Articles - Page 103

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

While COVID-19 continues to impact markets globally, the CMS world has been on a binge of buying, partnering, and releasing new features.
In case you’ve been distracted over the last few weeks by a chaotic news cycle and a U.S. presidential election, here’s a quick recap of what’s been happening in the content management and digital experience world.
<h3>Hyland Completes Acquisition of Alfresco</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/hyland-alfresco-acquisition.jpeg" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/hyland-alfresco-acquisition.jpeg 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/hyland-alfresco-acquisition.jpeg 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/hyland-alfresco-acquisition.jpeg 1200w" /></figure>
Recently, <a href="https://www.hyland.com/">Hyland</a> the enterprise content management (ECM) provider <a href="/hyland-acquires-alfresco-focuses-on-cloud-and-global-expansion-of-enterprise-cms/">announced</a> that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire <a href="https://www.alfresco.com/">Alfresco Software</a> – an open-source content services platform.
Last week, Hyland <a href="https://news.hyland.com/hyland-completes-acquisition-of-alfresco/">completed</a> the transaction, bringing the entire Alfresco business, including all technology and products, under the Hyland umbrella.
“At Hyland, the Alfresco platform will continue to grow and to serve customers’ evolving business needs,” said Bill Priemer, Hyland’s President and Chief Executive Office. “Alfresco customers can confidently continue to use and expand their Alfresco solutions, whether deployed on-premises or in the cloud.”
Future Alfresco versions will enable customers to seamlessly leverage other areas of the Hyland portfolio. These include the Hyland Experience Platform (HxP) — the recently launched, next-generation, cloud-based platform — and newly developed HxP components, such as <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/platform/product-suite/HxC">Hyland Experience Capture</a>.
<h3>Episerver Completes Acquisition of Optimizely</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/episerver-optimizely.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/episerver-optimizely.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/episerver-optimizely.png 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/episerver-optimizely.png 1280w" /></figure>
In a big move to evolve their personalization strategy, <a href="https://www.episerver.com/">Episerver</a>, the customer-centric digital experience platform, recently <a href="/episerver-to-acquire-optimizely-the-worlds-leading-experience-optimization-platform/">announced</a> its plans to buy <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/">Optimizely</a> – a leading A/B and multivariate testing platform. A few weeks ago, Episerver <a href="https://www.episerver.com/company/press-room/episerver-completes-acquisition-of-optimizely">completed</a> the acquisition.
“With its acquisition of Optimizely, as with its acquisitions of Idio and Insite in 2019, Episerver substantially increases the value proposition that the company offers to enterprise brands,” said Jacob Groshek, research manager, Digital Experience Management, at IDC. “The Optimizely acquisition adds AI-based experimentation and optimization to the Episerver portfolio. The purchase of Optimizely not only augments Episerver's capacity to automatically deliver personalized content as a central component of users' digital experiences, it also adds another layer of behavioral intelligence for organizations.”
Following the close, Episerver now serves approximately 9,000 customers and more than 900 partners globally in segments including retail, manufacturing &amp; distribution, financial services, insurance, healthcare, media, and technology, among others.
As part of Episerver, the Optimizely progressive delivery and experimentation platform will continue to support customers as a standalone solution, but will also be available as part of Episerver’s offerings immediately.
<h3>Acquia Announces Major Updates to Open Digital Experience Platform (DXP)</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/drupal_9_dxp_0-1.jpg" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/drupal_9_dxp_0-1.jpg 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/drupal_9_dxp_0-1.jpg 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1600/2020/11/drupal_9_dxp_0-1.jpg 1600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/drupal_9_dxp_0-1.jpg 1920w" /></figure>
After <a href="/acquia-launches-new-open-digital-experience-platform/">launching</a> its new Acquia Open Digital Experience Platform (DXP) this July, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a> has accelerated their innovation by leaps and bounds. In fact, they recently <a href="https://www.acquia.com/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/acquia-announces-major-updates-open-digital-experience-platform">announced</a> major upgrades to their Drupal Cloud and Marketing Cloud.
So, what are these major upgrades? For starters, on the Drupal Cloud side, they <a href="https://www.acquia.com/drupal9">transitioned from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9</a>. For developers, these enhancements focus on decreasing the time to build, design, and run sites and applications.
Following the successful launch of Drupal 9 in June, the new <a href="https://www.acquia.com/drupal9/accelerate-your-migration">Acquia Migration Accelerator</a> tool significantly reduces the effort tied to a transition from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9. Currently in beta, the tool reduces time to value for Drupal 9 by providing a user-friendly interface to streamline analysis and planning, DevOps, data imports, and content auditing for migrations.
Once organizations are migrated, the new <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/drupal-cloud/cloud-ide">Acquia Cloud IDE</a> makes it faster than ever to build Drupal sites and applications, with one-click access to a cloud-hosted development and testing environment. Acquia Cloud IDE integrates with existing Acquia command line and automated build tools for Drupal, making it faster and easier for developers to build and test their code – even in remote or hybrid work setups.
On the Marketing Cloud side, the major updates include new real-time 360-degree profiles, identity resolution, and unified segment capabilities within the Acquia Customer Data Platform (CDP). These capabilities aggregate data from various sources, eliminate redundancy, and unify data into a single source of the truth for real-time customer segmentation.
Finally, Acquia also added a COVID-19 dashboard that helps marketers understand their customers’ shifts from offline to online channels, as well as changes in channel preferences throughout the pandemic. The dashboard also helps marketers identify changes in product preferences, as well as opportunities for growth in their marketing campaigns.
<h3>Fabric Launches Headless Commerce Platform with $9.5 Million in Seed Funding</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/fabric-logo.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/fabric-logo.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/fabric-logo.png 855w" /></figure>
<a href="https://fabric.inc/">Fabric</a>, a headless commerce platform, launched its cloud-native experience and commerce product suite and <a href="https://resources.fabric.inc/blog/seed">announced</a> $9.5 million in seed funding led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from Sierra Ventures and Expa. In addition, e-commerce executive Faisal Masud, who led multi-billion-dollar commerce businesses at Amazon, eBay, Groupon and Staples, has joined the company as CEO.
