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Useful Tools For Charities & Non-Profits – Google, Bing and others

| JDriver

New non-profit organisations are often springing up all over the place as self-sacrificing individuals put their time, effort and money into a worthy cause that strikes a chord with them, making the world a better place. It’s a remarkable thing to do, and I salute you.

I’ve worked with a few non-profit and charitable organisations, and here’s some of the useful things I’ve discovered along the way.

Google for Charities & Non-Profits

Google has a great number of useful tools and resources for charities. We’ll have a look at what they have on offer. Unfortunately some of these are location dependant, with US-based organisations being able to boast access to the lions-share of tools. Even so, what is currently available worldwide and to the UK, is not to be ignored.

– http://www.google.com/nonprofits/index.html
Google’s Non-Profit home page, the portal to all the products. Here you’ll be able to see if you’re eligible, and to which products you’ll be able to have access to. Some of these are free, but they do have premium tools available also, though usually with heavy discounting applied.

Be prepared to jump through some hoops to get yourself registered, but it’s not laborious. They do need to ensure that you’re representing a legitimate charity.

Let’s have a look at what’s on offer.

1. Google Apps
– Gmail
The email service that you may be already familiar with. You can even use your own custom address i.e ‘yourname@yourdomain.com’, making your organisation seem more legitimate.

– Calendar
A powerful calendar to aid you with organising events, meetings etc.

– Drive
Online storage for files and documents. You get a little included (5GB at time of writing) and can purchase more as you need it. It can become expensive though…

– Docs
Meaning ‘documents’. Allows you to create and share word processing files, spreadsheets and presentations.

– Places
Allows you to pin-point your organisation on Google Maps. You can add contact information and other information.

– Analytics
Monitor your website traffic, see what people are searching for, how they manage to find your site, and examine your visitor behaviour.

– Google +
Google’s foray into the social media boom. They were a little late to the party, but their platform is quite good, even if it doesn’t have the same following as Facebook. Worth creating a G+ page for your organisation to help spread the word.

– And more…
There’s lot’s of other apps to discover, though I’ve mentioned the main ones here.

2. Google Grants
The grants are in the form of credit which is applied to a Google AdWords account. Again, you need to have recognised charitable status. You start with a credit of $10,000 (USD) per month. That seems like a lot, but advertising through Google can be very expensive. If you exceed this, you may be able to get an allowance of $40,000 (USD) per month. There are very strict rules on how this credit can be used.

3. YouTube For Non-Profits
YouTube (owned by Google) also has an offering to help charities out. You can create a channel which has features that are normally only accessible to premium members (usually large corporations with a budget to match.) These extra features include custom channel branding, donate buttons, live video streaming and other useful tools.

PDF: Google Playbook For Good

4. Google Earth Outreach
Using the powerful Google Earth, you can visualise your positive impact on the planet. You can integrate with Google Earth to overlay information and graphics over the areas you wish. There’s quite a number of exciting tools, and endless possibilities.

Facebook for Charities & Non-Profits

– http://www.facebook.com/
As far as I’m aware. Facebook doesn’t haven’t any particularly special offerings for non-profits. You can set up a page for your organisation, but that’s currently as far as it goes. A Facebook page is still an important part of any campaign, so it shouldn’t be neglected.

Bing for Charities & Non-Profits

– http://www.bing.com/explore/helpyourbritain*
Bing is Microsoft’s search engine offering. Not as widely used as Google, and lacking many of the features, it’s trying to re-position itself as a market leader (it was, but lost it’s grip) by entering the search engine market and giving its web browser (Internet Explorer) a massive overhaul. Microsoft is working on producing new tools for web users, and the ‘Help Your Britain’ addition is aimed at providing a promotional tool for non-profits.

You can also set up a profile for yourself, and your organisation.
https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/default.aspx

*Kindly informed of the updated link by Richard at Stretch Digital.

LinkedIn for Charities & Non-Profits

– http://www.linkedin.com/
Social entrepreneurs should certainly leverage the possibilities that LinkedIn offers. There’s lots that can be done to help promote your cause, and I’ve written a couple of articles discussing how to use LinkedIn for maximum effect – Read my article about using LinkedIn.

