web-box product blog

Deluxe Website

2026-04-20T16:01:34+02:00

We now have a new website package called the Deluxe. This is in addition to our current lite and premium packages. The Deluxe differs from our other website types in that it allows a video on the homepage, and the design of the property and properties pages showcases the properties beautifully with larger pictures and an updated layout.

View this short video to see our beautiful new deluxe websites.

You can also load developments on the Deluxe, which is not available on our other website types.

The monthly cost of the Deluxe is R2430 + VAT.

We are currently running a special upgrade offer for all web-box clients currently on the premium package:

For the first 6 months, you pay your current price of R1780 + VAT
For the next 6 months, you pay 50% of the increased price, which is R2105 + VAT
Thereafter, full billing starts
We will waive the R5000 + VAT setup fee
You can opt out at any time and revert back to your current Premium site & pricing

If you would like to take up this offer, please contact support on 021 460 0456 or email support@webbox.co.za

Upload PPA Documents

2026-03-26T16:37:38+02:00

The Property Practitioners Act (PPA) requires estate agents to have the following documents in order to market a property:

Authority To Sell
Mandate Agreement
Mandatory Disclosure Form

We have made fields available in your admin console to add these documents to a listing. They will only be visible in the admin console, and not publicly visible on the website.

Adding documents in your admin console.

Documents can be either ‘optional’ or ‘required’. By default, we have made all documents optional. If a document is set to required no property can be uploaded or edited without adding the document. If you would like a document to be required, please email support@webbox.co.za, and we will change it.

The documents can be viewed in the admin console on the properties screen, making it easy to check whether any are missing.

Adjust column visibility to have the documents display. ATS - Authority to Sell, MA - Mandate Agreement, MDF - Mandatory Disclosure Form.

This new feature will streamline your office admin and help you be compliant with the Act. Should you want to associate any other documents with properties, please email support@webbox.co.za and we will set it up for you.

Private Property Exclusive Mandates

2026-03-05T09:12:33+02:00

You can now list sole mandates exclusively on Private Property before they are automatically copied to other portals. In return, Private Property will feature your listing for free at the top of their search results.

Read more about Private Property Exclusive Mandates

Private Property exclusive listings stand out on top of search results.

Listing retains a 'First on Private Property' badge after the exclusivity period ends.

This feature is available in your admin console so you can use it when feeding your listings to Private Property. The time it is listed exclusively can be set at the agency level (applies to all listings) or at the agent level (the agent chooses the exclusivity time period for each listing).

Manage Private Property Exclusive Mandate default settings in your admin console.

Setting the agent controlled exclusivity period on a per property basis.

Once the exclusivity time period lapses, the property automatically goes to other portals, so no need to do anything yourself.

If you have a Private Property account and would like this enabled, please contact support@webbox.co.za for the next steps.

Happy‌ ‌holidays‌ ‌to‌ ‌all‌

2025-12-04T11:11:12+02:00

Our offices will be open over the festive season (apart from the public holidays). However, our developers will be away from the 16th of December 2025 to 12th of January 2026, so if you want any updates done to your website please send them to support@webbox.co.za as soon as possible.

Document Folders

2025-11-05T16:55:54+02:00

Your documents can now be categorised into folders according to the type, subject or whatever you want. This allows for better organisation and a better user experience.

Create a new folder to group your documents.

New and existing documents can be added to folders. You can choose whether folders are visible on the front end or only available in the admin console.

Folders displayed on the document downloads page.

Here is a reminder blog about documents on your website. Note that documents and document folders are only available on premium and deluxe websites.

We hope you find this new feature useful. Please let us know if you have any feedback or questions.

Special Facebook offer for WEB-BOX clients

2025-09-03T15:14:05+02:00

How often do you look up a company on social media before you decide to start dealing with them? It is no different for estate agencies. A Facebook Business Page gives you the opportunity to show that you are a reputable authority in your field and an active agency in your focal areas, as well as giving you another platform to showcase your stock.

Setting them up and maintaining them at a consistently high standard takes time, money and know-how and can be overwhelming. Let us help you with this - we have lots of experience managing Facebook Business pages for estate agencies, so we know what works and what doesn’t.

We are currently running a special offer* for WEB-BOX clients - 50% off the setup fee on our Lite, Standard or Booster packages plus 20% off the monthly fee for the first 3 months. Monthly fees start from R3660 + VAT per month.

See full details of the packages here.

If you are interested, please contact us.

*offer ends 30th September 2025

Important Gumtree Feed Update

2025-08-19T12:25:54+02:00

Currently, all your listings feed to Gumtree for free. However, from the 1st of September, Gumtree is changing to a fully paid model for property listings.

They say they are doing this to:

Eliminate duplicate and fraudulent accounts.
Improve the quality of leads you receive.
Offer faster, more personalised customer support.
Increase transparency in how services are delivered.

If you do not have a subscription with them, then all property listings that have been fed through will be automatically removed by them, so you do not have to do anything. If you do take out a paid subscription, then the listings will continue to feed through. We will update our admin console accordingly.

To find out more about this change, please click here. If you have any questions, please let us know.

New Property Brochures

2025-07-10T10:08:47+02:00

We are excited to show you the 3 new beautiful brochures now available in your admin console - the Modern collection. They have been designed to present your properties even more beautifully - property images are the focus, with a cleaner, more modern layout and new icons.

Modern A3, landscape, 2 pictures.

The Modern collection is made up of the following brochure formats:

A3 landscape with 2 property pictures
A3 landscape with 5 property pictures
A4 portrait with 4 pictures

Modern A3, landscape, 5 pictures.

Modern A4, portrait, 4 pictures.

They also have a QR code, which will take visitors to the listing on your website.

Like all our brochures, you can edit the description, points and agents, and they can be downloaded as a PDF for you to print or email. These new brochures are available on all our websites.

Please download some brochures from your admin console to see how beautifully they present your properties. We are sure you will love them like we do. And as always, please let us know if you have any questions or feedback.

Lite sites menu update

2025-06-23T12:09:27+02:00

We have renamed the “Valuation” menu item to “Market Estimate”. This is to comply with the PPRA instruction that Property Practitioners must refrain from using the terminology “valuations” in their marketing material.

Updated menu item.

This menu item opens a form for people to fill in their details so you can get in touch with them. People completing this form could be looking to sell or just curious about the value of their property.

This update will reflect on all lite sites. Should you have a lite site and would like different wording, let us know and we will change accordingly. If you have a premium site, and you want us to change the wording in a similar way, let us know, and we will do it for you.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Refer-a-friend policy reminder

2025-03-18T10:04:24+02:00

We want to remind you of our ongoing refer-a-friend policy.

Refer-a-friend!

If you send a friend our way and they sign up with WEB-BOX, both you and the friend you referred will get a 50% discount off your monthly subscription fee for 3 months. All your friend needs to do, for you both to benefit from this amazing offer, is to let us know that you were the one who recommended us.

We hope this perk will help you boldly share your love of web-box!

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Happy‌ ‌holidays‌ ‌to‌ ‌all‌

2024-12-05T11:55:47+02:00

Our offices will be open over the festive season (apart from the public holidays). However, our developers will be away from the 16th of December 2024 to 13th of January 2025, so if you want any updates done to your website please send them to support@webbox.co.za as soon as possible.

New look articles page

2025-03-14T13:48:35+02:00

The newsletter page of our websites has been given an updated look. We have changed it from a grid to a single-column design.

Desktop view.

This gives it a more modern and clean look, and it displays beautifully on mobile too.

Mobile view.

All our new sites will have this layout, however existing clients can switch to this new look for no extra charge, just let us know if you would like to do so.

*Newsletter page only available for premium sites.

Special Facebook offer for WEB-BOX clients

2024-10-17T12:54:44+02:00

Facebook is critical to any estate agent’s marketing and branding plan. Running a professional Facebook Business Page is a skill that takes time and effort, so why not let a professional help you. We have lots of experience running Facebook pages for estate agencies, so we know what works and what doesn’t.

We are currently running a special offer* for WEB-BOX clients - 40% off the setup fee on our Lite, Standard or Booster packages. That is a saving of R2000 + VAT. Plus 1 free month - pay for 6 months and get the 7th month FREE. Monthly fees range from R3,360 to R6,240 + VAT.

Let us give you peace of mind knowing your page will be professionally maintained over the upcoming festive season.

See full details of the packages here.

If you are interested, please contact us.

*offer ends 30th November 2024

Refer-a-friend policy reminder

2025-03-14T13:49:03+02:00

We want to remind you of our ongoing refer-a-friend policy.

Refer-a-friend!

We hope this perk will help you boldly share your love of web-box!

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Updated Agent & Team Pages

2024-09-10T12:11:49+02:00

We have updated your agent page with a new look and features, making it also work as a digital business card.

The page has a modern look with bigger agent images and the agent's properties are now displayed on the page.

Desktop view.

It also looks great on mobile devices.

Mobile view.

There are now forms to contact the agent directly to ‘Sell or Lease a Property’ or ‘Let me help you find a property’. These enquiries go directly to them, and copies of these enquiry forms will also be shown in the monitoring section in the admin console.

Agents can add links to their own social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube channel).

The agent page can now be shared via:

Email
QR Code
WhatsApp
Copying the page link (agents can add it to their email signature to share their details and properties)

Sharing options for the agent page.

On mobile devices, you can save the agent details directly to your phone’s contacts, by clicking on ‘save contact’.

The team page has been updated with larger images and a more modern, clean design to match the agent page.

We are sure you will love your updated agent & team pages. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Updated property alert emails

2024-08-19T15:53:13+02:00

We have updated our property alerts emails with a more modern and elegant layout.

Updated property alert email.

They display beautifully on both mobile phones and desktop computers. We have tested them extensively on many different email clients and devices to ensure this is always the case.

Your property alerts are an extremely powerful sales tool for the following reasons:

They are the quickest way to present a listing to your database of buyers.
They present properties to buyers before other agents. Buyers can deal with multiple agents in an area, and if a property is an open mandate, the agent who presents the property to the buyer first gets the sale. Property alerts are the best way to ensure this agent is you.
All you have to do is to upload the listing onto your website and the property alerts are emailed automatically the next morning. You can also send them before then should you wish.
They generate more website traffic for you, with people clicking on the email to view the property and then browsing your other properties.

We hope you enjoy your new-look property alerts, please let us know if you have any feedback or questions.

New Premium Theme

2024-04-12T15:39:04+02:00

We are excited to present a new theme for our premium websites called Contemporary, have a look at it - contemporary.webbox.co.za.

