Articles - Page 120

The Top 10 AI Tools for Small Business: From Automation to a Coordinated Team of AI Agents

matt-garrepy

If you are overwhelmed by Google Analytics or just looking for an alternative that offers heatmaps and shows you how people actually use your website, then you should consider taking a look at Lucky Orange.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/luckyorange-logo.jpg" /><h3>What is Lucky Orange?</h3>It's an exceptional analytics platform that offers not just your typical users stats but something more. You can actually play back each individual session to see what and how a user surfed your site. Sound too good to be true? Must be expensive right? It's not. Not only do you get unlimited session recordings but you get a huge host of features for as little as $10 / month. That's a pretty amazing investment if you ask me.To see how the live session recording works, check out this video:Not only does Lucky Orange offer session playback (something that really is incredibly useful as a marketer) but it also offers user heatmaps and a ton of other features such as:Form Analytics<ul><li>Automatically calculate form metrics</li><li>Abandonment Rate</li><li>Conversion Rate</li><li>Engagement Rate</li><li>Time to Start Forms</li><li>Time Spent in Each Field</li><li>Which Fields are Most Often Abandoned</li><li>Which Fields are Repeated</li><li>What Order are Fields Filled Out</li><li>Watch Recordings of People that Abandoned, to Learn Why</li></ul>Real Time Analytics<ul><li>Accurate counts of what's happening right now on your site</li><li>Unique visitor count vs number of browser tabs opened</li><li>Top Keywords</li><li>Top Countries &amp; Cities</li><li>Top Referrers</li><li>Top Pages</li><li>Realtime Related Tweets</li><li>Uses various available transports to create a cross browser/platform real time experience</li></ul>Live Chat Software<ul><li>Chat box stays on the page and follows visitor as they browse your site for a seamless experience.</li><li>Can watch visitors screen while chatting with them</li><li>Add Customized Pre Chat Questions</li><li>Customizable colors, text, positioning</li><li>Multiple Chat Operators and Operator chat room</li><li>Operators can have profile pictures and sub titles</li><li>Ability to transfer chat to another operator</li><li>See when a visitor is typing, typed, stopped typing</li><li>Simple dashboard lets you chat with many people at the same time</li><li>Ask a user to chat</li><li>Searchable Chat Logs</li><li>Visitor can Initiate Live Chat</li><li>Toggle chat on/off with one click</li></ul>Visitor Polls<ul><li>Ask simple questions with up to 4 responses and comments</li><li>Quickly gain valuable customer insight</li><li>Watch results in real time</li><li>Create country specific polls</li><li>Show polls on specific pages</li><li>Show polls to random sample</li><li>Show polls after certain number of seconds</li><li>Instantly add / delete / pause polls without adding any more code to your site</li><li>Graph and searchable log of responses</li><li>Can push poll results, views, closes, to Google Analytics</li></ul>Visitor Recordings &amp; Live Sessions<ul><li>Watch in real time or automatically records visitor browsing sessions</li><li>See exactly what your visitors did on your site</li><li>Ability to chat with visitor while you watch them browse.</li><li>Watch every mouse movement, keypress, scroll, screen resize</li><li>Works with dynamic html and member only pages</li><li>Saves the HTML that the visitor saw at the time of the recording</li><li>Works across multiple browsers / screen resolutions</li><li>See mouse paths drawn over the html</li><li>Watch Visitor Path accross site and jump to any page</li><li>Searchable recordings, including finding recordings that include a specific url</li><li>Stores visitor keywords, search engine, referrer information with recordings.</li></ul>Heat Maps<ul><li>Aggregate lots of click data to form beautiful heatmaps</li><li>Click heat maps</li><li>Mouse movement heat maps</li><li>Scroll Depth heat maps (see how far people are scrolling down the page)</li><li>Works with fluid layouts &amp; different browser sizes</li><li>Create heatmaps based on date ranges, urls, browsers, location and more.</li><li>Accurately finds the actual div the user clicked on instead of just using relative mouse coordinates.</li></ul>Live Visitor Map<ul><li>Watch a real time visitor map of all your website visitors</li><li>Animated with custom effects</li><li>Plot line between points for neat effect</li><li>Can be launched in Full Screen for use with large monitors, or to display in a waiting area</li><li>Simple or Detailed Map View</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.luckyorange.com/">See here for a full breakdown of features.</a>Pretty amazing sounding isn't it? The software really is a marketers dream and the price point is well within any budget which makes it even more tempting. The best part is you can get a free trial to play around with the system before making any firm committments one way or the other.<blockquote><a target="_blank" href="https://www.luckyorange.com/">Check it out a 7 day free trial (no credit card required)</a></blockquote>

