Articles - Page 60

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

matt-garrepy

There's no doubt that the website builder market is a hot one of late, there are plenty of great contenders such as <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a>, Squarespace and Wix.
Today, SiteSupra has announced that they are making a play for piece of the pie with the launch of their own website builder / hosted CMS.
For those unfamiliar with SiteSupra, here's a quick video highlighting some of the functionality of the CMS.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cmpVj8mkQIU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
According to the release announcement, SiteSupra's goal is to target those users who think a five minute website results in a quality website by offering them a more powerful solution that is also easy to use.
According to SiteSupra CEO, Anton Sulsky;
<blockquote>
“SiteSupra’s strength comes from its focus on the fundamentals of elegant design, powerful website features and modern mobile screen-ready, responsive implemenation. There are various creative design options out there, but we concentrate on what is most important, as the website is the most effective marketing tool a company can have.”
</blockquote>
Here are some of the key features their website builder offers:
<ol>
<li>Responsive themes. As smartphone and tablet usage grows, it is becoming even more important to have a responsive website that adapts to any screen in a professional manner. Every aspect of content, design and functionality that you add to the desktop version of the site is seamlessly and automatically scaled down for other devices, so there are no additional expenses for the mobile version. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/aira-web-and-mobile600x0.png" /></li>
<li>Form builder. Get to know the questions and concerns of your customers. Create forms for feedback, bookings or other purposes simply by dragging and dropping the required fields on to the page. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitesupra-form-builder600x0.png" /></li>
<li>Slideshow manager. If you have ever wanted to create an animated slideshow, but have struggled to find a reliable programmer, now you can manage animated and layered slideshows yourself – with background images and animated overlay text, videos and masks – that are fully responsive as well. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitesupra-slideshow-manager600x0.png" /></li>
<li>Parallax animation. One of the trendiest styles currently available, this allows you to create a cool one-page scrolling site by adding a storytelling detail to an otherwise static page – available in Drava template. </li>
</ol>
Interested in giving it  a try? Check out their website at <a href="http://www.sitesupra.com/">http://www.sitesupra.com/</a>

SiteSupra Makes a Play for the Website Builder Market

mike-johnston

Do you work in the financial sector? Do you assist different companies in managing their finances? Do you provide various banking services online or work on the online loan market? Do you think of having a website that will present you as a highly experienced professional and help you get new clients?
If you have answered “yes” to any of the questions above, then we have two exciting pieces of news for you! The first is that everything you need is already out there in <a href="https://www.motocms.com/website-templates/motocms-3-template/59994.html" target="_blank">Income</a> – a professional website template that allows you to present financial services easily and smoothly. The second great piece of news is that you actually do not need anybody to help you. Sounds unbelievable, but it is true. Let’s check this template out and see what features it has in store for you!
Benefit #1. Income is easy to manage thanks to the unique website creator.
Drag &amp; Drop Website Creator from MotoCMS is the most important advantage of Income. Use this creator to construct your website, add new content sections, and arrange them on the page as it is necessary for you. Even a child can build a website with the ready-made content blocks, right? You are the one who decides what to do and how to do it! Just several clicks and your stunning website is ready! Its user-friendly design allows you to manage it yourself, even if you have no programming skills. With Drag &amp; Drop Website Creator from MotoCMS you can easily get carried away. How so? It is so much fun to play with content blocks, really! So stay focused while building the website of your dreams.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1-1.jpg" />
Benefit #2. Income is 100% responsive
Do your customers use mobile phones, tablets, or laptops to browse the web pages? Sure, they do. Do you have to worry about the way your website looks on all these devices? Not really, if you choose Income. This template offers 100% responsive design so you can be sure that your website can be accessed from any device. And, what is also not less important, it looks professional, adjusting to any smartphone or tablet.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2.jpg" />
Benefit #3. Income contains pages ready to hand
There is one more outstanding feature that makes your website creation process much easier. Income financial template provides you with 19 ready-to-use pages. It means you do not have to think of your website page design that should fit specifically the financial website. It does not matter what goal you have – offering your services or presenting your team – you can find a wide range of pre-built layouts for any need. Choose the page you like from the options you are given and here you are – a successful professional website for your business is ready!
Moreover, Income has 2 extra home pages! What can be better?! If you provide banking services online, then Banking Home Page is the one that you will definitely appreciate! If you work on the online loan market, Loan Company Home Page is the one that will represent your company to the whole world. Just choose the one that suits your business!
Benefit #4. Income means getting creative about your design
Is the design of your website important to you and you pay a lot of attention to all the tiny details? Do you like playing with fonts, sizes, and colors? Income financial template has everything necessary. You will be delighted to see such fascinating Google Fonts – the rich collection of text styles integrated into your admin panel. Moreover, such feature as Font Icons will help you create a unique project with icons in different sizes and colors. You may adjust graphic elements without loss of quality and your design will look perfect on any display. And with Color Picker you have an opportunity to work out the appropriate color palette for your website with just five main colors. How great is that?
Benefit #5. With Income, you know how to increase your clientele
Do you want to give some valuable pieces of financial advice to your customers? Or you just need a place to store some useful links for yourself?
Use such wonderful feature of Income as an opportunity to create your own blog. You know that a tremendous part of the world population is interested in business, especially in such particular topic as finance. You can post the information that is in high demand among people and customize it easy, using a wide range of widgets that are offered by Income financial template. You are sure to attract your target audience in this case.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/3.jpg" />
Another reliable way to increase your client base is to intensively use the Subscription Form. This tool can get you new potential customers in a blink of an eye. Just let them enter their email and press the button Subscribe and they will follow you! You can allow them to leave comments and discuss the content you publish.. They may also get emails from you about the changes that occur in the business world in general and in your company in particular. Do not miss the chance to keep in touch with the visitors of your website and an opportunity to increase your target audience!
It is also handy that MotoCMS offers 24/7 Free Tech Support for one year. This is especially important if you want to consult a professional who will provide you with the lightning-fast solution.
As you see, Income is a very promising CMS template for everyone who wants to create a professional website for any financial niche with no third party. In conclusion, don’t forget that you can test this website template from MotoCMS free of charge within a free trial period and discover its potential in practice.

