Articles - Page 197

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

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

mike-johnston

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!

<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

It ain't easy being an Internet professional. It seems like technology is always advancing too fast, the rules are changing too often, and there are a few too many things to remember to do all at the same time. In this article, we've simplified things for you. Here are the biggest Internet no-nos. Are you violating any of them?
<hr />
<h2>1.  You don't have social.</h2>
In some of the flourescent-lit halls of business-as-usual corporate America, social media is oft-derided. Why would a powerful business need to waste time and resources on social networks like Facebook? Scoff though they may, they are neglecting a crucial component of marketing. If you think, “social just doesn't work for us,” or “we're just not in the right industry for social,” think again. Social is one of the core aspects of successful SEO, not to mention a crucial channel for connecting with your target audience. 
How to fix it:  Social signals are one of the three major means that the search engines use to determine a site's rankings. (The other two are onsite optimization and healthy linkbacks.) All you need to do is get on the social networks and stay active. 
<h2>2.  You don't have a responsive design site.</h2>
More users than ever are accessing sites via mobile devices. The best way to connect with such visitors is by having a website that is optimized for mobile devices. Some Internet prognosticators say that businesses without a mobile-ready site are doomed for failure within the next 18 months. That's kind of a harsh tack, but there is some validity to their statement. Failure, maybe not. Decline, probably yes. 
How to fix it:  If your site was created in 2005 or earlier and left to languish, it's probably time for a major overhaul. If, on the other hand, you're using a good CMS with strong capabilities, there is probably a way to go responsive without too much hassle. Investigate your options, count the cost, and go for it. 
<h2>3.  Your CMS is outdated, broken, or just plain aggravating.</h2>
An annoying CMS can cripple your entire Internet strategy. This is no joking matter. The CMS is where it all begins — content, user experience, branding, information architecture, etc. The wrong CMS will profoundly inhibit the online success of your company.
How to fix it:  Find out if your CMS is worth the grief it's giving you, and make plans to get a new one. Although switching CMSs is a major pain, it's worth it in the long run. 
<h2>4.  Your website takes a long time to load.</h2>
This may sound trivial when compared with an issue as big as switching CMSs. Nonetheless, website load time is huge. Think of it this way. Your company's homepage is the door to your business. Beyond the door are sales, products to buy, engagements, conversions, whatever. But what if the door is stuck? People push gently, trying to get in. Nothing happens. They push harder. At this point, one of two things will happen. Either they will turn away, frustrated, or they will finally get in, but are still frustrated. Either way, you've lost. The frustrated customers are less likely to by, and the rest have just turned away in frustration. Think of a slow load time as a stuck door, and do whatever you can to get it unstuck.
How to fix it:  Check your website load time for free at <a href="http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/">http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/</a>. If it takes longer than 2.5 seconds to load, consider taking action to speed it up. ANother helpful place for page speed improvement is <a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/">https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/</a>
<h2>5.  You don't really care about SEO.</h2>
SEO is the only way to Internet success. Sorry, but there is no other way. Among some, there exists a belief that SEO is dead. They were saying that about ten years ago. SEO hasn't died, and as long as the Internet is around, it will not die. It will change — it's always changing — but it will not die. I'm not saying that just to improve my self esteem as an SEO. People will always be searching for things on the Internet, and there will always be a need to help them find it. Google may stay. Google may go, but search will always be a crucial part of the Internet.
How to fix it: If you're either uninformed or disdainful of SEO, do a little bit of research to figure out what it is and how to do it. The best insights will come from a reputable SEO company who knows their stuff and does it well. 
<h2>6.  You're lazy about content.</h2>
You've heard it so many times that it makes you almost nauseous:  “Content is king.” The Internet is content, and so the point should be obvious. Yet the phrase, “content is king” is constantly parotted by gurus and newbies alike. But is it true? Is content really king? Well, yeah, it still is. Content is what the Internet is all about. Call it interactive. Call it social. Call it ubiquitious. Call it what you want. It's still content. And that's what matters.
How to fix it: If your careless with content, think of it this way:  You're in the content industry, simply because you're in the Internet industry. Hire someone who does content right, or give it a little extra oomph yourself. If you don't have the time or chutzpah to make your own content, don't worry. The webz is full of people who are willing to do it for you, at a reasonable price.
Sins, by their very nature, are to be punished. The retribution for these oversights is that your e-commerce business or website gets squashed by the squeaky-clean. If you'll clean up your act now, though, you'll probably be forgiven for past iniquities.

