How Do You Get a Blog?

How do you get a blog? Where do I get a blog? These are some of the questions I get every day from readers looking to experience the exciting (and if you are lucky, profitable) world of blogging. Blogging used to be something that only the most hardened geek would get involved in but nowadays, everyone from stay at home moms to massive corporations are using blogs as a means to communicate with the world.

How do you get a blog?

I have heard this question many times from friends, family and via contacts from this website, How do you get a blog? A simple question with what you think would be a simple answer, but in actuality, the process can be quite overwhelming for those with little to no experience.

Today, I’m going to attempt to alleviate these stresses and guide you through the process of selecting a blog platform and getting up and running.

First, it’s important to note that the definition of blogs has changed drastically over the years. Originally, the term “web log” (which was later shortened to blog) meant an online journal of sorts, like your diary except public. Today, however, things are much different. Today, blogs are used as sources for news, information, research and more. They don’t just apply to personal websites anymore. Companies have blogs which they use to share their articles and photographers have blogs to share their photos. This site is a blog.

Blogs are everywhere. So, how do you get a blog?

Well, you start by figuring out the answers to a number of questions. The first of which is…

What will I blog about?

The first step to answering the question “how do you get a blog?” is to start by deciding what it is you want to blog about. Perhaps you have a hobby you’d like to share with the rest of the web, such as photography, art, short stories, recipes or something of the sort. Maybe you’d like to incorporate the ability to sell your crafts (or inventions) through your blog or perhaps you’d simply like to use one as a catalyst to entrepreneurship.  Either way, it’s important to have an idea as to why you want a blog and what you will blog about.

Answering these questions is of paramount importance when searching for the right platform.

Let’s assume for a moment that you are interested in blogging and sharing huge amounts of pictures. In this case, you’d most likely want to explore a platform that puts emphasis on photo publishing and provides the necessary tools to allow you to share your pictures on your website quickly without slowing things down. Most hosted blog platforms (we’ll explain what these are a few paragraphs down) perform some form of caching (a fancy word for pre-loading) that allows your site to be served up to the reader quickly with minimal load time.

Why is this important? Slow sites account for a huge percentage of lost traffic. People who are surfing the web typically have very little patience for slow sites and if you want to establish any kind of active readership, you’ll want yours to load as fast as possible.

Once you’ve ascertained what you want to blog about, you’ll be able to make a more educated decision as to what platform to use. So, before you move to the next question, grab a pen (or keyboard) and plan out what you want to blog about.

Hosted or Not?

Now that you know what you will write about, you need to understand the difference between a hosted solution and a self-hosted solution.

Hosted Solutions

A hosted solutions or SaaS (which stands for software as a service) simply means that you sign up for your blog for either free or a small monthly fee and can be up and running within minutes. Your website is served up by servers that are owned by the company you signed up for your blog with.

The advantages; you typically get a fast loading site with little to no downtime that is supported by someone else and is updated as necessary and protected from possible security threats. The disadvantages; it can be difficult to migrate off of a hosted solution and sometimes those who are technical and want to dig deep into the code of their sites find these services limiting.

Blog platforms that are classified as hosted solutions include Squarespace (read our Squarespace review for more info), WordPress.com and Blogger.

Self-Hosted Solutions

When I used the phrase Self Hosted Solution, I am referring to a piece of software that must be downloaded from the internet, installed on a hosting provider and managed entirely by you. In some instances, people may choose self-hosted solutions in order to have more control over every aspect of their blog. Those who are technically minded usually prefer self-hosted solutions should they plan to alter code or make significant changes to the sites structure on a regular basis.

Of course, even with a self-hosted solution, you can often find hosting providers (such as WP Engine for WordPress – read our WP Engine review for more info) that will provide incredible speeds, daily backups and excellent support for a reasonable fee.

Blog platforms that are classified as self-hosted solutions include WordPress.org and Serendipity, amongst others.

