Choosing a blog platform

[pcdoc]

Darren Rowse has been a favorite blogger of mine for some time. And, why not, he makes his living from blogging.

Here's an excerpt from a post that may be of interest to you.

What follows is my attempt to flesh out some of the factors a new bloggers might like to consider in deciding on a blog platform. It is probably impacted by own experience of blogging over the last three years and the preferences I’ve accumulated in this time. I invite readers to add to this post in comments below with their own ideas and experiences so we can have a more balanced and useful collection of tips for readers considering such a choice.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2...blog-platform/

[Boston Condo Guy]

pcdoc, do you have a blog, if so, what platform do you use, and what were the important points about using said platform?

[pcdoc]

do you have a blog?

I own (have designed and currently support) a few, all built with wordpress.

W/P has the design flexibility that appeals to me as a programmer. I've tried other platforms (including blogger) but find them confining.

Click on "North Carolina Real Estate Blog" below for an example.

[pcdoc]

BTW, here's a page full of tutorials on wordpress

http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/

good stuff.

[judyo]

Thanks for that tutorial pcdoc. I have a very difficult time with the Wordpress help forum. Talk about bad search results!

I also use Wordpress & have been bouncing around the idea of creating one of my niche sites completely in wordpress (hosted with my own domain, of course). I would use a "static" front page & instead of building posts I would simply create pages.

The reason I'd like to try this is because I love so many of the templates & I'm learning how to use them & even customize them a bit. However, I'm still not sure about the capability of getting the site ranked well. I have seen some sites like this use a meta description & meta tags but most don't. I realize not all se's use meta tags but I still like to use them. I tried a meta tag plug-in with my blog but I can't seem to figure it out (it's not creating the meta tags like it's supposed to).

I suppose I could always give it a try & if it doesn't work out I can just switch over to a regular website template. Any thoughts? (I should have started a new thread).

[pcdoc]

Judy,

Look at index.php and header.php in your themes folder.

For the w/p themes I have seen, that's where you put the meta tags.

[kensmith]

Judy I have also considered this for some small local sites as there wouldn't be any design costs and I could use it to get things started. Start collecting links and then 6-12 months down the road just switch over to a regular site or maybe just leave it alone if it working as is. Think this is better then starting a free P2 site as you have complete control over everything.

[pcdoc]

I have also considered this for some small local sites

Good idea, particularly for an agent working for a broker with an existing (MLS enabled) site.

[judyo]

I have also considered this for some small local sites

Good idea, particularly for an agent working for a broker with an existing (MLS enabled) site.

That was one of my questions. I have VOW on my sites. If I can figure out how to get it into my blog I would do it that way. Otherwise I'd just have to use my VOW url to send them to that page. I'm also assuming I can get the Open-Realty listings feature in my blog.

[pcdoc]

Wow, another fine article, really warrants its own thread.

http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/...3082#post43082