Thank you for the information on Wordpress, those were some of my questions. Nice list for us to get a cup of something and spend some quality time reading. Good looking too, as usual.......

David... hi and thx, I'm trying to cover/answer some of the questions I get most often, this seems to be one of them. Have a great weekend!

Hi Marti-great video of Gia she is a dynamic person!  Great job as usual..hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Mmmmmmmmmidori... saw your posts earlier, what a beautiful baby, have a great weekend yourself!

Marti - I look forward to your post everyweek.  Always learn something and love reading the blog posts that I may have missed.  BTW the dream fragment wallpaper is way kewl

I loooove your new logo for the group....it's so....us. :)

Marti,

You're amazing.....absolutely.  thanks so much for these very helpful weekly posts and summaries.

'Dream Fragment' is very beautiful...I love the colours and how you've brought them together.

Jo

Marti-  Thanks for featuring my pic on the wallpaper calendar.  For all you Long Islanders, the photo was taken, while docked at Sterling Harbor Marina, in Greenport, NY

marti

You just cleared up some real issues for me. Thanks

Sincerely

Tom Braatz

Pam... thx, it's one of my favorites too and thought I'd use it this month in addition to Marilyn's beautiful photo. Have a great weekend!

Sally... thx, I needed a distraction this week so I thought it was time for a bit of a makeover, had to find a way to work cookies into it. ;-)

Jo... thx so much for that comment, you have great taste! ;-) Have a wondeful weekend!

Marilyn... I thank you for sending in that pic, I loved it and thought it was perfect for this month's calendar!

Tom... glad to hear that. I get that question a lot so I thought it was time to put in in a post. Later...

Hi Marti, Thanks for the primer on Wordpress.com vs. Wordpress.org.  I've really liked my Wordpress.com blog.  I guess the biggest question for me is WHY would I want to hassle with getting my own hosted site through the tools available on Wordpress.org?  Are the benefits that significant or is it more of a control issue?  Still weighing the hassle factor in my mind...always learning.  Any thoughts or insights??

Lola... hi and thx for the P's and Q's post, top notch writing/ideas as always. Re Wordpress.com or self hosted, it depends.

 A self hosted Wordpress blog can be totally customized so if you're using it as your main site it can be designed/branded to look exactly the way you want. Also, for a lot of people seeing something like mysite.wordpress.,com is like seeing myname@yahoo.com, for biz it's usually the best way to go.

 I know it's a matter of perception and I still see many people using Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail accounts for biz but in general it just doesn't look good.

 Also Wordpress.com has the right to place ads in their blogs, it doesn't happen often but it happens. It's listed in the Wordpress.com agreement that they have a right to place advertising so on a self-hosted platform you're in total control.

 That being said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with a Wordpress.com blog, if it's working for someone and they're happy with the look then there's no technical reason not to use it.

Hey Marti,

I actually read most of those but good picks...just stopping by.

Neal... thx for popping by & have a great weekend!

Hi Marti, thanks for the mention, I have had lots of comments about how it can be applied in any market, I just made it specific for Ann Arbor, my area. You know localism and all. Nice postings this week. Have a great weekend,

Missy... hi, that's exactly why I wanted to feature it here, an excellent concept that can be used anywhere. Have a great weekend as well.

Marti ~  Again, a big thanks for all that you do and the information and knowledge you so willingly share.  I appreciate the time to take to sort through all of the articles to bring to the forefront those that will help so much in our day to day business.

Marti, Thanks for taking the time to share your insights.  With reference to the ads, I haven't had that experience with Wordpress.com but they did do a 'free referral' to other similar blogs link a couple of months ago which raised a lot of flap until it was made optional.  You've given me some things to think about.  Right now, .com seems to work.  Thanks also for the inclusion of my post.  Always an honor. :)

Hi marti- like Sally said I love the new Group Logo :) :)  I laughed when I saw no cookies.....talk about a personalized logo LOL :)

Anyway.....when I came to your Post I was surprised to see my Dinosaur....and doesn't it look nice with that custom classic looking background....you sure did a good job on that :)  I saw Lola ask about why Wordpress.org.......for me it was so no one could direct readers to "similar posts"........if they were reading something from me or someone else on my blog then I want the option of sending them somewhere else if I want....I don't want some robot deciding what is similar to my post and directing them there.  I know one of the platforms does that....and I don't like it...... LOL :)

The Group is really getting big now, I'm glad you have some help :)  Thanks for the inclusion of my Tuesday Truths.....that one got a lot of attention :)

Joan... hi. it's my pleasure. Like the rest of us I'm just trying to help out when I can, we all learn a lot from each other. Have a great weekend.

