Articles - Page 70

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

There's no doubt that there are plenty of excellent email marketing platforms out there but one of the most common issues I've come across when using them is deliverability of emails. As such, I've been on the lookout for a solid platform that gave me a good drag and drop builder alongside the power of Amazon's email servers. I believe I've found that with MailGet so allow me to show you how it works in this MailGet Review.
For the longest time, I've used a standalone email marketing software called Sendy (see my <a href="/sendy-review-cheap-inexpensive-email-marketing-for-the-masses/" target="_blank">Sendy review</a>), that has worked reasonably well for me up until recently. Lately, I've been on the lookout for something with more automation (such as automatic unsubscribe, bounce handling, etc). However, I'm also very much committed to using Amazon SES for my email delivery as I feel it is more reliable than other architectures. I recently stumbled across MailGet and I believe I've found that solution.
<h2>Getting Things Configured</h2>
With Amazon SES services, my emails always get through properly and now, thanks to MailGet, I can use both an intuitive email marketing platform alongside Amazon for the best of both worlds.
Here's a quick video showing the basics of how MailGet works:
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tybd0QNL4aU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Connecting Amazon is incredibly simple and the MailGet folks have full, detailed instructions with screenshots to help you get it done quickly and easily. I found it super simple to configure.
You aren't just stuck with Amazon though. If you prefer, you can use other third party providers such as Gmail, Mailgun, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailjet, Mandrill and others.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-3855x0-is.png" alt="mailget review" />
Furthermore, MailGet also offers MailGet Bolt which is the same service but with their own built-in SMTP saving you from using a third party SMTP server entirely!
Need Bounce and Spam Handling? This one is a lifesaver. MailGet provides you with full instructions including the URL's to use to configure automatic bounce and spam handling for any of the supported SMTP providers. This one for me, is huge.
Add on Google Analytics integration, <a href="https://zapier.com/" target="_blank">Zapier</a> integration (super useful) and even Wufoo (although frankly I'd probably just use <a href="https://www.formget.com/">FormGet</a>, since it's made by the MailGet folks) and you have a very well put together email marketing platform.
<h2>List Cleaning Tools Too!</h2>
Ok, how many of you DON'T have subscriber lists that have spam subscribers or rogue emails in your list that are no longer valid. Raise your hands.
I don't see any hands. That's what I thought.
MailGet includes some super useful list cleaning tools that I absolutely love. MailGet uses several methods to clean your lists:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-4.png" alt="mailget review" />It's as easy as clicking a button and letting MailGet go to work. Tell me you don't love this.
<h2>Designing your Emails</h2>
Aside from the configuration being easy to use, the next most important aspect is the email design end of things.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-_11087x0-is.png" alt="mailget review" />
From your MailGet dashboard, click on Create Email. You now have several options.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-51147x0-is.png" alt="mailget review" />
For those of you who like to do things the easy way, click on Drag and Drop Email Builder. For those who like to do things the geek way, click on Custom Code Editor and for those of you who just want to type something basic, click on Basic Text Editor. The Email Templates option shows numerous examples but frankly, I didn't find it super helpful as there's no easy way to apply it to your email other than through copy/paste. For me, the drag and drop builder was better.
The Drag and Drop Email Builder works like a charm and is super simple to use.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-6859x0-is.png" alt="mailget review" />
Once you've finished your email, simply click next and you will be given the opportunity to select which list you want to send to, whether you want to schedule it or send it all in one shot and that's it!
Back on your dashboard, you'll see a handy little widget showing your email and giving you a quick view on how it's performing.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-7.png" alt="mailget review" />
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
That's all there is to it. It's a simple, easy-to-use email marketing platform that works like a charm. MailGet has excellent help and the tutorials will get you through any issues that might arise quickly and easily. Most importantly, however, is their support.
Should you ever come across any issues.. the MailGet folks are close by to help. Simply click on the live chat box in the bottom right and you'll get a rep almost instantly. I was actually surprised how quickly I was connected to someone and during my test, they solved the problem quickly. Well done guys!
Overall, I'm content with it and using MailGet now for all of our email handling for CMS Critic. It's that good. I recommend trying it yourself, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
<a href="https://www.formget.com/mailget-app/">Try MailGet Now.</a>

MailGet Review - Beautifully Easy Email Marketing with Amazon SES

mike-johnston

The time is upon us! The nominations stage for the 2017 CMS Critic Web Awards is now open!
This year, I've made some changes to some of the categories including adding a couple of new ones and removing some of the redundant ones. The new categories this year are:
<ul>
<li>Best Free CMS</li>
<li>Best Open Source CMS</li>
<li>Best WordPress Alternative</li>
<li>Best Flat File CMS</li>
<li>Best Website Builder</li>
<li>Best CMS for SMB</li>
<li>Best Cloud CMS</li>
<li>Best Enterprise CMS</li>
<li>Best CRM</li>
<li>Best Marketing Suite</li>
<li>Best Email Marketing Platform</li>
<li>Best Forum Software</li>
<li>Best Social Network Software</li>
<li>Best eCommerce Solution</li>
<li>Best Hosting Provider</li>
<li>Best Theme Provider</li>
</ul>
Another change I've made this year is that when nominating, you may now only select one category. In past years, we've had people select everything which was a complete waste of time and made us discard those nominations. To avoid this and to ensure people think carefully before submitting, I've cut it down to one. If you feel it's necessary to submit into a second category, you may do so but remember to fill out the reason field with a pretty good reason why you think that was necessary.
Please spread the word and visit the <a href="/awards/">awards page</a> to learn more about this year's awards and submit your nomination.