Six Deadly Website Sins and How to Fix Them

daniel-threlfall

Are you looking for a solid editor to use when developing code for websites? Look no furhter than Codelobster PHP edition. While there are certainly plenty of paid options available in the editor market, this particular one is free of charge and full of functionality.
<h3>Codelobster PHP Edition – Features:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Code highlighting – The editor supports a mix of code and as such, highlighting occurs for HTML, PHP &amp; Javascript, all within the same file. You are also able to adjust the color schemes.</li>
<li>AutoComplete – Have you ever been in the middle of writing code and then blanked completely? No need to worry, this editor has autocomplete that can help nudge you along in your coding. HTML, PHP, CSS and Javascript are fully supported and the editor will also support HMTL5 and CSS3 as well.</li>
<li>HTML / CSS Inspection – Similar to the way the popular addon, Firebug, works… Codelobster PHP edition will allow you to inspect the contents and elements of pages, directly from within the editor.</li>
<li>Context Help – Plenty of help is available within the editor and is available in a number of languages. Simply Press F1 to get a detailed description for the current tag, attribute or function to open.</li>
<li>PHP Debugger – line by line php debugging directly within the editor is supported. This way you can check out each individual line of code for errors. Pretty handy!</li>
<li>SQL Manager – integrated database querying with SQL is also supported which means you can connect with and add, delete or eidt a structure and records in tables as well as export data. Highlighting and autocomplete for SQL is also supported.</li>
<li>FTP Support – connect to a remote server and make any necessary changes with built in FTP support.</li>
<li>Portable – no installation required, simply download and launch and you are on your way.</li>
</ul>
Need to work with other types of software such as Drupal, Joomla, CakePHP &amp; more? No problem, there are plugins available for:
<ul>
<li>CMS: Drupal, Joomla</li>
<li>PHP frameworks: CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Symfony, Yii</li>
<li>JavaScript libraly: JQuery</li>
<li>WordPress blogging engine</li>
<li>Smarty template engine</li>
</ul>
You can get more info from the <a href="http://www.codelobster.com">Codelobster</a> website or you can use the direct download link: <a href="http://www.codelobster.com/download/CodelobsterPHPEditionSetup.exe">http://www.codelobster.com/download/CodelobsterPHPEditionSetup.exe</a>

Free PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript Editor (IDE) Available