Lucky Orange - An Excellent Alternative to Google Analytics

mike-johnston

<a href="/strikingly-websitebuilder">Strikingly</a> is a one-page website builder that I have long been an admirer of. In fact, I included it in my list of <a href="/top-25-cms-to-watch-in-2016/" target="_blank">25 CMS to watch in 2016</a>.
Over the last year or so, they have released <a href="/introducing-strikingly-4/" target="_blank">Strikingly 4</a> and followed it up <a href="/strikingly-custom-colours-html/" target="_blank">with updates</a> to bring about features like the ability to switch templates without losing content, custom colors, more page blocks, and the ability to blog via their ‘Simple Blog' page block.
But now, they’ve enhanced that blogging functionality with an array of features – and I think it’s the kind of move that other content management systems need to mimic.
Here's what they did:
<h2>Blogging With Strikingly</h2>
<a href="/strikingly-websitebuilder">Strikingly</a>’s new blogging features makes it easy for webmasters and bloggers to grow an audience.
Firstly, their ‘Simlpe Blog' feature allows you to write, edit, and publish blog posts in-line, from within Strikingly's interface. Then, built-in blog categories help you organize your content, while the archive page boosts post discoverability.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/unnamed706x0-is.gif" />
Once you publish a post, you can easily push your new content across your marketing channels and contact list by connect to your Gmail, sharing to Twitter, and posting on Facebook – all within the window that pop-ups up when a new post goes live.
And most recently, Strikingly have released a feature that lets your readers subscribe to your blog via email, putting you in a better position to market and re-market to your target audience.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/unnamed671x0-is.png" />
Is it a world-beating blogging solution? No. But it's certainly good enough to give novice website builders and small businesses a fighting chance in the content marketing scene.
And, it's a lot better than some of the other blogging features found on other website builders and even fully fledged CMS – if they even have such features, that is.
<h2>Blogging Is Vital</h2>
Why do I think these blogging features are so relevant, you ask?
Because it’s those same novice website builders, entrepreneurs, and SMBs (Strikingly’s target markets) that so desperately need this approachable avenue into content marketing, which is now considered to be the best form of internet marketing. It just makes sense.
With that being said, I remain baffled as to why more CMS and website builders don’t offer a native blogging feature. Relying on WordPress to fill the gap won’t cut it, guys.
I, for one, am pleased that Strikingly has recognized that.

Strikingly Is Taking Blogging Seriously (And Why That's Vital)

The open-source CMS, SilverStripe, has a new version that's been made available. This release solves a number of potential security vulnerabilities:
<ul>
<li>Draft pages were visible to unauthenticated users on specifically crafted URLs.</li>
<li>An content author with access to the “Security” section in the CMS could potentially take over an administrator account.</li>
</ul>
These are now fixed in 2.4.2, along with several dozen minor bug fixes.You can review a list of the 100+ changes in <a href="http://open.silverstripe.org/wiki/ChangeLog/2.4.2">the changelog</a>.
<h3>Improved Windows Support</h3>
SilverStripe 2.4.2 offers increased confidence over past versions for running our software on Windows OS when using SQL Server as the database. Previously, you had to run SilverStripe on Linux for all unit tests to pass. As a result of fixing bugs and unit tests, all SilverStripe unit tests now pass when running on Windows. The work includes fixing full-text search for the <a href="http://www.silverstripe.org/microsoft-sql-server-database/">SQL Server database module</a>, fixing windows file path issues along with numerous other bug fixes for the Windows platform done in 2.4.0 and 2.4.1.
<img style="max-width:467px" title="2.4.2-all-tests-pass" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/2_4_2-all-tests-pass_wcjpj8.png" />
<h3>Other minor improvements</h3>
<ol>
<li>Allows Apache to provide better error pages</li>
<li>Improved unit testing reports</li>
<li>Fixed the installer logic for SQLite database</li>
</ol>
More info: <a href="http://www.silverstripe.org">http://www.silverstripe.org</a>

