What if you held a contest, and no one entered?
That’s exactly what happened right here, two weeks ago. I announced a video entry contest where three lucky people could pick up a kick ass Ubertor real estate web site for a year. For a dollar.
And there was not one single entry.
Good grief. I’ve had plenty of failed blog experiments, but this one takes the cake!
So thanks to the graciousness of Ubertor, we’re going to try again.
This time, it’ll be even easier to enter and win.
Leave a comment here.
That’s all you have to do.
Just tell us why you need / want / desire a real estate web site from Ubertor.
The three judges; me, Ian Watt of the fabulous Vancouver Real Estate Video Blog and David Gibbons, Director of Community Relations at Zillow will each pick a winner. Judges choice. They can pick the winner however they see fit ”“ creativity, random draw, need, throw a dart, whatever. (Ian and David agreed to judge the video contest, they haven’t committed to judge Part 2 yet.)
The rules are simple:
You can not be a current or past Ubertor client.
One comment per person.
Edited to add: Whoops, should have put a deadline in here! Comment by Saturday October 10 at noon Pacific time.
Let’s see if we can’t at least get some entries this time! Trust me folks, if you need a real estate website, you can’t go wrong with Ubertor”¦
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...
You? Eliciting no response at ANYTHING? Could Armageddon be far behind? (giggle)Sign me up. I have hired and fired 2 web dudes THIS SUMMER to update my main site. It was beautiful in 2002 but is dated now. NO ONE gets me. So it would be a huge challenge if you're up for one.And I have very good connections for you three to make it to heaven if you do.(wink)
Im in. I would love to test out a different platform for niche domain.
Dear contest gods,Please give this not-very-techie agent the tools to build a knockout, up-to-date, EFFECTIVE real estate website. I couldn't enter the video contest because I don't even have a camera, not to mention a place to upload video. My current site is pathetic.NO! Don't look at it! DON'T LOOK! The shame would kill me. Please, let me bring hope to all the "I've learned all this great stuff online and have no idea how to put it up to make it work" agents out there. Please. Desperate and definitely serious,Elaine
OK, I am officially withdrawing from this contest. These two need it. I dont. Just couldnt pass up almost free.
I too am amazed that nobody responded. If I would have seen this, I for sure would have responded.Anyways, in my quest to have websites for just about everything related to real estate, and wanting to try every product out there, and currently using Diverse Solutions, Point 2 Agent, Superlative, Top Producer, 1&1, Dynamic Page Solutions, just to name a few, I would consider it an honor to try out and evealuate an Ubertor site. Thank you for your consideration,David Dion
I would have entered but I just stumbled onto you this morning since reading the announcement of the top 25 influential people to follow in real estate.Why I want to win this? I've had a boiler plate website for 8 years from a company (advanced access) that I feel is not current with today. I've have referred them TONS of business over the years because I really didn't know about any others on the market. (not because I liked Advanced Access) The reason why I have not switched to another company is because I'm afraid I will lose my ranking in google. Maybe if I was given a website for a while I could see what happens (but I would have to be convinced I wouldn't lose my current status when you google my name and my website comes up.I stumbled on ubertor a few months ago from reading about Ian Watt. I've actually referred several new agents to Ubertor (and to check out his video blog) because I do believe it is a great site and has everything you need.It's not that I want or need a free website. It's just I want to know it's a product that will keep me on google and more! I'm asked at least 3-4 times a month WHO to get a website from and I really never feel good in giving an answer.I was mailed a catalog brochure from some company the other day that did look good. Even offered a floorplan option for listings. I thought that was nice……but I remembered UBertor and thought well maybe that's the one I should go with.I'm stumped.Chuck Keller Keller Williams Realty(chuckkeller.com).
Why do I deserve, desire and demand an Ubertor website? Because when I read this last time, you required a video entry – that was work – so I didn't do it. Because if I HAD entered last time, I would have won! Because I am old, if I can easily manage an Ubertor website, it MUST be a good product!Also, I really need a better platform current one is boring and so totally not me;as someone has said before – don't look – it's uggglee
Is that a Canadian buck? Sure, count me in.
