Articles - Page 132

What I Mean to Say: A Practitioner Perspective on AI, Semantics, and Content Evolution

msalvatierra

<p></p>
<p>Perfection is always in your approach. It’s in the manner that you move toward an untouchable ideal. This is what I believe A/B testing is all about, the pursuit of perfection. In the case of A/B testing, perfection would be a conversion rate of 100% — a metric that is completely impossible to achieve.</p>
<p>Any optimization expert’s dream would be to get that rate for the stuff they promote. However, be it <a href="http://medium.com/matter/">longform articles</a>, <a href="/">CMS news</a> or <a href="http://templatemonster.com">ways to create a mesmerizing website look</a> it’s hard to even approach that ideal.</p>
<p>In order to achieve success with A/B testing, one needs to know what to look for. It’s easy to start — what matters, however, is how you decide to continue. Today, we are going to reveal some of the finer points in achieving statistical validity.</p>
<p>It’s A/B testing to the max. Even if that maximum is so miserably unachievable, we’re set on winning anyway.</p>
<h2>The Not-So-Simple Process</h2>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ab1700x0.jpg" /></p>
<p>Running an A/B test effectively requires you to:</p>
<p>1. Define a specific test subject<br />2. Define testing groups<br />3. Perform a P&amp;L analysis<br />4. Design backend environment to support testing (or use an A/B testing tool)<br />5. Execute the test<br />6. Analyze data<br />7. Interpret findings<br />8. Implement changes<br />9. Repeat</p>
<p>Each of those steps is very important. A closer inspection is required.</p>
<h2>Being a Control Freak</h2>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ab2.jpg" /></p>
<p>The first and most important aspect of A/B testing is the control group. You’ve got to keep a baseline result in mind to mark any improvement from your test subjects. Pretesting, therefore, becomes vital. This consists of gathering information about your users. Controlling the criteria of your subjects so that they have greater statistical validity.</p>
<p>To begin with, you need to define your ideal test subject based on the data you’ve gathered. Put together a profile of whose personal leanings you want to gauge. Doing so will help you draw meaningful conclusions from the results of your testing.</p>
<p>Next, you need to gather as much data on your test subjects as possible. Such data can be gathered through your site analytics or purchased from a third party data vendor.</p>
<p>The kind of data that you’re looking depends on who you’re dealing with.</p>
<p><strong>B2C environment</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Age</li>
<li>Geo Location</li>
<li>Race</li>
<li>Gender</li>
<li>Household income</li>
<li>CPC</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>B2B environment</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Size of business</li>
<li>Geo Location</li>
<li>Industry</li>
<li>Estimated Annual Spend</li>
</ul>
<p>The list goes on, and this kind of info is just the tip of the iceberg. Ideally, you want a profile that consists of between 10 and 20 separate criteria.The more specific you are, the better your results will be. You’ll build your customer profile based on certain criteria, and anyone who doesn’t meet those criteria won’t be included in your test results.</p>
<h2>I’d Love to Change the World</h2>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ab3.jpg" /></p>
<p>Now assuming that you’ve ran the numbers and determined that the potential windfall from testing for conversion improvement is greater than the cost of testing (the P&amp;L analysis), you’ll need to think about what aspect of your site should be altered in your test.</p>
<p>You only want to change one feature of your web page at a time. If you test more than one variable, then you don’t know what’s responsible for the difference in visitor behavior. In other words, the test result you’vegeneratedwon’t be as valid. A/B tests undoubtedly provide the best answers to your questions, but they do take longer because you’re only manipulating one variable at a time.</p>
<p>So what should you change? The most common subjects of scrutiny are as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>Copy</li>
<li>Color scheme</li>
<li>CTA text</li>
<li>Typography</li>
<li>Security logos</li>
<li>Imagery</li>
<li>Pricing</li>
<li>Etc.</li>
</ul>
<p>Again, the items you’re testing should be subjective to your service offering and to your customer profile. Use the data at your disposal to determine what’s most important to your customers and test your hypothesis. And <a href="http://blog.templatemonster.com/2014/07/09/overlooked-web-elements-that-make-visitors-love-your-site/">don’t forget about the details</a>.</p>
<h2>Running the Test</h2>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ab5.jpg" /></p>
<p>Now you just need to speak to your developers and have them implement the test. Make sure they’re sending 50% of the subjects to either the control version of the site, or the variable. More importantly, make sure they’re tracking thecontrol and testing groups so you can gather data for a statistically valid summary/finding.</p>
<p>Run the test for a significant period of time, enough to gather your preferred test size. The greater the number of subjects, the more accurate your data. So be patient.</p>
<h2>Reading the Data</h2>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ab4700x0.jpg" /></p>
<p>Interpreting results isn’t as simple as picking the winner. The better performer has to reach a level of statistical validity—at least 95%. Beyond that, you need to let the test run its course. Nothing ruins results like impatience.</p>
<p>Interpreting the data is, in all honesty, the arena of experts. It’s easy to pick a winner between the control and the variable, all you have to do is see which converted the most users at a faster rate. What’s not so easy? Determining what you’ve learned about your users. Finding out requires <a href="https://vwo.com/blog/what-you-really-need-to-know-about-mathematics-of-ab-split-testing/">a good deal of math</a>.</p>
<p>The most important thing to remember, however, is that A/B testing is a slow process that results in incremental improvement. Each test is useful, even the hypotheses that fail can still teach you something about your customer’s psychology.</p>
<p>What best practices have you implemented in you’re A/B tests? Share your experiences in the comments.</p>
<p>Image Copyright <a href="http://www.123rf.com/profile_timbrk">timbrk / 123RF Stock Photo</a></p>
<p></p>