Twitter for Charities & Non-Profits

– https://twitter.com
Twitter is another social media platform which doesn’t have a specific range of tools for non-profits, though it has been used very successfully to raise awareness for a large number of concerns. Read about some of the success stories.

More useful resources

Why you shouldn’t buy email lists

| JDriver

Buying email lists is never a good idea. This is no longer the 1990’s, there’s now legislation in place to try and stop it, people are fed up with it, and they’re more savvy about reporting it. Although it may initially seem like a good idea, you may be setting yourself up for more heartache than it’s worth.

Is Sending Spam Legal?

Many people ask this question, and those thinking of buying email lists often ask ‘is buying email lists legal?’ The fact that these questions are asked should get alarm bells ringing. Yes, buying email lists is legal, and so is sending spam as long as the rather paltry requirements of CAN SPAM are met. These are:
1. Your email must include an opt-out link
2. You give a physical postal address
3. The email headers have not been forged

I Do All That, So What’s The Problem?

With increasing contention surrounding spam, buying email lists is more hassle than it’s worth. Although it’s possible to get targeted email lists, they’re still very ineffective – the only people who benefit from spam email lists are the people who sell them. There have been a few high-profile cases where the buying and using of email lists have caused untold grief for the company who sent them. Here’s the reasons why you should never buy an email list:

1. EMAIL ADDRESSES MAY HAVE BEEN HARVESTED
This is particularly true of the cheaper email lists which have been compiled by unscrupulous methods such as using bots to scour the web and gather up all email addresses that they come across. Safe to say that the owners of these addresses won’t have opted in.

2. LISTS ARE HIGHLY INEFFECTIVE
There are no quick fixes. If you want a highly relevant and effective list, build your own. It’s a slow process, but of a much higher-quality than you’ll be able to buy.

3. WHY WOULD A COMPANY SELL THEIR CONTACT LIST?
Think about it, if a company has gone to the trouble of creating a high-quality list, why would they then sell it as oppose to renting. (Renting is marketing slang where a company sends emails to their list on your behalf. You never see the email addresses.) Not to mention that the list you buy will have been bought by many other companies, all spamming the same people. Renting a list will al least mean that the owners have put some care and consideration into its compiling.

4. EVEN RENTING LISTS ISN’T EFFECTIVE
Marketing experts the world over tend to agree on this. Renting is expensive, and that money is better spent elsewhere. Somewhere where it’ll get you more for your money.

5. IT WILL REALLY ANNOY YOUR HOSTING PROVIDER
Large volumes of unsolicited mail will undoubtedly result in a large number of those mails bouncing back, either soft (where a message reaches the intended mail server, but is returned as the user ‘bounces’ it by flagging it as spam, the mailbox is full, not functioning or your message is too large) or hard (where the email address is invalid, or the recipient server has blacklisted your mail server), and this puts added strain on the mail server. Your hosting provider will have rules on the sending of bulk mail, and breaking those rules can result in their refusal to offer you hosting.

6. YOUR MAIL SERVER CAN GET BLACKLISTED
Tied in with point 5 about annoying your hosting provider, being blacklisted is a huge problem – blacklists are global and subscribed to by different ISPs, meaning that more and more servers will refuse mail from you.

7. REPUTABLE EMAIL MARKETING COMPANIES WON’T LET YOU USE PURCHASED LISTS
MailChimp is a common one. They know that purchased lists are not the way things should be done, and they don’t want anything to do with them as they’ll harm their own reputation.
“No purchased lists (no matter how expensive).” – MailChimp T&C’s

8. SENDING SPAM WILL TARNISH YOUR COMPANY’S IMAGE
…and your soul. Many consumers will lose respect instantly, with some people going as far as to vow to never deal with such a company.

9. BEWARE THE SPAM TRAPS AND HONEYPOTS
Such is the need to combat spam, that the numerous organisations that have appeared to combat the problem set ups traps to find those who spam, and those who create the email lists. These are email addresses that are created and hidden on web pages so that bots harvest them. When the email receives an email, it can only be from a spammer, or spam list. The sender is then blacklisted.

10. YOU’RE WASTING TIME AND MONEY
The money is an obvious one, but having to deal with all nonsense that comes about from using a bought list can take up a great deal of your valuable time – dealing with complaints from recipients, your ISP, ‘cleaning’ the list, and so on. By creating your own list, you put in the legwork now, but reap the benefits later. Better still, you haven’t annoyed anyone.

