This post is NOT meant to suggest free blog solutions are lacking as good content management systems. On the contrary, there are lots of good free social network and also standalone blog solutions out there. In fact, we use an Active Rain Blog because AR has a concentrated audience of sophisticated Real Estate Professionals we’d love to reach. This post only means to shed light on some things you may want to consider so that, as a Real Estate Business Professional with daily challenges & responsibilities, you are slightly more informed
17 useful questions to consider when investing in a Free Business Blog
- do I own the long term destiny of my brand with a free business blog?
- is there adequate customer service?
- can I get all the features I need?
- is there any design flexibility?
- is there any effort to secure?
- is there accountability to my business needs?
- is there search engine, online brand or direct marketing education?
- if not, can I succeed as an independent advertorial business blogger?
- is it evolving with the web and search engines?
- will my host ever change policies in ways I don’t like?
- will my host ever decide to mandate [potentially competitive] advertising?
- do I own my own content, does my host own it or do we both own it?
- am I a part of someone else’s user- generated content?
- am I just helping to build someone else’s brand?
- is my domain a sub domain of the host’s network?
- can I use a domain that serves the brand of my choosing?
- do I have the flexibility to present content in a variety of different ways?
Free solutions may satisfy some of the above, but in many cases [professionally] you may not like the answers. In fact, unless you’re very skilled it’s likely you’ll need independent programming help with hosting, design, feature setup and that may not cover any commitment to service or education. These things won’t be free: as a business with the never -ending need to reduce cost, we often forget that a lot of what we’re paying for is service & accountability. Mostly and in one way or another, we often get exactly what we pay for.
In this day and age, people will search because they can and to a degree they’re interviewing us [professional] business people long before they actually get in touch. Considering a Real Estate Blog can offer your business tremendous Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations value, you might be better to place assets such as these in more accountable hands.
If you’re not capable of [or maybe just not interested in] managing it all yourself and you have serious business requirements you may find it simple and cost-effective to have Real Estate Blogsites build, host & serve your Business Blog needs. If so, drop me an email 
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