SilverStripe CMS 2.4.2 released

<a target="_blank" href="http://zesty.io/">Zesty</a> is an enterprise-grade CMS that <a href="/zesty-io-rivalling-traditional-enterprise-cms-with-lean-saas/">leverages a SaaS (Software as a Service) approach</a>, aiming to enhance deployment speed, reduce costs and improve reliability across the board.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zesty-io-rgb_rgb_400x0.png" />The platform comes in two forms; Zesty <a target="_blank" href="https://zesty.io/satellites/">Satellite</a>™ for single web properties, and Zesty <a target="_blank" href="https://zesty.io/ecosystems/">EcoSystem</a>™, a unified platform for managing multiple Zesty instances.Recently, I had the pleasure of catching up with Randy Apuzzo, Zesty's Co-Founder and CEO.<h2>Who is Randy Apuzzo?</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/unnamed.jpg" />Randy started hacking at age 12 and started his professional career years later in 2004. As a young entrepreneur, Randy focused on building business software and websites.He now uses his experience to lead the team at Zesty.io. As CEO he focuses on partner communication and product vision. Outside of technology, Randy enjoys learning about space and history, and weekend visits to San Diego's beautiful beaches.<h2>The Interview</h2>KI: You founded Zesty alongside Andy Fleming back in 2010. Can you give us some insight into how that came about, and what your aims were at the time, and whether those aims have changed at all?RA: Andy and I met at an AIGA design event in 2010. I had never met a designer that could hold a conversation about database storage, so we immediately hit it off. At that time, we both had different solutions to empower our clients to update their content without using clunky, not secure, hard to use systems that existed.Andy challenged me to build a better content system than the one I was already selling to my clients. I accepted. After meeting every Monday for two months the first version of Zesty.io was born in October 2010. The passion to empower businesses to control their content remains, but now we are looking beyond the website to offer an all encompassing platform for customer engagement and content distribution.KI: For those who have yet to hear of Zesty, can you give us a quick breakdown of what the platform is today, and who it's for?RA: Zesty is a 100% SaaS platform for powering business content. Imagine AWS, but for business content. Zesty empowers businesses to manage content in a multiple department, collaborative environment purposed for business needs.Businesses can grant agencies and vendors access to content tools for creating websites, mobile apps, connected home, IoT, etc. Businesses retain full control, and gains valuable insights on the performance of their content and customer engagement.We currently have customers like Sony, Mission Brewery, and Astroglide.KI: Zesty is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) content management system. What benefits does SaaS bring to the table? In other words, why should should enterprises be looking to move towards a SaaS content management system?RA: SaaS fills labor gaps in businesses that do not have the resources to create their own software, or rather, should not be creating their own software.In my career supporting businesses, I’ve been the one building in-house solutions or helping technology operations. It’s great in the beginning, but it becomes a burden to the business long-term, and can have negative effects as lacking the latest technology can really hinder growth.KI: How about small-to-medium size businesses. Should they also be thinking about going SaaS? (If so, are there any plans to begin marketing Zesty in this market?)RA: Yes. If you’re not in the business of IT management or internet technology, then let a great service take care of you.Demand from small-to-medium size business is so high it’s hard to ignore. We turn down opportunities in this market a couple times a week. Right now our focus is creating the most solid solution a mid-market to enterprise level businesses has available on the market.While keeping that focus, talks of a “Zesty Lite” are brewing, and we may start testing it with a select group of digital creatives. Expect an announcement in 2016.KI: Can you tell us what's in store for Zesty in coming months? Is there anything planned to happen before the end of 2015?RA: Every week is exciting! We are rolling out new language to communicate the product, as well as new platform, infrastructure, and feature updates. We are working heavily with our current customers and their developers to improve tools, and something new is rolling out every two weeks.Before the end of the year there will be a big announcement about the business. We have very excited investors looking towards a big future as well as standing solutions interested in merging.KI: And finally, if you had just three short sentences to sum up why an enterprising company should opt for Zesty, what would they be?RA: If you’re not in the business of building and maintaining digital marketing software, then do not spend valuable resources doing so. Zesty.io will continue to serve you with new ways to reach and engage your customers in their home, on their commute, or at work.We constantly strive to give our customers the latest and greatest technology opportunities to be successful.<h2>Learn More</h2>To learn more about Zesty, <a target="_blank" href="http://zesty.io/">check out their website</a>.Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/zestyio">Zesty via our CMS Directory</a>.

An Interview with Zesty's Co-Founder & CEO Randy Apuzzo

<a href="https://dotcms.com/products/cloud/" target="_blank">dotCMS</a>, the open source Java content management system and digital experience platform, has unveiled a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution for the enterprise market.
<a href="https://dotcms.com/products/cloud/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dotcms-250h-1.jpg" /></a>
The enterprise-grade platform, which can be utilized either on-premise or via the cloud, was the winner of the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-cloud-cms-for-smb/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award for Best Cloud CMS for SMB</a>.
dotCMS Enterprise Cloud is built to, “provide brands with a private, secure and fully customizable cloud-based platform capable of deploying web sites, intranets, extranets, portals, apps or any type of content-driven web application”.
<h2>“Removing Traditional Limitations”</h2>
By making use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing, dotCMS' SaaS solution has no incremental or per unit charges associated with adding users, editors, sites, apps, plugins, integrations or anything developers build in the system.
Will Ezell, dotCMS' CTO, hopes that this step into the relam of SaaS can help remove traditional limitations for brands:
<blockquote>
“Removing traditional limitations with software-as-a-service was the driving force behind dotCMS Enterprise Cloud. We were committed to delivering the same powerful feature set in a SaaS model, just as you would have on premise.
We found a way to deliver all the benefits of SaaS, without the costly constraints and limitations that hold businesses back from growing their digital enterprise.”
</blockquote>
Tim Brigham, dotCMS' CEO, has spoken out about his company's recognition of “overlapping needs” within modern brands:
<blockquote>
“We recognize the evolving and overlapping needs of marketers, developers and IT professionals. They’re looking for a SaaS content management, development and infrastructure solution that drives efficiencies, generates innovation and optimizes results in today’s digital economy.
DotCMS Enterprise Cloud is our direct and game-changing response to real-time marketplace requirements at a pace our customers demand.”
</blockquote>
I think dotCMS has done well to offer itself as a Software-as-a-Service solution – and I think that more enterprise-grade content management systems will be wanting to jump on the bandwagon.
Modern brands desire the flexibility and reliability that SaaS brings about. They want speedy deployment, lots of up time, and vendors on hand to handle issues, updates, backups and more. SaaS is the way to make that happen. 
The full story on dotCMS Enterprise Cloud can be <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/11/prweb13101485.htm" target="_blank">read here</a>. 
To find out more about dotCMS, <a href="http://dotcms.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>, or explore them <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-cloud-cms-for-smb/" target="_blank">via our CMS Directory</a>.