With just over 113 million active blogs, Tumblr is already a big player in the world of microblogging. However, following <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-do-you-make-of-yahoos-purchase-of-tumblr/">Yahoo!'s $1.3 Billion takeover</a>, is there a chance of Tumblr becoming the next CMS powerhouse?
It's no secret that Tumblr has a long way to go before it catches up with WordPress, or even the likes of Joomla &amp; Drupal which help make up the competition, but Tumblr has some unique advantages which make it worthy of a passing mention amongst these CMS giants.
Tumblr is not a platform which readily springs to mind when thinking about content management systems, yet it certainly has the raw ingredients and potential to reach such a prestigious status.
<h2>Strong Foundations Rarely Tumble</h2>
If there is one thing Tumblr can rely on going forward, it is a strong foundation. Since its birth in 2007, the microblogging platform has gone from strength to strength.
With a total of 52 billion individual posts, it's safe to assume that Tumblr's user base is flourishing. In fact, the website boasts 300 million monthly unique visitors, with 900 posts going live every second. In light of these figures, it is not surprising that Tumblr is amongst the <a href="http://trends.builtwith.com/cms/growth#!oneYear">fastest growing CMS and blogging platforms around</a>.
Despite Tumblr's strong roots within the blogging community, it is important to note that the tumblelogging platform is still in its youth compared to WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, all of which were founded years before Tumblr.
The statistics above prove that Tumblr is a young, exciting project, and such figures would have certainly played a key role in Yahoo's decision to acquire the platform.
<h2>Tumblr as a CMS</h2>
In order to compete with the likes of WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, Tumblr needs to have a few content management tricks up its sleeve.
Tumblr's main straighten when it comes to being a CMS, is its incredible simplicity.
As the Internet continues to grow, new areas of the globe and its blossoming population are being touched. The world of blogging and social interaction are attracting people who are both younger and older than ever before, and it is precisely these untapped demographics which Tumblr could appeal to most.
Despite being extremely easy to use, WordPress still requires a learning curve to get used to. The same applies to most of the major <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/which-cms-make-up-the-wordpress-competition/">WordPress competition</a>. Tumblr on the other hand, offers a whole new level of simpleness.
Tumblr requires no installation or configuration, nor does it require you to pay for a personal hosting plan – yet still allows you to operate via a unique URL.
Additionally, Tumblr's social integration is unmatched. Re-blogging, following and liking content from other users is easy, and can promote a sense of community far quicker than most other platforms. Linking up to Twitter, Facebook and other social networks is also a breeze. It is these built-in community functions which give Tumblr a huge, unique advantage.
When it comes to design, Tumblr has some work to do. A number of themes are readily available, but page layouts are extremely limited. The only way to obtain a personalised look is to <a href="http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/custom_themes">create a custom HTML theme</a>
Lastly, Tumblr has another hurdle to overcome, in the form of search engine optimization. All great CMS comply with, and can be optimized for popular search engines – except Tumblr.
As far as Google is concerned, Tumblr is a place where duplicate content is encouraged, thanks to the website's re-blogging feature. This, combined with the fact that many Tumblr pages lack unique title tags, combines to create a huge obstacle for users looking to rank well in the search engines.
<h2>Yahoo's Plans</h2>
Immediately following the news of Yahoo's Tumblr takeover, the company released a statement via its <a href="http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/50902111638/tumblr-yahoo">official blog</a>:
“We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve. Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.”
Although Yahoo haven't exactly detailed their specific plans for Tumblr, they imply that they will prefer a gentle approach to changing the current Tumblr infrastructure.
After both Delicious and Flickr suffered under Yahoo's rule, the promise to not screw Tumblr up is perhaps a wise statement to make, and one which many will hope Yahoo live up to.
Despite having some obstacles to overcome, there is no doubt that Tumblr has potential to become a big time CMS, blogging and social networking platform, all in one. Whatever Yahoo decide to do, it will be interesting to observe the results.
Do you think Tumblr has the potential to rival the likes of WordPress in the world of CMS? Let us know what you think.

Could Tumblr Become the Next CMS Powerhouse?

