Your website on the retro 1.0 version of our platform will continue to function until at least June 2023, and after that we will keep the old platform working as long as is necessary/reasonable to prevent sites from going offline. So in the next year we would love to help everyone migrate to the new platform, because it's just better for you (new functionality, new designs, etc). And we are encouraging that transition sooner than later particularly because the legal ADA compliance requirements for disabled persons are urgent. The new ...

Over the last few years, we have been working on the overly ambitious project of rebuilding our Website Builder and Content Management System based on modern coding standards, cutting edge design, and advanced functionality. It's been an incredible challenge for our small team, but we're super proud of what we've created. And when our automated billing system is complete in the next few weeks, we will be ready to launch! The beta testing phase with the first 25 clients was successful and we are now ready to migrate all current client ...

Did you notice we just launched a new version of our website? Go to https://gutensite.com to see what's new. Look around and imagine how your business could be helped if we transformed your website in the same way. This new site represents a model of how we want to help you leverage our new 2.0 platform to human optimize your website through good strategy, writing, design and functionality, so that it becomes the hub of your Digital Marketing Strategy and funnels visitors to your clearly defined conversion goals. Read more about how we can ...

In the last few months clients have had a growing paranoia about a growing number of ADA lawsuits (Americans with Disabilities Act) for website accessability. There have been reports of "serial plaintiffs" (driven by profiteering lawyers) filing hundreds of lawsuits against small buisnesses in order to extort settlements. These lawsuits have generally not been filed in good faith by disabled persons truly prevented from accessing services (they could call to receive service if they wanted), most likely are not valid against most marketing ...

As part of our ongoing efforts to improve our system and also stay up to date with the changing technology requirements of each MLS, we have created an entirely new IDX Widget that was released to half our clients back in January. Now it’s also mandatory that we transition the rest of our Realtor clients as well (i.e. MLS Listing, CCAR, Bridge MLS). This transition will happen October 1, 2021, so you have time to migrate any existing Listing Alerts to other systems (most of you already use these features provided by your broker or MLS ...

We are getting a lot closer to our 2.0 launch, and in the process we are finishing up the new versions of the functionality required to fully replace all features on the 1.0 system. And we are also porting some of these features back to the 1.0 websites. One important feature for Realtors is the widget to search Properties from the local MLS. Our new widget is much improved and has been working wonderfully for the past 8 months on the websites of the private beta clients using our 2.0 platform (see Geoffrey Nelson's Hillsborough Blog or Steve ...

We've gotten a lot of inquiries lately from business owners concerned about being sued over website accessibility by disabled persons. This is a complex situation that deserves some attention. We want all our websites to be accessible to people with disabilities, so that all visitors can use our client’s services equally. It’s good for disabled visitors and it’s good for our clients, because people with disabilities represent an important customer base. It’s a win win situation for everyone. If you are aware of any errors on our ...

Our 2.0 platform is almost ready for public use! We are finishing up some of the final MVP admin control panel features, working on stabilizing the code and optimizing performance. At the moment we are working with a select few clients who need a new website and are willing to be private beta testers. We've just finished launching one of these new sites, for a client that has been with us for at least 14 years! Check it out directly at Geoffrey Nelson's Hillsborough Blog website to see the elegant and modern design, which is mobile ...

UPDATE April 1, 2020: fill out the new, faster Streamlined COVID-19 Application Form which can include a $10,000 quick advance on the traditional loan. If you are a small business in an area that has declared a state of emergency related to the COVID-19 crisis, then you are eligible to apply to the Small Business Administration for a Disaster Loan Assistance from the federal government (PDF Fact Sheet). This loans can provide your business $25,000 of working capital (at a reasonable 3.305% rate) to take care of your employees, pay bills, ...

Could that meeting have been an email? That support phone call, a better online dashboard? That consultation, an e-book? That sale, an online order? How much of what you do in the physical presence of customers could be done virtually? It’s great seeing each other face to face, and we definitely don’t want to lose this beauty of human contact in life or business. But the world is changing. And whether you and all your customers are under coronavirus quarantine, or you just want to empower your customers under normal circumstances to save ...

