domingo, 30 de septiembre de 2012

How to Add a Cool Submenu to your WordPress Website

How to Add a Cool Submenu to your WordPress Website:
wordpress-submenu-tutorial
While WordPress was originally created to serve the growing blogger population it quickly developed into a state of the art CMS platform for professional business websites. There is a huge supply of high quality themes for business websites and WordPress plugins to add true awesomeness.
Besides the main WordPress menu it is a typical need for traditional business style website is to have a simple submenu on the right side of static information pages. This navigation is used for giving visitors an overview and quick access to pages on the same level as the current page. Unfortunately it is not always a “build-in” feature even in top premium WordPress themes. Luckily there are some good and simple options available to create submenus. Let me show you how I prefer to add submenus.






Before we jump into the details I need to list the overall gameplan.
  • First we need to figure out where to place the submenu. This is the critical part where you need to make some decsions. I’m going to show you two options 1) using themes with flexible sidebars 2) using plugins to add the sidebar and content layout features we need.
  • Then I’ll walk you through how to create the menu using WordPress standard Menu Manager.
  • Finally it is time to install a useful menu plugin and add the submenu by setting up a widget. The main goals for the solution I describe here is to be flexible and give you full control. There are other solution available that populate menus automatically but then you have very limited control of the individual submenu.

Theme support for flexible Sidebar locations

The most common way to add a sub menu to a WordPress website is using the Widget system. It is possible to edit the code but for maintenance and cost reasons this is the last option you should pick. Besides using sidebars as placeholder on the front page many new themes also have support for multiple sidebars. If you want to add your submenu to the left it is important to look for a theme where you have sidebars on both sides. To illustrate what I mean I created the diagram below containing typical sidebar locations.
sidebar-layout
Further to have optimal flexibility it is worth looking for a theme where you can choose what sidebars to include on every page. This is because you probably want to show different submenus on different parts of the site. To mention a theme I used offering this functionality I think Modernize (and other themes from GoodLayer) is worth checking out. The theme also have a build-in function to add as many sidebar as you want. This is how it looks when sidebars are setup per page (below the visual editor).
image
Please share similar themes (great if they are free) you like and recommend in a comment!
Below I included an example of how the menu looks when using the Modernize theme and a free plugin called jQuery Vertical Accordion Menu – we will take a closer look at this in a minute.
image

Adding needed sidebar features and flexibility through WordPress plugins

If your theme does not have what it takes you are not completely lost. You can often use premium plugins like Custom Widget Areas for WordPress or  Sidebar & Widget Manager for WordPress to add the features needed to add new sidebars and control what sidebars will be loaded on individual pages. However keep in mind it will not add a left sidebar to your theme is not already there. This is how it looks in Sidebar & Widget Manager that you can get for about $15. It is possbile to choose what pages, posts, categories etc. you want to show the sidebar on. Replacing existing theme sidebars is handy e.g. to take control of a left sidebar for submenu purposes. Remember to use a easy to understand naming standard when creating sidebars – e.g. “Sidebar for submenu xyz”. Please let us all know in a comment if you know a similar and well supported free plugin.
image
One more thing I like a lot about the Sidebar & Widget Manager is the ability to insert sidebars as shortcodes as shown below. This makes it possible to add a submenu more or less whereever you want.
sidebar-and-widget-manager
This is especially true if you use a layout builder like e.g. Visual Composer for WordPress. This is how it will look in the layout builder if you add the submenu to a column (widget text area).
submenu-using-visual-layout-builder
The CSS styling here will, in most cases, not be the same as the styling in the sidebar and therefore it is a good idea to use one of the skins available in jQuery Vertical Accordion Menu as shown below.
submenu-eaxmple