Brands struggle to compete with Amazon’s continued market dominance in the e-commerce and digital retail space. While big retailers can afford to invest heavily in their own proprietary systems, widening their advantage in data, speed, pricing and convenience, many D2C and B2B brands are challenged by the cost and complexity of modernizing their outdated commerce platforms. COVID-19 has further raised the stakes: during the pandemic, e-commerce sales have grown as much as 55% year-over-year.
“Unlike Amazon, which wins on selection, price and availability, emerging and growing D2C and B2B companies need to win on brand and experience,” said Faisal Masud, CEO at Fabric.
Fabric’s headless commerce platform enables marketers and merchants to deliver world-class commerce experiences without the engineering burden. Its modular API-first platform enables brands to utilize tools that address their specific needs, rather than re-platforming. Fabric gives brands sophisticated capabilities with its Experience Platform Manager (XPM), Product Information Manager (PIM), pricing and offers and Order Management (OMS).
The Fabric platform offers a suite of commerce APIs that allow brands to orchestrate their offerings across all channels, enabling them to support the entire lifecycle of each customer. In addition, Fabric runs on a completely serverless infrastructure to effectively scale during high-traffic retail peaks.
<h3>Cloudinary and Contentful Partner to Help Brands Create “Visual-First” Experiences More Efficiently</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/apps-cloudinary-dialog.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/apps-cloudinary-dialog.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/apps-cloudinary-dialog.png 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/apps-cloudinary-dialog.png 1340w" /></figure>
<a href="https://cloudinary.com/">Cloudinary</a>, the media experience platform, announced a partnership with <a href="https://www.contentful.com/">Contentful</a>, a headless content management system (CMS). The new partnership offers Contentful users seamless access to Cloudinary’s award-winning media experience solutions, including its headless digital asset management (DAM) within Contentful’s CMS – allowing Contentful users to more easily upload, optimize and deliver engaging visual-first experiences at scale.
"In today's visual economy, fast and flawless rich media experiences are no longer a nice to have, they are critical components to any company’s success,” said Scott Doughman, vice president of Business Development at Cloudinary. “Equally critical is the ability to deliver the right, high-performant content as efficiently as possible to eliminate the challenges that often keep experiences from reaching their true engagement potential. The Contentful-Cloudinary integration eliminates these challenges and we’re pleased to be bringing our media management expertise to the Contentful ecosystem."
With the API-first approach of Cloudinary and Contentful, you can now build a seamlessly-integrated, future-proof stack with your preferred development frameworks and platforms.
<h3>Microsoft Announces Clarity, a Free Visitor Behavior Analytics Platform</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/microsoft-clarity-heatmaps.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/microsoft-clarity-heatmaps.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/microsoft-clarity-heatmaps.png 626w" /></figure>
The elder statesman of the digital realm, <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/">Microsoft</a> continues to shock and awe the experience and development fiefdoms with bold moves – including their acquisitions of both <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://github.com/">GitHub</a>.
Now, Microsoft has announced a resource that will have an impact on digital experience in the usability, governance, and analytics categories. With <a href="https://clarity.microsoft.com/">Microsoft Clarity</a>, website and content owners will now have access to a GDPR compliant, free-to-use analytics tool to help improve their website experiences by better understanding their visitors' behaviors.
Microsoft Clarity has three main features: heatmaps, session playbacks, and an insights dashboard. Because of their unique delivery, Clarity’s tools won’t negatively impact a website's latency, and can handle variable traffic without incurring additional costs.
Clarity’s heatmaps come in two forms: clickmaps and scrollmaps. The combination will allow users to qualify behavior and trends, and make it easy to provide data-driven justifications for design decisions. The session playbacks allow site managers to record page visits and track where visitors clicked and scrolled, and the insights dashboard provides an overall understanding of the traffic to your site.
<h3>Contentsquare Acquires Dareboost And Launches Find &amp; Fix Product to Solve Revenue-Killing Errors</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/contentsquare-dareboost.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/contentsquare-dareboost.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/contentsquare-dareboost.png 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1600/2020/11/contentsquare-dareboost.png 1600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/contentsquare-dareboost.png 1755w" /></figure>
<a href="https://contentsquare.com/">Contentsquare</a>, the Digital Experience Analytics (DXP Analytics) company, <a href="https://contentsquare.com/blog/contentsquare-acquires-dareboost-and-launches-find-fix-product-to-solve-revenue-killing-errors/">announced</a> its acquisition of <a href="https://www.dareboost.com/en">Dareboost</a>, an online tool to test, analyze and monitor websites. Dareboost has been a Find &amp; Fix product for Contentsquare. The integration breaks silos between marketing and IT teams, as well as the rest of a business.
The core capabilities of the new Contentsquare Find &amp; Fix product include web performance monitoring and scoring, error reporting and impact quantification, advanced retroactive search, advanced APM integrations, and comparison and benchmarking capabilities.
<h3>Mediafly Acquires Presentify to Transform Marketing and Sales Content</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sap_mediafly_cloud_diagram.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/SAP_Mediafly_Cloud_Diagram.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/SAP_Mediafly_Cloud_Diagram.png 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/SAP_Mediafly_Cloud_Diagram.png 1280w" /></figure>
<a href="https://www.mediafly.com/">Mediafly</a> – a provider of sales enablement technology, content management, and advisory services that create interactive, value-based selling experiences – <a href="https://www.mediafly.com/mediafly-acquires-presentify/">announced</a> its acquisition of <a href="https://www.presentify.co.uk/">Presentify</a>, a global visual communication solution.
By adding Presentify’s capabilities, Mediafly users can now build “selling stories” using sophisticated visual communication capabilities all through the Mediafly app – which natively supports the most advanced content formats, animations and modularized assets for elevated sales storytelling.
“More companies are recognizing the need for digital sales transformation, and the importance of using a modern sales enablement platform. But all too often they don’t want to take their antiquated, boring sales content and put it into a sophisticated sales app for fear of garbage in, garbage out,” said Carson Conant, CEO and founder of Mediafly. “With Presentify, Mediafly now tears down the barrier of entry for these companies, allowing them to quickly refresh their sales stories with interactive, animated content — and learn the ‘Presentification’ techniques to create and maintain sales collateral that is a league above their competition.”
And that’s a wrap. Stay tuned for another installment next month.

