I saw this in my Google+ stream this moring, thanks to http://gigaom.com/2011/11/10/confirmed-wordpress-crosses-60-million-blogs/:

Updated. WordPress now powers more than 60 million blogs, founder Matt Mullenweg confirmed Thursday. The online publishing platform is now fielding in excess of 300 million unique visitors per month.

Update: About half of those 60 million blogs are powered by WordPress.com, the service owned by Automattic that hosts WordPress blogs, Mullenweg said. WordPress is an open source software that people can also download to run blogs on the web servers of their choice.>>>rest of article>>

Add to that the ones that Matt does not know about (our 136, for instance), and some say there are over 200,000,000 websites in WordPress at any given moment.

That is why we, at our UpLog.org,  use a high-bred, highly maintained code base in Multi-Site WordPress, the very same software that powers WordPress; with BuddyPress added-in, linking us all together.

We have been developing in WordPress for ten years, but BuddyPress was a buggy mess until recently.    Now  our UpLog.org is a one year old B2B  B2C social network , which is especially good for mobile, and for Realtors and other businesses: to reach everyone in their community, continually, and daily; by sponsoring a local blog.   WordPress has, by far, the largest user base of any content management software making it a sure bet for social networks,  but maintaining the multi-site code base and hosting is still not for the novice!  Properly setup and maintained, Multi-site WordPress is an SEO machine.

Join the roar of all of US at upLog.org.

http://business.uplog.org/free-weekly-wordpress-training-and-support-at-uplog-org/

Welcome to the rest of your life! As an upLog.org Agency you become the local media! Uplog Exclusive Agency Play-2-Pay Program: Post once per week and only pay $179 annually – or add-on us posting for you! Resell everything we do here and make a six figure income!

Put me on the map!

Feeding Google Maps UpLog.org

Our maps are Google’s maps, one in the same: so, do when you get on our map, you also get onto Google’s map, and that is also true for any local advertisers that you sell advertising to on your maps or any other upLog.org maps. Maps advertising pays 30% to the UpLog.org affiliate who owns the map, 30% to the selling agent, 30% to the map team to enhance and advertise the maps. all geographically exclusive upLog.org blogs get a map, (that is right, it is included free of charge!) and anyone can buy a spot on the maps as advertising:

3 months minimum @ $29 per month

$87.00

6 months 10% discount @ $29 per month

$156.60

one year 20% discount @ $29 per month

$278.40

Customisation, Graphics..IE if you need us to manufacture your advertising graphic for you:

200$

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Bundled Websites With Social Media Advertising

If you want to launch a new idea, or build your existing business just having a website created is only one piece in the puzzle. Instead of buying each thing from different vendors you can save money and get a better end product by buying a bundled solution.

All Word Press/Social Media Advertising Bundles Include:

• A state-of-the-art website with a content management system which allows you to edit all content at will, *customized to fit your taste, bundled with hosting, upgrades, ongoing support, and ongoing promotional services, which include:
• *Migration of your old static site for free
• Customization of graphics to match your business, targeted community,template or existing website
• Choose your look and feel.
• Online business strategy and advice
• Expert on-site search engine optimization (site architecture)
• Custom domain name registration and/or domain name transfer/hosting included
• Ongoing training and support in by-weekly training Web-i-nars
• Hosting with a full Control Panel that allows for one-step creation of unlimited e-mail addresses, parked domains and more
• Virtual Server account: Robust hosting with CPanel software allowing you to park additional domains (as many as you like), have add-on domains (as many as you like under 20), unlimited pop email accounts, push-button backup and restore, push button installation of almost any open-source software and much more:

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Uplog Custom Ebook Bundle:

Setup

$179.00

Customisation, Graphics

200$

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Beautiful Site with a Blog

A beautiful WordPress website allows you to change the content, and blog at will. Choose from thousands of designs and we will have a professional graphic designer custom tailor the look and feel to match your business. We even provide ongoing training session and teach you how to use it! Robust ‘virtual server’ style Hosting for 1 year is included in this price. It can be upgraded for more functionality. Live example click here

