Articles - Page 142

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

matt-garrepy

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/entrepreneur-593361_1280-1-e1470313740830.jpg" alt="entrepreneur-593361_1280" />
Workplace labor, particularly that of the unskilled and unnecessarily time-consuming variety, has greatly cost the global economy in recent years.
Issues such as frequent employee turnover are costly in many ways (<a href="https://www.zanebenefits.com/blog/bid/312123/Employee-Retention-The-Real-Cost-of-Losing-an-Employee">studies suggest</a> that each time a salaried employee has to be replaced, it costs 6-9 months’ salary, for example). Employee retention remains a challenging and expensive problem for most employers. But one piece of software can mitigate— and maybe even overthrow—many organization-wide issues. Efficient processes and educated, efficient workers are the backbone of global economic health, and Document Management Software (DMS) can help revitalize the global economy.
You may be thinking it sounds unrealistic (or at least overly optimistic) to say the right DMS can help retain talented employees, boost worker morale, and even improve employee wellness. However, it’s not too good to be true. Here are 5 ways DMS can help save the world’s workforce.
<h2>1. DMS = Happier Employees</h2>
“I sure love my time-consuming, manual paper processes!” said no employee, ever. Yet that is what a lot of employees spend a lot of time doing, even in this high-tech Information Age. Not only are these archaic methods of pushing paper incredibly painful for the employees pushing it, they are costly for the organization.
Science has proven that happy employees are more productive employees—see recent studies by the <a href="http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/new_study_shows/">University of Warwick</a> or Harvard’s Shawn Achor (The Happiness Advantage is full of engaging stats on the subject). Warwick’s Dr. Sgroi says, “The driving force seems to be that happier workers use the time they have more effectively, increasing the pace at which they can work without sacrificing quality.”
Employees who are empowered with cutting-edge technologies that make their work life easier and much less mundane are happier on the job. And, since happier employees are even more efficient, that makes for lots of happier bosses, as well.
<h2>2. DMS Helps Retain (and Expand) Talent</h2>
Employee attrition is expensive. In today’s economic climate, companies are fighting to attract, train, and retain valuable workforce. Going paperless through DMS frees up time, money, and resources to acquire and train human capital internally instead of accessing it from universities, staffing programs, or other third parties. Unskilled labor is the result of insufficient training, and insufficient training can be resolved through DMS.
Employees enjoy being valuable assets, and, as a precursor to establishing their value, employees can increase productivity by using the right document management software. Employees also appreciate continuing education and skill acquisition opportunities, which can be implemented in lieu of counterintuitive, outdated application training.  Employers find this generates a great return on their human capital investment.
<h2>3. DMS Optimizes Human Capital</h2>
In economics, human capital refers to the economic value of a person’s or group of people’s labor. Any paper-based office management process reduces employees’ output, and therefore human capital. If your employees are spending time walking to printers, or searching through drawers for files (this is much more costly than you’d think), you’re losing valuable human capital resources.
Going paperless through DMS optimizes human capital through automation, simplified workflow, reduced document storage redundancy, and other cost savings.
<h2>4. DMS Reduces White Collar Manual Labor</h2>
Although paper-based offices are seldom viewed as a source of manual labor, paper-dependency is to organizations what the shovel is to the coal mine, or the hammer is to the construction site. Whether your employees are wearing white collars or a hard hat, paperwork is equal to grunt work for your labor force.
Eliminate this wasteful (and morale-crushing) burden through DMS, and ‘de-manualize’ your labor.
<h2>5. DMS Means Time for the Important Stuff– Like Ping Pong Tournaments</h2>
What do you do with all that time you’re saving as a paperless office? How about a little friendly inter-office ping pong competition? Office karaoke, anyone?  With all the time and money you’re recouping with your DMS, you can easily shut the office down early one afternoon and have an employee picnic instead.
Companies around the world have figured out that employee wellness is key to their success. Just check out Google; with <a href="http://www.inc.com/business-insider/best-google-benefits.html">on-campus bowling alleys, gyms, and scooters for employees to ride around the office</a>, they know the formula for employee creativity. DMS frees up time and resources so you can splurge on some office fun.
Other DMS benefits include cross-cultural collaboration to a worldwide workforce. DMS eliminates knowledge silos that paper-dependent organizations bring when attempting to bridge communication and cultural barriers in the age of globalization. DMS adoption leads to interconnectivity, optimized performance, and streamlined economic progress at the global level, as well as across departments within your own office building.
The right electronic document management system plays an integral role not only in optimizing your organization’s work environment, but perhaps the economy’s as a whole. It’s time for your organization to go paper-free and help save the world’s workforce—one DMS implementation at a time.#
<hr />
This post is <a href="/advertising/">sponsored</a> by eFileCabinet. Find out more at <a href="http://www.efilecabinet.com/">efilecabinet.com</a>.