Get The First "Income" from Your Online Business

Win One of Three Premium Templates in the <a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/" target="_blank">TemplateMonster</a> Giveaway Today, our friends from TemplateMonster are giving our readers an exclusive opportunity to win ANY template from their huge inventory.
The giveaway of 3 TemplateMonster templates starts on 28 January, 2016, and its deadline is 4 February, 2016. Three lucky winners will be chosen at random, and each of them will get one template of their choice. Would you like to upgrade your site for free? Then, read on to find out how to win a premium TM template.
<h2>How to Win</h2>
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What’s notable about TemplateMonster is a diverse inventory of 30,000 ready-made templates and 13 years of experience behind the company.
Since 2002, TemplateMonster has released templates for different sites (e-stores, blogs, portfolios), CMSs (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal), eCommerce platforms (PrestaShop, Magento, WooCommerce) and niches (business, fashion, food, etc). With such a wide range of designs available, you will quickly find the right option for your individual requirement.
<h2>Examples of TemplateMonster Templates</h2>
Take a look at some TemplateMonster templates to learn more about the prize you can win.
Example of WordPress Themes
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/monstroid-wordpress-theme-1744x0-is.jpg" />
<a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/demo/55555.html?utm_source=cmscritic4&amp;utm_medium=giveaway&amp;utm_campaign=cmscriticblog" target="_blank">Demo</a> | <a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes/monstroid/?utm_source=cmscritic5&amp;utm_medium=giveaway&amp;utm_campaign=cmscriticblog" target="_blank">More Info</a>
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Example of Joomla Templates
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Wegy is a multipurpose Joomla template packed with a wide range of pre-designed pages. They include 5 homepage versions, 3 blog page versions, 2 versions of contact, about, FAQ and portfolio pages, etc.
The template also comes with a rich set of features such as a form builder, parallax effect, video backgrounds, page loader with a logo, and much more. A pre-defined newsletter template will come in handy for your email marketing needs.
Example of Drupal Themes
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/rocket-design-drupal-template709x0-is.jpg" /> <a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/demo/55557.html?utm_source=cmscritic8&amp;utm_medium=giveaway&amp;utm_campaign=cmscriticblog" target="_blank">Demo</a> | <a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/drupal-themes/55557.html?utm_source=cmscritic9&amp;utm_medium=giveaway&amp;utm_campaign=cmscriticblog" target="_blank">More Info</a>
This Drupal theme is tailored for design agencies, but can be customized for any other site. Its dynamic design boasts a sticky menu, parallax header, video background, square-tiled gallery, Google map and many other must-have features of today.
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* * *
This post is sponsored by TemplateMonster. Find out more at <a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/" target="_blank">TemplateMonster.com</a>.

Win One of Three Premium Templates in the TemplateMonster Giveaway

<a href="http://www.marketo.com/" target="_blank">Marketo</a>, the world renowned marketing automation system, has just turned ten years old.
<a href="http://www.marketo.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/marketo-300x300.png" /></a>With clients like Intel and Acquia, Marketo has grown into one of the most trusted marketing automation systems on the market.
Although, it's not a product exclusive to the world of enterprise. Small and medium sized businesses make up a large chunk of Marketo's clientele, despite the fact that it's “Spark” package, designed for smaller projects, is still priced for businesses that are already relatively well developed.
<h2>Marketo: A Brief History</h2>
<blockquote>
“Ten years ago this month, Phil Fernandez, David Morandi, and Jon Miller founded Marketo with one idea: to create a new kind of enterprise software company, one dedicated solely to the needs and mission of today’s marketing professional.”
</blockquote>
Founded in 2006 by Phil Fernandez, Jon Miller and David Morandi (all formerly of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany,_Inc.">Epiphany</a>), Marketo has been ranked in the Inc 500 as high as 78th, and was listed as 28th on Forbes' Most Promising Companies in 2011.
In 2008 Marketo released its first product. In 2011, it established its first international office in Dublin, Ireland, before going public (MKTO) in 2013.
Today, Marketo supports over 4,000 customers, with services including; B2B Marketing Automation, Consumer Engagement Marketing, Real-Time Personalization and Marketing Management.
On their <a href="http://blog.marketo.com/2016/01/happy-10th-birthday-marketo.html" target="_blank">celebratory blog post</a>, Marketo put together a full timeline of their history, which is a pretty interesting read.
Congratulations to making it to Ten years old, <a href="http://www.marketo.com/" target="_blank">Marketo</a>. Here's to Ten more!

