What is Facebook’s EdgeRank?

Facebook introduced an algorithm called EdgeRank that determines which content to show in each persons news feed. The effects on a person to person level is that no longer will you see everything your friends post to Facebook in your news feed  unless you look at their profile/timeline.

This EdgeRank algorithm also effects content posted from a Facebook page (formerly called a fan page). So when the administrator posts an announcement to the page Facebook’s EdgeRank determines who should see the content in their news feed.

What are the factors of EdgeRank?

Most sites point to three factors: User Interactions, Weight, and Time Decay. The basic factor of EdgeRank is a User Interaction which is an umbrella term including one of the following actions: message, viewing the timeline/page/profile, liking a piece of content, sharing a piece of content or commenting on anything from the page or user. So the more you interact with content from a friend or from a page the more likely content from that person or page will show up in your news feed.

Outside of your personal interactions, there are other factors of EdgeRank:

• Total Interactions, the more likes, shares, or comments a piece of content has the more likely it will show up in more news feeds
• Content Weight, videos and pictures have more EdgeRank than just plain text
• Time Decay, the longer a peice of content is out there the less likely it will show up in your news feed (news isn’t old right :)
• Your network, if a friend you interact with has interactions with a piece of content it will be more likely to show up in your news feed. Technically this is bundled under the “User Interactions” factor but is pulled out for our discussion today.

So we’ll boil EdgeRank all down to a simple statement: Content is more likely to show up in your news feed if you have previously interacted with the page, if the content has a lot of interactions on it,  if it’s a photo or video, if it’s within the last hour, and if your friends have interacted with it.

How can we help?

The people behind the Facebook Page which sent you here is passionate about something and the fact that you came here you are passionate about helping them, for that we thank you. Since you clicked on the link to get here you probably already have a high EdgeRank between you and the Page which sent you here. But as we know the page has a larger audience which isn’t seeing their content. This is where the Network Effect may play a role.

What you can do to effect the EdgeRank factor of a piece of content:

• Interact with the content (like, comment, or share)
• Do your interaction soon after the content is posted (seconds count)

Lets get real, you have a life and aren’t on Facebook enough to see all the content this Page has posted, so how do you cut through all the clutter and get your interaction to be timely? We’re so glad you asked!

SMS and Facebook’s EdgeRank

Did you know you can subscribe to a Facebook Page’s updates (and a person’s updates) through sms? And when you get a text from Facebook it will contain the first 100 or so characters of the update. You can comment on it by replying via text/sms or you can reply with “like” (without the quotes) to Like it. Both of these actions will contribute as an personal interaction on that piece of content and will increase it’s EdgeRank for your network and for the page’s connections.

That’s it, that’s the secret way to help a page beat the EdgeRank algorithm. Simply subscribe via sms to the page and like or comment (via text message) to content. Your participation will increase the content’s EdgeRank and will serve to further the mission of the Facebook Page you are subscribed to. What follows is a step-by-step method of how to setup sms and subscribe to a page.

Setup SMS and Facebook

1. Configure Mobile
   • Go to Account Settings, then click Mobile in the left sidebar (or go here)
   • Click Add a Phone
   • Choose your Country and Carrier and click Next
   • Text the letter F to 32665 (FBOOK)
   • Type in the confirmation code
   • (clear the checkboxes if you want to)
   • Click Next
   • Verify that you have Notifications enabled: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=mobile&section=notifications&t
2. Subscribe to the page via SMS
   • Visit the Facebook page which sent you here (or any Facebook page/user profile  you want to subscribe to)
   • In the left sidebar find the “Get Updates via SMS” Link and click it

Thats it, now when you receive a status update you can simply type like from your phone or a comment and send it back. Viola EdgeRank effected.

Thanks for your support!

Recently I celebrated with a few other contractors my first official year of being a freelance digital marketer. It’s been over a year and I’ve seen some crazy things happen. The largest one being that I intended to be a freelancer, and now I’m running a virtual digital agency. (Connex pays/represents 5 contractors, I happen to be the salesman, account manager and one of the contractors :)

I try to live my life with no regrets, and I do not regret leaving the best job I’ve ever had, however the road, the journey this first year has not proved to be easy. I’ve made many mistakes and my failures have become brighter, louder and more annoying to me.

