or do you take candy from strangers? Is it self-hosted or do you really rely on the kindness of strangers?
I started blogging in late 2006 on Activerain. It is a real estate and mortgage blogging platform built on Ruby on Rails. It is very good site and for many of the earlier adopters of blogging for business in the industry we still get a very large “free” presence on there with some serious google love. But, really it is free and they rely on selling ads all around your pretty face.
Hey, I am a capitilist and I am all about the benjamins, gosh that sounds so 90′s, why don’t I just say greed is good, oh lord the 80′s
I spoke down in Indy on a panel of social media experts, gurus and ninjas. I was perhaps way in over my head, but I questioned hosting your sites on the “free” platforms like blogger, ning or even Activerain. Now, I love Activerain it has taught me so much, but I was for the longest time relying on them being around. Well, the past couple of days when you tried to go to Activerain you got this
What if it was your only source for leads? When I using it extensively, I was getting 3 to 5 calls a week from it turning a few of those into closed loans, but the moment I started my own blog and used the both I had a great pipeline of calls and loans. Also, self-hosting has allowed me to control what I want to put up and how I want it to look and no competitor ads down the side. I did not have to worry about someone else through the main page and most importantly I did not have to worry about them going away. I got 100% control over my content.
Now, Activerain is back up and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to get into blogging as a good way to started and you can learn so much there, but it is the not the way to win. I even think using blogger is a good way to get started to make sure you are prepared to do what it takes to start blogging for business.
However, you never know when google or ning or any other free platform is going to have to start charging of your content simply goes away.
Its always best to be in control of your site no matter what the service. While it means more work possibly on your end, it also means you aren’t “up a creek” if that service disappears. For me, I was using Etherpad which was recently bought by Google and while I’m lucky to still be able to get all my data off it, there was no guarantee I would have.
The more control and more open things you deal with the better.
.-= Richard´s last blog ..Rahsaan has an Ugly Mug Awareness Day comes to a close =-.
I’m starting to feel like the last buggy whip manufacturer these days Daver. Probably time to get my own domain and just redirect from my sites …. whew, that’s going to be a ton of work.
.-= Northwest Indiana Home Builder´s last blog ..How to build a home Part One =-.