Ten Years of Marketo

On July 2nd 2013, Koken released version 0.9 of their popular content management system, built from the ground up for Photographers, designers and other creative media publishers.
Koken 0.9 brings about an array of over 50 updates relating to image editing, media organization, essay presentation and social sharing. Let's now delve into the most exciting features of Koken's latest update.
<h2>Featured Images &amp; Essays</h2>
One of the updates brought about by Koken 0.9 is featured images, which can be assigned to different essays and pages. Users can now quickly and easily insert images from their media library into various content, which prompts Koken to assign it as the featured image for that particular publication.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1.png" alt="Koken 0.9" />
Additionally, Koken 0.9 brings about the ability to set featured essays, allowing users to display a certain essays in a way which is more distinct, and will thus draw the direct attention of their website visitors.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2.png" alt="Koken 0.9" />
Users can now simply click the star next to any essay to give it its featured status. Koken has also updated the vast majority of its themes in compliance with this feature, to allow all-round featured essay support and display capability.
<h2>Image Focal Points</h2>
Like many themes across a variety of CMS, Koken's templates often crop images to fit certain thumbnail and page sizes. Previously, images may have been cropped in a way which removes the focus of the picture itself. For example, faces or wording which hold value may have been cropped out of the image altogether. 
As a solution, Koken 0.9 introduces an image “Focal Point” tool, which allows users to pinpoint an area within an image which must always kept within the frame, even after cropping. This ensures that all forms of cropping never negatively affects the impact of the image.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/3.png" alt="Koken 0.9" />
<h2>Better Media Organization</h2>
Photographers and others who wish to upload large amounts of images and other types of media will be happy to see Koken's improvements relating to media organization, searching and general management.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/4.png" alt="Koken 0.9" />
Users are now able to search and sort their content by filename, displaying media is ascending and descending order. Additionally, a “Reverse Order” button has been added, which flips the order or albums, making older uploads easier to locate.
<h2>Improved HTML Editing</h2>
Koken 0.9 also presents a completely revamped HTML editor. The new editor offers features such as syntax highlighting, code completion and the ability for users to view their changes in both edit modes. Essentially, the HTML editor provides an instant preview of the changes being made.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/5.png" alt="Koken 0.9" />
<h2>Tumblr Sharing</h2>
Also amongst Koken's new features, is the ability to share content directly to the extremely popular social network, <a href="/could-tumblr-become-the-next-cms-powerhouse/">Tumblr</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/6.png" alt="Koken 0.9" />
The Tumblr sharing option has been added to Koken's default themes, as well as the Library section located within Koken's administration console. This allows users to publish content to Tumblr without ever having to leave their admin panel.
<h2>Additional Features</h2>
In addition to the new features and capabilities mentioned above, Koken 0.9 also introduces changes such as, RSS feed improvements, navigational enhancements, slideshow titles &amp; captions, and much more.
Also, just hours after the release of Koken 0.9, a much smaller update in the form of <a href="http://blog.koken.me/essays/2013/07/koken-091-released/">Koken 0.9.1 was a</a><a href="http://blog.koken.me/essays/2013/07/koken-091-released/">nnounced</a>, which fixed a number of minor issues relating to the previous burst of updates and enhancements.
For further information on the changes we have highlighted, and a full list of Koken 0.9's CMS features and updates, check out <a href="http://help.koken.me/customer/portal/articles/848339-release-notes">Koken's official release notes</a>.