Saving the World’s Workforce — One DMS at a Time

mike-johnston

<a href="https://www.semrush.com/blog/what-are-keywords-simple-keyword-definition/" target="_blank">Keywords</a> are the lifeblood of SEO. When used properly, they can juice the search performance of any website and drive more traffic. Of course, they've become somewhat of a precious commodity when utilized for Google Ads campaigns, fluctuating like the price of gold based on their volume metrics.
For most website builder platforms, the fundamentals of technical SEO (search engine optimization) are often engineered into the platform on an architectural level. This might be in the form of structured data on a website template that governs the use of an H1, H2, aria-label, and so on. But there hasn't been as much direct integration with rich keyword tools, leaving marketers to run separate reports and seed keywords in their CMS.
That's about to change for <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wix-to-host-first-ever-developers-conference-wix-devcon-2022/">Wix</a>, a leading SaaS website builder for creating, managing, and growing websites. The company just announced a partnership with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/semrush-and-yoast-partner-to-enhance-wordpress-seo-and-digital-marketing/">Semrush</a>, a leading online visibility management platform, that will enable Wix users to access Semrush’s SEO keyword data directly through the Wix Platform. The integration will help users identify the right keywords for their website to help improve their rankings in search results.
<h2>Semrush brings industry-leading SEO keyword optimization to Wix websites</h2>
Powered by Semrush’s global database of more than 21 billion keywords, the new integration enables users to easily find the most relevant and effective keywords for their website without leaving the Wix platform. This includes access to critical metrics like search intent and keyword difficulty generated from Semrush’s rich SEO toolkit. 
The integration is available through <a href="https://support.wix.com/en/article/wix-seo-wiz-creating-your-seo-checklist-in-the-wix-seo-wiz" target="_blank">Wix’s SEO Setup Checklist</a>, a tool that guides Wix users on how to optimize their website for SEO and get it indexed on Google – with actionable steps and educational resources.
In addition to performance, reliability, and security improvements, Wix has recently augmented its suite of SEO tools. This includes adding 25 new SEO features and products over the past year, as well as hundreds of SEO-related enhancements. As a result of this focused investment, the SEO community has begun embracing Wix. 
The Semrush integration will live inside the Wix dashboard in the SEO Tools section:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/09/wix-semrush-seo-tools.jpg" alt="Wix SEO Tools screen" />
The keyword insights from Semrush provide useful metrics such as:
<ul>
<li>keyword volume</li>
<li>keyword trends showing how popular the keyword is and how popular the keyword has been over time</li>
<li>keyword difficulty, which shows how competitive that particular keyword is, and search intent (i.e. commercial, informational)</li>
</ul>
You can also select and add your favorite keywords and save them to your SEO setup checklist:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/09/wix-keyword-insights-screenshot.jpg" alt="Wix EMRush SEO Tools dashboard" />
<h2>A partnership aligned around website experience and organic SEO</h2>
The new integration with Semrush is available to all Wix users in English. Users will need to have a Semrush account to leverage the integration; the usage quota available will depend on the account connected to their website, starting at a daily limit of 10 words for free Semrush accounts.
“It’s always been our mission to help businesses and search professionals have one unified platform to grow their site’s visibility in search engines,” said Nati Elimelech, Head of SEO at Wix. “With this integration, we’re taking another notable step in democratizing SEO by enabling our users to conduct better research and choose the right keywords and topics to focus on in their content strategy, right from within their dashboard. We are dedicated to making SEO more accessible to everyone and helping our users to make better decisions that will impact their organic growth.”
Both companies appear bullish about the value of the integration. For Wix, arming its users with advanced SEO marketing features may differentiate the platform in a dense market of competitors like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/squarespace-a-diy-website-builder-1/">Squarespace</a> – and enhancing its portfolio with foundational tools like Semrush will help amplify its perceived value, improve loyalty across its community, and attract new users.
For Semrush, Wix presents a broad channel of access to website owners who might now be thinking about the importance of keywords but now have easy access to an industry-leading toolset. 
“By leveraging Semrush’s keyword databases and metrics, Wix is giving users the necessary tools to find smart opportunities and improve their ranking on Google. As Organic Search traffic is incredibly valuable, the new integration in Wix can help to grow their businesses,” said Marcus Tober, SVP of Enterprise Solutions at Semrush. “Now is the time for business owners to take website and online marketing management into their own hands, and platforms like Wix and Semrush can help them do it.”
Want to learn how to conduct keyword research with Wix's Semrush integration? Visit <a href="https://www.wix.com/seo/learn" target="_blank">Wix's SEO Hub</a> and explore this great <a href="https://www.wix.com/seo/learn/resource/keyword-research-wix-semrush-integration" target="_blank">tutorial.</a>
<h2>About Semrush</h2>
Semrush is a leading online visibility management SaaS platform that enables businesses globally to run search engine optimization, pay-per-click, content, social media and competitive research campaigns and get measurable results from online marketing. Semrush offers insights and solutions for companies to build, manage, and measure campaigns across various marketing channels. Semrush, with over 91,000 paying customers, is headquartered in Boston and has offices in Philadelphia, Trevose, Austin, Dallas, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Limassol, Prague, Warsaw, and Yerevan.
<h2>About Wix</h2>
Wix is a leading platform for creating, managing and growing a digital presence. What began as a website builder in 2006 is now a complete platform providing users with enterprise-grade performance, security and reliable infrastructure. Offering a wide range of commerce and business solutions, and advanced SEO and marketing tools, Wix enables users to have full ownership of their brand, their data, and their relationships with their customers. With a focus on continuous innovation and the delivery of new features and products, anyone can build a powerful digital presence to fulfill their dreams on Wix.

Wix and Semrush Partner to Provide Users with Valuable Keyword Data to Help Grow Online Visibility

cms-critic-staff

Image of Wix and Semrush logos against a purple background

Regular reader will have noticed our DNN Software coverage this week, as part of CMS Critic's first round of Featured Weeks.
But the world of CMS whirled on in the background, and so it's only right that we bring you the highlights from this past week.
<h2>Ghost's Transparency</h2>
This week, Ghost delivered on it promise to be more “transparent” (yes, I know, the irony) by revealing their revenue in full.
The blogging platform has also released a “Revenue Dashboard”, inspired by a similar feature offered by Buffer last year.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/baremetrics1.png" />
Ghost's annual revenue so far is $411k, and the revenue dashboard offers up a whole host of other revenue-related metrics.
<a href="http://blog.ghost.org/april-2015-update/" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.
<h2>US Shopify Users Get Google Wallet</h2>
Shopify, one of the world's leading eCommerce solutions, recently announced the arrival of Google Wallet for its US user base.
The introduction of Google Wallet is another effort from Shopify to simplify their mobile checkout process.
Shoppers who have their Google Wallet already set up will be able to simply click “Buy with Google”, instead of typing in their credit card details, billing, and shipping address on a tiny virtual keyboard.
<a href="https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/accelerated-checkouts/google-pay" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.
<h2>WordPress 4.2 On The Horizon</h2>
For those of you who don't know, WordPress is the most widely used CMS (and yes, it is a CMS) in the world.
Thus, the arrival of its latest version, WordPress 4.2, is being eagerly awaited.
The fourth beta was recently released, meaning that the final release of version 4.2 shouldn't be too far away at all. In fact, it could be a matter of days rather than weeks.
<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2015/04/wordpress-4-2-beta-4/" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.

