giveaway!

Meet Nathan Gilliam, president/broker of Palm Coast, Fla.-based Resident Real Estate Network.  Gilliam is the lucky winner of a brand new 2006 Porsche Boxer convertible … even though it took some work convincing him he'd really won the giveaway.

"I'm generally not a gullible person and I've never won anything substantial before, so I was very skeptical at first," he said.

Since we announced the Porsche giveaway in September, thousands of you registered for an Agent XSite trial online and more than 4,000 agents registered to win the Porsche at our booth at last month's National Association of REALTORS® Conference and Expo.  Check out highlights from the NAR show here.

Gilliam started Resident Real Estate Network almost two years ago and has been a REALTOR® for almost four years in Palm Coast.  He purchased his Agent XSite in September because it saved him more time and money than if he had designed his own website from scratch. "By having a well-designed front-end to my website ready to go 'out of the box' for a reasonable cost, I'm able to spend my time more productively on selling real estate and other development efforts," he said.

Before real estate, Gilliam was a technology consultant and project manager in New York City where he designed systems for clients such as the United Nations Headquarters, UNICEF, Chase Manhattan Bank, GE Capital and The New York Times.  His expertise has allowed him to leverage technology to better serve his customers — and says his XSite has helped him tremendously. 

"Since I put a heavy technology focus on everything I do, I need a website that has powerful functionality, stays up on the latest technology — such as the new Google™ Earth feature — and has a great graphical design for appearance," he said.

Gilliam also uses XSellerate to stay in contact with prospects, especially since it allows him to automate his marketing efforts. "Even though I haven't finished configuring my campaigns yet, the ability to custom tailor campaigns to the forms they were entered on having control over when and what content gets emailed is very powerful," he said.