Amen!

There are many takes on stealth vs. screaming your name from the rooftops. I recently added the sitepal which tells potential clients what to do on each page. I have always been able to drive people to my site but only a very small porion stayed more than 1 minute. By adding sitepal, I have an avatar and my voice explaining the best way to use the important pages of my site. I'm still in the testing phase but I believe that the combination of plenty of content and a little helpful coaching will give my visitors a better experience and get me more clients to work with.

An interesting thing about 'words' is that they have meanings:

STEALTH:

1. secret, clandestine, or surreptitious procedure.  

2. a furtive departure or entrance.  

3. Obsolete. a. an act of stealing; theft.  

b. the thing stolen; booty.  

4. (initial capital letter) Military. a U.S. Air Force project involving a range of technologies, with the purpose of developing aircraft that are difficult to detect by sight, sound, radar, and infrared energy.  

–adjective 5. surreptitious; secret; not openly acknowledged: a stealth hiring of the competitor's CEO;

stealth       (stělth)  Pronunciation Key  

n.  

The act of moving, proceeding, or acting in a covert way.

The quality or characteristic of being furtive or covert.

Archaic The act of stealing.

adj.  

Not disclosing one's true ideology, affiliations, or positions: a stealth candidate.

stealth  

c.1250, "theft, action or practice of stealing," from O.E. *stÊl˛, which is related to stelen (see steal),

stealth [stelθ] noun

a secret manner of acting

Example: If I can't get what I want openly, I get it by stealth.

So, my fellow agents, which of these definitions do you want associated with your website? (My goodness, that word "steal" sure shows up in alot of the definitions, doesn't it?  Why, just look at that... it's right there in the word itself, STEALth.)

Stealth websites are not allowed in Arizona per the Arizona Department of Real Estate... so if you have one and you are in AZ, they will eventually shut you down.

Pat Hill

www.patriciachill.com

Beth, I think you should post this message on the Point2 mesage boards as well!

Maybe if Point2 sees the post, they can add it to our "wish list" and include the agents contact info somewhere in a footer or something that shows up automatically, and then not have to depend on the agent to add it.

REALTOR® websites in Ontario must always have some kind of disclosure of who the agent is, which brokerage they are with, what their position is and at least some contact information for the brokerage.  However, it doesn't have to be "up front and center".

I had toyed with the idea of stealth sites to generate more leads from those people who seem to prefer contacting that type of site.  Truth is that there are a lot of people that like those sites because they think that they are not going to have an agent calling them and pestering them to buy or sell.  This is why sites like JustListed, housevalues and homegain do get leads.  

I was introduced to the concept when I was a client of Justlisted (housevalues buyer site.) which was a mistake I will not make again.

The problem with these sites is that when you do call they are not expecting you, do not know where you got their information, and are generally uncooperative ( not all, but on average).  The main reason that they go to these sites is because they think that the site is automatic and no one will contact them.  So when someone does contact them they feel mislead even if it clearly stated that "someone will call you" right beside the the submit button.  

Since they do not know that you are connected with the site, when you call they do not immediately connect you to the website and are often suspicious of where you got there contact information.  From there you have to over come their feelings that you tricked them into providing information even though they filled it out without any form of coercion.

So the short of the long is that if you clearly state that you are the agent connected with the website then you might get a few less leads however, you will get a better response from the leads you get and will increase the chance that you can convert them into clients and sales.

Of all the real estate websites that I have looked at the sites that do not have a picture or the agent, with a big smile greeting me to their site, always make me feel uneasy and suspicious.  I saw one just yesterday that I did not want to stay on the main page for more than a few seconds.  I can not explain why, maybe it was the lack of picture or it could have been the colour scheme but it felt slimy.  Any site that does not provide information on the service provider make me feel this way.

But maybe that is just me :)

For those who want to add contact to every page on their P2 site, it's easy to do.  Just choose "edit template" and add your info in the section you want it to appear on every page (I chose the bottom footer and centered the info).  When you save it, your info will appear on every page you create.

I find with the Point2 sites, we tend to just rely on the "CONTACT ME" form and it's a big mistake.

I make sure that people can get my email, phone, office etc all right up front and that they are not just submitting some contact form that they have no idea where it goes.  The form is available but so is all the contact information!

Yet another reason to upgrade. :-) LOL

Oh well, with only 15 pages to work with, it shouldn't take too much effort to just add the contact info to each page manually.  Actually, just have to do it once and then copy/paste to the other pages... 5-10 minute job at most.

I agree with Andrew and Ron and add my contact info to every page. I too don't like site where you can't figure out where the person is located. Perhaps I have fewer leads but when people contact me they know I'm in the area that they are looking.

A word about the Contact Me page, on that page above the place to fill in formation, I also added my contact information and I have even added a link to my Biography & Credentials pages.

I think many newer members just don't know how to add the information or haven't visited their site (content still the template verbiage) and looked at other sites to see what can be or should be added.

I learned by my mistake by putting my email address on the front page. Boy, did those spam search engines grab that!  (Make sure you embed it.)

Also, I can't tell you how many times I've been to websites and don't know where in the world I am!  Ok, I'm seeing water, but where? Even just a city name still doesn't help the geographically challenged.

I too, made the mistake of putting my email address on my homepage without embedding it and holy crap, the spam I received was unreal!  

Not a good idea!

I don't like websites where I can't see who the agent is either.  Makes me wonder why...

I thank you all for pointing out what was none to obvious to me as I worked on my site. I saw my picture and for some reason didn't even look beyond to see there was no contact information.

Easy enough to add, thanks for the tips and help. You folks are great!

Ok, so I am getting spammed from my email address being on the front of my website. How do I "embed" it?

Truth be told, the MORE of you who don't publish who you are, the BETTER it is for ME!

My contact information is on EVERY page of my website. There's even a link in the navigation bar that says "Ask an Expert!"

So, please, DON'T publish any information about who you are. My website surfers will love me for it.