CMS Monthly Recap: Acquia Gets Feature Boosts, Cloudinary and Contentful Partner, Big Acquisition Updates and More

paris-tuzun

<a href="http://www.en.flazio.com/" target="_blank">Flazio </a>is an Italian website builder created by Sicilian brother and sister team, Elisa and Flavio Fazio. Flazio (a portmanteau of Flavio and their last name Fazio) is one of many DIY website builders on the market at the moment.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-18_at_12_30_33.png" />
At first glance, Flazio have certainly set themselves an uphill battle. After all, in a market dominated by the likes of <a href="http://www.squarespace.com" target="_blank">Squarespace</a> and <a href="http://www.wix.com" target="_blank">Wix</a>, how is a small site set up in southern Italy going to compete?
I decided to check it out and see what Flazio has to offer.
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
Getting set up with Flazio is remarkably simple. The process takes just a few clicks and everything is crystal clear from the outset.
Everyone can sign up for free initially and the only information Flazio asks you to insert is your email and your chosen Flazio password. And that’s it.
From there, you go directly to a website template page – where you’ll find a selection of templates organized into various categories according to business type.
Whether you need a portfolio or a site for real estate, all you have to do is scroll and select.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-18_at_12_24_54.png" />
Once you’ve selected your theme (which you can easily change later) Flazio really kicks it up a notch with their excellent social media integration feature. Simply add your site title and description to start adding your content from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://plus.google.com/">Google+</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/">LinkedIn</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-18_at_12_25_11.png" />
This feature is completely seamless and integrates with their templates perfectly. Flazio offers a beginner-friendly import feature, which allows users to pull entire swathes of photos, text content or video from their social media profiles with just one click.
Once you’ve completed this step, which is completely optional, you are taken to their powerful WYSIWYG editor where you can drag and drop dozens of elements into your chosen site template.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-18_at_12_25_25.png" />
I was really keen to really give this part of the site a good shakedown, as this is normally where DIY sites like this excel or fail miserably.
Flazio passed with flying colours. The interface is smooth, intuitive, and easy to navigate. Unlike a lot of other CMS in this genre, they have made sure to keep the widgets/site elements in front of you at all times (on the left of the screen); if you want to insert a text box, you can just scroll down through the list and drop it in. Adding Facebook and Twitter ‘like’ buttons and boxes is just as easy and the interface is completely lag-free.
All of the site settings are arranged in logical fashion to the right of the screen, and everything is arranged in a way that shows you what is available for free users and what is premium.
This is a very easy site to get set-up and working on.
<h2>Ease of Use</h2>
DIY sites can often be difficult to navigate and even more difficult to use, but the Flazio team have skillfully avoided these pitfalls by focusing on the important stuff.
With Flazio, you can go from signing up to editing your site in less than 2 minutes flat. The site itself has a very gradual learning curve and you’re unlikely to have any difficulties with it – whether you’re a novice or a website building pro.
<h2>Design</h2>
The very first thing you notice about Flazio is how nicely designed it is. From the log-in buttons to the main interface, everything is presented in a visually pleasing and ergonomic fashion.
The WYSIWYG editor is cleanly put together and is extremely user-friendly. Although, that doesn’t mean it’s basic or derivative – quite the opposite – it’s just very nicely set up to prevent any user confusion.
Front-end elements are to the left, back-end elements are to the right, and every element you see on your page can be moved to wherever you want it. You can also right click on some elements to lock them in place, bring them forward, or copy and paste.
If it falls down anywhere, it’s that some of the WYSIWYG elements of the editor (like adding pages, or the menu) are still in Italian, so that might confuse some users. Everything is well laid out, though, and it’s pretty obvious what’s what.
Another thing worth mentioning is that some of the themes are presented in full English and some aren’t; so looks a little messy at the moment.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-18_at_12_25_51.png" />
<h2>Features</h2>
Flazio really doesn’t skimp out when it comes to features, but the social media integration is the standout feature for me. The site allows you to import all your content from Google+, Facebook or LinkedIn, so users can transfer all their business content over from a business Facebook page or their LinkedIn profile. It’s a hugely powerful feature that will be standard practice everywhere in a few years.
<h3>Web Elements &amp; Widgets</h3>
Flazio has an impressive list of web elements and apps. You can insert whatever you like – <a href="http://www.skype.com/en/">Skype</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://maps.google.com/">Google Maps</a>, <a href="https://www.spotify.com/">Spotify</a>, web icons, weather apps, <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/">Pinterest</a>, raw HTML script – you name it, it has almost everything you could ask for.
All the apps, web elements, and widgets are easily added and completely customizable.
<h3>Themes &amp; Templates</h3>
The site has a large selection of themes that are all mobile responsive as standard. The themes are all varied and have a sense of individuality that can be lacking in sites like this.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-18_at_12_26_02.png" />
All of the sites come with preinstalled stock photos, which I thought was a nice touch.
Each theme offers a 404 Page or Under Construction element which can be enabled by simply pressing a button on the ‘Pages’ section.
<h3>eCommerce</h3>
The eCommerce section is excellent and is packed with features. Flazio accept all credit cards, have a really great shopping cart, secure all payments, and allow you to monitor all sales. This feature is only available to premium members but it’s definitely worth the price.
<h3>Blogging</h3>
If you want to blog Flazio, it can be a little tricky. Some templates offer a blogging section and some don’t, so you’ll need a premium subscription to ensure that you’ll have blogging functionality. It’s a pretty good blogging platform with a good range of standard features; nothing hugely impressive, but nothing substandard either.
<h3>Customer Service</h3>
Flazio provide great customer support options and will offer to call you directly to go through any issues. They have a comprehensive FAQ section and a range of handy video guides. However, some of the FAQ are in Italian, which clearly isn’t ideal for the English speaking user.
<h2>Pricing</h2>
There are 2 pricing options including the Free basic plan or the Premium option at €9 a month (or €99 a year). To be honest, while the Free option is perfectly fine – it has two major drawbacks.
The URL layout is pretty ugly and practically unusable in a professional setting. Here’s the one that was generated for my test site – <a>http://www.user-info_1358021757.flazio.com</a>. Can you imagine that on a business card? I can’t.
Their free sites also have an irritating ‘Like this site? You can make your own here’ button that floats in the corner of the site. You can close it (as a user) but it makes it very clear that you’re using a free site. It also doesn’t offer an eCommerce option.
You get a lot of good features on the free site (including the ability to get paid via their ad revenue service) but the URL structure and intrusive ads make it a difficult to recommend for a professional service.
That being said, their <a href="http://www.en.flazio.com/website-pricing.php">Premium</a> option is fantastic value.
For €9 a month (or €99 for the year), you get all of their premium services like eCommerce, blogging, web stats, SEO, a custom .com domain, 5gb of email, unlimited server storage, and a lot more. It’s everything you could possibly ask for. They only offer a .com domain, which may be an issue for some business users, but that’s the only real fly in the ointment here.
This is a really good, affordable price and it renders the free version pointless to anyone who’s serious about creating a professional looking site.
<h2>Overall</h2>
If you can get over the little bits of random Italian sprinkled here and there, then Flazio is the DIY web builder for you – as long as you pay.
The Free service is perfectly fine but it falls down when it comes to the unusable URL structure, the lack of eCommerce options, and the Flazio ads on the site.
The Premium service is as good as any website building service on the market and stacks up well with the likes of <a href="http://www.squarespace.com/">Squarespace</a>, <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> and <a href="http://www.wix.com/">Wix</a> – it’s that good. And for €99 a year, it’s very competitively priced.
Flazio’s strong range of apps, web elements, excellent editor, custom domains, wide range of visually interesting themes, and sophisticated design make it a top of the range option for any business looking to get online.
<h2>Pros</h2>
<ul>
<li>
Excellent and intuitive WYSIWYG editor
</li>
<li>
Great range of responsive-ready templates
</li>
<li>
Great value on the pro package and a very simple pay structure
</li>
<li>
Powerful eCommerce options
</li>
<li>
Ability to make money via advertising
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Cons</h2>
<ul>
<li>
Free site URL structure is unpleasant to look at
</li>
<li>
Some site content is listed in Italian by default, which might confuse some users
</li>
<li>
No stats, eCommerce, or blogging on free version
</li>
</ul>

Flazio Review

grainne-logue

Percussion Software <a href="/percussion-launches-cm1-version-2-with-social-engagement-blogging-and-more/">announced</a> the release of version 2 of their popular Percussion CM1 WCM today and I thought I'd share my Percussion CMS Review, having recently had an opportunity to test it out.
One of the first things I noticed, having never had an opportunity to explore CM1 before, was the slick look and feel that their interface offers. CM1 is beautifully laid out with an attractive dashboard that features a number of modules that can be added with drag and drop functionality. This allows the user to quickly build a high level overview of their site(s) complete with analytics and more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/nplogo_crtpy2.png" alt="Percussion CMS Review" />
Not only does it look good, it's snappy and responsive as well. Almost everything is drag and drop enabled and adding and modifying content, navigation and widgets is incredibly easy (and fun) to do.
There are a number of highly useful widgets that can be added to your dashboards. Once specific one I am fond of is the SEO audit module. As you can see in the screenshot below, it gives you a quick list of issues that should be corrected to attain maximum SEO value from your content.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/percussion-seo-audit-module-450x159.png" alt="Percussion CMS Review" />
Another great dashboard widget is the “What's Working” widget. This one allows you to set targets and goals for your various content (ie: number of visits, etc) and keep an eye on how well your content is performing with regards to those metrics. This is great for a quick high level overview of how well content from various editors is performing, for example.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dudalogo-sq_100x100_qk4prk.png" alt="Percussion CMS Review" />
Ok, so we've established that the dashboard is slick and offers a number of great options. What about the rest of the system? Well, let's say you are looking to add a new site. First off, you are prompted to select a template with an easy to use interface (shown below).
To modify or select a template for your page, you simply scroll through a list of available options and choose one:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/selecting-a-page-template-450x298.png" alt="Percussion CMS Review" />
These templates can, of course, be modified at a later date or the code edited as well if you choose to add your own capabilities. Once you've got the template selected, there is a wide array of widgets available that you can add to your pages to allow extended functionality. Adding widgets and modifying the layout is as simple as drag and drop designing.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/socialengine-hosting_koyxad.png" alt="Percussion CMS Review" />
To modify the widgets once you've added them, simply double click to activate the edit window and you're off.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/socialengine-hosting-1_jlzshd.png" alt="Percussion CMS Review" />
Looking to change the site's navigation?  It's just as easy. Take a look at how simple it is to modify. You select your site:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/percussion-nav-1-450x334_ilgr1t.png" alt="Percussion CMS Review" />
Then you drag and drop your pages wherever you wish them to appear within the navigation tree:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/percussion-nav2-450x279.png" alt="Percussion CMS Review" />
Simply using drag and drop, the site will rearrange the menus automatically and ensure that all links work as they should.
Percussion's system is without a doubt, one of the most attractive interfaces I have seen with a slick combination of speed, simplicity and beauty that makes it a pleasure to work with.
The system comes with plenty of other functionality such as unlimited content revisions (versioning), excellent media management and multi-site support.
So where does it falter?
Honestly, I've yet to find anything about the system that I didn't like. For the price point, Percussion is an excellent system.
The only caution I would throw out is to ensure that you understand the market that it is targeted towards. This is a WCM, and as such, it's designed to allow you to put your organization online. There is a distinct difference between a WCM and a CMS and it's important to understand what that difference is before you make your selection.  I've put together an article to assist: <a href="/cms-or-wcm-which-is-which/">CMS or WCM – Which is Which?</a>
You can learn more about Percussion from their website: <a href="http://www.percussion.com">http://www.percussion.com</a>