dotCMS Enterprise Cloud Released

SEO Toaster is a product by a company called SEO Samba and is touted as “Most advanced SEO CMS &amp; Ecommerce website builder right out of the box, free and open source”.Does it actually stand true to this statement? Let's investigate.You can download the product from the SEO Toaster website (link at the bottom of this review).Once you've installed the product (a fairly painless process) you are greeted with a rather plain page:As you can see in the screenshot above, it states that there is no admin area and you can edit text immediately by “clicking here” except there's nothing there.  Typically, if you had first authenticated yourself, you'd actually see something where the arrow is pointing. If you have not, however, you would be totally lost.There is no easy hidden link to authenticate and if you installed the system and wanted to come back to it in a few days, you may not remember that the path to the authentication screen is http://yourdomain.com/go which could leave you stumbling around frustrated for a few before you can find the way in.Is this a game breaker? Of course not, but it is something that I think needs to be corrected or improved on.Let's assume now that you have authenticated yourself, you would see a small box with a letter in it and the screenshot above explains their meaning.Once you are logged in, you will have a “show/hide dashboard” function as shown below:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/recitecms-2_rt2hjo.jpg" />True, it might not be the most attractive looking dashboard, but it works and is fast to navigate the options which is what matters.Browsing through the functionality we have a number of menu options. The screenshot below shows the configuration management screen where you can make minor config changes:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/seotoaster3_vspgsr.png" />Template editing is also supported:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/seotoaster4-580x419_niiedm.png" />There is also a quick screen for editing your pages properties as well with all of the necessary SEO functions available to edit:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/symphony-1_lbgd2d.png" />One of the nice new features they've added is shopping configuration which also has it's own quick config screen and looks rather easy to use:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/symphony-3-580x592_swhqve.png" />Ok. Now that we've shown you some of the pages, let's talk about what we liked and disliked about this product and perhaps this will help you decide if it's the right fit for your needs.First let me say that this is a really fast website builder. It is very quick (mostly due to the lack of graphics) and works as it should for the most part. It has a good chunk of functionality and includes the most common SEO functions one would expect.The addition of the payment integration is nice but currently only supports PayPal which is a bit limiting. However, at least it has some form of ecommerce functionality.I would not, however, call this the most advanced SEO and eCommerce website builder available and that's the part that I am struggling with. I most certainly think it's a good product and it appears to have tons of potential, but I see no advanced SEO functionality that is different from any other website builder or CMS I've tested. Also, considering the ecommerce options are limited, it's not really right to call that piece advanced either.Are these issues with the product? No.Does this mean you should avoid it? Absolutely not.In fact, I would recommend you test it out and provide feedback to the SEO Samba team so they can improve the product. I think functionally, it's a very good system with a ton of potential that is just waiting to be fully realized.Sure, they jumped the gun a bit with their motto but that's part of marketing and you can't fault them that.<h3>Summary</h3>Pro's<ul><li>Really fast</li><li>Very easy to install</li><li>Easy to use</li></ul>Con's<ul><li>Needs some visual changes to give it a more professional look. (it's hard on the eyes).</li><li>Needs a login button or link somewhere.</li></ul>Wanna try it? Get your copy here: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.seotoaster.com">http://www.seotoaster.com</a>

SEOToaster Review

Selling on Facebook is a lucrative prospect, and so <a href="https://www.shopify.com/" target="_blank">Shopify</a> has made sure that their users aren't left behind by introducing the “Shop section”.
<a href="https://www.shopify.com/" target="_blank"><img style="max-width:256px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2010_6_23_shopify-green_256x256-1.jpg" /></a>
Shopify's Shop section makes it easy for merchants to showcase their products directly on their Facebook Page, improving product visibility right off the bat.
But that's not all. A Shopify seller can then send potential buyers to checkout on their own website, or have it handled totally within the Facebook website or mobile app.
<h2>Facebook Store App on Shopify Steroids</h2>
Some merchants will be asking why this update means so much when a Facebook Store app already exists for Shopify users.
But in reality, the Shopify Shop section feature takes selling on Facebook to a whole new level.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shopify-facebook-3597x0-is.gif" />
Instead of having a Shop tab on your Facebook Page, Shopify products will now have their own section on the main page, making products easier to access for visitors. Furthermore, the Facebook Store app doesn't work on mobile, while Shopify's version does.
According to the official Shopify announcement:
<blockquote>“A small group of Shopify merchants have already been selling their products using the new Shop section, and over the coming weeks we’ll be making it available to all Shopify merchants — at no additional cost.”</blockquote>
So, Shopify sellers should keep their eyes peeled for an email or alert from Shopify, notifying them of their free update.
Merchants have expressed their delight in the comments section of Shopify's announcement, further embellishing this rather exciting feature. For without a doubt, shopping on Facebook has just taken a big step forward.
Learn more about <a href="/products/shopify/" target="_blank">Shopify via our CMS Directory</a>.

