RAA Group

If you have taken a blogging course with me, then you already received an email from me with this information.  However, it’s such an important issue that I want to share it here with everyone.

It was recently brought to my attention that WordPress.com is now outright banning MLM blogs, referring to them as “affiliate marketing” and “pyramid schemes.”  While I disagree with this assessment, and have alerted the DSA who is looking into the issue, it is important that you be aware of this, so that you don’t get your blog shut down.

In my own correspondence with WordPress about the issue, here is their clarification:

“Any kind of MLM blogs – or blogs created to direct readers to external domains for commercial purposes – are not permitted at WordPress.com. If you are creating the blog to make money, WordPress.com is not the place for you.”

However in WordPress’s rules, they do allow business blogs to demonstrate expertise:

“Business: Professionals ranging from realtors to lawyers and stock brokers are using WordPress to share their expertise, and companies have discovered the power of blogs to more directly and personally engage with their customers.”

When I followed up with them asking about this, here is what they said:

Jennifer: “If legitimate direct sellers are only using their blog to demonstrate their expertise, wouldn’t that fall under those rules?”

WordPress: “Yes, but if the direct seller is continually linking back to their own domain to sell things, they will not be allowed. If the blog is purely information (with no intent to direct users elsewhere to buy things), that is perfectly okay.”

You can read all the rules here: http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/

If you follow the strategy laid out in my courses and teachings, you SHOULD be OK.  You should not be highlighting specific products or opportunity, but instead should be giving practical, actionable content that people can use right now without spending a dime.  However you will NOT be allowed to include a link to your personal website based on WordPress’ interpretation of the rules.  Instead, you should have a place for people to sign up for your newsletter, and you can share the link to your website there.  Be aware, however, that WordPress.com will shut you down without notice if they decide your blog is in violation of their rules.

Please note that this does not apply to you if you are hosting your blog on your own domain.  However if you are using the free WordPress.com service, it is important to make sure you are in compliance.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email WordPress directly at support@wordpress.com.

What do you think about these rules?  Do you think the actions of a few “bad apples” is messing it up for the rest of us?  Is it fair?  Would love to read your thoughts below.

Considering a new website for your real estate company? Or any other industry for that matter. WordPress is an open source application you should definitely check out. WordPress was originally designed to be a simple blogging tool but it keeps getting better and better. Hundreds of companies are now using WordPress as a content management system (CMS) to power their entire Website. Some of the awesome benefits of using WordPress for your blog or as a CMS are its cost (it’s free), ease of use, SEO friendliness, online community support and all the free plugins that allow you to easily customize and add enhancements to your site.

Whether you are a developer of a private community or specialize in general brokerage, there are plenty of great plugins that can really help your WordPress Website.

Here is a list of 20 plugins we install on many of the sites we design for clients. Try them out and let me know if you have any questions about any of them.

Search Engine Optimization and Tracking Plugins:

1.  Google Analytics for WordPress
This plugin allows you to easily add Google Analytics to your entire WordPress site for tracking purposes.

2.  Easy Verification
Verify your site with webmaster tools and Yahoo! SiteExplorer.

3.  All-in-One SEO Pack
Great Search Engine Optimization plugin.

4.  Google Sitemap
This is another plugin that helps with search engine optimization. This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO!

Website Utility Plugins:

5.  Database Backup
Hopefully you won’t ever need to use this, but stuff happens. Always nice to have a backup when you need it.

6.  Maintenance Mode
Adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in administrators get full access to the blog including the front-end.

Page Management Plugins:

7.  pageMash
Manage your multitude of pages with pageMash’s slick drag-and-drop style, ajax interface. Allows quick sorting, hiding and organizing of parenting.

8.  Exclude Pages
Sometimes you need a page but you don’t want it to show up in your main navigation menu. For example a landing page for an eblast, or a “hidden” floor plan page.  This plugin gives you a check box option to exclude the page from your menu.

9.  Page Links To
Allows you to point WordPress pages or posts to a URL of your choosing. Good for setting up navigational links to non-WP sections of your site or to off-site resources.

10.  Widget Locationizer
Wordpress allows you to specify what widgets you want on your site, but it places those widgets on every page. With Widget locationizer, you can specify which pages your widgets are displayed. This opens up all kinds of options to get creative with your sidebar content and makes your site look much more interesting and less like a blog.

11.  Section Widget
Lets you display section-specific content on the pages of your choice. This plugin is similar to Widget Locationizer, but has a few different perks of its own.

12.  Simple Sidebar Navigation
This is a really handy tool to create and manage sidebar menus. Simple Sidebar allows you to add any combination of page links in your sidebar. This makes your site really user friendly and allows you to strategically place related links in the sidebar. When used in combo with Widget Locationizer the options are endless.

Content Management Plugins:

13.  Great Real Estate
Allows easy management of your real estate listings.

14.  Tiny MCE Advanced
This plugin adds a toolbar with more styling options for the text in your pages and posts. Warning(disclaimer)…don’t use a huge Comic Sans headline to highlight your latest offer. In most cases, your theme should have built in styling options that will match the rest of your site. But there are times where a few more options are needed and this plugin does the trick.

15.  Contact Form 7 or cformsII
Every real estate site should have a contact form. Maybe several.  We recommend a “Soft Submit” (email, name & zip), “Full Submit” and in some cases, a different form for “Request a Tour.” Either of these plugins will allow you to serve up multiple forms on different pages. Form Submittals are sent to a specified email address instantly. Check out Jami Mullikin’s article on database management.

16.  NextGen Photo Gallery
There are dozens of great photo gallery plugins for WordPress. NextGen is one of the most popular and a great choice. NextGen stores the photos on your site and allows you to make galleries, albums and slideshows.

17.  Dynamic Headers
This plugin allows a custom header image to be displayed on each page.

Sharing and Social Networking Plugins:

18.  Sociable
Allows visitors to automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to their social networking sites.

19.  Twitter For WordPress
Displays your public Twitter messages for all to read.

20.  Social Homes
Adds a sidebar widget containing a subtle list of all your social homes as linked favicons so your visitors can follow you.