summary.

I am available as Freelancer, contract and project-based, on-call, on temporary, full-, and part-time basis, either remotely or on location. My mission is to make a positive contribution as an active member in a growing global community; preferably in Internet Marketing & Web Design and/or Music & Entertainment Business and Production, where my talents/strengths are proven/effective most. I strive for maintaining the highest level of service and satisfaction – platinum level – and consistently delivering more with less, pushing the envelope and removing barriers to success.

I am U.S. Citizen born and currently residing in Germany. I am fluent in English and German; I am married and have 1 child.

My first love in art is that of a musician, songwriter, lyricist, and music producer.

Following right after that is Internet marketing, design and implementation of web sites and print media, working with content management systems and blogging tools, and coming up with new business concepts.

I love the Internet (much to the dismay of my wife and family sometimes), and I am particularly fascinated with the magic world of brands and the peculiar touch it has on our daily lives.

Most of all, I love my family and rock’n'roll. Rock’n'roll is not just about music – it’s about getting things done.

education.

• Heidelberg High School, Heidelberg Germany - High School Diploma  1988
• Full Sail University, Winter Park (Orlando), Florida - Recording Arts Associate’s Degree 2002
• Full Sail University, Winter Park (Orlando), Florida - Entertainment Business Bachelor’s Degree 2005
• Full Sail University, Winter Park (Orlando), Florida - Entertainment Business Master’s Degree 2009
• Full Sail University, Winter Park (Orlando), Florida - Internet Marketing Master’s Degree 2010

software knowledge.

MUSIC

• Cubase
• Wavelab
• IK Mulitmedia TRackS Deluxe
• Propellerhead Reason and Record
• Waves
• Other diverse VST Plugins
• ProTools
• Countless other tools

DESIGN & WEB

• Photoshop
• Dreamweaver
• Flash
• Joomla
• WordPress

Apple and Microsoft OS and Office Applications.

Based in the San Francisco east bay, Sand Creek Plaza’s growth has been quite impressive. Nate Lorenzini attributes the current success of SCP to its tight structure, and the ability to control all aspects of its online presence. Nate also recognizes that commercial real estate is a long-term business, and to stay on top you must be able to change your marketing strategy as technology advances. Deploying a content management system to the Sand Creek Plaza website was inevitable,

and a sign of the changing times in the real estate market and web technology. Nate Lorenzini chose JVF Consulting to customize their website with our content management system.

Maintaining the website for largest retail and office community in Brentwood, CA was becoming an extremely tedious job for the crew at Sand Creek Plaza. With new tenants moving in, and current tenants moving to larger suites, keeping the website up to date with the latest addresses and contact information was at a snail’s pace. Coordinating between the manager, owner, broker, and webmaster to have the most basic changes made required lots of man hours.

To solve this problem JVF Consulting custom built the Amass Content Management System to power every aspect of Sand Creek Plaza website. From the copy ad images, to the list of available spaces, Amass ensures that San Creek Plaza will provide the latest and greatest information to their customers and future tenants. To make the SCP website more interactive to prospective clients, JVF integrated the detailed information about the available spaces from the leader in online commercial real estate listings LoopNet. Now all of the LoopNet information about the available property is right at your fingertips. This integration keeps visitors on the SCP website, without the need to navigate away.

By implementing the Amass Content Management System to the Sand Creek Plaza website, Nate Lorenzini and his crew can finally focus on their real jobs. The tenants of Sand Creek Plaza no longer hound them for website updates because most all the changes are made instantly with Amass CMS. And with the list of available spaces easily accessible on the web, there are less pointless calls about availability into the main office. With the power of Amass, and the success of Sand Creek Plaza, what is keeping you from implementing our Content Management System on your website?

Update Your Website Instantly With No HTML Knowledge!

How do you keep your website current with only a few clicks of the mouse? With the JVF Amass Content Management System! JVF has made it easy for everyone who maintains a website to update their content even without knowledge of HTML or PHP. Finally, you can update your website yourself!

Everyone knows that it’s important to keep your content up-to-date if you want your site to grow. That’s why we recommend our Content Management System (CMS) with every web design project. With Amass CMS you’ll be able to edit the content on your pages, add an unlimited number of new pages, manage calendar events, upload images, and much more! It’s so easy to use that you can delegate your website updates to anyone in your company. No special software or knowledge of HTML or PHP is required, only a computer and an internet connection.

Large companies have jumped on the band wagon and have implemented identical Content Management Systems which cost millions of dollars to customize. If they can see the benefits of such a system, then so should you. When you figure the cost of the alternative, paying a web designer to make changes to your site, it is clear that the Amass CMS will pay for itself after just a few updates. Best of all, you can keep using our CMS without emptying your pockets. Once you have seen the power of Amass and what it can do for your website you will be left speechless.

We believe that our professional and high-quality custom designs coupled with the Amass CMS will keep your company at the top of the search engine results. Communicating the right message, to the appropriate audience, will hook prospective clients and bring you a high return on your investment. Let us put our experience to work for you! We will ensure you achieve a design that is both professional and effective. Our job is not finished until you are completely satisfied. We offer a number of solutions for your business, whether it is just a single page that you plan on updating, or a multi page site with frequent updates, we are sure our product is right for you!

Website Design Principles For Web 2.0

Just when you thought you had seen it all, you stumble across a new web company with that Web 2.0 look and feel. Web 2.0 is here, and its impact is now just beginning. More than just the latest technology buzzword, it’s a force that’s propelling companies across all industries towards a new way of doing business. This new force is shaped by marketing dollars and characterized by user participation, and the effectiveness of networking.