Weekly News Roundup: Ghost Revenue, Shopify's Google Wallet & WordPress 4.2

Following the recent release of <a href="/bigcommerce-launch-bigcommerce-next-beauty-brawn-brains/#.Uyl28fl_vvU">Bigcommerce Next</a> – which includes blogging functionality, <a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce</a> have this week introduced further blogging improvements to help merchants produce and present content more professionally.Since the launch of <a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce</a> Next, users have written more than 18,000 individual blog posts, with almost 500 new blog posts per day. So, these new blogging features will surely be welcomed.Let's take a peak at what's new.<h2>Front End Enhancement</h2>To increase readership, visitors to your Bigcommerce blog will now see the most recent blog post appear in full. Previous posts are listed less dramatically underneath.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blog-main-page.jpg" alt="Bigcommerce blog" />Additionally, thumbnail images have been incorporated to increase click-through rates. Plus, no blog is complete without an image or two.<h2>Tag Filtering &amp; Google Authorship</h2>Bigcommerce has also made finding content easier for blog visitors via the implementation of tags.Now, when a reader clicks on a tag in one of your posts, they’ll be taken to a page that features all posts with that tag. This enables readers to filter posts by topic and helps them better navigate your blog and find posts that interest them, increasing their engagement.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blog-tag-page.jpg" alt="Bigcommerce tags" />Furthermore, having tag pages with the tag in the URL helps Google and other search engines find and categorize your blog posts, which should aid you and your blog in the terms of search engine optimization.Finally, <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/why-google-authorship-is-so-important-for-the-content-you-create-and-how-to-set-it-up">Google Authorship</a> is also now supported. Google Authorship lets online authors claim their content and build authority on certain subjects by linking blog posts to their Google+ profile page.It helps increase your click-through rates from Google search results because searchers will see a “rich snippet” that includes a preview of your post and your profile picture.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blog-serp700x0.jpg" alt="Bigcommerce Google Authorship" />Now you can add the URL of your Google+ page to your post and Bigcommerce will automatically link it to your account with a rel=”author” link, a requirement for Google Authorship. You’ll then start seeing your author profile in your blog search results on Google. It's that easy.A 15 day free trial of Bigcommerce Next can be found on the  <a href="/products/bigcommerce">official Bigcommerce website</a>.Additionally, you can explore more of <a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce via our CMS Directory</a>.

Bigcommerce Introduce New Blogging Improvements

CMS Critic's very first <a href="/featured-weeks/" target="_blank">featured week</a> is all about DNN Software, and we're now taking a closer look at how <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8</a> helps to ease platform migration for brands through some stellar integration options.
The .NET platform is trusted by over 2,000 brands worldwide, including a range of Fortune 500 companies. DNN was also the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
<img style="max-width:234px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/evoqcontent_1.png" />
<h2>The Importance of Integration</h2>
Adopting a new platform for your website (or websites) isn't the easiest task in the world, especially if it means having to leave behind the extra apps and solutions your company already works with.
For example, if your company depends on Microsoft Sharepoint as a digital asset manager, switching to a CMS which doesn't readily support such integration will hit your team hard. The double whammy of having to adapt to a new CMS as well as having to live life without Sharepoint will be a difficult pill swallow, for everyone.
Of course, Sharepoint is but one example, with most companies relying on a range of intranets and marketing suites to keep workflows in check and business in order.
Hence, the heightened importance of solid integration options — because nobody wants to deal with that double whammy.
<h2>All The Essentials, And Then Some</h2>
After already <a href="/how-dnn-evoq-8-charges-advocate-marketing-with-gamification/" target="_blank">discussing DNN Evoq 8 from a advocate marketing standpoint</a>, let's now delve into what it serves up on the integrations front.
<img style="max-width:760px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/integrations-configure.png" />
According to DNN, Evoq 8, “connects easily to popular cloud marketing software and social media networks, so you can use familiar and preferred solutions to extend your website’s functionality.”
Here's what DNN serves up as readily available integrations:
<ul>
<li>Google Analytics integrates just as easily as it always does.</li>
<li>Marketo can be configured even without any technical knowledge.</li>
<li>Storage Solutions including Box, Dropbox, Amazon S3 and Sharepoint can all be accessed simultaneously from a single window.</li>
<li>Extended Microsoft Sharepoint integration, with features that enable you to schedule publications, push documents, share lists, and synchronize files between Evoq Content and SharePoint.</li>
</ul>
But that's not all.
<a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015">DNN Evoq 8 also boasts a fully fledged store</a>, which is home to a vast array of modules built to extend website functionality.
Many modules have been developed to add functionality in their own way, while others are there to help integrate with systems like Mailchimp, Google Maps, and so forth.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-33.png" />
And just in case none of that is enough, DNN also allows you to craft custom integrations via Evoq API.
DNN's powerful development libraries are there to help you build interactive web applications, integrate with ERP, CRM, marketing automation systems, and much more.
So, with all of those integration options and tools on offer, it's safe to say that DNN Evoq 8 is equipped to help any brand avoid the aforementioned double whammy during platform migration.
And of course, it's also more than ready to help existing DNN customers expand their website functionality.
To find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8, <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

A Closer Look at DNN Evoq 8's Integration Options

Continuing with our featured coverage of DNN Software, it's time to take a look at how <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8</a> helps brands to engage with existing users and customers.
DNN Evoq Content is trusted by over 2,000 brands worldwide, including a range of Fortune 500 companies. DNN was also the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
DNN Evoq 8 combines advocate marketing and gamification features to give brands the tools they need to first engage with their users and customers, before using them as standalone marketers.
<h2>What is Advocate Marketing &amp; Gamification?</h2>
Not sure what on earth do these two terms mean? Don't worry, because as per usual, they sound more complicated than they are.
<h3>Advocate Marketing</h3>
Advocate marketing is the process of turning your customers and users into marketers.
Ideally, advocate marketing is carried out by a brands most regular and most passionate customers, who are therefore happy to preach positive news and views about the brand in question.
<h3>Gamification</h3>
Gamification simply means using game mechanics to engage users in solving problems. This could include a leveling system, where users or community members get rewarded with different levels of titles once they complete certain tasks.
For exmaple, giving a forum member a special title once they reach 100 forum posts, is a type of gamification.
The purpose of gamification is to improve user engagement, return on investment, data quality, timeliness, and learning.”
<h2>How DNN Expertly Blends The Two</h2>
The release of DNN Evoq Content 8 has brought advocate marketing and gamification together.
Their gamification engine was already in place beforehand, giving brands the opportunity to reward their audience for participating in the community, be in via discussion, task completion or otherwise.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-321079x0.png" />
DNN's gamification features come in the form of badges, reputation points, leaderboards and more.
Now though, with a newly introduced advocate marketing feature, DNN Evoq's gamification engine has a counterpart to work in tandem with.
Evoq 8 enables Marketers to activate the brand advocates already on their website by rewarding them for sharing content on their personal social networks.
The advocacy marketing capability is integrated with Evoq’s native gamification engine, and engages customers by issuing challenges, tracking challenge completions, and awarding points, badges, or other designated incentives.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/advocate-create-challenge1.png" />
By creating challenges for users to meet, brands can incentivize sharing content on social media. For instance, the example above shows a social sharing challenge, which rewards the user with 25 points for sharing news of an upcoming webinar.
As you can see, the challenge setup process is supremely straightforward, with URLs, titles, instructions, and points all easy to configure.
Each challenge can be set to be either locked or open for public editing. Challenges can also have expiration dates and times for completion.
A simple, yet effective idea which slots in very well alongside (and complements) DNN's existing gamification options.
To find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8, <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

