“4 WordPress Alternatives: the What, Where, and Why” plus 1 more |  |
| 4 WordPress Alternatives: the What, Where, and Why Posted: 14 Jun 2012 01:09 PM PDT This guest post is by Matt Setter of MatthewSetter.com. As bloggers, we're all familiar with WordPress, whether as a self-hosted setup, or via WordPress.com. I think that, if you’re a blogger and you've not used it, then you're likely in an odd minority. If you do a Google search for "blogging software," WordPress will likely be among the first results you’ll see. But is it necessarily the best choice? Yes, "everybody's doing it," but does that make it the right choice? Just like in the 90's when Microsoft seemed like the only choice, but then we found alternatives like Mac or Linux, there are alternatives to WordPress too. Now maybe you're quite happy with your WordPress installation, it meets your needs, and your site's humming along nicely. Well, that's perfectly fine. But what if you're not? What if you want to change, or have the opportunity to change? What if you're:
Well if you're any one of these, you'll love this post. Today I present to you four alternatives you may never have heard of, showing you the pros and cons of each, how much they cost, and where you can get them from. Ready? Great! Let's begin. Habari
Some examples of blogs run on this platform include: The Habari project screencast linked below gives a great introduction to the CMS. Features
Cost and availabilityHabari is available as a free download from the project home page. You can even try out a demo version without needing to install it. Support optionsHabari support is available via:
Is it for you?If you're keen to roll up your sleeves and manage things yourself, or you have great tech support, try out Habari. However, if your host doesn't support it or you're not able to do it yourself, then this may not be the best option for you. CushyCMS
Where Habari is more like WordPress in that you can download, install, and configure it yourself, CushyCMS is a fully hosted solution. Minimal manual effort is required on your part, other than the work required to implement modest customisations. Have a look at the introductory video below to see just how easy it is. Blogs that use CushyCMS include: FeaturesDepending on the package that you choose, different features will be available to you. In the free package, you get:
If you take the pro package, you can:
Cost and availabilityCushyCMS is available from Stateless Systems and comes in two forms:
Support optionsThis depends on the package that you've chosen. If you've chosen the free package, you get:
If you upgrade to the pro package, you get all that, plus direct email support from Stateless Systems. Is it for you?Depending on your needs and requirements, CushyCMS could be just what you're looking for. You can sign up and get started in minutes. There’s no need to worry about what your current provider does or doesn't support, as this system is fully hosted. You can get started with the free version, but you’ll have limited branding and domain control privileges. You can upgrade to the pro version, but unless you're making regular money with your blog, you might not want to pay the monthly fee for it. However, you do get a company backing the product with 24/7 support, should you have any questions or queries. concrete5
The underlying philosophy of concrete5 is to make running a website easy. As you can see from the demo video below, in just about all aspects of site administration, you can simply click on a region of the page and edit it to your heart’s content. A couple of blogs that run on concrete5 are: FeaturesConcrete5:
Cost and availabilityConcrete5 is available from the concrete5 website and is open source, so it’s free. Support optionsSimilar to Habari, concrete5 doesn't have a paid support option, however it does have:
If you are a developer, or have access to development support, training and integration packages are also available. Is it for you?Concrete5 is a good mixture of the best parts of the two previous packages. You can install it yourself, but training and custom build support are also available. So, depending on your needs and your available budget, concrete5 may be the right option for you. Why not give a trial version a go today to see? TomatoCMS
Examples of blogs that run on this platform include: Two key aspects set TomatoCMS apart: Widgets and the Layout Editor. Let’s look at its feature list. FeaturesAmong a vast array of compelling features are:
In addition to this it's also:
Cost and availabilityAs with Habari and Concrete5, TomatoCMS is also a free download available to be installed and configured on your host as your needs demand. Support optionsAlso like Habari and Concrete5, TomatoCMS doesn't offer a commercial support package. However it does have a solid project wiki and a thriving forum. If you have troubles with it, then you're likely to find the solution there without too much hassle. Is it for you?If you're keen to control most, if not all, of the aspects of the system on your own host, then this is the option for you. However, if you need support then this option may not be the best choice. Choices, choicesSo there you have it. If you want to change from WordPress, have an opportunity to change, or are just starting out, now you have four additional options to WordPress to choose from. Take a closer look and evaluate them. When you find the one that ticks all your boxes, give it a try and let me know how it goes for you. Do you run your blog on an alternative to WordPress? Why is it your platform of choice? What makes it the best one for your blog and your business? Let us know in the comments. Matthew Setter is a freelance writer, technical editor and proofreader. His mission is to help businesses present their online message in an engaging and compelling way so they're noticed and remembered. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger 4 WordPress Alternatives: the What, Where, and Why     |