What does Web 2.0 mean to your company and its products? Is your company slowly being left in the dust by its competitors? If so then it’s time to regain your control. Consider what a clean new website design will do for your business. With the technological, economic, and demographic market trends driving the economy, implementing the redesign or development of your website into your marketing plan will create a return on investment not seen by any other means of advertising or marketing.

Most new Web 2.0 companies forget about solid business planning and marketing campaigns. They believe that all they need is a catchy domain name, a flashy logo, and instantly there are venture capitalists throwing money at you. Big corporations know better than this and are constantly on the cutting edge of web technologies. When the design is outdated it is updated. Constantly keeping fresh content and applying site redesigns from time to time keep your visitors coming back. An economical way of updating your website can be done through Content Management Software. JVF Consulting is proud to be able to offer such software to power your company’s website no matter what size it is.

Web 2.0 functionality has a heavy emphasis on social networking and sharing. Social networking involves the contact among website users. This contact takes place through commenting (leaving comments at the end of a blog or article), sharing (swapping or sharing favorite links, articles, pictures or videos), message boards (traditional forums for discussions), and other such practices. Below you can see the array of social networks that are available today. Maybe you have a favorite? If so tell us which one, and why you prefer it!

Web development and ease-of-use play an important factor in Web 2.0 design. The desire to conform to SEO (search engine optimization) prompts the need for cleaner code, quicker methods of performing traditional actions, and easier ways to store and share pages. Web developers particularly favor heavy usage of CSS, traditional HTML, PHP, and Ajax. CSS, which stands for “Cascading Style Sheets,” is an old stylesheet language that has taken on an incredible amount of importance in Web 2.0.

At JVF Consulting quality is maximized, while waste is minimized. Our web technologies will help you build a better product with less people, less money, and less effort, lifting constraints once brought on by an outdated website. With the many JVF Consulting solutions we offer your satisfaction is guaranteed. JVF Consulting sticks by web 2.0 design principles, we expect only the best, and so should you!

CMS Technology Catches Up To Wedding Industry

Kasey and Melissa at Dream It Events have been best friends for over 7 years. They both received their certifications together from The Wedding Planning Institute, and they continue to make a perfect team while directing any event. They pride themselves in being able to be in two places at the same time while making sure that every detail is taken care of, but with both of them being overwhelmed with clients, they needed a surefire way to double check every detail.

Thanks to the JVF Consulting Amass Content Management System both Melissa and Kasey are able to keep track of their current clients, future prospects, upcoming events and parties. Not only can they login to their Amass dashboard anywhere in the world to access their information, they’re also able to update the front end of their website with only a few clicks of a mouse. Now either of them can easily update their web pages whenever they have a new photograph of a successful event to show off, or a new wedding vendor to add.

We strongly encourage you to hire a professional wedding coordinator or an event planner for your special day. If you’re on a tight budget Dream It Events is here to assist in making it everything you envisioned and more! Dream It Event’s goal is to help you create an event that is tailored to your personality and style and to help alleviate many of the logistics and fine details so that you can relax and enjoy your day. Dream It Events specializes in customized packages for you based on your needs, wants and budget. Whether it is planning your entire event from scratch or just assisting you on your special day, Dream It Events is here for you!

A Web Content Management System (CMS) is a web application for creating and managing HTML content. It is used to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of Web material (HTML documents and their associated images). A Web CMS facilitates content creation, content control, editing, and essential Web maintenance functions.

The CMS software provides authoring (and other) tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of programming languages or markup languages to create and manage content with relative ease. Administration is typically done through browser-based interfaces.

Unlike Web-site builders, a web CMS allows non-technical users to easily make changes to a website with little training.  A Web CMS typically requires an experienced coder to set up and add features, but is primarily a Web-site maintenance tool for non-technical administrators.

It’s been a busy week for press releases from our clients. Shurtech Brands, owners of Duck brands which includes Duck® Tape, announced the launch last week of another DigitalDay designed and developed website: DuckProducs.com.

The new Duck brands website, designed and developed by DigitalDay, went live Monday this week.

This new Duck site combined four previously separate properties into one stronger, content-rich and content managed, online marketing presence.

Like many companies, Duck brands developed separate websites over the years to support different marketing strategies. Not only did this cause maintenance headaches, it confused consumers and diluted the brand’s messaging.

The old Duck Tape website, developed when the brand was owned by Henkel Corporation.

DigitalDay’s strategy to develop a consolidated site under a fresh, modern, brand-appropriate umbrella will have many benefits:

• Engaged consumers will find richer content and return to the site more often
• Search ranking will increase, yielding more traffic
• Maintenance will be minimized

To help the client keep service costs down, DigitalDay implemented Sitecore’s Content Management System. This powerful tool will allow the client to make routine updates, product changes and review and approve consumer-generated content through an easy to understand interface.

So, without any further adieu, here’s the new release . . .

Duck brand Products Finds New Home on Web

-From duct tape to weatherstripping to moving and packaging, new site provides helpful tips and tricks to get it done-

AVON, Ohio (December 16, 2009) – Whether you’re a crafter interested in sharing some creative duct tape ideas, a DIYer looking for help with blocking out pesky drafts or a teen searching for unique ways to earn much-needed scholarship dollars, www.duckbrand.com – the new online home of Duck brand products – can help with these solutions, and more!

The site provides helpful tips and tricks for using various Duck brand products around the home, from Duck Tape® brand duct tape and weatherstripping to shelf liners, packaging tapes and more. In addition to accessing useful product solutions for both everyday and outlandish problems, visitors can submit their own ideas or comment on those submitted by others.

