Site Builder Wizard

[coolbluenet]

Any1 found any better intergrated ones? I am really looking in to this now and was looking for the best one for the money (and the cheapest option).

Dean
http://www.coolbluenet.com/

 

[ryno267]

I'm with blueplanet...

 

[bashprompt18]

Sam whichever way you look at it, your product will cost $150. I only run one server and the chances of issuing 150 licenses are pretty slim. I think you've left the small hosting companies out of your pricing structure. $150 is a pretty good "barrier to entry" in my opinion.

I would like to see a lower entry level price such as xx licenses for $50. If you ever do decide to implement an entry level pricing structure I'd be interested in trialling your product to see if it would suite our clients...

Well I think the Prices are GREAT. I have been in contact with them for a little over a month
now and there is a FAST Responce and they want your imput they don't just act like they want it and then blow you off. The product is STABLE and looks and feels nice.

-John

 

[bashprompt18]

Then you run a bigger business than me. I can't afford to throw $150 away for maybe the 2-3 clients that might want it. Might is the operative word here. Most of my clients already have websites. Very few need a website.

If you want to pay $150 then do so. At the current price it's not for me.

Well I don't know what you have going but Most Web hosting providers plan
on Growing and this is a GREAT Marketing took and let's face it a lot of small
people signup and don't know where to start with making there site. Look at the
base you have to work with, Anyone can get a computer now and don't even have
to know what the hell they are doing "That is what they are told anyways" the cost
is low and Hosting prices have come down a lot so that attracts the small person
and in many cases people that really don't need the site but just want to play around
with it, People like this need some kind of site builder.

 

[rs-freddo]

My problem with all current site builders is that they run off Sql. This is resource intensive. the site doesn't change that often so running a bunch of dynamic websites that could be static means less people fit on your server. I'm writing my own site builder that writes to static html pages and ftp's them to the persons account. This is a solution I'll be happy with.

 

[magixman]

My problem with all current site builders is that they run off Sql. This is resource intensive. the site doesn't change that often so running a bunch of dynamic websites that could be static means less people fit on your server. I'm writing my own site builder that writes to static html pages and ftp's them to the persons account. This is a solution I'll be happy with.

By way of clarification, many of the popular site builders including ours use SQL to compose the site but then publish to flat HTML files for exactly the reasons that you mention.

Some of these site builders already do FTP the finished site to where it belongs. We opted not to do that for the simple reason that we wanted to avoid the double storage penalty. With small sites this is not a big deal but when people start uploading massive photo albums it is less overhead to run the site builder right on the server that will ultimately publish the site. It also makes backup/restore very consistent since you backup, restore and delete the mySQL database right along with the hosting account.

 

[tinboye22]

When I got my Redhat box it came with fantastico De Lux which had this site builder

http://www.soholaunch.com/

with it though you must pay a monthly fee ranging from 9.95 to 75 usd per month.

 

[rs-freddo]

When I got my Redhat box it came with fantastico De Lux which had this site builder

http://www.soholaunch.com/

with it though you must pay a monthly fee ranging from 9.95 to 75 usd per month.

I had a go at that one but simply found it too complex for my customers.

In the end i simply editted the menuing system of Mambo so that there was only the content and menu management left. It makes a great site builder and there are lots of templates (free and paid) available. I load about 15 free templates on and it makes a pretty nice package. If my customers want more, then they have already done most of the learning curve to move up to full strength Mambo. Cost was a couple of hours work.

 

[gorilla]

yeah u r right , mambo makes a great and easy to use CMS :D

 

[DomineauX]

rs-freddo:
I believe you have servers at Ev1 like I do....just wondering if you are looking forward to the launch of Ev1's new site builder system that is coming in ?Feb? or ?March?

 

[rs-freddo]

Yes, I'm looking forward to having a look at it. I am hoping that it's going to be more than just another mysql powered CMS.

I am in the process of building my own. It will generate html files and ftp them to the hosting space, it will not use mysql. It will run off templates and be simplicity itself to use. It will not be a copy of the GNU stuff already out there but in fact be a whole new approach/concept.

 

[dgbaker]

I have to agree here with those that want simplicity. It seems that most of the companies creating "CMS's" for the hosting world forget that the average user of a site, does not want to deal with page masters, layout details, etc... They just want to flip a switch so to speak that will get them up and running quick.

I have looked a several products now and while all have some merit, they all lack a certain fundemental thing and that is KISS. I know we have users that once and while want to change the look of there site. They do not though want to have to re-key everything in. They want to flip to a new template or layout.

It is not rocket science (while some make it out to be) to be able to do this. Take the top CMS's on the market like Vignette, or Interwoven, granted these are $200K+ products but they do it right! They keep the data separate from any and all formatting thus allowing to "skin" a site quickly.

rs-freddo - I would be really interested in seeing what yours ends up like. Good luck!


Some may ask do I know anything about this? Well, considering I do primarily consulting work for Vignette products (installs, Workflow, etc..) I sure hope so.