Shopify Rolls Out Shop Section on Facebook Pages

<a href="https://mautic.com/" target="_blank">Mautic</a> is the totally free, open source, and cloud-hosted marketing automation system that packs all the features of an enterprise-grade marketing suite.
Although, that's probably because Mautic is an enterprise-grade marketing suite.
Mautic Cloud is the free flavour on offer, while their premium package – Mautic Cloud Pro – gives brands more freedom when it comes to the number of records, marketing emails, and user seats that they can make use of.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/unnamed_4.jpg" />
Here's an overview of what <a href="https://www.mautic.org/blog/developer/mautic-2-2-in-good-company/" target="_blank">Mautic 2.2</a>, the latest version, brings to the table:
<ul>
<li>
Dynamic Email Content: Mautic 2.0 brought dynamic email content, but now you can further personalize your emails with ease.
</li>
<li>
Account Based Marketing: With the ‘Companies’ feature, you can now jump on the Account Based Marketing bandwagon by connecting people together in the context of a company.
</li>
<li>
Email Recency/Frequency: Yet more tools to show your contacts that you value their time and attention.
</li>
<li>
Update to Forms: The Mautic form experience has been vastly improved with themes and more.
</li>
<li>
New Plugins: Two new plugins accompany this release – one for Gmail and one for MS Outlook.
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Account Based Marketing &amp; Dynamic Email Content</h3>
One of the most vital elements to B2B marketing is the ability to connect people together in the context of a company. Mautic has created a new entity called ‘Companies’ to help brands do this.
Now, every contact will be associated to a Company and users will have an all-company view of their contacts. This means that marketers will be able to see all contacts associated with a company, as well as create filters and trigger actions based on company criteria. This allows marketers to focus on nurturing, analyzing and converting a targeted group of accounts (or Companies) and implement Account Based Marketing practices. No more contact confusion.
As for dynamic email content, this was introduced with Mautic 2.0 – but now there’s more.
Users now have the ability to vary content in their email based on filters. Instead of creating multiple emails for slightly different messages, users can now save time by creating one email and can insert variations of content into the email! This means that at the time the email is sent, the content will become dynamic. Now that's what you call personalization.
<h3>Update to Forms &amp; Email Recency/Frequency</h3>
The Mautic form experience has been vastly improved with themes that can be applied quickly and easily. Additionally, the results of a campaign form can be sent to a specified email address to help teams analyze the good and the bad.
Syncing data between contact fields and forms has also been upgraded. Changes made to contact fields can now be easily written to forms, and values from a form can be transformed and written to contact fields. You can also further personalize thank you pages using tokens, and page breaks have also been added, making long forms more achievable.
For contacts subject to frequency limits, emails sent to them are now put in a queue to send once the limit timeframe has passed. With Mautic 2.2, marketers can now specify the priority on their marketing emails to help prevent backlogs, ensuring important messages are sent in a timely, and respectful manner.
<h3>New Gmail &amp; MS Outlook Plugins</h3>
Mautic has also announced two new plugins that are coming very soon.
First up will be the Mautic Gmail plugin. It will be a Chrome and Firefox plugin that will reveal timeline data from Mautic right in the user's browser. Also, when writing an email to a contact, the email can be tracked and written to the contact’s timeline in Mautic by clicking a checkbox.
Mautic's MS Outlook plugin is the second plugin in the pipeline, which will allow emails sent from Outlook to be written to and tracked in Mautic.
It looks like both plugins will be free, so that's not too shabby on either front.
To find out more about Mautic 2.2, check out the <a href="https://www.mautic.org/blog/developer/mautic-2-2-in-good-company/" target="_blank">official announcement</a>.

Mautic 2.2: Account Based Marketing and Email Plugins

Best Video Experience

Give your audience the best video experience

#000000

LightCMS have announced some useful social features along with some interface enhancements to be released tomorrow, May 7th 2014.
As a popular cloud-based website builder, LightCMS offers an array of tools which help users to build professional websites, online stores and blogs in just a few clicks.
LightCMS have claimed that these new changes come as “highly-requested additions”. So, let's take a look at what's new.
<h2>Social Icons &amp; The Social Token</h2>
LightCMS's new social token and social media settings enable you to display social icons simply, and allow your clients to manage their icons without tinkering with your website design on any major level.
Once the feature is launched, you'll see a new section on the advanced tab of your website settings. This section allows the user to choose any number of social icons to include and to provide the URL to use with each associated social icon.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/social-media-add-admin700x0.png" alt="LightCMS Social Icons" />
To add icons, you only need to click the “Add” button before selecting the icons you want to add. Once selected, your icons will show up in your list where you can re-order them by dragging and dropping.
Phone and Email icons are also available along with the social icons. So, when visitors touch the email icon from a smartphone, it automatically loads up a new email. When they touch the phone, it automatically starts calling.
However, in order for the icons to display on your website, your website's template must include the new <a href="http://help.lightcms.com/social-token" target="_blank">social token</a>. All of LightCMS's “featured” designs (plus a few others) will be updated to include the social token by the launch of the social feature.
<h2>The SEO Tab &amp; Developer Role Assignment</h2>
A further enhancement to LightCMS comes via a new tab on the Website Settings screen – the SEO tab.
This tab is home to a range of SEO-related features for your website, including; 301 Redirect Management, Robots.txt, and the Google Analytics / Additional Header field. These features aren't new, but simply housed in a different tab. This tidies up the user interface by setting SEO-related features apart while keeping the Advanced tab shorter and cleaner.
LightCMS Partners are also in for a treat this week, thanks to a new client Sign-up Element. This allows you to enable the sign up element to assign the “Developer Role” to new users when they sign up. The Developer Role allows users to view and manage designs for their website via the <a href="http://www.lightcms.com/design">Design Manager</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blog-feature-signup.png" alt="LightCMS Role Assignments" />
This new feature will be available on the Sign-up Element's settings screen.
These new LightCMS features are scheduled to go live on the morning of May 7th 2014. So LightCMS users better set their alarm clocks!
To find out more about LightCMS, check out their website. Full details of these scheduled updates can be found via the LightCMS Blog.
Also, be sure to explore more of LightCMS via our CMS Directory.