Contemporary theme.

This theme differs from our others in the following:

There is a parallax scrolling effect on the main image, which we think is pretty cool. To see this, go to the demo website and scroll down.
The featured properties and testimonials are displayed as a slider / carousel so you can have as many of each as you want.
The bond calculators, property alerts sign up and news/testimonials are displayed and linked from the front page.

Our new theme is in addition to our existing themes (clean, logo hero, picture hero, lifestyle, portfolio). They can all be viewed on our portfolio page.

If you would like to switch your premium website to this theme you can do so at a cost of R2000 + VAT. Please email us at support@webbox.co.za if you would like to make the switch.

Admin console password reset

2024-03-05T12:52:16+02:00

You can now change your password from the login screen of your admin console.

Password reset link on the login page.

When you click the link provided, you get sent an email with a link to reset your password.

You can also change your password when you are logged in as shown below.

Change password in the admin console.

Plus, you can now use your email address to log in, which is easier to remember than a username.

We recommend that you use either of these methods now to change your password to increase the security of your account. If you need any help with this or have any questions please contact us.

Tags replace showrooms

2024-02-08T08:51:38+02:00

We have replaced showrooms with tags. Showrooms were used to create a page showing specific properties like ‘Auctions’ or ‘On Show’. You can now do the same with tags. However, unlike showrooms, visitors can use tags as a search criteria on your website, making them a much more powerful feature.

Searching for properties tagged as 'Retirement'.

You create tags in your admin console and then assign them to a property or a development.

Here are some examples of tags that could be created:

On show
Auction
New stock
Furnished
Retirement

Your admin console properties page shows the tags associated with the properties for easy management.

Admin console view of tags the property has.

We strongly encourage all clients who use showrooms to use tags* instead, just email us instructions to switch you over and we will do so. Or, if you don’t have showrooms and would like to start using tags, please let us know.

*Showrooms and tags only available on premium sites

Happy‌ ‌holidays‌ ‌to‌ ‌all‌

2023-12-06T09:27:58+02:00

Our offices will be open over the festive season (apart from the public holidays). However, our developers will be away from the 14th December 2023 to 8th January 2024, so if you want any updates done to your website please send them to support@webbox.co.za as soon as possible.

Facebook special for WEB-BOX clients

2023-11-02T11:55:58+02:00

A Facebook Business Page gives you the opportunity to show that you are a reputable authority in your field and an active agency in your focal areas, as well as giving you another platform to showcase your stock. It gives potential clients a perception of your brand and the type of service they might receive if they choose to work with your company.

We are currently running an exclusive offer* for WEB-BOX clients - you will get 50% off the setup fee and 20% off the monthly fee for the 1st three months. A saving of R2300 + VAT off the setup fee. Monthly fees range from R2465 to R4582 + VAT.

See full details of the packages here.

If you are interested, please contact us.

*offer ends 30th November 2023

Birthday and home anniversary emails

2023-05-29T13:41:16+02:00

You can now automatically send birthday and property purchase anniversary emails from the admin console to your clients - a great way to easily keep yourself top of mind.

Research shows that this can help you get repeat business and make you look good. Two things that are very important in the competitive world of real estate.

A birthday email.

A property purchase anniversary email.

To start sending out these emails, you must set up and enable templates for the birthday and property anniversary emails. Then add dates to your contacts so they start receiving these emails.

This short video will show you how to do that. Here is a quick reminder on how contacts work.

If you need any assistance in setting this up, please contact support.

Refer-a-friend policy reminder

2023-03-16T11:52:33+02:00

We want to remind you of our ongoing refer-a-friend policy.

Refer-a-friend!

We hope this perk will help you boldly share your love of web-box!

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Portal feed update

2023-02-15T16:09:22+02:00

In the properties page of the admin console, we now have two types of links to your properties that have been fed to the portals:

The reference number link: This is for portals that give us a listing status and their reference number for each property we feed to them. This confirms the property is on the portal and we can link directly to it. Portals with this link are Property24, Private Property, Gumtree, TPN Prop Bay, Immoafrica and Property360.
The new search link: This is for portals that don’t give us feedback on or reference numbers for properties we have fed to them. While the property was fed to them it might not always appear, so the best we can do is provide a link to a search page on the portal that should include the property. Portals with this new link are Mitula, Locanto and Trovit.

Search link in the Amin Console. Click to view the property on the portal.

This new search link will appear 3 days after the property is uploaded - giving the portal time to import and display the property.

The new search links and portal icons have also been added to the Owner email - making it look even more impressive.

Owner email with links to the property on the portals.

We understand that maximising your property’s exposure is vital. That is why we work hard to ensure that your properties show on as many portals as possible (both free and paid). Plus provide you with links to view them there, to confirm they are there and presented correctly.

If you have any queries, please contact us.

Happy holidays to all

2022-12-06T16:13:38+02:00

Our offices will be open over the festive season (apart from the public holidays). However, our developers will be away from the 15th December 2022 to 9th January 2023, so please send any website changes or updates to support@webbox.co.za as soon as possible.

Contacts

2022-12-06T15:58:25+02:00

We have added a new feature in your admin console called Contacts. This allows you to add contacts, like owners, buyers, sellers, tenants, and then link them to a property.

Below is a quick video explaining how Contacts work.

How to use Contacts.

Our new contacts feature enables you to do the following:

Keep all contacts for your properties in one place & have them available to everyone in your agency.
Associate many different types of contacts with a property, be it the owner, tenant, seller, landlord, managing agent, or viewing contact.
See all the contacts for a property.
See all the properties a contact is associated with.

We would like to hear what you think about this new feature, so please give it a try and let us know if you have any questions or feedback.

Properties Reports

2022-10-24T16:00:12+02:00

We have created a new properties report feature which is available in your admin console under the Properties drop-down.

With this new feature, you can create reports by choosing the columns (property features) and properties to appear in the report. They can be downloaded, either as PDF or Excel, and can also be saved for future use enabling quick and easy generation of these reports going ahead.

Example of a downloaded PDF sales report.

Examples of reports you could possibly create are:

All properties for sale or rent.
All properties for sale or rent by a specific estate agent.
All residential or commercial properties for sale.

We have created a short video to explain how the reports work - watch it here.

Please note this feature is only available on our premium package.

We know that setting up the reports for the first time can be a challenge, so please contact us to help you with this if needed.

Change agents on Property Brochures

2022-09-22T12:37:38+02:00

We have added further flexibility to our Property Brochures. When downloading or printing a brochure from the admin console you can now select any agent to appear on it.

This is for agents who only want their own details to appear on the brochure when they send or give it to clients.

Please note this does not change the agent associated with the listing on the website.

Change agent on the brochure.

We hope you will find this update useful. If you have any feedback, we would love to hear it.

New Admin Console menu layout

2022-09-22T11:29:59+02:00

We have made some changes to the menu items in your admin console. This is to accommodate future new menu items. Please note that some of the menu items mentioned below might not be enabled on your website.

The changes are as follows:

Showrooms have moved to the Properties drop-down
Articles, Links and Documents have moved to a new drop-down called Uploads
For those with multiple logins, Users can now be found under the Settings drop-down
The POPI and PPRA settings are also under the Settings drop-down

New Uploads drop-down in Admin Console.

We know in these fast-paced times change can be challenging, so if you ever need any help please contact support@webbox.co.za or call us on 021 460 0456.

New Calculators

2022-09-01T15:08:39+02:00

We have added two new calculators to the calculator page on our premium sites. We now have an Affordability Calculator and a Bond and Transfer Calculator. These are in addition to our two existing bond calculators.

New calculators.

The Affordability Calculator gives you a rough indication of the bond amount you possibly qualify for, and the Bond and Transfer Calculator calculates all the costs associated with registering a bond and transferring a property.

We are sure these additions will be of great value to visitors to your website.

If you have a premium site which does not have a calculator page and would like it added to your website, please contact support@webbox.co.za and we will add it for you at no extra charge.

Email addresses removed from Lite Sites

2022-06-16T15:27:16+02:00

Recent industry norms have been to not display email addresses on websites. This is to stop bots and people from copying the email addresses off websites and then sending spam, scamming or phishing emails to them. Phishing emails attempt to get the recipient to enter their email password, enabling the hacking of their email account.

You will note that Property 24, Private Property and many other estate agency websites do not display email addresses anymore.

We have now implemented it on our lite sites and we will be rolling it out to our premium sites. The delayed roll-out on the premium sites is due to having to update each of them individually. If you have a premium site and want us to make this change as soon as possible, let us know and we will put you at the front of the queue.

The changes are as follows. All email addresses on the Contact Page, Property Page and Agent Page have been replaced with a link to a pop-up form in which the agent or agency can be messaged

Form to message agent.

When this is filled out the agent or agency will have the message emailed to them.

Email sent to the agent.

A confirmation email is also automatically sent to the sender.

Confirmation email sent to the sender.

A copy of the email will also be saved to the admin console enabling the principal to see the leads and messages sent.

Record of emails sent in the admin console.

We are confident this will work for you, but should you want to keep the email addresses displayed on your website please contact support@webbox.co.za and we will revert your website to do so.

New Lite Site template

2022-05-10T11:40:02+02:00

We are proud to present our beautiful new Lite Site template - Enhanced Lite.

Enhanced Lite template.

This template is in addition to our existing Lite Site template known as the Classic Lite template.

You can see an example of the Enhanced Lite template here.

The new-look includes:

a solid top header section
a property search bar on the main image
larger menu icons
a more prominent property alert sign up

If you are currently on the Classic Lite template and would like to switch to Enhanced Lite, you can do so at a cost of R1400 + VAT.

Please email us at support@webbox.co.za if you want to make the switch.

Property Practitioners Act Compliance

2022-03-29T13:44:49+02:00

The Property Practitioners Act which recently came into effect requires that the wording “Registered with PPRA” must appear on all your marketing material. In order for your website to comply, we have added a setting in your admin console which you will need to enable in order for this to show.

Choose the show wording from the dropdown.

Once you have enabled it, the wording will appear in the following places:

In the footer of your website
On your property alert emails
On all your property brochures

Another requirement is to change the title Estate Agent to Property Practitioner. You can also do this in the admin console by editing your agent info and updating the “job title” field.

Edit your job title on the edit agent screen.

If you have any questions about any of this, please contact us.

Special Facebook offer for WEB-BOX clients

2022-02-01T16:58:55+02:00

How often do you look up a company on social media before you decide to start dealing with them? It is no different for estate agencies.