Creating the menu in WordPress Menu Manager

I think the menu manager in WordPress is good and I recommend you use it to build your submenus. I use Menu Management Enhancer myself as I think it adds important features needed for managing large and complex menus. For a simple submenu like the one illustrated below it is not really needed. In order to get full control of the submenus you want to show on different parts of the site I recommend you add a new WordPress menu for all the top level pages with child pages. Lets assume this is the page structure.
menu-structure
In WordPress the submenu should then have the follwing elements. Remember to use a easy to understand naming standard when creating menus – e.g. “Submenu for <Name of Top Level 1 >”.   If you don’t need maximum control of what menu items to show and want to have less maintenance for each submenu you can use plugins like Gecka Submenu. It auto populates the menu items you chooose with any child page you create and this certanly can be useful.
designing-theme-menu-in-wordpress

Adding the menu Widget to the sidebar

Whether your theme allow you to create new sidebars or if you use a plugin for it I now assume you have created a sidebar for your submenu – I names mine “Submenu for Top level 1” in the demo I created.
There are so many WordPress menu plugins available and it can be hard to choose the right one. I often use a free plugin called jQuery Vertical Accordion Menu and I kind of like it. It is the one I use for this article as well – it is easy to setup and have some cool features. To continue you should install the plugin and then go to Widgets. You will find a new widget called “jQuery Accordion Menu”. Drag this to the sidebar you created as illustrated below.
adding-themenu-widget
You now have some options to take care of… let me go through those that are the most important:
[1]: If you add a title here it will be placed above the menu. This is useful to let the visitor now what it is all about… e.g. “More about <topic xyz>”
[2]: The dropdown will make it possible to choose from menus created in the WordPress Menu System.
[3]: The menu will render more than one level of the menu – if the there are more levels… Here you can decide if user need to click or just hover over the menu to make it fold out.
[4]: I think it is useful to expand on the current level by default. However test these features yourself to get the perfect setup for your site.
[5]: The plugin have 6 skins you can choose from but try the No Theme option first to see how your theme CSS looks. It is also possible to change the skins if you have a bit of CSS experience.
This is it – I hope you found the article useful and that you will be able to use the techniquein your future projects. Let me round off with an example of how the submenu looks when using the  jQuery Vertical Accordion Menu skin called Clean. Cool right? Please share this article with your friends and coworkers.
using-the-clean-skin

Author : Lars Vraa

How to Get a Visual Editor for Your Widget Content

How to Get a Visual Editor for Your Widget Content:
content-blocks-plugin
A key part of WordPress core functionality is the widget system. It was originally designed to make it easy for bloggers to add content to a sidebar without coding. Today widgets are not only used for blog sidebars and in many modern themes they are used as content placeholders e.g. to add content to footers, sections of front pages etc.  There many cool widget plugins available making this a powerful way to manage content in website placeholders. This is great but still for a person with limited HTML coding experience  it can be a struggle to add a text widget with text, links, images etc. I know from experience that some people use the post editor to upload/insert images and style the text. Then they copy-paste the content into the text widget once it is ready. I’m not saying this is a bad practice, but there is a much simpler way to help your clients maintain text based content i widgets. The solution I prefer is to install the Custom Post Widget plugin . Once installed it allows you or your clients to display the content of a custom post, called a Content Block, in a widget. Besides making it a lot easier for clients to prepare content for the placeholders you lay out on the site, it also makes it possible to keep the overall layout, e.g. widget placements as an administrator task. Content is simply maintained using the Content Blocks pages. Let me show you how it works.

