Web Development 101
August 2nd 2007 · Posted in ReviewMe · Comment(1)
Let’s face it, us bloggers have it easy! Blogging has very quickly become the most popular medium for publishing on the internet. Most internet businesses keep a blog to update their customer base on new products and what not. It’s so pervasive that many companies have produced easy to use, user friendly programs to make it simple for anyone (and I do mean anyone) to keep their own blog. I mean there’s Blogger, Word Press, Type Pad, Xanga, MySpace, Face Book, Blog Charm…need I go on? Heck, 90% of my Google Adsense ads are for sites like these! And using most of these programs (though I don’t have experience in them all) requires no more ability than being able to read, type, and click.
So, when Kevin and I have the idea for a unique web site such as Blankest Blank or Fechr, there’s no template to follow, no user friendly program to type a few simple lines of English into and spit out a beautiful and functional web site. Nope. We had to start from scratch. And trust me, it isn’t easy (but hopefully will be worth it)…
Well, what if you’re somewhere in the middle? Your web site needs aren’t exactly unique (it’s been done, but you want to do it better or different)…but it’s not a blog either. Well, depending on your niche, chances are there is a company out there that has made an easy to use, user friendly program that will do the brunt of the work for you. You just probably haven’t heard of them, because they don’t help publish something like the 20 million plus blogs out there. They might help publish THOUSANDS of web sites, but in a market as big as the internet, thousands may not be enough to notice by the average user.
A perhaps above average type of web site (and one I’ve had a lot of personal experience with lately) are Real Estate Agent Websites. My wife and I just bought a house in April, but the house we bought was 2 states away from the state we were in. Lucky for us the internet exists, and we were able to browse a lot of homes and eliminate a lot of options without driving 3 hours to see them in person. I’m 100% sure that these real estate agents aren’t as versed in HTML, Javascript, PHP, MySQL, etc. as their professionally designed sites might lead us to believe.
Top Producer is one such company that offers Real Estate Agent Websites. Just like you and I are used to having, by default, comment sections, trackback URLs, blogrolls, plug ins, and other widgets ready to go at our disposal when we start a new blog, Top Producers provides their clients with a lot of great default features (though of course ones more relevant to real estate sites), things like: community profiles, school statistics, local MLS (multiple listing service) data, etc.
I guess the message I’m trying to get across here is (1) Give Top Producer a look if you’re in the real estate biz and (2) Make sure you don’t go re-inventing the wheel for your web development needs!