LightCMS Announce New Social Features & Interface Changes

<a href="https://craftcms.com/" target="_blank">Craft</a> has announced the latest version of their core product, as well as a brand new product in the form of CraftCommerce.
<a href="https://craftcms.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/craft-logo-200x107.png" /></a> 
In 2014, Craft was selected as the Critic'c Choice Winner for Best PHP CMS for Small to Midsize Businesses.
Craft CMS 2.5 is the update that brings about 280 new features and additions to their platform. <a href="https://craftcommerce.com/" target="_blank">CraftCommerce 1.0</a>, on the other hand, is something totally new. It' a first-party eCommerce solution that fits snugly into of Craft's core product.
Let's take a closer look at both.
<h2>Craft CMS 2.5: What's New?</h2>
Well, to begin with, Craft has released a smart introductory video:
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/147139440?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Most noticeably, there's a brand new and customizable dashboard where users can manage widgets.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/new-dashboard_2x688x0-is.png" />
That level of customization stretches elsewhere, too. Admins can now reorder the sidebar sources for element indexes, customize the source headings, and even customize which table columns should be visible.
Furthermore, new elements can now be created right from element selector modals, which should drastically speed up content creation workflows when the content needs to relate to other content that may not exist yet.
Craft 2.5 brings about hundreds more new features, and you can <a href="https://craftcms.com/news/craft-2.5" target="_blank">read about them here</a>.
<h2>Introducing CraftCommerce</h2>
The eagerly anticipated eCommerce platform for Craft CMS is finally here.
<a href="https://craftcommerce.com/" target="_blank">CraftCommerce</a> is the vendor's first foray into the world of eCommerce. The product was in private beta for some time, tested by around 200 participants.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/edit-product-page_2x713x0-is.jpg" />
Features include; Live Preview, custom fields everywhere, Twig templating, mobile support, inline product creation, one-click updating, order processing workflows, and more.
CraftCommerce will set users back $999 per site, although its also free to download, upload and play around with (until you want to start accepting payments, anyway).
To learn more about CraftCommerce, <a href="https://craftcommerce.com/" target="_blank">check out the dedicated website</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/craft-cms/" target="_blank">Craft via our CMS Directory</a>.

