I have this conversation at least once a week with clients.  About 20% of our new customers come to us to have an existing site re-built from a proprietary CMS, into an open source CMS such as Joomla, Drupal or WordPress; or Magento or OSCommerce for eCommerce sites.  They feel locked into their CMS, and their provider.  We’re exclusively an open source house, so I am biased, but strongly believe that there is very little advantage in using a proprietary CMS to build any website.

Effort

The amount of work required to build a site in a proprietary or open source CMS is generally the same.    It could be argued that a proprietary system is intimately understood by the developer, and as such the site can be built faster;  however many development houses have built up just as much knowledge in Open Source systems, and so this isn’t a challenge – as long as you choose an agency that specialises in your chosen open source CMS.

Initial Costs

When building a site using a proprietary system, the client is usually paying to help cover the costs of development of the software development exercise.  This means setup costs are in fact higher, even though the effort required is similar.

Ongoing Costs

Most proprietary CMS systems have licensing costs attached to them to cover the cost of maintaining the software.  Also, for any additional components that need to be added to the site, these typically also attract their own maintenance costs.  We’ve recently re-built a website for the same cost as the annual licensing fees the client was paying – and this was a substantial site (tens of thousands of $).  What’s more, the new site is far better!

Flexibility

Open source code can be edited by anyone; anyone that has the right skills of course.  You can take your site to anyone that is skilled in your particular system, or language, and have them make changes for you.  Alternatively, if you run a proprietary system, edits can usually only be done by the provider.  This of course means less access to appropriate developers, and typically higher prices.  Also many proprietary systems will only implement changes that can be rolled out to their entire customer base, so that they don’t have to maintain too  many different versions of the software; so getting customisations can be difficult.

Intellectual Property (IP) Ownership

Most open systems are covered by the GNU General Public License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), which basically means you have the rights to do whatever you please with the code, and any customisations that are applied under contract.  On the contrary, most proprietary systems are owned solely by the developer.

Portability

Mentioned already in flexibility, open source sites are able to be picked up and shifted to just about any other hosting/support provider.  Proprietary systems can often only be run on the developers environment, as they like to maintain ownership of the IP.

It has been reported that Joomla alone, which is the most popular of the open source CMS tools, is responsible for 1.5-2 million websites (out of about 16 million active CMS driven sites).  WordPress is probably responsible for even more!  So these open source tools are also very, very widely used, being used for some of the most high profile sites on the internet.

Most DIY projects end up either saving time OR money; rarely both.  Managing your own newsletter campaign, believe it or not, will save both of these precious resources.

Bockers & Pony (www.bockersandpony.com.au) recently saved a small fortune by managing their own newsletter marketing campaigns.  There are really good email marketing tools available now, allowing non-technical users the ability to create professional, html newsletters with very little effort.

Typically to achieve this, clients would write their content, select some images, send them to their agency with a list of subscribers, and then have the campaign constructed and sent manually.  The process of getting the content together, going back and forth with your agency a few times, run some tests, make some tweaks, etc, takes just as long as actually doing it yourself!

Tools like www.campaignmonitor.com and www.mailchimp.com allow the construction of these emails via an easy to use wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) editor.  The systems also integrate seamlessly with just about any website, so all subscribers, etc are stored directly into the email system, rather than having to be imported each time you run a campaign.  The unsubscribe functionality can also be integrated, meaning there is effectively no manual work required to manage your subscriber list.

Simple wysiwyg content editing

You’ll need to have an agency design, construct and test your email template once only, and you can then re-use that template over and over for each campaign you send out.

The cost of getting it setup right is typically about the same as having 2-3 campaigns sent by an agency – so you will recoup your costs very, very quickly, and create more flexibility about when you send your campaigns.

First thing to mention, is that it’s not often I see a business succeed with little or no money invested to get things started.  However it usually takes someone at least one try to learn this truth – and hopefully this Blog post will help save some time and pain in that learning process.

I always recommend engaging a professional agency (like us) to help execute a web project, as it’s often an important part of getting a new business up and running successfully.  This article is aimed at those that don’t want to spend that sort of money, and instead are looking for a cheap & nasty solution to help get them started.  Salsa doesn’t provide these services, but here is what we’ve learnt over the years.

Sorry I know it sounds cynical.

Once you’ve taken care of the paperwork (register a business name – https://online.justice.vic.gov.au/cav/br-home, and register your domain name – Google “cheap domain names”), you need to get a website built.

If you have $1,000 – $2,000 to spend on a website.

