new web based business

[davidhorn]

Hi all - have just opened up a new 'sell your home online' website, which I hope you'll give some good feedback on: www. fuzzbo.com

I feel the site works well, but feels a little 'flat' to me sometimes - happy to take on board any suggestions!

(btw we're in soft launch mode at the moment - so there aren't many properties on there ... if you'd like to list your property at a special rate of £5, drop me a line!)

All feedback welcome,

Many thanks,

David

[www.infoebookstore.co.uk]

looks simple enough to me, just need to ask how are you different from the competition?

I have two properties and have recently considered selling one, the cost of estate agents is high and have considered these sort of sites, however, in my opinion unless you are listed on the likes of rightmove.co.uk, homesonline, findaproperty, fish4 then you are just not going to get the interest in your property that you need.

Can you set up as an estate agent and get your properties listed on these sites? That would make you different from the rest.

Sorry, more questions than comments!

Jim

[davidhorn]

Hi Jim, thanks for the feedback. We're currently talking to some of those companies you mention in order to get our listings on their sites. However, we're reluctant to set ourselves up as estate agents in order to achieve this. Setting ourselves up as estate agents means that we cannot be used in conjunction with an estate agent without buyers having to declare us to their existing estate agents - so losing their 'sole agent' rate, which a lot of people - still new to selling their homes online - are reluctant to do.

One of our team is an ex-estate agent and he's working on that side of things - but glad you like the site. We're still in the 'populating the database' phase, and I anticipate we'll be doing that for a month or so before having a hard launch.

Thanks again,

David

[Himore]

I've not had chance to delve into the site in detail but my initial thoughts are that this site looks very attractive and professional. Well Done!

I like your colour scheme - very 'WEB2.0' :-)

I agree that links on the major house sites would be great, but you can also get your site 'out there' by other means. Have you looked into PPC and Article Marketing?

Nick

[davidhorn]

thanks for the feedback Himore ... I've done a bit of PPC marketing in the past, although I wouldn't claim to be an expert on it. We're thinking that we need 100 houses across at least 10 counties before we can really begin promoting it as an effective resource - when we get to that point, PPC will kick in. As for article marketing ... no, not really heard of that? We have a blog and we're trying to write to that at least once a week - that way we'll get a good few keyword rich articles etc.

Thanks again.

[Himore]

People love reading articles, and there's statistical proof that people are more likely to respond to 'editorial' style promotions instead of straight ads.

Check out 'ezinearticles' (Google love 'em) and also 'GoArticles'. They're the two main ones I use, but there are literally hundreds more.

Basically you write an interesting article about something related to houses, house buying, estate agents, etc... and then submit to one of these sites for publication. Put your web URL in your signature at the bottom of the article.

Also, never underestimate the power of good old fashioned 'local newspaper' marketing! I don't mean placing ads either. Editors of the local press are always struggling to fill the pages with more than the usual stories of cats going missing, or some old fella choking on his teeth - and they'll welcome you with open arms if you write a story for them, and usually give you a little plug to boot. Give it some local perspective.

PM me if you want more on the Article side of things, because there are things you can do to REALLY drive traffic your way and get on the first page of Google listings!

cheers.
Nick

[rossmc]

Love the fuzzbo site! I was going to establish something similar but got sidetracked with another business idea! The domain name houseboom.co.uk is now for sale as I no longer need it, sure someone would like to own it? Let me know if you're interested.