Articles - Page 162

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

msalvatierra

Despite still being in its development stages, AllianceCMS is on its way to becoming a flexible, powerful and feature extensive content management system.
Currently, AllianceCMS is at a stage where it is installable and ready for experimentation. However, it should be noted that the platform is still pre-alpha, which means it is still being developed and honed.
The developers who are carrying out work on the system are actively adding new features on a daily basis, and have also made the theme and plugin API available for public use and experimentation.
<h2>Current Features</h2>
Although AllianceCMS is in the pre-alpha stage, you can install it via a browser based installation, and begin tinkering with the various features available.
At the time of writing, AllianceCMS offers a flexible template system which allows you to create templates that can be used inside your main site theme. You also have the ability to create templates that will can be used within another template.
Additionally, a useful FormHelper class which makes building form elements a lot easier, which is a big help when creating themes and templates.
To help speed up initial installation and streamline future updates, AllianceCMS is divided into three separate folders consisting of axis, public_html and zones.
The axis folder contains the main functions of the system, and should therefore be left well alone. The public_html is of course where other basic files such as themes reside, whereas the zone folder contains all custom plugins, as well as database connection files.
<h2>Planned Features</h2>
As AllianceCMS grows, more features are being planned and implemented.
From amongst these features, the developers over at AllianceCMS are working on fully incorporating an installation/updates database schema API for all major system updates. Essentially, this feature will allow all users to install or update from any version to the most current version, almost instantly.
It goes without saying that such a feature would offer plenty of convenience, and the most exciting part is, the developers are currently working on how to automate the updating process even further.
<h2>Can You Help?</h2>
As previously mentioned, Alliance CMS is currently pre-alpha, and thus there is still plenty of work to be done before it can experience its first stable release.
In order to speed up the development process, AllianceCMS have appealed for assistance in the following areas:
<ul>
<li>Graphic Design / CSS / Theme Creation</li>
<li>Plugin Development</li>
<li>Data Management</li>
<li>Documentation</li>
<li>Translation</li>
</ul>
AllianceCMS is without doubt on track to be an open-source platform which is genuinely interested in enjoining communities. Their name, slogan and website all reflect their social awareness, and reaching out to the public for development assistance is also a friendly touch.
<h2>Screenshots</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/alliancecms-home-page1395x0.png" alt="Alliance CMS - Home Page" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/alliancecms-wiki1395x0.png" alt="Alliance CMS Wiki" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/alliancecms-api1395x0.png" alt="Alliance CMS - API" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/alliancecms-installation-start1395x0.png" alt="Alliance CMS - Installation Start" />
If you can help out in any of the areas listed above, or if you simply wish to find out more about the exciting Alliance CMS project, visit their <a href="http://www.alliancecms.com/"> official website </a> .

Introducing AllianceCMS

mike-johnston

WordPress have announced the official release of WordPress 3.6 “Oscar”, lovingly named after the famous Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. 
New features include the all new Twenty Thirteen Theme, an improved menu editor, a built-in HTML5 video &amp; audio player and enhancements to post revision, autosaving and locking.
To grasp the basics of WordPress 3.6 Oscar, take a quick peek at the snazzy introductory video laid out by WordPress below.
http://youtu.be/gu0B7OQZ2mY
<h2>New Twenty Thirteen Theme</h2>
WordPress' default themes are traditionally neat, bold and professional, with the new Twenty Thirteen theme being no exception.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1.png" alt="WordPress 3.6 Oscar" />
The theme's design was inspired by modern art, and aims to help focus the message of your content to readers and visitors via a single column layout.
WordPress' all new Twenty Thirteen theme is also as flexible as it is vibrant. The clean design works well on any device, both big and small, helping your blog or website to reach a wider audience.
<h2>Built-in Media Player</h2>
Instead of having to rely on third-party video and audio platforms, WordPress now supports its very own built in HTML5 media player. The design of the Twenty Thirteen theme certainly seems to encourage the use of video as a means of communication, and WordPress' new native media player will only make it easier to publish such content on a more regular basis.
What's more is, WordPress 3.6 also introduces built-in support for both Rdio, SoundCloud and Spotify, making it faster to embed and share audio content.
<h2>Enhanced Autosaving, Revising &amp; Post Locking</h2>
When it comes to blogging and publishing content, every word counts. So, a new autosave feature brought about by WordPress 3.6 ensures that your content is safely saved after every keystroke.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2.png" alt="WordPress 3.6 Oscar" />
Revising your posts is also now easier than ever. A brand new revisions interface enables you to scroll through every single change made to a post, and informs you of the changes made by each individual author. A clever colour coder also breaks down posts into revisions made, helping you to identify who said what, and when.
Additionally, an enhanced post locking feature ensures that whenever one author is reviewing or editing a post, all other users are locked out, thus preventing any editorial mishaps.
Without doubt, each of these new features will be of huge benefit to websites who rely on numerous authors to submit, review and publish their content.
<h2>Developer Extras</h2>
As expected, WordPress 3.6 Oscar also brings about a host of new options for developers to get their teeth in to.
These include a new video &amp; audio API, HTML5 markup options, better filters for how revisions work, and so forth. A full list of developer features can be found via the <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.6"> WordPress Codex </a> .
For additional information on WordPress 3.6 Oscar, and for some deeper insights into the features listed above, check out the <a href="http://wordpress.org/news/2013/08/oscar/"> official release notes</a>.