Craft 2.5 & CraftCommerce 1.0 Unveiled

So you've decided that <a href="/why-you-need-document-management-software/" target="_blank">your brand will benefit from having a document management system</a>. That's almost certainly a wise decision.
But adopting a DMS takes more than just installing it or signing up for it. A deployment process needs to take place – an efficient one.
To help you out, here's a guidebook that covers the essentials of deploying any document management system effectively, and with minimal disruption.
<h2>Necessary Questions to Answer Before Document Management System Deployment</h2>
<h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pexels-photo-401201280x734-cropx0y0-is673x0-is.jpeg" /></h2>
If an organization has already gone paperless prior to purchasing DMS, data migration services and structural frame-working of content are enough to deploy a document management system.
However, for organizations that have not already gone paperless, the process becomes lengthier, and it all begins with digitizing all the documents through scanning. Sometimes decision makers within an organization will buy <a href="http://www.efilecabinet.com/recommended-scanners/">scanners designed to digitize a high volume of documents.</a>
However, the preexisting multi-functional printers that many organizations already possess can also be used if they have the throughput capacity needed to make the scanning process pain-free and quick, but this usually isn’t the case.
Be sure to discuss with prospective DMS vendors what scanning technology best supports their DMS model, as some DMS vendors will usually sell scanners for lower prices than the scanner manufacturer’s MSRP. The increasing number of scanning companies that partner with DMS vendors and other enterprise technology vendors justifies these lower scanner prices.
Furthermore, sometimes scanned images will need de-spotting and other touch-ups before and after uploading them to a document management system. Although these issues typically do not interfere with OCR (optical character recognition) and document search-ability, they may be worth resolving if an organization plans to share this content with clients and customers.
In respect to user accounts, some DMS vendors sell their software under concurrent licensing—which means, for example, that up to 50 users can log in to the system at a given time, but an unlimited number of employees working within the organization may have access to it.
Perhaps the biggest user difficulties that DMS presents are user related, rather than software related. Avoiding these difficulties becomes especially important prior to the stage of DMS deployment.
Is the content structured or unstructured? Where is it stored? What are each document’s retention requirements? Who should have access to this document once uploaded to the document management system? <a href="http://www.efilecabinet.com/what-is-zonal-ocr/">Zonal Optical Character Recognition</a> answers several of these questions at the deployment stage.
<h2>Choosing the Right Model for Deployment</h2>
Once an organization has chosen a document management system that works best for its benefit and usage priorities, deployment models must be considered, and these deployment models hinge, at least partially, on the preexisting state of the organization’s content and timeline.
If minimal downtime is preferred at implementation, the phased implementation model is preferable, whereas the all-at-once deployment model is preferable for organizations seeking immediate returns on investment.
<h3>Phased vs. All-at-Once Deployment</h3>
Phased deployment is often a smart alternative, and involves implementing the various aspects of the document management system and the files you want to contain within it at different stages, even if buying the entire document management system all at once.
A phased document management system deployment cycle is requisite to any industry using DMS (particularly higher education) that has thicker communication silos often co-occurring with dispersed departments of information (different colleges and departments within a university, for instance).
A phased deployment may also focus on implementing certain aspects of the software in protracted groups, or organizations may implement the entire suite of software features all at once, but separately by department, branch, or office location. However, the latter of these two options can create interdepartmental communication silos within the organization, and these should be accounted for prior to selecting a deployment model.
Although not always necessary, the phased approach is recommended for fast-growing, small to mid-sized organizations and large organizations.
<h3>Localized vs. Dispersed Deployment</h3>
In addition to all-at-once vs. phased deployment options, localized vs. dispersed deployment models must also be taken into consideration. Essentially, whether documents will be scanned and imaged from one location or from multiple locations is an important consideration.
Given the enormity of the document management system market and the fast pace of large organizations’ adoption of the technology, it is much more likely that larger organizations will have offices in numerous areas, and must adopt an organization-wide plan across departments and multiple branches to coordinate the deployment process: Doing so would constitute following a dispersed implementation model.
A localized model would entail scanning everything from one central location, and although small companies with only one office have no other option but localized implementation, large companies must decide between localized and dispersed models, for the larger companies can do either one, but there are benefits and drawbacks to each.
Another prospect for deployment concerns metadata: Organizations must choose whether they will develop their own metadata structure or follow authorities’ suggested metadata structures such as <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/units/bibcontrol/osmc/mccallum.pdf">MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema)</a>.
The longer a metadata model exists within an organization, the more familiar end users will become with it, which will further improve its usability. Therefore, it is important to look at recommended metadata standards like MODS and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI).
Predicating an implementation model for sustainable and simple metadata structures is important, and this process begins by choosing which verbal identifiers should be assigned to each individual piece of content comprising all of the data and information in an organization—but in a way that makes this information retrievable, memorable, and usable.

