It Sucks
Don’t talk to me about how great your website is. It sucks.
No, really. It does.
Mine does, too.
Sure, it has all the bells and whistles. It has this really slick IDX search function, with a really cool lead capture feature that sends you an email within seconds so that you can respond to your customers in record time. It has a listings page that shows off all of your properties in all their photographic glory, with descriptions more eloquent than Shakespeare. There is page after page of information describing you and your services, and your promises, and the neighborhoods you work in. Heck, maybe you even have a blog, pushing interesting content to folks every day.
Well, it still sucks.
It Can’t Deliver
It sucks because it isn’t you. It can’t deliver what you can deliver. It can’t deliver your expertise or insight to the individuals who need it without even knowing it, it can’t deliver the personal relationship that you can deliver, no matter how many IM widgets it has.
You are far better at selling real estate than your website is. You are far better at finding homes for your clients than your website is. You want it to do what you can’t, won’t or don’t have time to do– but it won’t. It never will. Stop trying.
Your website isn’t going to make your life easier, or more convenient, or better. Your website isn’t going to do a damn thing– not without you. You make your website better, not the other way around. You are what is valuable, not your IDX search, not your widgets, not your blog. You are what matters. Not what your website can offer, but what you can offer.
Brain Freeze
You cannot be defined by Page Rank, unique views, or subscribers. You are much more than that. You just had a brain freeze for a little while and forgot that. You forgot for a moment that Google was not mentioned in the book of Genesis. You forgot that behind every “unique” there is, in fact, a unique person. You forgot that behind every “lead” is someone with a problem to be solved or a need to be met. You got distracted by all the cool gadgets and whizz-bang electronics. You have spent so much time searching for the next freaking awesome web app, that you managed to forget about you and how freaking awesome you are. You let everything else get in the way.
You somehow erected an electronic barrier between you and everyone else under the guise of actually wanting to make things better for both of you; and now, it sucks. Now everything is complicated, and hard to understand, and cumbersome, and sometimes annoying to put up with.
Don’t Worry
Don’t worry. I’m there with you. I did it, too.
Like I said, you are freaking awesome. It’s just your website that sucks.
So, here we are. A bunch of really awesome people with a lot to offer who are hemmed up by sucky websites. A bunch of people who know what we need to do, but don’t always know how to do it. A bunch of people who have been given the tools necessary to acheive sucess beyond our wildest dreams, but without instruction on how to use them.
So, what are we going to do about it?
Photo Credit: practicalowl
