Do you own your Real Estate Business?

This may seem like a strange question, and for some of you it will be a 100% absolutely, yes I do answer.  Particularly if you are the owner/broker of a real estate company.  But that isn’t actually what I’m talking about.  I’m talking about your online real estate business:  Do you really own it?

For example, how many of you have, as your primary email address:  SuperAgent@aol.com, or SuperAgent@yahoo.com, SuperAgent@cox.net, or even SuperAgent@gmail.com?  If you do, who owns that email address?  It doesn’t look to me like you do.  Rather, it looks to me like AOL, Yahoo, Cox, or Google own your email address, and they are simply letting you use it for a while.  I wonder how long they’ll continue to do that?  Forever?  For a year?  For a decade?  What if they start charging you for their service, or impliment anti-business rules for their “free” email accounts?  After all, each of those businesses can decide to do whatever they choose to, since they own the email account.

For bloggers, let’s look at another very common example of NOT owning your business.  Is your blog at Blogger.com?  Is it at Wordpress.com?  Both of those sites allow you to create a free blog.  Each has some sort of rule about blogging for business, which many people ignore, and for the most part, so do the sites.  But tomorrow they could actually start enforcing their own rules, and shutting down blogs, or even just sending you a nice fat bill each month.  How prepared are you to lose months or even years worth of blogging over night?  Speaking from experience, when I accidentally deleted the first 100 of my own posts from my blog, and thought I had NO backup, your heart will sink to the floor, and you will think the world is crashing in around you, if that happens.

The fix for both of these problems is relatively simple and relatively inexpensive. For each, I believe you need to start by purchasing a domain name that you OWN. At GoDaddy.com a domain will cost you around $10/year, but if you are nice, I can show you how to get one for a buck or two less.  So for the cost of 2 cups of coffee at Starbucks (and feel free to cut out two trips this week to pay for your domain, if cost really is an issue), you are well on your way to ownership.

For the email problem, I highly suggest you find a Microsoft Exchange hosting provider for your email.  MailStreet.com is a good choice, with pricing plans starting at $13/month.  For more ideas, Microsoft has this list of Exchange hosting providers.  Why do I recommend an Exchange solution?  Because it works.  And it works well.  With Exchange you’ll get integration with your email, calendar, tasks (to-do list), and contacts all in one application.  Exchange will push your email, contacts, and calendar entries to your smart phone real time.  And of course all of these companies provide web mail support, so you can view your email from any computer anywhere, if your laptop crashes on the day your smart phone is run over by a bus.

For me, the beauty is in the real time integration with my iPhone, although Blackberry users will benefit just the same.  There’s nothing like having your phone notify you of a new email as fast or faster, than your desktop computer does.

For a good, and a bit less expensive solution, you might also consider using Google’s business apps version of Gmail to have Google host your email/calendaring, which allows integration with a smart phone.  I don’t have any experience with this solution, but I have heard it works well, and the full blow business account is only $50/year.

To own your blog, there are a number of hosting providers you can choose from, which will allow you to use download the free software from WordPress and host your blog.  As a side benefit to being hosted, you’ll get to pick any theme and any set of plugins you desire in WordPress, which will further make your blog truly unique, and thus truly yours.  GoDaddy will host your blog for $10/month, however they are not very tolerant of blogs that get a lot of page views for that price, so while it can be a good place to start, with success, you may outgrow them.  Many people believe the leading hosting provider is currently MediaTemple, however HostGator and A Small Orange are each well thought of.

At this point, you may be wondering what I use?  My solution isn’t for everyone, but it works well for me.  In my office, I have a Windows Server with Windows Small Business 2003 installed, which gives me remote access and a Microsoft Exchange server.  Sitting right next to the Windows server is a Linux server, which hosts my blog (actually, it hosts many blogs).  Because I already had a T1 line coming into the office for phones/internet, and I have the skillz to build and maintain these servers, doing it myself was a no brainer.  I know a few agents across the country that self-host, but only a very few of us.

There are more choices than what I’ve given here, but hopefully I’ve given you some nuggets to think about and places to start looking if you don’t yet own your online Real Estate Business.

TypePad Explained - The Next Generation

Well, wouldn’t you know it…right in the middle of some great “series content” blogging, TypePad launches it’s “Next Generation” platform.  Which is actually (for the most part) an improvement over the previous format. So, what I’m going to do is take some time out to learn all about the new platform then I’m going to be doing free webinars once a week to do TypePad specific training.  I’ll save the webinars and provide links to them here in the future.

In the meantime, I am teaching all four of my courses in December - Blogging for REALTORS, Search Engine Marketing, Online Social Network Marketing, and a New Course - Marketing with Video.

Check out the Calendar Online at my Website - www.BleedingEdgeTech.com.