So if you want some background on me quitting my job last year  or the second company I started in the past year  check those posts out, or the inspiration for this post, but if you want to know a fraction of the lessons I’ve learned in my first year read on.

The First Year: 10 Lessons Learned

1. I don’t scale.

I try my hardest to work more and work harder but I still fall behind. I cannot be around for my wife, available for my kids, work 80+ hours a week and keep in touch with all my friends. I owe apologies to many clients, friends, aquaintances and more for not being able to scale. (The Connex tean was birthed out of this lesson, and frankly working with a team is much better.)

2. I’m not perfect.

Don’t get me wrong, I think I’m pretty great. But when you jump from a perfectly good job to be a freelance contractor you have to have a healthy dose of ego. I admit that there are days when I doubt every decision I have ever made, from the house we bought to the career I’m in to the college I went to. But in general, people find me to be a very assured person. However the challenges I’ve faced in the last year have led me to take a slightly more humble approach to clients, people, friends and more.

3. I’ve met incredible people.

Right here would be the opprotunity to name drop.. like James Altucher did here. But I’d rather leave it to your imagination, from millionares to winners of the best father of the year award, from anti-social really gifted contractors, to highly sucessful beer-entrapreneurs. None of these I’ve mentioned would have talked to me in my previous “job” but being a contractor, and an entrepreneur starting a business opens doors you’d never believe. I even consult with my competition on a weekly basis!

4. Taxes suck!

Need I say more? When you are watching every penny coming and going, thinking you’re doing well by paying bills on time etc and then find out that you owe Uncle Sam more than 10 months of one project’s revenues… well that hypotentical situation just may have taken the wind out of my sales and my sails.

5. I have the best wife in the world.

Today happens to be our 8th anniversary and she’s been with me through some of my most critical moments in career and personal life. She’s seen me get downsized (lets call it fired) and seen me quit a job after only working there 3 days. Shoot we got engaged while I was unemployeed and living at my Mom’s place accumulating debt daily. Today, the picture is a different story, but I could never have made it half way here without her. So my love, happy anniversary and thank you for believing in my potential even when I doubt it. I’m looking forward to our date tonight!

6. Search still sells.

I named my company Connex Social, after what I thought was hot, Social Media marketing. However after 12 months of doing social media for various clients and Search Engine Optimization for some of those and many others I’ve come to realize I was a little bit ahead of my time. Real businesses, where watching the bottom line is important are still buying SEO services. The “search problem” is far from solved and thanks to Panda continues to generate a revenue for my company and many others.

7. You can ride the wave of sucess.

Each project that expeiences sucess has brought in more projects and more clients. Perhaps the wave of success only lasts 12 months, or 3 years. But however long it lasts I’m gonna ride it.

8. Marketing yourself is hard.

Before starting my own gig, I was frustrated with marketing agencies who failed to market themselves. I now resemble that. It’s a factor of the billable hour. (I’ve got an ego that encourages me to market myself and my business, that’s not hard. But justifying the time is.)

9. There is no way to do a service business without the billable hour.

I think my long term quest of which this “first year” has been my social media agency is to move away from the billable hour. I think Noah Kagen has it right playing more disc golf.

10. I have some of the best people in the state working with and for me.

Connex’s sucess wouldn’t be a fraction of what it is today without them.

So raise your glasses, here’s to the next first year, to my contractors, and the next 10 lessons learned.

What about your first year?

What lessons have you learned as a freelancer, as a contractor, or in the first year of your business?

Why Twitter List Management?

There is only so much data one can consume in a day. With twitter there are reasons you may need or want to follow accounts that you don’t actually want to read their content on a regular basis. You really have two options, ignore the content they are posting, or add everyone else to a list and just watch that list.

