Photos
It's the first thing you need. If you want stunning photos, employ the service of a pro. If you have a good camera and an eye for it, give it a go. You will need a number of good photos with good light exposure and a semi wide angle enough which enables you to display either otherwise restrictive areas.
Once the photos taken, you will need to optimise them for the internet. NEVER put photos on the net of the original resolution as they will take too long to download. The optimal resolution for the net is 72dpi. The size itself will depend on where it is displayed.
There are a number of programs you can use to retouch luminosity, cropping something you don't want to show in the picture and resizing. I personnally use Photoshop as I design a lot of graphics but if you only want to do simple operations, Photoshop is like shooting a mosquitoe with a canon ball. There are help and tuition available however on Photoshop if you want to tackle it.
Another alternative I heard of a very good software that allows you to do a lot in a more simple manner. BatchPhoto™ is a powerful photo manipulation program that makes it easy to convert, resize, watermark, annotate, touch-up, apply effects, and rename hundreds of photos in a single operation. Instead of enhancing and adjusting pictures individually, BatchPhoto lets you select a group of images, define a series of edits, and apply them in a single operation!
Pictures first and foremost
- Tidy presentation of the house
- Shoot with a good eye and good camera
- Retouching and optimisation for the net
Help with Graphic:
Photos manipulation program in a single operation
Excellent value Photo Video suite software AVS
Slideshows with VSO software
Video
Let me tell you my story with video or if
you're not interested, skip to there. I started editing
videos when we decided to make a video clip for one of our original
songs. 8 years ago. I learnt the ropes with a pro on a professional
program running on Mac, Final Cut Pro. I learnt enough to half produce
the
following one. Then I tackled the 3rd
video clip.
After an electric storm, my Mac broke down and it was the sign I needed to go back to pc. Final Cut is a Mac program, so I purchased Adobe Premiere. It is a beautiful program and I love it but it is resource hungry and my computer couldn't cope with it. I bought a new computer with a fresh install of Vista. I never wanted to be on this operating system but when I started the computer, I liked the look of it and decided to give it a go. I installed all my essential programs and left Adobe premiere for the end. Mistake. Vista didn't want to have anything to do with Premiere. I'm quite savy on computers and I tried to fix the problem for a while until I gave up.
I even gave up video editing for a while. Until the time I felt I was behind on my son's development and prowess video log and started again. This time I thought, I'll go for a free simple little program. I downloaded one, installed it, inserted my video files only to find out that there was no display of my videos on the timeline.
I was not going to waste anymore time on this little program. I worked on professional programs and here I am on an useless freebie. I knew I had to find a happy medium. It's when I found AVS. These guys have a lot of handy, well designed and simple to use software related to video, audio and image. The fee is very reasonable for what it provides:
18 Tools Suite + Free Upgrades + Free Support
They have a super special until the end of June.
I finally found a happy medium that works well on my flawed Vista. If you want to produce a video for your house or anything else for that matter, give it a go, it's great, plus you won't even need the other photo program I was recommending before.
Video is great for buyers living far away from your property
- Tidy presentation of the house
- Shoot steadily with the camera on a tripod
- Editing and optimisation for the net
- Put it on Youtube and link it to your website, blog, email, etc.
Help with Video:
Excellent value Photo Video suite software AVS Video web wizard software
A word on AVS:My 8 years experience with Video software led me to AVS and I love it. I experienced expensive professional programs and free video editors and found the 1st ones offer more than what I require and the freebies offer not enough.
AVS is a happy medium and Video editing is only one of the programs offered.
AVS has a special of $59 for unlimited access toall the software below. You may not need them all but when I compare prices of software, the Video editing alone is worth the price of the whole subscription. I got mine for video editing only and the other programs are great bonuses.
Video Software
* AVS Video Converter
* AVS Video Editor
* AVS Video ReMaker
* AVS DVD Authoring
* AVS DVD Copy
* AVS Video Recorder
* AVS Media PlayerAudio Software
* AVS Audio Converter
* AVS Audio Editor
* AVS Ringtone Maker
* AVS Audio Recorder
* AVS Disc CreatorImage Software
* AVS Image Converter
* AVS Photo Editor
* AVS Cover Editorand also
* AVS Disc Creator
* AVS DVD Copy
* AVS Registry Cleaner
* AVS Firewall
* AVS Antispam
Domain name
Think of an appropriate name and choose the extension of
your country, then check if it's available. You will be surprised to discover
what is already taken. Check it out.
There are myriads of companies you can register your domain with. I use Discount Domains or Atompark. They both offer some hosting and email options.
The minimum registration is 1 year but if you sell within a few months, you either desactivate your domain name, let it expire, use it for something else or resell it.
Think of a domain name that describes the attractiveness of the property or the location
- Think of what you like (or liked) about your house
- Check if the name is available
- Register the name
Help with Domain names:
Atompark
Freeparking
Then it's time to build a simple yet effective webpage featuring all the bright photos and description of the property. It doesn't have to be fancy, simplicity is the key here. It is a place to feature your beautiful photos and video without the interference of any competition. It is your property's own turf. It deserves it.
If you don't know how to do this, you can ask someone or if you're that way inclined, learn how to do it yourself. Get some tuition, research the internet or follow E courses such as Web Mastery Design or a Site management system which could be a good alternative to more complicated software such as Dreamweaver
A lot of people use the very popular Joomla with its numerous templates and tutorials and swear by it.
I can't advise on which one is the best as I've been using Dreamweaver from day 1 and I'm so used to it that I haven't had the desire to try anything else.
Your property deserves its website
- Write a description of your property
- Choose the best photos (20 is optimal)
- Design a simple page with all the information
Help with Web design:
Web Mastery Design
Site management system
Dreamweaver
View
Joomla
Ok it took me some time to implement the marketing I am recommending to you. I didn't count how much time because it was spread out on several months but if I was to do it again, knowing what I know now, I would probably do everything in a week or so.