ManufacturedHomesToday.com®July 2005 Issue #1
Welcome to the ManufacturedHomesToday.com® (MHT) Newsletter. This Newsletter is a chance for the MHT staff to share helpful information and updates with our clients. We hope that you find this newsletter beneficial as you continue to use ManufacturedHomesToday.com®.
Statistics for ManufacturedHomesToday.com®
What's New at ManufacturedHomesToday.com®?
Tip of the Month
To all retailers who have both new and pre-owned homes for sale:
An easy way to attract more buyers is to list both your new and pre-owned models. This will appeal to a broader range of potential buyers. Statistically, Retailers who advertise more homes get the most calls and e-mails from buyers.
ManufacturedHomesToday.com® Statistics
June 2005 marks our one-year anniversary! During this time, ManufacturedHomesToday.com® has enjoyed tremendous growth! Today, we have over 900 Homes, 124 Retailers and 92 Communities on our site. MHT has also experienced geographic growth. Beginning with a client base in Michigan, we have been able to expand to serve 10 states. MHT is now active in: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Oregon, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia.
The following graph illustrates the growing number of consumers who have visited ManufacturedHomesToday.com® in the past year.
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Testimonial of the Month
I just wanted to let you know how pleased we are with the response that we have received from our use of your new Internet advertising program. We have had many inquiries from the website. Since we sell pre-owned homes in many communities in Oakland and Macomb counties, we deal with adult 55+ as well as family communities. I was not sure that it would bring inquiries to us from the 55+ group, but we were pleasantly surprised. The “ManufacturedHomesToday.com” site is great!! Thanks for this great advertising tool.
Joan Rossman
Broker/Owner
J.Rossman and Associates
Please visit the Testimonial Page to see additional testimonials or to add your own.
Q&A
We will be featuring selected questions from users in each newsletter. Please send any questions to: editor@manufacturedhomestoday.com.
Q: Is it possible to put up more than one photo on my Retailer and Community pages?
A: You can have up to 6 photos on your Retailer and Community pages. Some suggestions would be to put up photos of your sales office, clubhouse and facilities. These photos are posted in the form of a slideshow. If you have photos that you would like to include on your Retailer and Community pages, please mail them to MHT and we will put them up.
Q: There are some features for the homes that I am listing that are not included on the listing sheet. Is there a way to add these features?
A: There are two text boxes on the listing sheets where you can include text that is not represented on the checklist. There is a box titled ‘Description’ and one titled ‘Additional Information’. If there is a standard feature that you think the home listing sheet should have, please e-mail us and we will consider adding it.
Q: Sometimes when I try to put up photos of my home listings I get an error message. Is there something I am doing wrong?
A: There are three common problems that may cause an error message to appear. First, make sure that your photos are saved for the web as a .JPG file; other types of files will not work on the Internet.
Second, make sure your file size is not too large. Photos must be saved as 900x600 at 72 pixels per inch.
The third common problem is file names that contain characters other than plain text, such as a number sign (#) or a money sign ($). These characters translate to commands and interfere with the programming. When naming files, use only letters, numbers and underscores. Simply rename your photos excluding characters, and your photos should appear without error.
If you ever have a problem that needs immediate attention, please do not hesitate to e-mail us at contactus@manufacturedhomestoday.com, or call us at (810) 632-0600. No question is too small; we want to be aware of any quirks as soon as possible and keep the site running smoothly.
What is New at ManufacturedHomesToday.com®?
There are several new features this month that we would like to point out:
We now have a Testimonial Page linked to ManufacturedHomesToday.com®. Please visit this page to find out what others are saying, and to add your own comments. We value all feedback from our clients.
MHT has modified the Home Listing Sheets. The ‘options’ on the new sheet include: Family Room, Fireplace, On-Street Parking, Seller Motivated, Close to School Bus Stop, Close to Public Transportation and Roof Over. We have added new dropdown features as well. Under ‘Type of Home’, the dropdown ‘Sales Lot’ has been added. Under ‘Bathrooms’, the dropdown ‘1.75’ had been added. If your put you own home listings up, be sure to note these new options. If you send your listings to us for addition, please make sure that you have the most updated form. If you need the new form, let us know. We would be happy to fax one to you.
A link to the PDF of our Southeast Michigan publication, Manufactured Home Monthly™ is now available on ManufacturedHomesToday.com®. Check it out today!
Quality Homes has taken advantage of our ‘Platinum Plus Link’. This awesome feature allows Quality Homes to link all their home listings on ManufacturedHomesToday.com® directly to the Quality Homes website! Give us a call if you would like to see how this feature could work on your website.
There is now a camera icon that indicates that a home listing has photos associated with it. It shows up in the initial list of homes after a search has been performed and also on the community and retailer advertising pages in the list of homes.
Website Feature of the Month
Did you know that it is possible to add up to 6 photos to each home listing? There are several ways you can use the photo feature to show off your home. You can use the photo area to post floor plans, show different views from the home, profile decorated interiors and display the community. If you do not have photos of the home, you can opt to use a manufacturer-supplied photo.
A common question that we get from those searching our site is: "Can I see photos of this home?” Many consumers will not even look at the home listings that do not include photos. We now have the photo icon that allows visitors see at a glance which homes have a photo to view. Please visit Photo Tips for helpful information on taking photos and preparing them for the website.