Essentially twitter lists help you to curate content and consume it when you want to. If you were interested in travel deals you could create a travel-deals list and put all the discount travel twitter accounts into it. Or if you want to find spiritual inspiration you could create a list for that and put pastors, theologians, thinkers, and other spiritual leaders into it.

Other types of twitter lists (they are endless):

• friends you know or have met in real life
• customers/clients/audience/ etc.
• family
• co-workers (can spy on them)
• news/media (always nice to have to find out what’s going on)
• local people
• famous people (in your sphere, or in social media, or in traditional media, or musicians etc)
• funny  accounts (lolcats and more)

Do I have to follow someone to add them to a list?

Simple answer: no. You can add anyone to a list and keep them from ever showing up in your main twitter timeline.  (There are longer more drawn out answers to this question that refer to twitter follow building strategy and more)

Do they get notified when I add them to a list?

Simple answer: That depends. You have the option of making the list public or private. For example you may have a friends list as public, but a “people I’m spying on” list as private.  Lists that are private are just that, only you know what the list name is, the description and how is in the list. No one else (except the employees of twitter of course, and any application you’ve given permission to your account) can see this information on a private list.

If it’s a public list, users can get notified via tools if they’ve been added to a list. Or anyone can click on the list to see who is in the list. Users can also see which lists an account has been added to. This calls for pictures and examples:

How to see who is in a list:

First you have to find a list… view any user (in this case @cspenn) and notice the tabs right above the first tweet:

See the “Lists” section to the right? click on that to reveal the public lists this user has created:

Fun set of lists eh? My favorite is the sent-me-dm-spam… Anyways, click on one of those list links to view the curated content of that list, I went with the first one, and the URL looks like: http://twitter.com/#!/cspenn/replied you can now see the curated content of @cspenn in his replied list. Note the top gives you some interesting information:

At the time of this post, there were 17 users listed in the “replied” list for @cspenn, and one person is subscribed to the list (yes you can follow lists which means you are not following each of the 17 people in this list but you will get their content in your timeline because you are following a list they are in…. )

To see who is in this replied list click on the “Following: 17″ tab.  which brings you to this URL: http://twitter.com/#!/cspenn/replied/members

And thats how you can see who is in a list (any public list)

How to see what twitter lists a user is in?

This is actually more simple. Click to a user, (Still picking on @cspenn here) find their stats area in the top of the right hand column:

You’ll see that as of this writing Christopher has been added to 2,758 Public lists. (yup that’s right, private lists are private and are not counted in this number) Click on that number to see the 2,758 lists.

So there you have it, via the web you can see lists, see who are in a given list, see the content in a given list and see where a given user is listed.

But How do I create a twitter list?

Simple, sign into twitter, find the lists tab (just above your timeline) click on it and then choose “create a list”

From the resulting window you can fill in the name, description and choose if it’s to be public or private.

Ok but how do I add a user to a Twitter list?

Go to a user’s  profile, and find the little man button.

Click on it

Choose “Add to list”

Done.

Remember you don’t have to be following a user to add them to a list.

And that’s the basics of twitter list management via the web.

What about twitter lists on my iPhone/Andrioid App?

• From your home timeline, click the three-dot … icon on lower right hand side of your screen (hint: it’s next to the magnifying glass icon.)
• Clicking on that icon will bring you to a menu that includes, down at the bottom, all of the lists you’ve created and the lists you’re following. You can add a new list right here.
• Or, once you’ve clicked on a list you can then touch the icon in the lower right hand corner of your screen to bring up a list of options such as sharing, editing, or deleting the list. Win!

Advanced tools for Twitter List Management

I have some lists which I manage manually and some which I manages using these tools, it just depends on the needs, but I have to admit I find Formulists to be the best twitter list management tool out there:

• formulists – too many functions to mention
• listorious - twitter list directory
• tweepML –  find more twitter lists
• more list tools from oneforty

************* original post ***************

This is a developing story… but too many people have been asking so I’m writing this to explain a few things.

Dreamhost is not having problems which is what their status sites are not reporting anything.

