Rain Blogs or WordPress? Wrong question! A solution & REsources...
Another topic of discussion during our technology session on may 7th 2009.
Hi guys... this week I thought I'd give you a sneak peek at something I've been working on to try and address/solve a question that comes up more often than I can count...
Almost every week I get emails from fellow Rainers asking something along the lines of "hey marti, I'm thinking of signing up for an ActiveRain outside blog but I'm also thinking about using WordPress, what should I do?".
Since this question has been around for months and doesn't seem to go away, I thought I'd answer it publicly to give you my opinion and a preview of a solution that should make everyone happy.
Full disclosure... for those of you new here, I design/install custom WordPress blogs and I also create many of the graphics you see here on ActiveRain blogs.
Here's my very short, to the point answer. Anything that brings in quality leads/prospects, makes you $$$ and helps to build or extend your brand is a smart investment. Whether that's on WordPress, ActiveRain, a static website, LinkedIn, Twitter or whatever. It's not "either/or".
I think a lot of the problem comes from misinformation that makes things look more complicated that they actually are. Much of the info I've seen posted here about WordPress leaves out pertinent details that can be more confusing than helpful.
Take a look at this post by Linda Greco... Paralysis by Analysis
I know Linda's post speaks for a lot of people because I receive the same type of emails week after week after week. If you're not tech inclined, this stuff can seem like magic at the best of times and totally overwhelming most of the time.
Another factor is the cost. Somewhere between the less than impressive freebies floating around the net and the ultra expensive custom jobs are other solutions and possibilities. And that's one of the projects I've been working on.
This is my standard ActiveRain blog
This is my Rain blog design/graphics on WordPress
In the coming weeks I'm going to start a new series of tutorials on Wordpress for the "tech challenged" that will cover everything from...
- choosing a domain name from a marketing point of view
- finding a reliable webhost
- connecting your domain to a web host
- installing & setting up WordPress
- installing a theme
- using your ActiveRain blog header/graphics in a WordPress theme
- connecting your ActiveRain blog(s) to your WordPress blog(s)
- and a ton of other stuff that I won't bore you with today
A few months ago I mentioned that I'm "preparing to introduce some new stuff to help you to stand out from the crowd more than ever, not just here on Active Rain but on the net and in your local area"...
Now that I'm winding up a few large projects I've been working on I'll have more time to head in this new direction. My WordPress series is something that I see a BIG demand for so I've been putting the pieces together in a way that's easy to understand & use. And if you think that you won't be able to do it...
If you can read plain English (no tech talk), you'll be able to do this!
Since I have more projects going on than I know what to do with, I'm cutting back on stuff that sucks up too much of my time to design projects & products that will help more people than I could ever do customizing stuff one on one.
I'll post more details about this new project as soon as I finish the tutorial I started a few weeks ago about The Art Of Marketing YOU on Twitter, etc... And the Pittsburgh/Philadelphia hockey game is starting in a few minutes so I gotta run. Have a great week...
To save you some time, here are some of my favorite resources that I found on the web this week. Unless otherwise indicated, these are all freebies!
Free Super High Resolution Photos - Caribbean Skies Set 1
10 Hand Written Great Free Fonts
Over 75+ Beautiful Twitter Design Icons
TwitZap lets you slice Twitter into channels of stuff that matters to you
Three start-ups attack Twitter Search by Rafe Needleman
New companies are emerging to address the deficiencies in Twitter Search. This isn't so easy. The challenge for anyone trying to fix Twitter Search is that the service is extremely good at showing you what's happening on Twitter at any moment. read..._________________________
Gary Vaynerchuk’s Secret Ingredient (And Why You Might Not Need It) by Sean D'Souza
A lot of golfers envy Tiger Woods. And a lot of bloggers envy Gary Vaynerchuk. But is that a good comparison? It may well be, because Gary has used social media to rocket his company to fame (and reasonable fortune). And he’s done it mostly through blogging and social networking. read..._________________________
How to make money with SEO by Seth Godin
There are two ways to use SEO to help your organization. One is reliable and effective, the other is a glorious crap shoot that usually fails but is wonderful when it works. I'll start with the second. read...
The posts listed below are just a small sample of the news, ideas and resources from the past few days by some of the sharp cookies that hang out in The Art Of Marketing You group
- Top Search Engines Reveal - The Top Real Estate Social Networks Brad Andersohn
- Big Prize: Win A Trip to Seattle and VIP treatment For A Special ActiveRain Event Jeremy Blanton
- My Answers to SKCAR Panel Questions hosted by Claudia Wicks of RE BaseCamp Rich Jacobson
- "Our Clients Are On Sale Today...Would You Like to Buy Some?" Lola Audu
- Not All Realtors® Suck Sally Cheeseman
- Does honesty still exist? Cori Endrody
- You FINALLY Got a FEATURE--Now USE it! Carole Provenzale
- Sorry, I'm Too Busy to Tell You About My Listings Ryan Hukill
- 6 Stupid Ways To Advertise Your Listings: Greg Nino
- Don't try and READ your readers mind! ASK them! Lee & Pamela St. Peter
- HelpfulHannah's NEWS Free Invite to Google Voicemail Hannah Williams
- Marketing to the Neighbors in the La Costa, Carlsbad Real Estate Market Jeff Dowler
- To be or not to be an EXPERT, that is the question - Such as an FHA Expert Jeff Belonger
- Jessica, what if we're not satisfied and want to cancel our listing? Jessica Wynn Horton
- Competitive Link Intelligence: Why You Should Spy On Your Competition Lisa Udy
- People Come To You And Hire Your Learning Gary Woltal
- Add Your Blog To Placeblogger Bill Gassett
If you're wondering how to customize your blog, take a look at our group's guidelines page for tutorials and graphics that you can download and use on your Active Rain blog.
If you have questions about technology, blog design or building web presence, let me know and I'll try to answer them in a future post!
If you'd like to participate in any of our upcoming marketing partnerships or to stay on top of all the new graphic goodies we'll be giving away, 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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