Acclaimed Web Development & Online Marketing Blog

Content management systems are quickly becoming a necessity for medium-sized and large businesses.  Small businesses with basic websites can still get away with paying for maintenance, but larger companies need more maintenance and need to rely on employees, such as office managers, secretaries and receptionists to do some of the basic maintenance.  They also need to be able to strictly enforce website standards among all their sites and pages on those sites.  The easier way to do that is to use templates within a content management system because a good cms will not allow basic users to change the websites look and feel (the templates), but it will allow them to update the content.

Some of the content management systems you may have heard about are Drupal, Geeklog, Joomla 1.5, Mambo, PHP-Nuke, phpWCMS, phpWebSite, Siteframe, TYPO3, Xoops and Zikula.  Those content management systems are open source, so they are free to use if you know how to install and customize them.

Evaluating Content Management Systems

These points will help you evaluate cms and decide which one is right for your business.

1. Support
In our opinion, this is the most important factor in deciding between content management systems.  Not all open source applications are widely used or supported.  Is there are website for the cms?  Does it contain a knowledge base and support forums?  Is the support up-to-date?  Are their new releases and bug fixes made available to the public on a regular basis?

2. Add-on, Plugins and/or Modules
What kind of extensions are available for the cms?  If it doesn’t come with all the features you need, will it be easy to upgrade in the future without having to hire a programmer to custom code changes to the software?

3. How widely used and accepted is the software?
Are there tons of articles when you search google for that cms or are articles on the cms “few and far between”?  If not a lot of people are using the cms, there is either one of two reasons – either the system is so new you might want to wait for others to test it and for some of the early bugs to be worked out or no one is using it for a good reason – either it has a lot of bugs, it doesn’t have great support or there are just better cms out there.

4. How often are the same old bugs being found without any real solutions?
For example, our experience with php-nuke is that when it has errors in the code it produces blank pages because the code simply stop without finishing loading.  Php-nuke 8.1 is the newest release and it’s still producing blank pages without good error messages to tell you what the underlying issues might be.  Do your research or have your web developer do it for you.  There are loads of articles in google about blank pages in php-nuke.  Php-nuke also seems to have sketchy support, so it is not our cms of choice and not the one we recommend to customers.

5. Have security issues been reported?
Do your research or ask your web developer about reported security issues?  The last thing you want is a cms that isn’t secure or has security holes.  If there is a specific security hole in a piece of software and there is no patch to fix it, your web developer more than likely can not fix it and having an SSL certificate will not fix it either.

Our Pick

For our money, Joomla, Drupal and Zikula have the best support, a huge variety of great extensions and are the easiest to use, but do your own research and follow the advise of your web developer.

Acclaimed Web Development & Online Marketing offers all of these content management systems, as well as, custom-designed content management systems that are offered to larger businesses with a bigger budget and special business needs.  Contact us for a free presentation!

Request a quote to get started today!

Website applications are a necessity in today’s world.  Hotel and resort websites need to have a booking engine.  Real estate agents and realtors need to have real estate listings on their websites.  Non-profit organizations need to have ways to collect donations and sell merchandise to help their cause.  Other applications can help facilitate communication and add functionality and features to websites, such as

• Online Auctions
• Classifieds
• Discussion Boards
• Photo Galleries
• Polls & Surveys
• Calendars
• Mailing Lists
• Advertising Banner Systems
• Links Directories
• Live chat

Other online applications can be used internally, as part of a company intranet or a password-protected, membership-only website to help improve project management, customer relationship management, documentation and support.  These applications can make sure businesses run more smoothly and give you a way to make money online if you password protect an online product that consumers would be willing to pay for.  Some examples of website applications that can be used internally by businesses are :

• Project Management Applications like dotProject
• Wikis for documentation
• Online Course Software like Moodle
• Support Ticket Systems like osTicket and PHP Support Tickets
• Online Help Desk Systems like Help Center Live and PerlDesk

Having an online project management system that all employees can log in to with their own username and password can change the way you do business.  For service companies this can be a great way to make sure everyone knows what is expected of them and when and does their part.  Wikis are becoming a great way to put documentation online and allow more than one employee to contribute.  This makes it easier to transition to new system and between employees.  Online courses and support and help desk systems can be used to provide support to employees or clients and customers to make life a lot easier for businesses that have a lot of support issues. Certainly software and hosting companies have already been taking advantage of these applications for years, but they can be useful in any service industry.