Lola... no problem. The ads on Wordpress.com are very rare right now but since it's their site, things can change, everyone is trying to monetize stuff so for biz I host my own domains. Featuring your post was my pleasure, it's great to have your consistently high quality content in our group!

Kathy... your dinosaur pops right off the page, nice pic & contrast. And you know I had to work cookies into the new logo somehow. Just an idea for now, not sure how long it will stay. I get bored easily. ;-) Nite!

Marti, thank you again for the great info.  I too was confused about all the Wordpress sites!  Love the new calendar photo!  I'm enjoying photography and writing more than RE!  Will be in touch when I get my thoughts together about a photography site...

Marti,

   Thanks for the link to my article.  I recently built my first custom website (www.awendawliving.com) using wordpress.  I had been using and tweeking one made by Real Estate Tomato for about a year and thought I was ready for the experiment.  I hosted through GoDaddy and found a template I liked and then tweaked it to my tastes.  The whole thing took me about a week to get it just right and considering it probably would have costs at least $1000 I figured it was time well spent because I had complete control over the entire process.  Luckily I didn't hit any major roadblocks that I couldn't google myself out of.  All in all, I would not say creating your own website is for the week at heart.  I had to learn a lot of coding as well as photoshop (which I probably already should have known) to get the site just right, but I did save some money and that's important in slow markets.  I expect the site to be on the first page for my keywords in about 3 months (right around when the market starts comign around :-) ) because I don't have too much competition and I've learned a lot about SEO from "The Tomato".

Great info but your video link and info on reelseekr did not work for me...

Marti, thanks for the incredible resource for being a better blogger, marketer. This one stays in my favorites.

Awesome!

Bo

Susie... hi and thx, looking ford to doing more wallpapers with you. With your eye & talent having a site for your work would be a great idea.

Daniel... thx for the Knol post, I'm sure we'll see/hear a lot more about it in the coming weeks. Also congrats on getting your site together yourself. It's frustrating for some people, fun and rewarding to do for others.

Marti, is there any benefit regarding SEO to going with .org over .com?

Marcia... I'm not sure why the links didn't work for you, I just tested them and both are working fine. Have a great weekend.

Bo... thx for the awesome feedback, much appreciated and welcome to the group, nice to have you with us!

Your timing is impeccable!  I just bought some new domain names for a whole different blog direction and thought I would try doing this one myself (Mary McKnight did my main blog) on Word Press.  If I need some help I may be hiring your talented team.  Thanks for the mention as well!

Kathy... re SEO, 99% of SEO power will come from the quality of the content posted, targeted keywords/phrases, one-way backlinks, trackbacks, etc... Where it's hosted won't make much of a difference. The .org site of Wordpress doesn't host anything, it's just where their resources are listed for download. Have a great week!

Diane... as always thx for another great post, the numbers/facts really do tell the truth. If you need help or have ? about your new blog direction (even if you plan to do it yourself) don't think twice about asking, I'd be happy to point you in the right direction. Later...

Hi Marti thanks for the great posts. Quite a few this week I missed.

Bill... hi and thx for stopping by, have a great weekend!

Marti,

As always there is so much great stuff here! I hope your friend in the hospital is doing well. Talk to you soon and Thank you again!

Russell

Russell... hi and thx, actually I'm just reading your emails now and will get back to you with feedback soon. Have a great Sunday!

Blog Artist...

