'Bay Area Homes For You Interview'

Name of your website?

Bay Area Homes For You

Your name?

Lisa Wiseman

Your Location (city, etc)

San Jose, CA

Please give us a short summary of your website?

Providing information on Silicon Valley Real Estate, Senior Housing, Bay Area Communities, Real Estate Investments, Bay Area Real Estate, Retirement Communities, First Time Home Buyers, Home Buying Assistance, Affordable Homes.

What inspired you to launch your own website?

I wanted to provide more information for free than most real estate websites that would be a valuable resource for all people in the community.

When did you launch your first website, and what was it?

This is it! Oct. 2005.

How did you decide on a name for your website?

I consulted a website designer and we tossed a few ideas around based on what was still available.

What makes it different from other, similar offerings?

I provide a larger amount of free resources and articles than most sites. I also concentrate on Seniors, the first time home buyer, community, and providing referrals from contractors to senior care givers.

What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)

To be an invaluable resource for people in the community.

How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?

Not as well as I had hoped. Every other person is a realtor these days(although they don't all have a personal website), and times are tough now. As far as websites, whoever has the best placement right now is in a good position.

If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?

If, if, if! Have someone redesign my site, have a better website host and hire a weebsite promoter for top 3 search engine placement.

If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?

Yes, but in that perfect world, I would eventually have to hire an assistant.

What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?

Code and imperfect programs and insufficent support are what you get when you don't pay the big bucks. The headaches are mostly from banging my head against the wall. Foruntately, that only happens about once a month.

What has been your biggest challenge?

See above. Also, SEO.

What method has been most successful for promoting your website?

My own personal promotions (cards, fliers, newsletters, emails).

How has running your website differed from your expectations?

More work than I expected.

How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?

2 years. Unsure.

Replace this with a question of your own

What changes or additions would you like to see in my site?

What is your website address?

Bay Area Homes For You

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