The 2017 CMS Critic Web Awards are now open for nominations

WonderCMS, a database-free flat file CMS developed to be quick and efficient saw it's first non-beta release after 9 years of development back in March. I thought now would be a good time to take a look at it in now that it's had some time to iron out any potential bugs. That being said, here's my WonderCMS review.
Oh, side note for those who are currently running WonderCMS, they've also just put out a new bugfix release, <a href="https://www.wondercms.com/whatsnew" target="_blank">details here</a>.
<h2>The Preamble</h2>
For those of you who have never heard of or seen WonderCMS before, you can try out a free demo of it on their website here: <a href="https://www.wondercms.com/" target="_blank">https://www.wondercms.com/</a>
WonderCMS touts itself as a free website builder which I suppose in some instances is true. I'd consider it more of a flat file CMS than a website builder as I tend to attribute the term “website builder” to systems that include hosting and everything all in one package, such as <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> or Wix for instance.
Having said that, it's definitely lean and mean. WonderCMS is secure, does not need a database, runs on 5 files (incredibly) and they don't even ask for a link back to their website.
There are plugins and themes for the system which you can find on github or linked to from the main website.<a href="https://github.com/robiso/wondercms-themes#themestemplates-for-wondercms-200-and-higher-versions" target="_blank">Here's a link to their themes</a> (all of these by the way can be previewed in the demo easily). <a href="https://github.com/robiso/wondercms-plugins#plugins-for-wondercms-200-and-higher-versions" target="_blank">Here is a link</a> to currently available plugins and info on how to create them.
<h2>The Review</h2>
WonderCMS is a fairly simple CMS that, once setup, provides you with a single basic drop down menu while activating inline editing controls on your pages. Here's how the menu looks when logged in as an administrator:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wondercms_review_-_1560x0-is.png" /> Logging in also activates the inline editing which is how you work with content within WonderCMS.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wondercms_review_-_2643x0-is.png" />
Clicking within an editable content area enables a menu which you can use to upload images, documents, link to videos on YouTube and a whole lot more. I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with the features they managed to cram into their editor.
Clicking on the image icon enables a file manager allowing you to select existing images or upload / link to your own:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wondercms_review_-_3638x0-is.png" />
There are some obvious spacing issues (shown above) preventing users from properly reading the titles but overall functionality is still fine. 
Clicking the video icon brings up the following dialog box:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wondercms_review_-_4643x0-is.png" />
I have no idea why the word “gray” is prepopulated but functionally, it works. I plugged in a url for a Daily Motion video just as a test and it worked and embedded properly. It did not, however, accept short urls which are displayed by default so keep that in mind. 
One quirk I did notice is that in order to show the toolbar for the WYSIWYG editor within a content area, I had to either click on some text or a double click but it doesn't appear to always work. Numerous times I added a new line and gave it a shot and it worked some of the time but not all. This is likely to get pretty annoying for new users and is something the devs should take a look at. I'm on a Macbook Pro with the Chrome browser so it's a fairly common set-up.
Adding pages is done by opening the drop down admin menu and clicking the + sign in the pages area to add a new one. You can then click on the “eye” icon to publish or unpublish any areas that you want to work on.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
Overall, I found the system to be quick and responsive. For the average user, it works well (aside from the toolbar bug I mentioned above). It's a very simple system but I'm a fan of simplicity so it's nice to see a simple and easy solution for those who need to just get a website up quickly and easily with little bother.
If you've never used WonderCMS before, I'd recommend <a href="https://www.wondercms.com/" target="_blank">trying out the demo</a> before downloading to see if it suits your needs.

WonderCMS Review - An Easy Flat File CMS for those who value simplicity

<img style="user-select:auto" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/t7a10501150x0-is.jpg" />
In this brave, new digital world, there are countless awards and accolades that celebrate the efforts of technology companies. But there are few competitions that highlight the true impact of innovative thinking for the customer.
Last week, government and tech titans from across the world converged in Washington D.C. for the annual Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit. The purpose was the discussion and display of how government organizations and technology companies can continue to innovate in collaboration with one another – and how Amazon Web Services can help various government entities be more efficient, secure, and cost-effective.
But there was also a palpable vibe in the air. Who would go home with the coveted ‘City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge’ award for 2017?
If you’re not familiar with this competition, here’s the low-down: every year, Amazon Web Services recognizes institutions and AWS Partners that have gone above and beyond to innovate in their respective public sector fields. Despite tens of thousands of applicants, only three winners are named in each of three main categories. I’m proud to announce that last week, Solodev CMS clinched the win for ‘Best Practices’ in the Large City category with Seminole County Public Schools (SCPS) for their newly launched website. The project was created using the Solodev Web Experience platform, which is the only true CMS built from the ground up for Amazon Web Services.
Aside from the instant and vast global recognition and the strengthening of our partnership with Amazon Web Services, there’s a monetary prize of $50,000 – all of which SCPS will reinvest in their online strategy. This includes the rollout of 57 new school websites across the district, all built on the Solodev platform. As a result, each school will have greater control over their individual web presence while saving the county thousands of dollars in management and hosting costs.
Making an impact in both the education and public sector fields isn’t new for us. In fact, just days before winning the award for ‘Best Practices’, Solodev was officially named as one of the first AWS Partners to obtain the newly announced AWS Education Competency. This was a hard-earned validation, demonstrating our deep commitment to the Amazon Web Services Platform while focusing our efforts on the education community.
In recent months, Solodev has experienced tremendous growth with federal, state, and local government agencies, public academic institutions across the globe, and Fortune 500 companies working on a wide variety of projects leveraging AWS. This got us thinking: what is Solodev doing differently than the rest of the CMS pack to have grown from a small <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">content management software</a> company to a true disrupter – and the “go-to” Web Experience Platform for Amazon Web Services?
If I may be so bold as to borrow from Apple, then it’s simple: we started thinking differently. 
Our story began in 2014 with a plan to move from typical on-premise CMS deployments to the Amazon Web Services Cloud. It took a few years of blood and sweat, but within weeks of launching on the AWS Marketplace, Solodev was named the ‘Best Cloud CMS of 2016’ and one of a select number of AWS partners to join their new SaaS Subscriptions Program.
The catalyst for rebuilding Solodev for AWS was fairly simple: we wanted to disrupt the CMS market and create more value. It had been in a period of stasis with little to no change in product development or business model. While almost every other enterprise software vertical had moved to the cloud, the CMS industry just kept adding features or acquiring companies. Wasn’t it time to evolve the modern CMS to a SaaS delivery model – built on the world’s most advanced infrastructure? And what if we could deliver it all on-demand at a fraction of the average cost?
It would all be a game changer.
So we embarked on rebuilding Solodev layer by layer to fully leverage the power of AWS. After nearly four years of engineering, testing, re-engineering, re-testing, and turning our code base over to AWS for review, we were finally seeing our dream come to life. But the big moment came when we decided to deliver a new kind of CMS – one that empowers users to craft unique web experiences with total <a href="https://www.solodev.com/blog/" target="_blank">web design</a> freedom, based on different customer segments. This completely changed the game not only for the CMS industry, but also for the entire digital world. CMS touches everything on the Web; every website, every mobile interaction, every digital experience. What we discovered was the value of the complete experience, and thus we dubbed our new innovation the Web Experience Platform (WXP).
Knowledge is the bedrock of humanity. So what better place to start our new endeavor than with education? While there are many challenges in the public realm, K-12 schools have increasingly struggled to compete with well-funded private institutions. The root of the problem wasn’t actually the difference in quality of education; it was the perception of quality. And where is that perception shaped and influenced with the greatest energy? Websites.
The SCPS project was an opportunity to challenge myths, to trail blaze a new model for a public school’s digital strategy. Despite the disparity in budget between public and private institutions, the Solodev Web Experience Platform made it possible for a district to enhance their digital brand presence and compete more efficiently and effectively. The entire project was a collaboration of creative, development, and marketing minds at both Solodev and SCPS, and the result has hence been dubbed the ‘K-12 Website of the Future.’ It’s beyond gratifying to know that our innovation has resulted in their success – and helped an invaluable community resource secure its digital future.
So why did Solodev win the ‘City on a Cloud’ Innovation Challenge?
Because everything we did was about helping <a href="https://www.scps.k12.fl.us/" target="_blank">Seminole County Public Schools</a> win with the Web. Because of our unshakable belief that websites are more than just websites – they’re experiences that connect us, from across a classroom to the far end of the globe. Yes, we’ve worked tirelessly to raise the bar for the industry, but with the goal of making CMS a more valuable and reliable asset for every company. We must always find new ways to innovate and improve. The world depends on all of us.
Whether you are a technology executive, web developer or designer, marketing professional, or dreamer, we have built the platform of your dreams – one where you can finally unlock your full potential, and build your own city on the cloud.
Are you still skeptical? Visit <a href="http://www.solodev.com" target="_blank">www.solodev.com</a> today and get started with the next step in the evolution of web content management.