How DNN Evoq 8 Charges Advocate Marketing With Gamification

One of the stops on the <a href="/cms-critic-is-touring-north-america-and-europe-this-year/" target="_blank">CMS Critic North American Tour</a> was at DNN Software, the company behind <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content</a>.
DNN Evoq Content is used by over 2,000 businesses worldwide, including a number of Fortune 500 companies. DNN was also the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
The company recently launched DNN Evoq 8, “A CMS built for marketers to deliver today's modern web experiences.”
<img style="max-width:234px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/evoqcontent.png" />
DNN Evoq 8 was released to bring additional focus to the following four key areas:
<h3>1. Content Personalization</h3>
Evoq 8 enables users to build personalization rules that tailor site content based on visitors’ profiles.
Rules can be based on geography, account registration (i.e. registered versus non-registered users), gender, age, recent visits, referral source, search terms and ad clicks.
<h3>2. Page-Level Content Analytics</h3>
Statistics on page views, referrers, unique visitors, and conversions are presented as an overlay on each web page, via data collected and managed by Evoq.
Making these stats more accessible means that any marketer, regardless of their level of proficiency with analytics, can immediately understand how content is performing, without navigating away from the page in question.
<h3>3. Centralized Access to Cloud-Hosted Content Repositories</h3>
Evoq 8 includes built-in connectors to Box, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and SharePoint, making it easy to access any piece of content or digital asset from a single window.
This capability allows marketers and content producers to use their preferred content storage service or use multiple services, without moving files, duplicating effort, or wasting valuable time.
<h3>4. Advocate Marketing</h3>
Evoq 8 enables marketers to activate the brand advocates already on their webiste by rewarding them for sharing content on their personal social networks.
The advocacy marketing capability is integrated with Evoq’s native gamification engine, and engages customers by issuing challenges, tracking challenge completions, and awarding points, badges, or other designated incentives.
Now, although these four areas have been impressively enhanced, there's a lot more to DNN Evoq 8 that goes beyond just new features and functionality.
<h2>Beyond Standard Enterprise Content Management</h2>
After the recent <a href="/walkthrough-of-dnn-evoq-content-8-with-cms-critic/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8 video walkthrough</a>, Mike Johnston made a very interesting observation about the nature of DNNs latest release:
<blockquote>“Let me tell you folks, this is one impressive looking piece of software. They have completely done away with the dashboard (in the manner that there is no longer a back end admin interface to log into) and moved into a more “website builder look”.
The good part being that there was no loss in functionality so I consider Evoq 8 (and you can quote me on this) a website builder for Enterprises.”</blockquote>
A website builder for enterprises? Now that's an angle worth exploring.
Simplicity and ease of use was definitely high on the priorities list for DNN Evoq 8.
It's the removal of the traditional dashboard that has shifted the focus towards front end content editing, which in turn resembles that website builder experience.
Users can log in and immediately begin working on the page they're viewing. The sidebar offers up contextualised administrative functionality, giving the user the tools they need depending on the type of content appearing on the page.
DNN Software's CEO, Navin Nagiah, gave further insight into this newly crafted user experience during his interview with Mike Johnston:
<blockquote>“Our eventual goal is to make it so that, when somebody starts using the software, they [already] know how to use it. No training, no user manuals, no videos to watch, nothing. The software has to speak to the user.
We want to take the same user experience that you have in consumer apps and devices, and apply it to the business world. So Evoq 8 is an important milestone, but we are going to get even better as we go forward for the releases this year and next year.”</blockquote>
Perhaps the most interesting element of the above quote is how Navin Nagiah implies that DNN Evoq 8 is but a stepping stone towards an even simpler user experience, which we will hopefully see manifested in future DNN releases.
For now though, marketers can enjoy DNN Evoq 8 for what it is; an enterprise-grade powerhouse of a website builder.
To find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8, <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

