24February2008
Posted by Opinioneer under: On Wordpress.
I have to write this in order to vent, because I am starting to feel like I am the one-eyed cyclops among the blind.
It seems that the discussion about premium WordPress themes has been heating up lately (and by lately I mean in recent months, not days) and I am thinking to myself, “so what’s the big deal”? What is premium? A nicer designed theme? A theme with more functions?
And then I come across the occasional arguments about whether WordPress is a blogging platform or a “true” CMS. And then, someone comes up with a magazine style theme and all of a sudden everyone responds like they’ve seen a miracle! “You can do that with WordPress?? Really??”
So I will say: Give me a Break. (that’s with a capital B, because I need a Big Break!)
First things first: Premium Theme?
WordPress has tons of functionality built in and can do almost everything you can imagine in your wildest dreams. The fact that 90% of WordPress users, theme designers and WP enthusiasts don’t pay attention is, well, unfortunate. There is nothing Premium about a fancy theme. Personally, I would start to call “premium”, something that extends the functionality of a platform beyond the obvious (and I reserve the right to change this definition if I think of something better). A magazine theme is starting to scratch that surface. But I want to see more!
So start thinking outside the (“title” and “post”) boxes and you will realize what WP is capable of. Unfortunately my PHP skills are limited so I can’t create out-of-the-box solutions myself, but my knowledge and understanding isn’t so I can give you plenty of ideas about things you can do using WP as the platform.
Secondly: Is it a CMS ?
WordPress is a CMS. You might have your own definition of what a CMS is, but CMS stands for Content Management System. WordPress helps you manage content. And the better you know how to customize WP the more ways you can manage your content. Perhaps a look at Webunload, AppBid (both of which where developed by AJ) and WP Contact Manager will give you samples of “outside the box” thinking.
I have tested several CMSs and have extensively used Article Manager by Interactive Tools, which is an amazing and very flexible system. But it comes with a price tag of $350. I started using it back in 2001 (it cost much less then!) when WordPress wasn’t even around. Let me tell you, when it comes to flexibility and user friendliness, it still holds its ground. In fact, it is possible to make Article Manager to behave like a blog, no problem. Having said all that, over the past year I have converted all my sites to WordPress.
I can’t customize WordPress by myself, the way I can customize Article Manager, but the beauty of WP is the availability of free themes, and of course the fact that I can have multiple installations without paying for a separate license each time.
Keep in mind that there is no perfect CMS. Each one of us has different needs, so perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Heck, even a Rolodex is technically a CMS.
To sum this point up, I have found WordPress to be able to do most things someone would need, especially considering the plethora of plugins. So, yes it is a CMS. Whether it suits your needs, or whether you can think outside the box and make it suit your needs is up to you.
Finally: Thinking outside the box
Here is how one site is run completely on WordPress: Lifescape Vacations. It is not a blog, and you probably wouldn’t be able to tell it is a WP based site if it weren’t for the comments being set to “on”, yet WP plugins (such as Tag Cloud and Flick RSS) help it be more socially interactive.
I won’t go into details here (because it will all be theoretical) but I am hoping that in a couple of months time I will have some impressive real examples of thinking-outside-the-box solutions based on the WordPress platform.
23February2008
Posted by Opinioneer under: On Zen.
A few days ago I read this excellent post over at Zen Habits but I only found the time to blog about it today. No point to comment, because it says it all. The only thing I would have written differently, is that I’d caution against drinking too much scotch, since I don’t drink tequila. So just go read it. Again and again… and then once more:
20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life
19February2008
Posted by Opinioneer under: On Zen.
This Koan kick starts the Zen category which will include various bits and pieces of wisdom, most of them applicable (in a mysterious way) to both work and daily life.
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
18February2008
Posted by Opinioneer under: On Various Stuff.
After giving it some thought, I decided to reorganize the sections of this blog and give it some structure, rather than make up categories as I go. That actually helps me structure my thoughts, not just the blog. What a realization!
As of today, every post will fall under one of 7 categories. More will probably be added as needed but for now it is just seven. Cheers!
5February2008
Posted by Opinioneer under: On Domains.
I’ve had a terrible cold for a few days now so everything was put on hold, but today I got back on my laptop and decided to check my Sedo account. In the past 32 days, according to Sedo stats, these domains seem to have had quite a few visitors, yet only made me $4.64 in ad revenue. I am not greedy but, really, is that bad or what?
I am starting to think that I should start running these domains on my own platform soon. In the meantime I am in the process of customizing a new CMS platform where I will run a new-old publishing network. I used to operate a network of sites with daily b2b news. At the time there was no AdSense and the whole thing was a journalistic endeavor. After I sold most of the assets to a larger online publisher I let some of the domains expire while I kept other and shut some down.
