theLAB

I just finished reading Chris Coyier’s article, The “Light” CMS trend. For those of you who don’t know, CMS stands for “content management system.” The content is stored in a database and then served up on a page using a predefined template. The idea behind a CMS is to allow non-technical people the ability to update, add or edit the content on their Web site. It also allows multiple authors and can also allow multiple Web sites to share the same content that will be updated in one place instead of on each individual site.

Chris points out the problem with most CMSs is that they are really only useful to Web people, those who have experience with working with Web sites. WordPress is Chris’ favorite CMS and mine as well. But as I have done more development with WordPress, I see that is does fall short in really empowering content owners in the way that I would want.

A possible solution: “light” CMSs. There are a growing number of these solutions available on the market today. Several of them are free services and at least one of them costs money. One of the reasons that I like WordPress is that it is free, open source software that is continually developed. The price is right for the non-profit organization I work for.

These light CMS solutions contain less features which make them simpler, and I believe, a better user experience for the content owner.

Here are the light CMS solutions that Chris highlights in his article:

• Unify – Currently in private beta. It is a product of Unit Interactive which is headed up by Andy Rutledge, one of the designers I follow on Twitter and RSS. I was not able to take a close look at it.
• Cushy CMS – this seems to be the first player in the light CMS. It is a free service.
• Page Lime – in free public beta. It has a visual editor and reminded me of Contribute.
• Perch – I really like their Web site and they have great documentation. Perch costs about $57 per domain. You host it on your own server.

Anna Debenham reviewed Perch on this week’s Boagworld Podcast. She has also used Cushy CMS. She pointed out that the major advantage of using Perch over Cushy CMS is that the files are all hosted on your own server with Perch. She had problems with the Cushy CMS server going down which meant the service was unavailable. PageLime is also hosted on their servers.

Cushy CMS, PageLime, and Perch have videos introductions about their service and good documentation to get started. It seems pretty easy to implement any of these three solutions. Cushy CMS and PageLime involve adding classes to your HTML code. Perch involved using specific PHP tags and reminded me a lot of WordPress.

From the little research I did this afternoon, I believe that Perch would be the product that I would choose. Yes, it costs money, but the big advantage is that you don’t have to worry about another server going down that you have no control over. As I mentioned, some of it’s features remind me of WordPress. It would take more technical knowledge to setup Perch. It looks like their templating system is quite powerful and gives more control to the Web designer or developer. But the advantage it has over WordPress is it’s simpler interface for the content owner.

One final note: I really liked Perch’s site. It has nice texture and illustration. It uses JQuery for some fun animated effects. The birds in the tree at the bottom animate and move into the screen on pages where you can see the footer right away.

I am currently working on a redesign of destinomovement.com. I came across this video on YouTube which is the testimonies of several Destino students in Texas. The first interview is with Jessica Olivares, who started the Destino movement at Texas A&M in 2006. She was recently honored at the last weekly meeting of the school year for her faithfulness.

I was encouraged when I saw these clips. What a privilege to be part of this project.  I pray will lead to more Destino movements raised up to reach more Latino students in the next 5 years.

Thank you for a good team meeting. I appreciate your engagement. A special thanks to all that presented something. Here are few take aways from our meeting:

• Pray for Anna and Tina as they travel (Anna in Texas, Tina in Fort Lauderdale mission conference), Ian and Sarah Burns as they find their team, and Dan as he connects with his team.
• Send your personal ministry update to the Burns’ (theburnsatthelab@gmail.com)
• Select your day with the Lord for April and May and put it in our LAB calendar
• Be thinking about your next letter to your team due the first week of May (two weeks away)

via ClickBooth’s Affiliate Marketing Blog » Don’t Forget About the Youth Market.

I saw this from a person who markets to Gen Y for sales purposes. He mentions in his article these four things to keep in mind in selling to Gen Y. They seem valuable for us to heed as well:

1. You don’t need to talk like them if in real life you don’t. Gen-Y was brought up with slang being a common part of their pop culture, where text messages many contain little to no words that Webster tells us is proper for the English language. However, if you are selling something professional, keep it professional. You can loosen up, but beware that the young generation can spot out phony advertising; fake campaigns and read through your non-authenticity. Gen-Y will respect your honestly vs. your attempt to be cool.
2. Use video. YouTube continues phenomenal growth, with billions of views every month. 12 Seconds is one of the fastest growing start-ups in the valley. What these sites do, is plays off of Gen-Y’s short attention span. 3 minute shorts and 12 second clips are dominating our society. Put a face to your offer, talk about it genuinely and have it thrown into the mix of messages that Gen-Y checks out in between segments of Family Guy and Guitar Hero.
3. Gen-Y loves them some video games. Find a cheap flash programmer and make a video to attract attention. Have them sign up to receive your offers as well as bonus levels and free updates. It’s a great way to get them talking about your company, interacting with your product and passing it along with hands off marketing.
4. Offer products in deeply segmented groups. With your Gen-Y prospects, it is extremely important to segment your lists into deep, drilled down lists. The more targeted you get the better. They are so accustomed to seeing thousands, upon thousands of ads, product offers, etc that if you are not in the right place at the right time, you can bet they have their blinders on full blast. Word.

A very funny look at Twitter.