Matt Way’s Blog

A new Commercial Realtor Website

• November 3rd, 2008

I just wanted to post a notice that I found a new real estate website by a commercial real estate agent. The site offers a search tool that is powered by Google maps and allows the site visitors to browse the agent’s properties. Just an observation I made and thought I would share.

Okay People, It’s Not a Backslash

• January 23rd, 2008

Sure, some people have quirks that are worse than others. I wondered if my teeth clenching at the sound of “find us on the web at www.somegreatdomain.com(backslash)product” was a touch much or if I had company on my little ‘get it right’ island. So I did what I could to find out if anyone had blogged about this phenomenon.

For those that haven’t noticed or do not really care, I am talking about people from all walks of life stating that this –> / is a backslash when they pitch a URL (or URI - I’ll save this one for another post) in a commercial or whatever other reason they may be communicating a file path to someone. The truth is that is NOT a BACKslash it leans forward not backward.

I’m not kidding I have literally had a support technician call it a backslash when referring to a file location.

Anyway, I decided to find some others that had similar thoughts about this growing craze nearly as popular as drinking coffee from a Seattle-based company. I am happy to say I am not the only one that has noticed. Whew! Am I glad to see I am not as neurotic as I feared.

Here are some of the other pages explaining this widespread inaccuracy:

http://calmerthanyouare.wordpress.com

http://howtoproperly.com/forward-slashes-backslashes/

http://www.students.bucknell.edu/mdippery/post.asp?id=76

Hope you enjoy the info.

Furthering Education

• December 17th, 2007

Well, after going such a long time without posting. I figured I better post about what I’ve been up to the last couple of months.

For the most part, I have been pretty busy with work on websites, graphic design, and adding content to my site. However, I have managed to squeeze in some additional education.

Adobe has been heavily promoting Actionscript 3.0. In case you aren’t aware, Actionscript 3 is the programming language used by Flash CS3 and Flex. (both of which are Adobe products)

I have been hitting the books to familiarize myself with this language. I am pretty excited about Actionscript 3.0 since it allows me to do all kinds of neat stuff with Flash. However, up to now I have been really wanting Adobe to include functionality for interacting with the file sytem. I perceive many benefits to having this functionality as it would allow me to build great applications for the desktop.

Now maybe I’ll be able to complete that project I’ve had rolling around in the back of my head. Anyway, nothing too exciting. I just thought I’d write a post today.

The Pain of a Sprain

• September 19th, 2007

They say a sprain is worse than a break when you are talking about ankles. While I do not know if that statement is true, I do know that a sprained ankle is no fun whatsoever.

About two or three weeks ago I was playing basketball with some friends at the park. Well, according to my wife, I can’t do anything without going all out. That is definitely what happened here. We were just shooting around and I went for a rebound I shouldn’t have chased and stepped on the edge of the court. My ankled rolled and I sprained it.

Just so you know, pumping your fist in the air repeatedly doesn’t always mean you’re celebrating a great play. I know because after this event, my grimmacing face was red and my arm was going about twenty pumps-a-minute but there was no joy, I guarantee you that.

Since I love playing basketball - which, by the way is the only reason I play it, because I stink at it - I kept playing anyway like an idiot.

If you’ve never had a sprained ankle, I can tell you that it hurts in more than just your ankle. My foot, toes, leg, and even my hip hurt from this injury. My toes turned black and my foot puffed up like a chubby baby’s leg.

Anyway, it’s virtually healed now and I can walk without a limp but it will still be a while before I can put any kind of a strain on it. I can tell you this, next time I play any sport, I’ll remember what my wife is right about a lot of things and I won’t fueling my activity with effort in the absense of moderation.

Down Right Comfortable

• September 6th, 2007

Do you live in a region of the world that is cold? Do you appreciate having a lightweight, soft cover when you sleep? If you said yes to one or both of these questions, you may find my first post on my newest blog interesting. It is an article on down comforters.

I didn’t realize there was such a list of things to consider when purchasing down bedding. I learned a lot and thought I would share it with you guys.

Websites Should Have a Purpose

• June 16th, 2007

It seems to be the same old dilemma. Each time I meet with a new client one of the first things I like to ask them is “What is the purpose of your site?” Nearly everyone gets a look on their face like I should already know the answer to that question. After I patiently pause for a few seconds they usually say something to the effect of “to make  more money with my business”, or “to make my business seem more professional”.

Another one I ask is “What group are you looking to target with your website?” Nearly all of them answer “everyone”. These questions, along with others will generally give me a good idea of what to expect from the client. This is helpful because it serves as a sort of compass to help determine how much help they will need in coming up with ways to help the visitors.

In order to have a successful website, the site owner has to realize that the goal is to fill a specific need that a certain group of people have rather than to fill a self-centered need that the majority couldn’t care less about. Let’s look at an example.

Branson Condo Information

There is a real estate team in Branson that seems to have come up with a great tool that I think is a nice example of our topic. It’s basically a Branson condo information research tool  and we’ll look at why I said it is a good example.

When you land on the home page you’ll notice that the site is built around a program that organizes information regarding condominiums in and around the Branson area. The first thing I noticed is the map that has all the condo complexes mapped for me (the visitor) to browse through.