Shopify - The global commerce platform

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

The global commerce platform

#ffffff

<a href="http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?1465944" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DreamHost</a> has today launched a new Managed WordPress Hosting offering they've aptly named DreamPress. At its core, the service comprises managed Virtual Private Server (VPS) instances running on isolated, highly scalable and tuned-for-WordPress physical servers.  The application stack includes an automatically configured, in-memory caching layer for rocket-powered speed, and WordPress itself is likewise optimized and tuned for the VPS environment. Add in robot-assisted migration that leverages DreamHost-developed open source contributions to the wp-cli tool, an easy control panel interface, the advanced WordPress support that DreamHost is known for, and simple monthly pricing, and the result is a powerful yet ultimately usable and cost-effective hosted WordPress service.
With its advanced management and security features, and a 100% uptime guarantee, peace of mind is at the heart of DreamPress. DreamHost has built into the service automatic WordPress core updates, best practice security configuration to prevent common attacks, automatic mod_security web firewall rule management, and application stack management, to name some of the key features. Combine this with expert engineers operating the DreamPress service 24/7, plus a US-based technical support team available via live chat, email, or phone call – so even the most demanding implementations are equipped for non-stop operation.
Engineered for speed and backed 24/7 by expert WordPress technical support from DreamHost, this offering is available for a limited time at a ridiculously low monthly rate of $19.95!
<blockquote>
“DreamPress is hosted WordPress on steroids,” said Simon Anderson, CEO of DreamHost. “Running on specialized, optimized virtual private servers – and with each instance pre-configured by our WordPress experts for scalable performance under traffic load – DreamPress is the perfect upgrade for publishers with a growing blog or site, and developers looking to save config time. With our 15 years of experience in automating and delivering Open Source applications and platforms, our customers have been asking us to Just Do DreamPress, so we’re happy to roll it out!”
</blockquote>
<h3>What do you get for your money?</h3>
This deal gets you a performance package that includes an isolated VPS web server, a MySQL VPS database server, premium support, performance and security tuning, consulting support, and available automated backups to DreamHost’s public cloud storage service, DreamObjects. As with all DreamHost services, every DreamPress account is backed by a 97-day, money-back guarantee.
I can quite honestly say that comparable services run far more expensive and now is definitely a good time to jump on board and give this awesome offering a try. For $19.95, you can't beat it and with a 97 day money back guarantee, what do you have to lose?
Grab this deal while the gettings good and before the price increases. Visit <a href="http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?1465944" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DreamHost</a> today and click on the DreamPress tab to get started.

DreamHost launches DreamPress Managed WordPress Hosting

Today, I am excited to announce that CMS Critic is now powered by last year's winner of the Best Free CMS award in our <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Critics Choice CMS Awards</a>, <a href="http://www.processwire.com">ProcessWire</a>! For the last several years, we've run our popular website on WordPress but found as things progressed, we continually ended up having to rely on third-party plugins to get the functionality we needed. With ProcessWire, we no longer have this issue as the bulk of the capabilities we require are built in.
Our WordPress platform, up until today, required approximately 30 plugins and had a database size of over 30 mb at the time of transfer to ProcessWire. Now, we are just over 5 mb in database size and our system is far, far faster than it was before. Not only that but we've had the site developed on the amazing <a href="http://foundation.zurb.com/">Foundation Framework</a>, which I personally had the pleasure of tweaking and adapting with a new style and layout. I have to admit, this is the most fun I've had in years of development work. I can truly say I fell completely in love with this framework. It's absolutely amazing how quickly and easily you can adapt your layout and come up with a unique look.
The transition to ProcessWire began after the first week of May when I first reached out to <a href="http://www.ryancramer.com/">Ryan Cramer</a> (lead developer and founder of PW) to find out if he thought his system would be a good fit for our needs. Our talks quickly led to us hiring Ryan to develop our site and I have to say the whole experience has been an incredibly awesome learning opportunity. It's been exciting and wonderful to learn to work with this CMS, from its simplicity to its logical programming. Ryan is a consumate professional and if working with a developer was always like this, I'd want to keep building things and never stop.
I'd like to think that this site now has an opportunity to expand past the borders and roadblocks we had encountered on WordPress into new realms of opportunity and I'm looking forward to exploring what we can do with this great CMS.
A big thank you to Ryan and I hope you like the new site. Have feedback to share? Please do so in the comments below.