If managed correctly, a Facebook Business Page gives your estate agency the opportunity to show that you have a good reputation in your field and is another platform to showcase your properties.

Running a professional Facebook Business Page is a skill that takes time and effort so why not let a professional help you.

We have lots of experience running Facebook pages for estate agencies so we know what works and what doesn’t.

To make it even easier for you to upgrade your Facebook Business Page, or to get started on one we are running an exclusive offer on our Facebook packages to all WEB-BOX clients - we are waiving the setup fee - that is a saving of R4250 + VAT.

The monthly costs for our packages range from R2590 +VAT to R4 800 + VAT, depending on your needs - you can read more about them here.

If you are interested, please email us before 28th February 2022 and we will get back to you.

Happy‌ ‌holidays‌ ‌to‌ ‌all‌

2021-12-07T18:32:08+02:00

Our offices will be open over the festive season (apart from the public holidays). However, our developers will be away from the 15th December 2021 to 10 January 2022, so if you want any updates done to your website please send them to support@webbox.co.za as soon as possible.

Development Listings

2021-11-30T14:39:40+02:00

You can now upload a development to your site in the same way you would upload a property. You will find this new “Add Development” feature on the Properties dropdown in your admin console.

Doing it this way means you can create and update developments yourself without asking us to do it for you.

Much like the property pages, the development is displayed in a professional and consistent layout.

Developments will show as a menu item on your properties dropdown.

The development upload page allows for images, floor plans, marketing brochures, videos, and show days. You can also allocate agents to the development.

Professional and consistent layout of a development page.

Please note these developments do not feed to the portals and it is only available on our premium sites.

If your site currently has developments we would suggest you move them to this version. If you would like help moving them, we will be happy to help you move them - please let us know.

Search by reference number

2021-11-17T16:39:43+02:00

Visitors to your website can now use your website reference numbers in the search bar to find a property. See below.

Search by reference number in the search bar.

This usability update will make your website even easier to use - something we are continuously working on.

If you have any feedback, please let us know.

Subscriber emails double opt-in

2021-10-28T16:01:04+02:00

Earlier this year we set up double opt-in for all new property alerts and newsletter subscribers on our client websites. This was to be in line with POPIA requirements.

How it works is when a subscriber signs up or is added via the admin console, they receive an email with a link for them to confirm they want to sign up.

Double opt-in email.

Once they have clicked the link, they are added to your list of opted-in subscribers. Only opted-in subscribers will receive property alerts or newsletter emails.

In your admin console, you can easily see who has not opted in, with the number of opt-in emails sent to them and the date the last one was sent.

Non opted-in subscribers in the admin console, with the number of opt-in emails sent and the date of the last one.

You can send an opt-in email to non opted-in subscribers by adding them again in the admin console’s ‘Add Subscribers’ screen.

Should you wish to disable subscriber double opt-in, you can do so by changing your POPIA compliance settings in your admin console - read more here.

If you have any questions about this or any other website query, please contact us.

Updates to Lite Sites

2021-10-07T08:50:36+02:00

We are always working hard to ensure we provide our clients with the best websites. To this end, we have recently upgraded our Lite Site template to include the following:

An About Us Page (to enable please send us the text and a picture if you have one).
An Our Team Page showing your agents (it will appear automatically if you have added agents via your admin console).
A map on the Contact Page (we have set this up if your address was presented on the Contact Page).

New Lite Site About Us Page.

See what the changes look like on newlite.webbox.co.za.

We are sure our Lite Site clients will love these new additions to their website - we look forward to your feedback.

Working for you.

The web-box team

Property Brochure PDF downloads

2021-09-15T15:22:25+02:00

We have changed the way your brochures work. You can now download them as a print-ready PDF. This makes creating them much quicker and easier. We have also implemented a new much more powerful interface for you to create them in.

New property brochure interface in admin console.

You can now also edit the brochure description and points directly without having to change the property listing. Brochures are now restricted to 1 print page. If the description or points are too long for the allocated area in the brochure they will be truncated.

The new brochure system works really well on mobile as well. It is very easy to share the PDF via WhatsApp or email on your phone.

Brochure PDF shared on WhatsApp.

Give it a try, we are sure you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is. Should you need any help with the new brochures, please let us know.

South Africa unrest

2021-11-17T16:15:53+02:00

We have all seen the looting and destruction of property in KZN and Gauteng, as well as the reports of the ongoing Taxi violence in the Western Cape. We empathise strongly with our clients and everyone else who has been affected and hope things get better soon.

We have been saddened to hear that some of our clients have had their premises looted, and we would like to help them. Please let us know if this happened to you.

Things do seem to be getting better and we at web-box hope the rebuilding across communities continues.

The web-box team

POPIA and Property Alerts/Newsletters settings

2021-11-17T16:16:48+02:00

We have implemented emailing only opted-in subscribers by default as per our blog post POPIA and Property Alerts/Newsletters. This ensures that your website is by default POPIA compliant.

The agency principal can override this default through the settings page in the admin console. To remain POPIA compliant this should only be done if consent has been obtained from the subscribers.

Your admin console subscriber screen will now by default show the subscribers your website is set to email. You can toggle this view via the drop-down shown below.

Updates to admin console subscriber screen.

Opt-in subscribers are those who signed up via the front end of your website or confirmed that they want to continue receiving these emails through an email opt-in confirmation like the 3 email opt in process.

To see how each subscriber signed up we have added 3 new columns to the admin console subscriber screen:

website opt-in: signed up via front end of website
email opt-in: opted in via email confirmation
opt-in: true if website opt-in or email opt-in

If you have any questions on this please contact us, we are here to help.

POPIA Privacy Policy

2021-11-17T16:17:41+02:00

We have updated your website with a POPIA Privacy Policy, which shows as a link in the footer. This was written by legal consultants, TVDM Consultants, who have been providing POPIA services to the property industry.

You have the option to override this Privacy Policy by sending us your own version. If you have already provided one, it will be kept as is.

There will be a further POPIA related post in the next couple of days. And in case you missed it, see our previous post about POPIA and Property Alerts/Newsletters.

If you have any questions please contact us.

POPIA and Property Alerts/Newsletters

2021-10-07T08:50:15+02:00

POPIA states that from next month all direct marketing and related emails must be opt-in.

To adhere to this we will by default, from next month, only send Property Alert and Newsletter emails to subscribers who have signed up via the front end of your website (website opted-in subscribers). Not to subscribers who have been added via your admin console or you have requested us to add for you.

You will be able to override this default and send to everyone by checking a box to say that you wish to email all your subscribers and have consent to do so.

You can now see how many of your subscribers are website opted-in vs not at the top of your admin console’s subscriber screen.

If you want to try to convert admin console added subscribers to opted-in subscribers, we can send them emails asking them to opt-in to carry on receiving Property Alerts and Newsletters. This will be done by sending 3 emails over the next 3 weeks. Be aware that the conversion could be low. There will be a R500 + VAT charge to set up and run this process. Please let us know if you would like us to do this for you.

We will update you on further POPIA compliance for your website in the next couple of days.

If you have any questions on this please contact us.

Refer-a-friend policy reminder

2021-06-30T12:49:25+02:00

We want to remind you of our ongoing refer-a-friend policy.

Refer-a-friend!

We hope this perk will help you boldly share your love of web-box!

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Feed your properties to Facebook

2021-06-30T12:49:18+02:00

Don’t forget you can feed your properties from your admin console to your Facebook Business Page. We have seen that this generates significant traffic to our client websites.

Admin console link to feed to your Facebook business page.

You can easily keep track of which properties have been fed to Facebook via your admin console, plus click through to view them there. Just like your feeds to the property portals. Plus a link to the property on Facebook will appear in your Owner Email.

Admin console link to view property on Facebook.

Feeding sold properties to Facebook is the best way to show that you make sales.

A sold property on your Facebook business page.

Don’t forget to update previously fed ‘For Sale’ properties to ‘Sold’ when this happens. This is easily done through your admin console.

If you do not already have a Facebook Business Page, we strongly recommend that you either set up one yourself or get us to do it for you. WEB-BOX has a team of online marketing specialists, contact us to find out more.

COVID-19 link moved

2021-06-30T12:49:04+02:00

We have moved the Government Gazette mandated COVID-19 link from the top to the bottom of all our clients’ websites. It looks a lot better there, while remaining fully compliant with the regulations.

We hope you like the change.

Please stay safe. Stay healthy. Be patient and kind.

Happy holidays to all

2020-12-04T11:02:36+02:00

Our offices will be open over the festive season (apart from the public holidays). However, our developers will be away from the 14th December 2020 to 11 January 2021, so please send any website changes or updates to support@webbox.co.za as soon as possible.

Don’t forget: referring a new client to us is a WIN-WIN!

2020-10-27T11:25:48+02:00

We want to remind you of our ongoing refer-a-friend policy.

Refer-a-friend!

We hope this perk will help you boldly share your love of web-box!

If you have any questions, you can gladly contact us.

Feed all your properties to Gumtree for free

2021-11-17T16:24:03+02:00

Good news! From the 1st of June web-box clients will be able to automatically feed all their listings to Gumtree for free. Before you could only feed 5 properties to Gumtree at no cost via your web-box website.

All new properties you now upload will be ticked by default to feed to Gumtree - you do not have to do anything. To also feed older properties, select and edit them in your admin console and tick the Gumtree feed box.

Feed your older properties by ticking their Gumtree feed box.

We are sure that in these stressful times that getting all your properties onto Gumtree, with their 1 million a month visitors, without incurring any additional cost will be a great help to you.

If you want to maximise the exposure your listings get on Gumtree you can buy an optional package from them that automatically bumps up your properties so they will appear at the top of the default search results. This costs R1999 + VAT per month per branch (a 33% discount on the current rate). This significantly increases your exposure. You can email Gumtree at property@protool-support.com for more information.

If you already have a Gumtree subscription in place, you can benefit even more - contact your Gumtree account manager for these details.

If you do not want your properties to automatically feed to Gumtree, please contact us and we will disable this for you.

Exclusive Facebook offer For WEB-BOX clients

2021-11-17T16:35:05+02:00

Do you want to learn how to run your own Facebook business page? This is where web-box can help. We are currently running a lockdown Facebook special which will get you up and running quickly, but most importantly, you will also get a 12 week training course that will allow you to confidently host and contribute to your page.