How Should It Be Done?

  • Create your own lists by getting permission from customers and potential customers
  • Offer a newsletter or another good reason to sign-up for a regular email. Such as coupons
  • Don’t email them too often. Unless you have great, time-sensitive offers, once a fortnight is more than enough. People tend to unsubscribe after the third email unless they perceive that they’re receiving something useful
  • Comply with CAN SPAM
  • Give your mail recipients something useful. Give them a reason to read your mail, and not flag it as spam
  • Use double opt-in – This means that not only have they agreed to receive email, but their email address is confirmed as live and correct
  • Clean your list regularly. Make sure that you’re only sending to people who want it, and that there’s no dead addresses
  • Test, test and test some more. Make sure that your email displays correctly in the major email programs and that they don’t break if people block images
  • Consider using multiple email subscriptions so that people can choose which types of emails are relevant to them

Is It Legal To Buy Or Sell Email Lists?

Each country has their own laws, and the CAN SPAM act doesn’t actually forbid the selling or buying of email lists. This may be where a flaw in the CAN SPAM act lies; it doesn’t penalise the people who harvest these email addresses, though there is protection from this in the Data Protection Act (UK), and other countries will have their own laws. So unless everybody on those email lists have explicitly given permission for their details to be sold, the sellers and buyers are likely to be breaking the law.

Many companies who sell these lists describe them as ‘clean’. Doesn’t that mean that they’re inherently dirty?

How to choose your hosting provider – Tips and criteria to look for

| JDriver

Before having a website built for you, one of the main decisions you’ll make will be choosing a hosting provider, and to be honest, it can be a bleedin’ minefield.

If you take just one thing away from this article, experience has shown me that when it comes to hosting providers, it’s an instance where you get what you pay for, and very cheap hosting can end up costing you more. Not just financially either.

So What Are My Options?

When it comes to hosting, there are many things to consider, and I’m not going to attempt to cover every facet, though I will certainly give you plenty of information, and certainly enough to allow you to make an informed decision. Let’s start by having a broader look at the possible options.

Email Only

I thought I’d include what may seem a surprising entry. Such options will not let you host a website, but will give you an email associated with your domain name. So if for whatever reason you decide you don’t need a site, you can still have a custom email address. Less relevant now however, as there’s really no excuse not to have a web presence. Find out why a web presence is so important.

MOST SUITABLE FOR…

  • Email!

    • Free Hosting

    Yes, such a thing does exist, and it does sound great, but there certain things to consider as free hosting will have many constraints to it. Such constraints may not being able to have a unique domain name. i.e. having to use a subdomain such as yourwebsiteaddress.wordpress.com. This isn’t the only issue though; such setups are highly limited in what they offer, may serve their own adverts on your site, and not let you export your site should the free hosting no longer fulfil your needs.

    Also, it doesn’t look professional, though it can be useful to have one setup as a business blog to help drive traffic to your website.

    MOST SUITABLE FOR…

    • Personal blogs
    • Hobby related websites

    Shared Hosting

    Shared hosting is usually an extremely cost-effective way of getting a website hosted. The cost of this type of hosting does vary greatly, depending on the features and reliability that you need.

    Shared hosting means that the server on which your site is placed contains many other websites, all stored alongside each other. This means that a site which uses a large amount of bandwidth can have a negative effect on the performance of your site. This is most usually a problem where in order to try and make more money, the hosting provider starts to cram far too many sites on the same server, with an increasing number of sites fighting over very limited resources. However, there are some very good shared-hosting options around, and this is probably where you’ll start, and as the technology becomes cheaper, shared-hosting is often able to contend with a reasonable amount of demand without impairing performance.

    MOST SUITABLE FOR…

    • Personal blogs
    • Freelancer websites
    • Small business websites
    • Local online magazines
    • Local organisations

    Dedicated Hosting

    For most people, this would be complete overkill. Dedicated hosting means that you get a web server that is dedicated to your site only. No fighting for resources here, your website will have complete reign over the resources of your server.

    Great for when you need performance and can’t accept anything less than the absolute best, but dedicated hosting is expensive. Also, it means that a greater understanding of technology, or the resources to hire someone who does.