Koken 0.9 - Feature Roundup

TYPO3 CMS version 8 LTS is now available. The release features major speed improvements and easier workflows for everyday tasks. The TYPO3 CMS core team will support this Long-Term Support version for three years. Built on PHP version 7, the CMS version delivers a great increase in speed compared to previous versions. PHP 7 is on average twice as fast as PHP 5.6.
Form builder
TYPO3 now includes a mature and flexible form builder, enabling editors to create complex forms. The user friendly interface makes it possible to create multi-column field groups and multi-page forms.The form builder provides full control over where form data is stored and sent. The builder must be configured only once per installation, using the popular YAML markup language.
Image processing for responsive images
Modern websites must be optimized for mobile devices, such as mobile phones and tablets. An important requirement is the possibility to present different image versions depending on the screen size (i.e. responsive images). In the new TYPO3 8 LTS, editors can interactively select and configure responsive image versions. Each image version can be individually cropped. Editors can even define focus areas, specifying what part of the image is most important.
Flexible options for multiple languages
One of TYPO3’s greatest strengths is the flexible support for multilingual web applications, including content inheritance between languages. TYPO3 8 LTS extends the multi-language features further: Editors are now able to define which content element fields will be inherited or overwritten when translating. While this could previously only be configured once, for the entire installation, it can now be defined for individual elements. The decision is up to the editor creating the content.
New rich text editor for text input
The rich text editor, the component that allows the editor to enter and format text, is one of the most important parts of a content management system. In the TYPO3 8 LTS release the legacy editor technology has been replaced with the state-of-the-art CKEditor. The effort involved in configuring the editor has been greatly reduced.
More features for editors 
Other features improving the editors’ workflow include search engine and user-friendly links in the core. Page titles, files, and extension records are now displayed instead of cryptic numbers.
Supporting more database engines and cloud solutions
Most content management systems use a database to store their data. In many parts of the PHP world, the database abstraction layer “Doctrine” is used to connect with databases of almost any type. Both easy to learn and popular, Doctrine is a framework known to most PHP developers. With Doctrine, TYPO3 CMS now supports a long list of database engines, such as MySQL as well as software popular with enterprise solutions, such as PostgreSQL (aka. Postgres) and Microsoft SQL.
The number of cloud-hosted websites has increased rapidly over the last few years. TYPO3 8 LTS is cloud-ready and can be installed on a variety of cloud solutions, such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
New features for integrators and developers
Many features have been implemented in the TYPO3 core over the last 18 months. In order to further improve the experience for developers, popular PHP standards and technologies, such as PSR-1 to PSR-7, Guzzle and Symfony, are being used.
Thanks to a modernized core, developers and integrators can now make the user interface even easier for editors. It is possible to add information about how to use a field on the current web site or generate a live preview based on the data entered.
When debugging complex HTML templates, integrators now have one-click access to the template files used when rendering individual areas of the web page. This simplifies and speeds up troubleshooting and template enhancements.
Long-term upgrades and support
TYPO3 CMS 8 LTS is a Long-Term Support release, and will be supported with maintenance and troubleshooting until April 2022 and regular security and important bug fix releases until April 2020. Existing installations can be upgraded directly from TYPO3 7 LTS. Any installation running a previous version must first be upgraded to this version.
Screenshots
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image_manipulation506x0-is.png" />

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/improved_validation546x0-is.png" />

More information about TYPO3 CMS is available at <a href="https://typo3.org/news/article/miles-ahead-typo3-v8-lts-is-here/" target="_blank">https://typo3.org/news/article/miles-ahead-typo3-v8-lts-is-here/</a>.