What you choose with regards to going hosted or self-hosted really depends on what type of user you are. If you want ultimate control and are able to fix issues on your own, perhaps self-hosted is the best choice. If you want it to “just work” then hosted is likely right for you. Either way, you need to consider your options and make a choice one way or the other. Personally, I’m a code guy so I went with self-hosted but for most people who are looking to start a blog, I usually point to solutions like Squarespace, because they look good, are fast and “just work”.

Where do I get a blog?

If you’ve done any research of your own, you’ve more than likely come across the two most common blog platforms, WordPress and Blogger, but are they the right ones for you? Not necessarily. They are certainly the most used blog platforms in the world but not because they are the best. Here, I’m going to make some recommendations as to which platforms I think suit specific needs the best in hopes of providing you with a base to start from.

Let’s start with the obvious ones first.

WordPress

WordPress is, without a doubt, the largest blog platform in the world and is certainly a good option to consider if you want to get into blogging. There are some caveats, however, that often are not considered when choosing WordPress.

Who’s it suited for?

The hosted WordPress.com solution is suited to anyone who is willing to take the time to learn to use WordPress and isn’t interested in earning revenue from their site. Good uses might be: personal blogs that showcase family pictures, journals and the like.

The self-hosted solution is best suited to those who either have or know someone who has a reasonably good knowledge of WordPress (or PHP programming language) and is interested in a blog platform that provides unmatched control and flexibility and has the potential to incorporate advertising, if desired. Good uses might be: news blogs, sports fan blogs, subject matter expert blogs, online stores, realty websites, law offices, small businesses, etc.  For those who want to be have thousands of theme options and tons of flexibility for expansion, WordPress (hosted or otherwise) is a good choice.

Positives

• There are hundreds of thousands of people using WordPress as their platform of choice (including this site!). For this reason, finding someone who can support you or help you get things going is relatively easy.


• Thousands of themes to choose from. Themes, for those unaware, are looks that you can use as starting points to build your site off of. Here are some examples of Responsive WordPress themes to give you an idea of what I mean.


• There’s a plugin for pretty much everything. Plugins are add-on programs that help extend the functionality of your site by adding features like social bookmarking icons, newsletter subscription forms, etc.


• Hosted or Not. With WordPress you can choose to go with their hosted solution which you can learn about on WordPress.com or their self-hosted solution, which you setup, host yourself, configure yourself and are wholly responsible for. You can learn about it at WordPress.org

Negatives

• If you go with the hosted solution, you can kiss making money goodbye as they do not allow advertising other than their own (which they earn from) on WordPress.com sites. Unless you pay for a VIP solution which is quite costly and, quite frankly, not worth it in my view. You also get no support (well, no fast support) unless you have a paid upgrade with them (see here) and even then, the support is slow tedious with back and forth emails.


• If you go with the self-hosted solution and you have issues, you are pretty much pooched unless you know someone who can provide support to you and at this point, you are relying on someone who does not work for or with the WordPress organization directly, so you have to ensure you trust them and their skill set.


• Since there are so many plugins, they are not vetted in any way meaning that installing a plugin can potentially break your site but can also cause security issues. The same applies for themes. You also will need someone to assist you in updating your site and keeping it current.

Now, having said that, I think WordPress is a great platform but I’ve been using it for years and feel comfortable with it. It takes some learning and there’s definitely a curve but once you get past it and figure out how to circumvent issues, it’s a good choice. The negatives aren’t meant to say it’s a bad platform but more to highlight the possible issues you COULD encounter so you are aware in advance. There are millions of people using WordPress successfully, but there are also millions who should be using something else. Keep that in mind. Click here for Self-hosted WordPress, or here for Hosted WordPress.

Blogger

Blogger is Google’s baby and is one of the oldest blogging platforms out there. It’s sufficient for those looking for a simplistic platform to quickly publish content. While it’s been revamped a number of times over the years and has certainly improved, it’s not one that I would ever personally recommend. I find blogger to be too dumbed down and old school and to be honest, quite limiting in a number of aspects. Still, a lot of people continue to use Blogger and it’s still amazingly popular, I assume because it’s a Google product.