WordPress 3.6 Oscar Goes Live

The TYPO3 development team have released a slew of updates to the open source content management system. Namely versions 4.5.29, 4.7.14, 6.0.8 and 6.1.3.
According to the release notes, these are all maintenance updates that include bug &amp; security fixes – notably a fix to a Cross-Site Scripting and Remote Code Execution exploit. It is highly recommended that all users update their systems to these latest releases to maintain secure platforms.
Fixed regressions:
<ul>
<li>A regression in the file abstraction layer (FAL) made use of the deleted flag for sys_file objects that was not handled properly. The changed that caused this regression has been reverted again. The “File Abstraction Layer Indexing job” in the TYPO3 scheduler can be used to fix possible inconsistencies in the database that have been produced by this regression.</li>
<li>Another regression in the Extbase MVC component, which produced wrong language overlays in the website front-end of nested domain entities, has been completely reverted as well.</li>
</ul>
For details about the releases, please visit the following websites: <a href="http://wiki.typo3.org/TYPO3_4.5.29" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://wiki.typo3.org/TYPO3_4.5.29</a> <a href="http://wiki.typo3.org/TYPO3_4.7.14" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://wiki.typo3.org/TYPO3_4.7.14 </a><a href="http://wiki.typo3.org/TYPO3_6.0.8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://wiki.typo3.org/TYPO3_6.0.8 </a><a href="http://wiki.typo3.org/TYPO3_6.1.3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://wiki.typo3.org/TYPO3_6.1.3</a>

TYPO3 releases a slew of updates

It can be quite daunting to have to learn <a href="http://website.1and1.com/how-to-build-a-website">how to build a website</a> from scratch, which means that it is often a better idea to use some kind of website builder. Most people have absolutely no knowledge of programming with HTML, and a ready-made solution will always offer the highest amount of convenience. Modern website providers (such as 1&amp;1) offer a website builder that can provide a professional looking site, without the hassle, time and aggravation of programming and coding.
<h2>WYSIWYG</h2>
The main benefit of a website builder will be that it is ‘WYSIWYG.' This term means ‘What You See Is What You Get', and it is pretty much self-explanatory. When using one of these applications, the version that is displayed on the screen will be an exact representation of the final product once it has been published. This avoids the traditional pitfall of web design, where creators and editors spend many hours trying to get everything in alignment, with the correct fonts and sizes.
<h2>Website Structure</h2>
Every individual and business will have a unique set of needs, and while a single page may be suitable for some, many websites need to have a large number of pages, sections and sub-sections. Website builders allow the creator to specify an exact layout and structure, with many products even offering an unlimited amount of pages. When starting a website with a lower hosting package, most companies offer a product that is completely scaleable – meaning that the level of service can be upgraded in the future to allow a greater number of pages.
<h2>Traffic</h2>
Alongside the number of pages, traffic may also be something that needs to be considered carefully. Modern hosting solutions will usually offer unlimited traffic (i.e. visitors), but many users could benefit from a lower-cost service level with a fixed amount of traffic. In any case, this is also something that is saleable, and it can be upgraded as the site's popularity increases. If the website is going to be rich in media (videos, music and images), it may be worth considering an unlimited package due to the data transfers that are involved.
<h2>Media Integration</h2>
Although video content can usually be hosted within the main website, many site creators now opt to host content on YouTube or similar video sharing services. These media networks offer a set of simple tools that allow web authors to insert content directly into their pages, but the actual content is hosted on the original network's server. This means that when a visitor plays a video, the site creator benefits from the multi-billion dollar infrastructure of the network. Hosting YouTube videos is particularly popular, and high-traffic websites can also benefit from monetization programmes – these give the author a percentage of advertising revenues from all views. Overall, it is very straightforward to integrate a YouTube video into a website builder – it is often a case of ‘drag and drop.'
<h2>Social Media</h2>
It is extremely rare to find a company's website that doesn't have Facebook, Twitter and other <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/how-to-effectively-moderate-social-media/">social media</a> buttons that can be clicked. Website builders make it very easy to integrate social media networks into a site, and there are many options that are available. While some users will prefer a simple link, other apps and widgets can often be installed that automatically display the latest posts and tweets. These can also be customized by a ‘#hashtag' on Twitter, and this will show website visitors a clearly defined set of tweets from a variety of users.
<h2>Apps and Widgets</h2>
These ‘plug ins' are about a lot more than social media, and they provide a great way to generate content without having to put in a lot of effort. News tickers are a popular example of this, and they are offered by most of the major news agencies. They can usually be customized, for example offering business websites the chance to only display economics news stories. Many widgets are also ‘media rich', giving visitors a selection of videos and audio content that is created by a professional source.
<h2>Earning money from advertising</h2>
To make a website self-financing, website builders make it very easy to integrate services such as Google Adwords. This is a particularly popular example, as Google's servers will automatically generate advertisements that are relevant to the content of the website. There are other similar solutions available, and the best websites will often find themselves returning a healthy profit.

When to use a Website Builder

We are down to the last two days remaining to get your nominations in for the <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Critics Choice CMS Awards</a>.
These nominations will go towards the People's Choice portion of the awards.
We will be reviewing all nominations and creating a shortlist of nominees that you will be able to vote for within each of the alloted categories.
We have seen a huge number of nominations this year, way up from our inaugural year, 2012 and we are very grateful to all who've participated!
As a reminder, the categories for this year's People Choice awards are as follows:
<ul>
<li>Best Open Source CMS</li>
<li>Best Free CMS</li>
<li>Best Small to Midsize Business CMS</li>
<li>Best Enterprise CMS</li>
<li>Best eCommerce Solution  (New for 2013!)</li>
<li>Best Social Networking Solution</li>
<li>Best Website Builder</li>
<li>Best Hosted/Cloud CMS  (New for 2013!)</li>
<li>Best Forum Solution  (New for 2013!)</li>
</ul>
Best of luck to everyone and we'll be announcing the projects that are shortlisted over the month of August with voting opening on September 1, 2013. With two days remaining, there's still time to get your nominations in!