Before I move on and show you how Content Blocks are used to add text to a sidebar I want to show you the standard WordPress text widget. As you can see to is just a simple text field where you can add text and hand-coded HTML. This way you can use the media manager to upload an image and add the HTML code to show it…. but it is not fast and simple. Further you can no revisions enabled and risk loosing the content if you are not careful.
standard-text-widget
When the plugin is installed you find a new menu item called Content Blocks. It is a bit strange that the plugin name “Custom Post Widget”. and the menu item “Content Blocks” is not the same, but it makes good sense since it is the Content Blocks you maintain here. The Plugin also installs a widget making it easy to add the Content Blocks to a sidebar.
content-blocks
[1]: This is where you find the administration pages for the Content Blocks and the “Custom Post Widget” plugin.
[2]: The title of the content block is worth considering a bit. While it is possible to show the title as a widget title it may be better to name the content blocks systematically and include some reference to where they are used. If you have 2-5 content blocks it is simple, but if you start creating a lot more good naming standards can make a lot easier to find the content block you want to update.
[3]: Here you add content to the Content Block the same way as you edit posts and pages.
[4]: Publishing a Content Block also works the same way as for posts and pages. Keep in mind that in order to choose a Content Block in the widget you need to make sure it is published.
Once you created a Content Block you will see it in the list as shown below. From here you can choose one to edit.
custom-post-list
In order to use Content Blocks on the site they need to be inserted into Sidebars using the Content Block Widget as shown below.
add-content-block-to-sidebar
[1]: Once added to a sidebar it is possible to choose from the currently published Content Blocks.
[2]: It is possible to show the title from the custom post (the Content Block) but you should consider carefully if it is necessary. You may also add a H2-H3 to the content itself. If this works out well all depends on the theme and how it renders the sidebars.
When the widget is added and active you will notice that the content added to the Content Block is now displayed on the site. The location of the Content Block is now in place and you can easily go in and edit it without working with widgets.
how-it-looks-on-the-site
Hope you liked this mini tutorial and that you are going to participate in the discussion below. Also please share this article with your friends and coworkers ;)

Author : Lars Vraa

25 Great jQuery Accordion Plugins and Tutorials

25 Great jQuery Accordion Plugins and Tutorials:
jquery-plugins-and-tutorials
With jQuery accordion plugins you can get the attention of visitors and save space e.g. on the front page at the same time. Accordion scripts work a bit like jquery sliders but often visitors need to take action get access to the hidden content elements. The way accordions are typically designed makes them great for giving users a quick overview but they work best if the number of content elements is relatively low – basically to limit the number of tabs.
In this article, you will find a collection of useful jQuery accordion plugins and some tutorials you can use to improve your website. The majority of these items are free so you can grab some cool accordion scrips without spending anything. If you want a plugin with professional support and regular updates you may need to look for a premium plugin. It wasn’t that easy for me to find a lot of great jQuery accordion plugins around….so the supply is not as high as for e.g. sliders and jQuery menu plugins. If you know a script we should add to the article then please share this in the comment section. We are also happy to hear your thoughts and feedback. Enjoy!



zAccordion

zAccordion is an easily customizable horizontal jQuery slider with bouncing animation effect that does the job of giving you a nice image display slider.
zaccordion
MORE INFO | DEMO by Nate Armagost (Free Plugin/Tutorial)

Classic Accordion

Classic Accordion is a jQuery plugin that allows you to easily create accordion panels. You have the option to use XML , which will make the accordion panel much easier to setup and maintain. However, you also have the option to use HTML instead of XML . The plugin also provides an easy to use API which will allow to further enhance the functionality of the accordion and make it possible to integrate it into your own application.
classic-accordion
MORE INFO  |  DEMO by CodeCanyon (Premium Plugin)

liteAccordion – a horizontal accordion plugin for jQuery

liteAccordion is so called because the minified JS source only weighs 6kb. If you gzip the minified JS, you can get the file size down to 2kb! You can use it anything you like! Text, images, video – anything you can put in a div, you can put in a slide.
liteaccordion
MORE INFO | DEMO by Nicola Hibbert (Free Plugin)

Javascript Accordion Menu Wizard

Javascript Accordion Menu is an image based site navigation menu that supports both horizontal and vertical orientations. It features Title and description text for each image; A link for each image; transparency of the text area and Autoplay functionality.
javascript-accordion-menu-wizard
MORE INFO | DEMO by Scriptocean (Free Plugin)

Unleash jQuery Accordion Slider

Unleash is a responsive, easy to style jQuery accordion with multiple caption animations, easing methods and many more.
unleash-jquery-accordion
MORE INFO | DEMO by CodeCanyon (Premium Plugin)