DNN Evoq 8: Beyond Content Management

Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

#ffffff

Landing pages serve as an entry point for a website, and they usually have one goal:To convert visitors.Converting visitors may include selling a product, gaining email addresses, sending traffic to a different page, and so forth. But no matter what the end goal is, marketers across the web use landing pages to achieve it.Without a well placed landing page or two on your website, you'll have to rely on your website's design to funnel your visitors towards your website's end goal. Now, although that's not impossible, the standard website will never match the conversion efficiency of <a target="_blank" href="https://blog.kissmetrics.com/c-o-n-v-e-r-t-s/">a strong landing page</a>.<h2>What Does a Landing Page Look Like?</h2>Landing pages come in many different forms, and brand typically design them to reflect the rest of their brand and website.But even the biggest brands in the world use landing pages. Here's one from CodeAcademy:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-11.png" alt="sshot-11" />As you can see, their landing page (which also happens to be their homepage) is sleek, simple, and guides the visitor towards signing up. Classic landing page design.Now that we've established what a landing page is, here are twelve of the very best landing page builders that you can use today:<h2>1. <a target="_blank" href="https://instapage.com">Instapage</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/instapage.png" alt="instapage landing page builder" />Instapage is one of the most popular landing page builders on the list. It boasts responsive templates, drag-and-drop editing, over 5,000 fonts and 33,000,000 images to freely work with.  It also allows you to use widgets, parallax scrolling, and custom code.Instapage can also build forms, carry out A/B testing, and display visitor statistics.Prices From: $29 p/m<h2>2. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wishpond.com/">Wishpond</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wishpond.png" alt="Wishpond landing page builder" />Wishpond is another big player in the landing page builder market. It offers some nicely crafted templates, custom code customization, analytics, Facebook publishing, A/B testing, forms, and social promotion features.I recently published a <a href="/wishpond-review/">Wishpond Review</a> which goes into further detail on the popular platform.Prices From: $44 p/m<h2>3. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.leadsquared.com/">Leadsquared</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/leadsquared.png" alt="leadsquared landing page builder" />Leadsquared is a lead generation platform that offers a whole range of features, all aimed at converting website visitors.Landing page building is on the feature list alongside website widgets, marketing automation, analytics, email campaigns, SMS campaigns, mobile customer relationship management, and much more. It's one of the most feature-rich products on this list, and yet, the price is the most reasonable.Prices From: $15 p/m<h2>4. <a target="_blank" href="http://unbounce.com/">Unbounce</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/unbounce.png" alt="Unbounce landing page builder" />Unbounce offers some beautiful landing page templates, and integrates well with many popular marketing and CRM platforms, including Hubspot, WordPress, Salesforce, Mailchimp, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.zoho.com/crm/">Zoho CRM</a>.You can publish an unlimited amount of pages on Unbounce's lowest plan, make use its drag-and-drop interface, use full-screen backgrounds, embed videos, and more.Prices From: $49 p/m<h2>5. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pagewiz.com/">Pagewiz</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pagewiz.png" alt="Pagewiz landing page builder" />Pagewiz is a solid landing page builder that lets you send captured emails to multiple places; so you can automatically add new emails to your email campaign system as well as your CRM.Pagewiz also boasts widgets, real-time analytics, A/B testing, and the ability to manage multiple accounts from the same interface – making it ideal for marketing agencies.Prices From: $29 p/m<h2>6. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.megaphoneapp.com/">Megaphone</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/megaphone.png" alt="Megaphone landing page builder" />Megaphone is a good old fashioned landing page builder that focuses on one thing: creating stunning landing pages.Their templates are pretty darn good, catering for things like events, webinars, thank you messages, sales, and so forth. It integrates with a range of email campaign platforms, gives real-time stats, and lets you deploy your landing page as pop-ups, too.Prices From: $49 p/m<h2>7. <a target="_blank" href="https://landerapp.com/">Lander</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/lander.png" alt="Lander landing page builder" />Lander is a reasonably priced landing page builder with drag-and-drop page management, Facebook publishing, A/B testing, mobile landing pages, and PayPal integration.Like Unbounce, Lander lets you create unlimited pages, even on its cheapest plan (which is relatively cheap indeed).Prices From: $22 p/m<h2>8. <a target="_blank" href="http://instabuilder.com/v2.0/launch/">Instabuilder</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/instabuilder.png" alt="Instabuilder landing page builder" />Not looking to commit to a monthly subscription fee? Instabuilder 2.0 may be for you.For a one off fee, you can use the web app to build landing pages with its drag-and-drop interface and widgets. It's not as well polished as some of the other products on this list, but it's a lot cheaper in the long run.Prices From: $77<h2>9. <a target="_blank" href="https://app.kickofflabs.com">Kickoff Labs</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kickofflabs.png" alt="KickoffLabs landing page builder" />Kickoff Labs is another tools that is – once again – more than just a landing page builder.Their templates are sound, and they offer features such as contest management, pop-ups, A/B testing, and automatic email responses. Interestingly, you can even import your own HTML landing pages into Kickoff Labs and integrate it with the rest of their platform.Prices From: $39 p/m<h2>10. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.leadpages.net">Leadpages</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/leadpages.png" alt="Leadpages landing page builder" />Much like the other products on this list, Leadpages offers mobile friendly landing page templates that can be customized without coding. The difference? Leadpages is able to complete visitor signups via SMS – which helps you expand your reach beyond just email.Facebook publishing, exit pop-ups, video backgrounds, and HTML editing make up some of Leadpages' other features. Also, like Unbounce and Lander, there's no limit to the amount of landing pages you can publish.Prices From: $25 p/m<h2>11. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.1minutesites.com/">1MinuteSites</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1minutesites.png" alt="1minutesites landing page builder" />As the name suggests, 1MinuteSites focuses on getting your landing page out into the world as quickly as possible.You can use it publish landing pages on Facebook, on your own site, or on their domain. You can also use it to create pop-ups and notification bars, or hide content from a visitor until they share it on social media. However, it doesn't have the prettiest templates, nor is it the cheapest option.Prices From: $39.95 p/m<h2>12. <a target="_blank" href="http://landingi.com/">Landingi</a></h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/landingi.png" alt="Landingi landing page builder" />Last but not least is Landingi. This platform offers up a seriously detailed customization interface that some may even find overwhelming. But if you're looking to finely tune your landing page, look no further.Their templates are bright and airy, and it also lets you A/B test, build forms, and view statistics. Landingi also boasts a lead inbox that lets you manage all the leads you gather.Prices From: $29 p/m<h2>Start Profiting From Your Traffic</h2>Your traffic may be flowing nicely, but a landing page will help funnel those visitors towards your product, your newsletter signup page, or any other place that you can profit from.Do you use any other landing page builders? Tell us about them in the comments section below!