I was just getting ready to call IT a night when I checked my e and this post came up. IT was wedged between The Liverpool Way and True Love Waits. I'll let you figure all that out on your own :)

Anyway...I just knew you would mention that post of mine. Knowing you as I do...You understand that IT ain't about us...That is of course assuming we intend to be successful :)

Thank you for the mention. But most of all thank you for doing this so consistently every week. IT (YOU) really does help me to catch up. So many Members...So only one of me...But most importantly so only one of YOU. Wink :) 

As Arnold would say "I'll be back"...I could have sworn I heard Blogging Bertha say she'd been hangin' with you :)

P.S. I'm feeling much better. See, I heard you thinking as you read this comment from ME (IT) :)

TLW...ROAR!

Hi Marti - another wonderful week of great posts to catch up on.  And I wanted to say hi to you.

Ann

TLW... we definitely both get it, I learned that early on from you. So glad to hear you're mending well, you read my mind, yes I was wondering. Say "hi" to Blogging Bertha for me. ;-)

Ann... hi and it's so nice to see you. I really hope you're doing well and that you have a wonderful week!

mARTi,

Once again you wow and amaze us here on the Rain. Another awesome post to bookmark. Thanks for the mention The Perfect Words to Make That Home Sell 

You talent is so apparent and you are so willing to share with all.

Marti, again i am in awe of how you can find so many great posts.  And now, I will have to go back and carefully review the wordpress material.  Thank you for your effort.  AJ

Margaret... thx for another excellent contribution, it's sharp cookies like you that have taught me real estate from the inside out.

AJ... they're easy to find just difficult to narrow down to the best of the best, thx for stopping by!

You made it easy and simple - very helpful to those interested, but not sure to where to start.

Rich... hi and thx, look at my earlier tutorials or let me know what you're having trouble getting started on and I'll try to answer your quetion(s).

Thanks for the clarification.  There's always so much to learn.

Christine... no problem, I'm always learning stuff myself too, it never ends. ;-)

Hi Marti!  I think I forgot to comment on this last post of yours....I also wanted to thank you for your free headers that you designed for our Outside blogs - I ended up using it when I set mine up and I just love it!  :-)  Also another thanks goes for mentioning me again in your featured posts.  The upside of doing that time of marketing is reaching out and being in touch with your client base.  The wee bit of a hard thing is I'm having a hard time keeping up and responding to all the e-mails.  It was a lot faster to send the e-card then it has been to respond individually!  Yikes....! :-) Thanks again for all that you do on here, you're a gifted and amazing!!   

Oh I know what else............|I loved your wallpaper...........I also had an idea for your calendar....I had an awesome pic that I took that would have been good for Halloween, but when myhardrive crashed earlier I lost it.  They actually picked and used it as a photo label for Jones Soda bottles, but alas I can't find it , and they don't archive more then 6 months...,

Liz... hi and thx, you're more than welcome for the headers, they help a lot of people who don't have the time or patience to do their own. Check your mailbox, I just sent you something.

 I know what you mean about responding, the downside of successful marketing is that it can eat up a lot of our time. Still better than the alternative. ;-)

Liz... hi again, I just saw your 2nd comment. Too bad about the pic, I'm always looking for interesting stuff for AR wallpapers. Maybe another time!

Love your Dream Fragment #4!!! BTW gr8 ideas ;)

Jennifer... hi, thx and welcome to the group, it's great to have you with us!

Marti - got your e-mail and header!  You are a sweetheart.....I love it!....tried calling but got your voice mail.......soon we'll talk though, I hope..:-)

Marti,  Thanks for sharing sooooo much about WordPress.  You've uncovered alot!  Mike

Liz... hi and you're totally welcome. Sorry I missed your call, I'm not at home right now but we'll talk soon, I just noticed you're in BC, another fellow Canadian! ;-)

Mike... glad to hear that, there's a lot of confusion about the basics so I'm doing the blog design series slowly and step by step so it's clear, easy to follow and not too techie. Thx for stopping by!

This is really good "bite size" information for folks who are "new" to all of this.  I'm pointing people to this post as often as I can!  THANK YOU!

Eleanor... hi and thx, my posts were becoming way too long so I thought "bite size" might be a better way to go, glad you think so too! ;-)

I just got back from vacation and saw that you had included my post in your weekly wrap up.  Thanks so much!!

I just got back from vacation and saw that you had included my post in your weekly wrap up.  Thanks so much!!

Lisa... welcome back, I loved your open house post, thx for adding it!