Advanced Guide to A/B Testing: Take Your Site from Professional to Elite

mike-johnston

PlushForums Review

<p>Capturing and engaging increasingly shrewd audiences whilst delivering the smoothest user experience is paramount for any website or application.</p>
<p>However, the creation process, especially in a professional environment, has a long list of requirements. For example, local needs such as language and region-specific services need to be met, whilst corporate guidelines like logos, layouts, corporate information on websites, intranets and extranets need to be respected.</p>
<p>This all translates into constant demands from business teams to their development teams to timely produce and deliver solutions which the audiences are expecting, with the best possible user experience.</p>
<p>To cope with this unrelenting demand, both IT and business teams need to work quickly and together to make sure they deliver the right solution at the right speed.</p>
<p>At least, that’s how it should be.</p>
<p>In reality, there are very few vendors who can actually embrace such a united process. The reasons for this are many, but the results are always the same, with even successful projects resulting in a skewed professional relationship between the two teams.</p>
<p>Digital Factory 7 by Jahia presents a pretty comprehensive approach to this dilemma.</p>
<p></p>
<h2>Digital Factory 7: The Three-part Solution</h2>
<p>The approach taken by Digital Factory 7 can be presented in three major parts:</p>
<h3>1) The Development Part</h3>
<p><a href="http://www.jahia.com/products/studio">Jahia Studio</a> is an exclusive visual User Experience Builder which is suited for developers or solutions builders.</p>
<p>The Studio allows developers to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Visually build complete template structures and layouts for website and/or applications.</li>
<li>Edit sources.</li>
<li>Use snippets.</li>
<li>Fasten and secure dev work (definition editor, code editor, resource bundle editor).</li>
<li>Execute and test code almost in real time (a feature which is typically very rare in java environments).</li>
</ul>
<p>Furthermore, developers can work directly in the Studio or in their IDE or in both at the same time, choosing the most productive tool for the job at any given moment.</p>
<p>Jahia Studio does not intend to replace a Java IDE, but to make developers more productive when it comes to purely the Jahia stuff.</p>
<p>The studio is linked to sources, a SCM (GIT or SVN), as well as the App Store. So, developers can secure their work and push it to the App store whenever a new version is ready.</p>
<h3>2) The Pivot Part</h3>
<p>The Jahia Private <a href="http://www.jahia.com/products/private-app-store">App Store</a> Software is home to information regarding released modules (Jahia building blocks), and compatibility details between a module and Digital Factory versions.</p>
<p>Additionally, the App Store provides approved modules to subscribed Digital Factory servers, and can be either Public or Private.</p>
<p>For instance, a Digital Factory 7 server can subscribe to the vendor main server, to an internal store within its own organization, or to external suppliers/partners’ stores.</p>
<p>Here are some of the advantages the App Store offers:</p>
<ul>
<li>Creation of a re-usable components library.</li>
<li>Better management releases.</li>
<li>Maintenance cost reductions.</li>
<li>Improved risk management (each version is properly tagged and numbered).</li>
<li>No more need for error prone manual exchanges between development and production teams.</li>
</ul>
<h3>3) The Operation Environments Part</h3>
<p>These environments ( test / acceptance / production ) are clients of the App Store, thus allowing production teams to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Be notified of any new events.</li>
<li>Be notified of updates.</li>
<li>Have access details info about modules.</li>
<li>Perform 1-click updates (downloads &amp; deployment).</li>
</ul>
<p>Further to these benefits, Digital Factory 7 environments embed OSGi, which means that administrators can:</p>
<ul>
<li>Hot deploy modules, even in a clustered environment.</li>
<li>Instantly move from one version of a module to the other.</li>
<li>Roll-back to a former module version for the sake of troubleshooting.</li>
</ul>
<p>And that’s how Jahia Digital Factory 7 can help bridge the gap between business and IT departments, facilitating a more controlled app lifecycle, and a far better end result.</p>
<p>To find out more about Digital Factory 7, click here.</p>
<p>Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/jahia/" target="_blank">Jahia Digital Factory via our CMS Directory</a>.</p>
<p></p>