This web-box client lockdown special is a 50% discount off the setup price (R925 + VAT instead of R1 850 + VAT) and a 35% discount off the monthly fee (R1 007.50 + VAT instead of R1 550 + VAT) for the first six months.

Facebook is an integral source of information for potential sellers and buyers. It also gives your brand credibility, so with this special you can enjoy peace of mind knowing you now have a professional social media presence that you are also able to manage.

See full details of the package here.

If you are interested, please email us and we will get in touch.

Filter Property Alerts by city and suburb

2021-11-17T16:55:47+02:00

Your Property Alerts are even better. Subscribers to your Property Alerts can now filter them by city and suburb. This is in addition to the current property type and price range filters.

Filter Property Alerts by city or suburb.

You can choose which suburbs are available to filter by from the new Property Locations screen.

New Property Locations Screen.

Existing subscribers can also add area filters via a link on their Property Alert emails.

Link to change property alert filters.

We have enabled this for all websites. However, if you do not want it, please contact us and we will turn it off.

In these challenging times, we want to reassure you that web-box is working hard to improve your website as much as possible.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Be kind.

Property Alerts not just for new properties

2021-11-17T16:56:52+02:00

With the Covid-19 lockdown in full effect, the chances are you have not been able to get new stock. However, nothing is stopping you from sending out Property Alerts for your current properties to your subscribers. The only way you can reach potential buyers right now is online, and email is the best way to reach as many people as possible.

Here are instructions on how to send out an alert immediately on an older property.

Get your current properties out to all your subscribers.

Now is the perfect time to make sure you have added all your contacts to your subscriber list. If you have a big list, please send it to us to do a bulk upload for you.

Just a reminder not to re-send older properties too often as it might result in some people unsubscribing.

If you need help with any of this, please contact us - we are here to help.

Financial Assistance Information

2020-06-05T10:53:03+02:00

We have updated our mini site Estate Agent’s practical tips to navigate Covid-19 with notes on the financial assistance available during Lockdown and beyond.

In this financially (and emotionally) stressful time, the information out there is vague, and the landscape is changing quickly. We have tried to help you navigate this by structuring the information out there.

We are also looking to provide details of some professionals who can help you and will let you know if and when we do.

We hope this will be of help. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Be kind.

Email Security: check links before opening

2021-11-17T16:57:30+02:00

Unfortunately, email hackers are taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic and using it as an opportunity to scam people. They are doing this by sending an official looking email purporting to be from the Government/Bank or other official source, that asks you to click on a link. This link will either be used to steal information like bank details and passwords, or it could be used to install malicious malware, viruses or ransomware.

To protect yourself, you should always check links in emails before clicking on them. Below is how you can check the link on computer and mobile.

On a computer, hover your mouse over the link to see the actual url/link in a pop up or in the bottom bar.

On your phone, hold your finger on the link for a few seconds until this appears.

If the domain in the link is different to what is displayed in the email then you should probably not click on it. In this case https://mega.nz is different to gauteng.gov.za. There are exceptions to this rule, but it is a good idea to play it safe.

A related email security pointer is to never enter a banking or email password on a website that you have clicked to from an email.

Industry standard virus & spam scanners are run against all mail on our mail servers and do stop thousands of these emails, but unfortunately it is impossible to stop them all.

If you have any questions about this, please contact us, we are here to help you.

COVID-19 link on all websites

2021-02-11T16:03:30+02:00

The Government Gazette mandated that all websites ending in .co.za must have a link to www.sacoronavirus.co.za. This is to facilitate the easy spread and access to all information with regards to this pandemic. We have enabled it on your website from today, so your website is fully compliant with these regulations.

If you have any queries, please feel free to contact us.

Please stay safe. Stay healthy. Be patient and kind.

The WEB-BOX Team

A Message From WEB-BOX

2020-03-29T11:06:16+02:00

Dear WEB-BOX clients,

Nothing is more important to us than the well-being of our clients, their businesses and our employees. In this unprecedented time, we want you to know we're doing all we can to support you.

Our services and support are running as normal.
We have already set ourselves up to work remotely, and have fine tuned this over the last 10 days. However, should you experience any issues that are not resolved through the normal channels please email us at escalate@webbox.co.za.

We will be helping our clients in whatever way we can.
This will be a really tough time for us all operationally and financially, but we want you to know that we will do all we can to help and accommodate you in these respects. Call or email us, we’re here for you.

We have put up an online resource to help you.
Our evolving mini site presents resources and strategies to deal with these trying times. How to deal with the current situation and use your time effectively to come out stronger. See Estate Agent’s practical guide to covid-19.

Lastly, please take good care of yourself and your loved ones. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Be patient and kind.

The WEB-BOX team

Special ORMS offer for WEB-BOX clients

2021-11-17T16:58:00+02:00

WEB-BOX is happy to let you know that ORMS Cape Town School of Photography is offering WEB-BOX clients a 25% discount off their next Real Estate Photography course on 8 & 9 February 2020.

The course runs in Cape Town over a weekend. For more information, please see their website (remember to let them know you are a WEB-BOX client).

WhatsApp Agents From Your Website

2020-04-11T11:21:41+02:00

Don’t you find it much easier to WhatsApp someone instead of calling or emailing? With 300 million users worldwide, WhatsApp is the most ubiquitous messaging service around. Since we want to make it as easy as possible for buyers to contact you, they can now WhatsApp your agents directly from the property page of your website.

WhatsApp agent from website property page.

This is now enabled for all our websites. As these messages can’t be logged in your admin consoles monitoring tab (as the texting happens in WhatsApp), we understand if you would like us to disable this for you - just let us know.

We hope this works for you, and you get lots of WhatsApp leads from your website.

Please contact us if you have any feedback or questions.

Happy holidays to all

2019-12-20T15:25:13+02:00

Our offices will be open during the festive season apart from the public holidays.

Group Your Subscribers

2019-11-06T15:05:43+02:00

You can now group your subscribers and send a different newsletter to each group. Some people want to receive your newsletter, but not property alerts (or vice versa) or you might have an investor newsletter and a homeowner newsletter which you would want to send to different people.

Subscriber Groups feature in your admin console.

You can add or remove subscribers from any group.

Add or remove subscribers from a Subscriber Group.

Your subscribers are also able to subscribe or unsubscribe from any group themselves by clicking the link in the property alerts or newsletter email which takes them to the screen below.

Subscribers can add and remove themselves from groups.

We are sure you will love this new feature - please give it a try and let us know what you think.

Please note that newsletters are only available on standard and premium responsive sites.

Track What’s Happening On Your Website

2019-09-25T14:30:43+02:00

Activities happening on your website can be tracked in the admin console by going to the monitoring menu dropdown. From there the principal can easily see what is happening on the website, what their agents are up to as well as website communications to and from their agents.

Admin console monitoring menu dropdown.

Sent (Records of emails sent by the agency using the website.)

Owner Emails - List of all Owner Emails sent from website - showing owners their property on the different portals.
Emailed Properties - All property detail emails sent manually from the admin console. (Not to be confused with Property Alerts.)

Received (Records of emails and SMSes sent through the website to the agency.)

SMS Agent - Logs of any SMSes sent to your agents. (If you would like to buy more credit at 65c per credit, please email us.)
Enquiry Forms - All Enquiry Forms completed on your website.
Property Enquiries - A list of all Property Enquiries received by your agents.
Owner Email feedback - Logs any feedback received from owners to the Owner Email that was sent.

Misc

Quick Notes - List of all notes made on properties.
Stats - Details a history of your website visitors, as well as where they are coming from.

We are sure by checking this tab you will be able to run your business even more effectively, allowing you to focus on getting listings and making sales!

Don’t forget that we’re just a phonecall away if you need any help.

Bulk Upload of Email Addresses

2019-09-05T15:10:50+02:00

Did you know you can send us a list of subscriber email addresses to do a bulk import into your admin console for you? How easy is that!

We do this because we want to help you get your property alerts to as many people as possible.

The property alerts are an incredibly powerful tool for a number of reasons:

Enables buyers to be immediately notified whenever you have new properties for sale.
Enables you to present properties to hundreds or thousands of interested buyers.
They happen automatically - no extra work (phone calls or emails) or costs (phone calls) are required to get your new properties in front of all of your interested buyers.
They happen fast - go out automatically at 7am the day after the property is uploaded or you can send them immediately (see how here). Sending them out immediately is especially important if its an open mandate as it could mean you are presenting it to the buyer before another agent … and therefore making the sale!
They ensure that all of your interested buyers are notified - there is no human error where you or one of your agents could forget to present the property to a buyer.
Builds brand recognition - people know you are professional and active.

A property alerts email.

By using the following 3 simple sources for subscriber/buyer emails you will be surprised at how quickly you can build up your subscriber list and increase your sales.

showhouses
when talking to potential buyers over the phone
from your incoming emails

And don’t forget you should be uploading all your properties to your website as soon as you get them - so that they can automatically be emailed to your subscribers.

Please let us know if you have lists to import by contacting us. We love hearing from you so if you have any questions please let us know.

Logo Design Services

2019-09-05T15:49:55+02:00

Your logo is critical to the look of your website, which is why the importance of a good logo can’t be understated - it is what distinguishes you from your competitors and establishes trust. A professionally designed logo shows you are a professional estate agent.

Why you need to stand out from your competitors.

You already have a logo, but logos are often updated and modernised.

Logo evolution of well known brands.

As we want to help you make your website look as professional as possible, we have added this affordable logo design service to our full service real estate offering:

*Logo Redraw (Create a high resolution digital copy of your logo - might be needed for print or your website.)

R2000 + VAT

*Logo Design - 2 options

R3000 (Includes 3 revisions)

*Logo Design - 4 options

R4000 (Includes 3 revisions)

* Prices may vary if scope of work changes.

To get started or if you have any questions please contact us. As always we are here to help you.

New Feature: Email Properties From The Admin Console

2019-08-01T16:50:27+02:00

You can now send an email with property information from the admin console instead of having to compose them yourself.

Example of an email sent from the Admin console.

All you have to do is select which properties to include and then personalise the intro paragraph and click send.

Select properties to include in the email.

No more spending of time and effort finding and putting together this information. Instead you can send a personalised email that, while it looks professional, also has the look and feel of one composed by yourself.

All emails that have been sent this way are viewable from the monitoring menu in your admin console, enabling you to keep track of what emails you or your agents have sent.

We are sure this will save you lots of time, so please give it a try by sending yourself a test email and see how easy it is.

We would love to know what you think about this new tool, please let us know.