Making a Fresh Content Accordion

This tutorial will show you how to make a simple, yet eye-catching accordion with the help of CSS, jQuery and the easing plug-in for some fancy effects.
colorful-accordion-with-jquery
MORE INFO | DEMO by Tutorialzine (Free Plugin/Tutorial)

Grid Accordion

Grid Accordion combines the functionality of a thumbnail grid and an accordion panel, offering you an interesting method to display your portfolio. You have the option to use either XML or HTML . The powerful API will allow to further enhance the functionality of this jQuery plugin and make it possible to easily integrate it into your own application.
grid-accordion
MORE INFO | DEMO by CodeCanyon (Premium Plugin)

jQuery Accordion MultiPurpose Gallery Slideshow

This powerfull gallery slideshow offers ability to display more slides than visible, with an easy scroll through navigation, making it very powerfull in displaying large collection of data. Furthermore, slides can be different sizes.
jquery-accordion-multipurpose-slideshow
MORE INFO | DEMO by CodeCanyon (Premium Plugin)

Elegant Accordion with jQuery and CSS3

This tutorial will teach you how to create an elegant accordion for content. The idea is to have some vertical accordion tabs that slide out when hovering. Here you will add some CSS3 properties to enhance the looks of the accordion.
elegant-accordion-with-jquery-and-c[1]
MORE INFO | DEMO by Tympanus (Free Plugin/Tutorial)

Accordion Gallery

Accordion Gallery is a lightweight jQuery plugin, providing a unique and innovative image gallery, with rich effects, semantic markup, and accessibility in mind.
accordion-gallery
MORE INFO | DEMO by CodeCanyon (Premium Plugin)

jQuery Accordion

This accordion widget for jQuery is a small and simple script that addresses common issues with jQuery accordions in general.
jquery-accordion
MORE INFO | DEMO by Tim Huegdon (Free Plugin/Tutorial)

jQuery Easy Accordion Plugin

Easy Accordion plugin will get your definition lists (DTs) and generate a nice and smooth horizontal accordion. You can then decide to make it a timed slideshow or leave it still.
jquery-easy-accordion-plugin
MORE INFO | DEMO by MadeinCima (Free Plugin)

Tabs + Accordion

Tabs + Accordion is a jQuery plugin that simplifies creating responsive tabs and accordions.
tabs-accordion
MORE INFO | DEMO by CodeCanyon (Premium Plugin)

jQuery UI Accordion

This plugin creates an accordion menu. It works with nested lists, definition lists, or just nested divs. Options are available to specify the structure, if necessary, the active element (to display at first) and to customize animations. The navigation-option automatically activates a part of the accordion based on the current location (URL) of the page.
jquery-ui-accordion
MORE INFO | DEMO by Bassistance.de (Free Plugin)

Accordionza – jQuery Plugin

Accordionza is a very flexible and lightweight jQuery accordion plugin with easy to configure effects and speed. Also it features pause on hover; autoplay and autorestart; collapseable captions; and more.
accordionza
MORE INFO | DEMO by CodeCanyon (Premium Plugin)

Vallenato

Vallenato is a super simple jQuery based accordion script. There are plenty of other great accordion scripts out there to choose from, so why use Vallenato? Well, it’s easy to implement, looks good, is flexible, and of course…it’s free.
valienato-1.0
MORE INFO | DEMO by Switchtoroyale(Free Plugin)

Dynamic Accordion Banner Rotator

This accordion menu was made in a way it could be easy adapted to any kind of project for you, you can have and do pretty much what you want with the rotator. Some of the options include click or over images action, the possibility of having any kind of button to the next and previous image or none at all, autoplay and duration, border or shadow divider and much more.
dynamic-accordion-banner-rotator
MORE INFO | DEMO by CodeCanyon (Premium Plugin)

