Changes at RealCentralVA

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Jim Duncan

Bear with me. Changes are afoot.

Suggestions, critiques, commentary welcome.

Please find things that are broken and let me know.

I know the search for homes page is wonky.

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  • http://opally.blogspot.com Opal

    Overall looking good, nice and clean.

    Suggestions:

    1) You need a “blog” tab at the top. It’s not intuitive, while exploring, to click the logo to return to the blog homepage.

    2) The *very important* Buying a Home and Selling a Home tabs need to show your videos. They need to have content right there, bam. Don’t make people puzzle and click “read more” after they’ve already told you “I want to hear about buying a home.” Too many clicks to reach the juice = bad.

    3) Your phone number in big print is a good thing, except that a big black phone number all by itself looks cold and unfriendly. You need text around it, like “Call Jim Duncan now at … ” In fact, you need your photo next to it.

    4) While “RealCentralVA” is a handy domain name, it isn’t what you are selling. You are selling JIM DUNCAN and all his expertise and experience and character and quality. Your customers want YOU. You are doing a great job at establishing your ‘brand’ by using social media (I follow your tweets) but to me, your brand isn’t RealCentralVA, it’s Jim Duncan. So I think you need to keep your name more prominent.

    • http://www.realcentralva.com Jim Duncan

      Opal -

      Thank you so much for the feedback. 

      I’m working on #1 and #2.

      # 3 – What do you think about “Call or text” Jim Duncan?

      #4 – I know, but I’m stuck with RealCentralVA :) After 6 years, I can’t change it, but I can see about making it a bit more about who I am .

      Thank you so much for your comments. I sincerely appreciate your taking so much time.

      –Jim

      • http://opally.blogspot.com Opal

        #3 sounds good… see if you can use a “friendly” font if you’re not going to include your photo… but truly, in your line of work, I think a photo is essential. Images are a big part of making a site visually attractive.

        #4 I didn’t mean that you should change your blog name.. just that you need a prominent motto that includes *your* name. You want people to remember “Jim Duncan” after visiting your site.

        Adding a bit of custom typography gives current websites a bit of polish, and sets them apart.

        If you do a search on “@font-face in wordpress” you should find some resources. It’s not difficult if you’re conversant with CSS and are comfortable with modifying your WordPress templates and stylesheets.

  • http://twitter.com/MoCoRE Bruce Lemieux

    Really like the new layout – much cleaner and easier to read.   Looks really, really good.