soldbyteresa.com

Hello,

If anyone could help me, I would like to know the status for the domain name: www.soldbyteresa.com

I believe I submitted her to:

Top: Regional: North America: United States: Maryland: Localities: A: Annapolis: Business and Economy: Real Estate (37)

Many thanks in advance,
Hypntzd3

Re: soldbyteresa.com

I can't tell you its status, as I'm not an editor in Maryland (and you haven't entered a clickable link for the category), but a cursory look at the web site suggests it could only be listed in http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/Maryland/Localities/P/Pasadena/Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate/ and would have a Title Teresa Bennett - RE/MAX Classic .

Real estate people are, shall we say, aggressive advertisers, and we need a way of keeping the listings under control. This represents my interpretation of the real estate guidelines you see when you suggest a real estate site to the ODP. Others may differ.

Re: soldbyteresa.com

Your suggestion was declined back in November due to a lack of unique content. Currently, real estate sites are only accepted if they have content unique to the agency or agent, beyond what would be found in a telephone book. Content taken from databases or templated sources does not count.

For example, a listable site might contain information such as a detailed profile/resume of an agent, a list of houses they sold, and/or have exclusive (non database) listings. It might also have community information (not taken from another source) such as a guide to neighborhoods or school districts.

A site that just contains MLS listings or recycled informational content taken from a central source will not be listed.

Re: soldbyteresa.com

Hello lachenm,

Question for you. I know we have information links to MLS systems, but we also have 130 pages of hard coded content we collect as a team of agents.

Don't those count? I am in the middle of adding a listing module to their site, but what else can I do?

I also have forms for the request of mls listing by email which not a lot of agents do.

Thanks for your time, please advise.

Re: soldbyteresa.com

we also have 130 pages of hard coded content we collect as a team of agents.

Don't those count?

[emphasis added]

Click to expand...

Content collected by a team of agents, and used on multiple sites, is not going to count for the listing of multiple specific agents' sites. It would count for one site -- perhaps for the team of agents, or the company, who originally collected and published the information.

Informational content unique to that single agent's site, created especially for that single site, is what would count. Cutting and pasting content from central sources doesn't.

I also have forms for the request of mls listing by email which not a lot of agents do.

Click to expand...

I suspect we would consider that a form of "lead generation" -- in other words, you are taking information from the user, not offering it via your website. Lead generation also doesn't count as content.

I am in the middle of adding a listing module to their site, but what else can I do?

Click to expand...

Add unique, informational content:

Unique means content not found on any other site.

Informational means communicating knowledge or data to the surfer, not taking it from them.

I gave you several examples of rather easily-added informational content in my earlier post.

Try looking at it from our point of view. If, for example, your agent doesn't even bother to take the time to write a profile or resume of herself (or other unique information) on her own website, on which she markets her ostensibly unique services, why on earth do you think we, who have no financial interest in the matter, should bother to take the time to list it?

Re: soldbyteresa.com

Hi Teresa!

I was the one who reviewed your site. We receive many, many submissions the majority of which are template sites being sold by a few web design companies, most of which are lucky if they have some unique information about the agent (which in this industry is typically the only unique information I'm gonna get.)

From your site:

Welcome to SoldbyTeresa.com, a proud affiliate of The Answer Team Real Estate Network.

Click to expand...

The problem I had is that I reviewed several identical Answer Team sites at the same time, so it just looked like a new template making the rounds. I went straight to the agent "about me" information and didn't find much.

we also have 130 pages of hard coded content we collect as a team of agents.

Click to expand...

Are you an office of agents? If so, and it was more clear on the site, you could definitely get a listing as an office.

Instead of that (or in addition to that) individual agents can get listings if they have unique content, and in this industry, my definition of unique content is information about the agent (credentials, background and experience, personal) and the agents own listings (typically a photo and description featured on the website). I know stuff gets sold fast, so a section listing recent sales works too. Testimonials are nice, but believe it or not, I've found that these get copied from website to website.

As far as your personal website soldbyteresa.com goes, if you can provide more information about your own background and knowledge pertinent to the local area, and where your focus is, you should be eligible for a listing under Pasadena/Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate .

Hope that helps!

Re: soldbyteresa.com

Hello Lissa,

I have just sent you a private message addressing your last reply. If you could take a look at my message, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for all your hard work and efforts,
Hypntzd3

Re: soldbyteresa.com

Per a request from Lissa, I am posting a message I sent to her outlining a response to her requests and suggestions for a site I previously submitted. I hope my experience helps this forum's readers as much as it helped me:

Hello there Lissa,

I relatively recently submitted a website for inclusion into the DMOZ directory under the location: http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/Maryland/Localities/P/Pasadena/Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate/

The website is: www.soldbytersa.com

Originally the website was rejected. You were kind enough to write back to me with some guide lines as to how I could improve the site so that it might be accepted. Please see message string: http://resource-zone.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=56059&page=91&view=collapsed&sb=3&o=&fpart=1

Initially you stated that my web site was a template and that most of the template sites didn’t have much information about the agents. I definitely agree with what you were saying and originally thought that I avoided that concept. Also you reference that I was part of, “The Answer Team Real Estate Network.” That is correct. However, I would like to mention and address what you said about owning a template site and being part of an office.

Currently we are an office of four real estate agents here in Pasadena Maryland. We have a designer that designs and maintains our four websites and the look and feel which is unique to our team only. However, we are still individual agents that like to maintain our individuality. This is why we feel we wouldn’t want to submit my site under the office category and the leads that come from my site are for me. Yet, our web designer is working on a new and improved team site that will hopefully be accepted into the network that we as agents share the leads generated by that site.

Additionally, you mentioned I may want to provide photo’s of past listings. We as a team feel that when it comes to usability, seeing photos of a home that is already sold isn’t addressing the consumer’s needs. They want to see homes for sale. This is partially why our sites look the same, because we collectively decided to format our home pages so that they answered the consumer’s needs first, then they could worry about whether or not they liked me personally; this is also why our information about us is out of the way.

I would also like to mention the “About Me” section of my site. I have seen the validity of your statement:

“As far as your personal website soldbyteresa.com goes, if you can provide more information about your own background and knowledge pertinent to the local area, and where your focus is, you should be eligible for a listing under Pasadena/Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate”

I have hopefully addressed that to some degree by adding information about myself, my technical abilities and information about the surrounding area. I even added a photo of my mobile office: http://www.soldbyteresa.com/about_me.htm



I know you also mentioned that you thought our testimonials were nice, but perhaps copied. If you don’t mind, I like sharing that particular testimonial, so I kept it there. I sincerely hoped that I have satisfactorily addressed these issues. If you could review them and reconsider adding my site to the directory, I would be most appreciative.

Thank you for your time and definitely appreciated attention.

Hypntzd3

Re: soldbyteresa.com

Re-reviews complete - see http://editors.dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/Maryland/Localities/P/Pasadena/Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate/

Just a note - the ODP has pretty specific guidelines about titles and placement, so the listings are pretty much re-written from the submissions. The listing has to be placed where the official office is, not service area. The descriptions are a little terse, but commensurate with everything else in the category.

Best of Luck!

Re: soldbyteresa.com

The correct category path (non-editor version) is

http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/Maryland/Localities/P/Pasadena/Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate/

Sorry about that!

Re: soldbyteresa.com

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP...YOU ARE AWESOME!