For Duck Tape enthusiasts, the new www.duckbrand.com is also home to the popular Duck Tape Club (offering fun and quirky uses for Duck Tape), the Stuck at Prom® Scholarship Contest (challenging high school students to wear duct tape to prom for a chance to win scholarship money) and Ducktivities (providing duct tape crafting how-tos and an option for crafters to upload their own creations).

Visitors are also encouraged to interact with the site through the Duck blog, which will provide seasonally relevant product information and other brand-related news; a discussion board for sharing experiences, new product ideas and craft inspirations; as well as social media integration with outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

For more information, please visit www.duckbrand.com.

Website is the face on any business organization. Cranberry understands this fact very well and gives utmost importance to your professional online image. We are a renowned team of professionals serving various international markets of Europe and North America with our web design outsourcing services.

Cranberry Communications is a leading web design company in India which offers best of the services in areas of web designing and development, E-commerce solutions, Search Engine Optimization, web consultancy, content management systems, online marketing campaigns, etc.

We, at Cranberry, have a separate wing to provide affordable and quality services to our offshore development partners. Web designing and developing firms can outsource their work to us for cost effective and most creative web designs. Being the India based web development outsourcing firm, Cranberry charges you affordable prices for the projects that you outsource to us.

We offer value for money. Right from understanding your need, to turn your idea into a reality, Cranberry does it all. We not just make a website but shape it to generate business for you. Our development process starts from the scratch. We work while conjugating with our clients and understand their need before starting it off. Our professional team gets the client approval at every stage of development of their website. Client satisfaction is where our profit lie and we make every effort to earn it.

Our professional web design outsourcing services are appreciated world wide and we give our efforts and expertise credit for the same. We believe in offering value for money and that is why our practices include creating alternate and exclusive solutions. We never use readymade templates. Website that we design will reflect ethics of your business organization. Our designing services are exclusive.

According to Mr. Rashmi Ranjan, Head Business Development, Cranberry Communications, “We experiment with our imagination and combine your business needs to develop a website that help you generate maximum leads.” This offshore web development team contrives your website not at cheap cost but at affordable cost giving return on your investment.

Cranberry communications are top quality services providers. We are online media strategic consultants who not just develop a website but assure your business branding and online presence of your website. We take, pride in calling ourselves a creative web design company and assure you best of the quality work that is outsourced to us.  Our offshore outsourcing will not only help you minimizing cost but also results in increased productivity.

Cranberry Communications expertise in area of geo-targeting and therefore serving business organizations allover the world with offshore outsourcing web solutions. Our major client base of offshore development partners is located in USA, UK, Scandinavian countries and South Africa.  Our approach towards outsourcing is straight. We work for innovation and adjust our services so as to meet the expectations of your clientele. Despite of being based in India, we understand international markets well and, hence assure you to provide branding and creative web solutions for your international clients.

To know more about offshore outsourcing at Cranberry Communications, visit us at http://www.cranberryindia.com/

New Delhi, India: Cranberry Communications, India based web design and Development Company has launched its WordPress based website content management system which also integrates with e-commerce modules.

WordPress is the powerful and widely used content management system or CMS. There is a big myth in the industry that WordPress is a simple blog management system. Cranberry experimented with WordPress and found the reality that it is more than just a normal blog. WordPress is a powerful CMS which allow you to take full control on your website and let you make, changes without requiring any technical know-how.

There is no doubt that WordPress was primarily started as an open source blog software package but it works exceptionally well as a content management system or CMS. According to Mr. Rashmi Ranjan, Head Business Development, Cranberry Communications, “WordPress is more than a blog. Just like others we also took it as a blog but after we experimented with it, we successfully were able to use it as a website for businesses, E-commerce application and of course, as a content management system.”

With a CMS you do not need any designing or technical skills. It is a simple content management system which helps you maintain your website and update contents within minutes.

Why WordPress as CMS?

When it comes to CMS, wordpress is the tool which is used most widely. It is easy to use CMS platform which offers complete control to even a non technical person. Following are the benefits of WordPress.

• Could be used to integrate E-commerce system
• Easy to use system. If you use Microsoft Word then you could also use WordPress
• Cheap, fast and easy content management system
• Faster implementation
• Customization is easy
• Allows third party integration
• Best solution for businesses with small budget
• Allows inter blog communication
• Wide range of templates, themes / skins and plugins
• Complete value for money
• Total control and rights
• SEO friendly
• Multi user / admin facility
• Supports multi content types. Posts (time-driven), pages and links

About Cranberry Communications:

Cranberry Communications is an offshore CMS development company that expertise in designing exclusive CMS for their clients using different CMS platforms like WordPress CMS, Joomla based CMS, Drupal based CMS, etc. Cranberry not only designs and develops CMS for their clients but also provide cost effective outsourced CMS development to web development companies in international markets like US, Europe, Australia, etc.

For More information please visit http://www.cranberryindia.com/

an unhealthy relationship, originally uploaded by baking_in_pearls.

As in the case with higher education in general, cultural adaption of a Web content management system (“cms”) here at Union is a mixed bag: 1) Some have grudgingly come to terms with it. 2) For some dental surgery is a more attractive alternative. 3) And then there are the artistically-inclined among us (we are a liberal arts college after all) that view “cms” as an opportunity to give full expression to their inner muses (see my “Painting Between the Lines” post).

This post is directed at groups 1 and 2. We urgently need to talk, and to be frank we may not always agree, and that’s okay, as long as we continue speaking to one another. As grandma used to say: “The best way to get something done is to begin.” Consider this the beginning of our conversation.