    MOST SUITABLE FOR…

    • Larger business sites
    • Sites which deliver lots of data
    • Sites which receive lots of traffic

    But that’s not all. Broadly speaking, dedicated hosting comes in several flavours.

    DEDICATED HOSTING- Whereby you hire a dedicated server which belongs to your hosting provider. This is the most common.

    CO-LOCATED – This type of hosting is one where you buy your own server and pay a hosting company to house it at their premises, where the location will be more suited to the job. This gives you the ultimate in flexibility, but you’re going to pay a premium for any management or trouble-shooting.

    SELF-HOSTED – Similar to Co-Located, but housed at your premises. Again it’s highly flexible, and of course you have immediate physical access, but you’re going to need to have highly skilled staff in-house, or at least to hand. Getting your own server up and running isn’t actually as difficult as you’d expect. But when you start to consider security and debugging, it can turn nightmarish.

    Things To Consider And Decisions To Make

    WINDOWS OR LINUX SERVER?
    Linux – is the short answer. Though in some instances Windows may be more suitable, particularly if you’re having a site built with a proprietary Microsoft piece of software such as ASP (MS’s version of PHP, the server-side scripting language which is used in the development of dynamic websites.) If you’re unsure of which is best, your developer or chosen hosting provider can help you. In most instances, picking Linux will be the best option.

    SIZE OF PIPELINE

    This is how the hosting computer is connected to the internet. The greater the pipeline, the faster data can be uploaded / downloaded, therefore the faster your site can deliver its content. Pipelines are typically T1 or T3 at the moment. T3 being the faster of the two.

    CLIENTS PER MACHINE

    This ties in nicely with my comment about the pitfalls of very cheap hosting where some companies spread their resources too thinly. Try to find out if the provider has their own guidelines in place regarding limiting the number of clients per machine.

    EMAIL ACCOUNTS

    Cheaper providers may not include the use of an email associated with your domain, while other companies will let you create as many as you need. Check that email addresses are included in the price.

    DISK SPACE

    How much space you have available on the server dictates how much data you can store on there, and so suggests what the upper size limit of your site will be. Some providers offer very small packages while some will offer unlimited space. Consider the type of material you’ll be making available on your site, and that you’ll have room to grow.

    DEPENDENCE / TIE-INS

    If your provider isn’t working out for you, can you leave (and migrate your site) easily? Many offer a trial period, but it’s not unknown to get ‘Money-back anytime’ guarantees. Of course, by committing to longer periods, you can usually get discounts.

    DATABASES

    These are required for dynamic sites as the database is where all your content etc. is stored. Enquire as to how many databases are included in your plan, and that at least one is included in your plan. Some companies will consider these as premium add-ons.

    RELIABILITY / SPEED OF ACCESS

    This is very important. The servers need to be reliable (that is not crashing frequently) and need to be capable of delivering a good speed. Of course this also depends on the type of content your serving, but if a simple site is taking more than a couple of seconds to load then there may be issues.

    BANDWIDTH

    The bandwidth refers to the amount of data that is made by the requests to your server. Both data to and from the server. The higher your traffic (the more visitors to your site) the more this is going to be. For simple sites, a couple of Gigabytes should be enough, but check the limits and also what the penalties are for exceeding it.

    MULTIPLE DOMAINS AND SUBDOMAINS

    Domains are unique address that lead to websites, while subdomains are just what they sound like, sub domains of the main one. (E.g. blog.domain.co.uk) Typically, subdomains are free to add, whereas new domains will need to be paid for. However, if you’re looking to host multiple sites, check that your account will allow multiple domains to be hosted as part of the same package.

    CONTROL PANEL / CPANEL

    This is the area which gives you control over the management of your hosting and related services. Some providers use their own control panel, but many use cPanel, an excellent web hosting control panel. Ask your provider about what they use.

    SUPPORT

    This is a major issue for many people, and I’ve run into providers with very good support, and some with absolutely dire support. Unfortunately, there seems to be more bad support out there than good. Can you reach your provider by phone? How long do they take to respond to emails? If your site has gone down, you don’t want to be spending days trying to get hold of someone.