| How Panda Changed My Strategy and Brought Success [Case Study] Posted: 14 Jun 2012 07:08 AM PDT This is a guest post from Eric at Narrow Bridge Finance. I can't tell you how many times I have read the phrase "content is king." According to Google, it has been mentioned 170 times on this site alone. As much as you might think that SEO is king, marketing is queen, and everything else in the middle might take priority. I recently learned that the old adage is true. A growing blogMy personal finance blog started as a hobby on Blogger almost four years ago, and it has come quite a long way since then. In fact, it has turned into a profitable business. I get more comments per day than I used to get visitors per day. It took a lot of persistence and hard work, as it does to grow any blog. For years I saw slow and steady growth. I was never a guest posting superstar or mega-networker, so much of the growth came from building a strong history of quality posts and building up steam from search engines. I did see a large jump in growth after joining a blog network with other like-minded bloggers in my niche, but most of my traffic growth over time came from Google. I was happy to see organic traffic grow, as I know that is one of the most valuable types of visitors from a revenue growth perspective. Panda hitsWhen I got smacked with the Panda update, I lost about 50% of my traffic overnight. The thing that got me is that I'm not a re-poster. I'm not a spammer. I write original content on a regular schedule. I read things all over the web and even considered giving up on the blog altogether. Instead, I did a complete blog redesign. I moved ads below the fold and removed advertisements that I didn't consider as savory as others. I redesigned my homepage, made some changes to my category structure, took down everything from the sidebars that did not give each visitor value, and re-focused my writing toward what I believe is a better content. As those changes were made, I continued to shed traffic. It was frustrating, but I didn't give up. I continued to change my revenue stream from ad sales to affiliate programs. From August, 2011 to December, 2011, I lost 51% of my traffic. I kept on with the strong content and regular writing schedule. And, slowly, things started to turn around. From December to March, my traffic started to come back. As I wrote more consistently (I finally started to hold to a M-W-F schedule—Darren's advice really works!) and planning my posting, I saw my traffic start to grow again. In that time period, traffic grew 59%—not quite back to where it had been, but I was on the right track. It worked. For a while… Then Penguin hitsI really started to worry that Google was out to get me. I saw a slip in traffic when Penguin was released, but nothing as bad as the Panda hit. I knew that I could survive the wrath of Google at this point, so I was not quite as discouraged this time around. The biggest change was that Penguin impacted my top ranked posts. Before Penguin, the bulk of my search engine traffic came to about five of my 700+ posts. After Penguin, traffic started to go more into the long tail of posts. Referral trafficBeing a member of an amazing blog network known as the Yakezie, I have a strong community of friends and supporters. We often host link roundups and carnivals to support each other's top content. Looking back, I believe that this may be part of what hurt my site. When Google penalized blog networks, we might have been caught up in it. We interlink strongly between our sites and often work together to share contests, carnivals, and other relevant information in the personal finance niche. The biggest upside, though, is that we share visitors. Because we all write about the same topics, we often send referral traffic to each other. We also help each other get attention to top posts, which leads to inclusions by even bigger websites and roundups. A great post gets what it deservesLast weekend, my sister graduated from college. While sitting on her couch the next morning, I wrote a post with her in mind. Thinking about what a pre-med graduate probably knows about personal finance, I wrote her a letter with my top money tips for new grads. I wrote from the heart and shared what I hoped would help her lay a foundation for a great financial future. Of course, I didn't just send her an email. I turned it into a blog post. They say that the key ingredient when cooking is love. It turns out the same goes for blogging. It started like any other post. I had an average number of visitors the first few days after it was published. Four days later, however, it was picked up by a top personal finance website, Wise Bread, and included in their daily roundup. It was nice to see the extra traffic, but I have been included there before, and it wasn’t life changing. Then, this morning, I logged into WordPress. I was almost above my entire previous day's traffic by 9:00am. Something was obviously going on. That king content, that pillar post written with a touch of love, was linked to by a top blog in the personal finance niche. Trent at the Simple Dollar gave my post a little link love and sent me enough visitors to give me an all-time record number of visitors for a day. What I learnedFirst and foremost, don't give up on your blog when something bad happens. If you get a Google penalty or have to recover from any number of problems, use it as a learning experience. Any challenge can be overcome. I bought and read the first edition of the Problogger book and have been following this site for years. It is filled with amazing tips that really do work. I have attended a niche blogging conference, and built up a network of friends and supporters. I participate in a local blogger meetup group where we discuss ideas for improving our online business strategy. I always knew what to do; I just needed motivation to do it. Panda was that motivation, and record traffic was the reward for following blogging best practices. You really never know which post is going to take off and send you a record number of visitors. That is why it’s important to treat each post like an opportunity to show off to the world. Who knows? One of these days the world might show up on your blog's front door. Make sure you’re ready. This is a post from Eric Rosenberg, who blogs at both Narrow Bridge Finance, a personal finance and lifestyle blog, and The Israel Situation, a blog about politics, culture, and life in the Israel and the Middle East. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger How Panda Changed My Strategy and Brought Success [Case Study]     |
| You are subscribed to email updates from @ProBlogger To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment