On one side, there’s your desire to create a dynamite-looking website – unlike any other seen before!!  On the other hand is your need to make sure your real estate website does its job – lead generation.  Lurking behind these two issues is your Internet marketing budget.  So, what do you do?

Find the right balance!  There are a lot of fairly ugly real estate sites out there getting lots of traffic and making tons of money for their owners.  And, there are amazingly beautiful sites that no one ever sees. . .  no traffic, no leads.

So, find the right balance.  Start by being realistic about what it takes to create an effective Internet presence.  Websites don’t promote themselves.  You can’t just create a website, set it, and forget it!  Your site needs several basic things:

1. A professional look
2. Well-written copy geared for the Internet
3. A compelling marketing message to set you apart from your competition
4. Rich, original content, real estate tools and resources
5. Irresistable offers
6. Effective Search Engine Optimization

Someone could make a case that there are more than six, but this list is good enough for this discussion.

So, when you really look at it, the dynamite look is only about 1/6th of what you need to be successful on the Internet.  The first thing you need to do if you are putting together a website is come up with an overall budget for your Internet marketing.  That means you need to figure out how much money you will spend on each of the six items noted above.

Naturally, you want a good-looking, professional website.  But, keep in mind that there’s more to a website than just a pretty graphic.  You need to drive traffic to the site, and you need something to keep your visitors interested, coming back, and filling out those nice forms that provide you with leads.  Experience has proven that real estate buyers and sellers who adopt your website as their real estate research headquarters will be likely to contact you when they want to start working with a professional.

The moral of the story?  Don’t put all your resources into the graphic design of a website.  Make sure you’re getting a site that will pay for itself and provide you with a robust lead generation opportunity.