CMS Critic is now powered by ProcessWire

Social is not a new buzz word.  Although we hear this term ad nauseam in most marketing, product roadmap, sales – name the department – meetings, this is an elusive topic.  Why is it so elusive?  Quite simply, this is because “social” has a different meaning to different people.  This conversation can get complicated quickly as you apply it to your CMS and overall website strategy.  So, let me demystify this for you.
But Seriously, What Does it Mean?
Social has a few different meanings.  It could mean to some people that they are able to share content on places like Facebook and Twitter.  Others may think it refers to common features like blogging and forums.  It really is just how we want to communicate and have our customers communicate with each other and with our brand.
Customers demand a different kind of website experience today.  (Yes, employees on your intranet are your customer too.)  Your customers want to communicate with your brand in a way that they’re used to in their daily life.  E-mail is boring and old.  They want to engage in a community setting.  They want to have friends, instant gratification, earn rewards, and more.  They want to feel like they are part of something.
Why a Community?  Why Now?
If you’re not leveraging a community on your website, you are missing a critical opportunity to engage with your visitors, build customer loyalty, lower support costs, and stay ahead of your competition.  If done right, a community-centric website will also keep your visitors on your site longer and cultivate brand advocates.  You’ll begin to notice that it shortens sales processes and builds word-of-mouth advertising through community generated recommendations.  After all, who trusts the car salesman over their neighbor or best friend?
Now that we understand what community is and why it is important, let’s look at the top 5 mission-critical decisions that you need to keep in mind.
<h2>1. Avoid the Nuts and Bolts</h2>
Market research has shown that building your own community software will cost you millions in development, which would likely leave you looking at purchasing an existing solution.  Make sure when you do that, you choose a solution that of course meets (and perhaps exceeds) your expectations.  This part is easy.  The hard part is not knowing what you don’t know…
Most social solutions today are hosted in a central location, forcing you to integrate with them in a way to hopefully make it appear to be a seamless transition from your website to your community.  This is clearly not ideal though and rarely works out how you expect.  Now you have to figure who is going to do that integration, how much time it will take, and how much this will cost above what you originally expected.  Don’t forget that you also now have to master this new system alongside your existing one, putting you into additional support costs right away.
You instead want to find something that fits the overall website strategy of your organization.  Why stop at just the community?  Choose a solution that also allows you to manage all of your websites, content, digital assets, users, and more.  Your total cost of ownership will definitely be better off instead of continuously bolting on a new solution every time you’re trying to solve a business problem.
<h2>2. The Only Constant is Change</h2>
You almost certainly will have the need for modification.  You might integrate custom back-end systems, an ERP, CRM, a document management system, or any other kind of application.  This is definitely a requirement of any website project today to make sure you are meeting business goals and to ensure adoption.
When you talk about choosing the solution for your community, you should also pin point exactly what it will take to make those modifications when the time comes.  Do you have the expertise in house?  Do you need to contract someone else?  Does the vendor require that they or their partners do it for you?  What are the cost differences?  Who owns the resulting code in the modification?
Probably the most important question here though is…  Will these modifications prevent you from being able to upgrade to a newer version of the software?  The last thing you want to do is get stuck in an old version or not be able to upgrade because it’s cost prohibitive.
<h2>3. Licensed to Thrill</h2>
The most commonly misunderstood concept when looking broadly over the software ecosystem is licensing.  This is never truer than in the open source space – but you want to be aware of what you’re getting yourself into regardless.
Do you own the software or are you just using it?  Does that answer fit into your business model?
If your community becomes successful, how will your cost be affected?  Are you going to be penalized for that success or can you grow your community freely?
Can you legally make modifications and where does the licensing allow you to install the software?  If you make a modification or you choose to host it in your own data center, how does that impact your licensing and support?
<h2>4. Own the Data</h2>
When you look at the various options available for community or social software solutions today, the vast majority are hosted for you.  This is a great convenience for a few reasons.  It allows you to not worry about where and how to get it up and running.  It also limits the amount of maintenance that you need to be involved in.  However, not everything is convenient about it.
You need to be fully aware of what that means to you and your business objectives.  Who owns the data?  Can you get to that data in a meaningful way?  How are you allowed to use that data?
Regardless to where and how your community is hosted, you should make sure that there are no restrictions to how you can use and access the data that is resulting from the activity of the community that you are working very hard to foster and likely paying a premium to have.  You also don’t want to invest in a model that appears to lock you in as an imprisoned customer.
<h2>5. Take it From the Horse’s Mouth</h2>
One of the things that many of us look for when making large purchases is a proof source.  You wouldn’t hire a graphic designer without seeing some examples of their work first.  The same should be true of the solution you choose to run your community.
The last thing you should do when building a community is choose a vendor that itself hasn’t proven to be able to foster its own community.  If they don’t know how to do it themselves, how can they do it for your organization?  If the vendor hasn’t been able to use their own software to build a world-class community presence, you should consider over-analyzing every detail of their value proposition and maybe even just consider another solution altogether.  Save your time.   Your time is worth something, right?
<h2>Wrap It Up Already!</h2>
Add these things together and you should end up with a rock solid solution for your organization that will allow you to meet your project requirements, align with your business objectives, and keep you agile enough to not get in the way when change happens.  It’s not easy to move from any kind of solution to another.  A social community may even be the most painful kind of solution to migrate.  Hopefully these tips will ensure that you only have to make this decision once!