Uplog Custom WordPress Bundle:

Setup and Hosting 1 Year

$599.00

Buddypress/MU Upgrade

$379

[wp_cart:Customization & WP Upgrade:price:379.00:end]

$120/Year Hosting Renewal (first year is included)

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Uplog Custom E-zine Portal and Launch Bundle:

Includes:

• Setup and custom design with some custom graphics and branding
• Training and support for you to take it over as master-blaster – able to edit and change at will!
• Initial Launch using all of our resources including our over 1,000,000 readers, and mailing a custom announcement to our nearly 100,000 opt-in list
• Free virtual server hosting one year, or until a separate server is needed.
• WP-affiliate Platform and shopping cart integration, configuration, banners for affiliates
• A complete business in a box – a full-time immediate income is possible:

Setup, Design, Hosting one year & Launch: price: $975.00 in advance

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Uplog clone

White Label

Example here http://move2cali.com/

WPMU+BuddyPress Custom Social Network setup and design – adds Multi-site WPMU, and our custom code which creates a custom GUI using Google maps and feeds the maps as a revenue model to the above

$2,750.00

$1000 down payment

(Balance due before final edit and launch)

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“Already got a nice website, but need to get started with social media marketing?” We can set up/and/or optimize three main accounts (Usually Linked-in,Twitter, Facebook) and add links and integration for an existing website and syndicated feed burner feed, and provide one full year of training: we can also (optional) put out a blast as often as you like and on any scale desired – this can include mass emailing, press releases, custom article blasts…

Social Media Optimization and Training

$150.00

$500 Optional monthly marketing blast to our audience – in advance

>>>learn more at uplog.org>>>>

Consider the ActiveRain.com model: started by a couple of realtors a few years ago, it recently sold out with 200,000 realtors blogging there for an undisclosed amount.

A lead generation site with a huge potential value of it’s own is not that difficult or expensive to create: our latest project, ready to go live any day:

We will solicit offers from the public and private sector; as content to attract residents and tax revenue, jobs and migration.  A WordPress – BuddyPress setup like this is an SEO Machine, and pushed as a source of topic and/or geographically specific content, coupled with a well integrated IDX solution and Google maps integration, such a site can be a multi-million dollar enterprise of it’s own selling advertising to local business, or just giving it away to feed a real estate business: In this example, Beverly and John used an IDX solution she chose, this integrated into WordPress with a plugin: http://sellingfl.com/ is their more conventional real estate site for Sarasota, Florida: with modern IDX integration:

Then they have their lead generation blog, connected to all of US  at Uplog.org, which is included with the $599 custom WordPress above:

This “Sarasota Florida Community News” can be ranked for that search, and eventually even: “sarasota florida real estate“, as the depth and activity grows.

Another example is http://agelrealtyglobal.com:

“Metro Denver Community News Agency – Local Events – Real Estate Prices – by Angel Realty, LLC – a Residential and Commercial Real Estate Brokerage” pushing Angel Realty:

We are able to bring in wordpress stylsheets and menus into ihomebfinder.com IDX here, for seamless integration here:

We will have no trouble ranking the target site immediately for words like: Denver Colorado Business News Agency – Local Events – Real Estate Prices – by Angel Realty, LLC

Both IDX solutions offer robust back-end features and CRM – ihomefinder.com CRM is the only customer relations management software a real estate office would ever need.

lets see now:

Bundled Websites With Social Media Advertising

If you want to launch a new idea, or build your existing business just having a website created is only one piece in the puzzle. Instead of buying each thing from different vendors you can save money and get a better end product by buying a bundled solution.

Beautiful Site with a Blog

A beautiful WordPress website allows you to change the content, and blog at will. Choose from thousands of designs and we will have a professional graphic designer custom tailor the look and feel to match your business. We even provide ongoing training session and teach you how to use it! Robust ‘virtual server’ style Hosting for 1 year is included in this price. It can be upgraded for more functionality. Live example click here

1 Nano-Second to make a First Impression | Portland Oregon Photography And Musings – one photograph can make a blog:

1 Nano-Second First Impression | Portland Oregon Photography And Musings and first page organic search results, what a combo!

