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WordPress: what you should know about it and your choices for using it

By
Real Estate Technology with Kinetic Knowledge

It's probably as good a time as any to discuss WordPress Blog software. This post aims to help with how WordPress works.

For starters, to manage your WordPress Real Estate Blog you probably have three choices:

1) do it yourself,

2) hire an independent programmer/ designer at an hourly rate or

3) hire a comprehensive Real Estate Blogging service offering a fixed/ affordable price.

What follows should help to give you context for WordPress and it's supporting Open Source Community:

Officially there are two versions of WordPress [WP and WPMU], but there are also a variety of open source variants and forks out there. The WordPress platform is managed by a core development team and supported by a massive international open source community of programmers & designers. The core team mostly manages software updates, while the open source community mostly builds [design] templates and plugin features.

Using the power of many is an incredible way to develop and evolve software! Some believe it is the future of development and it certainly creates an environment whereby there is rapid improvement and fine tuning; however, the more people contributing to code, the sloppier it can get. The point being, you have core WP code, periodic updates for that code, [design] themes, feature plugins and the random hack to meet a specific need or goal. Ultimately the open source community sees what is coming and they're encouraged to offer input, but the final say on core development and all updates is in the hands of the WordPress team. And by the way, WordPress software is their day job!; whereas with most of the open source community it's not. Open Source are talented independents who build themes & plugins, partly for the love of WordPress and partly because [if widely accepted] a theme or plugin can serve as marketing for their programming and/ or design services.

It's important to understand the difference because there is no formal [open source] design theme or feature plugin evaluation process. While it's NOT the rule and certainly the exception, there can be sloppy [or even insecure] theme or plugin code coming out of the open source community. Many are learning about WordPress as they go or they may not keep up with core software updates. With WP code, frequent WP code updates, [design] theme, feature plugins and the random hack there's a lot to keep up to date, so depending on how you manage that will determine how successful you can be. For instance, consider this recent scenario: "I'm not familiar with what the protocol is for these matters but...many WP users have installed themes by XYZ. She has stopped updating her themes and her former website is down. I have tried contacting her w/o success. I was wondering whether protocol permits a theme developer adopting her themes and updating them (making them widget-ready for example) for the thousands of WP users who have wonderful themes like A, B & C. Many of us hope these themes won't be abandoned."

The good news in the above scenario is that there is help and mostly the community polices itself, but you want to take note of these realities when it comes to your business. There's the honeymoon when you get going, but it can be horrible when something you've added breaks, doesn't jibe or it all comes a part... and it happens! Most people running a business are too busy to keep up with the development of software AND an entire supporting community. In the long run it really pays to have help.

Clients and prospects routinely tell us they're looking for an inexpensive, feature-rich, search optimized AND managed blog solution with some design and some ongoing service. We're not an elaborate design service, as we focus on building brand into a design, but we get you there. Features and configurations- wise we' deliver a great solution managed with a team of WP experts, including some of the original development team. Service- wise you'd be hard pressed to find folks more grateful for their client' business- we hustle. And we're continuing to invest so that we can deliver more, while keeping this all very affordable for folks. Based upon our experience with different Blog solutions over the past few years, we're convinced- if you have the right people managing it, WordPress is simply the most user and search engine friendly software out there. It can meet virtually any need and client feedback is routinely great.

By the way, serious companies like CNN and Dow Jones use WordPress... and they have good help. So, if affordability, highly proactive service, accountability, education and the management of you Blog software sounds good we may have something for you :-)

Chris Frerecks

Kinetic Knowledge LLC / Real Estate BlogsitesTM

Business Blogs / Real Estate Blogs

Comments (5)

Andrew Mooers | 207.532.6573
MOOERS REALTY - Houlton, ME
Northern Maine Real Estate-Aroostook County Broker

Good post...explains alot!

Jun 05, 2008 02:53 AM
Kinetic Knowledge
Kinetic Knowledge - Brielle, NJ
Digital Marketing Agency

Hey Thanks Andrew. Chris

Jun 05, 2008 03:51 AM
Christian Russell
R World Properties, Inc - West Lafayette, IN

Hey Chris, right on. It's easy to underestimate how much time is required when it comes to the backend stuff on WP, or any site these days. People think they can run a website like it's no big deal. I'm guilty of this. Very few RE agents would recommend selling a property without competent representation. Running a website is just as intricate and substantial as a real estate transaction to be sure. My team has been impressed from day one with everything you offer and the time you save us.

Jun 06, 2008 07:00 AM
Kinetic Knowledge
Kinetic Knowledge - Brielle, NJ
Digital Marketing Agency

Hey Christian.

Thank you, we certainly appreciate having you.

To your point, here's another example of someone having difficulty:

".....We have some plugins that worked good on a older version of wordpress but do not work on the current version. Can anybody help out with this?...."

Jun 06, 2008 07:44 AM
Olva Jownday

In my opinion, creating a modern, fast and user-friendly website for various purposes, including educational ones, is possible largely thanks to solutions such as WordPress. So, wordpress for education site allows you to create a flexible, easy-to-configure website that is also easy to integrate with various online educational applications.

Jul 28, 2023 05:58 AM