Who is it suited for?

Blogger is really suited to those who aren’t too concerned about the look and flexibility of their blog but more about just getting started.Blogger is quite limiting in it’s capabilities but it does a good job for personal sites and family blogs. There are, however, limits to the size that it grows before you lose the ability to add more content (see here for more info) so if you upload lots of pictures, you’ll want to avoid Blogger. Good uses might be: personal blogs that showcase family pictures (see limits note above), personal journals and the like.

Positives

• Since Blogger is a Google product, it is also widely believed that Blogger sites perform reasonably well on Google as a result of this (we’re referring to rankings or SEO here).


• Quick and easy to setup with minimal effort required.


• It’s a Google product and offers some integrations with Google products.

Negatives

• As mentioned above, Blogger has limits on the number of images (1GB), the size of images (250kb), the size of posts and the size of pages. Here is a full list of Blogger limits.


• There are a few sites that provide themes for use with Blogger but most of them are not optimized well or if they are, contain tons of links back to their publishers and end up serving no use other than to help them. For the most part, there are very few good themes for Blogger / or the ones that are good are only available for a fee.


• Customization is extremely limited. Google likes to play safe so you won’t be able to do anywhere near as much as you could with a different platform (like WordPress, etc)

So in a nutshell, Blogger has its uses but its popularity is declining year over year and I wouldn’t recommend it for anything other than minimal use. Click here to visit Blogger.

Tumblr

Tumblr is a great platform that is used by millions of people. The purpose to it is to get your content out there with the least effort possible. You can share text, photos, chats, links, videos, audio and quotes with the click of a button and there are plenty of great themes (both free and premium) to choose from. The interface is intended to be as minimal as possible (and it is) but it also suits most people just fine.

Who is it suited for?

Tumblr is there to share thoughts or collect things you find interesting, so it is most frequently used by people who have a passion for sharing content with others. It’s recommended for photographers, those who share videos (or create them), writers, and personal use. Companies sometimes use it as well for quick links that they want to share with the customers. It is not something you would typically use to create a full blown business website, although I have seen it done. You can check out some of the premium Tumblr themes that are available.

Positives

• My grandmother could set up and use a Tumblr blog easily.


• The single fastest way to get content up and shared with the least effort possible.


• Fast, hosted solution that doesn’t cost a dime.

Negatives

• Challenging to find ways to earn money from advertising (you can, but it’s hard to implement for the average user).


• No plugins or methods to extend it’s functionality.


• Limited themes (although the ones that it does have are quite good).

Now for the less obvious choices. Here are some other ones to consider:

Squarespace

Squarespace is a pretty powerful hosted solution that offers pretty much everything the average blogger would need plus a number of extras; such as eCommerce integration, built-in analytics (so you can see who is visiting your site and get details about them) and more. It’s also extremely popular with photographers, designers and entrepreneurs due to it’s fast speed, excellent caching (there’s that word again) and easy to use minimalistic interface.

Who is it suited for?

Bloggers will find pretty much everything they need here; speed, social integration, analytics and if needed, eCommerce. Photographers love it because of the caching and CDN integration (meaning pictures load really fast) and Designers love it because there are a number of beautiful portfolio templates. If you want to run an online shop, the eCommerce component is pretty slick as well. I’d recommend it for designers, photographers, bloggers, sports websites, law offices, small businesses, online stores, etc. If you want more info on Squarespace, read our Squarespace review where we show you the interface and explain everything.

Positives

• Slick, clean interface with controls that get out of your way when you need to write but are there when you need them.


• Beautiful look and feel to their templates and themes, it’s very, very easy to make an attractive website with Squarespace.


• Fast websites with excellent caching, CDN for pictures and images.


• Integrated analytics and lots of control without being overwhelming.


• You can easily enable and setup advertising and earn money from it with Squarespace.

Negatives

• Squarespace is hosted so you won’t have as high a level of control as you would with a self-hosted solution but they’ve definitely given you a lot more control than most will likely need.


