Because yesterdays post was about fast forms, I decided to stick with the theme in two ways, real estate, and fast. That is about the only similarity though. This one is about flash, its alternative, and how on this Austin Real Estate site, has some flash that runs too fast. I actually wrote a post about them a while back as well, and that time I was referring to their header flash object.

A Better Way

First, you need to know what flash object I am talking about on their site. It’s the second one with the animated map. The animation runs way to fast, and it actaully took me a couple of runs to read the content. What was its message? Basically, that it was the secret real estate site that other realators didn’t want you to know about. It was selling itself.

My initial reaction was that there has to be a better way to sell yourself. Simple text does get the message across, and you could get rid of the flash all together. I think the author’s objective with this flash though, is to caputre the visitors attention with animation. I think here is an excellent opportunity to take on video, and just get rid of the flash.

Video

I think replacing their fast flash file with a video would be a great improvement. Their current flash, though fast, doesn’t convey a very large message. It also doesn’t get you to do anything. Using videos to sell products online has become a very popular method these days.

Benefits of Video

• You get face time
• You can quickly convey a message
• You can gain credibility by giving it a face
• It converts customers very well
• It captures the audience attention with visual and audio
• Images seen can say much more than text

Creating a digital video is also, now, pretty easy, and embedding into a website is a snap. In fact, the whole process is easier than building a flash file.

Had enough flash? Looking around their site to see if they had any more flash, I was happy to find none. I was certain I would find it on their blog, Austin Real Estate blog, but it was clean. No more flash bashing from me today. I do actually like it, it just depends on its use.

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