Of course, there are also the basic e-commerce shopping cart applications that every retail website should have and content management systems that are becoming a mainstay for every business.  Content management systems (cms) are fast becoming a business necessity because they relieve the average business of having to outsource website maintenance or pay for employee training and higher wages.  A content management system makes it possible for any Internet-savvy employee to update the website.

Acclaimed Web Development & Online Marketing offers all of these website applications and more.  We offer content management systems that range from less-expensive, open source applications, such as Joomla, Drupal and php-nuke to more customized systems for our larger clients that include customized programming and database development to handle their unique business needs.

Request a quote to get started today!

Promoting your website through social media marketing can be a lot of work.  It’s no wonder that many companies outsource the job, but if you are just starting out or have a small budget you can still promote your company using social media marketing. These are the steps you can take to become your own social media expert.

1. Content
The best way to promote yourself online is to provide interesting, original and informative content. It’s important for search engine optimization and email list subscribers. It’s also important in social media marketing. You have nothing to market without original content. A blog is a great way to continually add value-added content in a meaningful way for the search engines and for returning visitors.  A blog gives you something to talk about on search media marketing sites too.

2. Create a facebook page
Create a page for your business on facebook. Facebook pages can be promoted with an ad on facebook. Make sure you put information on your page to make it interesting.  As an example, here is a link to Acclaimed Web Development & Online Marketing’s facebook page: http://cli.gs/9TsTt7

3. Setup a Twitter profile for your business
Setup a Twitter profile in your business’s name or in your name so you can become known in your industry.    Follow people who are exports in your industry.  Here is an example: http://twitter.com/acclaimedwebdev

4. Post updates to your facebook page, twitter and bookmarking sites
Post updates for your fans and for the search engines by posting at least once daily to facebook, your twitter account and to bookmarking sites such as digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon and others.

5. Create a linkedin profile for you and your business
Create a linkedin profile to show off your skills with other professionals and network online with old clients and co-workers.  One of the extra benefits of linkedin is the ability to use your company profile to market yourself to potential, new employees.

6. Use groups on facebook and linkedin
Use groups to share information with other in your industry and find new customers by starting and joining groups that would be of interest to your target audience.

Social media marketing, much like email marketing, is a great way to keep your message fresh and new and in front of your customers and potential customers on a daily basis.  Your facebook fans will see all you updates on their facebook homepage on a daily bases, so you are only limited by the interesting and relevant information you have to share with them. While customers can get annoyed with receiving marketing emails from you on a daily basis.  A status message on facebook or twitter is much less intrusive as long as it is interesting and informative.

If you’re not sure how to get started or feel it’s just too much work for you to do on your own, Acclaimed Web Development & Online Marketing offers professional social media management services.  Request a quote to get started today!

I’m still surprised by the number of small businesses today that still don’t have a website. A recent research study released two days ago from the UK showed that 46% of Britain’s small businesses are still without a website. Even more alarming is that 47% of firms that were still off-line believed that a website could NOT benefit their business. This errant thinking was in direct contrast with a further study that showed that 80% of similar businesses with websites gain revenue from those sites.

It feels a lot like the whole ostrich/sand analogy. I’m not sure how companies of any size these days can justify not having an online presence. Even without going as far as eCommerce applications or social media marketing, having a website seems to be the most elementary of requirements for doing business these days.

Having a small brochure-type website truly is better than having no website at all.  If you aren’t on the web, potential customers are currently using your competition because they can’t remember you phone number or email address and they can’t find your non-existent website.  Social media marketing has quickly become another alternative to having your own website.  Facebook, for example, is a great way to connect with customers and potential customers and allow them to share your message with their friends.  Retaurants, retailers and many other businesses are now using facebook to keep their message current and in front of customers.

Phone books are very quickly being completely replaced by internet searches.  Without an online presence, many customers will never be able to find out.  Do you feel like websites just don’t work in your industry? Have you had a website that just didn’t work and you’re fearful of trying again?  A basic website should be a part of every companies successful marketing plan, but having a website is not enough.  You have to use internet marketing to put your website in from of potential customers.  That includes, not only social media marketing, but email marketing and search engine optimization and paid search marketing.

Acclaimed Web Development & Online Marketing can help you develop and brand your new website and marketing it on the internet and bring targeted traffic to your website.  We can also design print marketing materials to advertise your business.  Request a quote to get started today!