The cheapest way to get this done is to use a pre-existing Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress, or Joomla, or Magento or OSCommerce for an eCommerce website.  You should then look to download free, or buy a template for the site, instead of paying for a custom design.

Some places to get templates from:

WordPress – http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/

Joomla – http://www.joomlashack.com/

Magento – http://www.silverthemes.com/

www.templatemonster.com is also a source of hundreds of themes, but the quality is inconsistent.

Once this is done, you need to then get someone to build it for you.  www.nachomedia.com.au can help put together a template website at low cost.  Or if you know a freelance developer, have them do it for you – should be around $1,000 for a WordPress/Joomla site, and $2,000 for an Magento/OSCommerce site.

They can probably help you with hosting also.

Credibility is important – so perhaps set up a 1300 number if you can – and have it direct to your mobile phone or land line – makes you look more professional, and doesn’t cost much.

If you have nothing to spend on a website!

Try setting up a Facebook page.  It costs nothing. See this post on how to do that: http://lazarus.salsainternet.com.au/2010/06/howwhy-to-create-a-facebook-page/

Take a look at Twitter also, if you have the time.

You can also redirect your domain name to your facebook page if you want to advertise the domain name, instead of the facebook page in your marketing collateral.

Get people to find you.

Once you’ve setup some sort of online presence as above, people need to find it.  To be honest, this is often the hardest part.

First, you should run a Google Adwords campaign (ads on the right side of a Google search results screen), as this is relatively low cost, and works instantly – you can setup a campaign, and get it running in a couple of hours – gets traffic to your site immediately.  You can check keywords, etc  at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

You can also read about how to setup a campaign here: http://www.salsainternet.com.au/adwords-explained.html

Once you’ve proven the model works online, you can start to work on getting the site to rank well in the free/organic listings in Google (left side of Google search results screen).  There are 3 things that make this work – Structure, Content & Links. More info on how this works here: http://www.salsainternet.com.au/search-engine-optimisation.html

You also want to put your web address on your business card, flyers, email signature, etc to help get the word out.

As mentioned, this approach in my opinion is speculative at best, but costs very little, so maybe it’s worth a shot for those that haven’t tried before.

Good luck!

WordPress and Joomla are by far the most popular open source CMS tools available – we’ve built hundreds of sites using these technologies, and so are intimately familiar with their structure, limitations, pro’s & con’s.  Until about 2 years ago, most clients didn’t really care what CMS was used, most didn’t know what a CMS was, but these days people are coming to us with some idea of their options, and often need a little guidance to ensure they make the right choice.

1. Content structure

If the site is just a simple brochure site, with a straight forward menu system (top/side menu), simple content pages, for example, use WordPress.  Similarly, if it’s just a Blog – use WordPress.   This site, for example, is built in WordPress.

If you’re looking to build a larger, more complex site, with a more sophisticated content structure (multiple levels of content), more than 1 menu system, more modular content (in left/right columns for example), and would like more control over what menu appears where, then use Joomla.

2. Community/larger more complex site

If you want to build a community site, including member login functionality that provides users with members only content, or create a feature rich website including user polling, banner advertising, user profiling, etc – then use Joomla.  Likewise if you want a corporate site that is more feature rich, including categorised content for case studies, or whitepaper download capabilities with integration into a 3rd party CRM database, use Joomla.

3. Administrator technical capability

If the website administrators are less savvy, use WordPress, if you can get away with it.  Joomla, while not hard to use, is hard-er to use than WordPress, which is just a bi-product of it being so much more sophisticated.

Wordpress admin - simply about managing content

Joomla admin panel - lots of options and functionality (although most only ever use about 20% of it)

4. Design

The design of a site can also lend itself better to either technology.  Simpler designs, using more traditional content structures (limited number of pages, less modular content, little interaction) are better suited to WordPress.  Either CMS is incredibly flexible in terms of being able to conform to just about any design, so that’s not really a consideration.

5. Future development possibilities

It’s painful to swap over (need to build from scratch – there is no “upgrade”, so make sure you consider the above points for future development also – if your needs are simple now, but they will grow later, you’re better off choosing Joomla right off the bat – it may cost a little more (5-10%), but worth it in my opinion.

6. SEO

You’ll read a LOT about which tool is better for SEO.  In our experience, the technology is only a very small part of the SEO story.  Both CMS’ offer the necessary infrastructure to effectively optimise a site, including (albeit with a free additional module or 2):

• Search engine friendly URL’s
• Ability to control meta data for each page
• CSS styling to support H1, H2, tags, etc
• And many more…

There are a bunch of other factors that weight into how well your site performs in the search engines (content, back-links, internal menu structures, etc) – so don’t let this affect your decision.  You can build the same site in either CMS and achieve the same SEO result.