Mastering Application Lifecycles with Jahia Digital Factory 7

<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sitesupra.com/" target="_blank">SiteSupra</a> has announced significant price cuts for its Standard and Business packages.</p>
<p>Fresh after announcing new templates and features, SiteSupra has made this move, “in response to market demand”. </p>
<p> From here on out, the website builder will be charging just $4.99 per month for its Standard plan, rather than the $9.99 in previously charged. Further to this price drop, SiteSupra has improved its drag-and-drop interface and “liquid” page grid.</p>
<h2>Following Their Vision</h2>
<p>SiteSupra now offers one of the lowest pricing plans for website builders on the market. Their plan is to make SiteSupra more available to students, bloggers, small businesses, and other clients who previously may not have been able to afford a professional website.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitesupra700x0.png" alt="SiteSupra" /></p>
<p>The Standard package will now cost $4.99 for 2GB of space and 5GB traffic. The Business package includes e-commerce, unlimited traffic and unlimited space, and will now cost $12.99.</p>
<p>Regarding the price drop, Anton Sulsky, SiteSupra CEO, made these comments:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We have faced a dilemma for the last six months, but have decided to follow our vision and stay committed to providing the maximum support for small businesses that do not have bottomless pockets. These new prices are valid with immediate effect, and have increased SiteSupra's own web traffic by 35%”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For more information on SiteSupra, <a href="http://www.sitesupra.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>, or check out my <a href="/sitesupra-review/" target="_blank">full review of their platform</a>.</p>
<p></p>


SiteSupra Announces Major Price Drop

<p>Love is in the air, but there are no poems or love notes being exchanged. Instead, the numbers are doing all the talking.</p>
<p>Ever since the release of version 1.6, <a href="http://www.prestashop.com/" target="_blank">PrestaShop</a> has been head over heels in love with statistics. As a result, PrestaShop users have been enjoying some unique stat-based benefits, all from the comfort of their PrestaShop back office (otherwise known as the admin panel).</p>
<p>So far this year, PrestaShop – an eCommerce platform with a <a href="/a-closer-look-at-prestashops-global-community/">buzzing global community</a> – has taken a number of big steps to improve itself, achieving <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards/">nomination in two categories for the 2014 CMS Awards</a> in the process.</p>
<p>One of those steps was to make statistics an integral part of the PrestaShop experience. Let's explore how.</p>
<h2>Real-time Margins</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most interesting feature of PrestaShop's statistical relationship, is the real-time profit margin reporting.</p>
<p>The PrestaShop back office dashboard sports a number of useful graphs, including the “Net Profit” graph, which allows you to keep track of your takings in real time.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/profit.png" alt="PrestaShop" /></p>
<p>Merchants with busy online stores will naturally find this feature extremely useful. In fact, since the profit margins change minute by minute, it could even become an addictive graph to stare at.</p>
<p>Not only is this an immensely powerful feature, it's also completely exclusive to PrestaShop.</p>
<p>And yet, the stats love-in doesn't end there.</p>
<h2>Intelligent Merchant KPIs Here, There &amp; Everywhere</h2>
<p>Following the release of PrestaShop 1.6 back in July 2014, PrestaShop users have had the pleasure of seeing Intelligent Merchant KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) on numerous pages within their back office.</p>
<p>These indicators are handy, non-obtrusive metrics which appear on pages such as “Orders” and “Customers”, giving relevant stats where-ever they appear.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kpi700x0.png" alt="PrestaShop" /></p>
<p>For example, the Intelligent Merchant KPIs found on the “Orders” page display conversion rates, average order values and net profit per visit over the last 30 days, along with abandoned carts per day.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the “Customers” page offers up gender and age demographics, as well as average orders per customer and newsletter registrations. All highly relevant information, presented in a simple way.</p>
<p>But still, the numeric romance continues.</p>
<h2>Forecasting &amp; Yet More Integrated Stats</h2>
<p>Forecasting is another notable PrestaShop reporting feature.</p>
<p>Located on the back office dashboard, the forecasting graph shows merchants their predicted metrics for traffic, conversions, average cart values, and sales. The forecast for each value is based off of current and previously recorded stats.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/forecast.png" alt="PrestaShop" /></p>
<p>Further to these powerhouse features, PrestaShop also offers statistics via a dedicated “Stats” page, where merchants can study their best-selling products, most valuable customers, newsletter registrations, and much, much more.</p>
<p>The back office dashboard, home to the real-time profit margin graph and forecasting feature, also hosts a wide range of metrics, including online visitors, active shopping carts, and more. You can even integrate Google Analytics to take things a step further.</p>
<p>So, I think it's safe to say that PrestaShop's relationship with statistics is a strong one.</p>
<p>With real-time features and relevant KPIs scattered around the back office, PrestaShop offers merchants a unique statistical experience that is not only pleasing to look at, but also genuinely helpful in terms of increasing revenue and understanding customers.</p>
<p></p>