• Small monthly fee associated with it as it’s not a free service but rather a paid one. Costs about the same as it would if you paid hosting fees to host your own site so it’s definitely reasonably priced.


• Not as extensive a list of themes and while it certainly has a ton of integrated features, there is no way to add-on extras. You have to submit feature requests.

I’m personally a huge fan of Squarespace and think they’ve done an excellent job of putting together a great product and doing well for themselves. I’ve no problem recommending them and would suggest those who are curious either sign up for their 30 day trial (they don’t need your credit card for the trial so it’s a good way to test it out) or read our Squarespace review.

Serendipity

Serendipity is a self-hosted blog platform. It has been around for a number of years and offers a reasonable amount of themes and plugins to extend it’s functionality. It’s not as easy to use as some of the other platforms we’ve listed here but it’s definitely packed full of power, if you take the time to learn how to use it.

Who is it suited for?

It’s best suited for small businesses, bloggers with a bit of technical know how, those who want a solid blog platform and are familiar with the process of setting one up on a web host (or know someone who is), designers, photographers, lawyers, realtors and the like. Serendipity is quite powerful and offers a lot of flexibility and because it’s written in PHP, like WordPress, it can be extended fairly easily.

Positives

• Fast, capable, proven platform that’s been around for a number of years.


• Strong, but small community that’s willing to help those who have questions.


• Flexible and easy to extend with the right skill set.

Negatives

• Like WordPress, you need to have either knowledge with PHP or someone who does to assist with issues, setting up hosting, etc.


• Not as large a community as WordPress so harder to find support outside of the Serendipity forums.


• Nowhere near as many themes or plugins as WordPress, but the average person wouldn’t need thousands of them anyway.

If you are looking to avoid WordPress for whatever reason and want a strong platform and are willing to learn how to maximize it / tweak it as needed, Serendipity is a great option. Click here to visit Serendipity.

Now that you’ve got a list of platforms to peruse and select from, you’ll need to figure out which one best suits your needs. I’m happy to offer basic advice via the comments if you have a question, so please feel free to ask / pose your scenario and I’ll respond when I can.

In my next post, we’ll discuss what to do with your blog once you have it up and running / have selected a platform. Stay tuned! I will be adding to this list of platforms gradually so be sure to check back once in a while.

How Do You Get a Blog?

Interview with Shaun Walker – Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of DotNetNuke Corporation

Shaun Walker is the Co-Founder and CTO of DotNetNuke Corporation. In this interview, Shaun took some time so share with us his thoughts about how the product came to be, where he sees it going and some insight into his background. We hope you find it an interesting read.

With that said, here’s the interview.

Please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background.

My name is Shaun Walker and I am the Co-Founder and CTO of DotNetNuke Corporation (DNN) and the creator of the DotNetNuke open source project. I started my professional career in 1992 as a

Shaun Walker

software developer and have worked in a variety of different software disciplines over the years including development, architecture, project management, and product management.

My first experiences with software development were in elementary school on the Commodore 64 and later on IBM PC’s and mainframes. My first professional experience was writing accounting and payroll software for school districts and municipalities on the DEC VAX/VMS environment using VAX BASIC. In the mid-nineties I made a switch to the Microsoft platform and gradually developed my skills writing desktop, client/server, and web software. In 2000, when Microsoft came out with its next generation platform, the .NET framework, I knew I was going to have to upgrade my skills so I downloaded a sample application that Microsoft had made available called the IBuySpy Portal and I proceeded to add a bunch of additional functionally to it over the next 2 years.

Can you tell us about how the idea of DotNetNuke was born?