A great way to give back to your community, city, organization.  Make friends, promote businesses.  Their friends, family and associates will refer people back to your site.

Going live with our new Google mapping interface within a few days – upLog.org

Put me on the map!

Have you ever seen a custom map like this one?  They are very special and a great way to market yourself.  This idea came out of my love of adventure and Indiana Jones.  I still sing the Indiana Jones song to myself when I have sat in the chair way too long

A great way to give back to your community, city, organization.  Make friends, promote businesses.  Their friends, family and associates will refer people back to your site.  Wait til you see these in progress!  The St. Thomas map took more than 350 hours to develop and we are just about done.

Beautiful Custom Maps

This next map was done last year for a Bed and Breakfast in Deer Crossing, I love exploring and feel like I go on vacation everytime we create a custom map.

Beautiful Custom Map for Deer Crossing B&B

Another map in progress is for a Hawaii Word Press client, site is close to finished and will have this groovy map to show off too!

Beautiful Custom Map for Hawaii

Go to our portfolio at www.BeautifulCustomMaps.com for the maps in motion.  Hope you like them

Kind regards,

Cherie Young
760.440.0699
www.CherieYoung.com
www.BeautifulCustomMaps.com

Tristatefreeads.com free classified ads that rank on Google for year, make, model, location or whatever is desired is open for business cutting premier exclusive sponsorship deals pre-launch now! Check it out and reserve your spot before the big email pre-launch blast!

There you have it: a live demo; as we sell one position at a time as local editor either as a website bundle or just a stand alone business opportunity of it’s own to local Editor/Entrepreneur/Social Media Advertising Agents, one for each city, we are able to mark them off on the blue bubbles!

I have needed this solution many times in the past and this is the best I have seen.

Ascentlisting.com the A-list for Denver Colorado Business was created in one day, a customized push button installation of  WordPress+BuddyPress+BBPress, professionally themed by may daughter in law (this requires  Graphics expertise, CSS editing ability and a great eye).

What is amazing is that it is actually an out of the box functioning community site with profiles that can be enhanced, and many other features and bells and whistles that can be added with plug-ins: well thought out this ia functional social media enabled niche community.

The state of open-source software online has advanced to where we can actually do amazing custom programming with out-of-the box Drupal  for custom programming, and now finally bug-free out of the box  social media communities or community blogs or online e zines or whatever you want right out of the box with push-button installation of WordPress with the plug ins we used here.

WHAT THIS ALL MEANS O YOU

As somebody who spent literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on programming that, under ten years ago, would not hold a candle to what is free here today:  I can tell you that barrier to entry to become your own lead generator ha been greatly lowered.

I did this setup on a ridiculously small budget.  Now why is it that you are not launching your own community A-list blog?

For a limited time I will substitute BuddyPess+BBPress  in our $999 bundle:

Bundled Solutions

If you want to launch a new idea, or build your existing business just having a website created is only one piece in the puzzle. You need a way to get your message out there and what better way than with a video to captivate your website visitors and the start of social media marketing campaign to attract new visitors and build traffic. Instead of buying each thing from different vendors you can save money and get a better end product by buying a bundled solution.
See Packages and Prices

If you think that is is inexpensive even to build even  a simple WordPress theme you are mistaken:   even the simplest basic themes take many hours of custom programming to create; and using what we call a ‘builder theme’ or DYI  ‘framework’ takes even longer than looking for one that is closer.

The actual reason that Word Press Websites are so inexpensive is the the availability of literally thousands of themes for every purpose that are totally free.

Now I want to share with you that there are themes within themes, with banner rotations and Java applets built in, that do amazing things out of the box.

We use these most of the time now, even though we have to pay a little for them.  websites with elaborate attractive features that would have cost $10,000 five years ago can be created for as little as $599, including IDX integration for Real estate professionals, custom edits and personalization, and even training.

This is made possible because we can buy a service that allows us access these amazing templates – but do not look for them at WordPress.org, they are not free, and, frankly, if you do no know website design and some code and trouble shooting, they will not work for you anyway.