I still consider myself “new” (heck, I only started three months ago) and I’m loaded with questions. Perhaps many of the following you’ve answered before. But indulge me: What are the barriers that get between you and content management? Training? The system itself? The lack of clear and consistent exceptions? Is the online instruction manual too dense?

Or does this issue cut deeper than that: You don’t feel managing your corner of the website is your responsibility?

Fire away!

Ken George
Web Communications Director
Office of Marketing and Communications

When we are working with clients to determine their Web site needs, we are often asked what is the best solution that enables the client to take ownership of their content. Many small businesess just don’t have the discretionary income to continually pay our development team for the many minor updates they need to make to their site throughout the year. Therefore, typically we recommend the use of Joomla for content management since we feel the interface is easy to use and understand for most non technical users. In addition there are tons of extensions available and numerous highly successful examples and implementations of Joomla.

Joomla, however, is only one of what we consider the top three content management systems in use today. Drupal is a highly popular CMS that is in use by organizations such as NASA and UBUNTU. It actually won the 2008 CMS award and the 2009 Hall of Fame Award presented by Packt publishing. We consider Drupal to be a close second to Joomla even though Drupal has come in first in many of the CMS award offered. Finally, DotNetNuke we mention only since we feel it is the best CMS for those who want a Microsoft based solution.

Below is a chart we created via the CMSMatrix.org website, a good resource for analyzing the available content management systems. Please look at this chart to see how each fits in the IT goals of your organization.

Last week I attended a seminar presented by Michael Reynolds of Spinweb.  The title of the presentation was “7 Habits of Highly Effective Websites”.  To start off, effective websites should be more than a “brochure” websites.  They just don’t work for today’s customers who are looking for a connection and interaction.  They demand more than information.   Allowing customers to interact with a website helps gain valuable leads and analytical information.

1. Design – Did you know that customers make a decision about the visual appeal of a website in 1/20 of a second?  (2006, Behavior and Information Technology)  People base their trust on the look of websites in a snap decision.  So it is imperative that the website follows excellent elements of design.  These include carefully crafted visual effects, thoughtful layout and proper brand color management.
2. Content – Websites should stimulate the customer’s brain and make them want more.  Content should be professionally written, clear and concise and frequently updated.  Keeping content clear and concise is important in thinking about how long one has to grab their attention (remember 1/20 of a second).  Viewers don’t read content.  They scan it.  Techniques to grab their attention include: subheadings, bullet lists, highlighted keywords, short paragraphs, inverted pyramids writing styles, and simple writing styles.  Frequency is important for Google searches.  It creates relevant content and websites lands on the top of the search lists.  A good Content Management System (CMS) helps to automate the process of updating information on a website. 
3. Usability – What is the most important part of the website?  Guide the users to it.  Resist the urge to cram everything on the homepage.  If you need a good example of what is cluttered vs. what is not.  Look at yahoo.com vs. google.com and decide for yourself which one is easier to use.
4. Transactional Tools – Make it easy for customer interaction with call to action buttons like map links, pay online, register online, etc.  In today’s world, customers don’t want to call or email for information.  Remove obstacles by including information they are looking for right on the page they are viewing.  Invite people into your sales funnel but letting them sign up for eNewsletters and seminars.
5. Cross Platforms – Even though you may not think it, not everyone uses internet explorer.  Make sure a  website is compatible for Mac users other web browser platforms.
6. Social Media Integration – It is a great (and free) way to connect users and bring them back to a website.  A Website is not a stand-alone tool.  Gain maximum exposure by letting customers connect on all other sites they might be accessing – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
7. Findability – There are several ways to improve search engine rankings so customers can easily find a website.  One is by using fresh relevant content.  This can include blogging, adding industry-related articles, press releases and case studies.  Another is using Human-readable URLs.  These are page addresses that are structured with relevant keywords describing the content of the website instead of a string of letters and numbers that seem like gibberish.  Finally use relevant inbound linking, meaning let other people promote your website for you.  Getting Re-tweeted on Twitter is a great example. 

If you would like to see the presentation, here’s the link:  http://www.slideshare.net/mbreyno/7-habits-of-highly-effective-websites-slidedeck

We’re big fans of associations sticking to their core strengths. We feel the same way about software providers. So, it always come as a bit of a surprise to us when associations expect a content management system to do everything from update their website to stir their latte.

Content management systems are more important than ever because they are the platform on which your web presence is built. So, it IS vitally important that it be able to handle the heavy lifting for things like site structure, navigation, edits, workflow and single sign-on.

But Can It Do That?

We feel, though, that it is equally as important to have expectations around what a CMS should do and what it could do. Sure, a CMS COULD have AMS capabilities, but you’re always going to be better off investing in an AMS separately. Looking for both in a product is kind of like expecting your car to get you to work at “car speed” and also across the country at “plane speed.” A car will get you across the country, so it could be sold that way, but the experience cannot be compared to that of an airplane. Not a big fan of extended car travel, so make sure you’re always buying the right experience for your members.

Here are 5 other things your CMS does NOT need to do:

1. E-Commerce – Yes, there are some CMS’  that provide e-commerce. We generally recommend leveraging your AMS for online payments whenever possible.

2. Social Media – Yes,  many CMS providers offer some Web 2.0 functions as part of their tool. The two primary things to consider in that case are 1) are they simply masquerading Web 1.0 tools like discussion forums as Web 2.0 tools? 2) Does the functionality of their tools equal that of  standalone social media software vendors?