My original idea was to create a web application for amateur sports clubs to manage their own team websites.  The idea was that the application needed to be simple and easy to use for non-technical folks and it needed to have the ability to host many different team sites from the same web hosting account (which is now referred to as a multi-tenant architecture). After working on the application for a couple years in my spare time, I concluded that I wasn’t going to be able do anything commercially with it due to the other commitments in my life. I also realized that most of the features I had created were applicable to not only sports organizations, but also to businesses, non-profits, etc. Essentially I had created a general purpose content management system. And since I had some experience with open source software in the past, I decided the best way to get value from the effort I had invested was to release my application as open source (this decision was made in spite of the fact that Microsoft was openly and publicly opposed to the open source software movement at that time). I packaged up the source code and posted it for download on December 24^th, 2002. And the rest is history.

When & how did the DNN Corporation come about?

From 2002 to 2006 I managed the open source project through my personal consulting company, based in British Columbia, Canada. In late 2003, the Web Platform and Tools group within Microsoft actually recognized the value of the work I was doing and offered to sponsor me for a year, which led to my pivotal decision to quit my full-time job and devote my full attention to the open source project. By 2006 the project had grown substantially with millions of downloads and hundreds of thousands of users, and I decided that it was time to get serious about creating a suitable legal entity to ensure the longevity of open source project and be the official steward of the DotNetNuke brand. DotNetNuke Corporation was incorporated in September 2006 as a U.S.-based company and Scott Willhite, Joe Brinkman, and Nick Kalyani joined me as co-founders. The first order of business was to establish a suitable revenue model which could provide the project with adequate resources to continue to grow and expand its footprint.

Over the years, DNN has seen a lot of competitors come and go, what do you think has helped the product maintain its popularity?

DNN has maintained its popularity by adhering strongly to a number of core principles. First, our software is available under a standard MIT open source license which provides the maximum freedom in both commercial and non-commercial environments. Second, the platform is architected in a highly extensible manner which allows third party developers to customize the application and add their own functionality. Third, there is a large ecosystem of third party ISVs building skins and modules, as well as System Integrators and Web Agencies who have based a significant portion of their livelihood on implementations of the DNN platform for customers.  And last but not least, we have been able to successfully maintain the fine balance between the free open source community and the needs of commercial businesses.  Our commercial product edition provides us with the resources needed to continue to innovate and build on the product and ensure the longevity of the free open source platform.

What led you to take DNN to the enterprise level it’s at today? What factors contributed to its success?

A common phenomenon for many open source projects is that they get adoption by software developers within large enterprise environments. This is largely because the cost and licensing is not a significant blocking factor as it typically is for commercial software applications. Once the open source software is utilized in these environments, it typically starts to evolve very rapidly to support some of the advanced functionality and more sophisticated use cases that exist in the enterprise. So rather than the software vendor having to “push” its product into the enterprise, open source software tends to experience a “pull” from enterprise users as they try to utilize it in a variety of scenarios. This results in the software adapting to meet the specific needs of enterprise customers and ultimately becoming an enterprise level solution.

The factors that contributed to the success of DNN in this regard was:

• the MIT open source license,


• the extensible architecture which could easily adapt to new use cases,


• the availability of high quality commercial third party extensions which enterprise customers could immediately take advantage of to fulfill their business objectives,


• and the presence of DNN Corp as an official steward and legal entity behind the open source project

How does the open source philosophy tie into how DNN operates as a company?

We prefer to operate under a philosophy that we refer to as the “abundance mentality.” This is simply defined as a belief there are enough resources and success to share with others. One of the fundamental ways in which we live and breathe this philosophy is by making our software available under a highly liberal open source license. However, it does not stop there. Every program or service we offer is intended to be a win/win with our community; we feel that the collective success of the various members of our ecosystem ensure our own success as steward. As the number of users and businesses utilizing DNN increases, so do the opportunities available to everyone. In economics terms, we do not believe in a zero-sum game; rather, we believe that as the ocean rises, all the boats will rise with it.

What do you consider the biggest achievement over the years for DNN?

For a software application to exist for ten years and continue to be highly relevant is definitely a big achievement in our opinion. DNN has been able to achieve that by being well-entrenched in a very dynamic and growing market sector, and by constantly investing in product innovation that allows us to adapt to the latest technology trends. This would not have been possible without our other big achievement, which is raising venture capital from some of the most reputable investment firms in the world.