Percussion CMS Review

mike-johnston

Communication has always been at the heart of <a href="https://www.twilio.com/">Twilio</a>'s mission, and this week’s acquisition of <a href="https://segment.com/">Segment</a> – a leading vendor in the red-hot Customer Data Platform (CDP) space – sent a clear signal to the market.
With this latest addition to the cloud communication provider’s portfolio, Twilio is doubling down on the digital world’s unquenchable thirst for data. Segment’s ability to process events at scale (roughly 500 billion a month) amplifies Twilio’s focus on customer engagement, helping developers connect with customer data across multiple sources.
This move also demonstrates the impact of accelerated digital transformation in a COVID-19 world, where organizations require more access to data-driven tools to grow and compete. Both Twilio and Segment have seen greater opportunity as businesses shift to a digital-first model in the wake of the pandemic – and that shows no sign of slowing down.
While Twilio’s cloud communication platform enables developers to build integrated solutions with text, email, telephony, chatbots, and more, it lacked direct access to customer data – which is where Segment excels. The combination of their API-driven platforms could lead to even greater innovation around purpose-built apps that enhance the digital customer experience.
The deal, first <a href="https://investors.twilio.com/news/news-details/2020/Twilio-to-Acquire-Segment-the-Market-leading-Customer-Data-Platform/default.aspx">announced</a> on October 12, was closed earlier this week – and Segment had been valued at $1.5 billion according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-02/startup-segment-is-worth-1-5-billion-thanks-to-companies-troves-of-customer-data?sref=ctSjKj2N">The Wall Street Journal</a>. The $3.2 billion price tag is only the latest in a long line of strategic acquisitions for Twilio – and a “hair” more than the $3 billion they paid for transactional email platform <a href="https://www.twilio.com/press/releases/twilio-completes-acquisition-sendgrid">SendGrid</a> in 2018.
<h3>Customer data meets customer engagement</h3>
Twilio is on a mission to become the leading customer engagement platform. While they have the infrastructure in place, they needed the essential data layer to provide a more complete view of the customer. For developers, this means more access to data intelligence, allowing them to build more unique and purposeful applications with Twilio’s APIs.
“The one thing that’s always been missing from Twilio as we’ve been building up this customer engagement platform is understanding of the end-users themselves,” said Twilio co-founder and CEO Jeff Lawson. “We power the communications, but we don’t actually know who the customers are.”
While the applications have yet to be written, it's all but certain that Twilio will add Segment's core capabilities to their cloud communications platform to enhance a wide variety of channels including SMS messaging, voice, video, e-mail, the Internet of Things (IoT) and more.
<h3>Unifying data sources with Segment</h3>
As the leading customer data platform, Segment enables developers to unify customer data from every customer touchpoint, and empowers marketing, sales, and customer service leaders with the insights they need to design and build relevant, data-driven customer engagement.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/segment-flow.png" /></figure>
Armed with these data optics, Twilio’s developers will now have the ability to craft apps and experiences based on a more holistic view of the customer. Segment unifies a wide range of data from multiple sources like Facebook, Salesforce CRM, websites powered by CMS, eCommerce platforms and more.
“Exceptional customer engagement requires not only high-quality data, but the infrastructure to activate those insights across every channel and customer interaction,” said Peter Reinhardt, co-founder and CEO of Segment. “By bringing Twilio and Segment together, we will help businesses build a foundation of actionable insights critical to engaging with customers based on their needs and preferences to deliver a positive, seamless and effective customer experience.”
<h3>Destroying the data silos</h3>
Getting the data is only half the battle. The real challenge lies within an organization's <a href="https://www.talend.com/resources/what-are-data-silos/">data silos</a>: isolated sources of data that prevent access from users, groups or applications. Breaking down these silos has become a critical objective for data-driven organizations, and the Twilio/Segment union promises to "bring down the walls" so organizations can realize true data integration.
<blockquote>Data silos destroy great customer experiences.
Segment lets developers and companies break down those silos and build a complete picture of their customer. Combined with Twilio's Customer Engagement Platform, we can create more personalized, timely and impactful engagement across customer service, marketing, analytics, product and sales.
- Jeff Lawson</blockquote>
Attacking the data silo problem takes time. By leveraging their flexible APIs, Twilio and Segment will be able to accelerate the process by connecting developers with a more diverse ecosystem of data sources – such as web apps and analytics tools – all without having to write new code. This will eliminate countless development hours building custom integrations.
<h3>Why the Acquisition Makes Sense</h3>
When Twilio acquired SendGrid, they already offered a broad range of communications services through a set of APIs, allowing developers to integrate custom phone numbers, manage services such as SMS and voice, and tap messaging channels like Facebook, WhatsApp and Google Home. But e-mail was a missing link – and SendGrid closed this gap.
Twilio and Segment are a good fit for many reasons. They’re both API-first products, they’re both developer-centric, and they already offer an <a href="https://segment.com/sources/twilio/">integration</a>.
While it’s still early days, it’s clear that the market sees significant value from this match. CDP continues to be a growth space, so investing in Segment can certainly provide more wind in Twilio’s sails. But their unique focus on powering developers with more access to data aligns perfectly with Segment’s mission, and gives the platform greater reach and appeal.
With a proven infrastructure for handling billions of customer-generated events, Twilio now appears to have everything a developer or organization needs to build data-driven apps – and improve the end-to-end customer experience at every touchpoint. In effect, it will create a single, unified view of the customer journey – making it a holistic customer engagement platform that could rival Salesforce and Adobe.
The real question is: what will Twilio buy next?
<h3>About Twilio</h3>
<a href="https://www.twilio.com/">Twilio</a> is a cloud communication company that powers the future of business communications, enabling phones, VoIP, and messaging to be embedded into web, desktop, and mobile software. They take care of the messy telecom hardware and expose a globally available cloud API that developers can interact with to build intelligent &amp; complex communications systems. As your app’s usage scales up or down, Twilio automatically scales with you. You only pay for what you use - no contracts, no shenanigans.
<h3>About Segment</h3>
<a href="https://segment.com/">Segment</a> is a customer data platform that democratizes access to reliable data for all teams and offers a complete toolkit to standardize data collection, unify user records, and route customer data into any system where it’s needed.
Segment collects user events from every customer touch point (your website, web and mobile apps, tools) and provides a complete data toolkit to every team in your org. They take care of the redundant and repetitive work that comes with integrating new tools, maintaining data pipelines, and managing data quality.
Today, over 20,000 companies across 70+ countries use Segment, from fast-growing businesses like Instacart, Peloton, and Bonobos to some of the world’s largest organizations like Levi’s, Intuit, and FOX. With Segment, companies can connect and activate reliable first-party data across 300+ marketing, analytics, and data warehousing tools.