Save Your Properties As Drafts

2019-09-05T15:50:08+02:00

Have you ever wanted to start uploading a property but didn’t want to publish it on your website yet, or wanted to remove a property off your website temporarily? Maybe you didn’t have all the information, time or the property wasn’t yet on the market.

We are pleased to tell you that you can now do so with our new ‘draft’ feature. A property can now be saved to a draft before being pushed live on your website, or a live property can be moved to drafts thereby removing it from your website.

Save to draft from upload property screen.

Your saved draft properties will be accessible via the Properties dropdown menu.

Access draft properties from admin console.

So no more uploading a property when it is not 100% ready and no more losing work that you started but unexpectedly could not finish. We are sure you will find this new feature very helpful.

As always, we love to hear your feedback so please contact us.

Don’t forget: referring a new client to us is a WIN-WIN!

2019-09-05T15:50:18+02:00

We want to remind you of our ongoing refer-a-friend policy!

Refer-a friend!

If you send a friend our way and they sign up with web-box, both you and the friend you referred will get a 50% discount off your subscription fees for 3 months. All your friend needs to do, for you both to benefit from this amazing offer is to let us know that you were the one who recommended us.

We hope that this perk will help you boldly share your love of web-box!

If you have any questions, you can gladly contact us.

Call Directly From Quick Notes

2019-06-14T14:59:55+02:00

Our Quick Notes are a great “on-the-run” tool for agents to make notes on each property. You can record things like viewings, owner interaction and commission splits.

Quick Notes for a property with clickable phone numbers.

Now, while viewing a Quick Note on your phone you can click on any phone number and your phone will call it. No need to copy and paste or try to remember or write it down before typing it into your phone - this will be much easier and no longer so frustrating!

For a refresher on how Quick Notes work you can read the initial blog post.

Hopefully this is another way your web-box website makes your life simpler so you can focus on making more sales!

Please give our Quick Notes a try and let us know what you think.

Portal Update

2019-05-30T16:24:44+02:00

One of the free portals we feed to, HomeHunt, has closed down. However, we have two additional portals we now feed to: Residential People and Commercial People.

New portal we feed residential properties to.

New portal we feed commercial properties to.

Commercial People is one of the few portals dedicated solely to commercial properties. As with all the free portals, your properties are automatically copied to them and you can click from the admin console directly to the property on the portal to view it:

Link to view property on the portal.

Below is the full list of portals that we feed to.

Portals fed to by web-box.

We like to ensure you get optimum exposure via the available property portals. Load once and appear everywhere!

If you have any questions, don’t forget we are just a phone call or email away.

Improved Search Function In Admin Console

2019-06-14T14:57:52+02:00

We have refined the search in the admin console properties page by removing the general search box and replacing it with a search field for each column.

New search in the admin console properties page.

This was done because the previous search sometimes gave unexpected results. The new search addresses this and gives you more precise search results as it is limited to one column.

It also gives you the ability to do searches like ‘show me all houses in the suburb birch acres’ as shown below.

Multiple column search.

These filtered results can then be downloaded as excel, pdf or printed - enabling you to create multiple report variations.

Download or print search results.

As always, if you need further assistance with this (or anything else) please contact us as we would love to help.

New Portal: PropBay

2019-11-12T15:03:58+02:00

We are excited to let you know that RentBay, one of the current free portals we automatically feed your rental properties to now has a for sale section for residential and commercial property - propbay.co.za

New portal.

We have enabled the feed so your for sale properties will automatically be copied to this portal. Like the other free portals, you don’t have to do anything - it happens automatically. The link to the property on the portal will appear alongside the other portal links in your admin console.

Link to Propbay in your admin console.

We hope you get great exposure from this new portal and would love to know what you think so please contact us.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2018-12-18T09:41:12+02:00

Best wishes for the festive season from us at web-box. Thank you for your business over the past year.

**our offices will be open during the festive season apart from the public holidays***

Feature Reminder: Document Management System

2018-11-29T14:53:46+02:00

We recently introduced a new document management feature for our standard and responsive websites. These documents can be either for your own internal use.

Documents in your admin console.

Or you can make them available for visitors to the website to download.

Documents on your website.

Click here for a full guide on how it works. If you would like this enabled, please contact us.

New Default Property Sort Order

2018-11-16T14:31:11+02:00

We have changed the default order of “for sale” and “for rent” properties on your website to highest price first. We’ve seen this makes your website (and therefore you) look better since it generally presents your better quality stock first. These properties also tend to have better pictures and descriptions.

New default sort order for ‘for sale’ and ‘for rent’ properties.

The default order of your “sold” or “rented” properties is still newest properties first.

We have tried to ensure that any past requests for any other order have been kept.

If you would like to change the default ordering of properties on your website please let us know.

New Feature: Send Property Alerts At Any Time

2018-11-22T10:46:32+02:00

Exciting news! You can now send property alerts yourself as soon as you’ve listed a property. No more waiting for property alerts to go out the next morning.

Property alerts are an excellent marketing tool to send your properties to as many people as possible, and now you can increase the chances that you will be the first person to present the property to buyers. This is very important in the case of an open mandate as buyers could be working with multiple agents in the area so the first agent to present the property to the actual buyer will get the sale.

After ticking the property alert box when editing or uploading a property, select this option in your admin console.

The list of property alerts to be sent is shown in your admin console.

It is important to keep adding as many subscribers as possible to your database by collecting emails at show days, email enquiries and other personal interactions. Please be sure that you only add valid email addresses and only add email addresses you collected yourself.

If you have a large list of subscribers you would like to add, please email support@webbox.co.za and we will gladly add them for you.

Please give this new feature a try and let us know what you think.

Feature Reminder: Owner Emails

2018-11-16T12:06:19+02:00

Owner email example.

The owner email is a great way to let sellers know how hard you are working to sell their property. This email shows the seller what their property looks like on the various portals and can be customised with your own personal message to them.

Sending an owner email is easily done from your admin console and is sure to impress the seller.

How to send an owner email from your admin console.

If you have any questions on this please contact us, we would love to help you.

Feature Reminder: Additional Users / Multiple Login Function

2018-11-16T12:21:00+02:00

Did you know you can add additional users with their own logins to your website’s’ admin console? This means agents can upload and edit their own properties, but not those of other agents. You set their permissions so you decide who can manage and view properties, agents, subscribers, the portal feeds, your website stats, enquiries and others tabs in the admin console. This will free up your time, as well as give you a good overview of your agents productivity in terms of how many properties they are uploading.

Manage users in your admin console.

The first 10 additional users each cost R21 + VAT per month, thereafter R16 + VAT per month. If you would like us to enable this feature for you please contact us

Please note this is only available for standard and responsive websites.

Change To Facebook Sharing in Admin Console

2018-11-16T12:20:27+02:00

Facebook recently changed their security settings so you will no longer be able to share properties to your personal Facebook page from the admin console. However, you can still share them from the property page on the front end of your website:

Click Facebook button to share the property to your personal Facebook page.

Sharing to your business Facebook page from the admin console is not affected by the new settings.

Don’t forget, we can help you set up your Facebook business page for R1670 + VAT (once-off cost ), or if you already have an existing page we can ensure it is optimally set-up for R940 + VAT (once-off cost)

Read more about our online marketing services.

Please contact us if you have any questions, we would love to assist you!

Reminder: Quick Notes Feature

2018-11-16T12:21:29+02:00

Here is a reminder about a feature that can make life easier. Quick Notes is a quick and easy way to make notes on each property. It is useful for noting viewings, commission splits, owner interactions and anything else that you would like recorded for a property.

Quick notes for a property

Click here for a full guide on how it works.

Give it a try and please let us know what you think.

New Document Management System

2018-11-16T12:21:53+02:00

Exciting news! You can now upload documents to your admin console to share with your team - no more storing documents in places nobody can find. This will save you hours of hunting around for the documents you regularly use in your business.

This feature also allows you to make documents public on the frontend of your website so your clients can download documents like rental agreements and tenant application forms. It's quick and easy to manage.

To access this feature, login to your admin console and select “Documents”:

Manage documents from admin console.

When uploading a document, you can choose to make it public on your website as a download, or keep it private for internal use only.

To make documents visible or not on your website.

Documents on your website.

To enable the “public” document function please contact us.

We would love your feedback about this new feature. (Please note this is only available for Standard and Responsive websites).

Features - New and Existing

2018-11-16T12:22:29+02:00

It’s time for a quick update on a new feature and a reminder of one you might have forgotten about or are not using yet.

New - Webmail Link

We have added the link to your webmail mailbox to the bottom of every page of your admin console. Quick and easy to find:

Link to webmail in admin console

Reminder - Property Capture Sheet

This complete property checklist can be downloaded and printed so all information needed to list a property can be captured in one go - no need for any back and forth about items you might have forgotten to check. To download the capture sheet, follow the steps outlined in the pictures below:

Click on "downloads" in the admin console help section

Click on "Property Capture Sheet" to download it

Enjoy these features and if you have any feedback or questions we would love to hear from you.

Match Your Banner To Your Corporate Colours

2018-11-20T12:05:24+02:00

You can now change the colour of the banners (for sale, to let, sole mandate) across the property pictures on your website to match your corporate colours.

Updated banner on property listing page

If you would like this to be done, just contact us and we will do it for you at no charge. Enjoy this latest improvement to your website!

Web-Box Portals Update

2018-11-16T12:24:59+02:00

As you might have heard, Hozi Homes has closed down and therefore unfortunately your properties cannot be listed there anymore. However, we still ensure that our clients get optimum exposure via the available property portals.

Your web-box website gives you the ability to copy properties to all of South Africa's largest free property portals and optional pay ones. The optional pay property portals are: privateproperty.co.za, property24.com and the free property portals are: gumtree.co.za (5 properties free, pay for more), iolproperty.co.za (free in some areas, pay in others), rentbay.co.za, property.pricecheck.co.za, locanto.co.za, trovit.co.za, mitula.co.za, homehunt.co.za, immoafrica.net.

Load once and appear everywhere! If you have any questions, don’t forget we are just a phone call or email away.

Update Your Website

2018-11-16T12:25:37+02:00

Everything needs a change so whether it is adding new pages to your website, updating your team’s pictures, upgrading, or wanting a full redesign, we can do it for you.

Want a colour scheme update, have new branding you're proud of, or just want professional advice on how to make your website really stand out and work for you? Please contact us - we would love to help you.