3. Mobile-Compatibility – Yes, mobile is the future, so you’ll need pages of your website to render appropriately on smartphones. Get it. But looking for functionality that takes an existing page and makes it mobile-friendly is not respecting the big picture. Mobile is a contextual experience for your users. Your mobile site should not simply be a mirror of your existing website. Page copy needs to be shorter, navigation needs to be more specific and, on a whole, your mobile site should be a fraction of the size of your main site.

4. Translate - Yes, your CMS should have the ability to manage multiple international sites within one interface. And you should be able to manage different templates and unique navigation for each within your CMS to accommodate your international sites. But what you don’t need it to do is translate pages for you. We’ve found most international site managers like to translate pages in their own way. In many cases,  while they may be delivering the same message of your English site, the international site managers may have ideas on how to deliver the message in a way that resonates with their audience better. In other words, people in Germany want their content delivered very differently than Americans do, so an apple-to-apple translation of your pages might not be a great marketing choice.

5. Be A Timer - Create a content delivery plan outside of your CMS. Don’t expect your CMS to email you when content expires. Sure, some content may need changed after a particular date, but in reality very few actually do. To have that functionality as part of your CMS creates a crutch for your site publishers to lean on. They should be focusing on providing universal, timeless content that doesn’t require a lot of maintenance.

My main point here is that when it comes to technology, don’t look for the Swiss Army knife solution. Integration and single sign-on technology is at a place now where you can easily create a seamless experience for your users by connecting third-party software together. Be leery of any software that claims to do it all. Your members deserve better.

So what do you think? Is there a #6? Do you disagree with any of these?

Google does not like duplicate content. The reason for that is that the top 10 search results should offer users a choice of different web pages.Google’s new patent application on near duplicate content describes a new method how Google tries to keep its users from finding redundant content in the result pages.

Content may be duplicated for a variety of reasons

There are many reasons why content is duplicated on more than one page, or why documents are very similar:

1. The content of a web page is available in different formats: web page, printable page, PDF, mobile phone page, etc.
2. The content of a web page is syndicated, for example news articles or blog posts.
3. The content management system (CMS) displays the same content in different locations. For example, an item might be listed in a “Size” category and in a “Color” category.
4. The website owner offers mirrors to make sure that a website does not slow down when many people want to access the same page at the same time.
5. Someone stole the contents of a web page to reproduce it on other websites.

What is in the patent application

The patent application describes how Google tries to detect duplicate or near duplicate content at different web addresses. It seems that Google might combine several existing methods for detecting new duplicate content to identify more duplicates on the Internet.The new patent application shows that Google is serious about detecting duplicate content issues. This new patent application is only the latest step in Google’s attempts to detect duplicate content.

What does Google do when it detects duplicate content

It is hard to tell what Google will do when they find duplicate pages. There are many instances where duplicated content is used for a legitimate purpose.

If Google only removes the duplicate pages from the search results for a certain query that might be okay. If Google penalized duplicate pages by removing them completely from the index, Google might risk not being relevant for very specific queries and it also might penalize the wrong pages.

It is likely that Google will pick the web page with the best reputation and the best inbound links for the search results if it finds more than one page with the same content.

What does this mean for your website

If you want to get high rankings, it is easier to do so with unique content. Try to use as much original content as possible on your web pages.

If your website must use the same content as another website, make sure that your website has better inbound links than the other websites that carry the same content.

Joomla – An Overview

Why CMS?

Content is the most crucial part of any website. It is the things of past where the websites were consisted of mostly static pages. Web portals and web communities have to update their content not just daily but a few times a day. All sorts of businesses need to provide up-to-date information about their products and services on their web sites. So managing and organizing this growth in content has become very critical nowadays.
Development and maintenance of website is a technical task, and if your website is dynamic then constant up-gradation is required. You need to recruit qualified technical people to keep track of your content and website up-gradation. This is a very tedious job and human is error prone, so to overcome this difficulty software called content management systems (CMS) is launched, of which Joomla, a free award winning software.

What is Joomla?

According to Wikipedia, Joomla is a content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available.

Features of Joomla:

• Flexible and easy to use: Many web designers wish for a CMS that provides a lot of flexibility while designing a website. Joomla gives them more scope while working on a website. Functions like editing, deleting, adding, updating texts, photos, images, and pages on their website should not be very complicated. Joomla CMS is the answer to all their needs.
   
• User friendly: Basically a CMS enables you to manage and control the presentation of the contents of the website. The contents of a website may include texts, images, music or documents. To manage these contents in a professional manner, the website needs to be designed with a competent CMS. Joomla is a fantastic CMS which is very user-friendly. You needn’t to be an HTML expert or some kind of technical nerd to design any website using Joomla.
   
• Absolutely free: Joomla is absolutely free. It is a free open source CMS, so you do not have to pay a single penny to use this system.
   
• Easy to Install: Many web hosting packages now include the Joomla software and it is very easy to install. Initial customization of Joomla may require some help from a technical person and includes setting up the basic template. The template includes the web site design and navigation system. This template contains a few editable areas but the overall look and flow of the site remains consistent throughout the site. All you need to start using Joomla and become familiar with its features which are similar to any word processing software.
• Easy to maintain and update: A website designed using Joomla is also very easy to maintain and update. You do not have to depend on any professional to maintain or update your website. You can do it yourself by learning from the Joomla video courses that are available online.
   
• Automated templates: Joomla uses a simple browser-based user interface for managing various aspects of the site. Through easy-to-use web based forms, you can update image or text content, set it up to take sales orders, create new content sections or pages, manage your employee listings as well as contact information, or even regularly update your product catalog. When you want to change the appearance of the entire site, all you need to do is make changes in one template file to have it reflected throughout the site.
   