With the Coronavirus shutting down the global economy and forcing people to stay in their homes, there is a lot of uncertainty about what comes next, how long we will be sheltering at home, and what massive economic impact this will have. These are troubling times with many questions, but one thing is for certain: we are living in a new world. We must adapt. How is your business or organization going to be impacted by this new reality? If this lasts more than a few weeks, or happens again in the future, is your business ready to operate ...

We're happy to showcase another Real Estate Agent website on our new 2.0 beta platform, for Maryann Ernst a Compass Realtor based in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula market. One of the features of the new platform is beautiful, conversion-optimized, landing pages with crystal clear value propositions and calls to action (e.g. Look at the Buyers section). This is a super simple, but elegantly modern website that will certainly impress potential buyers and sellers. And it's a website that will grow with you, as your needs change, ...

The closed beta period for our new 2.0 platform is advancing successfully through its testing phase. We are proud to promote the launch of a new Real Estate website for Quinton Barnett, a new agent from one our Broker Partners. Quinton's website is 100% plug-and-play setup, using the updated version of the free Sken template and all the standard functionality. Some of the things you'll notice are the big background video on the home page, as well as several conversion oriented landing pages that are optimized for funneling traffic to ...

As I mentioned in the last blog, the closed beta for our 2.0 platform has begun (see article for features and more samples). We are proud to announce that we've launched another website, which further demonstrates the beauty and power of our new platform. Brand New Congress is a non-partisan political organization working with both Democrats and Republicans to repeal and replace congress with representatives who serve the interests of their constituents instead of political insiders who currently exert too much influence over establishment ...

It's hard to believe it's been 5 years since we started building "2.0", a complete ground-up rebuild of our platform that will distinguish us from every other website builder and CMS on the market (seriously, no other platform has the features we have built). It's been an over ambitious project for our small team, trying to compete against the high standards set by hundred-million-dollar businesses, using only our very limited resources. But we did it, we're almost there! And it's going to amaze you. A month ago we launched our first website ...

Instagram can be a powerful tool to increase your brand awareness, but with great power comes great responsibility. When posting on Instagram, it's important to remember that you want potential clients following you and looking at your posts. What you post and how frequently you post will determine the amount of success you have attracting potential clients to your profile. Before you start posting on Instagram, you need to identify your ideal client. In what age bracket is your ideal client? What types of jobs do they ...

If you are a successful real estate agent and you're still showcasing a list of past sales as your main evidence of success, it might be time to start thinking about taking the next step. When you draw attention to the number of homes you've sold and the price range you typically work within, that can be appealing to potential clients within that price range. But what about potential clients whose homes are valued above the price range you're showcasing? Best-case scenario - they aren't impressed but contact you anyway. Worst-case scenario ...

It's important to remember that Zillow, Realtor.com, and Redfin all have Home Search Capabilities, and when most buyers start their home search, they typically use one of those websites. In most cases, you are not going to be able to compete with them directly, so it may be best to take a different approach here. If you are going to add a home search feature to your website, do it with a specific marketing purpose. Let's say you want to expand your business in the Silver Creek neighborhood of San Jose. One of the many ways you can market ...

Most websites have incredibly low conversion rates (less than 2%) for first-time visitors, and it's not necessarily because anything is wrong with those websites. We live in an age where you can shop for just about anything online, and because of this, consumers are more likely to shop around for the best deals possible. Top this off with an increased reluctance to share contact information online due to the amount of spam we all receive, and you can see why conversion rates are so low. It's because of this Retargeting Ads are playing a more ...

We have migrated all file storage and CDN delivery from Rackspace to Amazon S3. Amazon is the leader in file storage and it has a great Content Delivery Network to speed up load times internationally. Your website is already accessing everything at the new location (we've done everything to update links embeded in pages as well). But if you have any third party sites linking to your files, or you have shared links directly, then those third party links must be updated ASAP. All files have been confirmed as transferred and the old files ...