Kalatu Blogging System Review
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Since it’s Marketing Monday I wanted to take the opportunity to Review the Kalatu Blogging System including both PRO’s AND CON’s of the system — particularly for non EN Affiliates.
Just to be clear – yes I use the Kalatu blogging system (this is it) and I am an affiliate of Empower Network, however I wanted to deliver a review that brings up both sides for non EN affiliates who may be considering using this platform.
From one google search I can see that there’s a lot of speculation in the blogger and online marketing world as to whether the Kalatu Blogging Platform is actually a viral blogging system, or simply a more expensive version of wordpress.
As a note I have personally used a Hosted WordPress site, a WordPress.com site, Blog Spot and Tumblr so I will be going off of a comparison of what I have used in the past and what I know. I am not familiar with Blogger or any other blogging platforms.
The Full Review in Details:
PRO’s of the Kalatu Blogging System
1) Ranks on 1st Page of Google
The blog is established in a highly ranked .com domain and is quite easy to rank on the 1st page of Google – especially when combined with video marketing and simple SEO strategies.
As a newbie “consistent” blogger (key word consistent), I found it quite easy to implement simple strategies, with many of my articles, videos and images popping up on the first page of google.
It hasn’t happened every time but I have personally found that the most effective way to rank is adding simple SEO techniques to a Youtube video, putting the video in my blog post and using simple SEO techniques in the blog post.
Sharing it on Social Media platforms and creating Backlinks will also help in ranking, however I have not been able to do this with any of the other blogs within such a short period of time.
2) Easy to Use For the Clueless Business Owner Or Newbie Entrepreneur
When it comes to integrating my social media pages, email list, media and more, I found it incredibly confusing and frustrating trying to figure out how to do it on my own.
With Kalatu, the backoffice is SO easy to follow and I had a Pro-Looking Blog setup within an hour. The Social Media pages are already integrated and all you need to do is simply add your social media profile links. Same goes for your email list – so simple to edit, modify and move through.
Kalatu has also recently added support in the back office and I have found they are generally pretty responsive. Some responses have come within a few hours, some up to 24 hours but nothing longer than that. There are also many communities for Kalatu bloggers on Facebook and any questions that require an urgent answer can be answered there more quickly.
Scam comments are automatically filtered so you do not need to install any additional plugins as you would with a regular wordpress site. One less thing to worry about!
3) Various Themes for Different Styles of Blog or Business
Yes it’s true that there are more options on a regular wordpress site, but I spent HOURS trying to modify various themes to suit my needs and tastes on my other WordPress blog – finding some themes required more advanced knowledge of HTML and Plug-Ins (something I knew VERY little about) to get it too look like the pictures, where as with Kalatu I was able to modify a theme I liked within minutes.
Aside from a Hosted WordPress Site, Kalatu is the most customisable in comparison to any of the other blogging sites I have used including Blogspot, WordPress.com and Tumblr.
I myself have a creative and visual style and care a lot about design and my theme and blog style reflect that. However for the more professional business oriented blogger there are other themes that better reflect that too. There’s definitely something for everyone!
The widgets have allowed me to add everything I want and need to display on the sidebar in a matter of minutes, including Categories, Recent Comments, Recent Posts, Social Media Pages, Youtube Channel videos, etc. (Thought the Youtube Widget was a pretty cool addition!)
4) Custom Banners & Call To Actions
Kalatu is designed for the blogger who wants to monetise their content and passion. While some of the arguments online are that this platform is only useful for Affiliates of Empower Network, I don’t believe this is the case due to the fact that you can customise the Empower Network banners or remove them all together.
I have personally removed them as I didn’t find they were congruent with my message and target audience.
If you are an Affiliate of Amazon or any other company it is easy to input those products and features right in your blog and you can use the Call to Actions loaded with the blog to encourage sharing and engagement on your posts.
5) Allows you to Manage Up to 5 Blog’s from One Platform
Kalatu allows you to have multiple blogs – anywhere up to 5 (at NO extra cost!) While I only have one, for the busy blogger this can be extremely beneficial particularly if they have various passions, hobbies, businesses or messages to share.
Being able to manage all of them from one website is extremely useful.
CON’S of the Kalatu Blogging System
1) Limited Theme Choice & Plug Ins for the Pro Blogger
There many many Pro Bloggers who choose to use Kalatu however there are also many Pro Bloggers who choose to have more option around Plug In’s and Theme Options. While Kalatu has a great variety for the simple blogger or complete blogging newbie, for a more seasoned blogger or web designer with knowledge of various plugins and HTML Code, this could be somewhat limiting.
2) Occasional Slip Ups
Like any blogging platform, Kalatu does have it’s occasional slip ups which can be annoying and sometimes frustrating.
For example I’ve had days where my images wouldn’t load properly, my text would not space out between paragraphs, my Youtube Video’s would awkwardly crop and my website URL would trip other Kalatu blog spam filters.
All of this I was able to resolve quite easily with the Online Support however it took about a day.
This is some of the stuff that happens as a result of the Kalatu Blogging System being fairly new (having only been launched in January), however as time passes I am noticing less problems as they vamp up on support and solve any outstanding design or functionality issues.
3) It’s Not a Magical Product for Ranking
Some people including Affiliates of the Kalatu System give the impression that the Kalatu blog is a magical system that will allow you to rank on the first page of Google without utilising ANY SEO whatsoever.
Yes I am an Affiliate of the blogging system but I also want to De-bunk the Myths.
In MY experience this is not the case, you can’t just write about anything with no keywords sprinkled throughout on a popular topic and then expect it to rank first page on google.
As I mentioned in the first benefit – I have been able to rank on the first page using a Youtube Video with an SEO description, sprinkling the same Keyword throughout my blog post as well as doing a few other things like tagging the video and article link in both the youtube video tags and the blog tags.
I’m sure there’s lot’s more to learn on this subject and the more you blog on this system, the better you rank as consistent content and time are your best resources.
If YOU are a Kalatu user and are consistently ranking on the first page of Google I’d love some tips on how you are able to do it all the time *Winky Face*
4) Cannot Transfer TO or FROM Another Hosting Site
While it is easy to map various domains to your Kalatu Blog, transferring another wordpress blog hosted by another web host is not. If you should want to transfer your Kalatu blog to another host in the future, I don’t believe as of now you can do that either.
(Don’t quote me on this as I’m not 100% sure).
In Conclusion
In Conclusion, for the non technical blogger I believe the Kalatu Blogging System is one of the best systems to use for building an online brand whether personal, or for business. I personally much prefer it to any other system I have used due to it’s ease in customising, monetising, ranking and managing.
My blog took me a few hours to set up (includes me playing around with various themes as I am quite picky with design!)
I am not a blogging expert and have no experience in online marketing aside from leisurely blogging on free platforms before I began using Kalatu, so if you are like me and are not too familiar with the online or web building world, I think you’ll love this platform.
However this blogging platform is not for everyone. If you are familiar with HTML and Plug In’s and like to have more flexibility than this may not be the right blog for you. Furthermore if you are a leisure blogger and do not post often or consistently I also wouldn’t recommend it.
If you are a blogging pro and have particular online business needs, consider both the Pro’s and Con’s before you continue.
The great thing about Kalatu is that it is completely refundable and there are no contracts. So you can also try it out for a few days, sift through the back office and decide whether or not you want to use it.
If You’re NOT a Blogger and would like to Learn some of the BENEFITS of Blogging – Check out This Post