Why Solodev CMS Won Amazon Web Services 'City on a Cloud' Innovation Challenge

DreamHost® has announced that its popular website builder, Remixer, has introduced a new tiered pricing structure that gets small businesses and individuals online quickly with engaging, professional-grade websites for just a few dollars per month. DreamHost is also debuting Remixer’s newly available support for multi-page website creation – a highly requested feature among Remixer users – as well as a set of key new upgrades to the platform’s capabilities.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/remixer_multi-page_feature791x0-is.png" /> DreamHost users are now able to quickly and easily build multi-page websites for as little as $4.95 per month with Remixer. The new “Remixer All Access” plan, starting at $7.95/month, delivers Remixer’s intuitive platform and also includes a full DreamHost managed web hosting account, domain email accounts, mail forwarding, and the ability to use other applications like WordPress. When billed annually, both plans include a free domain registration.
“It doesn’t stop there,” said Ralph Castro, DreamHost’s VP of Product for Remixer. “We’ve added a host (no pun intended) of other improvements based on direct customer feedback. These include everything from the ability to conveniently select a website’s domain from within the page manager, to one-click access for creating a new page that’s pre-set with an established theme, to drag-and-drop page layout, to a streamlined navigation menu, to…well, plenty more. Nowhere else can you create a website this easily that looks as sharp as those made with Remixer.”
Both Remixer plans come loaded with additional features designed to make website personalization and creation as straightforward as possible for small businesses, bloggers, and anyone else with something to say or sell online:
— Easy publishing to custom domains (no matter where the site is hosted) — 70+ pre-designed themes and layouts to match your website’s content — Website hosting — Seamlessly import images from an existing website or direct from social media — A pre-populated, high-quality royalty-free image gallery — Google Analytics integration to monitor website performance — Video embedding from YouTube and Vimeo — Audio embedding from SoundCloud — No storage or bandwidth limits — No ads, ever — 24/7 email support — Live chat support
“After ten minutes playing with Remixer, I created a brand new website for a hunting and fishing resort,” said Mike Judge, <a href="http://troutntrack.com/" target="_blank">troutntrack.com</a>. “From start to (beautiful) finish, the build and publish process took less than half an hour. Remixer is as powerful as it is simple to use.”
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/remixer_themes_page791x0-is.png" /> “Remixer’s platform helped me quickly create a new, professional-grade website in just a few clicks,” said Martha Lenio, <a href="http://marsgreen.ca/" target="_blank">marsgreen.ca</a>. “Uploading my own content and photos was intuitive, and customer support was fast and helpful when I had questions. Using DreamHost’s Remixer has given me one less thing to worry about running my small business.”
To learn more or to begin building your website with Remixer, visit <a href="http://dreamhost.com/website-builder/" target="_blank">dreamhost.com/website-builder/</a>.