TYPO3 CMS 8 LTS now available

You’re launching a new business and you want to create a mobile application for you or your customers? Many tools exist to achieve it, but do you know the differences between them and what it implies for your business?
Indeed, you will have to choose between two main actors of the App creation market:
●The SaaS App Maker Solution (DIY)
●The Open-source App Maker solution (CMS)
When you create a new website or a smartphone Application, you can either decide to subscribe to a company which will provide you an access to their software and build what you want online in a renting optic, or you can download an open-source software that you will own and host on your server.
Off the totality of the web sites, more than 70% are created via a professional process by pro-developers platforms in open-source. These platforms offer great tools for building complex websites including custom design and CMS such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. One of these CMS actors stands out: WordPress, by powering more than 26.4% of the web with a total of 59.4% market share. On the contrary, only 3% of the websites are created via a SaaS process.
One can think using a DIY online tool can be a good option in term of quality and price ratio. However that's not the good approach when it comes to creating your marketing and communication tools. It's like launching a restaurant and choose to create your menu depending on what you can cook with this ready-to-use kitchen. That's the opposite way to succeed. The way that leads every business to succeed is to think “bottom-up”: What is the market looking for? What can I bring to my clients to differentiate my business in this crowded market? etc. and then to build the right solutions from the ideas that emerged. Obviously, cost saving is a good thing because your business needs to be profitable, but it must not be THE thing that leads your marketing strategy.
Thus, if you take a closer look, the DIY tools might not be the ideal solution for your business. As outlined by Dave Sloan, <a href="https://medium.com/@dave_sloan/why-hasnt-the-website-builder-market-been-platformized-by-diy-tools-748ec864d025">businesses have rejected DIY tools</a> regarding the websites market, and these data from Datanize highlight this rejection:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/picture1762x0-is.png" /> Top ten technologies used for creating websites (source: )
If this is the case for the website creation market, what about the Apps creation market? For now, the SaaS dominates this market in full expansion thanks to its ease of use and its cost that seems really affordable even for a small business.
But a connexion can be made between the website and the mobile app markets. Here are the three reasons why we advise you to use an open-source <a href="https://www.siberiancms.com/">app maker</a>.
1. Customization possibilities
A SaaS provider will give you access to all the features they developed on the App builder, so you will be able to develop your application using these features. However, if you want to add a new feature to your application, you must be patient because you won’t be able to add anything before they develop it. That’s one of the biggest mistake of the SaaS solution. So, if a client wants to add a feature to his application that the company hasn’t developed yet, you will have to tell him that it’s not possible…
The positive point of the SaaS solution is the simplicity of use of these app makers. Indeed, the DIY tools allow you to create beautiful applications with a great design without any design or technical development skills.
Nevertheless, many companies try the trial version of the SaaS app maker but finally decide to opt for an open-source app maker because of this lack of customization.
Indeed, with a CMS solution you have a total control on your application. As indicated in the name, when you download an open-source software, the full source code of the software is delivered to you and you can edit it on your own, so you have the features offered with the software, but you can build your own ones. For example, you have a restaurant and you want to add features for your client’s orders? Don’t wait, you can do it if you have the skills needed or you can contact an agency, an independent developer or a freelancer to develop it for you.
Some DIY online tools provide options for adding your own features and creating your own customizations, but most of the time these developments have to be shared with other users. When you own an agency, your clients' privacy is gold and sharing what you've done for a specific client is something that cannot be considered. You may prefer an environment that is secured, where you can create the specific customizations needed by your client rather than exposing all of these changes to other users or, even, competitors.
Keep in mind that if a software is downloaded and used by a high number of people, a community is created and developers can create and share new features with each other. It avoids dependence on the company which created the software, and makes of this open-source software a tool in constant evolution.
DIY online tools have one goal: simplification. 99% of the users have absolutely no technical knowledge and want to create simple solutions. The ones who want to develop more complex tools or even who have specific requirements understand quickly they have to use other services. Open-source app makers can be seen as easy-to-use solutions as well, however, thanks to the community behind, more tools are brought to you to extend the overall possibilities, providing you a larger range of features and options.
2. Reliability
When you use a SaaS App Maker, it means that you rent a software, you’re not the owner of this software and you only use it as a “tenant”. You will pay a monthly subscription and will be able to use it on your own within the barriers the company set up.
But what if the company decides to go out of business? What does your mobile application become then? You will basically risk losing everything because the app will be hosted on your provider’s server.
Even if you’ve published your application, once your provider shuts it down you may lose everything you built. And it will not be professional to explain to your customer that their website or application doesn’t work anymore because your provider is out of business and you can’t do anything against that.
An open-source app maker means that you own the software, so you will not be dependent from your provider as you would be in the case of an online platform. Even if the company goes out of business, you still have access to your application(s).
No worries, that does not mean that you’re all alone once you purchased the software! Basically, an open-source software is maintained by the team who created it, and they’re all open to help you if you have an issue with the software, unlike with the SaaS solution where the people’s “contribution” is only the technology and the design of the app creator they brought, so don’t wait for them for specific support for your project, you won’t get it.
With an open source App builder, the company which provides you the CMS will support you with the issues encountered. Hundreds of developers are also available all over the Internet if you want to fix any issue or add any specific feature. In addition to that, they often have forums, blogs, videos and much more so you can Google an issue to find a fix by yourself.
3. Build an asset for your company
Another important point in the choice of your provider: the propriety question. Indeed, when you get a subscription to a DIY tool, the software doesn’t belong to you so you don’t create a real added value for your company. To be clearer if you want to sell your company, the only thing you’ll be able to put forwards will be your clients because your application is your provider’s propriety.
No need to tell you that the best solution for your business is an open-source app maker. Indeed, you will own the software as well as the application you will have launched so no need to ask about the propriety question.
You should think about it as an investment and the risks behind it. You buy something that will bring you money back. By subscribing to an online platform, you only rent a product and you will have to give it back if the company stops their activity or if you want to go out of business and sell your company.
There are many reasons why you should opt for a open-source software, and if yours aren’t explained in this article, we would be glad to hear them! Whatever your motivations are, this is not by chance that the deviation of use for the website creation is so important between the open-source and the SaaS process. And the app building market will obviously follow the same path.
<a href="https://www.siberiancms.com/">Download Siberian CMS, free and open-source app maker</a>

Advantages of Choosing an Open-Source App  Builder

Dropbox, the darling of the online storage industry (and my personal choice for online storage), has announced some significant changes to it's online storage service. Pro members ($9.99 / month for those of you who are unaware) are now being upgraded from 100 GB of storage to 1 Terabyte (1,000 GB) of storage for the same cost.Dropbox is also introducing some additional features such as:<h3>New and improved sharing controls</h3>The ability to collaborate easily  is one of the reasons people choose Dropbox Pro, but there's always been room for improvement and Dropbox has listened to their customers by implementing more control over sharing with the following new capabilities:<ul><li>Passwords for shared links create an additional layer of security so only people with the password can access your link.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.dropbox.com/help/5888">Expirations for shared links</a> safeguard your sensitive files by letting you set how long your links stay up.</li><li>View-only permissions for shared folders let you pick whether recipients can edit or just view files within your shared folder.</li></ul><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/password-protected-links963x0.png" /><h3>Lost your device? Now you can safeguard your Dropbox data.</h3><a target="_blank" href="https://www.dropbox.com/help/4227">Remote wipe</a> lets you delete your Dropbox files from a lost or stolen device without damaging your Dropbox data. This is handy for those occassions where you lose a laptop or device that has synced data via Dropbox and you want to ensure it's not compromised.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/remote-wipe963x0.png" />So, in addition to the awesome 10x the extra space upgrade that they are giving pro users, you now get these other awesome features as well. For those of you wondering where your additional space is, according to the email from Dropbox, it will update automatically to reflect the space increase in the next couple days. You don’t have to do a thing.Visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dropbox.com/pro">www.dropbox.com/pro</a> to sign up.