PrestaShop's Love Affair with Statistics

<p></p>
<p>To a cheering audience at Sitecore's North American Symposium (#SYMNA), Coveo announced they will now be offering a free edition of their popular search solution for Sitecore.</p>
<p>Coveo for Sitecore – Free Edition helps marketers harness the power of search to drive visitor engagement, by enabling them to build and manage compelling search experiences using their familiar Sitecore management console &amp; tools. Dynamic search pages and search-driven content can be quickly configured, delivering an engaging, consistent visitor experience across all browsers and mobile devices.</p>
<p>The Coveo solution ships with a rich JavaScript user interface, enabling Sitecore developers to build custom search experiences using Coveo’s framework and components. Coveo technology can also be applied to existing CRM and knowledge management platforms for a more effective search experience. To ensure each site visitor is always exposed to the site’s most relevant content, messaging and product offers, Coveo for Sitecore – Free Edition provides administrators with an actionable analytics dashboard and tools to easily tune the solution’s relevance engine.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitecore-coveo.png" /></p>
<p>I asked Coveo’s Chairman and CEO, Louis Têtu to explain why they chose Sitecore as their platform partner of choice and this was his reply:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Sitecore to us has been a great bet, they are well positioned in the space with their offering and have a great platform for web content management and from a technology fit perspective they fit well with us. Coveo is both competent in the cloud but also in the .NET environment and Sitecore architecture worked well with our product from the get go.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For additional details on Sitecore for Coveo, check out the video below:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yPTLKR2jvTc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Check out <a href="http://www.coveo.com/en/sitecore-search">Coveo for Sitecore</a> today.</p>
<p></p>


Coveo Announces Free Edition of Coveo Search for Sitecore #SYMNA

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

#ffffff

<p><a href="https://www.ecwid.com/" target="_blank">Ecwid</a> has taken steps to improve their order status listings, making them more descriptive.</p>
<p>Powering over 500,000 online stores across 175 countries, Ecwid is a popular eCommerce platform with a growing user base.</p>
<p>The new order status system will help existing and new Ecwid merchants by making order management easier for them and their customers. Let's take a look at how Ecwid hope to achieve that.</p>
<h2>Five Order Status Improvements</h2>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/statuses_header_1700x0.png" alt="Ecwid" /></p>
<p>Ecwid have implemented five changes to their order status system, covering more bases and making situations easier to understand for both merchant and customer. Here they all are:</p>
<h3>1. Two New Statuses</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Refunded</strong> in the Payment statuses list</li>
<li><strong>Returned</strong> in the Fulfillment statuses list</li>
</ul>
<p>Ecwid have decided that ‘refunded’ and ‘returned’ each deserve their own status to allow merchants to better track their sales and react to any possible issues.</p>
<h3>2. “<strong>Queued”</strong> &amp; “Accepted” Statuses Renamed to “<strong>Awaiting Payment”</strong> &amp; “<strong>Paid”</strong></h3>
<p>These two new names better describe whether the money has been received from customer or not. This update is sure to clarify each status for both the merchant and the customer.</p>
<h3>3. “<strong>Declined”</strong> has merged with “<strong>Canceled”</strong></h3>
<p>Although an order becomes Declined or Canceled under different conditions (declined is set by the payment gateway while Canceled is set manually by store administrator), the store owner sees both as a canceled order. Now, the formerly independent Declined status appears as Canceled.</p>
<h3>4. “<strong>Chargeable”</strong> Replaced with “<strong>Awaiting Payment”</strong></h3>
<p>Ecwid have claimed that the Chargeable status became redundant because it is either Queued or Awaiting Payment. To eliminate unnecessary complexity, Chargeable no longer exists as a separate status.</p>
<h3>5. “<strong>New”</strong> Renamed to “<strong>Awaiting Processing”</strong></h3>
<p>Similar to Awaiting Payment in the payment status list, Awaiting Processing will say much more to merchants and customers about state of the order rather than New.</p>
<p>And that's it. Subtle changes for some, but they will come in very handy for merchants – especially for those with large amounts of orders.</p>
<p>To learn more about these Ecwid changes, check out the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/ecwid-introduces-improved-order-statuses/" target="_blank">official blog announcement</a>.</p>
<p></p>