Remixer – the Powerful Website Builder from DreamHost – Makes Creating Customized Websites Very, Very Inexpensive

<a href="https://rallymind.com/?utm_source=cmscritic&amp;utm_medium=cmscritic&amp;utm_campaign=June19post">RallyMind</a> was designed to address the age-old nightmare of how to deploy unique landing pages by the 10s if not 100s while keeping brand consistency, messaging and conversion metrics in check.
RallyMind offers a solution to help make marketers more efficient.
Think…multivariable landing pages that allow marketers to create, edit and optimize thousands of landing pages from a single spreadsheet or API. How? It all lies in the structure.
Most companies build their landing pages one-off, as needed, similar to a city building new streets as the population grows. A good solution in the present, but the future is likely to have its fair share of traffic jams. RallyMind’s landing page structure is the equivalent of clever city planning. With a bit of foresight, RallyMind offers a landing page infrastructure that allows for exponential growth and expansion.
It starts with a single spreadsheet. With direction from the client or a website example, RallyMind creates one or more highly dynamic landing page templates. The template’s text, images, phone numbers and links are substituted with “variables”, rather than static content. Each variable is linked to a field in a spreadsheet or using RallyMind’s API mapping. Content specific to each landing page is dynamically inserted via the variable. For example, 100 business pages can be created with unique URLs, each showing a custom phone number, logo, business description and branding color. These sites can be created in minutes with a spreadsheet, rather than days. Updating site content is as easy as making an edit to a spreadsheet.
As more digital marketing companies move towards automation, we’re proud to offer the final piece in the puzzle.
About RallyMind: RallyMind offers automated landing page management software for Brand to Local, Channel Marketing, and Co-op advertising campaigns. RallyMind is a product of DevHub, a Seattle-based web startup.

How to Deploy Dynamic Mobile Landing Pages with Just a Spreadsheet

Qualtrics has announced enhancements to its award-winning customer experience (CX) management platform, <a href="https://www.qualtrics.com/customer-experience/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Qualtrics Customer Experience</a>. The enhanced capabilities include a sophisticated diagnostic assessment and proven methodology to help companies significantly elevate and mature their CX programs, leading to greater customer satisfaction results and higher returns on CX program investment.
“Qualtrics is helping us create a culture of customer centricity within our organization. True customer centricity is not a project—it's a culture and a way of doing business that will help us grow and be successful for decades to come,” said Michael Maicher, Global Head, Allianz Global Broker Management, Allianz SE &amp; Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty (AGCS) SE. “Our goal over the long term is to have 75% of AGCS countries benchmark against peers in either above market or loyalty leadership status.”
Organizations understand the importance of listening to customers, but often do not know which steps to take to create world-class CX programs that deliver business results. Qualtrics not only delivers the required technology, but also the step-by-step framework to help companies design and implement an end-to-end CX program. 
“Customer experience management is a business imperative. Companies that prioritize customer experience outperform customer experience laggards in stock returns by an average of nearly 80%1,” said Luke Williams, Head of CX at Qualtrics. “Done right, customer experience management drives financial results through better customer acquisition, improved customer retention and loyalty, reduced costs to serve, increased share of wallet, and higher brand awareness.”
Qualtrics offers a <a href="https://www.qualtrics.com/customer-experience/diagnostic/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CX diagnostic</a> that assesses CX program maturity against the Five Competencies of CX Success—Qualtrics' proven methodology for CX program success. As part of this diagnostic evaluation, companies receive an immediate, personalized report with a full description of what they can do to improve their CX program to achieve better customer and financial results. The report also includes a maturity score in relation to each of the five CX competencies and an overall company rating compared to state-of-the-art CX program standards.
Qualtrics' Five Competencies of CX Success provides a framework for companies to manage their customer experience programs and achieve improved financial results. Based on years of experience with the world's leading brands, the methodology provides practical guidance on five core domains:
<ol>
<li>Culture and Leadership: How to gain executive sponsorship, publish CX values, align departments on common customer objectives, and benchmark against competitors.</li>
<li>Customer Experience Management System: How to capture feedback at each customer touchpoint, close the loop with customers, and drive operational improvement.</li>
<li>Customer Intelligence: How to gather holistic, authoritative views of customers and drive systematic, strategic initiatives to improve customer outcomes.</li>
<li>Connected Employees: How to measure and act on employee engagement and instill customer-centricity across the ranks.</li>
<li>Continuous Innovation: How to build programs that scale quickly and test continuously to drive continuous customer experience improvement.</li>
</ol>
Qualtrics Customer Experience is a pillar of Qualtrics' leading XM Platform™, the industry standard for experience management. The XM Platform allows companies to manage the four core experiences of business—customer, employee, product and brand experience—on a single platform. Experience data from the platform tells companies why things are happening across the organization, and helps predict what customers and employees want most.
Used by CX leaders like adidas, Allianz, American Express, and Intuit, the Qualtrics Customer Experience platform was recently awarded the Temkin Group's fifth annual Customer Experience Vendor Excellence (CxVE) Award and was named a leader in customer feedback management by independent research firm, Forrester, as part of The Forrester Wave™: Customer Feedback Management Platforms, Q2 2017 report.
The Qualtrics Customer Experience platform is available now. For more information on how to build and expand a CX program, visit <a href="http://cxweek.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CXweek.com</a> to hear what CX leaders from Patagonia, Zappos, Twitter, Universal Orlando, BBC, MasterCard, McKinsey, Northwestern Mutual, and many more, had to say regarding today's best practices in CX management.
About Qualtrics: Qualtrics is a single system of record for all experience data, also called X-data™, allowing organizations to manage the four core experiences of business—customer, product, employee and brand experiences—on one platform. Over 8,500 enterprises worldwide, including more than 75 percent of the Fortune 100 and 99 of the top 100 U.S. business schools rely on Qualtrics. To learn more, and for a free account, please visit <a href="https://www.qualtrics.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.qualtrics.com</a>.