12 Epic Landing Page Builders to Boost Conversions

Commercial content management systems need to offer simplicity by default, but without leaving out technical options to help organizations customize and evolve over time. <a href="http://www.envisagecms.co.uk/" target="_blank"> Envisage</a> does a pretty good job on both those fronts.
Envisage are a UK based CMS, offering their commercial platform as on-premise, with easy and flexible editing in mind.
Their offering of a real-time WYSIWYG editor keeps things straightforward for those who need it, whilst full source code editing, multi-device previews, template creation and more, all provide technical users with the tools they need to go forth and create.
<h2>Real-time &amp; Responsive WYSIWYG Editing</h2>
With a user friendly real-time WYSIWYG editor, even those with limited knowledge of web design can start implementing their ideas into web pages.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/envis2700x0.png" alt="Envisage WYSIWYG Editor" />
But the Envisage WYSIWYG editor also goes a step further. Thanks to Envisage mobile, you can always be on hand to approve new content, create new pages and insert new content right from the screen of your mobile device.
Furthermore, to ensure editing is done correctly and to the highest standard, Ensivage enables you to preview your website in three different formats; Desktop, Tablet and Smartphone.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/envis3700x0.png" alt="Envisage Multi-Device Preview" />
This intelligent multi-device preview option ensures that your content doesn't just look good on desktops,whilst lacking in quality on mobile devices. It enables you to tweak the design via the different mobile views in order to perfect it on all channels.
And yet, you never have to leave the comfort of the Envisage WYSIWYG editor.
<h2>Purpose Built Apps, Widgets &amp; More</h2>
As impressive as the real-time and responsive editing options are, Envisage CMS goes even beyond that in terms of flexibility.
Built-in <a href="http://www.envisagecms.co.uk/features/apps" target="_blank">Envisage Apps</a> make general use of the platform extremely dynamic. These include a feature-filled form builder, integrated Google Analytics, and more. Also, Envisage mobile, an app which I have already discussed, enables editing from any device on the move.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/envis4700x0.png" alt="Envisige Form Builder" /> 
<a href="http://www.envisagecms.co.uk/features/widgets" target="_blank">Envisage Widgets</a> – which are all free for Envisage users, enable you to integrate elements like Google Maps, Vimeo, Twitter feeds, social buttons and much more into web pages, with a simple drag-and-drop function.
But Envisage doesn't stop there.
Their platform is highly compatible with search engines, and offers detailed search engine optimization configurations, including keywords and page descriptions, alt text and descriptions for images, links and so forth.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/envii454700x0.png" alt="Envisage File Management" /> 
File management is also a key feature, with users being able to upload and manage web assets. Yet more drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to add new files and folders, whilst folder management, search and categorisation ensures that your organization will never lose a file, or need to re-upload an image ever again.
To find out more about Envisage CMS, check out their <a href="http://www.envisagecms.co.uk/" target="_blank">official website</a>, where a free online demo can be accessed.
Additionally, you can check out <a href="/products/envisage/" target="_blank">Envisage via our CMS Directory</a>.

Envisage: a Commercial CMS Built for Simple & Responsive Editing

As part of our North American tour (which you can learn more about <a href="/cms-critic-is-touring-north-america-and-europe-this-year/">here</a>) we are visiting a number of vendors throughout North America. One such vendor was DNN Software. In the following video, I had an opportunity to sit with Will Morgenweck, VP of Product Management for DNN Software and have him show me through their latest release, Evoq Content 8.
<img style="max-width:234px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/evoqcontent.png" />
Let me tell you folks, this is one impressive-looking piece of software. They have completely done away with the dashboard (in the manner that there is no longer a back end admin interface to log into) and moved into a more “website builder look”. The good part being that there was no loss in functionality so I consider Evoq 8 (and you can quote me on this) a website builder for Enterprises.
Check out the video in which Will walks me (and you as you watch) through this great release with the occassional question from me along the way.
Enjoy.
https://youtu.be/bxIxRMh3cyo
Interested in learning more about Evoq 8? Check out <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/">their listing</a> in our directory or <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015">visit them directly</a>.