Do you really think that you are doing a good job for yourself?   Are you ever going to get serious, and look professional?   Andy (at onlinefloridamortgage.com above) is!!

Here I am telling you again that those days are gone:  just as you cannot force somebody to come onto a car lot to buy a car, as many auto dealers are finding out  ‘the hard way’, you can not control the market by controlling the free flow if information.

Now, instead, you must become the provider of the information, and the market will find YOU: case in point: askmrrooter.com, the local MrRooter Plumbing Services Contractor franchisee for three counties in Southern California: San Diego, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties.

As owners of three franchises and growing, the Southern California Mr. Rooter franchisee (my client), like most franchisees has tried all conventional forms of advertising, including PPC  (pay-per-click) on Google.

Contrary to popular belief, P.P.C. actually almost always works, for a little while: more and more, people use Google and the other search engines as a replacement for the yellow pages, actually calling the first number that comes up without visiting the website.  Heck: I sell websites, and lately I am getting calls from organic search where they have not even visited my website!  So paid search works, until the inevitable happens:

• Your competitors eventually see what you are doing, so they do it.
• The words are on a bid basis, so the cost per click goes up from the competition
• As the cost increases, ROI decreases until the profit stays with Google.

Now ask yourself this question: how often do I click a sponsored link or pop-up banner?  Chances are you answer is either rarely or never!

By using what I call ‘permission based marketing’, or the informational dissemination technique, our client has found a way to garner user generated, user filtered content, and dominate the organic search results (that is correct, I am calling it ahead of time again) for plumbing Ventura California, plumbing contractor San Diego, California, drain service Santa Barbara California and many other related searches.

They bought our bundle that includes video and social media marketing for $999, and added article marketing so that we will generate the 56 weekly plumbing how-to questions and answers, and they will rank on those searches too: and the video we are making as part of the project will increase lead conversion and show on video search results with a thumbnail on Google, Youtube and others.

Eventually, they may be able to sell the lead generation machine back to the franchiser!

As part of the bundle, we will also submit them also to local search on Google, Bing and the others – making them come up for free (for now) on search results with the map and telephone number.

If you are a franchisee, consider this approach to your own lead generation website: and everybody knows already that http://askmrrooter.com is the place to ask your plumbing how-to questions!

“Site Clinics are NOT SEO Consulting services.  And just because a clinic MAY either validate that previous SEO work was done properly, to one extent or another, that does NOT translate into the notion that Google is going to be certifying anyone in our industry for SEO.”

April fools! Let’s face it, buying SEO from Google would be like buying eggs from the wolf!

But make no mistake, SEO is dying and is almost dead in terms of on-site architecture: content on the scale necessary to compete these days can only be managed by a mainstream CMS (content management system): more on content management systems here:

Which Content Management System (CMS) should I use?

As we predicted here:

http://socialmediasystems.com/blog/the-slow-death-of-seo-as-we-know-it/

With modern CMS’s in widespread use (some estimate that there are over 200,000,000 websites in WordPress, for instance),

And Google knowing EVERYTHING, because so many have Google Analytic and Google Toolbar, with Google tracking who visits what pages when for how long…

Now more than ever it is “about the content, stupid“

In his best selling book,

The World Is Flat, 3.0

Thomas L. Friedman points out the playing field has been leveled, and the far reaching effects of that revelation.

Now, more than ever, you must be a content producer of some sort to have any internet presence at all:

In recognition of these revelations, we have gone the next step in offering this new “E-Zine” bundle to Realtors who want to dominate a niche or local area marketplace:

Stop giving away free tutoring when you need to be working on your own stuff!

Are you the tech-savvy one in your office?  Are you looking for a polite way to let your associates know that it is not your responsibility to tutor them forever, for free?!

We have all had this experience in my business: it starts out with the innocent question:

“Israel, your pretty tech savvy…”  or “Israel, you know about computers, don’t you…”

What follows is some  simple problem to solve that has nothing to do with your primary business: it is about that person’s learning curve learning how to use their own computer.  You need a polite way to inform that person that your time has value, and that you do not work for free, and that their struggle with technology is not your responsibility.