Qualtrics Launches Innovative Customer Experience Enhancements

I've decided to start a new series analyzing issues with popular software; whether it be themes, CMS or otherwise; to help point out potential issues people may not be thinking about before purchasing. This is the first edition of what I will call, “What Were They Thinking?”Today, I've got a few gripes to point out about popular themes that, once I do, will have you asking yourself, what were they thinking?In the world of WordPress Themes, StudioPress is one of the most popular and profitable of the premium theme design houses out there. In the last few years, they began to accept third party themes into their store which has increased their available themes by quite a lot. Sadly, they don't seem to be doing much in the way of vetting out poor design before they do so and as such, some sloppy themes have made it into the mix.One thing that has always driven me crazy about their themes, however, is the lack of an accessible search box in mobile view. As far as I'm concerned, there should be no instance where a search box is not placed within a reasonable location at the top of the theme; whether within the dropdown hamburger menu or otherwise; in a mobile theme. From someone who runs two successful blogs, trust me, people get pretty irked when there's no search box readily available and this happens in a TON of StudioPress themes.Take <a target="_blank" href="https://feastdesignco.com/product/foodie-pro/">Foodie Pro</a> for example.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/foodie-pro800x0-is.jpg" />This is probably one of the most used themes by food bloggers that I know of. There are literally TONS of food blogs out there running it yet they don't realize that they are degrading their reader's experience by not making it easily accessible. In Foodie Pro, for instance, it's there as a widget but ends up almost at the bottom of the theme in mobile view; something that is sure to get missed by readers.The quick addition of a search box within the mobile menu is the easiest way to fix these issues without taking up valuable screen real estate but seems to be missed over and over. Maybe it's just me, but I think this is a poor design choice and when we ran Foodie Pro on my wife's site, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.thekitchenmagpie.com">The Kitchen Magpie</a> for a while, our readers were quick to point out the missing search; believe me.I've noticed this within a ton of themes lately and I don't quite understand the logic. What are your thoughts?

What Were They Thinking? - StudioPress Themes

CMS Summit 26

Find out at CMS Summit 26, May 12 - 13 in Frankfurt, Germany

What's ahead for CMS in the agentic era?

#ffffff

Visual Data Media Services (Visual Data) is launching a TV and film content-management platform that delivers major efficiencies for users, along with the ability to react swiftly, flexibly and effectively to the fast-changing global content market.
To be unveiled at this month’s Media Production Show, VIDA is a super-secure platform for finished masters offering version management, metadata and associated assets held in an EBU Core database structure. Used as a stand-alone system or in conjunction with Visual Data’s suite of media management services, the platform is fully integrated with industry leading tools including Aspera, Telestream and Vidchecker.
Among the first clients to be on-boarded to the new platform is digital fulfillment pioneer all3Media international, which will use VIDA to manage its global content supply pipeline.
Designed with long term TV &amp; Film intellectual property management in mind VIDA is aware of the hierarchies and workflows that exist between production, distribution, rights management, broadcasters and platforms. Its key benefits include the ability to smartly store media components and manage unlimited related versions of content, operate multiple content-delivery workflows, including IMF and 4K, and deliver significant cost savings by reducing the complexity and duplication involved in storing, reversioning and localizing master assets.
The new platform is a SaaS (software as a service) solution, which removes the need for companies to run complex applications on their own servers in their own data centers. This not only eliminates the expense of hardware acquisition, security provisioning, software licensing, installation and support, but also enables flexible payments and high scalability.
Claire Feeney, head of content operations at all3Media international, said: “building on our long standing relationship with Visual Data, VIDA is the perfect platform to help All3 manage the International delivery of our ever growing master assets and supporting versions, particularly as we move into delivering more 4K and IMF packages globally.”
Symon Roue, managing director of Visual Data, said: “It has taken us several years of investment to configure, integrate and build a SaaS platform highly customized to the needs of the global digital media supply-chain. The result is VIDA — and we are confident it will become the gold standard for TV and film content management.”
Visual Data Media Services (Visual Data) was recently awarded the prestigious Apple Preferred Plus status for video delivery — one of only four companies in the world to have achieved the US technology giant’s highest partner accolade. This followed the award in 2013 of Netflix Preferred Vendor (NPV) status, which is accorded only to those companies able to meet the global streaming giant’s rigorous standards for converting, localizing and delivering massive volumes of content.
About Visual Data Media Services: <a href="http://www.visualdatamedia.com/">www.visualdatamedia.com</a>
Visual Data Media Services, located in London and Los Angeles, has 20 years of experience in the repurposing and distribution of content for all media outlets, including domestic syndication, network broadcast, international distribution and VOD for studios, distributors and platforms.

