At last I found the time to use the domain http://home-loans.net.au , something that I had held on to for two years before doing something with it.
My other web sites are becoming too high maintenance so I had the find a new way of publishing home loan and mortgage news.
The Problem
The problem was that I was spending more time fixing, optimising, tinkering with navigation and upgrading my old style web sites, and had little time left to actually write anything new or update or keep up to date myself. Anyone that has kept a web site for seven years knows what I am talking about. You begin to suffer a type of paralysis that I feel must be a precursor to a full on nervous breakdown.
By the way, I have been building web sites for eight years but still consider myself a novice in web technical areas, because all I have done is use MSFrontPage, first 98, then 2000 and then 2003. So I am not in any way a programmer and PHP is completely new to me. And databases were a mystery to me that I could not get my head around.
Discovery of a Solution
Then I discovered blogging, and suddenly I realised that that was I was trying to do along! Get my message out with no fuss.
My need of something better was set by the fact that I was about to become an Accredited Representative of a major bank, and that meant getting my head around a new business model, fitting into a new corporate policy structure and a steep learning curve ahead, including new lending products, new back-office procedures, new financial services, new courses, study, credentials and accreditations and constant compliance issues that are either in place, and those that recent and imminent legisation is about to place on mortgage intermediaries in the relentless pursuit of consumer protection. So any solution that would help me in finding somebody to talk to about their home loan needs and engage my audience and save me time as well had to be manna from Heaven.
The road to Heaven
So now I knew about blogging, but which one would be best for me?  I thought I try Typepad after reading Andy Wibbels great book Blogwild . Whilst this book centres mainly on blogging with Typepad, it was one of the only books that walks you through step by step, every aspect of creating a blog. There is a lot to like about typepad and for a few dollars a month you get hosting on Six Apart. If you are looking for a no brainer weblog they would be your answer. I still keep this web updated because it’s so easy to use and looks good. They also have Live Journal free hosting and a new personal blog hosting at Vox also free.
I then tried Blogger, but because they didn’t have categories I quickly had 6 blogs on Blogger to cover different parts of the home loan business, [yes it can get messy.]
I then tried the free hosted WordPress and loved it. The range of templates and plug-ins available won me over to WordPress.
I also considered Joomla and Drupal as full on CMS websites with blogging tools, but felt that they were too complex and I would end up being a “web monkey†instead of a web publisher. I had to keep my goal in mind of being a fulltime, one on one, face to face mortgage intermediary and a part time web publisher to facilitate self promotion to this end.
The Perfect Solution?
WordPress is the wondrous software that I am using to publish this, my latest blog. It would be wrong of me to use this brilliant bit of “poetry†without giving my heartfelt praise and thanks to each and everyone in the WordPress community that has in anyway contributed to this beaut piece of software.
Getting a WordPress site uploaded however is not easy. Part of that is because the instructions are too skinny and ambiguous. It leaves you wondering what they actually mean by the terms they use. Two solutions I feel would be a “WordPress for Dummies†[like me] book, and an overall by a wordsmith of the instructions, so that a complete novice would understand them. This was not the case even when I skipped over the 5 minute instructions and read the detailed instructions. There was still plenty of questions in my mind that were unanswered.
A trifling area of possible improvement
I had to spend days in my spare time reading info on the site and then because there are so may holes in the instructions, caused I believe by too many presumptions made about my knowledge and intellect [I am not a geek by any stretch] I had to go hunting on Google for a decent tutorial. I found them By Tia Adlam [no relation] at http://www.optiniche.com/blog/category/wordpress-tutorials/ .
Tia has the art of writing for people who are non programmers and non developers, [or and who need the what to do, and the reasons why you do those things, how you do them, what to look out for before you do them and what will happen next. I suspect that the guys who wrote the instructions at WordPress are so intelligent and brilliantly sharp that they don’t believe that dullard guys like me exist, or if they did don’t need a blog anyway, but I reckon that I am not alone.
I also suspect that some of the instructions on WordPress assume that you use Open Office, not MS Office and a non MS Notepad, as some of the instructions simply would not work when I tried them for PHP.
No matter, I gave up the manual upload and opted for the Fantastico auto option on my Host’s Cpanel, something that is not mentioned as an option in the WordPress website or in the text I bought to decide between Drupal and WordPress, [Building online communities with Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress. by Robert T Douglas, Mike Little, and Jared W. Smith.] Drupal showed how to automatically load using Fantastico, but the WordPress chose the manual upload to an ISP using Plesk, the control panel of my old ISP.
These observations are mentioned because I suspect that many people might toss in the towel on WordPress because of these gaps in info. Persevere and you will be rewarded. If you don’t have the patience, and you want to use something easy to start go and use TypePad.
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About: Rick: Rick Adlam has been involved in mortgage finance since 1996 with Equity Home Loans as a Founding Partner. Rick created Mr Mortgage™ in 1999, one of Australia's first online mortgage brokers. As a mortgage introducer Rick specializes in helping his clients get approved for low interest mortgage loans with no ongoing fees and charges, and low doc home loans for the self employed.
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About the Author
Rick Adlam Has Written 139 Articles For Us!
Rick Adlam has been involved in mortgage finance since 1996 with Equity Home Loans as a Founding Partner. Rick created Mr Mortgage™ in 1999, one of Australia's first online mortgage brokers. As a mortgage introducer Rick specializes in helping his clients get approved for low interest mortgage loans with no ongoing fees and charges, and low doc home loans for the self employed.
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Tags: Home Loans
October 5th, 2006 at 1:48 am
I’m glad to see you’re finally up and running on WordPress, but I’m terribly sorry to hear of the difficulties.
The WordPress folks mean well, but you’re right in the Codex can be intimidating and lacking for those just starting out.
It put a smile on my face knowing my tutorials were helpful to you – thank you. If you have any suggestions for additional tutorials or run into any bumps along the way, you’re more than welcome to pop over and make a suggestion or ask a question.
Good luck with the new blog!
~ Teli
P.S. I assume your last name is Adlam as well? (I’m going by the “no relation” after my name.)
October 5th, 2006 at 6:39 am
Thanks for the help Teli. And yes we share the same surname.
I’m Rick Adlam, and the last time I checked there were less than 100 of us in Australia!
All from one family that migrated from Ireland in the late 1800′s.
The main issue I wanted to convey is that there is a gap in lingo and understanding between
the brilliant guys who write the scripts and plugins, and dummies like me.
I’d hate to ask these guys how to boil water in a kettle!
I would leave a few steps out.
I feel that they don’t understand how anyone doesn’t understand what is obvious to them.
Your tutorials bridge that gap. Love your work.