 

[concreteman]

By way of clarification, many of the popular site builders including ours use SQL to compose the site but then publish to flat HTML files for exactly the reasons that you mention.

Some of these site builders already do FTP the finished site to where it belongs.

what happens when a user outgrows your app, can someone come in end edit the files by hand without having to learn how your templating, or parsing works... Question is does your program create clean html or xhtml that can be modified from outside your builder. Also, say some one does modify the pages, can they be reloaded to the builder without losing edits.
Per server - per user, what happens when you have a large turnaround... be a nice trick to offer a sitebuilder to entice customers, they try it and leave (it happens) have we lost those liscenses or are they recylcled as no longer being active?

the price is right and I guess people don't think long term - if the liscence is good for 10 years, it's 15.00 per year. If having a descent sitebuilder tool brought in a couple clients a year it would be worth every penny.

Now if the program were a little buggy, or I started getting a large number of support requests concerning it, and couldn't shuffle those requests it would be a pain.

 

[drweb]

Sitemagix

Hi all,

I've spent a few hours reading all your posts and here are my remarks :

I currently have a server with plesk 7.5.2 and I have 82 professional customers on it.
Everything works great but I have to charge quite a lot to cover the costs.
Now I'm looking to attract the home-market and I'm looking for a new server to do so.
I've finally decided to go for :
- A server (AMD 2200+, 512MB, 40Gb, Onboard 8Mb VGA, 250 Gb bandwidth) @ 79€/month
- with Cpanel Unlimited @ 36€/month
- with Fantastico De Luxe @ 90$/year
- and with Sitemagix @ 150$/once

Some calculation would show us for the first year :
((79 + 36)*12)+90+150 = 1.620€
1.620€ / 12 months = 135€/month
Add Sitemagix cost for 100 customers @ 1€ = 100€
Add ".be" domain-name cost for 100 customers @ 8,5€ = 850€
Total cost for the first year would be 2.570€ (+21% Belgian VAT = 3.109,7€)
If you sell your consumer-package @ 75 € you would still make 3.628,35 € / year VAT excl.

I'd say margin is OK !!!

Greetz to all of you,
Dr WeB

 

[gorilla]

Thanks for the mathematics Dr.Web , shows one can still provide a good service for a reasonable price ! :D

 

[magixman]

what happens when a user outgrows your app, can someone come in end edit the files by hand without having to learn how your templating, or parsing works... Question is does your program create clean html or xhtml that can be modified from outside your builder. Also, say some one does modify the pages, can they be reloaded to the builder without losing edits.
Per server - per user, what happens when you have a large turnaround... be a nice trick to offer a sitebuilder to entice customers, they try it and leave (it happens) have we lost those liscenses or are they recylcled as no longer being active?

Concreteman. Sorry for the delay in answering. It seems that sometimes I get an email from this thread and sometimes I don't. In any event let me answer the questions you asked…

Outgrowing a site builder is a good question and I think something that will happen with a lot of site builders. In our case I would say this is much less likely. Once the user upgrades to the full siteZen they can do practically anything. We use it for our own site and think we are just cracking the surface. Not everything an advanced user would want to do is supported directly through the GUI but you can add your HTML or Javascript if you need with the source edit button. Some customers have even managed to add PHP and we will be supporting that directly in the coming months.

siteZen is not an HTML editor. In order for us to keep the high level abstraction we use, the individual components of the site are represented in a database structure and therefore you cannot simply import page level or site level HTML. This is a tradeoff that we had to make and believe that it has paid off.

Of course you can edit the HTML generated by siteZen but it is a one way trip and really would only likely be used by someone who took their site somewhere else where they did not have siteZen.

Finally in answer to your question on turnover. As soon as a users leaves you (and their Linux account is deleted) the license can be re-used. After all why should we penalize you since you will simply re-use the license for someone else.

 

[concreteman]

Thanks for the reply magixman, about what I had expected

 

[247logistics]

How about SiteBuilder by SWsoft? It's only $99.00 for 100 sites one time fee for General Server Publishing. They say it is CPanel friendly. Does anyone have any experience with this one?

 

[sneader]

SiteZen demo ?

magixman, to promote your product to my customers (assuming I buy it), I would like to create a link on my "pre-sales" page to a demo, like "All hosting plans include our free Site Builder software" and then that would be a link to a demo of the product.

If I purchase the software and install it on the server, does it create a branded demo that I can link to? Or other suggestions for showing off the software to customers before they buy hosting with me?

- Scott

 

[mr.wonderful]

well i can't speak for him, but i'm on redhat 9 i686 with cPanel 9.7.7-R15

It would be nice to have something that's automatically included and can be turned on from their cpanel if they want to build thier own site through the webbuilder... kinda like what 1and1.com or yahoo.com or any large host has...

thnx

Why dont you get Fantastico, then you can have a site builder. Why ask Cpanel to install another module that will do nothing but rot with old outdated versions?