Nominations Closing in Two Days!

<img style="margin-right:auto;margin-left:auto;display:block" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/responsivedesign.jpg" />
Responsive design has been hailed as one of the greatest greatnesses ever to grace the Internet. With myriad mobile users accessing the web, it seems as if responsive design is just about the only way to make an awesome website even awesomer. I've remarked on the <a href="/why-responsive-design-is-so-important/">necessity of RWD before</a>  However, not every website is ready for responsive design. There are three major hurdles that every organization must clear before they launch into the bliss of responsive design. 
<h2>1. Your content needs a major overhaul.</h2>
A site is only as good as its content. You can't improve your content just by going responsive. That's why the very first thing on your agenda should be to <a href="/eight-tips-for-creating-readable-content/">improve your conten</a> . Content can easily become a company's bugaboo. It's outdated, low-quality, or inaccurate. There may even be some flash content lurking in the closets. Before you even thinking about tweaking your CSS and announcing your shiny new RWD site, clean house on content. 
<h2>2.  You need to switch your CMS.</h2>
And you thought going responsive was going to be easy? The cold, hard fact of the matter is that your CMS may not be able to handle responsive design. By applying the right coding skills, just about any quality CMS will be able to dish out RWD. But it's not quite that simple. Although a site's overall presentation may be responsive, the actual functionality of the pages and content may not meet RWD standards. For example, some WYSIWYG CMSs automatically add bits of codes that can wreck a responsive framework. Auto-inserts of inline CSS, Java, HTML tables, or unclosed tags may be added to a page of content, thus conflicting with the responsive site layout. Many of these easy-to-use WYSIWYG editors generate non-semantic markup that clashes with responsive design. In other words, if you're going to go responsive, you need to make sure that your CMS is going to help you, not hurt you. Choose <a href="/sitefinity-cms-5-hits-the-web-brings-cutting-edge-mobile-tools/">a CMS that does responsive righ</a>t. 
<h2>3. You need to rework your collaborative approach.</h2>
Responsive design is far more than a design tweak. It's a complete change in the way that you work. The old model of web design and development looked like this. First, the designer created a Photoshop template. Next, the developer created the website from that template. This waterfall model of web development has served its usefulness. Now, it must give way to the more Agile-oriented approach required by RWD. It bears repeating:  Responsive design isn't just about design. It's about fluid grids, breakpoints, load times, style guides, front-end development, mobile form factors, pixel density awareness, mobile native controls, and a host of other factors that you haven't thought to think about. Old process flows simply aren't going to cut it. Intensive interactive collaboration among UIs, IAs, designers, digital strategists, developers, and other team members is crucial to a successful RWD rollout. 
Don't let these three major hurdles prevent you from jumping into a responsive design implementation. You might be able to hold off RWD for a little while, but give it a few months, and responsive design is going to be even more important. Now is the time to begin considering your strategy for going responsive with your website — hurdles or not.

How to Get Ready for Responsive Design

daniel-threlfall

<a href="/how-to-build-your-portfolio-website-fast-with-webydo/">Webydo </a> and  <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ecwid.com/">Ecwid </a>have announced a partnership that offers Webydo users a sophisticated e-commerce solution that can be installed in minutes. Webydo provides graphic designers with a full solution for both the creation and management of sophisticated HTML websites, without writing code.With more than 70 percent of today's websites created by developers, Webydo’s cloud platform empowers designers with full creative control and independence, helping to build over 66,000 business websites to date. Through this partnership, Ecwid, used by more than 300,000 merchants in 175 countries and the most popular store builder on Facebook, will now be available for Webydo users who can add an Ecwid-powered online store to their Webydo websites with a few clicks.<blockquote>“Ecwid and Webydo are transforming the way the web is created with powerful tools and stunning design options,” said Shmulik Grizim, Webydo’s Co-Founder and CEO. “Through this partnership, professional designers can now use the best e-commerce solution on the market within Webydo’s professional web creation platform, enjoying total creative freedom and independence in creating custom designed business websites with sophisticated online stores.”</blockquote>Ecwid can be embedded into any Webydo site in minutes, is available in 45 languages and integrated with all major payment gateways. Based on a recent Webydo survey, e-commerce focused industries are greatly contributing to the growth and development of new websites.The survey, which reviewed more than 30,000 new websites created on the Webydo platform, found that service industries like design and web services created more than 12 percent of new business websites while product driven industries like fashion and retail, at 11 percent, were also major contributors – see below chart:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ec_graph741636.jpg" />“Because Ecwid is a full-featured storefront solution, we’re a good match for Webydo’s professional web and graphic designers,” says Jim O'Hara, president of Ecwid, Inc. “Our simple, drop-in installation also integrates beautifully with Webydo’s platform. We look forward to providing Webydo’s global user base with a comprehensive e-commerce functionality.” To create a stunning Webydo site with a sophisticated Ecwid online store go to  <a target="_blank" href="http://www.webydo.com">www.webydo.com </a>