However there is a network issue. So far I have Verizon 3g, ATT 3g, Comcast are able to connect to the dreamhost services (all in the US) networks like ATT DSL, Telecom in New Zealand, and movistar/telefonica in spain. It appears that things are stopping at NTT’s routers. Keynote doesn’t seem to be reporting the problem however.

Traceroute NTT to Dreamhost

Below is my Traceroute which stops at NTT (I’ve confirmed this from other users.)

4  dist2-vlan50.klmzmi.ameritech.net (67.36.55.227)  11.312 ms  11.565 ms  11.258 ms

5  bb2-10g4-0.klmzmi.sbcglobal.net (151.164.38.108)  11.540 ms  11.713 ms  11.293 ms

6  ppp-151-164-55-186.eulstx.swbell.net (151.164.55.186)  16.000 ms  16.473 ms  22.581 ms

7  xe-0-2-0-6.r06.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.9.73)  16.794 ms    as2914-ntt.eqchil.sbcglobal.net (151.164.251.114)  16.731 ms    xe-0-2-0-5.r06.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.8.53)  17.411 ms

8  ae-7.r21.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.4.201)  17.886 ms  18.064 ms  17.121 ms

9  ae-4.r21.dllstx09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.2.200)  79.086 ms  62.567 ms  47.831 ms

10  ae-0.r20.dllstx09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.2.58)  47.189 ms  47.805 ms  43.454 ms

11  ae-5.r20.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.2.168)  75.436 ms  74.784 ms  76.309 ms

12  ae-1.r04.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.5.2)  74.678 ms  74.117 ms  74.571 ms

13  * * *

14  * * *

15  * * *

I’d love to see your traceroutes and what ISPs are working or not working for you. For now I’m running over 3g, slow but at least my requests work.

and I didn’t know it :)

The below is copied and pasted from a piece of spam email that I received. It made it through two email spam filters including Google’s. So I imagine I’m not the only one who has received it. When I did a quick search I didn’t find any examples, so I’m adding this to the interwebs as official spam documentation.

It’s too bad, I always thought my uncle was a rich Oil Tycoon ;)

Dear Paul Kortman, I am Barr. Toya Aboke a legal practitioner, I am the personal attorney to Eng. M. C. Kortman an oil consultant. On the 21sth of April 2003, our deceased customer, his wife and their only daughter were involved in a motor accident and It was unfortunate that our deceased customer and his family all lost their lives in that accident. Do kindly contact me directly on my private email address below thus; (toyaboke@gmail.com) for more details in respect for the claim of his Estate/Fund valued (US$11.5Million)left behind before it gets confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Finance Firm. Best Regards Toya Aboke (Esq) Principal Attorney, Lome Togo.

————————————————————-

This message was sent to you from your Google profile. The sender does not have your email address.

If you no longer wish to receive messages from your Google profile, you may edit your settings.

It was well written, but still spam. So folks are spamming Google Profiles now….. lovely.

Just doing my part to document the spam on the interwebs… and now back to your regularly scheduled tube surfing.

Image Source

But for those of you who didn’t click those links, keep reading here to witness me rant about a few things. But first I do have to explain what FutureMidwest is:

What is Future Midwest?

Pitched on it’s website as “The region’s largest digital business conference.” Future Midwest is like a regional South by Southwest. (SXSW) They explain further on the website and most of their marketing has been around the concept of Midwest being the region and that the conference will be: “professionals with extensive digital, marketing and strategic backgrounds teaching attendees “what” they should expect to see in the coming years and “how” to successfully capitalize on the trends with marketing and business strategies.” Plus “the opportunity to network with each other, presenters and professionals from the startup community, VC firms and a variety of other industries and backgrounds.”

I’ve been able to network with VCs, startups, presenters, and professionals in the startup community. I’ve also heard a couple of engaging talks on business and the future of digital business (mobil and social). I’ve seen some really amazing talent represented here.

Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop?

