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/

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

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285 Columbus Lofts - New 63-unit Boston loft development in the former Red Cross building
FP3 Boston Condos - FP3 Fort Point Channel Boston Seaport Condos
Boston Real Estate - Providing Google Map based search of condo developments

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.

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

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

good stuff.

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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).

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Southwest Chicago Suburbs Real Estate is an affordable area with close access to downtown Chicago. Money Magazine says that Orland Park real estate is one of the best places to live in the U.S.

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.

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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.

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The Suburban House Hunters Team would like to thank REW members for past referrals! We are never to busy to handle your Chicago area referrals.

Always looking for quality unique content for our real estate agent blog, PM me if interested in writing a post.

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.

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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.

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Southwest Chicago Suburbs Real Estate is an affordable area with close access to downtown Chicago. Money Magazine says that Orland Park real estate is one of the best places to live in the U.S.

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

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

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