Visual Data Launches Content Management Platform

Remember your 21st birthday? OK… maybe it’s a little fuzzy. You can blame the fancy shots for that. But turning 21 is more than an excuse to party – it’s a major milestone and a rite of passage to the next chapter in life.
Well, this year marks the 21st birthday of the web <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Content Management System</a> (CMS), and there’s plenty of reason to celebrate this groundbreaking innovation.
If you’re still unfamiliar with this three-lettered acronym, “CMS” is a fancy term used to describe the software that organizations around the globe use to build, deploy, manage, and host websites. The advent of the web CMS gave unprecedented new powers and capabilities to advertising agencies, helping them evolve into a new breed of “digital agencies.” CMS unlocked a world of control, providing firms – both small and large – with the kind of software needed to offer web solutions to their advertising clients. This revolutionary technology propelled the advertising industry into the 21st century and transformed the agency model forever.
However, not all web CMS platforms are created equal – and that couldn’t be more apparent than it is for the modern advertising agency.
Although many point to 1996 as the official “birthdate” of the web CMS, the origins of Solodev date back to the early 2000s – so we were just in time for the party. It was a different world back then; the software was calling all the shots, and CMS might have more accurately stood for “Compromise Management System.” It was a bleak landscape, one where almost every aspect of how users could design and build websites was limited by the solution.
This immediately struck us as odd. Why wasn’t there a single platform on the market that gave users the space to create on their own terms? Wasn’t the web supposed to be about “freedom?”
When we set out to build the Solodev Web Experience Platform, our goal was simple: to be a truly unique voice in the CMS industry, and deliver on the promise of total freedom across design, functionality, scalability, and security. We wanted to build a web CMS that enabled users to dictate to the software how they would design and build their websites – not the other way around.
We then took things a step further, re-architecting Solodev for Amazon Web Services in a SaaS delivery model – the first enterprise web CMS to do so. Without even knowing it, this one decision would ultimately revolutionize the business model for the entire industry; Solodev made procuring an enterprise web CMS easier for agencies while lowering the cost, freeing more funds for the creative process, and providing a platform that was infinitely more focused on the overall “web experience.” Finally, agencies had a secure, scalable, Cloud-based platform that was uniquely designed around their industry needs.
While most enterprise CMS platforms provide a singular web experience (in other words, a website interaction that doesn’t change whether you’re a programmer in Brooklyn or a retailer in Spain) Solodev aimed to be different – and we truly hit our mark.
In recent years, there’s been a dramatic shift in our industry, focusing more on the holistic “web experience” as a reflection of design and functionality. But thus far, the effort has been composed of “polishing up” the singular user’s experience. Unlike other solutions, Solodev gives agencies the power to craft unique web experiences for different customer segments – from geographic regions to demographics to behavioral mechanics. This strategic agility not only helps agencies cater to a vast array of clients and their respective customer segments, but ultimately provides a more well rounded experience to the end user. Simply put, the Solodev Web Experience Platform is the next evolution in web content management – and in the coming years, the notion of a singular web experience will become a thing of the past.
At its core, Solodev was built for digital agencies, helping them achieve greater control and flexibility over their website services than ever before. Multi-site management continues to be a major factor for agencies when considering web CMS platforms, so we focused on building the most robust, multi-site management capabilities on the market. With one login to manage all of your clients’ websites, Solodev gives agencies the ability to create credentials for internal personnel as well as clients, using a permission-based system where agencies control who has access to what on the most granular of levels.
Thanks to our SaaS delivery model, agencies can also sign up for Solodev and be up and running in minutes rather than months – all at a reasonable price point that frees up dollars for creative. Agencies no longer have to worry about hosting fees, long-term contracts, and managing multiple web CMS platforms with different contracts and hosting configurations. Simply put, we wanted agencies to have total freedom when it comes to design, functionality, scalability, and security; no compromises, just the power to create whatever they imagined for their clients.
To deliver on this promise, we rebuilt our software layer by layer and optimized our platform to take full advantage of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its entire product suite. Agencies can now craft custom websites without their web CMS telling them what to do and how to do it. Instead, Solodev serves as a true “blank canvas” for agencies to bring digital brands to life.
Solodev gives agencies a strategic agility they’ve never had before. If a client needs a project done quickly – or specifies that they want their website deployed in a cloud environment – agencies can respond with lightning speed using Solodev’s On-Demand model. Deployed in 45 minutes or less, Solodev is one of the fastest platforms on the planet, giving you the ability to create re-usable templates to speed up development time.
Because of our SaaS and Cloud-based configuration, Solodev doesn’t come with the baggage that most competitors do. There’s no $500,000 price tag with our software; in fact, our entry-level plan is only $99/month. There are no licensing fees, no need for IT maintenance, no manual updates and none of the expensive and often unexpected add-ons that come with traditional enterprise web CMS deployments. In essence, Solodev delivers one of the best Total Costs of Ownership (TCO) on the market while enhancing agency productivity on multiple levels.
Solodev’s advanced templating system empowers designers to create the core layouts of any <a href="https://www.solodev.com/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">web design</a> on a virtual “blank canvas” – one that web developers can easily transform into re-usable templates. This allows agencies to write minimal code that delivers maximum impact, and focus more on their creative process. And with Solodev, agencies can even build evergreen template “packages” that replicate a given style or design scheme, providing a foundation on which to develop future websites.
When it comes to content, Solodev gives agency writers and content creators more control than ever. Imagine writing copy while watching your web page update in real-time (working in draft mode and eventually publishing). Now imagine doing it all without any laborious training or deep technical knowledge. With Solodev, it’s all possible – and agencies now have a key advantage in managing and growing their overall content strategy.
Turning 21 is a major milestone for the web CMS. But when the party’s over, how does the industry continue to mature? And for digital agencies, how does it answer the need for greater freedom and control? The answer, in a word, is “experience” – and at Solodev, we’ve always focused on making the best web experience platform on the market. A key part of that is simplicity; that’s why we’ve intentionally left E-Commerce, Marketing Automation, and other enterprise software out of the mix. We wanted our CMS to be the best at what it does – and not another “jack of all trades.” And while most competitive platforms have recently begun to package their CMS with their own nascent enterprise software applications, we decided to give more freedom to the users – and made integrating with your favorite “best of breed” software vendors, from CRM to ERP, extremely easy.
When we say “total freedom” in all aspects of your web presence, we mean it. Solodev forces nothing on you – just the power to create your most imaginative ideas online. It’s the only platform that simply and elegantly delivers a blank canvas where you have complete freedom to design, build, and deploy your websites and applications – without compromises or limitations.
And after 21 years of waiting, there’s no better birthday gift than that.
<h3>About the Author</h3>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mooreshawn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Shawn Moore</a> is the founder &amp; CTO of Solodev and the driving force behind the Solodev Web Experience Platform. A visionary leader, Shawn has strategically grown Solodev from its inception as a small <a href="https://www.solodev.com/blog/">web design</a> company to a successful software company that services clients across the nation and has been named to the Inc. 5000’s fastest growing private companies for the past two years in a row.
Winner of several industry awards for Best CTO and CIO, Shawn Moore is changing the content management landscape with Solodev. With over a decade of executive experience serving as CEO of Solodev and COO for software company Helium Flash, Shawn has the industry knowledge and product passion that continues to drive the development of the Solodev Platform. He is a graduate of Stetson University and often speaks on IT related trends and topics at conferences and universities across the state.