Deploying a Document Management System: An eFileCabinet Guidebook

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.wishpond.com/">Wishpond</a>, is a marketing automation software, a landing page builder and a lot more. It aims to take the guess work out of increasingly important lead generation gateways, and the analytical process that typically follows.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wishpond-logo-blue_1.png" />It's a platform that marketers can use to create landing pages and contests, track leads, send emails and more. It's marketing automation made accessible to even the smallset startup – thanks to it's totally free package.<h2>Landing Pages</h2>When it comes to building a landing page for your product or service, it's easy to get lost in the minutae.The background image needs to reflect your brand, the font needs to be the perfect weight, and the sign up form needs to be bold, yet unobtrusive. Getting that balance correct can be time consuming to say the least.Once signed in, the Wishpond dashboard offers up; Landing Page, Pop up, Form and Social Promotion campaign options. But as I just mentioned, landing pages will be our main focus.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1-11081x0-is.png" />Selecting a landing page template is the first step needed to be undertaken.As previously mentioned, Wishpond takes a lot of guess work out of building a landing page. But that's not to say that it forces your hand in any way. Rather, the customization options are plentiful.Text, images, horizontal lines, buttons, videos, forms, social buttons, maps are just some of the elements available to use.Pointing and clicking anywhere in the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor allows you to customize images, text, element sizes, page positions, and so forth. Elements can also be dragged-and-dropped into place.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-6717x0-is.png" />However, when it came to selecting and editing text in the editor, I needed to double-click a number of times in order to arrive at the interface I needed. A minor issue in the grand scheme of things, but a better response time would be nice to see.Further to this, I noticed that the autosave and “Save as Draft” features weren't working too well. I often saved my work only to find the last edit I made wasn't actually saved, which meant I had to make the same edit twice.I'm also not a fan of being transferred out of the editor whenever I click “Save as Draft”.All in all though, I was impressed by the landing page builder. I was able to tinker with a variety of templates, and I managed to produce something truly professional with it, too.Added features include website embedding, custom domain publishing, WordPress integration and A/B testing.<h2>Popups, Forms &amp; Social Promotion</h2>Wishpond's Popup builder works similarly to its landing page builder. First up, is template selection. Once again, there are plenty to choose from, and they all look great out of the box.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2-1.png" />Editing consists of more pointing, clicking, dragging and dropping. Text can be easily modified and positioned, backgrounds can be tinkered with, and more A/B testing options are available.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-3989x0-is.png" /> The Form builder works identically also. In fact, I could barely tell the different between the Popup and Form builder, which is actually a good thing, since there's little need for them to be too different.As for Social Promotions, these are all to do with contests.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-4.png" />You can choose from a wide range of contest types, from article-based contests to Instagram hashtag contests. There's a genuinely broad and excellent selection.However, there's only one template for all the contest types. Although each contest makes use of a slightly different content layout, the foundations of the template are all the same. It would be nice to have a choice here, as offered with landing pages, forms and popups.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-5840x0-is.png" />Nevertheless, the range of contests on offer makes up for it, and the same level of customization remains. So, if you really want to jazz up your contest page, you can.<h2>Marketing Automation &amp; Integrations</h2>Wishpond's marketing automation page lets you configure automation workflows.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-7.png" />Essentially, this means that you can set up personalized emails to be triggers and sent to your leads based on their activity and personal profiles. It's a handy way to keep customers engaged, in a way that doesn't consume time and resources.As far as integrations go, Wishpond plays nice with Mailchimp, Emma, InfusionSoft, Insightly and a few others within the email marketing and CRM fields. I was slightly surprised to see Aweber and SugarCRM missing, though.<h2>The Verdict</h2>Wishpond offers an impressive range of features, and would be a seriously beneficial marketing tool for any business.Under the same roof, you get landing pages, popups, contest management, forms, retargeting ads, marketing automation, and more. That's an excellent feature selection.Perhaps the most impressive part though, is the free package on offer. It means that Wishpond isn't just an additional tool for large businesses, it's also capable of being at the heart of marketing for startups and SMBs.Downsides include a slightly buggy interface (at times) and the lack of a middle ground between the free plan and the $69 plan. Other than that, Wishpond is very much up to scratch.<h3>Pros</h3><ul><li>Wishpond offers a wide range of features, from landing pages to marketing automation.</li><li>Drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for anyone to design pages and popups.</li><li>Templates are varied and very well designed.</li><li>Everything is highly customizable, thanks to pre-set page elements and code access.</li><li>A/B testing, retargeting ads, lead database and custom templates all built in.</li><li>There's a free package.</li></ul><h3>Cons</h3><ul><li>Dragging, dropping and clicking on page elements isn't as responsive as it should be.</li><li>Manually saving a draft removes you from the editor.</li></ul><h2>Final Remarks</h2>I'm personally impressed with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wishpond.com/">Wishpond</a>.It's easy to use, and provides all businesses with avenues into lead generation via landing pages, popups, contests and more. Let alone the marketing automation features and re-targetting ads.It has some flaws, sure, but for brands with small budgets, or even for those with no budget at all, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Wishpond.

Wishpond Review

After <a href="/motocms-3-0-beta-now-available/">being in beta since November 2014</a>, MotoCMS 3.0 has finally arrived.Powering over 140,000 websites across the world, MotoCMS is a website builder with a range of excellently designed templates, and a user interface renowned for its simplicity.MotoCMS 3.0 brings in a new and “revolutionary approach” to color palette tweaking, easier media files management and, of course, responsive design. Here's an overview of what's new.<h2>A Look at MotoCMS 3.0</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-15765x0-is.png" /> MotoCMS 3.0 templates are have been available via TemplateMonster for a while, but now they're formally up for grabs on the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.motocms.com/website-templates/motocms-3-templates/">MotoCMS website</a>, witht eh company making sure everything was ship-shape before an official release.With each one of the cool MotoCMS 3.0 templates you get:<ul><li>100% responsive design;</li><li>Improved WYSIWYG editor with drag-and-drop functionality;</li><li>2-minute step-by-step installation for hosting;</li><li>New plugins and widgets (with more to come);</li><li>Multi-language admin panel;</li><li>24/7 free support;</li><li>Free automatic updates within a product etc.</li></ul>Being totally responsive was something that MotoCMS was struggling with for a while. With Google's latest update making responsive design more important than ever for SEO purposes, MotoCMS have managed to bring their platform into the responsive safety zone with this update.Perhaps the most notable new feature though, is the Color Picker, one of MotoCMS' newest innovations.According to MotoCMS, “this small widget [Color Picker] has great powers for website tweaking. [it] should become a handy tool for color aficionados and for color theory newcomers.”<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/motocms-3_0_-color-picker733x0-is.jpg" /> Color Picker shows main five colors of a template color palette with five additional sub-tones for each one (thus, you have 25 hues to work with).When one colour is changed, all related elements across the entire website will be changed instantly. It's a great way to define a website's colour-set with consistency, from headers to buttons.MotoCMS has come a long way with this update, making their already sleek interface a force to be reckoned with by getting faster and more Search engine friendly. It will certainly be interesting to see how they progress from here on out.There are already over 70 MotoCMS 3.0 templates for users to experiment with, all of which can be <a href="/products/motocms">purchased right here</a>.To find out more about MotoCMS, and to sign up for a totally free trial, <a href="/products/motocms">check out their website</a>.

MotoCMS 3.0 Formally Launched

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