Ecwid Introduces Improved Order Statuses

<p></p>
<p>For those of you who don't know, Sitecore are currently hosting their biggest event of the year, <a href="/event-preview-sitecore-symposium-2014-las-vegas/" target="_blank">Sitecore Symposium 2014 Las Vegas</a>.</p>
<p>CMS Critic are on the ground right now to cover the event, in the form of Founder and Editor-in-Chief Mike Johnston.</p>
<p>Mike has already <a href="/the-keynote-sitecore-north-american-symposium-symna/" target="_blank"> covered Sitecore's day one keynote by CEO Michael Seifert</a>, and you can follow his live tweets from the <a href="https://twitter.com/cmscritic" target="_blank"> CMS Critic Twitter page</a>, or by using the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SYMNA?src=hash" target="_blank"> #SYNMA hashtag</a>.</p>
<p>The big news from day one though, is that Sitecore 8 is here – and it's looking impressive.</p>
<h2>Sitecore 8: Simplifying the Extraordinary</h2>
<p>According to Sitecore's official <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Platform/Sitecore-8.aspx" target="_blank">Sitecore 8 overview</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Your organization is unique, your team is unique, your customers are unique. With Sitecore 8 you decide how to customize your Sitecore Experience platform, based on how your business operates and how your customers choose to interact with you. Nothing is limited to out of the box, it’s your platform. You choose.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Those are bold words for what look to be a bold product. Here are some of Sitecore 8's highlights.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/s8_experience_editor700x0.png" alt="Sitecore 8" /></p>
<p>Sitecore 8 promises to bring strong and tangible operational benefits for marketers. Such benefits include:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong> Automated Testing &amp; Optimization: </strong> Marketers can feel confident that the customer experience is being optimized constantly, in real time, through every interaction, over any platform. This confidence travels up through the marketing organization, all the way to the Chief Marketing Officer.</li>
<li><strong> Resulting Focus: </strong> Because customer experience testing and optimization occurs effortlessly, marketers can now focus on other critical tasks.</li>
<li><strong> Customized for Each Business: </strong> The customer experience can be managed based on how the business runs, not how the software dictates.</li>
<li><strong> Consistent Customer Experiences: </strong> Sitecore 8 breaks down the silos among functions, enabling them to work together to create a consistent customer experience.</li>
<li><strong> The Whole Picture: </strong> Marketers gain a complete view of how customers are interacting with the company, even in other systems, websites, or with other permission-based, customer- facing functions.</li>
<li><strong> Insight Sharing: </strong> Marketers can provide insight about customer interactions to other organizations/functions within the company.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Automated Testing &amp; Integrated Commerce Server</h2>
<p>Sitecore 8's ability to automatically test and optimize customer experiences is perhaps the largest weapon in its renewed arsenal.</p>
<p>With this automated testing and optimization going on, marketers don’t need to set up, run, or monitor testing ever again.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/s8_analytics_dashboard700x0.png" alt="Sitecore 8" /><br />
Sitecore will recommend the best content, best segments to target, and the best paths to conversion. Sitecore 8 then automatically writes rules to optimize the new information, leaving marketers to simply review and choose. So, marketing teams can now be absolutely certain that they are providing the optimal experience to every customer, every time.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Sitecore 8 integrates <a href="http://www.commerceserver.net/" target="_blank">Commerce Server</a> with the <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/en-gb/Products/Sitecore-Experience-Platform.aspx" target="_blank">Sitecore Experience Platform</a>.</p>
<p>These combined products provide enterprise-grade commerce capabilities that enable organizations to offer exceptional commerce and customer experiences throughout the customer life cycle, driving both short and long-term revenues. Commerce Server also provides catalog, inventory, and order capture functionality to the Sitecore Experience Platform.</p>
<p>To learn more about Sitecore 8, check out <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Platform/Sitecore-8.aspx" target="_blank">Sitecore's overview of their latest release</a>, as well as their informative <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Learn/Resources-Library/White-Papers/Introducing-Sitecore-8.aspx" target="_blank">Sitecore 8 white paper</a>.</p>
<p>Also, make sure you explore more of <a href="/products/sitecore/" target="_blank">Sitecore via our CMS Directory</a>, and stay tuned for more news and insights from Sitecore Symposium 2014.</p>
<p></p>