In the past couple of months I purchased some of the domains I had let expire, and I am preparing to get the whole thing up and running again. This time it will be tweaked to require minimal input from me as it no longer is a journalistic endeavor, but a domain monetizing project. Having said that, I think many will agree that if the content under each domain is relevant and of quality, then the revenue will reflect that.
I just need to finalize the layout of the sites and we are up and running.
30January2008
Posted by Opinioneer under: On Domains.
I just checked my Sedo.com account to see how the 50 domains I have parked there are doing. Well, in the last 30 days or so they have made me $3!!! Sedo has made me rich and I am retiring next month. Right before I retire I will retire my domains from Sedo as well.
The truth is that, prior to parking them with Sedo, most of those names where collecting dust because I didn’t have time to even built a landing page. But two of those domains had their own mini sites prior to Sedo parking and they were doing much better than they are now.
Which means that I need to move my domains to my own landing pages and put some decent content there. I bet that the $3 that Sedo makes me will multiply by 3. Now if I can only find the time…
29January2008
Posted by Opinioneer under: On Domains.
I might have mentioned it before, but I have never bought a domain with the purpose to resell it. I always register domains that, in my opinion, would make cool domains for running a relevant business. I also have some real estate domains, and some that would make cool brands.
However, I’ve never had a domain strategy. It was registering domains I wanted to use or that I thought I might want to use in the future. But now that I have started viewing my 250 or so domains from a different point of view, I am wondering whether I need to have a different strategy.
Perhaps some domains that make for cool brands don’t have any revenue potential. Perhaps domains I like don’t get searched much. Should I start registering domains with the sole criteria of whether they would have type in traffic or would be easy generics?
I am thinking I might have to try that a little bit.
28January2008
Posted by Opinioneer under: On My Projects.
So, as my first project finished and rocks, I just had an extremely annoying experience with the other developer I had hired, but RentaCoder.com saved the day. The project was simple: integrate a template into a shopping cart. I start working with a coder who does half of the work (the easy half) and says that the rest can not be done due to badly written cart code. I am no developer but I know my html and basic technical stuff. So when I ask RentaCoder.com to arbitrate this they decide in my favor since the oder had violated some rules of the agreement.
Then the guy goes crazy and starts screaming, insulting and threatening. RentaCoder.com deleted his profile. A drastic measure? perhaps, but from what I know about this developer it was the right decision. I am impressed with the staff and the overall process at RentaCoder as much as I am unimpressed with Scriptlance.com. I’d steer way from Scriptlance.com at all costs.
In any case, now I need to start from scratch with this project but that’s cool. There is a reason for everything!
17January2008
Posted by Opinioneer under: On My Projects.
It seems I am not writing daily as I was originally hoping but after all that’s not necessarily bad. I’ve been busy with a couple of pet projects, one of which has come into completion after almost four months. I was working with a developer to design a new Wordpress theme for a business project I have been working on over the past year and a half or so.
Initially I started designing the site myself but eventually decided that a designer with skills fresher than mine would probably make a real difference, and I am happy I took the step of hiring him. Finally yesterday he notified me that the site is complete and installed in my domain, so the only thing missing is for me to run a final test.
I won’t say what the site is about, but I will say that Wordpress not only makes a cool blogging engine but also a good Content Management system (CMS).
An experienced eye will be able to tell that it is probably running on Wordpress, due to the Flickr and Tag Cloud widgets, and also because comments are enabled, but overall it is a really cool site! Simple but cool!
The other pet project is still going on . This developer doesn’t seem as customer friendly as the designer that did my first project but the verdict is not out yet.
13January2008
Posted by Opinioneer under: On Domains.
It appears that when I don’t have time to read other blogs for a few days, I run out of topics to write about. I guess that’s normal. So here is a thought I’ve had for quite a bit of time, which I am guessing others have discussed as well:
Is the value of a registered domain, the same as an unregistered one? What do I mean by that? Years ago I had a mini publishing empire, that included about 10 vertical b2b channels, each with its own domain name. At some point I sold a good chunk of the business and shut down the rest, including letting some domains expire.
Last week I realized that some of those domains had been picked up by domain parkers while others were still available. In my opinion, some of the available ones where more valuable than the ones that had been re-registered by others. In any case, I re-registered some of the available names myself.
And that was when I started wondering again; why had nobody registered those names? Were the names that had been re-registered more valuable? Now that I was registering a name, would that make it more desirable by others simply because it was a registered name?
We tend to want what others have, and that in itself might give something value that otherwise would not be there. The mere idea that a domain is registered and that somebody else finds value in it, assuming it is a reasonably useful name, is enough to make some people desire it and find value in it too.
