WordPress & Blogger & TypePad, oh my!
So, you have decided to embark into the addictive world of blogging and have been researching the options for where to host your blog site.
After asking about and doing some Google searches you distill your list of options down to (most probably):
Blogger, WordPress, ActiveRain, TypePad and Posterous
Which is the best format for REALTORS?
Well, that depends on your goals and level of technical acumen. I will cover my point of view of the pros and cons for each, but I really hope to use this post as fuel for informative comments that a new blogger can take as sage advice and questions that experienced bloggers can answer.
Blogger:
The service that brought blogging to the everyman. This service (now serviced by Google) was revolutionary for early adopters in 1999 who wanted a quick and easy service to start their blog.
- Pros: FREE, super to easy to use at any experience level
- Cons: Not great for branding, limited templates, widgets can be hard to use, support may be difficult
WordPress:
The most popular blog format today, WordPress is open source CMS blogging software.
- Pros: FREE, lots of template options, widgets and applications are added daily, flexiblity in hosting options (you can start at www.wordpress.com and convert to a self hosted domain with www.wordpress.org later)
- Cons: longer learning curve
ActiveRain:
A free social network and marketing platform for real estate professionals. This network helps agents to create business relationships both within the industry and with the consumer.
- Pros: FREE, super easy to learn to use with WSIWYG editing, great feedback from peers
- Cons: barely customizable, not easily imported to other blog options, limited interaction with general public
TypePad:
Based on Moveable Type, but intended to be minimal in technology experience needed.
- Pros: Easy to use interface, built in photo album, ability to add scripts, highly customizable if you have the skills.
- Cons: NOT free: starts at $8.95 per month, few integrated widgets
Posterous:
Boasts integrated and automatic posting to other social media tools such as Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook, a built-in Google Analytics package, and custom themes.
- Pros: FREE, great for photo blogging or mobile blogging, very easy to use, can push content to a large number of sites including WordPress.
- Cons: No disqus commenting, limited themes.
There are so many other venues out there that I haven’t covered because I wanted to focus on the ones I hear most discussed, but I am looking forward to hearing your opinion of the options I reviewed as well as others.
photo by Mike Licht on Flickr
Duke Long
June 18, 2010 at 3:56 pm
POSTEROUS
Drag, drop, e-mail and forget it. You are a blogger!!!
Tavia Ritter
June 18, 2010 at 4:07 pm
This article was PERFECT timing as I am currently in the process of learning about all of these. The only thing I have to add from my research is that Active Rain DOES allow exposure to the public IF you pay a fee. So, while the ‘members only’ is FREE, the exposure that gets you the powerful SEO-Cred & consumer interaction will cost you. But…it’s a GREAT place to get started, if only for the peer interaction!
LesleyLambert
June 21, 2010 at 11:07 am
I agree that Active Rain is great for peer to peer advice and interaction. Without an outside blog (paid) I don’t think it works well for reaching clientele.
Tavia Ritter
June 21, 2010 at 11:12 am
Honestly, I think if they are just starting out in writting a blog to communicate with clients, then they may be doing it for the wrong reason.
Will they eventually find an audience (or will the audience find you) sure they will. But the more immediate purpose for a begining blogger would be the search engine optimization that a blog can lend in terms of long-tail searches, key word searches that point back to your blog that will ultimatly land the potential consumer on your website as well. (and hopefully, once there, they register and become a client).
Jonathan Benya
June 18, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Posterous is by far easiest, but really, for a great looking site, there’s no better option than wordpress, IMHO
Lani Rosales
June 18, 2010 at 4:50 pm
For SEO and licensing purposes, I don’t believe in someone else (like Posterous) owning your content, but that’s just my one cent 😉
That said, I have a Posterous for my humor blog because it’s simple and it’s for fun. All of our businesses run on WordPress.org with URLs we host and own. Think rent vs. own.
An Bui, DocuSign Social Media
June 18, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Lani brings up a good point. However, if the goal of your blog is to drive traffic to your sites, provide context as to who you are / services you provide and you need links…
Posterous is do-follow. For right now. Posterous is great for a supplemental blog – content you create for link juice to your real blog or site.
That’s why I love posterous. To riff off Lani – think vacation home vs. primary residence.
Tassia Bezdeka
June 18, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Generally I recommend our agents head to Blogger just for the ease of use (which has changed since the release of our new agent websites, with built in blog platforms).