I just left my career as a martial arts school owner and teacher to join my wife and her brother in a real estate business. Having a web site would help us promote our business. We don't have the resources to pay for a professional web site at this time. So a nearly free site for a year would really help us.
Hi Jay – I once had a bbq that nobody showed up to and I didn't even ask them to do the video thing. Pathetic, I know. I am a fairly new agent (April of this year) and I haven't gotten my website up and running yet. I have ideas about content, layout, style, etc. but was hoping to actually make some money before spending it. I'm pretty sure that's backwards but there it is in all it's glory. I've started towards my GRI and just last week took one of the tech classes. Turns out I need a website. And here you and Ubertor are handing one out. What are the odds that karma is smiling in my direction? If I thought it would help I'd use the methodology I've been using with banks & title companies – call or email every morning & afternoon until you just give in out of exasperation. Thanks!
Jay, once upon a time, I would have gone crazy trying to win such a prize. But, times have changed. I don't think an individual web site and seo placement is going to bring in the clients and money they once did. Today, I think, most buyers look on the big sites or a quick google search to find what they are looking for in real estate. Providing good content and keeping it up to date can be a full time job that I don't have time to pursue without a steady paycheck. I don't think you can find a location on a map of the USA that does not have 10,000 return links on a search engine where 95% are of real estate agents. I do not have the money, expertise and/or time to make my site number one. But, if the people at Ubertor think they can change my mind and make a believer out of me – my hat is in the ring.
ok. here's my sob story. I began life out of college well equipped for the 12th century, having received a degree in philosophy. Instead of doing the sensible thing such as continuing my education in law, i listened to a small voice which told me i should be a writer, on the basis of a 2page short i had written about a chicken who loses its head and a young boy who is unable to figure out the lesson to be learned from this. I got a job in publishing for 6 months in NYC, but the company went bankrupt. I sold most of my belongings, jumped in a van bound for a tour across the US of A with a bottle of Jim Beam and decided i would get some writerly life experience. After camping out by the railroad tracks in N. Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico etc in an attempt to find a place which was not using the same blueprint that has shaped America, I finally crossed into Canada for Christmas of 2003 high on my old buddy Beam and 1/2 an Oxycontin an old prostitute in the tenderloin gave to me. Christmas in Canada and back to SanFrancisco, where i was going to make history. I would write my novel. Perched over a laptop night after night. the money was running out, and the writing wasn't coming out. the job market was dry. silicon valley was bust and all of the businesses which had parasited off that boom were gone as well. With my last 300 bucks i jumped on a flight for Maui and then the Big Island where i had heard that the building industry was booming.I would become a carpenter! Aha! at last the real gritty life experience i was looking for. well Here i am 2009, finding out just how cyclical the industry is. I'm broke, have a 2 year old from a debauched relationship with another one of those life experiences. I'm seeing a therapist to make sure i don't make that mistake again, and am just trying to make realistic choices for myself and my daughter who lives with me. I'm studying for the real estate exam now, and am trying to prepare for an industry which is in better shape than it is now.
Okay, better late than never right? As you can see I really need the help… http://deansellsaz.com/2009/10/05/contest-entry…
Thanks to Ubertor, Jay, Ian and David for the chance.
I too had a boiler plate website. I am been a Realtor for 3 years now, and we all know it takes 3-5 years to really get things going. Myweb site WAS tryinig to niche to Chicago (my hometown) baby boomers moving to Arizona. $30 a month. Nothing…nada, ZIP! Soooo, I went to another host who promised me 30 leads in the first moth. $9Now I have nothing..$99 a month, and they add content. Nope. AND the 30 leads? Oops…the guy was new and really MEANT to say 30 hits. Quite a difference. Cant trust anyone now. I know the value of the online marketing, but obviously have not met the right Host….hook me up Jay! Warm Regards, Julie
I was talking to my client the other day, they want a home on the outskirts… I'm not talking about location, I'm talking about income!