Rob the Tech Guy

Wordpress.com Versus Wordpress.org

There is a lot of talk out in real estate blog land about setting up wordpress blogs.  Many of the sage advice givers recommend that real estate agents set up a blog on Wordpress.com because it is simple, it is free and it is maintained and hosted by someone else.

Those are precisely the reasons that you should never use wordpress.com for a business blog.  There really is no such thing as a free lunch.  Wordpress.com is the free, hosted version of the wordpress multi user software.  Because it is free, the terms of service are quite restrictive.

You might do the simplest, most natural things on your blog and wake up one morning to find the dreaded notice “THIS BLOG HAS BEEN DELETED OR ARCHIVED FOR VIOLATING THE TERMS OF SERVICE”  Advertising on a wordpress.com blog can get your blog deleted.  Linking to your real estate sales site might get it deleted.  Posting listings from your office or for your clients might get your wordpress.com blog deleted.

When that happens, whatever amount of work you have put into that blog simply vanishes, never to return.

All the pages are gone, all the posts are gone, all the links are gone, all the trust and authority you have built up is gone.

Wordpress.com vs Wordpress.org: The difference

During my workshop at June’s AZREBN, I discussed the differences between a blog at Wordpress.com and a Wordpress.org blog.  Here I’ll share some of those differences again, for those that missed the session.

To get started, I’ll define the two categories.  A Wordpress.com blog is one that appears at Wordpress.com.  The blog you create will have a name similar to stevebelt.wordpress.com.  Blogs created at Wordpress.com are free to start, though you can upgrade them for a fee, and new bloggers evaluating whether blogging is for them should absolutely consider starting at Wordpress.com.  In contrast, a Wordpress.org blog is a blog in which the Wordpress software has been downloaded from Wordpress.org and then subsequently installed on either your own server (which I do), or via hosting provider like GoDaddy, HostGator, DreamHost, etc.  Some hosting providers will even install Wordpress for you, so you can skip that step and get right to blogging.

The first consideration I like to make, is that I am blogging for business.  The blog is a part of my business.  To that end, I want as much control and ownership over my business as I can possibly get.  Today, Wordpress.com is as close to free as you can get, and has a fairly liberal policy with regard to what type of blog you can have there.  But that’s today.  Wordpress.com could change their rules at any time, for any reason.  If they did, how would that impact your business?  While I doubt Wordpress.com will change its rules any time soon (if ever), it’s not something I’m prepared to bank on, even if the chances are slim.

All of the rest of the differences are functional, rather than philosophical. The first functional difference between a Wordpress.com blog and a hosted Wordpress blog has to do with your theme choices.  Wordpress.com has ~100 themes you can choose from.  That sounds like a lot, I know.  But there are a lot of blogs, and no matter which theme you choose, you are going to be one of 1000’s that share the same look and feel.  Heck, I use Chris Pearson’s Cutline 3 on the Phoenix Area Real Estate Blog.  That has to be one of the top 10 most popular themes in existence (it’s used right here at AZREBN too), but one day, if I decide to switch, I’ll be free to do so, and not be limited to 99 other choices.

Speaking of themes, Wordpress.com will allow you to pay $15/year to customize the CSS of a theme.  But that’s the extent of the customization you can do.  You cannot change the layout or functionality of the theme, as you don’t have access to the PHP files.

As shown here in my admin panel, hosted Wordpress bloggers can make any change to the theme they want to.  I’ve made a reasonable number of changes to Cutline 3.  The sidebars are narrower, the whole theme is wider, the header is shorter, and I have a signature area with my shiny bald head in it.  Changes like this take some expertise in CSS and PHP, and many of them would not be possible on Wordpress.com.

The other big thing that differentiates a Wordpress.com blog from a hosted Wordpress blog is that you are free to install any number of plugins to power your blog.  Plugins needs some definition, I suppose before this makes any sense.  A plugin is an additional piece of functionality that you can “plug in” to Wordpress to do something extra for you.  An important plugin for you to consider would be one that backs up your blog.  I use a plugin aptly called Wordpress Database Backup.  Every day this plugin extracts everything from the database that holds all of the posts and configuration for my blog, zips it up, and emails it to me.  I have restored from this database, and it does work.  If you ever bungle up your blog, you’d be very, very happy to have used this plugin to recover it.

Other important plugins to consider are All in One SEO Pack, Wordpress.com stats, Twitter Tools, Subscribe to Comments, Similar Posts, wp-cache, Share This, MyAvatars, Gravatar, Google XML Sitemaps, Google Analytics for Wordpress, Get Recent Comments, Feed Footer, FeedBurner FeedSmith, and DoFoolow.  The names of some of those plugins help you understand what they do.  A thorough post on Plugins seems like a good idea for a later topic.

The final differentiator is price.  You can successfully blog at Wordpress.com for free.  A hosted Wordpress blog is going to cost you at least $7/year for a domain name, plus a hosting account which often costs ~$20/month.  Add to that, the hosting account will cause you to learn some minimal hosting skills, like how to FTP files, how to upgrade Wordpress with subsequent versions, how to install and change a theme, and how to install and change plugins.