The Problem with Future MIDWEST

Is that this has been all about Detroit. Yes I understand that there are a lot of people from Detroit here, and that the founders are Detroit focused etc. But for those of us not from Detroit I didn’t pay to come to a cheerleading session about how Woodward Ave will be changed to Webward Ave. (Which is stupid on so many levels). And I didn’t pay to hear speakers show me how things are terrible in Detroit, why they are and what D Town needs to do to revitalize.

I’m not from Detroit.

I’m a West Sider, and while I think we should all get along and play well together, I expected this conference to contain more information about the region, about the Midwest. Something that I can be proud of to talk to my friends in Chicago and explain what is coming out of Michigan, or explain to my Californian friends what is cool and coming out of the MidWest.

I also expected to see people brainstorming how we can unite across barriers such as states and geography to get the midwest into the mobile-social playing field. Lets talk about 4G and why the MidWest is being over looked.

Instead I’m pitched the fact that light rail is coming to Detroit and will not ever reach outside of Detroit.

If thist conference were named Future Detroit I could understand all the cheerleading about Mo Town, but since it’s called Future MidWest can we please please discuss the region? @davemurr one of the co-chair’s for Future MidWest even had the balls to post this tweet: “Michigan still suffers from pocketed communities. #Detroit, #AnnArbor, #GrandRapids, #Lansing are you listening? #FMW11″  I wanted to scream so bad when I read that. If Future Midwest is truly about the midwest then get off the D Town cheerleading squad and start the open dialog.

And that’s day one.

Oh there was also this thing called Funded by Night. So, So, So worth my money for the whole conference, and then some. Sorry to the 20 something startups who presented and didn’t win. But wow what an event!

Have you even been to a conference that pimped out the city you were not from, and did it in a way that wasn’t attractive? What did you do?

Buffer Twitter App Review

Twitter’s latest evaluation of $7.7 billion goes far beyond it’s monetary value. Making a difference on Twitter is more important than ever. What you best avoid at all times is annoying your followers by sending them too many tweets at once.

If you feel you could do with spreading out your tweets a bit more and tweet more consistently every day, let me introduce you to Buffer a new Twitter App.

Buffer? Can you just give me a quick description?

Buffer lets you add many tweets at once to your Buffer account and then spreads them out over the day for you. I find this particularly useful when you read the news. I put my 5 favourite articles into the Buffer and the app will tweet them well spread out over the course of the day. No individual scheduling or time setting. One click and it’s in your Buffer.

I am interested – What does it do in more detail?

The easiest way to put tweets into your Buffer is by using one of the browser extensions. Whenever you find an interesting article, you give it one click on the Buffer icon.

Buffer, by default, gives you the title and the link of the site you are on. You can edit the tweet some more or simply hit “add to Buffer” right away.

See an example of Colin’s post below:

Track the impact of your buffered tweets with analytics too

Conveniently Buffer has also just launched an analytics feature. It will help you to track the impact for your tweets. It shows you the retweets of all your tweets sent via Buffer. The service will have click rate and other handy insights ready real soon too.

What happens to my tweets when Buffered?

Once you added tweets to your Buffer, they will be scheduled for you. This means your updates will be tweeted for you during the day. When? Here is how it works:

When you first sign up you set a couple of fixed tweeting times. Now at each time, one of your tweets will go out every day. The good thing is that there is no need to schedule each tweet individually, like you would do with other tweet scheduling services. Oh and of course you can always change your daily tweeting times any time.

As an example, here are my daily tweeting times, where each one of my buffered tweets will go out:

What makes Buffer “killer”?

If you have similar habits like me, reading many great blogposts every day and trying to get the most out of Twitter, you will love to use Buffer.

The thing you will appreciate most about Buffer is that all it takes is one click on the icon to have another tweet scheduled in your Buffer. On top of that you share great articles with your followers consistently all day and you don’t flood them with too many tweets at once.

Finally I also want to point out that Buffer is no “instead of Tweetdeck or Hootsuite” tool. You can seamlessly integrate the use of Buffer with your favourite client.

You should try out Buffer and let me know your views below. I am very curious if you find it useful too.