Five Critical Decisions When Building a Community on Your Website

eZ Exceed 2.0 is the latest release of the popular extension for eZ Publish that makes the editorial workflow more efficient. . Exceed 2.0 is more intuitive and was made for content creators. With this extension, you can work up to 50% faster on either desktop, tablet or smartphone.
Here's a quick video showcasing the product in action:
http://youtu.be/PH8vdV0Yyas
Installed Exceed for eZ Publish takes about 15 minutes and the benefits are obvious right away. There are also iOS apps that you can use to edit and review content on different devices. «Mirror Browsing» in Exceed lets you mirror your desktop browsing to your iPad and iPhone. This makes checking your responsive sites a breeze.
Visit <a href="http://try.ezexceed.no/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://try.ezexceed.no</a> – and login to click around and test Exceed.

New eZ Exceed 2.0 offers faster and more efficient editorial workflow

I'm very pleased to inform everyone that we will be opening up nominations for the 2013 CMS awards on June 1, 2013. Thanks to the incredible success of last years awards, we're excited to see how things evolve for 2013.
We're also introducing some new categories for this years awards. Here's a full list of the award categories:
<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 Hosted Website Builder</li>
<li>Best Hosted/Cloud Solution (New for 2013!)</li>
<li>Best Forum Solution (New for 2013!)</li>
</ul>
We're also including some new awards for Most Innovative in 2013 and others which will be given out as part of the Critics Choice portion of the awards.
Read more about our awards and last year's winners on the <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Critics Choice CMS Awards page</a> and be sure to check back and stay tuned for the nominations to begin on June 1, 2013.

Nominations for the Annual Critics Choice CMS Awards open June 1, 2013!