    Do Your Research

    Once you’ve got a short-list of some providers who offer all that you need, start to search for some reviews online. Just head over to Google and search (Hosting Company) reviews. This will help you weed out any providers which seem to have good deals, but suffer from extremely poor service. Don’t go on price alone.

Why should I have a website? (or why it’s inexcusable to not have web presence)

| JDriver

You could consider me a little biased on this topic, but really there’s no reason not to have a website for your company / charity / cause / yourself. It’s relatively easy and cheap (possibly free) to get started, and the benefits greatly outweigh these minor concerns. With much grander online endeavors, you will be looking to put more time and money on the line, but here I’m focussing on what you need to get going.

Why Should I Have A Website?

Before I give a list of very good reasons as to why you should get a website together I’d like to start with a little story.

Some time ago I had a carpenter in to replace the frame of the backdoor. After awhile he came to ask if I had a Yellow Pages as he needed to get something. I told him that I didn’t, but I asked him what he was looking for, which happened to be a locksmiths. I was already working on my computer at the time, so it was just a second or two later that I had a list and map of all the local locksmiths on screen. “Blimey! That was fast.” he said “That’s brilliant. There’s one just around the corner. Thanks.” And off he went.

The moral is that traditional methods (telephone directories and enquiry services like 118) of finding local businesses are rapidly becoming obsolete, as people have increasing access to the internet wherever they are due to soaring sales of tablets and smart phones.

The devices we own are changing the way we access information and find what we’re looking for. Having a web presence is a must.

1. The internet is now the main way we find information

Whatever we’re looking for, whether it’s furniture, an accountant, or a plumber, online is usually where people search first. Also, as google offers up lists of local businesses when people search, you’re missing out if you don’t have a website.

2. It’s expected that a business will have a site

Even if someone is already aware of your company, they’ll try and find your contact details online. It does seem strange when you come across a company which doesn’t have a site, and your customers are likely to go elsewhere.

3. It’s cheap advertising

Look at it as cheap advertising. It’s not expensive to get a basic web presence up and running, and it can be done quite easily. See the resources on the right of the page.

4. It lets you educate your customers

It’s a highly effective way to let your customers know about your services / products, and what the benefits are of doing business with you, rather than your competitors.

5. It will let you gather potential leads and other information

You can provide newsletter sign-ups and gather analytics information about your website vistors, enabling you to tailor your services.

Also, if you have a site, potential customers can contact you via a form on your site, meaning that you’ll catch contact information and enquiries that you have otherwise missed.

6. Let’s you reduce your time spent performing task that could be automated

If you find that you’re handling the same sort of customer queries, or wasting time doing other tasks, have a think about what tasks could be performed by your website instead. You could add FAQs or let potential customers download product spec sheets etc.

An example of this on my site is the client area where I store files for my clients. I found that clients frequently misplace files I’ve sent them, so I decided to make them available online for them. This doesn’t just save my time, it means my clients can get their files without having to wait for me read their email and reply. If I’m out of the office, it could be some time.

7. Cheaper to update that print materials

If you do provide catalogues or other expensive print items, they’re quicker, easier and cheaper to update and get to your customers if they’re provided digitally.

Are you convinced yet?

I hope so. There’s really no reason not to get a website up. It can be done very cheaply, and very quickly for something relatively basic, but the benefits can be great. Check out the the information below.

It’s Go Time – A Rough Guide To Getting Up And Running

– Find a reputable hosting provider. Bear in mind that the cheapest usually isn’t the best option. You can get something that will suffice for a small site for under £60 per annum.
– Once you’ve found several potential providers perform a search using google to check for reviews by searching for [hosting provider name] reviews.
– Ideally choose a provider which will include email accounts, databases, and offer simple, automatic installations of WordPress.
– Sign up and choose a relevant domain name. It may time a few attempts as you’re preferred name may have already been taken by someone else.
– Install WordPress, and get creating your site, by choosing a nice theme and adding your content. (WordPress is pretty easy to get to grips with)
– Create a Google account and get listed on Google Places.

Sounds like too much effort?

I’ll admit that it’s rather simplified, but the basics are there. There is an even simpler option available to you by not using your own provider, but using the hosting option that WordPress offer. You can sign-up for free, but some functionality will need to be paid for, and it would certainly be worth to purchase your own unique domain. Check out wordpress.com.