Day One of Sitecore Symposium 2014: Exploring Sitecore 8 #SYMNA

<p></p>
<p>As some of you may have seen if you’ve been watching our <a href="http://www.twitter.com/cmscritic">Twitter feed</a>, CMS Critic is on site here in beautiful Las Vegas (thank god because Edmonton has snow at the moment) for Sitecore’s North American Symposium (<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23SYMNA&amp;src=typd">#SYMNA</a> if you want to follow on Twitter).</p>
<p>This morning's keynote kicked off with Sitecore CEO, Michael Seifert taking the stage to discuss the importance of customer experience and to help introduce the new Sitecore 8.</p>
<p><img style="display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitecore2.jpg" /></p>
<p>If you missed our live tweets this morning, I've embedded the best of them below so you can catch up.</p>
<p>[[storify-symna]]</p>
<p>In addition to the keynote, tons of great stories are coming out from this conference. I've provided some links below for those interested, including a great whitepaper highlighting some of the new features in the upcoming release.</p>
<p><strong>Sitecore 8 overview</strong><br /><a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Platform/Sitecore-8.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.sitecore.net/Platform/Sitecore-8.aspx</a></p>
<p><strong>Darren Guarnaccia: Sitecore 8: The art, craft, and humanity of marketing</strong><br /><a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Learn/Blogs/Business-Blogs/Industry-Insight/Posts/2014/09/Sitecore-8.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.sitecore.net/Learn/Blogs/Business-Blogs/Industry-Insight/Posts/2014/09/Sitecore-8.aspx</a></p>
<p><strong>Mark Floisand: Sitecore 8: Simplifying the extraordinary</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Learn/Blogs/Business-Blogs/Mark-Floisand/Posts/2014/09/Sitecore-8.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.sitecore.net/Learn/Blogs/Business-Blogs/Mark-Floisand/Posts/2014/09/Sitecore-8.aspx</a></p>
<p><strong>White paper: Sitecore 8: Simplifying the extraordinary</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Learn/Resources-Library/White-Papers/Introducing-Sitecore-8.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.sitecore.net/Learn/Resources-Library/White-Papers/Introducing-Sitecore-8.aspx</a></p>
<p>For more, stay tuned on <a href="http://twitter.com/cmscriti">Twitter</a> and our blog as we take you through the conference this week.</p>
<p></p>