Dropbox Boosts Pro Plan to 1TB Storage

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<a href="/phpfox-4-2-on-the-horizon/">Thanks to a sly Fox</a>, we all recently got a sneak peek behind the scenes at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.phpfox.com/">PHPFox</a> headquarters. More specifically, we got to know a little about PHPFox 4.2. The online community builder used to come in two flavours; Neutron, their latest offering, and Nebula, their classic flagship platform. Now, though, they've left classic stuff in the past, and are now pressing forward with a unified, modernized platform.Now, close to the date promised, PHPFox 4.2 has landed, And it brings with it a nice range of new features and apps. Let's take a closer look.<h2>Easier Theme Customization</h2>PHPFox's theme manager now includes much easier customization and theme management options.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/theme-manager.png" alt="theme manager" />Also, IM chat and Video apps are now available in the AdminCP, thus making management of those apps easier. PHPFox users can find tutorials for enabling these in newly improved PHPFox <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.phpfox.com/display/FOX4MAN/phpFox+4+User+Manual">knowledge base</a>.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/video-main.png" alt="video main" />The PHPFox team has also has added Facebook Connect, Google reCAPTCHA and Twemoji to the core product as apps.<h2>More Breaks for Developers &amp; Pricing Adjustment On The Way</h2>A few months back, <a href="/phpfox-appoints-sales-community-manager-scraps-developer-fee/">PHPFox scrapped all developer fees in order to encourage third party app and theme development</a>. With PHPFox 4.2, more benefits have rolled in for those same developers.PHPFox's Bootstrap theme is now the product's core default theme, a move which PHPFox hopes will help them fully extend their theme system in a more modern way.Clients and developers are able to make themes based on Bootstrap, while Sync CSS has been integrated into the upgrade process to make it easier for upgrading. Theme changes can also be exported and imported whenever needed.The PHPFox Apps system has been improved, too. Third party developers that have made V3 modules can now easily make them available as apps for V4 clients.Plus, <a href="/phpfox-introduces-new-knowledgebase/">PHPFox's new knowledge base</a> is almost complete, with tutorials for developers nearing publication.As for future updates, PHPFox seem optimistic about what's yet to come:<blockquote>“We’ve got more coming folks! This is just the tip of the iceberg. For those that stuck around, you’ll be ecstatic with what’s coming and in your choice to hold course. For those thinking about purchasing, you might as well do it now as our pricing will be changing as mentioned in earlier blog posts.”</blockquote>I'd consider that as a confirmation and final warning that PHPFox is about to get a little more expensive. So, if you're considering it for your project, I'd act sooner rather than later.To take PHPFox for a spin, check out their <a target="_blank" href="https://v4.phpfox.com/">live demo</a>.To find out more about PHPFox 4.2, <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.phpfox.com/2016/01/27/phpfox-4-2-0-released/">check out the official blog announcement</a>.