Paul Here

So let’s hear it, was this a benificial review? Do you like the guest post format? Have you tried Buffer? Shout out in the comments below. Oh, and here is a handy Twitter search to find out who is using buffer

• Page layouts now appear like the new profile layouts (pictures at top, “tabs” in the left column under pic)
• Admins can be publicly displayed
• Page Admins can comment on public users timeline and other pages’ walls
• Lighbox for Picture viewing
• FBML is going away March 11. Welcome iFrames

This post is aimed at the non developer (or dare I say the web developer not familiar with developing on Facebook) in an effort to give the bare minimum of what is needed to get your first custom “tab” via iframe deployed.

Facebook Custom tab?

In the new page layout there are no longer tabs, so we’ll shortly stop calling them tabs and move towards Custom applications, or Custom app. The Landing tab nomenclature will probably move to a Page’s custom landing application, or landing app. But for now even Facebook is still calling them tabs (strange?)

When we created custom tabs using FBML we actually added an application called Static FBML which supposedly is going away March 11. Facebook has had trouble deprecating things like FBML in the past so I take this as a warning but not a hard deadline. Oh and if you are reading this before March 11 2011, please please please add a couple Static FBML apps to your page, at a minimum it leaves your options open. We don’t fully know what we’re loosing yet.

Now that Static FBML is going away we will still need to add an application to our page to develop the custom tab. But instead of it being FBML, we need it to be an iframe. Since there is no “Static FBML” equivalent in the iFrame world below is a description of how to create your own custom Facebook application to use the iFrame capabilities.

What is an iFrame and why do I want it on Facebook?

An iFrame allows you to display content from page A on page B. Typically iFrames are used to cross domains. So I can embed a YouTube video on my site via iFrame. The code for the iFrame simply tells the browser to request the content from this location (server).

The key for you and your Facebook page is now you can use your company’s CMS and integrate with your database, or provide ecommerce information on this “tab” without having to go to Facebook. Once the iFrame is established all you have to do is change the content of the page it’s pulling in (typically on your company’s website, though I recommend you hide it from the general public)

How To add an iFrame to Facebook page

Go to facebook.com/developers and click on the “+ Set Up New App” button.  (Or click the “Create one” link) which takes you to: http://www.facebook.com/developers/createapp.php

Give your application a name. And agree to the Facebook Terms of Service.

Verify your humanness. Robots need not apply.

Welcome to the craziness! What I will focus on here is the bare minimum to getting your Facebook custom iframe app up and running. However there is a lot more to these apps than what I will cover. Bonus: Not needed for this to work, but it makes you look good: Change the Icon (click Change your icon) to upload a 16px x 16px icon for your “custom tab” Everything else on this page is 100% optional for today’s objective.

The “Facebook Integration” link in the left column is where the rabbit trail goes even deeper.

The most confusing section for a non-facebook-developer is the Canvas Page and Canvas URL fields. The hint is this: Facebook combines a setting below with  your Canvas URL to create the URL it requests for the iFrame. For now fill out the Canvas page, and in the Canvas URL fill in everything but the page for your iframe, ex: http://myhost.com/iframe-content-here will break into the Canvas URL of just http://myhost.com whereas http://myhost.com/cat1/date/funURL/iframe-content-here will break into the Canvas URL of http://myhost.com/cat1/date/funURL/ Always have a trailing slash in this field.

This took me a little while and some 404 logfile reading to figure out, because Facebook does not make it clear how these are used.

Then We finally get to the important part: The Tab settings. Simply give the tab a name (keep it really short, limited to 16 characters) Choose iFrame and give it a Tab URL. The Tab URL is the final part of the iframe content request URL from above. So if your iframe content lives at http://myhost.com/iframe-content-here your Canvas URL would be http://myhost.com and your Tab URL would be iframe-content-here. Even if your content lived at http://myhost.com/cat1/date/funURL/iframe-content-here your Tab URL would be the same iframe-content-here (your Canvas URL should however be different)

Save these changes. Congratulations, you’ve made your first Facebook application. Now we need to add it to the page of your choice.