• Add-on’s and plug-ins to facilitate the use of even more features: Joomla has the ability to provide your clients with ample of free plugins, modules and components for their sites. These things all extend the basic functionality of Joomla, allowing you to create anything from a small business website to a fully functioning corporate website with an integrated backend. Most of them can be downloaded for free, offering your clients feature rich and interactive tools for their site bound to keep their customers engaged and coming back for more. Some of them do have a fee but are more reliable as well as more feature rich than other CMS plug-ins.
   
• SEO and joomla: SEO(Search engine optimization) is the key of success of any website, so if you are creating a website that is not accessible to search engines, then you exist nowhere. Since 90% of the traffic comes through search engines only, that’s why web developers were constantly forced to weigh the ease and organization of a Content Management System with the priority of search engine presence. Joomla provides many features which makes your website familiar with search engines like search engine friendly urls that end with .html or .htm and don’t have a ‘?’ or other special characters, using Joomla each page can be easily customized for Title and Meta tags that prevent duplication, which is a negative seo-factor. With Joomla, you can customize 404 error page and also keep track of the broken links people are using to surf your site. Since blogs offer a unique personalized tone to your approach towards your target traffic. Joomla offers user-friendly tools to post your blogs online without much effort. Submission of sitemap to Google, Yahoo, and other popular Search Engines will help to index your site quickly, with Joomla, a sitemap(component or extension)of your website, html or xml based can be automatically generated. Newsletter forms a vital ingredient of a successful commercial website. You can remain in touch with your customers and prospects with this feature, which can be integrated through a customized newsletter extension in your Joomla.
   
• Simple to add new features: Joomla also makes it very simple to add new powerful features to your web site with just a click of a button. You can choose from any of the hundreds of extensions available – document management which allows you to index the kinds of documents on your web site, track the changes in them and make them easily searchable; image and multimedia galleries; forums and chat software; blogging software; mailing list management; shopping cart and complete e-commerce software; Web standards upgrades; Workflow management and many more. 
   
  Summary: In all, Joomla is a very powerful software that allows users to develop and maintain dynamic web sites. If you’re building a new web site or renovating your existing site, you can take the help of Joomla CMS software. While non-technical users can use Joomla to manage various aspects of the site including the content very easily, more technical users can use add-ons to make the site more powerful and actually build large-scale online applications. Joomla is being used to power all kinds of web sites – simple, personal or family sites; small business web sites as well as more complex corporate intranets and extranets; community portals; magazines and newspapers; government applications and so on.

Pengen punya website instan yg powerful, handal, mudah untuk dipelajari,  mudah untuk di-managed, dan tentu saja FREE alias tanpa mengeluarkan sepeser pun uang ? Joomla! lah jawabannya… Sebagaimana dilansir di situs resminya, saat ini Joomla!,  Joomla! masuk ke dalam nominasi dalam Open Source CMS Award yg ke 4 dalam kategori “Best PHP Open Source CMS”. Dan lebih bergengsi lagi, di event yg sama Joomla! masuk  ke dalam  kategori “Hall of Fame” bersama dengan Drupal. Penasaran ini mencoba kehebatan dari Web CMS ini ? Terus simak yah halaman ini…

Untuk mencoba Web CMS yg satu ini, kalian membutuhkan 1 software yg wajib kalian miliki, yaitu PHP ! Dan 3 software yg bisa kalian pilih sesuai selera, yaitu Web Server, Database, dan Browser ! Kenapa saya bilang 3 software tersebut bisa kalian pilih sesuai selera, karena biasanya untuk ketiga komponen tersebut bisa dikombinasikan dengan PHP. Untuk web server, pilihan bisa ditujukan kepada Apache dan IIS. Urusan database, bisa digunakan MS SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL. Untuk browser, lebih banyak lagi pilihan ada IE (bawaan MS Windows), Mozilla Firefox, Safari, dan Google Chrome. Untuk bahasan sekarang ini, saya menggunakan PHP 5.2.11, MySQL 5.1.39, Apache 2.2.13, dan Mozilla Firefox 3.5.3 !

Asumsi saya adalah kalian sudah mendownload dan installasi dengan sukses PHP, MySQL, Apache dan Joomla ! Extract lah Joomla dan pindahkan isinya ke directori instalasi Apache, dimana secara default ada di C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache\htdocs. Setelah itu, jalankan browser anda dan ketikkan “localhost”, dan enter. Klik link “Joomla”, masuk ke directory “Installation”, dan jalankan file “index.php” ! Apabila langkah-langkah itu berhasil, maka kalian akan diberikan halaman seperti berikut ini :

Apabila halaman ini berhasil ditampilkan, silahkan ikut langkah-langkah berikut ini yg akan saya tampilkan dalam screenshot berikut ini :

Setelah selesai proses instalasi, disarankan untuk menghapus folder instalasi didalam folder Joomla ! Haram hukum nya, bila kalian tidak menghapus folder instalasi ! Itulah salah satu fitur keamanan standar yg dimiliki oleh CMS yg satu ini. Nah, sekarang kalian sudah bisa mempunyai website sendiri… Betapa mudahnya tidak, hanya dengan beberapa klik saja !

Sampai disini dulu tutorial ini, semoga bisa menuntun kalian untuk mengenal lebih jauh mengenai Joomla !

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Content reuse has proven to save an organization thousands – even millions – of dollars each year in writing, editing, translation and production costs. Transitioning to a practice of creating reusable content modules can be a challenge for writers who are used to working on whole, non-reusable documents. How do you maximize the reuse of your content to get the most benefit? Here are best practices that will help you get the most out of your content.