Webydo and Ecwid - Working Together To Bring E-commerce to your Site

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

#ffffff

<a href="http://www.acquia.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Acquia </a>today unveiled the Acquia Cloud Site Factory, a turnkey digital experience platform that empowers marketers to deliver hundreds or thousands of brand, campaign and promotional websites with agility, velocity and freedom.
Acquia Cloud Site Factory provides Digital Experiences as a Service, enabling marketers to create dynamic, highly-branded sites in minutes with pre-configured templates that include repeatable content, design and structure. It provides an intuitive authoring experience so even non-technical users can create effective, content-rich sites rapidly, without the extensive training or coding that traditional, proprietary web platforms require. With Acquia Cloud Site Factory, marketers can dedicate their time to creating unique branded experiences built on the open source Drupal content management system.
<blockquote>
“Global organizations that struggle to keep up with the pace of change for their digital marketing initiatives now have a solution for building immersive experiences across their brands with Acquia Cloud Site Factory,” said Tom Erickson, Acquia CEO. “We’re knocking down the barriers of cost, procurement, and technical complexity so organizations can grow their capacity to support multiple brands and gain the freedom to disrupt their markets with engaging campaigns and digital experiences that win market share and increase revenues.”
</blockquote>
As a fully managed service, Acquia Cloud Site Factory enables organizations to focus on the core elements of their business, simplifying the operations and management of their digital experience platform to Acquia. Site builders have the freedom to add any of the 20,000 Drupal modules to their own site factory, while managing their multi-site deployments from a centralized dashboard to automate actions and reduce their maintenance burden. With a single dashboard, Acquia Cloud Site Factory makes it possible for just a few administrators to build and manage hundreds of sites, managing users centrally, and integrate sites with their entire digital marketing toolset.
Acquia Cloud Site Factory is a great fit for media and entertainment companies, as well as consumer products companies with many brand and campaign sites. Additionally, digital agencies who create and run digital campaigns for clients and franchise business owners who want to deliver cost-effective, consistent digital platforms to their franchisees can do so at a fraction of the cost of proprietary alternatives.
http://youtu.be/ESZR7kEv3qA
Interscope, a division of Universal Music Group, is one company that is taking advantage of Acquia Cloud Site Factory, integrated with their digital marketing toolset, to promote many of its artists with highly branded sites. Among the more than two dozen artists who were part of Interscope’s initial launch on the platform are Lauren Alaina, Ahsan, Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre, Nelly Furtado, Lady Gaga, Candice Glover, Matthew Koma, LMFAO, One Republic, Phillip Phillips, Timbaland, and Zedd.
<blockquote>
“Connecting music fans with the artists and music that they love requires a great digital experience. Our artist sites bring together social interactions, great audio and video content, touring and appearance details and opportunities to purchase and download music,” said Lee Hammond, vice president of digital at Interscope. “Digital is the connection point for our artists, the place where we engage fans with exclusive content and opportunities, promote new releases and start the conversation with fans. Acquia Cloud Site Factory provides the agility to bring sites for new artist or campaigns to market quickly with the same great experience and contextual engagement that we offer across our label.”
</blockquote>
Using Acquia Cloud Site Factory, organizations will accelerate digital campaign execution while reducing the costs and complexity of managing an expensive, bespoke multi-site platform. Acquia Cloud Site Factory is a better platform to create and manage multi-site deployments at scale, simplifying new site creation based on pre-configured templates and automating multi-site management tasks. Most importantly, each site benefits from the innovation that only the Drupal open source content management system can deliver.
To learn more about Acquia Cloud Site Factory, attend a webinar on July 25 on <a href="http://www.acquia.com/resources/webinars/how-create-websites-scale-experience-management-imperative" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">How to Create Websites at Scale: An Experience Management Imperative</a>, or visit <a href="http://www.acquia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.acquia.com</a>.

Acquia Launches Acquia Cloud Site Factory

Since launching in 2005, Zenfolio has helped thousands of photographers display, share and even sell their work in a highly professional manner.
Essentially, Zenfolio offers a simplistic point-and-click system that makes it easy to create your own photography portfolio. High quality images and HD videos are displayed via beautifully designed galleries, alongside a blog, general website pages and even a built-in shopping cart fully equipped with marketing tools.
Zenfolio offers unlimited storage space for your content, allowing you to share as much of your portfolio as you can – without breaking the bank.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BkLgDEutxBY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>Website &amp; Blog</h2>
As a photography, you will naturally want your images to be of the highest quality, and diplayed in a fashion which befits their elegance. Zenfolio allows you to build stunning websites to house your portfolio, which can be customized using simplistic point-and-click features.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1700x0.png" alt="Zenfolio " />
The comprehensive CMS allows you to create a professional, fully functioning website, which gives your visitors all of the right vibes – even before they view your images or video content.
Your Zenfolio website can be accompanied by a blog, which you may use to market, explain or show off your content. Additional features such as background music also help to create the perfect ambience for your website.
<h2>Galleries</h2>
Naturally, the most important part of any online photography portfolio is the gallery. Using Zenfolio, you can present your content in a captivating way, across all types of devices.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2700x0.png" alt="Zenfolio " />
As well as being aesthetically pleasing, your galleries will also be extremely safe. Zenfolio allows you to limit access to certain galleries via passcodes, and also allows you to turn off the option for visitors to right-click save, or drag your images to their desktop.
What's more is, Zenfolio enables you to automatically add a unique watermark to all of your images. With all of these effective security measures in place, you can be sure that copyright issues will never arise.
<h2>Shopping Cart</h2>
Unlike a number of other <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-8-website-builders-for-photography-websites/">photography CMS</a>, Zenfolio allows you to quick and easily turn your photography hobby into an online business.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/3700x0.png" alt="Zenfolio " />
Zenfolio's fully equipped shopping cart comes with 500 products ready to sell via Zenfolio's own vendors. These include picture frames, specialised printing paper and other photography tools and accessories. Of course, you will also be able to sell digital downloads of your very own work, directly from your website.
Payment options are pleasantly diverse, allowing customers to checkout with multiple currencies via PayPal, or their credit cards.
<h2>Marketing</h2>
No CMS is truly complete without some in-house marketing tools, and Zenfolio offers pretty much everything you need. Social media buttons can be tastefully incorporated into Zenfolio's themes, to help with your social visibility.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/4700x0.png" alt="Zenfolio " />
All of your images can be embedded within social media, along with watermarks if necessary. Additionally, you can offer your visitors the option to signup to your website using their email addresses, which in turn allows you to begin an email marketing campaign.
To top everything off, Zenfolio gives you the chance to reach out to your potential or past customers with gift certificates and coupon codes.
Interested? Check out <a href="http://www.zenfolio.com/">Zenfolio's 14-day free trial</a><a href="https://en.zenfolio.com/">.</a>

