Real Estate Mobility – Mobile Offices for Real Estate

WordPress is blogging software, but it need not look like it.  Too many people want to split the web world into “websites” and “blogs.”  They believe there is some extensive visible difference in the two, and that their site visitors can immediately differentiate between a “website” and a “blog.”  That’s not necessarily true.

First, you can choose from hundreds of free, and hundreds more paid themes.  The major breakout for themes is in the number of “columns” displayed.  The usual blog look is either two or three columns with a header.  This blog is not only hosted free on WordPress.com, but it is also a free theme that allows the selection of basic color themes.  I wanted three columns, which you see here.  The left and right columns are filled with “widgets” or “plugins” that display various items, links or content that I want to show on every displayed post  and page.

The center column is the text of my posts, static page, or category pages that are built as they are called.  This center column will change as my content changes, while the side columns will generally stay the same unless I decide to drop or add something.  The side columns could also have widgets that display dynamic content, like calendars, events, the weather, or other content that will change regularly.  An example would be a widget in the left or right column that displays the titles of posts from another blog that are dynamically displayed from their RSS feed.

WordPress themes give you some flexibility in the look of your blog.  However, I’ve kept this blog on the free WordPress.com platform for a reason.  I don’t recommend that the serious blogger who wants to generate business use the free platform.  But, I wanted to show that you do have a great deal of flexibility with the free hosting.  If you want a LOT MORE, you should host your blog, say at GoDaddy.com or another hosting provider that gives you the ability to select a WordPress installation and have it done for you.  GoDaddy does it for about $60/year at the basic level, enough for most of us.

The free WordPress.com hosting limits your theme selection.  If you go to paid hosting, to get a look at just the themes that WordPress shows from their site, check this theme page out.  There are hundreds more, plus sophisticated themes you can purchase, usually for under $100.  On my personal real estate website, I use a purchased “magazine” style theme called Mimbo Pro.  I wanted to do a local “newsy” type site, and I liked the functionality of this theme.