Now you have it: and a way to make money while you are doing it: we have created the living e-book: the TOTALLY FREE Rothman Guide to Building Successful Websites:

Now, when that agent or associate of any kind in your office starts asking your those questions, you can refer them to our guide to study up on what we do and how we do it.   We know that when people realize what we do and how and why it works, they will want to buy it from us, and if you are an affiliate:

Affiliate Program – Make Money With our Services

You can make money doing so, while gently declining to tutor them for free!  You can send an email to them suggesting that the may want to be an affiliate to save money, and make 10% on whatever they spend, or you refer them with an email link and/or banner on your website, even walk them through the order, and make 15% of gross for whatever they spend with us; and make 10% on any of them who become affiliates for one year thereafter!

Would you like to make 15% of gross sales for referring people here, and 10% of gross in overrides for their referrals for the first year? This is not Multilevel, only two levels and we actually have a wonderful list of products and services that everyone needs! Sign up here:

If you’re still looking for a good team to take your project to the next level, the authors of the 2010 Rothman Guide to Building Successful Websites are available for free, no obligation, creative consultations that you will not forget! Call 1-866-945-1113 or e-mail your contact info to info@socialmediasystems.

You too could use such a system in your industry, you could publish an e-book.  It costs less than you think!  Click here:

The branded links then look like this:

Notice that I was able to also insert the site navigation on every page of the branded pages!  The Ihomefinder.com  ‘back-end’  software is very robust, and, although there is some cost depending on if it is an individual agent, or, as is in this case, a managed team of agents; and some of the links may be redundant with WordPress, WordPress is very effective for SEO if setup properly, and I highly recommend this approach for a Real Estate website.

It requires a little knowledge of CSS and XHTML, but I was able to do this for Brian in about 30 minutes, and it is included in our bundled solution, here:

http://socialmediasystems.com/tech/

Israel Immediately put up a new URL at http://relaxitsjustmassage.info/

Not having a website was critical to me because much of my business books appointments online, and I sell coupons for a group of discounted massages that are a critical part of my income. To compound matters, I am in the process of expansion with locations in Hawaii and Arizona. We intent to become a franchise eventually, so out website efforts are very important.

I am a very qualified massage therapist and an excellent business woman, but had always relied on someone else to do my website and have had a series of bad experiences.

Israel not only got me up and running with WordPress: he made the website rank for many searches:

relaxing massage Hollywood California Google Search

He actually, somehow, by writing about me, made me come up on many searches in multiple places on the page with the brand new site, something the other guy could not do on many times the budget (what I bought from Israel: “SEO Blog” was only $479)

As if that were not enough, he installed a do-it-yourself theme for my blog and help me with custom edits so that I am totally in control of my own destiny and I can edit it and change it at will.

Mr. Rothman is at least as good at what he does as I am at massage, but there is still more:

After getting my new website from socialmediasystems.com, I started to advertise in Hawaii, which we will be opening a massage place there in Jan 2010, I recieved a phone call for a wedding taking place in March. I booked a wedding party of 20, who all want massages during their time in Honolulu. I have to say if it wasn’t for my informative and search able website, I wouldn’t have future massage appointments. Check out Social Media Systems – http://socialmediasystems.com
And check out my website also: http://www.relaxitsjustmassage.info

Shaynese
–
Relax, It’s Just Massage
West Hollywood
Phone: 818-335-3172 |infomobilemassage@gmail.com
http://www.relaxitsjustmassage.info

In Two and a half hours I have done all three of these sites from scratch using this theme, which also allows for different numbers of columns, different widget areas, and any other modification you like, with check boxes that activate built-in style sheet and a blank CSS that automatically overrides the others:

You can change sizes, numbers, and colors of sidebars, widgets, components with the checking of a box, wonderful time saver.

Here is another:  http://washingtonrealestateresources.com I just installed this for a client of several years to update his site and plugins.

This one, Dr. Hesu Whitten, clinical Kinesiologist and Chiropractor in Santa Barbara, CA:

Was completely re-designed by the good doctor himself, using the robust theme options.