Looking to Create a Photography Portfolio? Try Zenfolio

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/goodwebcontent.jpg" />
Whether you're an old pro at creating content or whether you're new to the field, it never hurts to hear the essentials of effective and readable content. And let's just remember that great content is crucial to a successful site. What follows are eight of the most important things to remember when you're creating readable content for your website.
<ol>
<li>Use an attention-grabbing headline. Readability isn't just a matter of dragging one's eyes across a screen of text. It's about engaging interest. That is the number one job of a headline — to grab someone's attention so they will follow through and read your content. </li>
<li>Break up the content with subheadings, numbers, or bullet points. Most web readers aren't coders — people who can stare at screen full of symbols and make sense of it all. Your content should be delivered up with plenty of paragraphs, bullets, numbers, subheadings, breaks, and pictures. Text is still primary, but you should allow it to give way to the beauty of white space. If you don't, your content will be extremely unwelcoming. </li>
<li>Feature an image. Everyone loves pictures. Eye-tracking heatmaps have long confirmed that a web visitor looks at an image before he or she looks at anything else on the page. It may seem as if images are a separate issue from the actual words of your content, but they are both important to readable content. Your content may be really good, but even so, an image provides a visual oasis in a desert of words. People need the refreshment.</li>
<li>Keep the tone personal, professional, and engaging. When you're writing a blog, it's time to be yourself. Go ahead and use first- and second-person pronouns. Keep it relaxed and casual, but maintain professionalism. The most effective copy is copy that sounds genuinely human, devoid of a stilted stuffy tone. That's what will get people reading, keep people reading, and ensure that people get your message.</li>
<li>Ensure good grammar and spelling. Since I've sneaked in two things here — 1) grammar, and 2) spelling — let me explain them both. First, grammar:  Be accurate, but don't be a slave to it. There are legion rules of grammar that are meant to be broken. Sure, you want to do the best you can, but if you need to break a grammar rule now and then, go for it. Readability trumps the scientific exactitude of grammatical impeccability (did you get that?). Now, for spelling: Get it right. There is no excuse for misspelled words. Unless, of course, you're creating new words.</li>
<li>Keep things varied. Successful bloggers and content creators understand that variety is the spice of blogging life. If every one of your articles sounds the same, looks the same, and basically says the same thing, you're going to bore your readers. Mix it up with an occasional infographic, photo, video, or different article style. </li>
<li>Keep your audience in mind. Someone will only read your content if they're interested. And the only way for someone to be interested in your content is if it speaks to them in some way. Figure out who your audience is, and write content that they are going to read. For example, if you have a website that caters specifically to motorcyclists, your content is probably not going to include tips on migrating to a cloud server. This point is obvious enough, but often overlooked. Figure out what your audience needs, wants, or will be interested in. Then, write content that satisfies that need, want, or curiosity. </li>
<li>Make it long enough (but not too long). There are no hard and fast rules about article length. There is simply a commonsense recommendation. Simply put, don't make it too long. But don't make it too short, either. Few people read laboriously lengthy articles. And super short articles don't gain the kind of sustained interest and SEO-rich content that your site needs. Like virtually all rules, these can be broken. If you spin out a masterful 3,000 word article, sure. Just make sure it's readable. And if you have time for a quick 100-word post, that's fine, too. Sometimes.</li>
</ol>
Content is at the heart of your web strategy. It's worth giving it your best shot to make it even better.