Accordion Madness

A helpful tutorial on how to make an accordion menu.
accordion-madness
MORE INFO | DEMO by Learning jQuery (Free Plugin)

jQuery Searchable 3 Level Accordion

This plugin features up to 3 levels of nesting with nice API, configurable animation, multiple skins and more.
jquery-searcheable-accordion
MORE INFO | DEMO by CodeCanyon (Premium Plugin)

Exactly How to Create a Custom jQuery Accordion

This tutorial will show you how to build a custom accordion that is more “bandwidth efficient”.
custom-jquery-accordion[3]
MORE INFO | DEMO by NetTuts Plus (Free Plugin/Tutorial)

Vertical Sliding Accordion with jQuery

The main idea behind this accordion is to expand the accordion slices on click and show some more information. The other slices will become less opaque and squeezed. When navigating to the next slice using one navigation arrows, a new slice will slide in from the top or the bottom. Once a slice is open and the user navigates, the subsequent slice will open on slide.
vertical-sliding-accordion
MORE INFO | DEMO by Tympanus (Free Plugin/Tutorial)

Stupid Simple jQuery Accordion Menu

This is a very simple tutorial were you can learn the basics in making accordion menus. It teaches you how to code the HTML, CSS and the JavaScript to make the plugin functional as it should be.
stupid-simple-accordion-menu[3]
MORE INFO | DEMO by Ryan Stemtoski (Free Plugin/Tutorial)

jQuery Accordion Menu

This tutorial will take you through the creation of a jQuery accordion menu. There is a little twist to this: the menu contains content. Instead of it being links to multiple pages, it is a choice of what content should appear.
jquery-accordion-menu
MORE INFO | DEMO by Lateral Code (Free Plugin/Tutorial)

Grid Accordion with jQuery

This tutorial will teach you how to make a grid accordion. The Grid Accordion works with the same theory as most other accordions. Only one cell is open at a time. The big thing is that the column of the current open cell expands to a reasonable reading width.
accordion-grid-with-jquery
MORE INFO | DEMO by CSS-Tricks (Free Plugin/Tutorial)

A Simple and Beautiful jQuery Accordion Tutorial

This is an easy to follow tutorial on how to make a jQuery accordion in simple steps. It shows how the HTML, CSS and the JavaScript are coded.
create-a-simple-accordion
MORE INFO | DEMO by Queness (Free Plugin/Tutorial)

Author : Sonny Day

Sonny M. Day is a passionate SEO and web design enthusiast who loves photography, mountain climbing, snorkeling and dirt bike riding.

20+ Essential Real Estate Website Templates, Best Practise And Inspiration

20+ Essential Real Estate Website Templates, Best Practise And Inspiration:

In most cases, the online presentation of your real estate company, your products and your services is crucial to the number of customers and their confidence in your company. In this context, real estate website templates and inspiration from the best websites is an essential part of the design process.
When a family decides to get a new place to live, it is often a serious and economically heavy decision. We all know that it is quite expensive to buy or rent a place to live and that it has a significant impact on our private economy. The trend is, therefore, not surprising that property seekers often make extensive research online before they make a decision.
Not surprisingly, it is necessary to have a well thought out and well-functioning website if you are in the real estate industry. This area is, in fact, essential for the activity of your business and determines how much money you can earn.


To do it the right way, we need to think of real estate websites as a funnel, which has to attract and retain potential buyers in such a way that they take the actions, we want them to. This is not going to happen all by it selves. Therefore, I have decided to share some best practice guidelines, and real estate website templates to get you started.
First let’s have a look at the powerful templates that will make your life a whole lot easier building a perfect real estate website.

WP Pro Real Estate 3 Responsive WordPress Theme – DEMO

wp-pro-real-estate-wordpress-theme
WP Pro Real Estate 3 is a powerful responsive real estate theme built to showcase your listings. It is loaded with relevant features like the drop & drag homepage builder and slider, tons of short codes, custom widgets, page templates etc. It can be used for building awesome websites for real estate, vacation rentals, automotive sales and more.