Oh, and speaking of XML Sitemaps (we were talking about sitemaps, weren’t we?), there was a recent change at Wordpress.com to include as standard functionality a sitemap.xml for your Wordpress.com blog.  That’s a good thing.  If you want Google to really like your blog, you will want to register your blog with Google via Webmaster Tools and then submit a sitemap.  In the past, you didn’t have a way to create a sitemap, and now you do.

And speaking of Google, here’s an interesting factoid.  I created the Scottsdale Real Estate Blog during my session.  The first post went up right at the end of my session at 10:30am.  Google alerted me that this post was indexed at 12:50pm.  It took just 2:20 for Google to decide to index a brand new post, from a brand new blog.  For grins, I Google’d the title of that post around 3pm on Friday.  The post came up #10 in the search index.  Today it comes up #1.  Honestly that probably has more to do with the number of comments, and the link from my other blog to it.  And sure, not many people are searching on “Welcome to the Scottsdale Real Estate Blog”, but the point isn’t so much the rank on a very obscure set of terms, but rather the speed with which the post was indexed at all.

Win A Premium Wordpress Theme - June 30th Deadline

AZREBN has been talking up Wordpress Blogs at our last few workshops and so I thought I would share a great opportunity for all our AZREBN members to take advantage of a contest being hosted by ChiQ Montes.

ChiQ Montes is a full time Wordpress Theme Designer, currently living in the Phillipines and just launched www.WPThemeDesigner.com

ChiQ is hosting a contest and invites all bloggers to take a shot at winning a premium licensed theme as a prize! What a deal!

The difference with Premium Themes and Free Wordpress themes is that you will have a unique look and most premium themes cost money and offer customization!

There are 30 Premium Wordpress Designs up for grabs and you can take a look here.

The contest rules are simple, complete the following guidelines and win yourself a WP Premium Theme by ChiQ and sponsors and be sure to stand out in the crowd!

Contest Rules:

Requirement on the Blog Post:

1. Write about this Contest on your blog! You can either inform others or share why you want to join.. anything goes.

2. Link Back to wpthemedesigner.com!

3. A copy and paste of the contest prizes [prize list with no images | prize list with images].

If you want to increase your chances of winning and gain additional points:

1 additional entry - Digg/Stumble
1 additional entry - Twitter Post about the contest
1 additional entry - Be on the list of my Top 10 Commentators Box (sidebar)

And most important in winning is to Subscribe to the RSS Feed via Email to ChiQ’s site.

Contest Prizes:

30 Premium WordPress Themes Contest Prizes by WordPress Theme Designer

1 Single-use License of John Cow Milk It Theme by John Cow

Demo | Purchase | Price and Theme Info

2 Single-use Licenses of Elegants Blubs WordPress Theme by Blog Perfume
Demo | Purchase | Price and Theme Info

2 Single-use Licenses for The Revolution by Brian Gardner
Demo | Purchase | Price and Theme Info

Premium Themes by Magnus Jepson
- 1 Single-use License of Polaroid Press
- 1 single-use License of Grunge Press
- 1 Single-use License of Portfolio Press

Price and Theme Info

1 Single-user License of Money Blogger Theme by BlogOhBlog
Demo | Purchase | Price and Theme info

2 Single-use Licenses of the Elite Theme by ElitebyDesign
Demo | Purchase | Price and Theme Info

Premium Themes by MotionTheme
- 1 Single-use License of Pirate Theme - Demo | Purchase
- 1 Single-use License of News Friendly Theme - Demo | Purchase
- 1 Single-use License of Easy Portfolio Theme - Demo | Purchase

1 Single-use License of TV Elements Premium Theme by WPelements

Demo | Purchase | Price and Theme Info

Premium Themes by PowerTheme

- 1 Single-use License of MagPress Theme - Demo | Purchase | Price and Theme Info
- 1 Single-use License of VideoDen Theme - Demo | Purchase | Price and Theme Info

Winners Choice Theme from Blogalized
Products | Order

Premium Themes by GraphPaperPress
1 Single-use License of F8 Portfolio Theme - Price and Theme info
1 Single-use License of F8 Remixed - Price and Theme info
1 Single-use License of Monochrome - Price and Theme info

Bonus: Themes by Premiumnewstheme

- 3 Single-use Licenses of Fresh News
- 3 Single-use Licenses of LiveWire
- 3 Single-use Licenses of Gazette

One final thing to get noticed:

Be sure to go comment on www.WPThemeDesigner.com here so that you can let them know you entered and where you posted it!

Remember - Contest Ends on June 30, 2008

Good luck and have fun! Here is my entry… now off to spread the word on AR

Happy Blogging AZREBN members!