Twilio Acquires Segment for $3.2B, Adds Market-leading CDP for Building Data-Driven Apps

Every business owner must eventually overcome the hideous monster that is database management, and it is always better to do it sooner rather than later.
Many entrepreneurs enjoy the challenges that accompany the growth of their commercial enterprise, but few relish the prospect of maintaining a digital structure to hold all of their essential information.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/macbook-606763_1280_1550x0-is.jpg" /> Fortunately, this is not a struggle that must be faced alone. Advanced customer relationship management (CRM) software, like <a href="http://agilecrm.com/" target="_blank">Agile CRM</a>, includes customized tools and a simple interface to allow users to store, access and modify databases.
Incorporating database management with other marketing and sales utilities further increases the functional value of these multifaceted software solutions.
<h2>Common Uses of Databases for SMBs</h2>
Companies once relied on a skyscraper of filing cabinets and a thick address book packed with handwritten notes to organize and access all of their important data. All of these details are now stored on computers, which means that designing and implementing an information management structure presents a fresh set of challenges compared to older systems.
Modern businesses use databases to organize and store all kinds of important information, including:
Customer Contacts: Names, addresses and phone numbers are just the beginning. The tracking and analytic capabilities of CRM software provides a personal perspective on each individual customer. Harnessing the power of this data requires a high level of organization, as well as the ability to access and edit entries as needed.
Company Calendar: Keeping track of appointments, meetings and promotional events is a skill many entrepreneurs learn early on in their professional development. However, even the most meticulous planners find it difficult to stay on top of everything as the company grows and takes on new employees, marketing initiatives and clients. Dedicating this information to an accessible database ensures the entire staff is up to date and prepared for the days ahead.
Project Plans: Even the grandest objectives can be divided into bite-sized pieces to create an actionable path to the final goal. Access to a shared database allows team members to communicate and collaborate to increase overall productivity. Organizing digital information this way ensures that everyone is on the same page as the project moves forward.
<h2>5 Reasons to Manage Data Through Small Business CRM Software </h2>
1. Develop Complete Customer Profiles
It’s not enough to make generalized statements or assumptions about consumers when integrated CRM software puts the power of personalized customer profiles at your fingertips.
Each entry can be assigned a timeline that includes prior interactions a client had with a your brand. This allows for tailored marketing tactics targeting each individual’s interests and habits. Profiles can also be sorted with tags to make it easier to manage and sort database entries.
2. Streamlined Drag-and-Drop Interface for Easy Task Management
Coordination is the key to any collaborative effort. CRM software that includes project management tools is a huge asset for any business, particularly those that are experiencing growth.
A simple interface that provides an overview of all scheduled tasks is a convenient way to manage a complex project. Drag-and-drop capabilities allows team members to update their progress regularly and gives management the ability to modify the existing plan in seconds.
3. Integrated Channels of Communication
Gathering all the necessary information from various channels and files is one of the most laborious databasement management tasks. Small business CRM software bypasses this time sink by integrating all the channels of customer communication into a single platform, so data is saved and stored as it is created.
This includes everything from marketing emails to customer service calls, as well as social media posts, text messages and submitted forms.
4. Access Information from any Device
Managing databases through a single system also makes them more accessible to the entire team, no matter what device they are using.
Cloud storage allows credentialed users to get at the information they need when they need it, so they don’t have to struggle with technical difficulties instead of making a sale. CRM software solutions encourage productivity by streamlining the entire information access procedure.
5. Update and Automate Database Processes
Integrated CRM software reduces maintenance requirements and limits the need for specific technical expertise among staff members. For example, an “unsubscribe” option can be included in all marketing emails to customers that connects directly to the contact database.
This ensures that the customer’s request is processed quickly without any direct intervention from staff.
<h2>Take Database Management to the Next Level with CRM Software</h2>
Successful companies create a fast-paced and efficient environment that empowers staff members with swift and reliable access to information. Simple database interface tools are among the many reasons why more businesses are turning to CRM software solutions every year.
As a leader in the customer relationship management industry, <a href="http://agilecrm.com/" target="_blank">Agile CRM</a> offers users a variety of customizable features that includes a complete set of database management tools.
It is a highly compatible software solution that works with other digital tools, like Dedupely, to maximize the value of the user’s database.
* * *
This post is sponsored by Agile CRM. Find out more at <a href="http://agilecrm.com/" target="_blank">AgileCRM.com</a>.

How to Manage Bulk Databases With a Simple CRM Tool

SquareSpace has released their first ever Android app which is now available in the Android Market.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/driods-450x535.png" alt="squarespace android " />
With an already very successful <a href="/squarespace-ipad-app-review/">iOS app</a>, this makes SquareSpace one of the few CMS to offer native apps for both iOS and Android (other than WordPress that is).
Some of the features of this app include:
<ul>
<li>Posting – Quickly create new blog posts. All of your current tags and categories will be there. You can also post photos to your site. Snap a picture right from the app, or add one from your library.</li>
<li>Content Management – See all your blog posts right from the app. You can edit drafts, delete posts and preview posts with ease.</li>
<li>Comment Management – Approve new comments, reply back, or mark them as spam. You can also reecive push notifications for new comments and those awaiting moderation.</li>
<li>Multiple Account Management – Your “Accounts” setting allows you to manage content for multiple Squarespace sites. You can save a draft post for one site and then easily jump to another site to schedule a post for later in the day.</li>
<li>Real-Time Statistics – You can now view your Squarespace site statistics right from the application's statistics tab.  Unique visits, page views, popular search terms, RSS subscribers and top referrers are all included.</li>
<li>Live Site Preview – See your whole site in the flesh, not just single posts.</li>
</ul>
Grab it today from the <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.squarespace.android">Android Market</a> or learn more about <a href="http://www.squarespace.com">SquareSpace</a>.

SquareSpace releases Android App

Shopify - The global commerce platform

Build your business with Shopify to sell online, offline, and everywhere in between.

The global commerce platform

#ffffff

After being founded in 2007, SocialGO has grown from strength to strength, becoming one of the best social networking CMS available today, supporting well over 400,000 websites.
SocialGo actually offers two separate social platform builders. SocialGo Classic is the option which allows you to use pre-set configurations to quickly create a social network. Alternatively, SocialGo Pro offers a wider range of features, directed at more experienced users who are aiming to create a fully customizable, feature rich social website.
Both options allow you to get your website and content online within minutes, in a way which is professional and socially optimized. You can be completely hands-on, by editing themes and creating custom pages, or you can opt for a more hands-off option, allowing the SocialGO experts to take on the task of building your social website for you.
<h2>Extensive Social Features</h2>
Since SocialGO is all about social networking, it's vital that it gives our users the ability to utilize their handles from the biggest social media websites around, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Your users will be able to sign up with your website quickly and easily via Facebook, embed videos and images from YouTube and Flickr, and more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-3.png" alt="SocialGo" />
SocialGO Pro users will also be able to offer their members access to a Twitter sign up option alongside the standard Facebook feature, advancing an already solid social integration feature.
Whether you are looking to build a social network from scratch, or offer a new residence for an existing one, having these integrated social features is vital for any online community. This is down to the fact that, instead of competing with the giants of social media, SocialGO enables you to use them for the benefit of your members.
<h2>Leave it to the Pros</h2>
If you're weary of setting up your social network, SocialGO offers a service to help give you the running start you need.
From as little as $250, SocialGO offer three comprehensive design and build packages. The packages ensure that your website is built by SocialGo's professionals, who will take your brand and idea, and put them into action for you. Once they're done, you will have a social network which is aesthetically pleasing, and tailored to your own taste.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-4700x0.png" alt="SocialGo" />
Services offered within the packages include bespoke theme designs, custom pages, headers and even CSS coding. What's more is, SocialGO also offer search engine optimization services, logos and a 3 year redesign.
<h2>Everything You Need to Build a Thriving Community</h2>
As well as service to design and build your SocialGO website as previously mentioned, you can also rest assured that you won't be left without the right tools once you begin recruiting members, marketing, expanding and even monetizing your online community.
SocialGO gives you everything you need to build a successful social network, and then some. For example, you can monetize your online community via membership fees, which can be paid via PayPal and ClickandBuy.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2.png" alt="SocialGo" />
Additionally, you and your members can enjoy the functions of instant messaging, video chat, blogs, forums, and much more. You also don't need to worry about the size of your community, as SocialGO allows you to have an unlimited number of members.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1700x0.png" alt="SocialGo" /> 
Overall, SocialGO offers a pretty comprehensive social network building solution, dividing their services into both the Classic and Pro platforms. Both platforms have their advantages, with one being suited to a quick, streamlined launch, whilst the other enables you to take a more detailed and executive approach to building your social network or online community.
Whichever of the two platforms you opt for, you can take comfort in the fact that SocialGO has a solid history and a thriving user base, both of which prove the effectiveness of their community building products.
Sound good? Find out more about SocialGO, or check out their 14-day free trial.