When I find an area I like, I can click a pushpin to get a pop up balloon with some basic information in it - including the address. Inside that balloon there is a link to more details. It’s at the end of this link that the real stuff I (the visitor) am interested in.

Detailed Condominium Real Estate Info

Once I click the details link, I get a page that is chock full of sales information on condos in the Branson Tri-Lakes area. There is a list of units that are currently available as well as sales history on past units.

The rest of the site is your standard realty information, nothing real special. The main benefit to the visitor though is obvious. They get to look at a variety of condominium complexes and see which ones might be what they are looking for.

There is no doubt that this site was built with that purpose in mind. On top of that, the site isn’t going to interest “everyone”. Only a select group are going to be shopping for a condo.

In short, the more site owners think about the purpose of their site before it is built, the more success they will have once it is completed and marketed.

Just Checkin In

• May 10th, 2007

Whoa, the last part of April and first part of May have kept me pretty busy to say the least. I have been struggling just to keep up. However, I have managed to keep up and I think it is getting better.

In the midst of all the scrambling around I managed to begin the redesign of my web design company website; which is coming along nicely I would say. There is much to do yet and I will continue working to improve it over the course of time as my schedule permits.

Other than being very busy with the launch of some sites for clients and beginning new ones, I really haven’t much to comment on. Since that is the case, I’ll leave the post there. Until next time, see ya.

Get Web Traffic Not Links

• April 5th, 2007

Usually when I think about search marketing, I think of getting links to my site. Most of my client understand this aspect of the web yet disregard the opposite - the need to link to other helpful websites that are related to your own. In fact, just the other day, I had a client come right out and tell me that they did not want to link to any other websites. I was dumbfounded.

The Problem is in the Basic View

So why do people make these mistakes? Well, one cause is that they are thinking from the wrong perspective. They have a ‘got to get links mentality’ rather than the ‘got to get traffic frame of mind’. Yet when one operates on this foundation, she misses the opportunities that exist for traffic.

So, what is the difference? Well, let’s look at an example.

Promoting Branson Area Real Estate

Real estate agents in my area consistently seek better rankings in SEs, yet few of them are willing to give outbound links to related sites. What can they do? Well, one option is to buy links to their website (which, by the way, many do) and thus not have to give a link in return.

Seems like a great idea right? Well consider this option:

In Branson, there is a marketing company that has put together what I believe to be an excellent concept that is designed to push traffic to a real estate agent rather than just links. Browse around at this Branson real estate TV channel and you’ll see what I mean.

First, this concept has a website to promote all the REALTORS® in their members database. Second, the concept carries a 24 hr. cable channel devoted exclusively to the showing of homes in the Branson area. So not only are there benefits coming to participants from the Internet through the link provided on the website, but they get the community awareness through the television channel as well.

Along with the web and TV traffic generation, the company that designed this concept also promotes the channel through TV commercials and print advertising so the effects are compounded, not to mention a variety of other important benefits. In fact, the website has an entire section discussing the advantages to real estate agents using HomeStation.TV verses traditional methods of marketing property.

In short, when a real estate agent purchases advertising from this marketing company, they get advertising for their brand across a variety of mediums instead of just a link to their website. To me, it just seems to make more sense.

Ice Storm

• January 17th, 2007

Listening to the news last Friday, one would have never guessed that it would work out like it did. Just to the North of where I live (Branson, MO) the ice was thick!

My wife travels for her job and was to fly into Springfield, MO Saturday. Needless to say, we were very interested in how the weather would develop. According to the local meteorologists, the ice storm was coming and it was to be a big one!

I personally had a hard time reconciling the forecast because it called for ice and dangerous travel conditions while at the same time predicting temperatures right around 30 degrees or so. Obviously I didn’t want to take the chance of getting out in the weather and  being stranded so I stayed in.

I was extremely concerned, however, because my wife would still be traveling through the storm, landing in Springfield and then driving about 44 miles before she would be safe.

Saturday morning I waited and watched the rain fall nearly continuously without ever experiencing ice. In fact, the whole day was that way. Just North in Springfield, however, it was freezing and building up quickly.

To make a long story short, Springfield got buried and Branson got hardly anything. Springfield got so much ice, in fact, it took my wife literally an hour to get into her car. It was fully encased in ice.

In the end though, she made it home we didn’t get iced in and everything went fine.

I don’t ever remember seeing weather that different in two spots that close together. What a weekend!

Looking for Adsense Advice?

• January 2nd, 2007

If you are interested in making money with AdSense, you’ve come to the right place! Because I’m an AdSense specialist? No. However, I do know of some people that make a good living by utilizing AdSense.

I do use it on some of my personal websites and I have to admit that it is really the easiest money I’ve ever made. Like I said, I don’t make a bunch, but every bit helps.

Anyway, for the real reason you are here. To find out who to be following to generate cash with AdSense. One person whose work I enjoy following is http://www.jonathanleger.com/category/adsense/. I learned of him about a year ago when I was looking for some site tracking tools.

Joining his mailing list resulted in my getting more information about the whole Internet advertising and marketing field than I could ever have imagined. I have to be honest here. I don’t read all the emails I get, but I still like getting them because every now and then he sends out an article or a reference that makes me want to look closer at the subject.

Well, that’s really it. I didn’t really want to say a whole lot. Just give hint to anyone that finds this page as to where they might be able to learn more about this subject. So, until next time, see ya!

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