PHPFox 4.2: New Features, Further Breaks for Developers & Pricing Set to Change

Umbraco, the provider of the flexible, friendly, easy-to-use and full-featured open-source content management system (CMS), today announced the promotion of the company’s chief sales, service and support executive, Kim Sneum Madsen, to chief executive officer. Madsen officially replaces founder Niels Hartvig, allowing Hartvig to focus on expanding the company’s active open source community.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blobid5_1568743306549.ft" />
In 2005, Hartvig founded Umbraco CMS, the only .NET-based CMS that also offers all of the advantages of open source software such as the ability to use the software and make changes freely, without expensive licensing fees. Umbraco gives developers the flexibility and freedom to build websites, apps and other solutions with the look and features they want, while enabling editors and content creators to easily and quickly get content in front of their customers. Umbraco CMS and the Umbraco Cloud run more than 500,000 websites worldwide, while being developed and maintained primarily by a global community of 220,000 developers.
“My expertise is in software design and community development, so to grow Umbraco into the type of company I envisioned, I knew we needed someone with vast business experience like Kim,” said Hartvig, who was named a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in 2014, 2015 and 2016. “Since he joined us 3.5 years ago to help run our sales, service and support, we’ve experienced yearly growth between 25 and 40 percent and added 40 new employees. With Kim trusted at the helm, I’m now ready to go back to where my true passion lies—completely focused on building the Umbraco community, the main reason for our global success and continued development.”
Prior to joining Umbraco in January 2016, Madsen served for 12 years in various service, support and sales management roles at e-conomic international, a Denmark-based accounting software program. He also served for several decades in various high-pressure and high-risk relief and military roles, specifically within the Danish Emergency Management Agency. In addition to working at Umbraco, Madsen is on the board of directors for the IT industry Region of Funen, Denmark, which supports Funen IT companies.
“Working at Umbraco over the last few years has been extremely fulfilling and fruitful as we’ve strived to combine our open source project with the commercial initiatives through Umbraco Cloud,” Madsen said. “With Niels focused on bringing even more creativity, talent and ideas from our active and dedicated community, and our management team focused on growing Umbraco into an even greater business, we’ll ensure our customers and partners get the most safe, professional and high-quality products available.”
About <a href="http://icm-tracking.meltwater.com/link.php?DynEngagement=true&amp;H=3ZUQjNycMu7D%2Fe%2Bm%2FOmi3Qi1eTNrfRb0HcFplK3KYerw%2B6SfjwwI9rHaDQ%2FE22BtrodA2Y7EpntSIZi0q8z2TQ7PKO0cMUA%2BaRov2%2Blz6gk9m6LhQI8ViA%3D%3D&amp;G=0&amp;R=https%3A%2F%2Fumbraco.com%2Fumbraco-8%2F&amp;I=20190918130026.000005ce82e7%40mail6-53-ussnn1&amp;X=MHwxMDQ2NzU4OjVkODEyMDI4ODE2NmRhY2YxZmU5ZGM3OTs%3D&amp;S=067cA9ORbnNO5p5uEnQydj0d9kcmyORizEu2kIp_AOY" target="_blank">Umbraco</a>
Umbraco is an open source CMS built on the Microsoft .NET platform. Often referred to as the “Friendly CMS,” Umbraco gives developers the flexibility and freedom to build website, apps and other solutions with the look and features they want, while enabling editors and content creators to easily and quickly get content in front of their customers as quickly as possible. Created in 2005 by Danish developer Niels Hartvig, Umbraco also offers the Umbraco Cloud, providing all-in-one Azure hosting and predictability in cost, performance and time. More than 500,000 websites run live on Umbraco CMS and the Umbraco Cloud, supported by more than 220,000 very active Umbraco community members. Based in Odense, Denmark, the company also has a sales office in New York City. For more information, visit <a href="http://icm-tracking.meltwater.com/link.php?DynEngagement=true&amp;H=3ZUQjNycMu7D%2Fe%2Bm%2FOmi3Qi1eTNrfRb0HcFplK3KYerw%2B6SfjwwI9rHaDQ%2FE22BtrodA2Y7EpntSIZi0q8z2TQ7PKO0cMUA%2BaRov2%2Blz6gk9m6LhQI8ViA%3D%3D&amp;G=0&amp;R=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.umbraco.com%2F&amp;I=20190918130026.000005ce82e7%40mail6-53-ussnn1&amp;X=MHwxMDQ2NzU4OjVkODEyMDI4ODE2NmRhY2YxZmU5ZGM3OTs%3D&amp;S=E72h70ZB7VkBYDo74WiNn7kOpR_nK8fz-s2CWuKx9OY" target="_blank">www.umbraco.com</a>

Kim Sneum Madsen Promoted to CEO of Umbraco, the “Friendly” Content Management System (CMS) Provider