ProcessWire, the winner of our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/critics-choice-for-best-free-cms-goes-to/">Best Free CMS</a> award in last year's <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Critic's Choice Awards</a>, has a new release available for public consumption. Thanks to numerous optimizations and improvements, <a href="http://processwire.com/">ProcessWire 2.3</a> is the fastest, smartest and most capable version yet.
In version 2.3 of ProcessWire, major upgrades have been made throughout the entire system. If you are using an older version of ProcessWire, now is a good time to upgrade to ProcessWire 2.3. If you are not yet using ProcessWire, version 2.3 is a great place to start. Below is a partial list of what's been added and changed.
<ul>
<li>Optimized selector engine making ProcessWire faster and more accurate than ever before.</li>
<li>Installer upgrades, including the ability to specify your admin URL at install time.</li>
<li>Multi-language page names to round out our multi-language fields (dev branch).</li>
<li>New session handling features enabling you to use your database for session storage.</li>
<li>Image support updates including custom API-level cropping support.</li>
<li>Tagging of fields and templates for admin grouping.</li>
<li>Default admin theme upgrades including improved mobile support (responsive).</li>
<li>Numerous input field upgrades and additions for greater customizability and validation.</li>
<li>Password system updates now supporting enhanced security with PHP 5.3+.</li>
<li>Comments fieldtype additions like a new website field, Gravatar support and more.</li>
<li>File and image fieldtype upgrades including support for tags and queryable created/modified timestamps.</li>
<li>Support for secured page files: now file-based assets can have access control too.</li>
<li>Great new core API functions and methods.</li>
<li>Implementation of all jQuery traversal functions in our API.</li>
<li>Great new core modules and classes.</li>
<li>Numerous other upgrades and additions!</li>
</ul>
For more details about these upgrades and additions, please see our extended <a href="http://processwire.com/about/news/introducing-processwire-2.3/">ProcessWire 2.3 press release</a>.
<h2>About ProcessWire</h2>
ProcessWire is a friendly and powerful open source CMS and CMF with an exceptionally strong foundation. With all custom fields, an easy-to-use jQuery-inspired API, and a powerful page selector engine, ProcessWire will rise to any task.
Clients love ProcessWire for its no-fuss simplicity and ease of use when editing their site. Designers and developers love ProcessWire for its thoughtful, easy and powerful API-driven approach that keeps them in control of the markup and makes development fun again. Not to mention, ProcessWire's API can also be booted from other applications or command-line scripts, bringing entire new levels of accessibility to your content.
ProcessWire is a modern SEO specialist's dream come true. It uses logical, readable and search-friendly URLs that always reflect the content's home in the tree. Meaning you'll never have to worry about multiple URLs or play duplicate content games. With full markup control, all custom fields, and support for runtime URL segments, ProcessWire lets you take full advantage of all the on-site SEO possibilities without wasting your time on long irrelevant tags and tricks.
ProcessWire is designed for the needs of today and not limited by the past. It is equally at home powering small-to-large scale standards-friendly websites, mobile websites, JSON/XML web services, Flash applications, AJAX-driven content, iPhone/Android applications, and more. This output agnosticism drives ProcessWire's simplicity and makes it support, rather than interfere with your work.
ProcessWire is a mature product that comes from a strong bloodline of content management systems developed over nearly a decade. ProcessWire runs beautifully on web servers running PHP 5.3.8+ and MySQL 5.
<ul>
<li><a href="http://processwire.com/">Learn more about ProcessWire CMF/CMS</a> and <a href="http://processwire.com/download/">download</a> »</li>
<li><a href="http://processwire.com/demo/">Try out a demo of ProcessWire</a> »</li>
</ul>

ProcessWire 2.3 Released

One of the best things about SharePoint is its name. The moniker suggest a friendly place where people can gather, work, and say to themselves, “a good time was had by all.” If the greatest thing going for a software is its name, then it probably has some shortcomings elsewhere. SharePoint has shortcomings, and in the rough-and-tumble world of collaborative web applications, SharePoint has received more than its fair share of criticisms. Let's find out what these shortcomings are, and maybe what we, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, can do about it.