The biggest failure?

Hindsight is 20/20. It is hard to categorize anything as an absolute failure as there are always important lessons to be learned from every mistake. That being said, I do believe that there may have been some benefit of incorporating DNN earlier in our evolution, solidifying a scalable company structure behind the project, and accelerating more quickly with the addition of more key resources. And another regret, which I believe is a common one for any serious entrepreneur, is not recognizing and capitalizing on emerging trends or opportunities earlier.

What do you see as the future of the product?

DNN continues to invest in product innovation and quality so that we can serve our diverse and rapidly growing customer base. Specifically, we are laser-focused on providing business solutions that enable customers to take advantage of the most significant and disruptive industry trends around cloud computing, social collaboration, mobile devices, and managing big data.

What separates it from the competition?

Our open source license, our large ecosystem of commercial ISVs and Systems Integrators, our focus on developing best-of-breed functionality for social communities and collaboration, and our modern cloud infrastructure allows us to differentiate ourselves from the competition.

If there was one thing you could have done differently, what would it be.

It is hard to pinpoint one thing that I would have done differently. Life is not a straight line; it is a winding path full of many unexpected surprises. I think it is important to plan, but it is equally important to be able to adapt. From a business model perspective, we learned very early on that there is no blueprint for how to successfully combine an open source software project with a commercial software business. So you need to be prepared for some experimentation and education in real-time as you pursue your goals. At the end of the day, all I can advise is that you stay true to your core values and trust your instincts.

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

In five years’ time, I hope to see that the DotNetNuke platform is just as relevant and innovative as it is today. I see our product lines expanding to include more specialized solutions that solve specific problems for customers. Our footprint in the enterprise will expand significantly and I see our customers having a more intimate relationship with the corporation as we get deeper into the business of providing cloud infrastructure. On the product side, we will have a very comprehensive story around mobile and social, and I am sure there will be plenty of exciting new industry trends that we have not yet even anticipated that we will need to adapt to so that our customers can take full advantage of them in their business.

Thanks for your time today, Shaun

I appreciate the opportunity to share the story of DNN with your readers. Hopefully it will inspire them to pursue their dreams but also realize that opportunities sometimes reveal themselves while you are busy making other plans.

To learn more about DotNetNuke, visit their website: DotNetNuke

Interview with Shaun Walker – Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of DotNetNuke Corporation

Interview with Ian Truscott of SDL about the Bemoko Acquisition

As you may have heard, SDL recently acquired mobile web solutions provider Bemoko to enhance their Tridion content management system. To help us understand what it was that made this acquisition attractive to SDL, we decided to speak with VP of Product Marketing for SDL Content Management Technologies Division, Ian Truscott.

Why did SDL feel it was necessary to purchase bemoko as opposed to implementing their own solution?

Ian Truscott

Good question. SDL already has a strong track record of customers using Tridion to deliver content to mobile devices.

In addition to the underlying platform capability to do that, we have been investing in a product strategy to deliver this single, multi-channel delivery tier for some time. For example, the 2011 product release included functionality that enabled the content author to preview and then edit in context content as it appeared on a selected mobile device – so this was our trajectory, toward a single multi-channel delivery tier.

What we found in bemoko was a complimentary technology that will accelerate the realization of that underlying strategy. We are probably best known for the strength of our content model (managing content variants, multiple sites and channel localization through the BluePrinting model) and we found that the way bemoko manages devices is very complimentary to that.

That complimentary fit was essential for us; our strategy dictated a single delivery tier – I refer to this as an experience tier – rather than a bolt on capability, a silo of technology/content or an additional thing for our customers to figure out.

In addition, an acquisition obviously brings talent to the organization – and in this case we have acquired some outstanding individuals that will be a key part of delivering this strategy.

Why bemoko specifically?

Our research revealed what I think most people assume about this space, there are a lot of niche players. What we found during that research was a wide variance in what mobile vendors offered in terms of the product/services mix.

