Name of your website?BTZ Real Estate Agency Bratislava
Your name?
Miroslav Babitz, Bratislava estate agent
Your Location (city, etc)
Bratislava, Slovakia, Europe
When did you start your website and why?
It was last month (May, 2007). The main reason was to inform our potential clients about investment opportunities in Bratislava and potentially convert them to customers.
Please give us a short summary of your website, business model, etc
We are specialized in foreign clientel. Foreigners are very often keen investors, but their common problems are no knowledge of local law, language and opportunities. We are doing our best to make life easier for those people and then we'll get a kick-back when we sell a property. Field-tested bussines model and there is also a property boom in Bratislava right now.
What has been the most difficult part of creating and running your website?
To find our current designer.
What has been the easist part of operating your website?
To get it running. It took one month, which I consider to be a very short developement time considering the features we've got.
What was your biggest mistake?
Not sorting the properties using their parameters (Location, No of bedrooms, Price..) in the easy to use and compare table. We need to build this feature later. We want also to export the properties using XML and display them on various websites and mashups.
Who maintains your website and why?
František Malina [404 Check: was link to http:/ / vizualbod. com, anchor: Slovak freelance web developer and designer] living in the UK. He is a clever guy and the services are affordable. The development was very fast and we are also getting a good exposure in Search engines.
Tell us how your property business has benefitted from your website?
We have now much lower advertising and staffing costs. It took a long time to send all the properties to keen clients individually. Before, we had to send the Word document to each prospective buyer individually. Now we can just sign in to our Content Management System and publish what we need. Customers are updated daily with new opportunities using RSS.
What are your views on ecommerce and the future of the internet?
At tho moment it is the most important marketing channel to get foreign customers and this is our focus. It is not going to change anytime soon. Even second life as a possible marketing channel is a web based software.
What are your views on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
White hat only please. My web developer explained the difference and principles very well. It is one of the reasons why I write this blog post about property in Bratislava.
What are your views on Search Engines? Have they helped or hindered your website?
Helped, absolutely
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Probably a good Search Engine friendly design, we will see.
What method has been least successful for promoting your website?
We ignored web chnnel for a long time, it was a very wrong method :)
What would you like to see change with respect to the internet?
Stop spam in my mail box and in my search results.
Why do you do properties for sale in Bratislava?
It a very exciting market at the moment and it turns return of investment very quickly. The growth of prices is unbelievable. We still recommend the market to savvy long term stretegic investors.
What is your website address?
BTZ Real Estate Agency Bratislava