The Keynote - Sitecore North American Symposium #SYMNA

<p>I've been getting a ton of emails asking for another update on the People's Choice CMS awards since the last time I shared it so I thought now would be a good time to do so again.</p><p>Without further hesitation, here are the results as they stand so far. Keep in mind we still have about a month and a bit to go so the results can change at any time. There are definitely a few upsets since the last time I posted this.</p><p>For major changes, I'll put a note below the result and tell you what changed.</p><h3><strong>Best Cloud CMS for SMB</strong></h3><ol><li>LightCMS   – 49%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.surrealcms.com/">Surreal CMS   </a> – 28%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.acquia.com/products-services/acquia-cloud">Acquia Cloud   </a> – 22%</li></ol><h3>Best Cloud CMS for Enterprise</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.acquia.com/products-services/acquia-cloud">Acquia Cloud   </a> – 50%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.clickability.com/">Clickability   </a>  – 28%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.crownpeak.com/">CrownPeak   </a> – 22%</li></ol><h3>Best CMS for Corporate Intranets</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.liferay.com/">Liferay   </a> – 46%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.entando.com/portal/">Entando   </a> –  33%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.ocportal.com/">ocPortal   </a> –  21%</li></ol><h3>Best eCommerce Solution for SMB</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.prestashop.com/en/">Prestashop   </a> – 44%</li><li><a href="/products/shopify">Shopify   </a> – 42%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://aspxcommerce.com/">ASPx Commerce   </a> – 14%</li></ol><p>Prestashop is really starting to pull ahead from a previous second place with 35% to a 44% jump to #1 they are obviously rallying their forces and pushing for a win.</p><h3>Best eCommerce Solution for Enterprise</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.prestashop.com/en">Prestashop   </a> – 45%</li><li><a href="/products/shopify">Shopify   </a> – 35%</li><li><a href="/products/bigcommerce">BigCommerce   </a> – 20%</li></ol><p>Again, Prestashop is really starting to take over in the eCommerce space, can Shopify &amp; <a href="/products/bigcommerce">BigCommerce</a> rally enough to pull off a win? We'll have to see.</p><h3>Best Free Forum Solution</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://vanillaforums.org/">Vanilla Forums   </a> – 35%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.mybb.com/">MyBB   </a> – 33%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://nodebb.org/">NodeBB   </a> – 31%</li></ol><p>We have a very tight race here for the three forum solutions. It's anyones game at this point.</p><h3>Best Commercial Forum Solution</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://vanillaforums.com/">Vanilla Forums   </a> – 41%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.ninjapost.com/">Ninja Post   </a> – 36%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.invisionpower.com/apps/board/">IP.Board   </a> – 22%</li></ol><h3>Best Enterprise PHP CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://drupal.org/">Drupal   </a> – 58%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://typo3.org/">Typo 3   </a> – 23%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://ez.no/Products/The-eZ-Publish-Platform">eZ Publish   </a> – 19%</li></ol><h3>Best Enterprise Java CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.onehippo.com/en">Hippo   </a> – 50%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.adobe.com/solutions/web-experience-management.html">Adobe AEM   </a> – 31%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.jahia.com/products">Jahia   </a> – 19%</li></ol><h3>Best Enterprise .NET CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitecore.net/">Sitecore   </a> – 43%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentico.com/">Kentico   </a> – 28%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/">Sitefinity   </a> – 28%</li></ol><p>Interestingly, Sitecore is in the lead but Kentico and Sitefinity are battling it out for second place and are completely tied. Can someone rally to take out last year's winner, Sitecore? We'll have to wait and see.</p><h3>Best Enterprise CMS (Other Langs)</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://plone.org/">Plone   </a> – 43%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.getmura.com/">Mura CMS   </a> – 40%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.paperthin.com/">Paperthin Commonspot   </a> – 17%</li></ol><h3>Best Free PHP CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.joomla.org/">Joomla   </a> – 62%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.concrete5.org/">Concrete5   </a> – 24%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.processwire.com/">ProcessWire   </a> – 14%</li></ol><h3>Best Free Java CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/">Magnolia   </a> – 45%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dotcms.com/">dotCMS   </a> – 28%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.liferay.com/">Liferay   </a> – 27%</li></ol><h3>Best Free .NET CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://umbraco.com/">Umbraco   </a> – 44%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://sageframe.com/">Sageframe   </a> – 29%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/">DNN Platform   </a> – 27%</li></ol><h3>Best Free CMS (Other Langs)</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.getmura.com/">Mura CMS   </a> – 52%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://plone.org/">Plone   </a> – 48%</li></ol><p>Mura CMS overtakes Plone but only by a margin, can they hold on to the lead?</p><h3>Best Open Source PHP CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.joomla.org/">Joomla!   </a> – 65%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://modx.com/">MODx   </a> – 18%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://ez.no/Products/The-eZ-Publish-Platform">eZ Publish   </a> – 18%</li></ol><p>MODx and eZ Publish are tied for second, can they rally enough to take out Joomla? You never know.</p><h3>Best Open Source Java CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/">Magnolia   </a> – 40%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.liferay.com/">Liferay   </a> – 37%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://dotcms.com/">dotCMS   </a> – 23%</li></ol><h3>Best Open Source .NET CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://umbraco.com/">Umbraco   </a> – 44%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://sageframe.com/">Sageframe   </a> – 29%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/">DNN Platform   </a> – 23%</li></ol><h3>Best Open Source CMS (Other Langs)</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.getmura.com/">Mura CMS    </a> – 53%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://plone.org/">Plone    </a> – 47%</li></ol><h3>Best Small to Midsize Business PHP CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.cmsmadesimple.org/">CMS Made Simple   </a> – 41%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://buildwithcraft.com/">Craft CMS   </a> – 30%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.impresspages.org/">ImpressPages   </a> – 29%</li></ol><h3>Best Small to Midsize Business Java CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.liferay.com/">Liferay   </a> – 64%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.percussion.com/">Percussion CM1   </a> – 36%</li></ol><h3>Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.orchardproject.net/">Orchard   </a> – 44%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.envisagecms.co.uk/">Envisage CMS   </a> – 30%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/">DNN Evoq Content   </a> – 26%</li></ol><h3>Best Small to Midsize Business CMS (Other Langs)</h3><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.django-cms.org/en/">Django CMS   </a> – 49%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.surrealcms.com/">Surreal CMS   </a> – 31%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.movabletype.com/">Movable Type   </a> – 20%</li></ul><h3>Best Website Builder</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.wix.com/">Wix   </a> – 43%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.squarespace.com">Squarespace   </a> – 35%</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly   </a> – 22%</li></ol><p>There you have it. The results so far.</p><p><a href="/cms-critic-awards"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/votenow-1.png" /></a></p>

People's Choice CMS Awards - Result Update #2

<p></p>
<p>Moxi9, recently re-branded from PHPfox, has unveiled its <a href="http://unity.moxi9.com/store" target="_blank">official store front</a>.</p>
<p>The community CMS has a long history under the name of PHPfox, but are now looking to evolve under the banner of Moxi9.</p>
<p>Although the <a href="http://moxi9.com/announcement/introducing-the-moxi9-store-front" target="_blank">Moxi9 Store is still technically in beta</a>, users can begin to use it freely. Currently, the store offers a range of modules and themes, along with a couple of language packs.</p>
<h2>3rd Party Products &amp; Instant Downloads</h2>
<p>Developers rejoice. If you want to submit your 3rd party Moxi9 product to be listed for sale, you can.</p>
<p>Plus, the Moxi9 store offers a fully integrated checkout for 3rd party products. Once customers have made a purchase, they get access to a download link, allowing them to download products immediately.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot_2014-09-09_at_11_45_07700x0.png" alt="Moxu9 store" /></p>
<p>Additionally, each product comes ready with its own public forum, where customers can discuss and ask questions about the product in question. In addition to user-user based support you can also contact the developer via email.</p>
<p>Moxi9 has told of plans to,”fill up the Store” over the next few weeks.</p>
<p>The first store products were being approved as of last week, and although Moxi9 have admitted their testing policies are currently slowing the process down somewhat, they fully expect products to begin flowing freely before too long.</p>
<p>In any case, as of right now, you can check out the new <a href="http://unity.moxi9.com/store" target="_blank">Moxi9 Store</a>.</p>
<p>Also, be sure to explore more of Moxi9 via our CMS Directory.</p>
<p></p>