As I touched on in your last question we needed technology that had a level of maturity that would accelerate our own strategy and people that would contribute and fit into the SDL culture. In the UK we have a saying that” you are judged by the company you keep” and in bemoko we found they kept pretty good company as a technology provider for brands such as Pizza Hut and Cable & Wireless.

What does this new offering bring to SDL’s current feature set?

Put simply, on day one, it gives our customers an “out of the box” delivery platform that renders content optimized for the device (from a trusted partner with an investment in the integration) and analytics to provide insight into that experience.

Of course they all say that – so I think some of the highlights are the way it handles image scaling (something often forgotten in responsive design strategies), the way it manages device families, inheritance of capabilities and a focus on salability and security – all consistent with the needs of a typical enterprise Tridion customer.

That’s just day one – going forward – and this will start in our next major Tridion release at the end of this year – these capabilities will be baked into our next generation content delivery platform. A delivery platform that already includes the targeting and personalization functionality we have built or acquired through the FredHopper and Alterian acquisitions.

Can we expect mobile apps from SDL in the future that coexist with / allow interaction with the CMS?

This was already happening thorough our UX development strategy; significant parts of the product are already optimized for touch and this will continue. We anticipate a growing number of our users to be using mobile devices to contribute and manage content.

Will bemoko continue to operate under the bemoko name or will they disappear and become absorbed by SDL instead?

I think the rest of my answers give you a sense of the nature of this acquisition; we see the technology from bemoko in the core of our next generation content delivery platform – rather than as a bolt on.

What other future opportunities does this acquisition present for SDL?

Talking to our customers, they are moving from mobile being a side project, limited to some brands, markets, products or services – a content/technology silo – to being a part of their mainstream content and marketing operations. This obviously coincides with how their customers are engaging with them – access to the web is ubiquitous as we reach for whatever device comes to hand.

We therefore perceive a future for digital customer experience that is omni-channel, not simply that you can blast your content out and it looks pretty on a smaller screen – but that as a consumer you can move between digital touch points and maintain a consistency of conversation from device to device during that engagement – something that leverages all of the pieces of the CXM platform that we are building out.

Does this round out all of the necessary pieces that SDL needs to provide a solid solution for the consumer or are there still other pieces of the pie that you are looking to fill?

That depends on the pie! Joking aside, it really does depend on what is the customers need and therefore what would make up a solid solution for them. If we ring fence this conversation around the mobile web, then yes.

—

So there you have it. I fully expect we’ll see more and more acquisitions coming down the pipeline involving other vendors within the next year or so as they scramble to ensure their products are mobile ready.

For more info, visit SDL online at www.sdl.com/products/tridion/

Interview with Ian Truscott of SDL about the Bemoko Acquisition

Why Responsive Design is So Important

 

There’s no arguing about this fact:  Responsive Design is really important. No doubt you’ve heard of it. Maybe you know a little bit about it. Perhaps you even have a responsive site already. Whatever the case, responsive design is the new must-have of website design. Here’s why.

The Importance of Responsive Design – A Word from the Pros

The tech oracles have spoken on the importance of RWD. Neil Patel (QuickSprout) wrote that “ responsive design is “ a standard that’s taking everything you know about web design and turning it on its side.” He claims that responsive design influences everything about a site, including conversion rates. He’s right. John Polacek’s masterful treatment of the subject declares that it’s a “fundamental shift in how we’ll build websites for the decade to come.” Mashable prophesies that 2013 is “the year of responsive design.” .net Magazine placed responsive design at number two of their Top Web Design Trends for 2012.

This is kind of a big deal.

There’s more to responsive design that just tweaking CSS or adding bits of code to a site. Responsive design is all about how the web is maturing.

Responsive design is important because mobile is dominating.

Responsive design was born because of mushrooming mobile statistics. When the market became saturated with mobile users, we all finally realized that tiny screens weren’t optimal for traditional websites. UX stunk. Responsive design was the answer. The growth in mobile is where every discussion of responsive design must begin.

Responsive design fills in where apps left off.

