• Windows: Internet Explorer 7 to 9, Firefox 4 to 9, Safari 4 & 5, Chrome 17+
• Mac: Safari 4 & 5, Firefox 4 to 9, Chrome 17+
• Mobile: iPhone, iPad (iOS 3+)

To speed up testing and development, we use a number of online browser testing services we thought we’d share, in order of brilliance.

Litmus

These guys do an awesome job of email and website previews (even if they are limited to static images of each website so you can’t scroll around or test Javascript like slideshows etc).

We have been using this UK based outfit for years and heartily recommend them:

You can also share any results with clients, such as this sample of a new Home page and slideshow for Brookfarm:
https://evolvedwebsites.litmus.com/pub/e38bf7e

View their full offerings at http://litmus.com

Browserstack

We’ve only just discovered this service which lets you browse any website using actual browsers, not emulators, so far so good, and we’ll likely signup for their professional account at $19 per month (unlimited testing).

http://www.browserstack.com

IE Netrenderer

An older service which lets you take a screenshot using just one IE browser at a time, since using Litmus I have to admit we don’t use this anymore. It can be quite slow, but is free and still useful if you can’t afford to pay for a one-off testing session:

http://netrenderer.com

If, like us, you have a Website, a Facebook Page and a Twitter account it can be a nightmare to keep all three updated, with our new ‘Share on Facebook / Twitter’ feature its a simple 3 step process:

1. Add new information on your website:

2. ‘Share on Facebook’

3. Review what’s about to be shared (above)
..and edit as you please, then press Save, and its instantly sent to your Facebook Page:

A lovely new feature, give us a shout if you want to upgrade…

Next up, Twitter integration in a week or so.

(available for CMS v9)

E.g. a search on Ask A Naturopath for ‘tea tree‘ shows a range of treatments for blackheads, candida and others.

Here’s a little video we made explaining how it work:

Luckily iOS devices are easy to design for, and seem to replicate much of Apple Mail’s features so eNewsletter still end up looking great.

Now would be a good time to start thinking about designing more fluid, mobile friendly eNewsletters that take full advantage of the iPad and iPhone interface. Or even a mobile-specific enewsletter layout, which is sent at the same time (using CSS code) as the full-version.

Benefits of using email marketing include:

• It works - Based on research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing is predicted to return an incredible $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009, more than 6 times the return from print catalogs.
• It’s cost effective - There are no printing costs and you can get your message delivered for several cents per recipient. Once a template is setup you can use it again and again with new copy, without extra design costs.
• It’s immediate - Email generates an immediate response, the majority of your recipients will see your message in the first 24-48 hours (see sample graph below).
• It’s relevant - Email makes it easy to segment your subscribers using a variety of criteria like demographics and past campaign behaviour (such as clicking a certain link). Ensure your message goes to the individuals most likely to be interested in your offer.
• It’s completely measureable - More than any other form of marketing, email can provide actionable data on the results it generates. Keep track of who opened your email and when, what topics they were interested in, who forwarded it on to a friend, how many sales were generated and much more.

Just some of the benefits of our Media Area are:

• drag n drop uploading saves oodles of time, right from your desktop or even iPhoto
• you don’t have to resize any images before uploading (as long as they are under 5Mb they will be fine), as we resize all uploaded images
• you can delete images from The Media Library and they will still show on the website
• better organisation by categorising images into folders

And a few technical, but important, additions:

• PNG, BMP and TIFF files are converted to JPG to make them smaller and web-safe
• CMRK print-ready images are converted to JPG making them web-safe
• 300dpi images (or anything bigger than 72dpi) will be converted to smaller, faster 72dpi images

We are thrilled with this update, and are sure you will be too.

Available now in CMS v6, v7 & v8.

Yari McGauley

New eNewsletter Features

Worldview
Shows each and every subscriber on a world map as they open your eNewsletters, complete with name, email and if they opened, clicked or shared via Facebook or Twitter.

Social sharing to your email subscribe forms
Rally your people to spread the word about your site launch or product by integrating social media ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ in your eNewsletterts. Ask us how.

New Templates
You can now also choose from 37 pre-designed email templates, which we then customise with your logo and content (text & images), or have us custom-design your own email template.

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All this is instantly available, just login to your eNewsletters as normal at http://mailout.evolvedwebsites.com.au

New eNewsletter Editor

We’ve undergone a huge upgrade to the eNewsletter editor, here’s a short video showing some of the highlights.

This changes lots of small things when editing your eNewsletters, such as live preview as you type, no more annoying popup box when pasting text, more images per template and lots more.

Login and create a draft eNewsletter to have a play with the new changes.

New eNewsletter Monthly Pricing

We now offer 2 ways to pay for eNewsletters:

1. Pay per mailout
2. NEW Pay per month, for unlimited sending

Send more than one eNewsletter a month? Unlimited mailouts, billed monthly based on number of subscribers.

Contact us here for pricing

Did you know we have an online eNewsletter Manual?

In case you didn’t know, or haven’t been there recently our online manual has plenty of advice and guides on creating eNewsletters, sending, reports and subscribers:

• View eNews Manual

Get in touch with us if you would like help with any of the things discussed here today.

1. website downtime 33%
2. defacements of websites 15%
3. leakage of information 13%

Not upgrading security of open-source software can lead to serious hacking, the Evolved CMS is NOT open-source, some common hacks we’ve witnessed include:

1. Pornographic Content (website defacing)

The hacker inserts pornographic material on the website, usually in blog comments (also called comment spam) linking it to their own website in an attempt to lure visitors away. They may also setup redirects to their own website, so visitors are automatically sent to their own website.

2. Illegal Back Links (search engine optimisation)

Hackers insert links to their own websites on as many pages as they can, often hiding them with Javascript or CSS so they are undetectable to visitors, however Google and other search engines then count these links as ‘votes’ for the hacker’s website, boosting their position in the search engines. This may also lead to the hacked-website being black-listed by search engines.

3. Political / Fun Hacks (website defacing / mischief)

Illegal political groups or simply kids may hack into websites as a test of skill and post anti-government statements / images or just their pseudonyms as proof of their hacking skill.

4. Stealing Emails & Passwords (stealing information)

Potentially the worst kind of hack is when someone gains access to the Administration area and can steal usernames, emails and passwords for all customers, email subscribers etc.

NOTE: The Evolved CMS has never been successfully hacked into.