Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Piktochart’s Latest Version Lets Users Make Search-Friendly Infographics

Love them or hate them, infographics are a potent marketing tool, especially on visually-oriented Web sites like Pinterest or Facebook. But using an image to present information often means losing out on SEO opportunities. Malaysia-based startup Piktochart seeks to bridge that gap with the launch today of its retooled Web-based app, which now allows users to create interactive, search-friendly infographics. New features enable hyperlinks to be inserted into each infographic, as well as multiple viewable tabs so users can add different layers of content. Infographics are created using Piktochart’s Web-based editor, which allows users to drag-and-drop text, images and icons. There are more than 100 themes available on the paid version of Piktochart that can be further customized by changing fonts, backgrounds and colors. Infographics and other presentation tools are hosted on the cloud and can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest directly from Piktochart. Since its launch in March 2012, over 5,000 small businesses and educational institutes have signed up for Piktochart Pro, says the company. The free version of the app has an additional 170,000 users. Piktochart received a $140,000 grant from the Malaysia government’s Cradle Fund in December. Prior to that, it was funded through Chinaccelerator.

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Chasing the Right CMS: Joomla, Drupal or WordPress?

When choosing a CMS for your prospective website, it can be really tough to make a choice. It often boils down to the three most popular counterparts on the CMS market: Drupal, Joomla! and WordPress. They are so closely associated with each other that hearing one name you almost expect to hear the other two. What makes differentiating these CMSs so difficult is that they are all very similar, but only at the first sight. All of them are free and open source, which means you can get your copy for no cost and can modify it to your taste. But on the closer look, you realize these platforms are totally different. And this is the key point – if they’re different, they can’t be compared in general, like which one is better? It’s like comparing a pen, a pencil and a marker. These are writing tools, but are they the same? In case with the three CMSs in question, you can only define which one is better for your particular project or which one excels at doing a specific task.marketshareLooking at this research diagram from wp.smashingmagazine.com, the share of WordPress among the top 1 million websites is the greatest, the second prize goes to Joomla and Drupal is the third. What is the reason of the division like this? Let’s see! WordPress WordPress is famous for being very easy to install – 5 minutes is enough. If that’s so easy, no wonder so many people start their own website powered by WordPress. It is also known as the most easy-to-use CMS among the three. However, it doesn’t mean there’s no need to learn at all. It means that you can quickly get accustomed to using the backend and master the basics. Sure, becoming an advanced user requires time and efforts. WordPress also boasts the most available plugin and themes. This abundance attracts many users, taking into account that most of these plugins are free. These are the things WordPress is good at and which probably explain its popularity. Joomla! Joomla! is the type of CMS catering for different types of users – designers, developers and bloggers can employ it for building websites. While Joomla! possesses a bit steeper learning curve than that of WordPress, it also has multiple customisation opportunities and allows seamless integration of modules to extend the site with more features. It is a frequent choice for community websites, forums and websites with user donated content. Joomla! has robust design and branding features, which is why it is also used for company websites that require something exclusive as opposed to a number of freely distributed themes and design templates. Drupal The most common association connected with this CMS is that Drupal is designed for developers. The thing is, it features the steepest learning curve and is very difficult to use for a person with no previous experience and no coding skills. On the other hand, this complexity corresponds to the abundance of opportunities you get with this CMS – you can do virtually anything with your Drupal site, provided that you know how to use and configure it correctly. There’s no sense in selecting Drupal to run a small blog or a business-card website, it is the CMS of great possibilities. And this is the reason why it is not so extensively used. However, Drupal powers very complex sites like enterprise websites with different access levels and integrated advanced functionalities. In Conclusion In order to make the right choice, don’t go for popularity or exclusiveness. Consider the factors that matter most for your future website, carefully weigh your knowledge, your desire to learn more and the growth prospects. In case you’ve previously made your choice and would like to change your existing CMS software for something better suited to your demands, with CMS2CMS online migration service your switch will be as accurate and swift as possible with no expenses on your side. Register your account and you’ll see how easy CMS changes can be! For more details concerning automated CMS migration, visit www.cms2cms.com.