After years of grappling with template websites and being unhappy with the results I've taken the plunge into the Wordpress world and built a better website.
Wordpress is a blogging platform, right? No, it's much more than that! The possibilities with Wordpress are endless as to what you can achieve with your website, with only your own creativity setting the boundaries...
Of course that's oversimplifying it a bit, you need to work with a great Web Developer too. That's where I got lucky when I emailed Kaspars Dambis, a member of the Wordpress Community for his help. We hit a couple of bumps in the road in the development, but that's exactly where he showed his true worth. When a particular plug-in I wanted didn't work as hoped he just designed another plug-in! He did what I do in the real estate world, he found solutions rather than focus on problems.
What made me think Wordpress was right for me? I have the AR community to thank for that. Blogging here for the last 5 months has been an enormous learning experience. There are some VERY tech-savvy Rainers and I have definitely profited from all that knowledge.
All my new found knowledge needed to be put to good use, hence the new website. If you're grappling with template websites, then I would highly recommend this solution. It went a whole lot easier than I expected and I have so much more control over the design and content. Here's a link to the website for you to check it out for yourself.
Update February 2010: Here is the "New, Improved Website..." After some brain storming with Kaspars this is what we came up with. The plan was to make the site more user friendly with much more visible tabs. I think it works well...
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Denise,
You are SO right. WordPress is SO friendly, I don't know why people pay exorbitant sums for tired old templated sites.
I love my custom site with 2 WP blogs in it.
Denise,
Thanks for the tip. I will be checking into this soon.
Wordpress is fantastic, but not as user friendly as blogger. I'm still trying to work the kinks out at my own site. Yours looks terrific - congratulations!
Mike ~ Absolutely, well put - Tired looking template sites... And you pay handsomely for them too!
Dan ~ Mike reminded me of something important I failed to mention... Wordpress is FREE. Of course to get a professional looking site you'll probably need the help of a web developer, but once the site is up and running there are no further costs. Simple maintenance is something I'm expecting to be able to do myself.
Suzy ~ I agree that unless you know your way around Wordpress you're likely to have a few hitches. I'm not a website designer, so the moment I ran into that I contacted a web devloper. I guess I got real lucky, because it was easy after that. In fact you might be surprised just how easy it is when you do have someone who knows their way around the platform. Send my guy an email, he might be able to help and he has pretty reasonable rates.
Thanks for the compliment about my website. It means a lot to me.
Thank you all for stopping by.
Denise
I have also taken the wordpress plunge. I am happily entering data, and hope I can link it all together!
Denise, thanks for the post. I've been thinking about expanding my blogging efforts and will look into wordpress.
We'll have to look into Wordpress here. We haven't had much luck working with Joomla.
Denise, your words hit my radar as this is the year of the new awesome website for me! I'll be checking it out!
Evelyn ~ Post your link here when you're done. I'd love to check your new website out.
Anthony, Jim and Sarah ~ Glad my post is motivating you to act. Take my word for it, you won't regret it. Up until now I had always been making compromises with my template websites. I wasn't exaggerating when I said with Wordpress the only boundaries are your own creativity.
To use an analogy to iphone and "there's an app for that..." With Wordpress if you have an idea, "there will be a plug-in for that..." Of course you will need someone to help you who knows their way around Wordpress to get the most out of it, but just like AR, there are a lot of creative people in the Wordpress Community - One of them being Kaspars, who I think did a sensational job on pulling my site together.
Good Luck, I'll watch out for posts of your new website launches in the near future.
Denise
I like my WordPress site but I struggle with it.
Hi Maureen ~ If I was doing it all on my own I think I would struggle too. The plugins don't always work the way they should and if you don't know your way around the system, then of course you're in trouble. That was pretty much where I was before I decided to ask for help. Glad I did that, I'm very happy with the site and am sure it wouldn't have worked out so well if I had done it alone. (Plus it would have taken me A LOT longer to have it up and running!
Denise
I hired a guy to help me a couple of times. Most recently in November. Before that when I lost the whole blog when I did an update.
Your guy is in Latvia... my guy was in Isreal...
Hi Maureen ~ I love the fact that the Internet has no borders! Makes no difference where they are these days, as long as they deliver. I didn't even call my guy, (although he is on Skype), we did everything by email. It was quick, painless and the price to value was great. Best $200 I ever spent! (And remember this is the gal who's been ripped off online a couple of times!)
Denise
How did I miss this post? Great minds must be thinking alike these days. How long did it take you to get everything together from first contact to launch as it is now? Just wondering if it's a matter of days, weeks or months.
Wow $200 sounds darn reasonable.
Hi Julia ~ Yes, I wondered how come you missed this post too...;-) Altogether it took just over 2 weeks and actually I think if I had contacted Kaspars sooner it would have gone quicker. I muddled along for about a week to 10 days before I contacted him. Once he got involved the whole thing moved a whole lot quicker. He really does know Wordpress inside out, which helps A LOT!
Hi Maureen ~ Nice to see you back again. Yes, pretty reasonable. If he had been involved from the start it probably would have been a bit more, this was for about 5 hours work. (And he did all the difficult stuff).
Denise
Denise: Here is the link, but it is nowhere near being done! I think it will be a work in process!
Hi Evelyn, I'm assuming the link from your profile is to the new website, since it's not "here." :-)
Cool slideshows. I'm sure they'll be even ccoler with less snow on the ground and more house visible. Tough to work on curb appeal with so much snow around, don't you think?
And your comment about it being a work in progress - absolutely... Mine has been up and running less than 2 weeks and I'm already contemplating how I can improve it!
Denise
Thanks for the post Denise. I have just started my Wordpress site and need help I can get.
Denise, Great site, I just check it out. I'm considering of doing a wordpress blog over a website, I had a p2a but did not like it too much.
I have a new Wordpress site that I am still working on. I have made it "do follow". Stop by and make a comment and get a link-back. www.tigardorhomes.com Constructive criticism is welcome. Thanks.
I went. I commented. Looks good Wayne. I am not sure if I have really looked over an AgentPress site in action before,
Thanks for posting. I really appreciate that you shared the name of your programmer. I need some help and will try to track him down.
Vickie ~ Yes, you do that. I highly recommend him, he does great work and definitely knows his way around Wordpress.
Eva, I agree, the P2A solution is kind of dated. Wordpress is a much better option.
Thank you all for the comments. I'm glad this post is of some use to you.
Denise
your new site is beautiful...i am going to have to look that web developer who helped you up, lol i haven't taken the plunge because my eyes get crossed, lol but you and everyone else is right and i agree...those template websites are dreadful, they take too long to load most of the time and they are a pain to manage....
Hi Dee ~ Yes the template sites are a pain to manage and you're constantly compromising. The great thing about Wordpress is just how versatile it is. The only boundaries are the ones you set yourself. Of course you need to be a bit tech-savvy, but a good developer can help you out there. Take the plunge, you won't regret it!
Thanks for the compliment on the new improved version of my site. I think Kaspars has done a great job with it too.
Denise
im curious...did you use the .com or the .org?