One of the best ways to make your website more current is to make it responsive. Responsive websites work on every device and every screen size, no matter how large or small. This is especially pertinent since more and more people start their searches from their mobile devices.

Our existing clients receive a discount on the set-up when upgrading to a responsive website - you pay only R3 000 plus VAT as opposed to the R5 500 everyone else would pay. If you already have a mobile website the monthly responsive cost will only be an additional R100, else it will be an additional R220. (With a responsive website there is no need for a mobile website.)

View mynextproperty.co.za on a phone and computer to see how our responsive websites adjust.

Please contact us to chat about all your options!

Special Gumtree Offer For Our WEB-BOX Clients

2018-11-23T10:17:44+02:00

Petrol, VAT ... everything is going up.

Well, almost everything - we have some good news for our WEB-BOX clients! Gumtree are giving you a special last chance offer to sign up for any of their packages during the month of April and pay the existing price, not the increased prices that came into effect on 1st April. This would be a minimum saving of 15% on the new prices.

This offer to WEB-BOX clients is only available if you sign up before 30th April 2018.

The costs for the packages are as follows:

R 569 per month per branch: post 20 properties from your WEB-BOX admin console (bump ups etc extra)
R1 699 per month per branch: post unlimited properties from your WEB-BOX admin console (bump ups etc extra)
R 2 998 per month per branch: Featured Package with unlimited properties from your WEB-BOX admin console, 24 Hour Auto Bumps (automatically bumped up back to the top of the search listings every 24 hours with no manual intervention required from you), website URL on all listings

A reminder that Gumtree subscriptions are month to month.

To take up this offer, complete this form and email it to property@protool-support.com. Clearly indicate “Web-box April Offer” on the first page.

Property24 Video Uploads

2019-07-22T16:41:30+02:00

In our constant quest to make your website work as hard for you as possible, we’ve worked with Property24 to allow any videos you load to a property in your web-box admin console to now automatically pull through to your listing on Property24. No more extra work of sending your videos separately to them for you!

Just follow these quick steps to ensure your videos go through to Property24:

Upload your property as normal. Once uploaded, go back to the property and under “action” click “edit”. Then scroll down to the bottom and click on “add a video”

Enter the video link and click “update”

You’ll be taken back to the upload screen, where you must remember to then click “update” at the bottom too!
Ta da! Your video will now be on your Property24 listing.

Remember, you will need an account with Property24 if you want your properties to feed through to them. Please feel free to contact us on support@webbox.co.za for any assistance.

Please note this is only available for our Standard and Premium Sites.

New Look Search Function

2019-06-14T14:40:33+02:00

While others have been easing back into the work year, we’ve already rolled out a new look for the search function on our standard websites. Have a look below!

The new suburb search is much quicker, and there’s the additional search criteria under “more options”.

New look search

If you have a standard website with us, go and take a look - the upgrade has automatically been rolled out to the properties pages of your website.

We think it’s a fantastic new look - let us know your thoughts. And as always, please don’t hesitate to contact us should you need anything.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2017-12-13T11:03:13+02:00

How to set up Out of Office messages

2018-11-23T10:31:46+02:00

It’s the festive season and we’re sure that you will all be taking a little time off for some much needed R&R. While you’re out of the office it’s good to let potential clients and others know you’re not in and when you’ll be back. To put an “Out of Office” on for your emails just follow these easy steps:

1. Login to your webmail account - webmail.yourdomain.co.za

a. The username/email address is your full email address - user@domainname.co.za

b. The password is your normal email password

Click the roundcube option

Choose Autoresponders from the dropdown menu

Click ‘Add Autoresponder’

Fill out as above

6. It’s always good to send a test email on the day the autoresponder is due to start just to double check that you get a response.

With your autoresponder now setup and you can go on holiday and rest in the knowledge that if someone emails you they will get all the information that they need. Have a wonderful festive season!

New feature - Quick Notes

2018-11-23T10:32:04+02:00

We are excited to let you know about our newly launched ‘Quick Notes’. It’s a fast, easy way to make notes on your properties.

Quick Notes for a property

It’s great for writing down viewings, interactions with the owner, negotiations, updates in the transfer process, mandate info, commission split info, owner info, interested buyer details and much more.

We have ensured that Quick Notes is easy to use on both mobile & desktop.

Link to view Quick Notes on admin Properties page

The principal can now easily keep an eye on things by viewing all the notes across all the properties.

How to view Quick Notes for all properties in the admin console

It’s also easy to print a report for the owner showing all the Quick Notes for their property. You can even select which notes are to appear in the report.

Link to print Quick Notes for a property (from Quick Notes in the admin console)

Quick Notes is now live in your admin console - go and use it and find out how useful it is for yourselves!

Don’t forget that we’re just a phonecall away if you need any help.

Your properties on PriceCheck

2018-11-23T10:32:16+02:00

We are happy to let you know that we have completed our feed to PriceCheck Property and now all your properties will appear there!

“With over 11 years in the South African market, a strong online brand, and 2.5 million visitors PriceCheck has evolved into a comprehensive shopping destination for the consumer.”

The website presents the properties beautifully and as they are a very strong brand in South Africa having your properties there will generate you leads and also impress your sellers - don’t forget to let them know their property is listed there by sending them an “owner email” (let us know if you want help).

PriceCheck will be charging for property listings in the future, but are currently on a free trial. They will give you advance notice before they start charging.

HomeHunt - an additional free portal for you!

2018-11-23T10:32:27+02:00

As usual, web-box have been working on quality portal partnerships for you and we’re excited to tell you that the properties on your web-box website are now also being automatically fed through to HomeHunt.

The team who created HomeHunt are from HomeTimes. HomeTimes provides “unbiased and independent knowledge, advice and guidance on all facets of your home”. They have built up South Africa’s largest residential-focused property group on Facebook, which has over 311 000 followers.

HomeHunt will only include a property if they have its location. So in order for your property to appear you must select ‘mark gps coordinates’ or ‘mark address on the map’ in the upload/edit screen in your web-box admin console.

We hope you gain tremendous exposure from our new addition! And if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Updates to your admin console Properties page

2018-11-23T11:42:02+02:00

We have just completed a major update to the web-box admin console Properties page. You can now search, sort by column, download to excel/pdf or print. You can even choose which columns are displayed and change their order.

We know these changes will be of great value enabling you to quickly find properties, easily see the information you need and print reports.

We also know all these changes can be confusing, so at the top of the page (in your admin console) is a link to further help. Or please (as always) just call us and we will very happily talk you through any issues you might have.

Don’t forget: referring a new client to us is a WIN-WIN!

2018-11-23T11:42:13+02:00

We want to remind you of our ongoing refer-a-friend policy.

Estate agents, your clients are on Facebook. You should be too.

2018-11-23T11:42:28+02:00

For almost fifteen years, web-box has been a market leader in providing websites to estate agents, exclusively. Over this time, we have gained a lot of experience about the most effective ways of marketing your business and, in particular, how to attract sellers and buyers online.

As you know, in the estate agent industry, having a strong online presence is absolutely critical. Most sellers, buyers, landlords and tenants use the internet as their first port of call - and while having your own website is an essential starting point, social media is a powerful and cost-effective way of getting your business and your well-maintained website in front of the right people.

Facebook, in particular, is the social media network of choice for estate agents – and with internet users spending more time on Facebook than any other site, it has gone from a ‘nice to have’ to an essential part of marketing your properties.

Facebook gives you an opportunity to build your credibility and create brand awareness by providing your followers with interesting and relevant information about your industry, business and local area. It ensures that you are ‘top of mind’ for both sellers (which will increase your mandates) and buyers (which will increase your sales), as well as for landlords and tenants.

As with our websites, our exclusive focus on estate agencies means we are able to deliver exceptional value, at the lowest possible prices. Our dedicated social media team’s in-depth understanding of the industry allows them to produce the best possible content to generate client interest and engagement.

We are very excited to show you our social media offering and think that you will love the added attention it can bring to your business.The same rules that apply to building a real-life relationship apply to Facebook. The more good interactions you have with your Facebook followers, the stronger that relationship becomes. That said, we know that you, our clients, have a range of budgets, social media skills and marketing needs, so we have developed 3 options to accommodate this, all offering unbeatable value. Click through to our website for the pricing schedule and more info.

We’ve made your web-box admin section more secure

2018-11-23T11:42:43+02:00

You might have noticed when you log in to your web-box admin that the URL (website address) looks slightly different.

New URL for your web-box admin section

Instead of http at the beginning it now says https, with the ‘s’ standing for secure site. This is because the information travelling between your web browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera etc) and our server is now encrypted (converted into a code especially to prevent unauthorized access) with the same type of encryption used by banks.

You will also see the Comodo Secure logo at the bottom left of your screen while you are in the admin section. If you click on this logo a pop-up box will appear with our security credentials and some info on just what security this provides.

Comodo Secure Logo

We take your security seriously. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Responsive websites - that work well on all devices

2018-11-23T11:43:22+02:00

Take a look at www.midteam.co.za on your phone, tablet, laptop etc to see their responsive website in action

Your buyers and sellers are on the move - literally, which means that they are looking at your website on every type of electronic device available (desktop, tablet, mobile, etc). Currently the best way to make your website look good and work well on all the options is a “responsive” website design.

Responsive website design is the practice of building a website suitable to work on every device and every screen size, no matter how large or small, mobile or desktop. It involves programming the website to resize, hide, shrink, enlarge, or move the content to make it look good on any screen. Responsive web design is focused around providing an intuitive and gratifying experience for everyone.

We’re proud to let you know that web-box now offer a responsive website design package that will allow your website to be a viewing pleasure no matter the client device.

If you’ve got beautiful property pictures and you want to maximise their selling power then this is definitely the upgrade for you. Pictures say more than 1000 words and everyone loves seeing lovely homes fill their screen. Even if you are just wanting your website to stand out from the crowd this is worth looking at. To see more of our responsive designs look through our portfolio.

In line with our focus on optimal value the cost is only R3000 + VAT setup (once-off fee) and R895 + VAT per month. The setup fee is discounted down from R5000, for you our existing clients.

We look forward to hearing your feedback and of course if you would like to upgrade to a responsive website just let us know!

Please beware: Email scams target the real estate industry

2018-11-23T11:43:38+02:00

There has been a worrying increase in fraudsters posing as known clients or regular service providers in various property transactions and, as you can imagine, the losses can be substantial.