Eight Tips for Creating Readable Content

Adobe has announced the latest release of their social media monitoring and analytics solution, <a href="http://www.adobe.com/solutions/social-marketing.html">Adobe Social</a>. This new product aims to provide users with the ability to listen and respond to customer conversations, and connect the dots between social interactions and business results.
Adobe Social integrates with Flickr, Foursquare, Instagram and LinkedIn to provide marketers with a real view of their social presence in addition to social predictive publishing capabilities, a mobile user interface, streamlined reporting, and new collaborative features. As part of the , Adobe Social is one of the many key components to the all-in-one solution for marketers.
<h2>Management and governance</h2>
Adobe Social provides a means to assign roles and permissions, allowing administrators to choose how the various corporate teams (social, customer service, etc) interact with fans and followers. It's easy to specify who can publish content, moderate customer comments and more. Upper management, in the meantime, can get a full view of metrics and how social activities are performing.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/thumb-management-and-governance-327x183_jpg_adimg_mw_327.png" alt="adobe social" />
<h2>Listening and Moderation</h2>
Monitor thousands of sites across the social web and identify trends, opportunities and potential business threats. In addition, your social and customer service teams can access a real-time moderation queue, allowing them to respond to comments, route and escalate questions and track it all the way through to resolution.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/thumb-listening-and-moderation-327x183_jpg_adimg_mw_327.png" alt="adobe social" />
<h2>Publishing and Ads</h2>
Do you need to publish a large (or small) amount of posts? With Adobe Social it's easier than ever. You can create all posts within a calendar and route them for approval, schedule them for publishing to social sites and more. You can also target defined audiences based on a number of factors such as geographic &amp; demographics. You can also promote these posts directly from within the tool.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/thumb-publishing-and-ads-327x183_jpg_adimg_mw_327.png" alt="adobe social" />
<h2>Application Builder</h2>
Quickly and easily build a fan base using a drag and drop custom application made with Adobe Social's application builder. This tool lets you build our contests, galleries, polls and coupons quickly and easily. Using these tactics, you can get new followers and use the data collected to determine what interests them to better target them in the future.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/thumb-application-builder-327x183_jpg_adimg_mw_327.png" alt="adobe social" />
<h2>Social Campaigns</h2>
Due to it's deep integration with Adobe Analytics, Adobe Social has some of the most advanced campaign measurement tools available.  You can auto-generate and append unique tracking codes to social media posts and applications to quickly see which social channels, posts, and external influencers are driving the most conversations.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/thumb-socialcampaigns-327x183_jpg_adimg_mw_327.png" alt="adobe social" />
<h2>Social Analytics</h2>
Adobe Social helps you see and predict what customers like, talk about, and share most. Adobe Social monitors over 100 engagement metrics, filters social listening data by keywords and sentiment, and ties it all back to website activity so you can see which days, times, and types of content spark the most engagement.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/thumb-socialanalytics-327x183_jpg_adimg_mw_327.png" alt="adobe social" />

Need Social Media Monitoring & Analytics? Check out Adobe Social

On July 15th 2013, Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware – who are better known as simply Tiki, released version 11.0 of their wiki-based content management system. Much like Wikipedia, the platform typically allows and encourages users to add, modify, or delete content from webpages.
Last year,  Tiki surpassed the 1 million downloads mark, and also became the <a href="/peoples-choice-winner-for-best-free-cms-is/">winner of the our People's Choice for Best Free CMS</a>. Now, with the release of Tiki 11.0, Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware will be hoping to take even larger steps forward. Now, lets take a look at some of the newly introduced features.
<h2>ElFinder Management</h2>
Tiki's file &amp; media management, named ElFinder has received some helpful changes. The file manager allows users to upload and download images, videos, podcasts and a range of other media types.
Thanks to new updates, users can now enjoy a more visual approach to file management, as Tiki 11.0 brings with it intuitive drag-and-drop system. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1700x0.png" alt="Tiki 11.0 " />
Documents – which are displayed in a gallery format, can now be moved around and categorized extremely easily. Additionally, users can now utilize the drag-and-drop feature between Tiki CMS and their local desktop.
<h2>Enhanced Tracker Forms</h2>
Trackers allow users to create  different types of forms for collecting data, which enables the trackers to compile reports. Tiki's Trackers help users to combine structured information collected from their visitors.
Now, Tiki 11.0 has made Tracker Forms more powerful and flexible than ever. You can now choose a value from a dropdown box by selecting any of the saved items you may already have in the list. To search, you can either scroll down, or filter the results by typing part of the word into the form. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2.png" alt="Tiki 11.0 " />
Also, the new and improved search section allows users to select multiple items at once via the dropdown menu. The feature enables items to be selected, and de-selected from the list being compiled.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/4.png" alt="Tiki 11.0 " />
These new features work in tandem to provide a smoother, more efficient search option for Tracker Forms, making the entire process much simpler than ever before.
<h2>Additional Features</h2>
On top of the brand new Tiki features listed above, the new update has brought about a number of other enhancements to the popular, free and open-source content management system.
Amongst these additions, you will find that Tiki now supports Gravatars, Bing Translator and Google Translate 2. The developers have also made it easier for users to incorporate Google Analytics codes into their Tiki websites. Additionally, a variety of themes have introduced, whereas existing ones have received a revamp. Naturally, a number of stability issues have also been resolved with the introduction of Tiki 11.0.
To access further information on the enhancements we have listed above, as well as on the rest of Tiki's updates, check out the <a href="http://doc.tiki.org/Tiki11">official Tiki 11.0 full release note</a><a href="http://doc.tiki.org/Tiki11">s</a>.