The takeout – if your needs are simple, use WordPress, which is more geared toward Blog or simple brochure-ware sites.  Otherwise, use Joomla.

As a digital agency, we often take over projects for clients that have previously been handled by a freelance designer/developer, and find us regularly coming across the same reasons for the switch.  It’s important to note, however that for some businesses, I believe it is a good idea to actually use a freelancer instead of a digital agency to save money.

It’s fairly obvious I suppose, but sometimes, freelancers are a good choice for sole operators, or businesses with smaller budgets.  They have much lower overheads, so can charge lower rates.  It’s important you’re aware of all the pros/cons of such relationships however.

Nimble – often a freelancer can be quite nimble in the way they operate – you get to deal directly with the operator/owner/designer.  Changes can often be accommodated easily, and work is done quickly (as long as they’re not working on too many projects at once).

Pricing – as I already mentioned, freelancers typically charge lower rates as they have lower overheads such as office expenses, project managers, marketing, etc.  You just want to make sure they’re highly experienced, so costs down blow out later (look for a fixed price quote, with a detailed inclusions list).

Support – some freelancers are able to provide really good support if they’re easily accessible.  If your freelancer has too many projects on the go, you may find that the support is poor, or non-existent.  A digital agency may also suffer the same problem, so it’s important to ensure they have a dedicated support infrastructure to provide the help when you need it.

Expertise – obviously using a freelancer means that you’re limited to the expertise of one person.  This may be suitable if you’re after a good designer only, or just an SEO expert, for example.  If you’re after a provider that can provide strategic input, a wider range of design skills (often they’ll employ more than 1 designer), online marketing expertise, larger scale development expertise (in case your business grows rapidly), high-end technical support, then you should consider using an agency.

Stability – freelancers sometimes disappear.  A large number of the new customers we get from freelancers are the result of them disappearing into an agency, or taking a ski trip to Canada.  This can sometimes mean your site disappears, or you suddenly have no support.   Agencies can also disappear, but if you do a little research, and you see that they have a load of happy customers, have been around for a few years, and the owners have a stake in the day to day running of the business, then you should be OK.

Contactable – Agencies are often a lot more contactable than freelancers, with a team of people that can usually help you.  Freelancers may be in meetings, working on an urgent new project, or just too busy!

In summary, freelancers may be suitable if your business is very small/not well funded, if the web is not a huge part of your business strategy, your business is in an experimental phase, or your company has an internal infrastructure to manage the freelancer.  Otherwise, go with an agency.

Consider all of the above, and make a decision that best suits your business.

We see a number of clients that are looking to start a brand new business online, and have come across the same issue many, many times – they have a long list of “wishlist” items, but a budget that doesn’t quite match.

One approach is to seek a low cost developer to help get the site done cheaply; unfortunately this often also results in a low quality application, poor design, and little strategic input into the business once launched (I have another Blog post coming on this topic).

The better alternative, is to stage the functionality; release a version of the site that includes some of the core functionality, the things you can’t live without, including the items that actually make you money, and then release additional functionality later.  What we’ve found is that, almost every time, the second and third round of functionality is different to first anticipated.  Inevitably, once the site goes live, and users start putting it through its paces, they tell the business owner what they like/don’t like, and what they would like to see in the site, which usually dictates future releases.

It often comes as a surprise to the business owner that their clients expectations are different to theirs, but to be honest it’s pretty rare that we see a business owner that knows their audience intimately enough to know exactly what they want and need from their site.  They have some idea, and using best practice, we can build a site that works really well, but until it’s live, we don’t really know exactly what the site needs to function successfully.

The trick often is finding a system to choose what functionality should in fact be included in each release.  We recommend using a structured approach which allows you evaluate the business benefit and technical complexity of each of the items on the “wishlist”, which factors heavily in the decision making process.  So for example, if an item has high business benefit, and low technical complexity, then it is a great candidate for a first phase release.  If the business benefit is low, and technical complexity high, perhaps it’s best to leave it till the next phase.

There are various ways to implement this process, but as a start, just try writing them all down, and score them from 1-5 on business benefit (bb) and technical complexity (tc), then make your decisions from there.  Let me know if you need a more detailed approach.

Or, ask your web developer to help you prioritise them based on their experience on what works.

Bye for now.