SocialGO: Online Community Building Made Easy

Whether you consider yourself an Internet entrepreneur, a content marketer or simply somebody who makes their living off the web, you'll have likely heard of <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/" target="_blank">CopyBlogger</a>.
The Internet marketing blog turned community has long been an authority when it comes to content that converts. Now, they have a new platform built from the ground up to convert visitors into customers, and browsers into community members. It's called the <a href="https://rainmakerplatform.com/" target="_blank">Rainmaker Platform</a>.
Although it's based off of WordPress, it isn't WordPress, nor is it a WordPress plugin or extension of any kind. It's a standalone CMS for Internet entrepreneurs.
Rainmaker offers a long list of specialised features, many of which Internet marketers will have come to know and rely on. Here they are at a glance:
<ul>
<li>Create powerful content-driven websites on your own domain.</li>
<li>Choose from 27 customizable Genesis themes &amp; additional landing page templates.</li>
<li>Build membership sites, forums and online training courses.</li>
<li>Upload, manage and sell digital products like software, ebooks, and more.</li>
<li>Built-in analytics &amp; reporting.</li>
<li>Built-in A/B Testing.</li>
<li>Training &amp; educational material included.</li>
<li>Avoid a patchwork of plugins, themes, and complicated code.</li>
<li>Cloud hosted, with upgrades, maintenance, security all taken care of.</li>
<li>Export content to WordPress at any time you choose.</li>
</ul>
Now, as a blogger with my own website, <a href="http://www.employtheinternet.com/" target="_blank">Employ the Internet</a>, Rainmaker doesn't just interest me – it suits me perfectly. A platform which makes it easy to create bespoke landing pages, build membership-driven communities, distribute eBooks, podcasts, and more? Well, that sounds awesome.
And indeed, it is pretty awesome.
But despite my admiration, I doubt I'll be migrating my blog from WordPress to Rainmaker just yet. My hands-on tinkering with the platform will explain why.
<h2>Hands-On With The Rainmaker Platform</h2>
Note: This is not a full review of the Rainmaker Platform, but rather a brief insight into some of its core features.
After quickly and easily signing up and logging in to Rainmaker, I was presented with a clean and sleek dashboard.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-3700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" />
The dashboard is populated with some nicely laid out stats, from membership signups to forum activity. It also lets you keep track of A/B testing results, and (after integrating with Google Analytics) site traffic too.
Before navigating away from the dashboard, I took the opportunity to test out some of the top menus and other options. I noticed that I had control over what displayed on my dashboard, via a WordPress-esque “Screen Options” menu.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-14700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" />
This was one of many examples of where the WordPress foundation was shining through, but if anything, this only serves to make the move easier for users coming from WordPress.
Across the top of the page, I noticed buttons allowing me to preview my site, add, edit and manage different areas and pages, as well as a help menu, which directed me to the Rainmaker knowledge base. Everything worked well, and as a regular WordPress user, I didn't feel completely alienated by the new interface.
<h2>Themes &amp; Design</h2>
Navigating to the “Design” section brings up a range of options to choose from in setting up and customizing your website. These include; Themes, Appearance, Menus, Content Areas, Slider, Dynamic Sidebars, Custom CSS, Forms, Maintenance Mode, and Social Sharing.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-4700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" /> 
Rainmaker currently has 27 Genesis themes, all of which can be customized if you know your way around CSS. They're all pre-installed, which means you only need to click “Activate” to switch between them all.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-5700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" /> 
When it comes to customization, WordPress' customization tool is used. This allows you to select and adjust Favicons, change colour schemes, background images, footer sections, content areas, page layouts and so forth.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-6700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" /> 
You can also use the “Design” section to set up sliders, apply custom CSS, and even put your site into maintenance mode.
Overall, Rainmaker's design options are solid. There may not be many themes available, but putting a personalised spin on things seems to be quite easily done.
<h2>Content Types</h2>
The most exciting part of Rainmaker is the content types it can manage and help you distribute.
Via the “Content” section, a number of different content types can be created. These include; Pages, Posts, Landing Pages, Portfolios, Podcasts, Media and Forums. Plus, this is the place where you organize categories, tags, forms and import/export content to and from WordPress.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-7700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" /> 
All types of content are created using an editor page which is highly similar to the WordPress editor page. WordPress users wont have any issues adjusting. When it comes to things like Podcasts and Portfolios, the page merely offers up additional fields below the text editor.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-8700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" />
For example, when creating a new Podcast page, you can upload the audio file, and configure things like player placement and episode duration.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-9700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" /> 
It's all rather straight forward. Far simpler than I expected it to be, actually.
<h2>Conversions &amp; Reporting</h2>
More notable features can be found in the “Conversions” section.
Here, you can set up membership pages, connect to email marketing tools like Mailchimp and Aweber, and set up your preferred payment gateway too. At the moment, the options are Stripe and PayPal.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-10700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" /> 
Further down the “Conversions” page, you will find options to create new products, begin A/B testing, view orders and configure your download manager.
The built-in A/B testing system will have many marketers up on their feet.
You can easily assign pages to be tested, by setting up one, two or three variations of the same page, to test which one converts best. You can set it to run up until a certain amount of traffic runs through, or by how many times the page is viewed.
You can also manually stop the test whenever you like, but you can't choose to end it on a particular date. Which I found strange.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-13700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" />
As far as reporting goes, Rainmaker goes into detail within the “Results” section.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-15700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" /> 
Here, you can check Google Analytics, conversion reports, A/B testing reports, affiliate reports and even form reports, which enables you to see how well your contact form is doing, for example.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-16700x0.png" alt="Rainmaker Platform" /> 
All in all, Rainmaker offers pretty much everything an Internet entrepreneur needs to accommodate his or her audience, and assess how best to move forward.
It's a simplified, refined and slightly more professional version of WordPress, with fewer moving parts, but a more robust marketing engine.
<h2>To Move, Or Not To Move</h2>
Internet Entrepreneurs everywhere (most of whom live on planet WordPress) are now asking themselves the same question. Should I move my site over to Rainmaker?
Typically, there's no straight forward answer to this question. But to help you decide, allow me to weigh up the pros and cons for you.
<h3>Why I'm Tempted to Move</h3>
Rainmaker streamlines the processes between you as an Internet marketer, and your audience.
You can focus less on plugins and coding, and more on your website's design and copy. Rainmaker gives the nitty gritty stuff a back seat, by supplying you with hosting, automatic updates, security, a dedicated support team and a knowledge base to keep your business afloat when things get tricky.
Plus, signing up to Rainmaker automatically gives you access to <a href="http://my.copyblogger.com/join-authority/" target="_blank">CopyBlogger Authority</a>, a renowned marketing education community.
I could imagine that moving from WordPress to Rainmaker would feel like moving from a modern super city to a scenic, tightly-knit village, where every resident is a marketing fiend. The removal of all that complexity will just make life easier.
However, the grass isn't always greener for everybody.
<h3>Why I'm Staying Put (For Now)</h3>
Although Rainmaker is a highly professional and functional platform, it doesn't quite negate the broad usefulness and flexibility of WordPress.
Rather ironically, a recent blog post of mine, <a href="http://www.employtheinternet.com/optimize-blog-posts/" target="_blank">7 WordPress Plugins to Optimize Blog Posts</a>, is something Rainmaker users will miss out on, and those are just the tip of the iceberg. Plugins like WooCommerce and frameworks like Thesis also go out the window. So sure, Rainmaker is simpler, but it's also more restrictive.
Rainmaker compensates with built-in SEO, Genesis themes and and its own native formatting options, but the fact of the matter is, WordPress allows for all of that and more – albeit with a little more elbow grease.
With no plugins, and only a small amount of themes on offer, Rainmaker users may even begin to see their competitors employing the exact same tactics as they are, perhaps even with similar designs. Naturally, this lack of flexibility could easily become a problem.
This, paired with a hefty price tag of $95 per month, is enough to make me sit tight. For me, and likely for many others, WordPress still does a solid job, and it allows me to continue experimenting with my online presence.
With that being said, if you know your audience is large enough, and your podcasts, eBooks and online courses are already flowing, Rainmaker is worth consideration. In fact, despite my preference to stick with WordPress for now, I certainly don't rule out a future with Rainmaker – especially if it matures and expands.