Store your content in one format.
How do you juggle between multiple sources of content? You don’t very easily. And you won’t get much reuse if your content is stored in many different formats, like word processing documents, spreadsheets, and publishing formats such as Quark and InDesign files. When content is stored in one consistent, structured format such as XML and stored in a content management system, it can easily be shared and reused across many documents, eliminating the need to copy-and-paste or make the same revision multiple times in different documents.

Search before you write.
Why reinvent the wheel for each writing assignment? Before creating new content, use the content management system’s search capabilities to locate content that has already been written and reuse it. Use keywords, phrases, dates that content was created or edited, users who created content, or other criteria to find content that is reusable for your assignment. Searching for reusable content can save hours of writing time.

Write generically.
Content that is written specifically for one product may not be reusable for other models or variations of that product. Keep it generic when possible to keep it reusable. For example, “With the back of the phone facing you, press and hold the back cover release button” is much more reusable across multiple models of phones than stating the name of a specific phone model.

Use basic language.
Using simple terminology that is free of jargon, buzz words/phrases and abbreviations makes content more reusable and less confusing to the consumer. Additionally, if you translate your content into multiple languages, it can also enable more accurate and reusable translations. Keep it simple and basic for consistent, cleaner content in your base language and in your translations.

Use writing guidelines.
Make sure that the writing team is applying the same style to their assignments so the content flows together when it is reused in various documents. Develop editorial style guidelines that specify preferred spellings, wording of lead-in lines, and other stylistic rules. Use the content management system’s controlled vocabulary feature to specify allowable words and restricted words with their preferred alternatives. These guidelines will ensure the terminology is consistent and reusable regardless of which writer created the content.

Do you have other best practices? Feel free to contribute them to this list.

Call us at 717-764-9720 or visit our website for help in getting started with your content management strategy.

Tujuan Instruksional Khusus:

Dalam materi tentang desain website ini diharapkan Anda akan mampu untuk:

• Mendefinisikan kembali apa dan faktor-faktor yang terlibat, berikut bagaimana implementasi suatu Web Content Management System dalam suatu proses perancangan website
• Menjelaskan dan memberikan contoh-contoh website yang melalui proses perancangan Web Content Management System

Web-sistem manajemen konten (WCM, WCMS atau Web CMS) adalah sistem manajemen konten (CMS) perangkat lunak, diimplementasikan sebagai aplikasi Web, untuk menciptakan dan mengelola konten HTML. Hal ini digunakan untuk mengelola dan mengendalikan besar, koleksi dinamis materi Web (HTML dokumen dan gambar yang terkait). Sebuah WCMS memfasilitasi pembuatan konten, mengedit konten control dan fungsi-fungsi esensial pemeliharaan web.

Menyediakan perangkat lunak authoring (dan lainnya) alat yang dirancang untuk memungkinkan pengguna dengan sedikit pengetahuan tentang bahasa pemrograman atau bahasa markup untuk membuat dan mengatur konten dengan relatif mudah.

Kebanyakan sistem menggunakan database untuk menyimpan konten, metadata, atau artefak yang mungkin dibutuhkan oleh sistem. Konten sering, tapi tidak secara universal, disimpan sebagai XML, untuk memudahkan pemakaian ulang dan mengaktifkan pilihan presentasi fleksibel. [1] [2]

Presentasi lapisan menampilkan konten ke pengunjung situs Web-didasarkan pada satu set template. Kadang template XSLT file. [3]

Administrasi biasanya dilakukan melalui antarmuka berbasis browser, tapi beberapa sistem mengharuskan penggunaan klien dengan kapasitas besar.

Tidak seperti Web-site pembangun, sebuah WCMS memungkinkan pengguna non-teknis untuk melakukan perubahan pada sebuah website dengan sedikit pelatihan. Sebuah WCMS biasanya memerlukan sandi yang berpengalaman untuk mendirikan dan menambah fitur-fitur, tetapi pada dasarnya merupakan suatu situs Web-alat pemeliharaan non-teknis untuk administrator.

Referensi:

• ^ Ethier, Kay, and Scott Abel. “Introduction to Structured Content Management with XML“. CMS Watch. http://www.managingenterprisecontent.com. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
• ^ Tivy, Jim, et al.. “The XML Content Management System for Document Centric XML“. Bluestream Database Software Corporation. http://www.bluestream.com/xdbres/Content/Business/whitepaper/XmlCms/Outline.html. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
• ^ Woric Faithfull. “Using XSLT to Make Websites“. woric.net. http://woric.net/wsg_presentation/Part1_using_xslt.xf. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
• ^ Gilles Paquette. “What is being done to boost performance?“. try2cms.com. http://try2cms.com/faq.php#faq3. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
• ^ Mike Johnston (2009). “What is a CMS?“. CMS Critic. http://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-cms. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
• ^ Jovia Web Studio (2009). “Is a Content Management System Right for You“. Jovia Web Studio Blog. http://www.joviawebstudio.com/index.php/blog/is_a_content_management_system_right_for_you/. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_content_management_system

After attending countless agency presentations, we have gone though our normal process of familiarizing ourselves with companies and their specific needs/requirements. Once we discuss their websites, almost 9 out of 10 companies that are in the market for a website, ask for a content management system (CMS).

Of course, a lot of the marketing executives have done their homework. They ask for a CMS because of certain needs and requirements and they know the exact features of the CMS that they would be using in order to meet their requirements.

On the contrary, another group of potential clients don’t quite know why they would need or currently have a CMS and they either solely rely on the agency’s recommendation or follow the trend. This is the point and time when we ask the reason why and which features of the CMS is of interest to them and in response they say, “Well, the last agency that we met with recommended that we should go with a CMS package” or “We are not really sure why but our predecessors had one in place and we are going with it”.