Picking A Content Management System – The Pros & Cons Of Joomla, WordPress and Drupal

| JDriver

The best things in life are free, and this also applies to Content Management Systems (CMS). A CMS is something which allows you to create your own website and manage the pages and content easily. No longer do websites need to be built from scratch (although they may need to be, depending on what you want the end result to be) but you can start with a basic skeleton that you customise to your liking. There’s a number available, and they they all have their good points and bad.

The Open-Source Movement

One of the greatest developments in regards to computer software is the open-source movement. That is software created and released by the open-source community. Open-source means that anyone can take the code and freely distribute and develop it. Here’s the mission of the open-source initiative:

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation with global scope formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community.

Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.

– opensource.org

The benefits are quite obvious, especially to anyone who has ever used some proprietary software that has all sorts of hideous limitations and catches that only appear when it’s too late to do much about it.

I’ve had this myself, and although I won’t say which piece of software it was, I’ll tell you about my experience. This well-known accounting software seemed reasonably priced and so I purchased it. All seemed to be going well until I needed to run-off my reports for the end of year, when I found out that some basic functions that you’d expect to be included, in fact, weren’t. I was expected to pay a triple figure sum just to unlock a feature which would then let me run off the report. It didn’t end there. It soon transpired that to do many, very basic tasks, I would have to fork out hundreds of pounds. Fortunately I wasn’t so deep in that I couldn’t climb out. Instead of giving this company more money I sought an alternative. Take heed of this cautionary tale.

The Pros and Cons of using WordPress as your CMS

WordPress is probably the best known CMS platform out there, though you probably associate it with blogging, it can do a great deal more. WordPress is open-source and available to download and install under your own domain. It’s so popular that some hosting providers have implemented ways for you to quickly and easily install this, meaning you can actually get it installed in seconds whilst also handling setting up the required databases for you. Of course you still need to add all your content, customise it and so on, but still…

There seems to be a little anti-wordpress snobbery in the design community, where they don’t see it as being worthy of their consideration, but this isn’t justified. True, WordPress is only really suitable for the simpler stuff, and although it can be used for ecommerce and other more complex sites, I wouldn’t personally recommend it as there are more suitable options.

The negative feeling I’ve mentioned is born of a time when you’d expect sites were custom built from the ground up or web developers used their own proprietary CMS for their clients. A time when web publishing tools were still in their infancy and most people had never heard the term ‘blog’.

I’ve heard someone refer to it as the ‘Fisher Price‘ of CMS, which is a little unfair. Yes it’s simple, but that’s why it’s easy to use, and it’s more advanced than most give it credit for. Although WordPress does seem to attract smaller companies there’s a few large companies which do, though generally not as their main site but rather a satellite one, such as company blogs or product-specific sites.

For which sort of sites is WordPress best suited?

• Starter Websites, such as for a small business which doesn’t need to sell items online e.g Plumbers, Carpenters

• Magazine-style sites where the emphasis is on frequent news updates and releases

The Pros of WordPress

  • Even if your hosting provider doesn’t support quick installations of WordPress, you can still get it installed manually quite quickly
  • Very user-friendly. Even the most ardent technophobe should be able to get going with WordPress in a reasonable amount of time
  • Great for simple websites, such as small business sites
  • Lots of available plugins which increase the functionality of your site
  • WordPress is great for SEO. It’s highly optimised for search engines, and many plugins can aid this further
  • Most templates are easily customisable without technical knowledge

The Cons of WordPress

  • You could easily out-grow WordPress should your site expand greatly. Should you need a power-house for a large, corporate site, WordPress probably doesn’t have the functionality you’re looking for.
  • Although plugins are great, they sometimes break your site, or if the developer stops updating them, they may not work with newer versions of WordPress. You’ll either have to find alternatives, fix them yourself, or get someone to fix them for you.
  • It’s not very secure. This is my biggest gripe with WordPress. I could forgive everything else if they fixed this. You cannot easily hide your login page, meaning that hackers / bots can find it and attack through the brute-force method (just trying different passwords until they get it right. Bots can try thousands of combinations in a very short time.) There are plugins which you can use to, for example, lock-down the login page for a specified time after too many incorrect attempts. There are also other security concerns which appear periodically.
  • WordPress sites can often be identified as such by looking at them, though some good design can disguise the fact
  • There are updates which need installing, all the time. This is a little irritating. Although it’s good to see problems fixed and features added, frequent updates mean than themes / plugins are more liable to break, needing to have an update themselves. Not a week will go by when something doesn’t need upgrading. Yes the process is quick and simple, but can have undesired results.

