BrainFuel

  
As some of you may know, I launched a new, simple cms system yesterday called Clover Content. I thought you might be interested in understanding why I spent the last year developing yet another cms.

There’s a real problem with content management systems. I’m not talking about the big enterprise platforms. I’m talking about the basic content management software that simple web sites need and use. They often do too much. That’s right. Modern content management software does too much.

For example, I have a friend with a pretty average technical acumen. This friend needed a simple website for an organization that he had started and I, being a web nerd, decided to help him set up a site. So we did the usual. I went to Godaddy and bought a suitable domain along with a basic Linux hosting account, while he stared over my shoulder in wonder. I found a template for his site and we paid a fair price for a nice pre-made design. So the next step was to get him up and running with a cms so he could manage all of his content without needing any further assistance from me.

My first instinct was to go with Drupal. I have tooled around with Drupal in the past and it has a good reputation among the web-savvy. So I installed Drupal, started configuring the site and I soon realized, this is way more functionality and configuration than my friend needs. Not to mention, it’s way more than he can handle. A little time with Joomla presented the same dilemma. These systems have too much complexity; too much functionality; too much configuration. Not only that, but working with the template frameworks of these systems was going to be a nightmare. Remember, I already spent some money on a pre-made template for this site. I was going to have to make the template fit the cms. Not fun.

So, with all these issues before me, I realized why so many developers end up rolling their own cms system. It’s because what’s out there is more than a simple site needs. A simple website needs a simple cms. Don’t get me wrong, Drupal, Joomla, Worpress and the like are all great systems and they have their markets, but often they are more complex than necessary for small sites. Another major issue with the standard content management system is the need to have a database running on your server and the need to install software. It’s always a problem to have to patch your cms because of some update, or deal with setting up a database to run your cms.

Just like software is moving more and more from the desktop to the cloud, it seems advantageous that server based systems might do the same. Instead of installing 10 versions of WordPress on the sites of 10 of your clients, on 10 different servers (all separate, all requiring maintenance), why not host your content in a central location? This way all of your client’s content is in one place and there are no software installations or databases to maintain. Centralizing content makes good sense. Using a CMS as a services makes good sense.

I realize there are lots (thousands) of content management systems out there and there’s no one system that’s right for everyone, but I think that Clover Content is right for most small sites and for people who manage a lot of sites for clients. Anyway, that’s why I boostrapped this startup and entered the arena. Let me know what you think.

Mint is probably the most impressive web application on the planet right now. And with the economy getting more shaky every day, who doesn’t need to monitor their finances? I started using Mint about a year ago. At that time it was nice, but pretty basic.

Now, Mint has one of the best user experiences on the web. From a developer’s standpoint, I’m amazed at the things this app can do and just how smooth it is. The design is great as well. If you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend you give it a shot.

It has been awhile since we updated you on our progress with our web application. We’ve had a number of setbacks. Hired developers only to have them leave, and more. For the last several months we’ve really gotten on a roll with development. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to develop the product forgoing any outside developers who come knocking.

Our product has had a few names during our development process. Picking a name for a product is incredibly tricky. Not only do you need to come up with a good name that everyone likes, but you have to find the domain name.

Previously, the product was called Roundup, and before that Windstorm.

Now, we’ve come up with a name we’re happy with. It’s Minuteglass. It’s like “hourglass” but for minutes. Get it? We like it and we’re working on logos and also working on the product. The product is coming together faster and we’re excited to release it. At this time we don’t have an ETA. Stay tuned!

More at our blog for the product: www.trackthetime.com and at www.minuteglass.com

I’ll be speaking at Refresh Phoenix in September and giving a talk called Marketing for Web Apps.

What’s it about? It’s a review of marketing efforts that have worked for other web app companies mixed with marketing topics and ideas geared especially for people who need to spread the word about their web application, software, or web site.

It includes marketing insights which I have personally received from the founders of Campaign Monitor, Brightkite, Dogster, Geni, JumpBox, Viddler, Tumblr, JotForm, Harvest, SmugMug, Ma.gnolia, Beanstalk, Wufoo and Cashboard. Not to be missed!

If you live in Phoenix, be sure to come!
When: Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Cost: Free
Location: See Refresh Phoenix web site

I got the book everybody’s been talking about, Founders At Work, and I am three chapters into it. Actually, I skipped ahead and read a few in the middle, and now I’m back to the beginning to start where I left off.

I would highly recommend this book if you are involved in anything to do with the Internet, and startups. It’s kind of refreshing to know that there are other insane people out there, with similar goals, like me.

We’re looking for a developer to help out with our upcoming web application. I’ve been taking advantage of the free job boards that exist and have so far had some good results. By far, the best job board I have found is Jobs.RubyNow.com.

The Apple Blog also turned up a surprising number of good results (and a few locally). Then Webware just launched a new job board (and it is free for the first 30 days). Those are some great ways to take advantage of the current boom in job boards.

If we don’t find someone through these routes, we will pay to post on one of the larger boards.

I’m so inspired by the progress we have been making on our web application. In recent days we have covered significant ground, and next week we have some things planned which will kick start some areas of the front end development.

I have been working on the documentation for our app, and decided to use Google Docs to make it happen. I am more than pleased with Google Docs. It’s very robust, allows me to update the documentation from wherever I am at, and I can share it with everyone involved. So far I have about 8 pages of documentation.

I’m breaking my documentation into the following categories:

1. URL Structure
2. Usernames & Profiles
3. Login/Logout (cookies, etc.)
4. Future Development Considerations
5. Tentative Development Schedule
6. Features For Launch
7. Post Launch Features
8. Marketing
9. Desktop Widgets
10. Owning a Category
11. Exporting
12. RSS
13. Help and Support
14. Payment Gateway

As you can see, I have not even begun to document things on a page by page level, that is my next step. One of the interesting things about our schedule is that it has slipped a bit. We have been so very busy with other projects for clients, that it was unavoidable. The good news is that we’re past the stage when we are the only ones involved (bringing in coders and developers is next on our agenda).

I’d say we’re shooting for a June launch at this point, but it could be sooner. I’m trying to ensure that it is sooner.

I haven’t told you what our web app is all about yet! Don’t worry, that’s coming soon enough. In fact, I’m putting the final touches on the marketing ideas I’ve been jotting down. I’m wanting to be sure of a few things before we do that, and not announce too early.

It’s all very exciting to be making progress like we are. We’re VERY excited about our product. We think there is a huge gap in the market right now for a tool like we will be offering. We really think that what we’re building has some important ideas.

Thanks and stay tuned!

Just a little bit of news on our web application that we are building. Emails just went out to 18 people to gather feedback on some areas of our design. They’re getting a sneak peak at the app before we begin the HTML/CSS development. We have been making an effort to have all of the design done and finalized before passing off to development. It’s just easier that way. We can avoid tons of back and forth with countless changes.

We have made an amazing amount of progress today and this last week. Two major sections were changed on paper a few weeks ago (much better). Literally, two sections were created in Photoshop from sketches just today (yeah, I am now way behind on some other projects, ugh).

To summarize, we are out of “design” and into “front end development” which means we’re that much closer to development (we plan to meet with developers in early January about developing the app).

In total, their are 13 Photoshop files which as templates make up the brunt of the application. The difficult part about building an app like this is making the complex stuff easy to do. That’s what I hope we have accomplished, and I can’t wait to hear back from the people I emailed.

People are asking me when I will “announce” what our application is about. I’m still trying to figure that out, but likely sometime soon after backend development begins. At that point, we’ll be transitioning to our marketing (which is planned to some extent) and we’ll be able to keep things managed better. We shall see.