I have a certain affection for the Mortgage Matters weblog by Holden Lewis at Bankrate.com. It’s a little bit enbubbulated, but that’s to be expected from what is, in fact, a mainstream media outlet. That notwithstanding, the site is very informative, and a lot of fun to read. I get the impression that Lewis doesn’t like BloodoundBlog all that much, but that’s okay: The link-love he sends our way is abundant and unconditional.
Because I like it, and because I have no idea how to send an email to Lewis, here are some things I would like to see changed about the site:
- I think Bankrate.com should invest in WordPress Multi-User. They have multiple weblogs already, and, without doubt, they will be adding more. It’s time to jump to a real weblogging platform.
- Once that move is made, Lewis should start working in contemporary weblogging style, one topic to a post, each one permanently linkable. For now, he is writing in journal-like entries, multiple topics in, at most, one post per day. This harkens back to the posting style of Andrew Sullivan’s old Blogger.com weblog, but he didn’t know what he was doing. He has since learned better.
- Each of the Bankrate.cm weblogs should have its own RSS feed — easily done with WP MU. Right now, there is one feed for all of Bankrate.com, news, blogs, the works.
- Enable comments. I don’t agree with the notion that a weblog is not a weblog without comments, but, certainly, conversation builds community. Enable trackbacks and pingbacks, too.
- Provide a way to email Lewis. Right now, you can use a little contact box that will email Lewis (or possibly anyone) provided you already know what email address to use. I love things that are this perfectly broken, but, even so: It’s broken.
Switching platforms now will be a hardship, surely, but switching platforms later will be worse. Mortgage Matters is a good weblog. It deserves more exposure.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