Tiki 11.0 Brings About New Features

If you’re running a tour, activity or accommodations business, or have web development clients in these verticals, you’ll notice that most of the booking is still being done over the phone.  Customers call or email in to check on availability and pricing, then likely make their booking or reservation via credit card over the phone.
Obviously if this process could properly move online, the customer gets a better experience and the business operator gets to spend more time with their customers and less time on the phone answering the same questions over and over.
<a href="http://www.checkfront.com/tour"> Checkfront is a cloud-based booking system </a> with plugins for the larger CMS platforms as well as the a completely hosted option for non-CMS sites.  Checkfront’s customizability makes it flexible enough for most ‘new site’ client projects or upgrades to the end user functionality of existing sites.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/customer-view.jpg" alt="Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site" />
<h2>Features</h2>
<ul>
<li>Self-serve online customer booking pages</li>
<li>Real-time booking availability display</li>
<li>Built-in multi-currency, SSL payment processing using your existing credit card merchant account</li>
<li>Branded invoicing and receipts</li>
<li>Plugins for most CMS platforms including WordPress, Joomla,  and Drupal</li>
<li>Online booking directly inside Facebook pages</li>
<li>Mobile apps for managing bookings and customer check-in</li>
<li>Integration with email marketing and accounting platforms</li>
<li>Support for short codes, or custom theme pages in WordPress</li>
<li>In-depth booking and sales reporting</li>
<li>Developer API</li>
</ul>
<h2>Installation &amp; Setup</h2>
Installing Checkfront requires setting up the backend first by creating a Checkfront trial account and adding some items, activities or rooms you want visitors to be able to book from your site.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2013-07-16_at_12_03_21_pm959x0.png" alt="Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site" />
You can embed photos and videos into the description areas for each item or activity as well as stipulating the quantity or items or slots available.  Individual items can be temporarily disabled if they’re not available for booking for any given time.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2013-07-16_at_12_02_59_pm959x0.png" alt="Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site" />
After setting up your basic backend account, grab the WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or Facebook plugins to snap the Checkfront pages into your site.  For HTML-only sites, there’s customizable, cloud-hosted page code available to copy-and-paste in.
<h2>Setting Up Pricing</h2>
Pricing can be configured on a ‘per-booking’ basis or ‘per-day.  Sales tax configuration is flexible enough to meet the needs of most global locales.  Pricing can also be adjusted based on the number of slots booked, or by date (for instance for high/low season pricing adjustments).  Packaging options include the ability to create custom bundles or upsell other items to increase overall order values.  Maximum quantities for items along with maximum lengths and weights can be added as well.  If you don’t want to process online payments for a particular item, it can be limited to ‘reserve-only’ whereby reservations are booked, but payment is made offline.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2013-07-16_at_12_03_56_pm959x0.png" alt="Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site" />
Items can be grouped into categories, so for instance if you’re booking rooms at a small hotel, you have separate categories of offerings such as rooms, activities, equipment rentals and the like.  Special event bookings are also supported with dynamic price adjustments so you can increase pricing as space becomes more limited closer to the event.
<h2>Discount, Daily Deal &amp; Voucher Support</h2>
Discounts and coupon codes can be configured with custom coupon names, specific expiry dates, recurring or non-recurring, and on a percentage or fixed dollar amount discount.  Checkfront also supports batch uploading of voucher or coupon codes to draw down against as part of limited-quantity promotions.
In the case of daily deal offers like Groupons, when the customer has completed payment on Groupon’s site, they receive a  voucher to redeem their service with you.  Groupon gives you (as the merchant) the voucher code list so you simply upload them into your system via .csv and when the customer comes to you to book, they can then just enter the Groupon voucher code they’ve received and skip the credit card payment step.  This results in a pretty smooth experience for the customer and keeps you Checkfront booking system in sync with what’s been sold via Groupon or other daily deal sites.
<h2>Dashboard &amp; Reporting</h2>
Once the plugin is up and running on your site and populated with offerings available to book, data starts to appear on the dashboard.  Checkfront’s dashboard shows a feed of the upcoming bookings, broken down ‘new’, just purchased bookings, ‘today’s booking lineup as well as what’s upcoming.  Reservation and payment status is also available at a glance.  A bar chart gives you an idea of what booking volume looks like for the current month vs. the preceding twelve months to let you know if you’re over/under volume from a relative perspective.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2012-11-29_at_4_47_17_pm959x0.png" alt="Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site" />
Booking volume is also shown relative to website visitors to give you an idea of how well you’re converting site visitors to paid reservations as well as how many bookings are being made by your in-house staff vs. customers doing self-serve bookings.  A “bookings by category” chart is also available to show you what type of bookings are making the biggest impact on sales, be that rentals, rooms, tours and the like.  An activity log shows actions being logged by staff and customers along with links to the details of each of those bookings when you drill down. The dashboard is drag-and-drop sortable as well to enable a better view of the metrics that you use most.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2012-11-29_at_4_48_08_pm959x0.png" alt="Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site" />
A pair of full-page calendar views offer a high-level overview of what’s happening bookings-wise on a day-by-day basis as well as over blocks of days in the event there are major events going on or periods where bookings are closed and the like.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2012-11-29_at_4_50_36_pm959x0.png" alt="Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2012-11-29_at_4_52_40_pm-1959x0.png" alt="Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site" />
<h2> After-Booking Edits, Updates, Payments &amp; Invoices</h2>
Once a booking was initiated (either via a customer self-serve or via a staff member logging in and entering a booking manually) staff can update any of the booking details on-the-fly, including entering credit card information to push payments through if the customer preferred to only provide their credit card over the phone or in person:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2012-11-29_at_5_02_01_pm959x0.png" alt="Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site" />
Booking details are fully editable by staff with changes logged in the system-wide activity log. Checkfront has a built-in customizable ACL or permissions system, staff can each have a unique login of their own with specific set of access permissions, appropriate to their role.  A nice touch that allows your business’s full financials to be hidden from lower-level staff access.
<h2>Branded Customer Invoices</h2>