Walkthrough of DNN Evoq Content 8 with CMS Critic

Those who know me know I am a huge fan of simplicity and minimalism and when these two traits can be found in a CMS, well, you pretty much have my interest piqued. Simplicity and minimalism doesn't mean a lack of functionality, however, and in the case of ProcessWire, it means a whole lot of features packed into a no-nonsense CMS without the fluff. And that means, Mikey likes it (for those old enough to remember <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYEXzx-TINc"> this commercial</a>, you'll get the joke there.)
Before I get into the review, I recommend you watch this video which gives a great overview of ProcessWire and helps you get an understanding of the product before reading below.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wl4XiYadV_k?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<a href="http://processwire.com/about/what/">Here is a great explanation</a> as to what ProcessWire hopes to achieve as well and it's a good read for those considering this CMS.
For this review, I'm using the Blog Profile that Ryan Cramer (ProcessWire's founder) has put together for those who are interested in using this CMS for their blogs or who wish to incorporate a blog into their existing ProcessWire sites.
What I personally find amazing about this blog profile is the fact that Ryan quite literally started this June 8, 2012 and already it is packed with features comparable to some of the more popular blog platforms.
Take a look at this list of features:
<ul>
<li>Mobile-friendly (responsive)</li>
<li>Customizable categories and tags</li>
<li>Monthly and yearly archives</li>
<li>Comments may be browsed with posts or on their own</li>
<li>Author biographies</li>
<li>Customizable and sortable sidebar widgets</li>
<li>Recent comments and recent posts widgets</li>
<li>Can be connected to your Twitter account with the Recent Tweets widget</li>
<li>RSS feeds for posts by date or category</li>
<li>RSS feed for recent comments</li>
<li>Built-in lightbox photo gallery</li>
<li>Built-in YouTube and Vimeo video embedding–just paste in the video URL!</li>
<li>Multi-language ready</li>
<li>Custom search engine for blog posts</li>
<li>Markup and styles based on the Skeleton boilerplate CSS framework.</li>
<li>Built around well documented, easy-to-understand and easy-to-modify ProcessWire template files and CSS. This makes it easy for you to use as-is or as a starting point for your own completely custom blog.</li>
</ul>
Now think about how quickly he managed to build this blog profile using ProcessWire and if that doesn't tell you something about how powerful this system is, I don't know what would.
Here's how it looks when you first install it (by the way, the installation is about 5 steps and it's super easy so no need to include screenshots of that process here.)
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/instant-resume-website-2xl_yotrxp.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
As you can see, you start with a standard three column template with a menu on the left, nice comment counter beside your title and everything you'd expect from a typical blog (ala WordPress, etc). Ryan has included a number of awesome ways of displaying your posts within the site. You can browse by Categories, Tags, Archives, Comments and Authors. Here's how each of these views looks to the end user.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-2-620x338.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" /> 
ProcessWire Review – Posts by Category
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pablo_14_fgmrpr.png" alt="ProcessWire Review - Posts by Tag" /> 
ProcessWire Review – Posts by Tag
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-4-620x264.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review - Archives" /> 
ProcessWire Review – Archives
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-6-620x264.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review - Posts by Author" /> 
ProcessWire Review – Posts by Author
You can also view recent comments from the Comments link:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pablo_11_vopagb.png" alt="ProcessWire Review - Recent Comments" /> 
ProcessWire Review – Recent Comments
With each blog post you write, readers are able to leave comments as well, here's how they link at the bottom of a blog post:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-7-620x711.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
As you can see if you read the comment in the screenshot above, Ryan has thought of pretty much everything and has enabled comment moderation by default, but should you choose to do so, you can disable this. You can also install the Akismet module (powerful spam protection from the makers of WordPress) from within ProcessWire and use it to help trim spam comments.
Perhaps you are interested in writing a post that includes a gallery of pictures? ProcessWire can handle that with ease. Not only does it come loaded with a lightbox effect for your images that pops the picture up over the post but it also nicely organizes the images into a thumbnail gallery for you. As part of the sample content that ProcessWire starts off with, you'll get a nice post that explains how to quickly generate an awesome looking gallery post. Here's how it looks when published:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-8-620x439.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review " />
Here it is again showing the effect that happens when you click on a thumbnail:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-9-620x477.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review " />
That, in a nutshell, is the blog profile for ProcessWire.
Now that you've seen some of what it can produce, you must surely be wondering where all of this magic takes place? Why, in the CMS itself of course! Let's take a look!
Here's how ProcessWire looks when you first log in:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-11-620x329.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
Were you expecting more clutter? You won't find it here.
There you have it, the ProcessWire backend. Where all of the magic happens. On this first page, we've got all of our types of content neatly organized and ready for editing, moving, viewing, etc..
When you are ready to add content you simply click on the type of content you wish to modify, in this case we'll go with Blog Posts and select ‘New'.
Let's do a sample post shall we?
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-12.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
Once you've entered your Title and slug, you'll click save to proceed. You'll then get this page:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-13-620x573.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
As you can see, I entered some text in the body of my post, uploaded a picture and entered a description for it. Scrolling down, I'd be able select my category, enter any tags I wish and view any comments (including those that might need moderating).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-14-620x236.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
To further modify the post, I can click on the settings link and make the necessary changes.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-15-620x573.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
Once published, here's how it looks within the blog profile on the site:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2017-07-01-at-54732-pm-lg_w67kr7.png" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
Now that we've seen how adding content works, it's time to look more at the admin interface so let's take a look at the Setup menu where templates and fields can be created and modified.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2017-07-01-at-54546-pm-lg_h9lnvj.png" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
Opening the Templates menu, we can see a huge list of all templates within ProcessWire. This is also where you would go to create or modify them.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-18-620x500.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
Each template makes use of specific instructions and fields that you choose when creating the template (or modifying an existing one). Within this blog profile for instance, we have the templates above and a list of fields that looks like this:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-19-620x463.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
New fields can be added easily and made available within templates. To do so, you would simply click on Add New Field and you'd be presented with a screen like the one below where you would enter the name for the field, select the field type, enter a label and a description.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/17917160_409518032760518_467998378344912777_o_ljfxwb.png" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
Once this is complete, you can enter additional details for the field:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/processwire-26.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" /> 
Formatting options
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/skyline-business-website-design-blocks_qh1yp2.gif" alt="ProcessWire Review" /> 
Input Field Settings
Once the field is customized to your liking, you simply go back and choose which template you'd like to add it to your chosen template by editing it.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/skyline-business-website-design-100-blocks_ik55ou.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
That's how easy it is to add a new type of content to a template. Quick and simple. Templates can be heavily modifed to your liking and there are tabs for URL settings, access privileges, caching and more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/skyline-business-website-design-twenty-pages_gnstey.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" /> 
URL Settings
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/skyline-business-website-design-home-pages_p1hxwp.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" /> 
Output Caching
Perhaps you'd like to add additional functionality to your ProcessWire installation? There are plenty of modules to choose from. Simply navigate to the Modules link at the top of your Processwire admin area and you'll get a list of Modules to choose from. There's also a handy button to check for new modules that you've uploaded since when you first did your install.
To install a module, click the Install button (hopefully that's obvious from the screenshot below):
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/skyline-business-website-design-blog-functionality_a3ezg7.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
ProcessWire comes with an advanced permissions system as well. You can control every little detail if you wanted to and be obsessive with your permissions, or you can choose to use the defaults. You can create new permissions, roles and users from within the Access page and you can go as granular as you wish.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/skyline-business-website-design-seo-settings_aae6zw.jpg" alt="ProcessWire Review" />
That, ladies and gentlemen, is ProcessWire in a nutshell. For those of you who are still not sure if it's the right system for you, be sure to read their about page where there's a good sample of sites running Processwire ( <a href="http://processwire.com/about/"> http://processwire.com/about/ </a> ) and check out <a href="http://processwire.com/videos/"> these videos </a> showcasing some additional functionality within the system or even better, <a href="http://processwire.com/demo/"> try their demo </a> .
<h3>What do I like about ProcessWire?</h3>
ProcessWire offers simplicity, power and flexibility in a small package that, with a small learning curve, is quick to pick up and learn. They have an awesome, tight knit community that is quick to offer suggestions and help to those who need it and there are plenty of modules.
They are also in the running in our <a href="/cms-critic-awards/"> Critic's Choice CMS Awards</a> so if you like them, go vote!
For those looking for an awesome CMS with a ton of power that's easy on the resources, you'd be remiss not to <a href="http://www.processwire.com"> check out ProcessWire </a> .

ProcessWire Review - Simplicity Meets Performance

<a href="https://microweber.com/" target="_blank">Microweber</a>, the open source CMS fresh out of beta, has unveiled Microweber Version 1, which hosts a wide range of new features. 
In 2014, <a href="/microweber-a-cms-stripped-of-complexity/" target="_blank">I delved into the background and inner-workings of Microweber</a>. But a lot has changed since then, particularly since the introduction of Version 1. 
Let's take a look at what's new.
<h2>Lavarel 5 &amp; A Revamped Design</h2>
Microweber has taken the plunge with a brand new framework; Lavarel 5. 
According to the Microweber team, “Laravel is a great framework and it is one of the most stable PHP frameworks of our time…using Laravel 5, to develop modules is real pleasure.”
Alongside this framework shift, Microweber have also been hard at work on the front end of their platform by re-designing their admin panel and live edit mode interface.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image08_1.jpg" />
We have make some changes on the live edit design. Now we have a buttons for Modules and Layouts and you can easily use which you like by drag and drop it to the page.
<h2>A New Website &amp; Marketplace</h2>
To go with all these major enhancements, Microweber has also reinvented their website.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image061079x0.jpg" />
Furthermore, the new Microweber Marketplace is now available from within the admin panel, and on the main website. From here on out, the entire Microweber community now can sell and buy modules, templates and licenses from either of the two interfaces. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image071079x0.jpg" />
Microweber have also announced a new affiliate program open to its users, which is available via the admin panel. 
All the finer details of Microweber Version 1 can be found via the official announcement. 
For more information on Microweber CMS, visit their <a href="http://microweber.com/" target="_blank">official website</a>, or better yet, <a href="http://demo.microweber.org/" target="_blank">test out a demo</a>.

