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Do you speak Greek Geek?
Nothing seems to cause as much confusion as the process of setting up a blog. With prices ranging from free all the way up to thousands of dollars for a totally customized project, deciding what's right for you can be a very frustrating experience.
Judging by some of the emails and phone calls I've received in the past few weeks from people looking for help and advice, it seems a lot of the problem is when things get lost in translation between plain English and "geek speak".
Have you ever spoken with your blog designer, a web hosting company or asked a techie a simple question, heard their answer and then said... What the f...???
Almost every week on Active Rain I see posts like...
- Comparing blog platforms - which should I use? by Pam Dent
- Help! I need a website! by Ann Casey
- Looking for a COST effective and SEO-Savvy Outsite Blog/Site by Janie Coffey
- How do you decide who to do your website? by Earleene Woods
To try and simplify things, I'm putting together a series of tutorials that will cover everything from...
- Which blog platform?
- How much $$$? Free? In-between options!
- Hire a geek? Do it yourself? Other alternatives?
- My favorite web hosts and why!
- How to speak with techies in plain English to get exactly what you want!
- How to find the perfect blog design for you!
- How to make a free blog theme look like an expensive custom job!
- and a few other topics to round things out...
If you have any questions about this kind of stuff, send me a quick email and I'll try to answer as many questions as possible in my next few posts. You can reach me at marti@garaughty,com
The essence of this little project will be to see and compare what's available, to talk about if or when it's a good idea (or isn't) to do it yourself and... if you want to do it yourself, how to make it look like a professional job.
Have a great weekend and here are this week's must read marketing posts...
How to Use Twhirl, a Twitter Desktop Program
Here is an excellent video I found yesterday over at Remarkablogger It's a 20 minute tutorial/demo about using Twhirl. What's Twhirl?
Basically it's a free desktop application that makes it a whole lot easier to follow Twitter conversations. Check it out, you'll love it! Here is the link to the video
New Active Rain blog background image tiles
Looking for some new background images to use on your AR blog? Feel free to download the 3rd and 4th images from our Active Rain background tile series.
Yes they're free and they won't slow down your blog! Here's the download link
New Active Rain Wallpaper
If you're looking for more eye candy for your computer monitor. Here is a new 1024 X 768 Active Rain wallpaper.
You can see and download the full size image here
In no particular order, here are some of the best Active Rain marketing posts from this past week...
- Agents, You Should Be Writing a Monthly Market Report. Why? by Fran Gatti
- 1 Simple Secret on making your business 7 times better than the average agent by Utah Dave
- Why Mothers Make Excellent Real Estate Agents by Cynthia Tilghman
- Don't Get Fired for Expressing Your Point of View: Media Tips For Bloggers by Lara Travars
- Community Involvement Ideas by Tina Faust
- Networking Ideas by Morgan Schott
- GIVING TO RECEIVE!! WHAT A CONCEPT! by KRISTA INGRAM
- Buy My Book....& Make Millions! by Greg Nino
- From The Other Side Of Twitter...TWOAR...Ooops...I Mean ROAR! by TLW
- 7 Unique ActiveRain Video Tools by Brad Andersohn
- The Flip Video Killer? Vado Pocket Cam Sells Out 1st day. by Justin Williams
- Using Your Blog's RSS Feed for Better Branding and Regular Readers by Hannah McIntyre
- Monday Morning Gifts... Seagulls and Seals... by Kathy McGraw
- Need A little Inspiration? Geovisite.com.. Now That's Global! by Midori Miller
- How About Some Pay Back Time For Spammers! Safeguard Your Blogs... by Katerina Gasset
- Create Stunning Panoramas with Free Software by Chuck Willman
- Let Google Map Searchers Explore Your Area... by Jason Todd
- Lets work on SEO & GOOGLE JUICE Together! by Bill Gassett
- ActiveRain - "A Purpose-Driven Community" by Rich Jacobson
- How To Get People To Comment On Your AR Blog by Lindsay Pendleton
- How To Make Your Post Featured Every Time by Faina Sechzer
If you would like to participate in any of our upcoming marketing projects, branding partnerships or tutorials on creative ways to use new medias and technologies like widgets, etc... please subscribe to our blog using the button below...
For more info about how we can help you stand out from the crowd, contact GiselleStCyr@garaughty.com
TheBlogArtist.com TheArtOfMarketingYou.com The Ultimate Closing Gift garaughty.com
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I have some reading to do... But before I head off, I wanted to lend some thoughts...
Re: Blog platforms. Which do I choose? Active Rain is a great start. Primarily because the comraderie here, the great sense of community, will help enhance your blogging experience and shorten your learning curve. You'll be writing, engaging and building an audience in no time. Once you determine you want your own separate blog I'd say that two great choices are TypePad and Wordpress (very cost effective if you don't want to bare too much expense).
But before launching, make sure your blog is properly dressed. You wouldn't show up to a new client appointment wearing shorts and sandals would you? Then make sure your blog is dressed to impressed as well!
Re: Do I do it myself or should I hire someone else to do it? As a Real Estate Agent and/or Loan Officer, your goal should be generating new business which means you need to maximize your day by finding new deals. If setting up your blog is going to take too much time, truly consider outsourcing the work for the design. You'll feel so much better for it!
This might seem off topic but I just had my business cards professionally designed. The end result was a work of genius! (They're actually really simple). But having them done by someone and seeing a finished product that I was absolutely pleased with gave me a little extra pep in my step. My point? Outsourcing your blog will give you time to focus on closing your deals and prospecting. Having it professionally done might just give a little extra confidence and that's always important.