Apps are not the answer to a mobile-saturated society. As mobile devices grew in popularity, so did the demand and appetite for apps. Remember Apple’s slogan,  “there’s an app for that”? That was so 2010. We’ve reached a point now where apps have plateaued. Plus, the iPhone isn’t the only big player in the mobile market. There are more platforms that need to be appified. Savvy companies don’t feel the need to rush out and make a fancy app. Instead, they unleash the power of responsive design. It’s better, smarter, cheaper, and way more 2013. Besides, if conversions are the goal, why create an app? An app can often be a distraction or barrier to conversions. Responsive saves the day by allowing a businesses website to do what it’s supposed to do rather than get bogged down in app building.

Responsive meets the need of multiple devices.

Today, we’ve got desktops, notebooks, netbooks, tablets, and handhelds of every size, dimension, and resolution. With all these net-accessing devices, there is no way that a static site design will please everyone. The variety of devices demands responsive design.

Responsive design is a design necessity.

We can’t forget that responsive design is at its core a design phenomenon, despite its far-reaching implications. As a design feature, it is designed to take away the unnecessary aspects of a web presence. After all, when you access a responsively designed site on your mobile device, you don’t see everything that you would see if you were to visit from your desktop browser. Responsive design is about simplicity. In order to meet the scaled-down sizes of tablets, minis, and mobiles, responsive sheds the excess, and offers the beautiful and simple core. This is a design trend that’s not going away soon.

Regardless of what CMS you use, what industry you’re in, or what your role in your company is, responsive design is important. Now, it’s time to do something about it.  If you are on WordPress, check out our list of where to get Responsive WordPress themes to get started in your transition to a responsive design.

Why Responsive Design is So Important

Where's the Criticism?

One of our readers recently made an interesting comment on one of my write-ups from the Adobe Summit that I attended this past week. The user said “Where’s the Criticism?“, which made me feel it was necessary to write this post so that the rest of our readers understand how we think and what we hope to achieve here at CMS Critic.

Our goal is not to bombard you with re-worded press releases (although admittedly, at time it’s necessary to share them), but to keep our articles fun, fresh and informative. We tend to share personal experiences alongside reporting which is why this site is considered a blog. You come here for the opinion, you get it when it’s warranted.

When it comes to reviews, make no mistake, we aim to be 100% unbiased in how we handle them.  We make it very clear that we will write what we think and we always aim to be brutally honest. I think, personally, that’s what separates us from some of the other sites out there. Here at Critic, we like to think we bring a balanced view to the table no matter where we go or what we review. I’ve definitely written my share of reviews that were not necessarily positive and I’m sure I’ll do the same in the future. That’s part of the game and that’s how we keep our reviews honest.

On the flip side of the coin, if we are invited to attend conferences by a company, we will absolutely ask the tough questions if we feel there are any that need asking but our objective when we are there is to COVER the news and share the experience with you and not to find negativity just for the sake of it. Would you like me to tell you that the food wasn’t as great as last year? It wasn’t, but does that really matter? Or would you prefer to just get a quick overview of the key elements of the conference and get a feel for what it’s like should you choose to attend?

The latter, I believe, is more important.

Another item I’d like to add is that before most interviews or prior to question periods, I usually put a call out on Twitter to see if anyone has any questions they’d like me to ask. If I get no replies and I have no tough questions of my own, I roll with the punches.

https://twitter.com/cmscritic/status/309332637334503424

We want this site to be as interactive as possible and we welcome any input from you as to how we can improve, what we can do, how you’d like to be involved. I think it’s great that people raise points like this as they often form the basis for discussion and help us clear the air, which I think is great.

So that’s what our goal is and that’s how I think personally. Do you have comments or thoughts to share? I welcome them. Please offer up your comments and suggestions below. I promise to reply to each of them personally, if warranted.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Where's the Criticism?

Test Post from CMS Critic

Test Post from CMS Critic http://www.cmscritic.com

Test Post from CMS Critic

Test Post from CMS Critic http://www.cmscritic.com