When you type "real estate referral" into any search engine a slew of sites come up. In our experience here, at RankYourAgent.com, those sites featured pages of sponsored adds with very little, if any impartial content.

There are some pretty terrific resources you can use. Some of them you have to pay for, but they are inexpensive and can get you started quickly and easily.

1. A domain and web hosting. If you want others to see you as a professional and take you seriously, then you need to invest in your own domain and web hosting.

Purchased separately, cost can add up very quickly. Here are some very low cost solutions to help you put your name on map.

Dot Easy - http://www.doteasy.com - For only $25 per year, you can purchase your own domain. The web hosting is completely free. Although this hosting account is stripped of all bells and whistles like CGI, you still get 15MB of bannerless hosting for free, and if you build minisites, this is a really cheap way for you to get started. Buy a domain a month, and before you know it, you have your own empire of products set up for a lot less than if you had bought all of this separately.

Go Daddy - http://www.godaddy.com - Although as far as I know they offer domain names for cheapest price on Internet at $6.95, their service is pretty good. I buy all of my domains here, and I've never had any problems.

Free Web Space - http://100best-free-web-space.com/ - If money is a real problem right now, but you still want to make a good impression, then this site can help you find most affordable web hosting or even bannerless hosting that's free.

Remember, you get what you pay for, so eventually, when you can afford it, upgrade. There are some good budget web hosts out there like Dot Easy, but for most part, you get what you pay for.

2. Web Site Creation Tools.

There are some fantastic tools on Internet you can use to build your web site, and they're all free.

Considered to be best HTML editor online, Front Page 2000 will give you hundreds of scripts, as well as a free FTP client you can unzip into directory and upload your files directly from HTML editor.

There are four different modes, including beginner and expert, so no matter what level at creating HTML you are, this free editor will definitely help you.

You'll find it here: http://www.evrsoft.com.

While you're there, make sure you check out free metatag creator, as well as some of other great free online tools you'll find there.

3. Scripts.

If you want to get most from your web site, scripts will help you do this. You don't have to be an expert in installation either. You can quickly and easily learn how to install them. I taught myself from reading some of webmaster sites online.

You have two choices when it comes to installing scripts on your site:

You can install them yourself, or you can use remotely hosted scripts. Remotely hosted scripts are great when you don't have a CGI bin on your site.

This site is offering scripts for free: http://site-by-design.com/affiliates.php - Scripts include: Autoresponder Script, Fly-In Ads Script, Paid To Read Emails Script, Safelist Script, Rotator Script, Homepage Traffic Script. Definitely worth a look.

Two resources that offer a wide variety of scripts in different formats are:

http://www.cgiextremes.com/ http://www.hotscripts.com

If you want remotely hosted scripts, best sites I have found are:

http://www.cgispy.com http://www.bravenet.com

4. Autoresponders. Autoresponders will help you in two ways: you can use them for your opt in lists and ezines, and you can also use them to follow up with your customers.

With opt in lists and ezines, an autoresponder will save you trouble of handling subscribe and unsubscribe requests, which can become very tedious after awhile. This will allow you to automate mundane part of building a relationship with your customers and newsletter subscribers, providing you with credibility you need online to make sale.