Bigcommerce Review

Marketing automation is definitely having its moment in the sun right now. Everybody seems to have an opinion on it – even people who aren’t using it yet. And you should too.
Why? Because a marketing automation system can massively improve your ROI if you implement it correctly.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigstock-roi-return-on-investment-analy-106052375405x0-is.jpg" />
Let’s forget about the hype for a few minutes and focus on the facts. Did you know that marketing automation results in a<a href="https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2013/07/roi-of-marketing-automation.html"> 53% increase </a>in lead generation and sales conversions? Or, that <a href="http://www.gleanster.com/gleansight/marketing-automation">79% of companies</a> who have used marketing automation for 2+ years are top performers in their industries?
In fact, in a study by the <a href="http://www.lenskold.com/LeadGenStudy_2013/">Lenskold Group</a>, 78% of successful marketers cited marketing automation systems as most responsible for improving revenue contribution.
So, in this post, I’m going to run through the 8 ways you can improve ROI in your own business with the aid of marketing automation practices.
<h2>1. Collect More Customer Information With Smart Lead Forms</h2>
No-one likes filling in forms and your website visitors won’t like it either. This is where the smart lead form comes into play. Smart lead forms allow you to gradually build contact records for your customers and use this information to improve your marketing campaigns.
How this works, is that a customer will visit your site and fill in the form with information – such as their name and email address. Then, when they return a second time, they’ll be directed to a new form that has removed the information fields already acquired. This allows you to ask for additional information without bombarding them with an essay questionnaire.
By introducing smart lead forms, you’ll make life much easier for both you and your customer. You’ll also acquire valuable intel that you can use to improve your targeted campaigns and increase your overall ROI.
<h2>2. Target High Value Leads With Lead Scoring</h2>
Lead scoring is a marketing automation process that allows you to identify a lead as either warm or cold, before passing it on to the sales team. It does this by assigning points to each lead based on characteristics of each contact and/or the actions they’ve taken on the site.
By using a lead scoring system, you’ll ensure that your sales team receive qualified leads only – which means that conversions will increase and they’ll be seriously happy campers as a result. It’s a win for both parties.
<h2>3. Use Lead Nurturing To Warm Up Cold Leads</h2>
Lead nurturing is an essential process used to progress your cold/tepid leads further down the sales funnel.
Your marketing team can take control of this by using marketing automation to set up targeted, lead nurturing email campaigns and convert your cold leads into the ‘ready to buy’ variety.
<h2>4. Reduce Funnel Leakage And Retain Solid Prospects</h2>
Once your marketing automation system is set up and integrated with your CRM, you’ll find it much easier to keep track of, nurture, and develop any warm leads.
Most marketing automation softwares are design to integrate well with existing CRMs and CMS anyway, and so this should be something which comes quite naturally.
<h2>5. Remove Low-Potential Leads</h2>
Sometimes you can nurture a lead ‘till you’re blue in the face, but it just never gets warm. By keeping your database clean and removing any tyre kickers, you’ll see a definite increase in conversion rates. You can use the lead scoring system to do this.
<h2>6. Create Targeted and Personalized Content</h2>
Following what I just mentioned about lead nurturing, targeted content creation is definitely worth its own mention. A recent study by<a href="https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-new-rules/"> Campaign Monitor </a>revealed that sending emails with a personalized subject line can actually increase your open rates by 26%.
By using the behavioural information collected via your marketing automation tool, you can send emails that are personalized to the interests of each customer and specific to whichever stage they are at in the buying cycle.
<h2>7. Monitor Campaign Performance</h2>
Marketing automation creates a potential haven of intel for those of you who are prone to a bit of data mining. And if you’re not already a closet data geek, you should be.
By using marketing automation, you can gather all of your marketing information in the one place – which makes it much easier to monitor marketing campaigns and make strategic decisions going forward.
<h2>8. Increase Your Marketing Campaign Capacity</h2>
Marketing automation will allow you to run more campaigns than before, reach more prospects, and produce more qualified leads without having to hire another staff member to cover the workload.
Sure, you still need a human at the helm, but having the process automated means that they can dedicate their time to other activities that require their attention also.
<h2>Is Your Business Seeing Results?</h2>
It’s pretty clear that marketing automation can have a significant impact on your business's ROI, once it's done correctly, so why not take some time to evaluate your own system and see how it's doing?
If you have any of your own tips for increasing ROI via marketing automation practice, share your thoughts with us in comment section below.

8 Ways Marketing Automation Can Improve Your ROI

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There is a huge variety of Content Management Systems (CMS) available in the market – all of which seem to have similar offerings that include an assortment of useful and effective features to enable content and asset management. With such similarities between systems, how does one go about choosing the right system? How is it possible to differentiate the robust and reliable solutions from the underperforming ones?
Well, it isn’t easy – but of course there are some CMS’s that manage to stand out in the market. There happens to be one open-source platform that that takes these features and implements them in a way that enables easy and efficient content, asset, and document management – that is Pimcore.
Pimcore’s has several key qualities worth calling out so let’s get started.
100% FLEXIBLE, 100% EDITABLE
Pimcore provides everything you need to create and manage exceptional digital experiences. Whether it’s a marketing-focused landing page, multi-site web presences for international enterprises, or a web-based mobile app, Pimcore has the power to transform any design to a 100% editable content within minutes. With complete creative freedom, flexibility, and agility, Pimcore is an absolute pleasure for designers, developers and editors.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pimecore1920x0-is.png" />
HIGHLY PERSONALIZED DIGITAL EXPERIENCE
Pimcore seriously shines when it comes to web content personalization which is a key ingredient if you want to provide an exceptional user experience. You can get more leads and conversions by presenting each customer with content that best matches their interests. Pimcore is able to do this flawlessly with their behavioral targeting engine that delivers content to the right audience by defining segmentation rules and resulting content actions.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pimcore2920x0-is.png" />
MULTI-CHANNEL &amp; SINGLE SOURCE
From a single-source data repository, users can deliver content to any output channel: Desktop, Mobile, Print, POS &amp; CAAS. With this functionality, users can deliver all messages simultaneously by utilizing Pimcore's single-source publishing methodologies. Website editors will love that they can edit in just one place and reuse it in all communication channels.
MULTI-LINGUAL &amp; MULTI-SITE
Pimcore’s multi-lingual content management capability allows editors to create new content in any language and work in their native language to ensure consistent content in country and language-specific output channels. This is an amazing quality for organizations that are becoming increasingly international in terms of their staff and client base.
WEB-TO-PRINT
The Pimcore web-to-print framework provides the tools and functionalities to revolutionize traditional print processes. Web-to-print based on Pimcore stands for pure flexibility, a tremendously reduced time-to-market and still the highest amount of creativity. Instead of manually configuring a product catalog, you can use Pimcore to aggregate all product data and consolidate it into a comprehensive overview of the entire product base.
So, if you're looking for a content management system that is not only strong and reliable; but also, provide advanced features and scale as your company grows, then we highly advise you to check out <a href="https://www.pimcore.org/en/products/product/cms" target="_blank">Pimcore</a>.

Free & Open source: Personalized Web Experience Management with Pimcore

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