When we explore their requirements further and dive deeper into what was offered to them, it appears as though they really don’t need a CMS package and the agency was just trying to tie them into a long-term contract by hosting their own customized CMS package.

On many occasions we also encounter clients that ask us to build their website on their existing CMS package that resides on another agency’s server and they explain to us that they have signed a contract with them and have no choice but to continue. This is also another testament to the fact that there are agencies out there that use this tactic to guarantee themselves long term clients.

Now, let’s explore some of the common features of CMS packages and why a company should consider a CMS website rather than a basic html website.

1) Non-technical people will be able to add and edit content.
2) Allows for various users to have limited privileges.
3) Allows for localization of content for companies that require multiple languages either now or later.
4) Workflow management that allows sequential and parallel tasks such that content does not get published until appropriate individuals have reviewed and approved it.
5) Automated templates allow the appearance of all content to be changed from one central place and the site to have a standard formatting and text style throughout.

We often recommend using a CMS only (and we mean only) if there is a clear benefit from the features it offers. We ask our clients to picture their website one year or two years down the road and really take the time to think whether or not such functionality will be required. If not, we highly recommend that the site be built via html as an entire CMS package would be overkill. Also, if you decide to go with a CMS-based website, please don’t be hesitant to ask about the legality and rights to the site. Ideally, we recommend that the customized CMS software should be installed and hosted directly on your own or a third party server.

Hello Everyone,

WordPress is by far the best CMS system out there, you can do so many different things with it, from running a job board site to a CSS gallery. Today I wanted to showcase some of the best alternative ways to using WordPress and prove that it can be so much more than just a blog. The great thing about WordPress is it’s so easy to use, in fact I would go as far as saying it’s idiot proof because all you have to do is fill in fields and your page is done. This is why so many other people use it as there platform for other type websites, such as Membership Sites, Review Sites and Portfolio Websites. I hope you enjoy the list and let me know how your online business has benefited from WordPress.

WordPress e-Commerce

This plugin makes WordPress into a really neat online store. Most online stores are bulky, expensive and complicated, not this one, it’s simple and free, just like WordPress itself!

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WishList Member

WishList Member is the fastest way to turn a WordPress site into a full Membership Site. And if you buy now, you get a free copy of “Crush It”.

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WP Review Site

This plugin enables you to turn your WordPress website into a fully functional review site. At the moment there is a special introductory price of only $97.

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BB Press

This is a WordPress forum plugin from the creators of WordPress. Its free to download, and handles any task you throw at it.

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WordPress Wiki

WordPress Wiki is a theme for WordPress that turns it into a lightweight wiki without all the complications. It also has a FAQ plugin built into it.

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Portfolio Blog

This is an extraordinary WordPress theme that enables you to have a full single page portfolio layout that runs entirely on WordPress. And its only $25.

Another recommended portfolio theme plugin is YourFolio and Modern Portfolio.

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WordPress Gallery

There are so many galleries out on the internet. Gallery Pro is a WordPress Theme that allows you to change your blog into a gallery. Another cool gallery theme for WordPress is Showcase Theme.

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JobPress

JobPress integrates a job board into your WordPress website. It comes with all the features you would expect from a professional job board software, but half the price. This plug-in could be used as a standalone website or as a great additional way to monetize your blog, I will be using this plug-in on one of my sites very soon!

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WP Contact Manager

WP Contact Manager is a low priced WordPress theme that turns your site into a contact book.

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OneNews

OneNews is a WordPress theme that allows you to easily create a single-page news aggregator such as PpoURL’s or Alltop within a few clicks.

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Classipress

This is a WordPress theme that turns your WordPress website into a classified ads site. They call it Craigslist for WordPress.

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Article Directory

Here is a neat WordPress build for an article directory website. This article directory plugin has many different features, and is free to download!

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Video Site

Ever wanted to have your own video trailer site? Video Flick is a low priced video trailer theme for WordPress.

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WordPress Multi-User

WordPress Multi-User (MU for short) is a blog tool and publishing platform that allows you to run thousands of WordPress blogs with one single install of WordPress. A great way to built your own Blogspot/WordPress.com style website, I personally have used this to build a niche travel site, offering all customers a blog so they can share their experiences with friends and family back home.

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BuddyPress

BuddyPress is a huge mix of WordPress plugins and themes, to run a social network based on WordPress MU.

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WordPress CMS

With the Arthemia theme, you can run it like a content management system, rather than a blog.

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P2 Theme

The P2 theme is like twitter in a box. Great theme for companys or organisations to stay up to date with what everyone is doing, all in one place.

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Digg Clone

This plugin adds voting functionality for posts. This function is similar to Reddit or Digg, in that visitors can vote for and against.

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When I began to research for different ways to using WordPress, I soon realised that I could be doing a lot more to improve my website. For example I could use the Wiki theme for a Wikipedia area on any blogging FAQ people have and I could add a job board for those looking for web design work to be done for their blog.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post.

To Our Success,

Paul

PS. What’s your goal for your blog? is it to share knowledge or are you using it in a different way to most others?

Tags: Add a forum to your blog, Add a Job Board To Your Blog, Add JobPress to Your Blog, Adding BB press to your blog, Article Directory WordPress Plugin, Classipress, Create a Membership Site, Different Ways To Use WordPress, JobPress, Video Site Plugin, WishList Member, WordPress e-Commerce, WordPress Gallery, WordPress Wiki, WP Contact Manager, WP Review Site

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