ElegantEstate Real Estate WordPress Theme – DEMO

elegant-estate-real-estate-website-template
ElegantEstate turns your WordPress blog into a full-feature real estate website. The theme makes browsing your listings easy and adds special integration features for property info, photos, Google Maps and more. With this theme, you can help increase sales by establishing an elegant and professional online presence today. Get 100% complete access to their entire collection of 76 themes for only $39!

Openhouse Real Estate & Automotive car dealership – DEMO

openhouse-real-estate-theme
Openhouse and Automotive are some of the most advanced and full featured themes build for real estate websites. It is very popular and well supported. Have a look at all the advanced features and see if this is what you need.

ESTATE – DEMO

ESTATE
Estate is a hugely powerful, yet simple to manage business “theme” built specifically for real estate agencies. Built on the WooFramework it boasts advanced SEO control, clean code and styling modification features.

EstateExpert Responsive Real Estate Theme – DEMO

EstateExpert[3]
EstateExpert makes it easy for your visitors to watch the market and get a feel for the kind of homes they want and can afford. EstateExpert is designed to have responsive layout. That means your website will look great no matter the device or screen size on which it’s being viewed. EstateExpert also has a special Property type listings, which lists all your properties with an advanced yet simple to manage features.

Real Estate WordPress Theme DECASA – DEMO

decasa
deCasa is a light and elegant real estate theme. A lot of handy features like a search panel, multi-agent support and a professional property exposée let you easily setup your real estate website.

WP Pro Real Estate 4 Responsive WordPress Theme – DEMO

wp-pro-real-4-real-estate-website-template
WP Pro Real Estate 4 is a new update version of WP Pro Real Estate 3. It has all the features you need, and it is responsive to look good on any mobile device.

WPestatico – Powerful Real Estate WordPress Theme – DEMO

wpestatico-real-estate-theme
WPestatico is a WP real estate theme. It embodies a powerful solution for real estate websites with lots of features and functionalities that perfectly fit an online real estate business. The theme has custom fields like title, description, image gallery, featured option, price, year built, living area, bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens number. Plus the address is connected to Google Maps and shows the property on a map.

HomeQuest – Real Estate HTML Theme – DEMO

homequest-real-estate-website-template
This real estate HTML theme is built for real estate agencies, brokers and directories. HomeQuest HTML has a nice design and a bunch of features that will make your website user friendly.

Home Made: Real Estate Theme – DEMO

home-made-real-estate-theme
Home Made is a modern type real estate template created with several options, layouts and more features bundled. It includes 20 background patterns, 10 fonts, 15 jquery effects, 12 PSD files, 32 HTML files and 1 PHP file. You can easily change background patterns, change header fonts, change layout from the right sidebar to the left sidebar and also includes full-width page.

WP Pro Real Estate 2 WordPress Theme – DEMO

wp-pro-real-real-estate-theme
This theme uses WordPress 3.0’s Custom Post Types and Taxonomies offering unparalleled property listing management and search capabilities. The theme has all the relevant features like Google Maps integration, advanced search, custom user/agent profiles, easy image management and more! It is not responsive though.

Royal Estate Real Estate Theme – DEMO

royal-estate
This site template for real estate websites has a unique design and a lot of features like the flex slider with thumbnails, a “Quick Search Form” with switcher effects, custom carousel for listings, loan calculator (html only), Google Map and more.

Locality – Real Estate WordPress Theme – DEMO

localy-real-estate-website-template
Locality is an attractive and purpose oriented Real Estate WordPress Theme with all the features you need for your real estate website.

Real Estate 2 – DEMO

real-estate-2-website-template
Real Estate 2 is a good template choice for the niche real estate market with a focus on awesome back-end features while also providing clean looks and great usability. It is not responsive though.

AGENTPRESS THEME – DEMO

agentpress
AgentPress is a good choice with its intuitive design, powerful functionality, and smart listings. Rise above the market and achieve results by showcasing your professional services and up-to-the-minute resources with the buyer-friendly layouts of AgentPress.