Hands-On With The Rainmaker Platform: The CMS for Internet Entrepreneurs

Zenario is a multilingual, web-based content management system that can be used to create (very) simple or complex sites depending on your needs.
This is an open source website builder/CMS with no price tag attached, but it’s not really designed with the basic or casual user in mind. If you want to use Zenario you’ll need to install it in the back-end of your site.
Read on for my Zenario review.
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
To begin, you’ll need to <a href="https://zenar.io/download-zenario">download</a> Zenario as a ZIP file and install it in your website’s hosting package.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/download_screen573x0-is.png" />
Less advanced users will need to have <a href="http://www.softaculous.com/softaculous/apps/cms/Zenario">Softalicious</a>, which is a free backend installer tool that comes with a lot of hosting packages as standard.
Once you have it installed (don’t forget to check their <a href="https://zenar.io/system-requirements">hosting requirements</a>), you can get started with your site.
<h2>The Site Editor</h2>
The interface is very, very basic – but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/edit_screen620x0-is.png" />
The Zenario interface allows you total control over the elements you see – pixel width, colours, CSS elements, etc. If you’re in any way technical with this kind of web coding, you can make a perfectly passable website pretty quickly. It probably won’t be winning any design awards but I don’t think this CMS is aimed at that market. It’s really more suitable for a consumer portal or company intranet.
The interface does have a very basic WYSIWYG editor but it’s pretty clunky and counterintuitive. Moving a box from one point to the other is a little confusing, to say the least.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/complex_wysiwg643x0-is.png" />
This is a website builder with a very ‘old school’ feel. Remember, this website builder is free and open source – so anyone expecting top of the line drag-and-drop style interaction is going to be disappointed.
Everything, down to the way you add pages or a menu entry, is text based. It isn’t an easy or intuitive process so it’s definitely one for the advanced, experienced back-end user only.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/complex_menu_system973x0-is.png" />
<h2>Design</h2>
This is a CMS that gives the advanced user 100% control of their website and the no-frills design reflects this functionality. You can control your cookies, your CAPTCHA test forms, your contact sheets, your branding, your IP blacklist, your data, and your sitemaps.
You won’t find a range of fancy templates here but you still use Zenario to create a highly functional site.
It’s possible to fully customize this CMS with your own branding and completely white label the entire build.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/edit_branding.png" />
It does have two basic templates – Snowline and Deepdive – but they’re very basic and only really offer a difference in template layout. It also has some preset arrangements that you can customize and these are all pretty useful without being outstandingly contemporary.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/templates_1716x0-is.png" />
<h2>Features</h2>
The app itself has very few features that will be of interest to your average website builder. However, it does have some powerful features that would be extremely useful in the creation of a consumer portal or corporate intranet.
It has a powerful language pack that has dozens of different languages to choose from, and you can also set up automated newsletters, pre formatted emails, contact forms and user accounts
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/language658x0-is.png" />
Users can also add raw HTML and script to the site homepage, so externals apps or widgets can be added as/if required.
<h2>Overall</h2>
This is not a CMS for everyone. Zenario is definitely a decent option for intranets, moodle programs in universities, or as a platform to handle customer complaints or multiple users; but it is in no way suited to anyone other than trained back-end developers. If you aren’t versed in this, you’ll barely be able to get the site installed (you don’t want to know how many attempts it took me).
Zenario isn’t the platform for a regular consumer who wants a site for their business. But for the experienced back-end developer, who wants something that is eminently customizable and completely controllable, then this is probably the perfect CMS.
<h3>Pros:</h3>
<ul>
<li>
Free and opensource
</li>
<li>
Completely customizable
</li>
<li>
Allows you complete control over your source code and files
</li>
<li>
Has a great multilingual feature
</li>
<li>
Can be completely white labelled
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Cons:</h3>
<ul>
<li>
Only available as a download. No online hosting
</li>
<li>
Extremely complex for all but the most advanced users
</li>
<li>
Limited design capacity
</li>
<li>
Poor WYSIWYG editor and extremely technical front-end
</li>
</ul>

Zenario Review

The Jaws Project has announced a new update to the incredibly easy to use Jaws CMS.
<img style="display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/control-panel835x0.png" />
This update offers tons of new features such as a new forums gadget, a comments gadget for centralize manage comments and much more.  Here's a quick summary of some of the updates in this release:
<ul>
<li>Added Forums gadget</li>
<li>Added Comments gadget for centralize manage comments</li>
<li>Added Jaws_ORM</li>
<li>Added mootools framework as default javascript library</li>
<li>Added support dynamic ACLs</li>
<li>Added BBCode plugin</li>
<li>Added inline playing audio/videos by using BBCode plugin</li>
<li>Added HTTP errors handling to UrlMapper gadget</li>
<li>Added installing jaws with sample data</li>
<li>Added some new actions: online user, online statistics and latest registered users</li>
<li>Added CAPTCHA to login box for security reason</li>
<li>Added authentication type selection to front-end login box</li>
<li>Added profile, about and contacts actions to Users gadget</li>
<li>and much more.</li>
</ul>
For more details on this release, follow their home page link.

Jaws Project releases new updates to Jaws CMS

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-responsive-website-design.jpg" />
If you’ve been around web designers much in the last year, you can’t have missed the buzzing excitement (and a few tears of joy) around the growing use of “responsive website design” (RWD) and the compelling case for <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2013/03/26/why-you-need-to-prioritize-responsive-design-right-now/">why having a responsive website is critical for your business</a>. The web is a wild and crazy place, with constantly evolving demands to support new technology and changing standards to meet those needs. We have known that mobile audiences were important, but until now there hasn’t been a simple solution for creating a “mobile version” of your website.
A beautifully designed, responsive website is the mobile friendly solution we’ve all been waiting for. Responsive design allows you to have one website which resizes it’s text and images and realigns it’s layout to fit any sized screen, be it phone, tablet or desktop computer, shaken, flipped, or stirred. It’s elegant, and it just works. Having one website that does it all makes it easy to edit in one place, which simplifies managing SEO as well. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite_-_compare_profiles_on_responsive932x0.jpg" alt="Compare the Responsive Gutensite Profiles on Desktop and Mobile" />
View one of the <a href="http://businessdemo.gutensite.com">Gutensite Demos</a> on your smartphone or open it up on your computer and resize your browser to make it the size of a phone screen and watch how it automagically “responds” to the new size. It's really fun!
Even many big CMS/website builders like Wix, haven’t converted to responsive design yet (it’s easier said than done for dynamic user generated content, particularly a WYSIWYG editor). For companies like Gutensite, which are known for cutting edge design, going 100% responsive was a major priority. This month, Gutensite finished a major platform upgrade to support native responsive design. Gutensite also released several brand <a href="http://www.gutensite.com/Free-Website-Designs">new free responsive templates</a> and redesigned nearly all of their existing free templates to be responsive. All the specialty content types were also redesigned. And of course all new custom designs are responsive. The response from our customers has been overwhelming!
If you browse through one of the <a href="http://churchdemo.gutensite.com/">demos</a> you’ll get to see a wide variety of pages in action, like this <a href="http://businessdemo.gutensite.com/About-Us/Calendar-Home">beautiful new calendar</a> which shifts to a list view when it gets to phone size. All this brand new design also looks beautiful on regular desktop computers too!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite_-_compare_responsive_calendar_on_mobile932x0.jpg" alt="Compare the Responsive Gutensite Calendar on Desktop and Mobile" />
According to a <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/04/13/mobile-web-stats/">recent report by Morgan Stanley</a>, by 2015 more people will access the internet through mobile devices than desktop computers. And you’ve also probably heard that <a href="http://readwrite.com/2011/02/07/smartphones_outsell_pcs">smartphone sales have exceeded desktop computer sales</a>, with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-the-massive-growth-of-mobile-media-consumption-means-for-the-mobile-industry-2013-8">tablets growing 83% in 2013 while desktop shipments dropped 13%</a>. The desktop computer is still the preferred device for serious work (we love our big screens). But the convenience of smartphones is undeniable, whether you are browsing the latest news while you are waiting in line at the grocery store, or searching for information about a business you are visiting.
The importance of the mobile audience is no longer possible to ignore. And now that there are so many affordable platforms like Gutensite, which natively provide mobile friendly websites out of the box, there is no longer any excuse to have a website that isn’t mobile.
If your website hasn’t been updated in a few years and isn’t responsive yet, you should find a progressive CMS platform, and have them help you migrate all your existing content to create a brand new site. For most businesses, migration is easy. Aside from being mobile friendly, you’ll also probably appreciate the other <a href="http://www.gutensite.com/Popular-Website-Features">features</a> and great <a href="http://www.gutensite.com/Website-Support">support</a> you’ve been missing.

