My partner wants to get a web site! He has been reluctant because the first time he had one it generated very little business. That was about seven or eight years ago, thinks have changed. I could use some advice. I saw recently some of you were using a company that charges $25/mo. and sounded happy with it. What about Activerain, what is it how does it work? What else should I look into?
Stephen, as many here will attest, I drink the HIP Koolaid. I will tell you that check both HIP and HG services out. I have six of HIP’s sites (two are being set up now) and I feel that I would not be at the top of the search engines for my keyword cities if the were other than HIP sites. The framework of the site matters for SEO and that is what HIP sites are made for.
I cannot say anything good or bad about HomeGuage services. They have some happy customers.
How about a free all the bells and whistle website from microsoft with any domain name you want from any registar you want. http://www.officelive.com/en-us/
I believe microsoft has alittle more experiance with computers and software then any other hosting site out there.
Thanks guy’s. We will look into all of these and any others. I am really looking forward to this, I hope to get a lot more inspections, only 38 in '09.
I use officelive, pay about $15/year and have had TONS of work because of it. Of course, it helps that there really aren’t many inspectors in this area…but it certainly gives me a competitive edge.
With office live it is up to you to design the site using their site builder program, very easy to use.
HomeGauge sites aren’t all that great since you don’t have control over the SEO or all the little fancy stuff Dom has on his sites. I am a die hard HomeGauge user, but I can not give any props to their websites for inspectors.
If I had a couple of hundred pounds of work that would be a inprovement.
Home Inspector Pro sites win the monthly competitions here for a reason.
Seems like a pretty small business investment for the results.
You can pay less , but then you can get an Inspection for $99 .
I think thats the way I’m leaning.
Stephen,
Before you get too excited, you need to answer this question(s):
Q: What are you expecting from a website?
Q: Are you looking for one to develop and maintain yourself? or Pay someone else to build and manage?
I agree with all above, but, there are many differences with each and every one. You need to investigate everyone.
There are many others that many inspectors utilize. Check them all out to see what suits you the best.
My current site: **Inspectorsites **(My first site, fairly easy to manage)
2nd in development: Home Inspector Pro (SEO ready, more flexibility)
3rd in development: **Intuit **(fairly difficult for professional result)(My 1st year was free)
4th in development: **OfficeLive **(fairly difficult for professional result)(My 1st year eas free)
Bottom line, nowadays you must have a website. 90% of my business come from my one site. Most all other advertising has been a total failure!
Jeff
Dollar for dollar, I would have to agree with Jeff. Your website will be your best bet nowadays. I personally have just not had much success with other methods, but your area may be different. In my area, it seems to be word of mouth or internet. Very few leads from phone books or newspapers, strange.
Someone told me that if you do not have a web site you don’t exist and that seems to be true. We had our worst year last ('09) year and so many of you seem to be doing great in large part to a web site. My second and best year was '06 with about 170, last year 36.
What are you guys getting from your sites that have good SEO? How many cold calls are you averaging a week? I love the HIP set up it is by far the best I have seen, but unless the calls are coming in you could use the cheapest hosting and it wouldn’t matter. So, how are the websites working for you guys?
If you want to spend time learning how, you can a site from scratch, hosted by any number of servers - yes, some free. But why would you want to waste your time doing that and end up with mediocre performance? Home Ispector Pro’s web sites are designed and set up specifically for home inspectors and are very effective with reasonably effort on your part. Cut to the chase and go with Domonic and HIP !!