This article is a preview of a class I’m hosting on January 6, 2016 at our Keller Williams Realty office here in Olathe from 12:30 – 2:00. The primary purpose of this class is to teach WordPress for Real Estate Agents and getting your blog online. Of course, what I’m teaching here will work for any small business person to build their online presence and create a stream of 24/7 leads.
The Basics
This post covers just the very basics of getting started. This article is another in a series of articles that can be found under the WordPress for Real Estate Category of this blog.
WordPress.com versus WordPress.org
For the purposes of this teaching I will be concentrating on low cash outlay. Low being almost free. My primary blog site that that has made me multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years through real estate sales is https://kcinvestmentproperty.wordpress.com/ That is a fee website. Now, over the years I’ve added on no advertising and added a url at http://www.bbqcapital.com, but I wasn’t required to and neither has really made me more money. I just prefer those options.
As such, I will recommend that most users start with WordPress.com. Wordpress.com is the simplest way to start, is low cost and allows WordPress to do all the heavy lifting. When you are getting started with your blog you will focus more on your name (url), topic and simple design. Should you decide that blogging is really your thing and you are control freak about everything then you can migrate your content over to a WordPress.org website where WordPress simply provides the platform but you’ll need to find a host and an array of new talents such as PHP or CSS or a really good template for your topic.
There are advantages to more control. But for the first six months to a year I think the biggest thing you need to concentrate on is the topic at hand, building readership and organic SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Some Things To Think About First
If at all possible I’d try to have a few names for your blog figured out before signing up. As you can see from my earlier link I used “kcinvestmentproperty” for my “wordpress” url. I wanted a name that would let Google or Bing searchers to find me easily. If I were doing a blog on dog training it might be something like olathedogtrainer.wordpress.com, or some available variation. “Available” is the key phrase here. So stop and think this through.
- Who will be your audience?
- What expertise are you trying to convey to the reader?
- If you were searching for your topic, what would you search?
The more thought you can give to this the better your results will be in the long run. But the URL is NOT the most important part of your blog. In fact, it can morph meanings. But it is an important factor so stop and think about it if you can.
Sign Up!
Go to WordPress.com and sign up. You’ll need to find a domain. For fun, I went there and test started a domain at http://monkeypoopblog.wordpress.com. (I will not activate this blog so don’t search it.) The next page it took me to was a chance to spend money. I choose the free option. You’ll also see a $99 option under Premium. This is the option I use for my kcinvestmentproperty blog. There is also a Business level at $299 that I have never moved forward with. You can always upgrade later regardless of what you choose.
From there you’ll have to create your account; email, username and password. Go ahead. Get started. Get inside and look around. We’ll continue this conversation on another post. Have fun and I’ll talk to you later about your WordPress for Real Estate Agents site.
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