Checkfront automatically emails self-serve and staff-assisted assisted customers a fully-branded invoice that can be downloaded or quickly resent if misplaced.  All sales or tourism taxes are configured when the item for booking was previously loaded into the system and transfers directly onto the invoice.    Invoices can be generated for full payments or deposits only.  Emailed invoices are mobile-friendly with embedded QR codes for quick on-site check in.  Customers also have the option to have iCal notifications sent along with their booking receipts to automatically add their appointments to their calendars.
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2012-12-13_at_11_38_07_am959x0.png" alt="Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site" />
<h2>Customer Data, ongoing marketing.</h2>
To help with generating repeat clientele, most businesses want to tie in previous customers to their future promotions and marketing efforts.  Checkfront’s API communicates directly with most of the major email marketing platform providers to import and sync customer data via SSL.  Integrations with email marketing platforms include Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, among others.  This works well for adding customers to existing newsletter or special promotion lists.
<h2>Payment Gateways</h2>
Businesses that want to take payment for bookings directly on their site will likely already have a credit card processing merchant account with a payment gateway service attached (or should be able to quickly upgrade to one).  Checkfront supports the major global payment gateways including Paypal Pro, Authorize.net, Quickbooks Merchant Services, 2Checkout, Worldpay, Stripe, Sagepay and others – you enter the merchant ID number and select your payment gateway and Checkfront does the rest.
<h2>Localization &amp; Multicurrency Acceptance</h2>
Checkfront is fairly well localized with support for other languages via alternate translation packs including French, Hebrew, Japanse, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Finnish, Dutch, Chinese, Danish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog and others.
Currency-wise, provided your payment gateway provider supports the currency as well, Checkfront allows you to charge for your items in 38 currencies including the staples AUD, CAD, GBP, EUR, NZD, and USD.
<h2>Mobile Apps</h2>
Checkfront has iPhone, iPad and Android apps for managing and updating bookings,  checking in/out customers, and calling customers directly from the app (iPhone only).  Check in/out scans can be done using the mobile app itself via the built in camera.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phone1.png" alt="Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site" />
<h2>Add-ons and integration</h2>
Checkfront has some interesting integrations going on that are somewhat unique:
Twilio SMS: Checkfront recently added support for Twilio SMS notifications so you can send short text messages customers and staff. You can remind customers about a booking date, follow up with a quick post-booking thank-you, and update staff regarding a booking status.
Apple Passbook: When a customer adds a Checkfront booking to their Passbook app, it stores the reservation on their iPhone. As a customer nears your location on the day of their booking (based on your longitude and latitude), the electronic ticket automatically pops up on their phone. Upon arrival, you can scan, validate and check-in the customer using the built-in bar-code scanner in the Checkfront mobile apps, which all gets communicated back to the Checkfront system automatically updating the booking in real-time.  As an added bonus, if the booking is changed, the details are updated automatically in the customers’ phone.
Google Analytics &amp; Adwords:  Checkfront has a Google Analytics add-on, enabling support for Google’s e-commerce tracking which allows you to track the incoming revenue sources, ad campaigns, website visitor-to-buyer conversion rates and the like.  Support for Google Adwords conversion tracking is also included to track the keyword-level performance of Google ad and retargeting campaigns.
<h2>API &amp; Developer Support</h2>
The Checkfront API lets developers expand and build on the Checkfront Booking Platform to fully customize the look and feel. The API makes it easy to create web, desktop &amp; mobile applications that integrate and with your Checkfront account.  The REST API extends a fair bit of functionality allowing devs to query inventory availability, get date based rate and pricing information, create a new booking, update an existing booking and retrieve customer information.
If you’re developing sites for multiple clients, Checkfront offers a free unrestricted developer account that lets you to build, demo and migrate data to a new system across multiple client sites.
If you’re doing things from scratch, they also have a Checkfront PHP widget class. The widget class builds the code to render the booking portal, change the look and feel, include additional tracking, and takes care of sizing and caching.
<h2>Pricing Model &amp; Plans</h2>
Online booking software providers typically operate on one of two billing models: 1) taking a commission or cut of each booking transaction,  or 2) a flat rate monthly fee for pre-set booking volumes.
Checkfront’s model is the latter, with monthly flat-rate pricing varying from $49 a month to $499 a month depending on the number of annual bookings your site does or is estimated to do.  The $49 plan provides 1,200 bookings a year, $99 a month supports 3,000 a year, $199 for 6,000 a year, and up from there.  There are also different support levels provided for each tier as well, from basic support up to a dedicated phone support rep, and a differing number of included staff logins allowed depending on the tier.
One important thing to note is that the base plan at $49 is crippled with support for Paypal and Google Wallet only, meaning if you want to accept credit cards on your site you’re going to need the $99 plan and up.
Checkfront free trial includes full functionality for 21 days.
<h2>Summary</h2>
Overall, Checkfront can be configured to meet the needs of most businesses that book items or services on a daily or hourly basis.  Where it falls short is when the booking increments are sub-one hour, for instance if you need to book half-hour or 15-min time slots.  The system just doesn’t handle those smaller booking slots well, it seems to be better suited to one-hour plus.  That means doctor’s offices, salons, spas and other businesses won’t fit it to be a good fit.
On the other hand, tour operators, small accommodations providers, activity bookers, and rental suppliers will find Checkfront works quite well with their booking model and presents a highly streamlined staff or self-serve online booking process.  The combination of all of the mobile/SMS and real-time availability features can make a small company look much larger online.  Checkfront trial accounts are <a href="https://www.checkfront.com/start">available here.</a>
Pros:
<ul>
<li>Excellent compatibility across multiple CMS platforms</li>
<li>Highly customizable look and feel for a blended integration with existing sites</li>
<li>Support for a wide variety of credit card payment gateways, currencies and languages</li>
<li>Strong integration with mobile apps, SMS and email reminders, Apple Passbook</li>
<li>Ability to take bookings directly inside Facebook pages</li>
</ul>
Cons:
<ul>
<li>Generic-default styling of booking front-end will require some CSS customization look seamless with newer site designs</li>
<li>Lack of support for sub-one hour booking slots makes it unworkable for businesses that provide short services or appointments</li>
<li>Monthly price tiers could be expensive for businesses with limited or sporadic annual booking volume</li>
</ul>
What do you think? Does this look like a good option for adding online booking to your website?

Checkfront Review - Enabling Online Booking on Your Existing Site

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