Real Estate Theme – DEMO

real-estate
Real Estate Theme is a professional WordPress Template, that is suitable for real estate type websites or for showcasing your work and/or products. The Real Estate Theme comes with an easy to set up “featured” image slider (with it’s own admin options), a colour switcher with 3 colour schemes and a built-in contact form.

Light House – Clean Real Estate WordPress Theme – DEMO

light-house
Lighthouse is a clean and minimalist WordPress theme for real estate company, also suitable for business, corporate and marketing.

Realtr – DEMO

realtr-real estate website templates
Use WordPress and Realtr to create the ultimate real estate website. The theme has good features and functionality. The completely widgetized homepage offers great flexibility, and it has built-in SEO.

Smooth Real Estate WordPress Theme – DEMO

smooth
Smooth is a WordPress Real Estate theme, complete with Multi Category Search, Google Maps Integration, Agent Photo and Logo uploader that offers a professional and extremely affordable solution for Realtors and Agents to showcase their properties with ease. Add your listings with the easy and flexible Dynamic Real Estate Framework, edit-add-modify-delete all features, labels and values within the WordPress administration and upload unlimited photos to your galleries with latest WordPress features.

WP Real Estate Plugin – DEMO

real estate wp plugin
WP Real Estate is a full listing plugin for homes and commercial properties to use in WordPress powered websites. If your WordPress theme is not fully powered to run a real estate website a WordPress plugin like this can really be helpful.

Welocally Places Plugin – DEMO

welocally
Many plugins let you map places to the standard Google Map pin look and feel, but Welocally Places Map Plugin lets you actually link those places back to your content and categories with maps that stand out and engage your visitors. With rich information such as website, phone number, and driving directions you can improve our site’s reputation as a local referrer.

Best Practise And Inspiration For Real Estate Websits

1. Provide free, valuable information

You need to provide free and valuable information to get enough and relevant traffic to your website and become known as a brand that is an authority in the field, your website must contain the relevant information for home buyers. Example from home.yahoo.com.

homeowner help

2. Offer additional, relevant information and get contact information

It is crucial for your business to get contact information from interested customers. Once they are comfortable with your company and your website, they are more likely to sign up and exchange their contact information to find additional relevant information. You should provide a sign-up feature that save the homes found on your website and send new listings if visitors sign up.
sign-up
You can also use reports and additional information to make visitors sign up. Remember, to get their attention aroused enough to have their mail address the topics has to  hits the spot and answer exactly the question that your segment of home buyers or sellers may have. Example from trulia.com.

3. Use contact info professionally

Be sure to send the promised information right away e.g. via an autoresponder. Also, be sure not to waste the website generated lead. The customer will go on quickly, and you need to make sure he does not forget about your company and the lovely homes shown.
Send relevant, ongoing  follow-up mails and consider whether it makes sense contacting  the possible customer and offer your advice or other services.

4. Follow real estate web design best practise

Overall, it should be very easy for website visitors to search and find items that meet their desires for a new home. It is important to have a good search function that makes it easy to narrow your search and find exactly the type of property that is relevant. Example from Realtor.com.
find-home
Most real estate websites use a web form with various input fields – such as property type, property features, price range, zip code, etc. They also show listing on a map like this example from homes.yahoo.
map
Nice pictures of homes for sale are also quite essential to give interested visitors to good impression and create real interest to move forward in the process like this example from Realtor.com.
realtor-images
For more inspiration check out some of the leading real estate websites like Yahoo Real Estate, Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, MSN Real Estate and Homes.com.
zillow
I hope you find this information helpful. Please share it to friends and colleagues and remember to give us feedback in the comment section.



Author : Andy

Andy started writing on Tripwire back in 2010. He is into WordPress topics, Web design, Web-development and also interested in SEO and Online Marketing. He’s also writing for other blogs and he is a passionate blues musician and a family-man as well.