This email fraud takes many forms but one of the the most common and easily overlooked is when you (or a client) receive an email that looks exactly like it comes from a known party in one of your deals, whether buyer, seller or conveyancing attorneys, requesting payment to a specific account or “confirming” bank details for the payment. This is called spoofing, and unfortunately, it is actually pretty easy to do: displaying a name in the sender line that is different to the actual address is not hard if you know a little about it. Following the instructions in this email will result in you paying the fraudsters directly into their bank account. Bye-bye funds!

A while back fraudsters did this with an email account belonging to one of SA’s leading estate agents. Despite appearing to have been sent from the agent’s official Seeff address, it was fake and contained bank details of the fraudster, not the appointed conveyancer. This resulted in the buyer being defrauded by close to R1m.

So, what’s the bottom line? Do not let your guard down. Rather start from the assumption that any email in your inbox regarding payments could be a targeted attack from a criminal.

These situations can be well managed simply by having protocols in place in your office (and for your clients) for whenever bank details are involved or money is transferred to a new beneficiary. We strongly recommend putting these protocol into place immediately!

Make it part of every sale/rental routine to contact all parties involved to inform them of the possibility of this fraud. Attorneys, conveyancers, buyers, sellers, real estate agents, etc have all been targeted in these scams
If possible, do not send sensitive information via email
Immediately prior to paying any money, ensure that the payer calls the recipient to verify the details.
Call the recipient on a well known telephone number (legitimate number)
Ask them to verify the amount AND the bank details
Only load the recipient onto your banking system and make payment if all is well
Trust your instincts. Tell everyone involved that if an e-mail or a telephone call ever seems suspicious or not quite right, that they should stop until the communication has been independently verified.

These general protocols will also help:

Clean out your e-mail account on a regular basis. Your e-mails may establish patterns in your business practice over time that fraudsters can use against you.
Change your email usernames and passwords on a regular basis.
Never use usernames or passwords that are easy to guess, like the password “password.”

Please be aware that these emails can be extremely convincing. Many intelligent, well informed people have been duped. No one should assume that they are “too savvy” and no one should assume that they are “too small a target” to be defrauded.

Why not talk it through as key role players in your agency and ask yourselves what you can do to foolproof your system?

This information is very important. For some it will be a useful reminder and for some it will be the first time you have thought to double check. Either way, we hope that you will make sure the people responsible for making payments in your transactions are 100% sure the instruction is legitimate each time.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can help you with any of this.

New Free Property Portal Feed!

2017-02-23T09:30:29+02:00

As you know, we’re always looking to partner with reputable and well-managed property portals to give your properties optimal exposure. It is not always easy to find portals that we believe will add real value to your website, so it’s very exciting when we can introduce you to a new one. Meet immoafrica….

/iˈmo/ af•ri•ca/ˈafrikə/

(noun) Refers to immovable property in Africa

The immoafrica website is well designed and easy to navigate. They cater for sales and rentals of both residential and commercial properties.

Your listings are automatically fed through to immoafrica from your web-box website - no need for you to do anything extra. In your web-box Admin Console you’ll now see the new link (next to each property) to view that property on the immoafrica website.

immoafrica property link in the Admin Console

We think that you’ll get great benefit from this bonus feature. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you need us.

Happy holidays to all

2016-12-21T11:07:17+02:00

The complete checklist for listing a new property

2016-12-01T11:01:17+02:00

We’re really excited about our new feature for you! We know it can be a struggle to get all the crucial information for your website when meeting with a seller, so we’ve put together a complete checklist to help prompt you. Instead of any back and forth that might happen after forgetting to ask a critical question, this will help you be organised, professional and get everything you need to put the property onto the website as fast as possible.

In your Admin Console you can now download a Property Capture Sheet - all the information you will need to add a property to your website is on it. Simply print this sheet and take it with you to fill out new property details when you meet a seller. Then when you get back to the office, no one will ever have to phone the seller with an apology about missing information, the property can just be added to your website straight away.

In your Admin Console:

Downloads, under Help in your Admin Console

Click on Help
Click on Downloads
Click Webbox Property Capture Sheet and either download it to print later or print it straight away

web-box Property Capture Sheet Download

Enjoy and please let us know how this works for you - we’d love your feedback.

Which of your properties are most popular?

2016-11-03T10:41:59+02:00

Have ever wondered which of your properties attract the most attention? Your stats page will now be able to show you. This information is a great starting point to help you analyse why these properties are the most popular. Are the photos perhaps better than other listings? Is it particularly good value for money? Or is it just the most desirable area? Could you improve your other listings with this information? We’d be interested to know your views. Why not send us your conclusions.

To see this in action

Go to your Admin Console
Click on Monitoring
Click on Stats

Stats dropdown in the Admin Console

Scroll down to Pages - URL
Take a look at the number of visitors for each property that has been viewed in the month.

Views per property

If you click on one of the property URL’s then that property will open up in a new window, giving you the perfect opportunity to start looking at what makes the property popular.

Enjoy and please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Your rentals now show on RentBay too

2017-08-15T11:15:06+02:00

We’re excited to tell you about web-box’s new feed to RentBay. It’s completely free and sponsored by the well known TPN Credit Bureau.

They list long term rentals for residential, commercial and industrial properties. Not many sites list commercial properties so this is excellent news.

This feed is already up and running in your admin console - Enjoy!

Buyers can email you in 1 click

2016-08-26T11:39:24+02:00

We don’t want you missing out on a single possible lead, so we’ve made it super easy for buyers to contact you with just 1 click.

Now anyone visiting your site can message you immediately and easily and stay focused on your properties! They will simply click on your details and a form will pop up as shown below.


Message Agent popup on the Property Page

We have also brought in incredibly clever software developed by Google to make sure all enquiries come from actual people, not spam enquirers.

These buyers will automatically get added to your subscriber list too, helping you grow your all-important database.

In addition to an email being sent to the agent directly, all the messages are also viewable in your Admin Console, helping you to keep better track of leads from your website and making sure things don’t slip through the cracks.

Property Enquiries menu under Monitoring in the Admin Console

We know you’ll benefit from this new addition, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any feedback or questions!

EAAB PrivySeal Certificates

2016-08-08T11:38:15+02:00

The EAAB have introduced a new PrivySeal Certificate system to make it easier for the public to see if an estate agent is registered with the EAAB. It is a seal of authenticity that must be displayed on emails, websites and social media.

You will have received an email from the EAAB telling you this and explaining what to do to get your PrivySeal. There is also more information and instructions on their website. You can sign up for your PrivySeal Certificate on the PrivySeal website.

From the web-box side, we have made it possible for you to insert the PrivySeal(s) onto the relevant pages of your website.

If you have a Lite site, in your Admin Console, you’ll find a new Settings tab with a text box to copy and paste the code from the PrivySeal website into.

Lite Site Settings for PrivySeal Code

This will add the PrivySeal to the Contact Us page.

Lite Site PrivySeal on the Contact Us page

If you have a Standard site, in your Admin Console, copy and paste the code from the PrivySeal website for each agent to their profile. This will create a link to the PrivySeal wherever the agent details are displayed. The PrivySeal summary will open in a pop-up if you click this link.

PrivySeal link with the agent details

If you would rather have the actual PrivySeal image displayed instead of the link please contact us and we’ll change it for you.

PrivySeal image displayed instead of the link

If you need help updating your email signature with the new PrivySeal we will charge between half an hour to an hour (email client dependent) at our normal rates. Please feel free to contact us for this or any other related help!

previous/next on the Property page

2016-07-27T15:45:58+02:00

We have made it much easier for visitors to look through your properties by adding the previous/next navigation to the Property page.

‘next’ and ‘previous’ navigation on the Property page

We like that the links are useful and prominent but don’t add clutter to the page!

Enjoy and let us know if you have any questions.

Gumtree feed live, OLX & Adsdeck down

2016-07-07T16:44:36+02:00

We are very excited to have our new Gumtree feed setup and believe this will make a big difference.

Property fed from web-box to Gumtree

We have negotiated that you can feed 5 properties through, from your web-box website, for free without having to sign-up with them. In your Admin Console you can choose any 5 or you can simply click “feed 5 newest properties to gumtree”.

Feed 5 newest properties to Gumtree

You can feed more properties by signing up and paying Gumtree as per their Rates Card. If you decide to stick with the 5 free offering we recommend that you at least do the 72 hour Bump Ups for 59 p/m. The Bump Ups ensure that your properties stay near the top of the ever increasing list of properties displayed. For more information on Gumtree read the Gumtree Feed faq under the Help menu in your Admin Console or view a copy here.

Unfortunately OLX have migrated to a new system which does not have a property feed. They say they are working to fix this and we will let you know as soon as they have done so, but until then this feed is down.

Adsdeck have also stopped accepting properties as they say they are shutting down completely.

We do understand that the feeds are important to you and we are working hard on setting up new ones. We hope to have Immo Africa up in the next couple of months when their new system build gets finished off.

Enjoy trying Gumtree and please contact us if you have any questions or feedback.

Agent Pictures on the Property Page

2017-08-15T11:22:25+02:00

We’ve increased the size of the agent images on the property page and have also enabled them for all websites! We know many of you have been requesting this and we’re happy to give you what you asked for.

New property page agent details display

If you don’t want agent images to appear on your property pages, please let us know and we will disable this.

A well cropped, professional picture of the agents makes a big difference. We strongly suggest you ensure that you have these. If you need some help in cropping the images please send them to us and we will do this for you.

Enjoy it and please don’t hesitate to contact us with any feedback or questions!

Property Junction becomes Hozi Homes

2016-06-01T13:39:40+02:00

As you may have heard Property Junction has become Hozi Homes. This means that from 1 June 2016 the Property Junction website will no longer exist and will be replaced by the Hozi Homes website and brand.

New Hozi Homes website and brand. Click to view

Your properties will automatically be moved across to Hozi Homes and will continue to feed to the new system in the same way as before.

Not only will your properties be listed on Hozi Homes, but also on the Local News Network, which is a community newspaper website network with a combined online audience of over 2 million unique viewers per month. To see how your properties look on these websites click the image links below.

A local news network website showing link to hozi properties. Click to view.

All the Local News Websites can be seen here. Hozi Homes is setup on 72 of them.

Currently it is still free to advertise listings on the Homes Network, but slowly over time a paid model will be introduced. A local representative of the Homes Network will contact you in due course to discuss this.

We are very excited about your properties being displayed on all these new websites!

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. Have a great week.

Property page redesign

2017-08-15T11:37:30+02:00

We’re really excited to tell you that we’ve increased the picture size on both the properties page and the property page on your website. We love the more visually striking look and feel and think you’ll love it too.

