My Plastic Surgery Website

My web side has had more facelifts over the past year than Cher and Joan Rivers combined. Gary Busey seems downright "au naturale" compared to my site. Like Jennifer Grey, of Dirty Dancing and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, my website this morning looks nothing like it did yesterday. And when I say "nothing," I mean nothing.

I wish I could I had saved the "before" pictures. That way I could have done a before and after feature, like the National Enquirer does with it's celebrity plastic surgery photos. Here's Michelle Pfeiffer before the knife, and here's Michelle Pfeiffer after the knife.

"Here's my website before the redo, and here's my website after the redo."

The good news about a bad website redo, though, is that it's a lot easier to fix than a bad nose job.

There is definitely a lot to be desired with my site. I have made a commitment, though, to do it myself, because for eight years I had a web company handle it. It was stagnant and boring. Every time I wanted to so much as change out a photo, which I now know takes about 3 minutes, I'd be socked with a $75 bill. And that's no exaggeration.

If I'm getting creamed for 3 minutes of labor, how in the world am I going to have a site which reflects the day to day goings on in the Beaufort, SC real estate market? It would be impossible. I'd be bankrupt by the time Water Festival rolls around.

I have also committed to driving web traffic myself. I have managed to do this with a decent amount of success over the past year, but I know there is much more work to be done.

I get a call or email every week or so from a web traffic guru who promises to put me right at the top of the search engines. I just can't get past the fact, though, that he's telling every Realtor in Beaufort the same thing, and the last time I checked, there's only one #1. By the way, I just Googled "Beaufort, SC Real Estate," which everybody seems to agree are the top search words for this area, and the first agent I found is my friend Cherimie Crane, who has blogged her way onto Page 2, which is absolutely fantastic. Cherimie has earned a little free publicity with all the Active Rain assistance she's given me in recent weeks.

A couple of years ago, a little Scotsman came through Beaufort, with his magic search engine potion, which would put one lucky Realtor at the top of the search engines. He sat right down in our office, and with his wonderful Scotch brogue gave us a very convincing demonstration, and said he had a single $2000 package to sell in Beaufort. Just one.

I've got to admit, this little guy could sell. He was very good. There was a part of me that said the $2000 he was charging would be worth it. After all, he did give us a demo, right there in the conference room. We saw that it worked, right?

But there was another part of me, though, that pictured this fellow driving around the United States, picking up a couple of hundred checks from Realtors around the country, and then disappearing into the Scottish Highlands forever.

I happen to know very well the agent who bought the exclusive package from the Scotsman. I have yet to see this Realtor on any of the search engines. So, thanks but no thanks. I'll do it myself.