Gutensite Gets Fluid with Mobile Responsive Design

CushyCMS is a relatively new approach to content management that allows you to take any website and add editing functionality and management to it using a very simple and easy to use interface. Today we're going to examine this new system in this CushyCMS Review and give you an overall view of how it works as well as rate it.
In order to use Cushy, you do not install anything nor do you require another web host. You can use Cushy to manage your existing sites. To do so, simply add your site into Cushy and you've now got a usable interface for easy site management.
The way it works is simple, you visit the website <a href="http://cushycms.com/">CushyCMS.com</a>:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy1.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
One there, you login with your account and are presented with the Cushy Control Panel page:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy2.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
In this case, you can see I have a website added to it already, however, if you wanted to do add a new site, you could simply do so by selecting the add site button which will present you with the following page:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy3.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
Once here, you fill in the details of you existing site and Cushy will import them into it's control panel which then allows you to edit them. Once you've told Cushy where the site is and how to access it, you then add pages to Cushy like so:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy4.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
We then have to tell Cushy what parts of your pages you would like to have editable. You do this by following these intructions:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy9.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
Once you do this, you will be shown the pages detected by Cushy and be allowed to select which ones you would like to manage from the Cushy interface:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy51.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
Simply click on the page you'd like to add, and add a Page Name:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy61.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
Congratulations, you have assigned a page. Now all you need to do is click on the control panel button to get back to the main page and you'll see the page you just added:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy71.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
Now simply click on it's name and you will be dropped into the Wysiwyg editor and you can now start editing your site:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy8.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
That pretty much covers it. You can read more about the advanced features at the <a href="http://cushycms.com/">CushyCMS website</a> and there is also a great video on their front page that explains in more detail.
Items that could be improved upon are the detection of editable elements, if the team at Cushy could figure out a way to auto detect editable areas without the end user having to modify their html and define it, they would have an exceptional product. As it stands now, however, it's still a very very nice interface and a very good option for those who have moderate html experience and just need a simple easy to use interface.
Try out <a href="http://cushycms.com/">CushyCMS</a> on your site, you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Overall, although this is very difficult to rate, I would say that Cushy gets:
<h2>8/10</h2>

CushyCMS Review - A New approach to Content Management?

Today we're going to take you through our Vivvo CMS Review. Vivvo is a commercial offering from Spoonlabs and is a well priced article publishing CMS primarily used for News, magazine or other sites where you publish large amounts of articles with pictures and other media.
Vivvo has been around for a while and has a very solid community and excellent support. Let's examine the install process and look at a few key elements of this system. We're going to review the Professional edition which was graciously provided by Boris @ Spoonlabs for review purposes.
First off, I'm unsure if this is a software concern or my host but when I first accessed our test URL, I was not greeted with the installer page.. instead I had to append it with /installer to get the installation going. Not a major concern but just something I wanted to point out. It would be best if it auto redirected on it's own.
I was then greeted with:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v1.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Once you've selected your language, you proceed to:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v2.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Looks like everything passed inspection. If you have anything come up with a red X it would be a good idea to get ahold of your hosting provider before proceeding.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v3.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Accept the license and continue:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v41.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Fill in your database details here.. make sure you append a database table prefix if you are using the same database as something else. Make sure you input your license number as well (you can get this by logging into your account at vivvo.net and you will see the license listed).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v5.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Plug in the obvious information like your website name, admin info. One thing I thought was a nice touch here was that the system will not let you choose an admin password of less than 6 characters. This is a nice touch.. I think it would be even better if it enforced some rules to password conventions to help new users secure their installation a bit more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v6.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Now comes the fun part. Let's click on the View website link and see what our fresh install looks like:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v7.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Looks pretty nice! We have a login section, some featured article examples and you can see there is a sidebar with some nice tabbed boxes. Vivvo also has a decent selection of themes which are available for purchase from their site as well as some free ones which are available at <a href="http://www.vivvo.net/resources/">http://www.vivvo.net/resources/</a>. There are some free layouts for content as well as plugins to incorporate some other features into the system.
Let's take a peek at the admin section:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v8.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Well laid out, easy to find what you need and well labelled.. just the way I like it. I also like the embedded statistics to give you a quick overview of number of visitors.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v9.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
I wanted to point out the above screen has a very nice simple feature.. Meta description and Meta keywords. This is a nice feature to let you quickly edit these to help your SEO score without having to manually edit the template files directly.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v10.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
This screen is another nice feature, you can preset the image sizes directly! That's very handy and gives you a ton of flexibility, again, without having to edit files directly. Nice touch!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v11.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
The above screen is the final one I wanted to show. This lets you easily edit SEO functions for each article. This is a really nice option and isn't often seen in a CMS where you can manually control your SEO options with ease. Good work Spoonlabs.
Overall, Vivvo is a really nice system. They've made it very easy to maintain a nice search engine optimized site with excellent content management and article publishing flexibility. The overall price of this system is very reasonable as well. Coming in at around two hundred dollars to start, which is very reasonable for this type of system. If you are a new startup looking to break into the world of article publishing or starting up a magazine or newspaper.. this system would be a very good selection.
There's an excellent community as well and support is prompt and efficient. What would help this system out a bit more is a wider variety of plugins and more free themes… personally, I'm not fond of buying themes for premium systems, as I think more free themes would make the investment a bit more appealing for some.. but some people may not have an issue with that. The cost of the average theme is on par with most other premium theme options for other systems (ie: wordpress and all).
Vivvo works well, has a nicely laid out and user friendly admin section and just seems to do the job well for the price tag they are asking.
Our ratings:
Community 9/10 (Solid community with prompt support.)
Expandability 7/10 (It needs more plugins and can't easily be used for much other than article publishing)
Themability 8/10 (Not bad. Some free themes and some paid ones but could use more free.)
Useability 9/10 (Very easy to use. 10 in my books due to the added functionality with SEO editing)
<h2>Overall Score: 8/10</h2>

Vivvo CMS Review

Semrush - Be an SEO hero

Be an SEO hero with Semrush

Explore a wide range of informative articles, insights, and industry updates. Stay informed and ahead of the curve with our diverse collection of news and posts covering the latest trends and developments in the industry. Page - 103