Forget the site – Ian and David? mmm (I mean ahem)
I have been researching real estate websites, and I have been impressed by the comments I have read on Ubertor. I have had a website for 10+ years–gasp!, but it really needs to be optimized and fixed =broken links, title tags, etc. I need help!
I would love to see the difference that a properly search engine optimized site can make in driving and capturing leads. Let's do this!
A Ubertor Website? Wow, I have been impressed by the comments I have read by agents that use Ubertor. I have had a website for over 10 years–gasp!, but it needs help. It is not search engine optimized. Links need to be corrected; title tags added plus much more. I would like to see the difference that a fully SEO site can make in directing leads to me. Plus I know that the emphasis needs to be on the prospective buyer/seller's needs, not on the agent. It would be wonderful to have a site that has that approach from the beginning.
Hi Jay, Ian and David,
I made a short video “Ian style” to enter the contest. Check it out on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maXcYV4JO94.
No sob story here. No doubting whether it works either. I know the power of the internet and how it can make or break you. Jay and Ian are proof positive that Google can make you into a Real Estate Giant. I am just a Young Grasshopper and would like to learn from the kings. I have a few websites and I am constantly tweaking the SEO. I would love to try out Ubertor and see how their SEO works. Ian “King of Vancouver Condos” seems to have it made. Please vote for me so that I can make a new website for another niche market I am targeting. I was about to do a custom website because I find most template websites so limiting. But it sounds like Ubertor is not the standard out of the box template type website. If you guys give Ubertor a thumbs up that is good enough for me! We all know Google runs the world so the more websites the better!
Thanks
Carmen
Nice to see some videos in this contest now. Going to make the judging interesting for the guys!
Jay I thought about it, but I'm kindof a control/experiment freak with websites, and after reading some of the good tales that are starting to roll in….huh? oh wow – by commenting I've entered?
I've been on Ubertor's site and figured I throw in a comment and see how it pans out.
I need to crush it.
@PhxREguy – Waste the next five and a half minutes of your life by seeing if you can figure out why I want an Ubertor website:http://seesmic.tv/videos/wbAvRRlhzk(Just read the comments here – yikes, there's a lot of competition.)
I'm ready to do my controversial RE website (I already have a 'normal' RE website), and ready for David to interview me.
I knew I should have learned to post video the last time around. Now, I have twenty five people competing with me. Oh, the shame of it all. Why do I want a new website – NICHE. When I started my personal website and my blog, the domain name doesn't do service to a small niche. Oh and I love the Ubertor sites!I don't have any keys to heaven or a bribe, just a comment and a prayer. If you're throwing darts, I may have a chance. Good Luck all!
I have a ticky tacky, old fashioned static website from iHouse and just detest it. I have community videos shot and ready to load; I want my site to reflect who I really am and more importantly HOW I really work and frankly my long lived site is so yesterday I cannot even motivate myself to try to update it. I really some helping hands 🙂
OK folks, entries are now CLOSED. Thanks for participating, and we'll announce the winners ASAP, probably Monday (Sorry, it's the weekend, and the judges are in three separate locations and two countries…)
Hey guys – I am **so sorry* for the delay in picking winners. The 3 judges are all swamped and we just haven't been able to fully connect.And tomorrow I'm headed to Vegas to speak at the Blog World Expo Conference. May not be able to announce winners until this weekend. I feel terrible, but it WILL happen. And the *great* news is there's going to be a little something for everyone!Thanks for your patience!!
Winners were (FINALLY!) announced in this post:http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/ubertor-sit…..(Be sure to read the entire post…)Thanks for your patience guys!
FYI Next time there is a Ubertor contest for a website for $1 DONT ENTER. So why do they charge you $1 and not give it away for free? Because they want your credit card number so a year later after you have forgot all about it they can charge you $77. Thanks for nothing Steve. Well played… i really love that business model, I am amazed you are not giving out more of these.
Well this is disappointing. Had I known that was part of the deal, I wouldn't have run the contest… Steve, any chance you could reverse the charge for Dean?