Add the App to your Page

In the resulting page you have the option of Editing the Settings which allows you to dive deeper into these or fix any problems you may have encountered. But to add it to the page you will need to click the “Application Profile Page”

On the Application Profile Page choose “Add to my Page.” Under the Profile image (which should be the default Facebook grey toned image) Choose the page you want this iFrame to appear on and click the “Add to page” button next to it.

Done!

When you visit that page you will now see the Welcome! as a link under the profile picture.

Make the iFrame Tab the Default for Viewers

To make it the default click Edit Page in the upper right hand corner.

Choose Manage Permissions

In the default Landing Tab: Drop down selector choose your new application: Welcome! and Save Changes.

Follow Up?

These directions might not be 100% accurate, however please let me know if you find the useful, or if you se any problems here.

Yeah I miss FBML already ;)

Paul, If you woke up this morning and you Boss said lets blow up the website, start over will all things new and I want it done in 2 months, besides the panic, which CMS would you choose? WordPress versus Drupal verus Joomla versus EE? Or something else for a 2000 Page site…

Values placed on the selection:

• Common development the ability to use what others have done
• Flexible
• Easy for admins/editors to edit
• SEO friendly
• Local developers
• Manageable site of 2000+ pages

CMS Comparisons

The decisions as to which CMS are difficult. However the most important part of the CMS puzzle is your developers. All of these are written in PHP and can have plugins/modules written for it, however some are friendlier to developers than others. The reason it’s about your developers: None of these will work off the shelf and with existing plugins. All will have to be customized up front and tweaked as you make changes.

WordPress (aka WP)

• Developers: Developers don’t love this as much as Drupal, but the ease of use for the user and the common use of this cms has attracted a lot of developers.
• Quantity of local developers: Far and away the clear winner in this space. Just about every developer has experience with WP.
• Editor/admin Usability: Bar none the most user friendly CMS in this list
• Can it handle 2000 pages: yes easily – its not just a blog anymore
• Common Development – plugins: tons, a lot of bad ones, but there are tons of plugins out there.
• Common Development – themes: tons, costs are in the $100 range, buy one, modify it, life is good.
• Flexible: Very flexible, i’ve seen WordPress do pretty crazy things, but yet at it’s core it’s a loop based blogging cms so not the best in this list for flexibility
• Out of the box SEO: Best in this list. It’s baked into the base code
• Plugin SEO: Even better. – tons of options
• Typical Dev needs: Heavy upfront, very little after launch most of the tweaks can happen by a junior level developer
• Sites using WP

Joomla

• Developers: Typically they struggle. I have not found a really, really good developer who develops for Joomla (they can and will, but they curse while doing it)
• Quantity of local developers: Joomla Users Groups are mostly end users trying to figure out how to use it – this ranks 3rd.
• Editor/admin Usability: the worst on this list
• Can it handle 2000 pages: yes but it’d be really complicated on the admin to find them all.
• Common Development – plugins: out there. not great, not a huge selection — typically devs roll their own
• Common Development – themes: some, not great.
• Flexible: least in this list. combine the limited plugins, limited developers, with the frustration for devs and the limited functions out of the box — its pretty limited.
• Out of the box SEO: Good luck
• Plugin SEO: only comes half way to where it needs to be
• Typical Dev needs: Steady
• Sites using Joomla

Drupal

• Developers: They love this CMS, I don’t know why yet, but I know really good developers who Drupal out all day. — the learning curve is higher than in WordPress, but makes sense after learning
• Quantity of local developers: More than I would expect. 2nd place behind WordPress
• Editor/admin Usability: not the best, but it’s fair/good probably tied with EE
• Can it handle 2000 pages: yes easily
• Common Development – plugins: yes, and growing more each day.
• Common Development – themes: yes and growing more each day
• Flexible: Probably the most flexible on this list.
• Out of the box SEO: #2, right behind WordPress
• Plugin SEO: makes it neck and neck with WordPress
• Typical Dev needs: Heavy upfront, weekly/monthly after
• Sites using Drupal

