Hi Michaela, My guess is you weren't the only one that told them their product or service didn't meet expectations. You are educated and know what's right for your business. They just didn't see it your way. :-)

I am getting "How would you like to be on the first page of Google?"  I get a call at least once a week.  I tell them I already am and thank you very much, click.  

I had a real hard sell from a gal letting me know about their new client generator... Only a bizillion dollars and I get all of my town!  Be the first one, won't last!  How will you be getting all these great qualified clients.  TV on cable.  How will you qualify them, they check the emails before they send them to me - No it was not Housevalues.com but close!  I have yet to see those TV commercials.  I must be watching the wrong cable channels.

With the market slow down most of us are being very careful where we are spending our money.  These people are probably seeing the crunch too.  

Jana

I just started saying NO to everyone who came to me with their hand out.  I really like to see people post on here about their experiences with different service providers.  If they are raving about someone or some thing, I'm all for checking it out.  I'm still a skeptic and am very slow to spend my money anymore...when I was a new agent, I almost starved because I spent so much on all of those "must haves."  A little green and naive I was.

Good conversation starter, Michaela.  Thank you!

I guess that my experience as an innkeeper made me very gunshy as far as advertising goes. Inns are constantly, I mean CONSTANTLY hit up by "writers" for a "small set up fee" to be included in their new book, their new webpage, your own webpage linked to theirs', what-the-heck ever. That taught me to be aware that my pocket was their bank.

I adopted a Nancy Reagan attitude towards everyone asking for my money. Just say no. Politely, but firmly, NO!

I've received calls on the first page of Google solicitation as well.  It gets frustrating when you get a couple of calls and then they try to belittle you and attempt to get you to sign up - you are calling an ace and ace.  

Your frustration comes because you are very knowledgeable and they called the wrong woman.  It's purely a waste of your time and that's where the frustration comes.

Stick to your guns!

Michaela, you are so right about the aggressive behavior lately and perhaps it is a good lesson for us to learn so we don't treat our potential clients the same way.

Place your number on the Do Not Call list. http://www.donotcall.gov. Then ask them how much they are going to pay you to not report them for calling you to solicit you.

Your number being posted on your own advertising is for a "client" to call you regarding "purchasing or selling" REAL ESTATE.

That doesn't mean that every Tom, *** and Harry can call you to "SELL" you something.

When they call remind them you are on the list and you will report them. Only "MEAN IT". It takes all of two minutes to report them via the net.

This is my tack and I am nice as peach pie when I pull it off:

"We look at ALL proposals via e-mail ONLY. Here's the e-mail address. We'll look forward to your proposal and WILL CALL YOU if interested. Thank you very much for calling."

The agents know it by heart.

And no, they can't get a word in edgewise with me. :)

I agree that callers are getting more aggressive.  I get the Google call too.  I just tell them I'm not interested, I get more leads now than I can follow up on, not to call me anymore, and then hang up.  I'm on the do not call but they ignore it.  I even had one guy tell me that since I'm using my phone as a business phone, the do not call doesn't apply  (WHAT!!!???).  Unbelievable!  HomeGain has been bothering me lately but I am a member.  They just want to sell me their other products.  I have their number noted in my phone and just ignore it now when they call.  One that really burns me is HOMES dot com.  They were constantly bothering me.  Finally, after the 3rd call in one day, I threatened to report them and they left me alone for a while. They don't call as often now but I am going to have to take the time to report these jerks.

Everyone's desperate...

Michaela, you may be running into some naive, inexperienced Web site providers. One of the first 40 web designers listed on Yahoo!, I've been on Web design forums of various kinds since 1994. I've seen this and other questions about selling design services come up a zillion different times. Anyone with experience learning from their peers in that type of environment has learned that the worst way to get new business is to tell prospective clients that their web sites suck. It's the best way to alienate prospects and doesn't win new business.

Michaela welcome to the World Wide Web. ..lol...  There are just as many naive web designers out there trying to sell you their services as there are experienced web designers trying to sell you their services.  The hard part is working your way through the maze of bs that most of them spew.

If you decide to have someone redesign your site, and you should, be very careful whom you choose.  There are some very talented virtual assistants here on Point 2.  Many of them do really great work and only have your best interest at heart.  But there is a very big difference between many of them.

Some virtual assistants will want to charge you thousands of dollars and lock you in to a contract that only has their best interest at heart.  Be very careful of them.  They do good work but are not worth that kind of money.  There are other virtual assitants on here that will only charge $400 to $700 and do a better job than the higher priced ones.

Why such a difference?  Great question and I am glad you asked it.  Many of the lower priced folks do it for the love of design and put their heart and soul in to their work.  They are not full of themselves and believe that their work is the best.  Rather they want their clients to be happy because their work and your happiness means more to them than anything else.

Talk to several different virtual assistants and see what it is they offer for what they charge.  Being a spendthrift myself I like to get as much for my dollar as I can.  Check out their work and see if you like what they have done.  Their work should speak for itself.

You probably have also seen there are many great Realtors on here that are great at selling homes and they also like to dabble in web design.  Be careful here as well.  If you were looking to sell your home would you ask a full-time web designer/part time Realtor to see your home?  Please say no.  You would want a FULL-TIME REALTOR to sell your home and a FULL-TIME WEB DESIGNER to design your web site.

I am not very good at walking the line here.  I say what I think and sometimes it hurts a few people's feelings.  I am not trying to insult the high priced web desingers on  here or the Full-Time Realtors/Part-Time web design dabblers.  But rather make it very clear what is best for a person in Michaela's position.

Three things for you to consider:

1.  Please consider redesigning your site.  

2.  Use a Virtual Assistant from here.  One that does it full-time.

3.  No site on the Point 2 platform should cost more than $1000.  That  

    should be an all inclusive price as well.  

Good luck to you.

If you enjoy it then you should design it yourself.  Far be it from me to take aways another persons joy..smile...

Keep one thing in mind however.  Would you fix up your brick and mortar business a little at a time because you enjoy it?  Would you try new things out to see what people liked and disliked about your business?  If your brick and mortar business looked cluttered and arkward would you wait to fix it up or would you get a professional to help because you are to busy selling homes?  First impressions do mean something.  Just food for thought.  Now where did I put that bbq pork sandwich?