The Pros and Cons of using Joomla as your CMS

Joomla (normally spelt Joomala! But I won’t because exclamations marks are tiresome to read) is one of the other major players in the open-source CMS field. Something it’s achieved through being reliable, functional and yet keeping a reasonably shallow learning curve when compared to other CMS systems.

While it’s certainly more flexible, powerful and capable than WordPress, it shows when you see the admin or ‘back-end’ of the site. At first sight it appears to be dauntingly complex. I’m afraid that is the price of having the additional flexibility and functionality. A justified price all the same.

Joomla has a huge following and there’s many great websites out there that are built using it. Many you might not expect as it’s not just smaller companies who favour it, there’s a substantial number of large corporations which use it, including MTV, many governments, Barnes & Noble, the MOD, Orange, eBay, Sony Pictures, Ikea and some Universities. That’s just a quick look at the cross-section of different organisations. WordPress on the other hand tends to attract small companies, independents and some celebrities.

For which sort of sites is Joomla best suited?

  • Highly dynamic websites which will need to manage registrations and accounts of your customers
  • More complex offerings, such as ecommerce, forums and larger sites with lots of activity / content

    • The Pros of Joomla

    • Like with WordPress, many hosting providers offer a simple installation procedure for Joomla
    • It’s highly functional
    • If you decide to go this route, you won’t have to worry about it not being able to cope with the growing demands of an ever-increasing site
    • Although a little difficult to learn, it’s certainly easier to use than some
    • Lots of plugins are available
    • Multi-lingual sites are easy to implement

    The Cons of Joomla

    • Learning it fully will take time
    • Aesthetic customisations are not easy to do. Needs knowledge of CSS, though you can always use a theme or hire someone to create a custom one
    • Some argue that Joomla isn’t great in regards to SEO, but has improved in recent versions
    • Uses a proprietary add-on called ‘MooTools’ to include extensions whereas using jQuery would be much better to have implemented

    The Pros and Cons of using Drupal as your CMS

    Drupal has seen much of it’s potential audience get enticed by either Joomla or WordPress. It’s still very widely used and is a web developers dream. It’s immensely powerful, and can be bent entirely to your will (or at least the will of a skilled developer). It’s power and highly flexible configuration come at a price – one of usability.

    Of the type of users which opt for an open-source CMS, Drupal tends to take the cream of the crop. The BBC website, the White House, and NASA have all used Drupal.

    Coming back to its usability for a moment, it is easy to see why it can be a nightmare. The high customisation naturally leads to a highly complex CMS. Whereas with WordPress you can install it and you’re off, Drupal needs a bit more prep. This prep is also relient on someone who is very technically minded. The trouble doesn’t end once the site is up – the administration side is clunky and has a habit of using cryptic terminology causing even the mild-mannered to swear quietly under their breath

    Why is this? It’s because just like the front-end of the site, the back-end can be highly customised to the needs of the user. So the developer can make the back-end more user friendly if they like.

    At this point I need to stress that Drupal has come very far in making it easier for slightly less technically able people to use it. It’s undergone some radical changes, and the last version I used (it was a while ago now) was easier to get my head around than earlier ones. It seem that they’ve got the message about usability and are actively listening to feedback and making it all just a little bit simpler.

    For which sort of sites is Drupal best suited?

    • Huge, unwieldily corporate sites (e.g BBC) with masses on content, administrators and websites users.

    • Large ecommerce solutions

    The Pros of Drupal

    • All the power and flexibility you will ever need, and a load more thrown in for good measure
    • • One installation can be used to manage multiple sites – very handy if you have multiple sites
    • • Pretty much everything can be configured
    • • Quality modules that are, on the whole, well maintained.

    The Cons of Drupal

    • • Can be difficult to get set up if your host doesn’t offer an automated solution to take the pain out of the process
    • • Even the latest version (7 at the time of writing) isn’t as easy to use as other CMS solutions

    Time for a vague conclusion

    No one CMS is specifically better than another when taken on face value. You’ll have to decide what your needs are, and the needs of your customers / website users first. Not forgetting that you’ll have to keep in mind where you wish to be in the future. Knowing these details will help make your decision easier.

