Why we like Open Source web platforms

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Here at Chilli Chocolate Marketing we manage websites for a great and diverse group of clients. Some of the sites we built ourselves, some we didn't; some we host ourselves, some are hosted elsewhere. This has brought us into contact with a wide range of website-server tools and management platforms. We're sometimes asked what we prefer, or "what's good". Well that all depends on the requirements of course - use the best tool for the job, as the saying goes. But as a general rule we advise each of our clients to use website tools that are well-known and widely-used. That means that the client isn't tied to using one particular web host or website company.

If your website is running on some custom platform that no other company in the world uses, then you are locked in to your present web hosting arrangement. If anything goes wrong, there's only one place to turn for help: the person or company who originally made your website. That's not a good situation to be in, especially if that person is unavailable or is too busy to help.

We're big fans of open-source Content Management Systems not just because they're easy to use and powerful; we're fans because they're freely available and how to operate them is close to common knowledge in the website community. If your website is built using such tools, then you are able to pack it up and move it to anywhere such tools are supported if you need to - and that's pretty much everywhere.  If your website is built and dependent on closed proprietary tools from one provider, that means you're tied to that one provider and only that provider can help you.

If you have any questions about this sort of thing, feel free to ask. Your website is your most important marketing tool, and we're happy to help!

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Using Internet Explorer? Make it IE8 or newer!

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One of the challenges faced by anyone who works with websites is that of not knowing in advance what your website's visitors are going to use to do so.

The only sensible thing to do is to code to industry standards and keep fingers crossed that visitors are using standards-compliant web browsers. So what are we targeting?

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Handy hints for managing email marketing campaigns

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To manage an email campaign effectively one has to be familiar with the requirements of a number of different fields including graphic design, web programming, copywriting, database management, and statistical analysis. Whether you're handling all the duties yourself or managing an in-house or outsourced team, here are some useful bits of hard-earned advice about what to do behind the scenes before and after your email marketing campaign.

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Don't make Facebook the face of your business

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Watching Facebook go from an insignificant little upstart to an industry-dominating juggernaut has been fascinating, as has watching something as inherently geeky as Internet social networking become an accepted and normal part of life and business. Facebook has become an integral part of how some of businesses, including some of my clients, portray themselves to the world.

I don't think that's always a good idea.

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Taking care of business - online bookkeeping with Xero

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This financial year I decided to take a more proactive role in the management of Chilli Chocolate Marketing’s accounts. My bookkeeper suggested that I purchase and install MYOB myself to accomplish this, but for a number of reasons I was reluctant to purchase and rely on a standalone software package installed on one particular computer.

So I asked around and conducted quite a bit of research into online accounting systems and the name that kept coming up was Xero.

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