Moxi9 Store Front Goes Live

<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.blackmonk.com/" target="_blank">BlackMonk CMS</a> users received good new this week, as version 3.4 of the platform was released.</p>
<p>Founded in 2012, the Banglore based CMS can power online magazines business directories, community portals and more. For more information on BlackMonk, you can read my full <a href="/blackmonk-cms-review/" target="_blank">review of BlackMonk CMS</a>.</p>
<p>Version 3.4 introduces reports for guiding business decisions, a brand new design for a better mobile experience and a range of features which offer greater value to advertisers &amp; partners. </p>
<h2>Business Reports &amp; Content centric design</h2>
<p>BlackMonk v3.4 introduces business reports which provide an accurate indication of user engagement, content submission and revenue generation.</p>
<p>The reports provides information relating to popular pages, monthly revenue streams and so forth.</p>
<p>Publishers can now generate reports for varying time lines and download data in CSV format for further processing in spreadsheet applications. The BlackMonk team have also upgraded the transaction reports, so publishers can now view transactions history of individual users as well download transaction logs in CSV format.</p>
<h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/204a3653-85fd-41ba-b830-54d087d35013700x0.jpg" alt="BlackMonk" /></h2>
<p>BlackMonk v3.4 puts content on the center stage with the introduction of new content centric template. The new template takes a minimalist approach, making it easier for users to browse and read content – even on mobile devices.</p>
<p>In fact, thanks to the new, easy and intuitive navigation, the new template delivers a great user experience across both computers and mobile devices.</p>
<h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ea04b009-52c3-4ac1-b7e2-8531574e438b700x0.jpg" alt="BlackMonk" /></h2>
<p>In addition to the features mentioned above, BlackMonk v3.4 brings forth an enhanced DEALS app, FAQ page options, content management for advertisers, numerous workflow improvements and more.</p>
<p>To get the low down on everything BlackMonk v3.4 introduces, check out the <a href="http://www.blackmonk.com/blog/2014/09/announcing-blackmonk-v34-with-new-templates-business-reports-and-more" target="_blank">official blog announcement</a>.</p>
<p></p>


BlackMonk v3.4 Released With New Templates & Business Reports

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<p></p>
<p>Jimdo, the widely popular website builder, has <a href="http://blog.jimdo.com/introducing-the-new-jimdo-experience-2014/" target="_blank">recently unveiled</a> a newer, sleeker version of itself.</p>
<p>Originally founded in 2004 under the name “NorthClick”, Jimdo has grown into one of the most user-friendly website builders on the market. Now, with the arrival of this “New Jimdo Experience”, the platform is pushing itself even further up the website builder ladder.</p>
<p>This new and improved Jimdo brings about a revamped user interface, modern templates, and much more. Let's take a look.</p>
<h2>New Templates, More Design Features &amp; Smoother Editing</h2>
<p>Along with this update, Jimdo released 30 new templates, with more being prepared. Plus, each new template comes in numerous pre-styled variations, which you can preview with your page’s content before making the change official.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/design_variations700x0.gif" alt="Jimdo" /></p>
<p>Plus, this reformed version of Jimdo allows you to insert and edit text directly on your page, rather than having to open up a separate window or pop-up box. This inline editing feature naturally makes building web pages faster, and a little more fun, too.</p>
<p>To further enhance the design process, Jimdo’s new style editor gives you access to hundreds of customization settings. All you have to do is click on a piece of text, a header image, or a background, before making it look exactly how you want. There's a full colour palette and hundreds of Google Fonts to experiment with.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/fonts700x0.png" alt="Jimdo" /></p>
<p>But that's not all. Jimdo has sprinkled this update with a range of smaller enhancements.</p>
<p>These include an improved shopping basket, new social buttons, improved widget/HTML elements, and even an opacity option for coloured areas.</p>
<p>For some more information on the all new Jimdo, check out their <a href="http://blog.jimdo.com/introducing-the-new-jimdo-experience-2014/" target="_blank">official announcement</a>, plus their <a href="http://blog.jimdo.com/8-jimdo-updates-youll-want-to-try-today/" target="_blank">coverage of the eight notable features</a> that Jimdo users can now enjoy.</p>
<p>Also,be sure to check out <a href="/products/jimdo/" target="_blank">Jimdo via our CMS Directory</a>.</p>
<p></p>


A Look Inside the New Jimdo Experience

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