You can use pictures to make you the “star on parade” of your Web site while making it a joy for visitors to explore----and, cause them to get to know you better in the process, thus perhaps choosing you over some other agent.

Why is it important for prospects to get to know you well online? It is important because today many buyers choose an agent online before coming to a given area to look for a home in person. If they come to “know” you better than they come to know your peers, you have a far better chance of representing them.

That's where photography can make a difference. Photos help people get known by other people. And faces are what make people pictures zing.

Make yourself the star of your Web site

Most agents have just one photo of themselves in the upper left hand corner of their home page. Web designers tell them that this picture should always stay in that position as a visitor wanders through the site and that is why their site needs to be framed.

But wait. Is that what Web site visitors want to see, you over and over in the same shot? Even if you have a convenient-to-buy template sites, with the agent picture in the upper left hand corner, that's not the only way to go. You can add extra photos even to a template site.

Show yourself in action

Why don’t agents tell site designers that they want to show themselves engaged in a variety of activities that are consistent with selling real estate? A photo that shows an agent engaged in an activity that is consistent with selling real estate is employing “environmental photography.” Such photos show a professional or tradesperson actually practicing in a typical work environment---M.D. in a hospital, scientist in a lab, gambler in a casino, comedian on a stage, etc.

Environmental photos don’t need to reside solely on the home page, either. They can be accessible from a link under the main agent photo on the home page---say from a link called “See More of Betty” or “More Betty Pics” or “Betty at Work.” The link should lead to a new page where each picture has a caption underneath or alongside it that relates to how Betty is highly skilled at producing the results that are being “shown” in the photo.

For example, Betty can be shown doing an enthusiastic, all smiles “high-five” with a couple (obviously the buyers, but you could use your own prettier friends for as models for the photo) in front of a nice mansion near a yard sign that has a SOLD tag proudly sitting atop it.

But forget Betty; let’s get back to you. How about you at your laptop with the same couple leaning intently over your shoulder as you are performing MLS-search magic--- obviously magic, based on their look of controlled wonderment?

How about you handing them a contract and a pen as they smile adoringly back at you across a desk? Or, (to appeal to buyers), you standing inside a nice home, gesturing with an extended arm towards a towering fireplace, as the couple looks at it with genuine, enraptured awe?

Showcase your area

You may want to show shots of your area, and you should, but make sure you are some of the photos. One mountaintop covered with snow looks surprisingly like every other mountaintop covered with snow. Scenery shots are okay as backdrops or as “illustrations” in a Web site, but offering them by the dozen without you appearing in them is not the best marketing idea.

However static pictures of you in front of beautiful views isn't the answer either. Put yourself in the scenery, but be caught doing something. Interact with others at the location. Inspect something. Chat with someone, but don't always look at the camera.

Choosing pictures

You decide which views you should use in your site the same way a director writes a shooting script for a movie---just like a director, you decide scene by scene ahead of time what images and poses will best illustrate your story. Then you go out and shoot those poses.

You ask yourself, “Well, I want to show me being a good listener…now what kind of pose with another couple would show that?” Then you get a photographer, either paid or a good amateur friend, and you shoot several dozen variations on the same basic scene showing a couple (ideally in the same age bracket as your target audience) listening to you. In that way, maybe one of the photos will turn out to be just the “right” one. If not, you should do it all over again. You won’t be able to tell the right one until you see it. When you do, you will know it instantly.

Besides all the above new knowledge you have, you’d also be wise to take a half hour and go through Kodak’s Web site section called “Taking Great Pictures.” Or visit the Hewlett Packard site at and take Stephen Canale's online course in digital photography. After you do that, whether it’s taking interior and exterior photos of a home you just listed, or action shots of the kids and the dog, your photos will be 75% improved.

Want your web site to demonstrate your uniquely likable personality? Want it to show you as a human being that’s interested in people and involved in your community? Want your visitors to see you this way and thus perhaps choose you to help them buy or sell a home? Then quit hiding out. Show your face and show yourself at work. After all, on the Web your site IS you----now, go out and make it all that it can be---photographically.

Published: August 29, 2001

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Bill Koelzer is a Web marketing consultant to web-proficient agents nationwide. He is co-author, with Barbara Cox, Ph.D., of the Prentice-Hall books, Internet Marketing in Real Estate and Internet Marketing. Bill is also webmaster of Orange County Real Estate, among the most-awarded known Realtor® sites. Visit his website, Koelzer.com or e-mail him at .