WordPress has almost become synonymous with the new internet, or Web 2.0, for its versatility and ease of use. Millions of people daily from homemakers that have rarely touched a computer before to experienced web designers and SEO specialists use WordPress to voice their thoughts, build backlinks, share their thoughts, and interact with others. WordPress is simple enough to be used by all, yet also recognized as on par with Joomla and other such CMS (Content Management Systems), if not better.

I was recently turned on to WP-MU, or, WordPress Multi-User, and the only way that I can describe it is WordPress on steroids. New evolutions in the internet, such as WPMU, and Google Wave, are going to drastically change the way we receive and present information, especially in the Real Estate Industry.

WordPress MU is a multi-user blogging platform, allowing the webmaster to easily manage hundreds of thousands of blogs from a single WordPress installation. Rather than simply having a blog and the extent of user interactivity being limited to allowing the posting of comments, or forum interaction, a WPMU site allows your visitors to create their very own blog, become friends with other users, join and create groups, and interact on a level that static websites and basic blog sites simply cannot compare with.

Additional features include the ability to pull site-wide news feeds of all recent posts from all forums and blogs across the installation and the option to prompt newly registered users for email addresses of friends they would also like to join the site! *Hott!*

Let’s say a Realtor is running a WPMU website, and most of his clients create blog accounts. Not only are they going to be kept up to date of the Real Estate Market through the main website, they also will be (hopefully) actively involved in blogging about their home, how happy they are with the Realtor, and connecting with other homeowners and having their friends join and blog on the site.

This does a number of things for the Realtor. First and foremost, the Realtor can easily stay in touch with past clients. Secondly, through referrals and good link building strategy, the Realtor will achieve a huge influx of new clients. Part of ranking well in Google is having a good deal of return visitors, as well as a low bounce rate. If people are signing up for a free blog, they certainly are going to be spending a good deal of time on the website, and of course, if they are writing blogs, they certainly will return regularly.

Thirdly, and this is so cool it gets its very own paragraph, each blog created is its very own sub-domain! To those not familiar with SEO, a sub-domain appears to Google as its very own website, meaning, that each blog that a user creates counts as a back-link to your main website (provided you place links on the created blogs)! The higher the amount of links you have, the higher the website ranks. The higher the website ranks, the more clients, wealth and prosperity for the Realtor!

In additional to individual use, WPMU is great for Company use; a Real Estate Company can create a WPMU site, and allow each and every Realtor to create their very own website and blog, easily and painlessly!

Take a look at http://mu.wordpress.org for an overview of WordPress MU. I’m in the process of tinkering with WPMU at http://loancure.org, still a work in progress, but you can get a good idea of just how much additional user interaction you can get through a WPMU installation. More and more people are being introduced to and impressed with WPMU, and soon many Realtors, Homeowners, Appraisers, Loan Officers, Title Companies and Mortgage Brokerages will be using this powerful application.

On a side note, Toni Braxton is facing foreclosure! This strikes me as so sad as I recall she went through the whole bankruptcy ordeal just a few years back. Toni, we love your music; don’t let them take your home without a fight!