Update: 12-24-2009, just upgraded another client to this theme:

My Los Angles Hardwood Flooring Contractor: http://kalleycontractors.com/

However, the best things on the Internet have always either been free, or so inexpensive that anyone could afford them.

When the code standards and options were more complicated, due to the gradual learning curve of users and a huge generational gap with computer technology in general, there was a nice market gap for Internet professionals,  including me, who built huge multi-million dollar service companies providing Internet technology – and some still do.

However, those days are coming quickly to an end.  I always knew the day would come when a website, which is basically electronic storage on an Internet – connected computer, would become completely free, and that day is here.  If you have ever heard of Myspace, Facebook, Yahoo360, and/or now over 1,000,000 others you know that you can get a website that will even rank on the search engines if you promote it properly for free.  Ning.com, for instance, offers a full blown social media enabled community for free, and completely white-labled without ads for just over $50 per month.  A setup like this was once something we could routinely charge thousands of dollars for and be the lowest bidder.  As the price tag drops, Internet clutter increases and the effectiveness of these sites decreases: now everybody has several profiles that they do not use.

It is a fact that seasoned and up-to-date professional can still help you to have a great advantage over your less tech-savvy competitors, but the day is coming when these services are so standardized as to be ridiculously inexpensive, and much less profitable than in the past.  The business will shift back to a basic consulting model, with less profit: and, with Indian companies spamming your inbox with cut rate offers daily, (some good, some ridiculous) profits in the website design business are already shrinking, and the selling and closing process has been messed up beyond simple profitability, and has become so confusing that nobody knows what to buy or from whom.

We will continue to offer the truth here; but we are finding ourselves less and less able to combat the host of misinformation being promulgated in the spam factories, and the business has changed a great deal, for us, and for everyone.

The one thing I can promise is that you always find the truth here.

Why have a website that nobody sees?  We promise traffic and functionality that puts you in control of your own destiny.

The best things on the web are either free or so inexpensive that anybody can get in the game – it is consistent performance and success resulting form the expertise to make it al work together that are hard to find!

photo credit: adKinn

When Roni German types into Google: Belfair Washington Real Estate into a Google search. Her Belfair Washington Real Estate Blog comes up on the third page instead of the first. (http://peninsulahomeresource.com/)

She has previously been on page one, even line one several times.  The reason for the dropping is the title of this article: a website is never done, is always in need of upgrading and promotion.  She still comes up line one on “Olympic Penninsula Homes“, a less competitive search without so much competition from huge lead generators like Yahoo real estate, Homegain, Homes.com, Realtor.com and the others who are on the first page.  These huge sites are constantly adding new real estate clientele who pay them, and new information, and, since everything on the Internet is new, old, or dead – they rank.

So this is what this article is about: the constantlychanging landscape online, constanty changing image and video formats, constantly improving coding standards, constant updates to maintain software, and other constant changes in what sites are hot to link from, and which are not: all these things make it necessary to maintain a website in an ongoing way.

If ongoing things are not done, the ranking fall quickly instead of improving, and the more competitive the search, the more effort and budget are required: but don’t feel bad: we are all in the same boat.

Case in point: our site.  While our look and scripting was just re-launched yesterday anew with new changing product offering, price structures, etc.; there are several pages that need to be re-edited, many images and videos that must be re-added or replaced – and that is just the beginning.

We have invested thousands of hours into ours, Roni hundreds of hours into hers.  As coding standards are more and more standardized, it will be the volume of posting and links in that determine ranking, not the site architecture itself – this will be done, as it is for us and for Roni German, by software, that, while it is absolutely free, requires constant maintenance and upgrades.

But don’t feel bad about your bugs and edits, we are all in the same boat, even the big boys.  More and more, it is the degree of effort and the budget that determines ranking, not technology learning curve.

There are many tips and trick here that deal with these issues, but it will be what you have to offer to the rest of us that determines your website’s rankings in the future,  and it will do no good to get people to a site without state of the art, constantly evolving design and features.