A Web CMS for the Modern Advertising Agency

Every business is different. The one thing they all share, though, is the Internet.
As a designer, agency or freelancer, getting your clients online can account for most, if not all, of what you do. Anything you can do to make the process easier is always worth your time.
Enter <a href="https://www.ucraft.com/whitelabel#/">White Label</a> website building, from Ucraft.
This powerful builder solution offers dynamic website creation, right out the box. And the best part?
You’ll be able to put your name on it, and use the platform as your own, with their blessing. Let’s take a closer look.
Build Smarter, With White Label Solutions
White label solutions are a simple concept: imagine buying a soda to give to someone else. Only, instead of Coke or Pepsi, you bought a drink with a plain white label on it. You could put anything you want on that label, right?
The same goes for white label solutions such as Ucraft White Label website builder.
The trick, though, is finding a product that can do enough that you’ll want to put your name on it.
Ucraft’s white label website builder solution offers the kind of versatility you’re looking for:
<ul>
<li>Drag and drop editing, for no fuss design 	Not everybody’s a coder. With visual design controls, though, anybody can put together a site that looks great, and works without any problems.	 </li>
<li>Fifteen unique third-party integrations, for more features 	Looking for something out of the ordinary, design wise? With these comprehensive design packages, you’ll find that special something you’re looking for.	 </li>
<li><a href="https://cloud.google.com/">Google Cloud</a> hosting 	As one of the most famous hosting platforms in the world, with future-proof infrastructure and serverless computing, your site’s in good hands on Google Cloud. And concerns about capacity are a thing of the past.</li>
</ul>
There’s actually a large cross section of software companies who make use of website builders like this. It makes sense, from a business perspective.
Customers get rich, responsive websites that look as good as anything else on the market and you don’t have to bring a fulltime web developer.
Which isn’t to say developers can’t get just as much out of Ucraft’s White Label solution.
As more people make use of this web development tool, they’ll be able to use that to bring gorgeous web platforms to clients, faster than ever before.
Their white label admin dashboard, for example, puts you and your client at the wheel of your website’s design and metrics information. And, with the option to incorporate ecommerce into your website, you’ll have everything you need to bring on local businesses as clients.
Payment options including Paypal, Bitcoin, Braintree and Apple Pay make this perfect for setting up an ecommerce site, as well.
A White Label Solution That Works For You
Ucraft’s new White Label web design platform is an unbranded website builder with a lot to offer. Easy-to-use design elements and a huge array of features make this the perfect solution for your web building project.
Want to know more? Why not <a href="https://www.ucraft.com/whitelabel" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">get in touch</a> with them, today, to find out about using White Label for yourself?

A White Label Website Builder That Works for You

It’s no secret that having an online portfolio is important to a modern business. When your business is photography, though, it’s crucial.Today, we’ll be looking into the benefits of website builders for photographers and their portfolios. The Internet has become the most widespread <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/254584/internet-poised-to-be-biggest-ad-medium-in-2016.html?utm_source=Webbiquity.com">marketing</a> medium since 2016, surpassing TV. It’s safe to say a website is the most effective tool out there for representing your work.So, let’s take a look at how to set one up!<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best_website_builder_for_photographer958x0-is.jpg" /><h2>What To Look For</h2>You need an online repository of your work that people can visit and use to make decisions about hiring you. At the same time, unless you’ve diversified your skill set early on, there’s a good chance you don’t know how to sit down and code a website by hand.First, the good news: website builders for photographers aren’t hard to come by. There’s a lot of platforms out there to help you put together a website, quickly.What can make or break your final product, though, is knowing what services to look for:<ul><li>Ease of use. The point of using website builders for photographers is to take the hassle out of setting up your site. Avoid builders that require excess HTML or complicated add-ons just to use them. Remember: this is supposed to be straightforward.</li></ul>A subheading to this point could be to look out for tools that do actual work. Choosing builders that offer vintage filters and other fun widgets might be tempting. What you’ll need to make an impact, though, is a gallery that looks great and the ability to share your content, easily.Lastly, integrated SEO options can help to get your site the distribution and visibility it needs.<ul><li>Mobile readiness. Often left until the end by developers, this is one of the most important steps in creating any website. Mobile users account for more than desktop users, and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/">have for a few years</a> already. If you aren’t optimised for mobile, you’re missing out on a lot of potential visits.</li><li>Bandwidth. Getting enough bandwidth is also critical. Don’t underestimate how much space you’ll need to host your full portfolio. Always check before committing to a website builder and domain.</li></ul><h2>The Best of the Bunch</h2>The following are our top three picks for the best website builders for photographers, on the market today:<h3>Format</h3>This website builder stands out, because of the ease with which it creates mobile-ready sites. In next to no time, create something that works on those all-important mobile devices. Add to that a full bill of website creation tools, and it’s easy to see why this is becoming one of the most popular platforms for photographers, out there.Note: Format is offering CMS Critic readers 10% off their annual plan by using the code CMSCRITIC<a target="_blank" href="https://format.grsm.io/mike-17">Try out Format here</a><h3>Wix</h3>This platform offers a lot of customization, and the option to publish your website for free. It’s easy to use, puts you in control of your site’s SEO, and offers a million gorgeous photography templates. To get the most out of it, we recommend purchasing a domain subscription, so that the URL is just your name, without the word wix in it.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.wix.com/">Try out Wix here</a><h3>SmugMug</h3>This is a website builder that puts photography first. There's an integrated shop so you can sell your physical as well as digital copies of your photos. It's packed full of features suited perfectly for photographers.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.smugmug.com/">Try out SmugMug here</a>And there you have it. With <a href="/key-website-builders/">a little insight</a> from someone in the know, you’ll be able to find website builders for photographers puts your photography front and center.Thanks for listening.