Old Properties Page

New Properties Page

Old Property Page

New Property Page

Enjoy! And please don’t hesitate to contact us to let us know what you think!

Banners, Vacant Land & More details

2016-05-03T15:01:20+02:00

We’re excited to let you know about 3 smaller changes we know you’ll enjoy.

First up we’ve created the ability to display a banner on your featured properties. This one needs to be enabled by us, so if you don’t have it, and would like it enabled, please contact us.

Featured Property with Banner

Next, we’ve renamed “Plot” to “Vacant land / plot” as a property type in the Admin Console. This is to match the Property24 property types and should help with clarity and listings.

Lastly, a 'More Details' text field has been added to the Property Alerts popup form. People signing up to receive your Property Alerts can now specify any additional information they want to - the area they are looking to buy/rent in, number of bedrooms required etc.

Property Alerts popup form with “More Details”

Enjoy the latest enhancements, and feel free to contact us if you need anything.

Admin Console - Properties dropdown

2016-04-13T12:35:32+02:00

Your feedback helps us serve you better. That’s something we really believe at web-box and that’s what our latest update is all about. We’ve taken your feedback about how you were having difficulty finding ‘sold’ and ‘rented’ properties in your admin console and have made it awesomely clear in our updated ‘Properties’ dropdown.

New Properties Dropdown

On top of better usability we think it is also super stylish.

This update will automatically go live in your web-box admin console, so go take a look and let us know what you think!

For any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Article/Newsletter Update

2016-03-03T10:08:47+02:00

New layout, new features, new possibilities! That's what our new article/newsletter page has been given. This option is not automatically enabled on all our websites, so you may not have seen it before, but if you have been using it you will now love the new look and feel.

website article/newsletter

Adding articles/newsletters to your website is still done the same way through the admin console. You can now however add 1 picture - either an entire page (brochure) or simply an image to enhance your text. Social Media links are also now included, and by using these you can have an incredible effect on your exposure!

When you send your new article/newsletter to your subscriber list you will also see an updated fresh and professional email template.

email article/newsletter

Never used the article/newsletter feature? Contact us to enable it and you can give it a go!

Haven’t used yours in a long time? Go take a look and test it out. We think you’ll be impressed.

Bond Calculator Upgrade

2016-02-15T14:38:49+02:00

We’re excited to show you our latest website update because it’s always great to take something old and revamp it to improve usability. This is not simply changing things for the sake of it but rather using good practice to make life a little simpler.

We have upgraded the Bond Calculator and you will now see:

the menu option has changed from ‘Calculator’ to ‘Bond Calculator’

the layout is now on two tabs

Importantly, the functionality is the same, but we’re pleased with the look and feel and increased ease of use.

This upgrade will go live on all our websites by the end of this week.

Enjoy and please contact us if you have any feedback or questions.

Happy holidays to all of our clients

2015-12-21T13:46:26+02:00

Facebook Area Specific Groups

2015-11-23T11:15:27+02:00

Joining Facebook Area Specific Groups can ensure your properties get much more exposure on Facebook. We’d love to explain a bit more about them.

Facebook Area Specific Groups are groups that focus around a theme or suburb or city where people post related information. They can be very big with some like SA Property Investors Network having 30 108 members or they can be more niche. We have seen that sharing properties to these groups generates significant exposure and lots of traffic to your agency website.

Facebook Area Specific Groups can only be joined by Personal Facebook Profiles (not by your Facebook Business Page) So, to capitalise on this exposure you need to:

Find the groups from your Personal Facebook Profile (we can help as it’s not always easy).
Join the groups (newcomers to most groups have to be approved by the group admin).
Feed your properties to Facebook via your web-box Admin Console.
Share them from Facebook to the Facebook Area Specific Groups you have chosen to join.

If you haven’t setup your Facebook Feed yet, make sure you read our blog post on setting up your New Facebook Feed. You can also ask web-box to manage your Facebook Updates for you. This is at a set extra monthly rate, so contact us to chat about it if you’re interested.

Have fun exploring Facebook!

Searching and Saving

2015-11-09T14:07:44+02:00

We’ve been working on some improvements to the admin console and we would love to show them to you.

We have introduced a new Location Search on the Upload/Edit Property page. When you click on ‘add’ new locations you can now type in the location you want and the nearest matches will appear in a dropdown.

Should you have any difficulty with the new method, the old method is still available.

The other nifty function that is now active is the Auto Save function on the Upload Property page. When you enter property information and something goes wrong or you are distracted for a while, the page will now automatically save your information for 24 hours - you can go back to the Upload Property page and your information will still be there.

We think our changes are really cool, so go have a look and play around a bit!

Fast new server

2015-10-12T16:23:58+02:00

You should have noticed over the last couple of weeks that your web-box website is loading faster. This is because we have just bought and installed a new state of the art web server that is very fast.

Not only is it very fast, but it is also extremely robust with redundant hard drives, power supplies and network cards. Redundant means that there is a duplicate device, so if one fails the second one automatically takes over without any down time.

It cost us a whole lot of money, but we know that it is well worth it as page load times are an integral part of your website user experience.

We hope you are enjoying your new zippier web-box experience.

New Facebook feed

2015-10-12T16:39:32+02:00

Facebook is one of the largest social networks in the world, with over 1 billion active users. We are proud to announce that through your web-box admin console you will now be able to list properties on Facebook. You will potentially gain impressive reach for little effort. Facebook is easy to use, and so is the feed we have created.

You can choose to feed properties to your Personal Facebook Profile or your Facebook Business Page, or both, from your web-box admin console.

Clicking on a property on your Facebook feed will direct you through to your web-box website property details page, driving traffic to your website.

Your Facebook feed will also appear in the owner email. So, sending out the owner email will allow your sellers to see that their properties feature on Facebook too, which looks impressive. The Facebook link will only appear in the owner email if you use this new feed via the admin console, as opposed to the older website front-end Facebook link.

Ready to get your Facebook feed going? Login to your web-box admin console and try it out!

Stylish mobile websites

2015-07-24T11:27:52+02:00

We are thrilled to let you know that we launched a whole new mobile website for our clients. We think they look great and are very proud of them.

Although our standard websites work well on mobile phones, our new mobile websites display the properties optimally for the small screen with big pictures and easy navigation. See for yourself by going to www.providence-realty.co.za on your phone, you will see it redirects you to m.providence-realty.co.za. A whole new website off a separate web address, which has most, but not all, of the pages of the standard websites.

In setting up the mobile sites we have adhered to best practices as dictated by Google and others. Some of these being: large pictures; large text; easy navigation; SEO considerations; automatically displaying the mobile or the standard website based on the viewing device; links from the mobile site back to the standard website (and visa versa).

Should you want us to setup your mobile website at an additional cost of R100 + VAT per month, please fill out and return the following form or contact us.

As usual we have ensured that our pricing is as affordable as possible and that it is less than that of our competitors.

A couple of small (but handy) changes

2017-08-15T11:41:12+02:00

At web-box we get the big things done, but we’re also always working on the ‘little’ things that make our clients’ websites better. The 2 changes we’re presenting today are, we believe, doing just that.

1. On the admin console properties page we have hidden the sold/rented properties. To view them again click on the link shown below.

2. Due to some confusion with people thinking rentals on the websites were month to month, we’ve made the change below. If you find the name change does not suit you please contact us.

Both these changes are already active in the admin console - enjoy! If you have any feedback or questions please contact us, we’d love to hear from you.

Portal feeds update

2015-04-30T12:48:18+02:00

At web-box we pride ourselves on the quality of our feeds to the portals. We believe we do it as well as can be done and that it is one of the things that differentiates us from the competition.

The ability for our clients to upload once and have their property appear on all portals is an enormous advantage to them.

Over the last month or 2 we have had some problems with certain portal feeds which have now been addressed. To help you (and us) easily see which feeds are working (or not) we have created a ‘feeds status’ page which shows the current status of each portal feed.

You can access this from your admin console via the 'Help' menu.

With the feeds now working well again we strongly encourage you to use the owner emails - the owners love seeing how you advertise their properties on the portals!

If you have feedback or questions please contact us, we would love to help you.

New web-box light site design

2015-10-12T16:38:38+02:00

Lesego, our designer, has been hard at work creating a more modern and stylish look for our light sites. We think it looks really great ... and so has everyone we showed it to!

It makes us proud to produce such professional, elegant and user friendly websites.

To see what it looks like just click on the image above or go to our portfolio page and click on 'Light Websites'.

If you have a web-box light site, please let us know what you think of your new website by emailing us at feedback@webbox.co.za - we would love to know!

Happy holidays to all of our clients

2015-10-12T16:39:47+02:00

New property alerts email design

2015-10-12T16:38:52+02:00

We are very excited to let you know that we have updated the design of the ‘new property alert’ emails.

After many design iterations, hours of testing it across the many different email clients, we have come up with something we are proud of and are sure you will be too.

It was important to get this right as we send out on average 40,000 property alert emails each day for our clients. And these property alert emails are a very important part of their sales process.

Property alerts do the following:

Enable buyers to be notified of your properties for sale.
Enable you to present properties to hundreds or thousands of interested buyers.
They happen automatically - no extra work (phone calls or emails) or costs (phone calls) are required to get your new properties in front of all of your interested buyers.
They happen fast - go out at 8am the day after the property is uploaded to your website. If its an open mandate it could mean you presenting it to the buyer before another agent … and therefore making the sale!
They ensure that all of your interested buyers are notified - there is no human error where you or one of your agents could forget to present the property to a buyer.
Build brand recognition - people know you are professional and active.

We have noticed that agencies that have great success with their website are often the agencies with a lot of subscribers. These agencies continuously add email addresses to their website subscriber lists.

By using the following 3 simple sources for subscriber/buyer emails you will be surprised at how quickly you can build up your subscriber list and increase your sales.

showhouses
when talking to potential buyers over the phone
from your incoming emails

And of course you should be uploading all your properties to your website as soon as you get them - so that they can automatically be emailed to your subscribers.

We would love to know what you think, so please email us at feedback@webbox.co.za

web-box blog up and running

2014-12-10T12:04:38+02:00

Welcome to the new web-box blog where we will be keeping you, our clients, up to date on new features, news and advice on how to best use your website.

We have added all our client email addresses to receive email notifications on updates to this blog. Please note that should you not wish to receive these you can easily unsubscribe

Working for you,
The web-box team