Also, there’s nothing wrong with outsourcing WordPress design, as that’s really where the learning curve hits heavy. As far as the actual blogging goes, it’s a fairly streamlined system.
Fred Romano
June 18, 2010 at 10:21 pm
This is really a “no brainer” answer – WordPress is hands down the best blogging software on the planet. I can’t image using anything else, and to be quite frank, I wouldn’t be in business without it!
Although I am a geek and not the “typical” Realtor, it’s still easy enough for most to get a great design with minimal learning. Of course if you have someone customize your site (like mine) then it will make a huge difference. I do all my own designing because I am anal and like to control every detail 🙂
Sean Dawes
June 18, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Hands down wordpress has the best capability for a blog platform. Self hosted of course not .com version
@seandawes
Mike Mueller
June 19, 2010 at 12:41 am
Blogger: I was actually a Blogger Blogger before it was Blogger (Pyra Labs) it certainly has it’s limitations. Years ago (pre WP) it was my fav.
WordPress: Hands down winner all the way! Learning curve? If you can write an email you can use WP. I also like to point out that WP is like the iphone in that if some new wiz bang product comes out they’ll make a widget for WP before anything else. I’d also make a distinction between WP.com and WP.org
ActiveRain: Not free if you want a public post. (I’m assuming the Agent is grandfathered in) That said – pretty easy to use and somewhat limited as to the widgets you can add.
TypePad: Had potential but I don’t think there are enough developers and widget makers making things for it anymore? Is it the Treo of blogging platforms? Maybe…
Posterous: Love it for it’s simplicity and ease of use, marvel at it’s conversion technology (you can upload most anything in any format and it somehow figures it out) – but that’s about all.
Tumblr: Wait! You left off Tumblr! Never mind…
: )
Brian Wilson
June 20, 2010 at 7:42 am
I think Tumblr is the best. WordPress seemed like I was alway upgrading or adding or deconflicting plugins with themes, etc. It was too much work that took away from just writing.
green titled homes for 55+
June 21, 2010 at 2:32 am
Great going I was about to start my blog….So you have solved my problem by explaining the pros and cons of all the blogging format….You have really made my work easy…
Thanks a lot…
Miami Condo Shop
June 21, 2010 at 6:49 am
For newbies, Posterous is the best option. For business purposes, I believe WordPress is the finest platform in the planet and the new version (3.0) was recently released. Most of the bugs (more than 1,000) have been fixed and it is now more streamlined for blogging purposes.
Susie Blackmon
June 21, 2010 at 11:03 am
WordPress is my favorite. I love Posterous and use it as a lifestream, although recently I’ve been using it maybe too much for posting things to my Horsealicious blog, while I am transitioning from NC to FL, as my time and focus have been someone limited. I have a Tumblr account too but can’t figure out how to best utillize it, so, it languishes.
Anita Koppens
June 21, 2010 at 11:03 am
I vote for all of them speaking from an SEO perspective. Whichever option becomes your most beloved (which is hopefully a WordPress.org blog), use the others to develop and support the domain authority of your primary blogsite.
LesleyLambert
June 21, 2010 at 11:10 am
I love Posterous for easy posts, especially photo blogging. I didn’t leave off Tumblr…I probably should have mentioned in the body of the post that I was limiting this post to the most obvious and discussed choices. There are, of course, a ton of others available that I didn’t touch on. It seems that the majority is for WordPress.
Looking forward to hearing from more of you on this!
Jonathan Washburn
June 21, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Lesley,
Great comprehensive and fair review of all the platforms. At ActiveRain we started accepted our members testimonials about how ActiveRain works for their business about a year ago and so far we have received just about 2,500. I don’t think there is any other blogging platform that competes with that!
You can see the list here: activerain.com/action/testimonials
We also created a new area of the site this month where members can show themselves holding commission checks from deals they got from blogging on ActiveRain: activerain.com/success
Pamela Scott
June 22, 2010 at 5:51 am
Well, I’m just starting to blog. And its blogger. I see not many people here fancy blogger. But I love it instantly. Anyhow, let time and need shape my future decision toward blogging platform.
Cheers,
Pam
PioneerTraining
September 21, 2012 at 6:04 am
The post talks about the five reasons why real estate agents are needed. Most useful
https://www.pioneertraining.org/res-course-providercea-approved-real-estate-course