Blog site recommendation

[Charpress]

Don't put AdSense Google ads on a site with low traffic unless you figure out how to cash a check for 18 cents.

Create a site that portrays a successful and knowledgeable professional. That is what people will be looking for when they search your name to find out who and what you are. That is what people use the Internet for, not to search for "I want to buy some insurance" and end up on your site. That will never happen.

 

[insurancejunkie]

Hi,

I have a blog on blogspot that is set up to get the opinions of Insurance Agents like you! Check it out at
The Insurance Buzz. Please leave a moment too.

It is fairly new and I am learning. So far it is moderately easy to put together. I agree with one of the other posters that stated to but it on your site. With blogspot you can set it up there but have it added to your site.

 

[mcday]

The 2 most popular Blog platforms are:

1. Blogger
2. Wordpress

I prefer WordPress because you can customize it to do so many different things. If you start your blog on Blogger (because it is extremely easy to do), that's alright. You can import your posts from Blogger back into WordPress when you get a little more advanced.

The great thing about using a Blog platform is that it is easy to get the Search Engines to pay attention to what you're doing. Most of the Blog's automatically PING the search engines to let them know when you've got new content posted.

If you have any questions, PM me and I'll try to give you more help.

Mike

 

[sunkist219]

It's clear that you are an SEO specialist because your right - Wordpress is by far better than all the rest. I've tried a few and I find Blogger to be very limiting. If you really know what you're doing, Wordpress can allow you to create a blog that doesn't even look like a blog - it looks like a website. I recently set one up and it is pulling up on Google over and over again under several different search terms. I was even able to get it to pull up for keywords that had nothing to do with my area (example: car insurance for students).

The only down side is that it is a little more technical and in order to take advantage of it, you need to know a little bit about SEO, HTML, and possibly have an advertising background. My suggestion to agents who have no clue about that stuff is see if the person who designs & creates your website is able to do some formatting on your blog for you. Or, if you pay for search engine marketing, see if the company there will give you suggestions or help you out.

I don't mind making suggestions on people's blogs if you want suggestions on how to improve it.

 

[teambuilder]

Wordpress has all the power you'll ever need... provided you put up content that provides value and entertainment... not the best place to do your hard-sell. Leave that for later.

 

[Alston]

The 2 most popular Blog platforms are:

1. Blogger
2. Wordpress

I prefer WordPress because you can customize it to do so many different things. If you start your blog on Blogger (because it is extremely easy to do), that's alright. You can import your posts from Blogger back into WordPress when you get a little more advanced.



Mike

Sounds like good advice.

I think I'm moving to that more advanced state because I just started my first WordPress blog. I also have a Blogger blog on a different site.

Both Blogger and WordPress can be hosted on your site.

You will have to know a tiny bit about publishing a website to host a blogger blog. You will have to also know how to create an MySQL a database to get a WordPress blog to work on your site.

The need for the technical knowledge is just for the initial set up. After that they should be easy to maintain.

I just started my WordPress blog so I don't have any feedback, but I've noticed that whenever I put a long tail keyword on my Blogger blog it shows up in Google's SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) within 24 hours.

 

[somarco]

What is a long tail keyword?

 

[Alston]

Keyword: "health insurance"
Long Tail keyword: "health insurance for left handed people in New Mexico with acne and claustrophobia"


Long tail keywords are keywords that have less volume but also less competition and that are actually being typed into search engines (unlike my ridiculous example).

 

[mcday]

You can save yourself the headache of learning MySQL by hosting your WordPress blog with a hosting service that will set it up for you and keep it updated. Look for a hosting service that uses Fantastico.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Speaking of Wordpress...I notice you need the .com version to use a lot of the plugins. Is it easy to change to the .com version?