The Best Website Builders for Photographers

duncan-reyneke

Many businesses face the same problems and as a result, the planet’s sharpest minds have attempted to find solutions. Two such people are Geoffrey Moore, author of the widely popular book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-High-Tech-Mainstream/dp/0060517123" target="_blank">Crossing the Chasm</a>”, and Malcolm Gladwell, author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0316346624/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1496153158&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+tipping+point" target="_blank">The Tipping Point</a>”. Both of these books compliment and even reference each other in their comprehensive look at the major problem all businesses and products face: How do you reach mass-market adoption?
Even the largest corporations ask themselves this question when rolling out new products or new services offerings. Throwing money at this universal problem is not the answer. In fact, there is no singular answer but an organic evolution that, when carefully examined, is a map to mass-market adoption. This map is laid out for the world to see in both of the aforementioned books but today; we’re going to use these books as a framework to discuss how global organizations have finally crossed the chasm and are in the process of reaching the tipping point when it comes to cloud computing.
It’s impossible to discuss cloud computing without discussing Amazon Web Services, the true catalyst that eventually led to mass adoption of cloud computing technologies. Yes, there is a number of cloud computing providers today, but in 2006 when AWS was founded, Google and Microsoft hadn’t even considered building their own cloud offerings. Google Cloud launched five years later; Microsoft Azure launched four years later. Despite Amazon being first to go “all-in” with their new offering, it took a few years for their technology, particularly their EC2 server offering, to reach a level of maturity where early adopters would dip their toes in the water. At that time, the technology simply wasn’t ready, and the business world viewed the cloud as unreliable if they even considered it at all. That all changed with a few visionaries that paved the way for the rest.
Around three years after the founding of AWS, a number of startups trying to disrupt their respective industries experimented with cloud computing to varying degrees of success. Between 2008 and 2011, everything changed when startups that were “early adopters” of cloud computing technologies such as Spotify, Netflix, Airbnb and Twilio showcased the benefits of cloud computing to the world through the massive adoption of their respective products. Despite this success and newfound attention focused on the cloud, it was still too early for widespread adoption, even by Fortune 500 companies.
A perfect storm came together that knocked down the concerns most had about cloud computing, namely security and reliability, and would eventually lead to an urgent race to the cloud. Of course it all started with AWS in 2006, but it would take a few years for AWS to even reach the technological maturity required to scale cloud technologies. With the advent of IoT, or the “Internet of Things”, large organizations started to use IoT technologies like smart home products and wearables, and everything from cars to tractor-trailers and oil drills were outfitted with sensors. What these mega corporations didn’t know at the time was these new technologies in IoT were all cloud-based. Suddenly the cloud became much more appealing.
While IoT was getting all of the publicity, AWS continued to iterate and expand their cloud offering. Tech enthusiasts who had adopted cloud technologies began rapidly developing tools to complement and enhance existing cloud technologies. The igniting spark that led to the race to the cloud was the ability for organizations to configure their cloud environments using fully scripted architecture, as well as the evolution, price reduction and availability of server redundancy, namely across multiple regions. What previously took organizations months to complete could now be done in minutes. While it used to take months or weeks to update Solodev to its latest software version for our customers, it now takes the simple click of a button. While IT departments across the globe began their research into the cloud years beforehand, they now had the data to prove the value of the cloud to decision makers at their organizations. In 2014, cloud computing finally crossed the chasm, shifting from limited usage by early adopters to more broad adoption by what Geoffrey Moore refers to as “the early majority.”
The perfect storm also included the aging of outdated technologies and data centers built during the early days of the Internet. As these data centers began to age to obscurity, the major decision organizations faced was whether to renovate their data centers, requiring a massive investment, and keep everything on-premise – or – to move to the cloud where they could scale for increased productivity and efficiency on all fronts. With the advent of technologies like continuous integration, AWS CloudFront, Chef, Docker and hundreds of other tools, organizations could now control their computing resources and speed up software updates while keeping their websites and applications redundant across multiple servers in different regions with absolutely no downtime.
Around 2015 or 2016, cloud computing finally reached the tipping point and became adopted by its many skeptics and conservatives. As a result, a race to the cloud began and is still in full swing as Fortune 500 companies try to catch up to smaller, more agile organizations who found success faster in migrating their operations into true “cloud-based” businesses. Solodev was a part of the early majority of cloud computing, beginning our efforts to rebuild Solodev for the AWS Cloud in 2013 once the technology had fully matured in a way that was scalable, reliable and affordable. After three years of rebuilding the Solodev <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">Content Management System</a> (CMS) to be a true cloud-based solution, the timing couldn’t have been better as the year Solodev was named the “Best Cloud CMS” was the same year cloud computing truly hit its tipping point. Despite being a relatively small software company, we have the expertise and agility to help Fortune 500 organizations move their massive ecosystem of products, services, websites and applications to the cloud and saw it first hand after appearing at Amazon Web Services re:Invent in 2016.
Almost every single phone call, email or inquiry Solodev receives involves large organizations trying to move to the cloud—and we are uniquely positioned to serve that need. Being early in the adoption of cloud computing, the Solodev team has experience with the kind of innovation that most large conglomerates simply can’t risk. It was our belief in the cloud, and our commitment to unlocking the potential of the cloud in the enterprise CMS industry, that brought us to the point of being able to take advantage of the tipping point and bring other organizations to the cloud. Today the tipping point has been reached, and in one-way or another, everyone is moving to the cloud. Now, the real focus is on how to truly build a “cloud-based” business rather than simply making your product or service available on the cloud.
For more information on how Solodev can help bring your organization to the cloud visit <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">www.solodev.com</a> or call 1-800-859-7656
<h3>About the Author</h3>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mooreshawn/" target="_blank">Shawn Moore</a> is the founder &amp; CTO of Solodev and the driving force behind the Solodev Web Experience Platform. A visionary leader, Shawn has strategically grown Solodev from its inception as a small <a href="https://www.solodev.com/blog/">web design</a> company to a successful software company that services clients across the nation and has been named to the Inc. 5000’s fastest growing private companies for the past two years in a row.
Winner of several industry awards for Best CTO and CIO, Shawn Moore is changing the content management landscape with Solodev. With over a decade of executive experience serving as CEO of Solodev and COO for software company Helium Flash, Shawn has the industry knowledge and product passion that continues to drive the development of the Solodev Platform. He is a graduate of Stetson University and often speaks on IT related trends and topics at conferences and universities across the state.

From Crossing the Chasm to Reaching the Tipping Point

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