WordPress 2.1 is out. More news from BloggingPro.
Standout among the new features:
You can set any “page” to be the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else, making it much easier to use WordPress as a content management system.
What this means is that there is no need to distinguish between your real estate web site and your local real estate weblog. The two can both run on WordPress, reaping the SEO advantages in tandem.
Caveats: WordPress 2.1 wants MySQL 4.0 on the server side. If, like us, you’re hosted by GoDaddy.com, you’re all set.
Ten Things You should Know About WordPress 2.1. Best news: A lot of legacy code that was to have been killed is retained, albeit deprecated, so most 2.0.x plug-ins should still work.
BloodhoundBlog won’t be making the switch right away. I like to let other people find bugs in new software. But Cameron and I may start playing with it as a tool to use with single-property websites.
Further notice: Joel Burslem at The Future of Real Estate Marketing has already taken the plunge.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
Lloyd Budd says:
Why don’t you test and update to WordPress 2.1 sooner than later to contribute back?
January 22, 2007 — 6:24 pm
Greg Swann says:
> to contribute back?
Back to whom? There is no beneift to me or to the people who come here to breaking a working site. My son and I will play with the software on other domains we own, but we won’t launch anything live until we’re sure it’s shaken out.
January 22, 2007 — 6:29 pm
Jim Gatos says:
Gregg..
Hello again, a great blog you always have.. If I may just ask 1 question; how can you make any page be the the opens up? Also, can I have two domains pointing to the same blog but one domain opens up at Page 1, the other domain opens up at page 2?
If you could at least help me with the first question, I’d REALLY appreciate it..
Thanks
Jim
January 22, 2007 — 8:53 pm
Drew Nichols says:
Greg,
I come from 10 years in technology, and following PHP apps since it was PHP/FI (Personal Home Page is what it stood for back then!).
Give this new version at least a few months before putting it into production. Trust me.
BTW I will second your thoughts that this new version will be fantastic for RE Web Sites looking for SEO.
January 22, 2007 — 8:54 pm
Greg Swann says:
> 1 question; how can you make any page be the the opens up?
This will be a feature in WordPress 2.1, although I don’t know yet how it will work.
> Also, can I have two domains pointing to the same blog but one domain opens up at Page 1, the other domain opens up at page 2?
Without knowing for sure, I’m betting this is doable in WordPress 2.1, also, simply using redirects to specific URLs at the server level. That much you could do in the current version of WordPress. There may be a sexier way of doing it in WordPress 2.1.
January 22, 2007 — 10:24 pm
Lloyd Budd says:
I was not suggesting breaking a working site. That is where the testing comes from. I guess “I like to let other people find bugs in new software” rubbed me the wrong way, but I imagine you contribute in your own way to WordPress.
January 22, 2007 — 11:54 pm
Dave Smith says:
Greg,
I put the RE blog lab up on it 2.1 late last night. It does have some issues. I’ve just put up a post there on some of the early things I’ve discovered. I like some of the new features, but I think you are wise to wait. There are several plugins with issues that need to be worked out.
Static Front Page is a good plugin that already works to allow you to put any page first then posts. If people don’t want to upgrade just yet they don’t have to give up that capability. I use it on all our single property listing sites.
I’m down to two of those from six the rest went under contract. Three of those were directly from the single property sites.
January 23, 2007 — 8:48 am
Joel Burslem says:
I haven’t had any problems so far with 2.1 (fingers crossed). Overall, it feels much snappier. Whatever they’ve done to retool how it handles MySQL queries has definitely sped things up.
January 23, 2007 — 9:24 am
Greg Swann says:
Dave and Joel: I commend you for going where I dare not. Dave’s post is full of good ideas.
Lloyd: We take this approach to all mission critical software, upgrading early (as last week with WP 2.0.7) only when waiting is the more perilous course. If it helps, I’m all over Inman Blog to switch to WP MU.
January 23, 2007 — 10:53 am
Brad Nix says:
I have never used WordPress and have very little web programming or design skills, but I definitely am interested in trying to make a WordPress real estate site. I imagine it may look similar to this one: http://www.netconcepts.com/
January 23, 2007 — 4:58 pm
Dave Smith says:
Greg,
Thanks for the tip of the hat. I’m using the feedburner feed plugin, all my rss feeds are down. And I approved a comment and all the tag were deleted from the post even with the new UTW in place.
The work around I’ve heard is to put the post in edit mode. Approve the comment and then save the post.
I don’t think that is how it is supposed to work. 2.1 strikes again. I would really like to have the rss feeds up.
January 23, 2007 — 5:02 pm
Greg Swann says:
> I imagine it may look similar to this one
Yes, that’s a beautiful site.
January 23, 2007 — 5:22 pm