Microweber Version 1 Released

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-7-1.png" alt="sshot-7" />
Last year, when I first started development on rewriting <a href="https://mithra62.com/projects/view/backup-pro">Backup Pro</a> to be CMS agnostic, I knew I'd have to write a ton of code to do what I needed.
Not all of it though; as thanks to Composer and Packagist I'd be able stand on the shoulders of quite a few giants, but the CMS agnostic stuff didn't exist. So creating that was a huge part of the job. But I did it, and I was able to release Backup Pro 3 for Craft and EE 2&amp;3 last July (a year ago exactly it turns out).
And then my world exploded.
It quickly became apparent I was onto something interesting with the CMS agnostic library. Nearly every programmer I knew was curious about it and had questions. So I thought I'd put a <a href="https://mithra62.com/blog/view/going-platform-agnostic-or-beer-tastes-yummy">post together</a> and lay it all out; the flow, the logic, a few examples, and then get back to work on the WordPress version. But then I did something really stupid; I started thinking about the possibilities, and, even worse, I started thinking about responsibility.
<h3>The Possibilities</h3>
I'd spent the last 5 years working with ExpressionEngine almost exclusively. I was still doing some custom, framework based, projects but for the most part nearly everything I did was ExpressionEngine based. Oh. And the odd Craft site. And a few WordPress projects actually. And then there were those Magento and Zencart ones… Oh. Shit. And a Drupal site came up once I couldn't get out of too, now that I think about it. So I use quite a few CMSs professionally.
And that's actually not uncommon, at least for a specific subset of programmers (agency and freelancer programmers to be precise). For me though, I was working on all these systems for years, learning all their libraries and peccadilloes, and constantly reinventing the wheel(s) I invented last week. For example, ExpressionEngine 2 is CodeIgniter based, Craft is built on Yii, Magento is coded with evil in its heart, and WordPress is a time warp to a scarier, but oddly more comforting, time, so nothing's organically portable between them. Developers can't take most EE/Wp/Mag/etc code and use it in another CMS without a LOT of pain and overhead. And that's true across the entire CMS spectrum.
But, what if you could? What if there was a way to create CMS agnostic add-ons?
Agnostic development isn't exactly an unheard of idea; the video game industry does it, to mixed results in the past admittedly (but they've gotten better), so it is doable. It's also a job though, certainly, but with a bit of elbow grease, theoretically possible.
Not exactly a universal paradigm though, is it? For tools like Backup Pro, it makes sense, but abstract concepts like data models and front end architecture pretty much preclude even attempting most content based add-ons. As an example, <a href="https://mithra62.com/projects/view/export-it">Export It</a>, my data export module for ExpressionEngine, would be painful to make CMS agnostic since it relies on the individual CMS data model(s).
So I went to <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/PHP/comments/43go84/any_interest_in_a_cms_agnostic_moduleplugin/">Reddit and asked r/PHP</a> what the PHP developers there thought of the idea. And… got a resounding meh… Some liked the idea, others didn't, but I didn't leave thinking it'd be stupid to do, so chalked that up to a win. In the “ask your mother” sort of way, but still, a win nonetheless.
<h3>Our Responsibility As Programmers (Time to Get Preachy For a Minute)</h3>
Now, up to this point, all the above was a nagging itch on my brain. I had an idea others would find a CMS PHP framework useful, but being so busy with Backup Pro, the product, my time's finite. Do I even have time for something like this? And, seriously now, what benefit is there, to me, for doing it? Taking all the time to not only build a PHP framework, but also release it, document it, maintain it, nurture it, and promote it? And, worse, I have a long standing policy that I get paid for my time spent working. All my time spent working. Dammit.
So, what benefit would there be for me to put this together? Some people may say it's marketing. “You'll sell more copies of Backup Pro through simple association”, is a common refrain. And that's probably true, but only up to a point. I don't have numbers, obviously, but it's tough to imagine <a href="https://www.helpspot.com/">HelpSpot</a> flew off the shelf because of Laravel, or ExpressionEngine's success was due to CodeIgniter (in fact, did you even know HelpSpot was the benefactor of Laravel?). The people who care about such things aren't traditionally known as the same ones who have purchasing authority is my point. So I don't really buy that.
But then I recall, once again, that my career is built on open source. I write code in PHP, to deploy on Apache web servers, that use the MySQL database, rendered using HTML, CSS, &amp; JavaScript, abstracted with jQuery and Less/Sass, and viewed primarily on Webkit, Blink, and Gecko based web browsers (we're still pretending IE doesn't exist, right?).
Put another way, my career is built on open source (and the developers who put their lives into it) so it's selfish as fuck for me NOT to give back.
<h3>Dipping a Toe (Again)</h3>
So… I did it… Jaeger, officially, exists.
I'm not sure how successful I was, but a bare bones 0.1.X version exists up on GitHub now as <a href="https://github.com/jaeger-app/jaeger">jaeger-app</a>. It's also on <a href="https://packagist.org/packages/jaeger-app/bootstrap">Packagist</a> (and Travis and Scrutinizer…) as well, so it's ready for Composer use. And, to make matters worse, and throw a little more skin in the game, starting from Backup Pro 3.4 (which is in developer preview right now), <a href="/backup-pro-cms-agnostic-backups/">Backup Pro</a> will be Jaeger based. So I'm going all in at least insofar as Backup Pro is concerned.
I'll put together some detailed examples later, but for now, I just wanted to put it out there that Jaeger exists and is ready to start poking at. You can get Jaeger from <a href="https://github.com/jaeger-app/jaeger">GitHub</a> and <a href="https://packagist.org/packages/jaeger-app/">Packagist</a>.
<hr />
This post is <a href="/advertising/">sponsored</a> by Backup Pro. Find out more on <a href="https://mithra62.com/projects/view/backup-pro">their website</a>.

A Tale About The Jaeger PHP Framework

Semrush - Be an SEO hero

Be found everywhere search happens

Explore a wide range of informative articles, insights, and industry updates. Stay informed and ahead of the curve with our diverse collection of news and posts covering the latest trends and developments in the industry. Page - 142