Expression Engine (aka EE)

• Developers: Those who do EE do it well, but there is a huge barrier to entry. I do know smart developers on the EE platform — also the company who makes it is available to support/develop on EE. Probably one of the only CMSs in this list that can say that
• Quantity of Local Developers: One of the top Experts on EE is local, but overall this CMS has the lowest quantity available in this list
• Editor/admin Usability: Again tied with Drupal
• Can it handle 2000 pages: yes easily
• Common Development – plugins: the lowest quantity on this list – but best quality. However if you want to display twitter feed in a specific way (for example), since there are only 2 plugins, you’ll typically have to roll your own
• Common Development – themes: the lowest quantity on this list – but typically beautiful sites!
• Flexible: Limited but not by much, it’s neck and neck with WordPress for 2nd/3rd place
• Out of the box SEO: ok, though most EE sites don’t take SEO into consideration
• Plugin SEO: makes it better, but still in 3rd position
• Typical Dev needs: Heavy upfront, weekly/monthly after
• Sites using EE

Winning CMS in Each Category:

• Developers: Drupal
• Quantity of Local Developers: WordPress
• Editor/admin Usability: WordPress
• Can it handle 2000 pages: Drupal WordPress and EE tied at this level… at 10K pages it’s Drupal left standing, no other CMS (in this list) comes close to that robustness.
• Common Development – plugins: WordPress
• Common Development – themes: WordPress
• Flexible: Drupal
• Out of the box SEO: WordPress
• Plugin SEO: Drupal and WordPress tied
• Typical Dev needs: WordPress

Which CMS is right for you?

No doubt it’s the one that you have a good relationship with multiple developers on. I’s love for you to choose WordPress. But I bet that since the impression that “WP is just a blogging cms and cannot handle a robust site” they’ll shake out in this order:

1. Drupal
2. WordPress
3. EE
4. Joomla

Let the Hate Mail Ensue

This is of course all my opinion, I use and love WordPress. I’d love to get into Drupal. I’ve hated dealing with Joomla, and I’ve personally never used an EE CMS site (remember that barrier to entry) . That being said, I’d love to be corrected, I will adjust this post as needed, feel free to shout out in the comments as to what needs adjusting and I’ll fix it.

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In my last post I introduced the idea of a bulk club buying software, my partner and I took that idea to Startup Weekend West Michigan. A team of 13 was formed and viola we were off to the races. 50 hours (24 programming hours) later and we had a functioning website, brand, name, and realization of market viability. I introduce to you My Bulkco, a platform enabling groups to split the savings of bulk buying power.

So now, while developing my consulting firm, Connex Social, I’m starting another business, My Bulkco. (I’d love for your help, “like My Bulkco on Facebook“)

Am I crazy? The number one goal for both companies is to enable me to spend more time with my wife and children. While that has been happening with Connex Social, adding in a second, perhaps larger business into the mix is almost certain to infringe on that goal in the short term.

Entrepreneur Business # 1

And what of Connex Social, is there something wrong with it? Did I not like it? Is it dead?

By no means!

Connex is continuing to grow and will be my main source of income for the foreseeable future. Which means it will remain my focus. However when I quit my job last fall I did it with the end goal of pursuing something like My Bulkco. (yeah and this is the link to twitter, you know what to do)

Does this crazy weave of two businesses which neither existed 6 months ago cause me to be in the definition of serial entrepreneur? Am I taking my ADD mindset or my fear of commitment and just applying it to my businesses?

I think not.

Passion? or Serial Entrepreneur?

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However I want to take all that marketing knowledge, all that business acumen, all of my experience of team leadership which I have gleaned over the short span of my life and invest it into one company where we can really see results, where when I bring in new clients due to SEO or Social Media that my company benefits.

Does this make me a serial entrepreneur, or just a guy who is passionate about a limited set of things and it takes two businesses to make those happen.

You be the judge, voting (in the comments section) is now open ;)