    An important point

    If you’re looking to create a site with a specific and common role, such as a forum or an ecommerce website, it will be useful to have a look at what purpose-specific CMS alternatives there are.

    There will be lots available for pretty much everything that will have the required elements contained within it, saving you the time of making a generic one-size-fits-all CMS do exactly what you require.

EU Cookie Directive – Information, Compliance and Resistance

| JDriver

So What Is This EU Cookie Directive?

It’s a new law, issued by the EU in 2009 that bans the use of cookies on websites without explicit consent being given by the user. The law actually cam into being on the 26th May 2011, but because no-one was ready, it was decided that it wouldn’t be enforced until 26th May 2012.

Although the mischief which the law is attempting to stop is well-intentioned, the directive hasn’t been terribly well thought out.

What Is A Cookie?

A cookie is a small text file that a website stores on your computer. While many of these are harmless, and even required for some site features to function, some websites use them in ways which are considered far too intrusive.

Cookies are often used to remember that you’re signed into a website, at what point you’re at in a checkout process, any preferences you want to save and so on. Very useful things.

On the other hand, some companies use them in unreasonably intrusive ways – for example recording which sites you visit and delivering highly-targeted adverts which follow you around the web

Seems Reasonable Enough. What’s The Problem?

Getting explicit consent from users is going to be a huge headache for those who use cookies on their websites for perfectly legitimate reasons. It means that website users are going to be presented some sort of confirmation box, asking them if they are willing to accept these cookies, even perfectly innocent ones. The challenge of collecting this consent is posing a huge usability challenge to those who create and manage sites.

Also, the directive puts the onus on the website owners, not the advertisers. A good example is the Facebook ‘Like’ button. Seemingly innocent, but even without clicking it, Facebook knows what site you’re visiting, and harvests this data, which it then gives to advertisers so that they can bombard you with adverts. To me, this suggests that the EU has got it wrong, and needs to rethink some things.

So What Action Do I Need To Take?

That depends on the cookies which you use. Those which are deemed to be “essential” such as login cookies can be used without consent. The term “essential” applies to the users needs, and not your own. Also, this currently only applies to companies operating in the UK. Where your site is hosted is irrelevant.

If you’re using cookies that are included, you’ll have to start getting users consent. There’s a number of ways of doing this. All have a negative effect on your site. I’m in the process of putting systems in place for my clients currently, and doing my bit to get this law repealed. Please sign the petition.

You will also need to update your Privacy Policy to explain what cookies are, why you’re using them and what information they hold.

Fight The Good Fight


This Change.org petition is no longer available.

In A NutShell, Why Should This EU Cookie Directive Cease To Exist In It’s Current Form?

IT WILL POSE AN ANNOYANCE TO WEB USERS – They will be presented with an alert each time they visit a site which is covered by this directive, to the extent t that they may seek out non-EU alternatives.

ADDED COSTS TO EU BUSINESSES – Businesses have to go through the hassle of implemented systems to comply with this law. Non-compliance could cost you a hefty £500,000 for a serious breach.

IT MAINLY TARGETS THE WRONG PEOPLE – Even if the cookie is from a third-party, like the crafty Facebook ‘Like’ buttons, you’re responsible if it’s on your site. Companies such as Facebook and the ad-serving companies are the ones who should be affected by these regulations.

THE LAW DIFFERS FROM COUNTRY TO COUNTRY – Being compliant in one doesn’t mean that you’ll be compliant according to the local laws of the user.

IT AFFECTS MORE THAN JUST COOKIES – Any technology that needs to store something on your machine will need your explicit permission.

EU BUSINESSES WILL SUFFER – No matter what business you’re in, your market will be competitive. People like me, use cookies to gather non-identifiable information to improve the websites we create, making the sites easier to use, and more relevant to the visitor. If people decline to accept, we’re deprived of this data, giving non-EU businesses a huge advantage.

USER EDUCATION IS THE KEY – Web browsers already have systems in place to allow web-users to control what information they share and what information is stored on their machine. Greater emphasise should be placed on educating web users and safety / privacy.