What are SharePoint's shortcomings? To answer that question, we'll ask a less biased question — what is SharePoint anyway? There are three main promises that SharePoint has made about itself. We'll consider each of these, and uncover how it may not have completely fulfilled its promises on all three fronts.
<h2>1.  SharePoint is everything.</h2>
SharePoint is allegedly everything that you could have ever wanted — at least that's how it was described in its infancy by Jeff Teper. Teper, “the father of SharePoint” sold the product on the promise that it would integrate everything — doc management, CMS, intranet, sharing, blogs, etc. — into a ginormous silver bullet. It's been called the “all-in-one collaboration and communication server” by one <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/meet-the-father-of-microsoft-sharepoint-jeff-teper/4299" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">organization</a>. Teper preferred to <a href="http://creese.typepad.com/pattern_finder/2009/10/quotes-from-the-sharepoint-conference-keynote.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">describe it</a> as the “ultimate Swiss Army Knife.”  Swiss Army Knives are great, precisely because they can do everything. That's precisely the point (no pun intended):  SharePoint can do everything!
SharePoint's Wikipedia entry tries to make sense of it all with its descriptions, an unending stream of functionality:  “SharePoint can be used to provide intranet portals, document &amp; file management, collaboration, social networks, extranets, websites, enterprise search, and business intelligence. It also has system integration, process integration, and workflow automation capabilities…central management, governance, and security controls,” and more.
Let's see…did they miss anything?
Unfortunately, a system that promises to be and do everything will probably not be and do all of those tasks with the highest degree of competency. When users discover that SharePoint doesn't execute what they were hoping it would, they may choose to use something else. A further concern is that the multifaceted features of the tool become buried in an overwhelming array of knives, tools, bottle openers, and awls, making it difficult to determine what to use — or how, or when to use them.
Sometimes, a product that promises to be everything ends up being nothing. When a product aspires to be so many things, it loses the power of  a single selling point.
<h2>2.  SharePoint is “simple, simple, simple.”</h2>
When SharePoint developers became concerned that people wouldn't understand how simple SharePoint was, they decided to describe it as “simple, simple, simple.” So, its simple.
Or is it?
Teper himself admitted in a retrospective mourn, “We may have oversold how simple SharePoint was to deploy.” And that's another shortcoming of an end-all system. When you describe a product as “simple,” and it ends up looking like a do-it-yourself home helicopter kit without the instruction manual, you're going to disappoint a lot of people. In order for a system to gain a loyal tribe, it must have a slick UI, intuitive purpose, and deliver quick solutions to obvious needs. Instead of fulfilling its prophecy for simplicity, SharePoint became “quite ambitious and complex.”
Information workers are a fairly intelligent group of people, but we want things to be simple enough to use without having to take night classes. Climbing a learning curve is something we don't mind doing, but we'd rather not do it at all. When SharePoint releases multiple versions and expansions, trying to make sense of itself, it loses touch with its user group who is left in the lurch of its latest not-so-simple iteration. Keep in mind that not everyone using SharePoint is tech-savvy. When non-tech user meets teched-up SharePoint, the relationship can get a bit awkward.
<h2>3.  SharePoint is collaboration.</h2>
Just about everyone thought that SharePoint was a collaboration platform. Hence the name. Yet it is also a content-driven system. That's the problem. Collaboration and content don't dance together very well. Forrester provided their perspective on the system's collaboration capability:  It is “SharePoint's least successful workload.”
Collaboration is crucial, and if a system lags in this department, it's a huge downer. SharePoint's oft-touted collaboration power is not much more than a newsfeed. As we reported recently, the majority of SharePoint users are stymied by the system's <a href="/microsoft-sharepoint-research-highlights-gaps/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">inability to deliver satisfactorily</a> on this front.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
Lest this article degenerate into a SharePoint bash fest, let's back up and admire its strong points. There are a few. And, true, many organizations have profited from it. Many businesses continue to use and value SharePoint for its advanced technologies and tools.
It's come to the point, however, that we need to realize that a unified source for everything may no longer be the most realistic and practical way to go about performing operations. It sounds nice, sure, but is it for real? Is SharePoint going to last? More and more collaborative platforms, CMSs, and powerful platforms have filled the marketplace. Is there still enough room for SharePoint to live on as the dominate force?
Like it or loathe it, SharePoint's market share is big enough to mean that it's not going to fade into oblivion in the next few years. Yes, it <a href="/is-sharepoint-going-away/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">might be on the decline</a>, but we still get to use it for a while.
So, in the meantime, lets try to utilize SharePoint correctly and capitalize on the strengths that it does possess.

SharePoint's Shortcomings

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