What Cms Are You Using And Why? Looking for the top CMS

[manuleka 0]

Also, I had tried a lighter theme - and had a few comments that it was too boring and bland. It's very hard to figure out a lighter background. The darkness represents more of what the site is about -- it's psychedelic. The site is for anyone, but more directed at audiences who love music and also the world of psychedelia. And sometimes -- its easier to look at and watch these videos when the surroundings are dark -- I made it that way so there is not as much distraction around.
The site is also more personal than professional. I completely understand the idea behind having a lighter website. Nearly every professional website has lighter background. But again, I'm not running a personal business and selling products. It's more of my personal website and just attempting to gain visitors and members with similar interests.

users can be a real pain to satisfy, but theming does play a big role in ensuring customers enjoy their stay on a site...

just a thought, ever tried a plugin that will enable color theme options? so users can at least have a variety of color choices... everyone has their own preference of color scheme

[Xarex 1]

users can be a real pain to satisfy, but theming does play a big role in ensuring customers enjoy their stay on a site...
just a thought, ever tried a plugin that will enable color theme options? so users can at least have a variety of color choices... everyone has their own preference of color scheme

When I was with PHP Fusion, I gave that option to have like 5 themes to choose from. With the default theme being lighter -- and that's actually when reviews were being directed as the site was too bland. I am going based on past experience. When I had a default MySpace profile -- it was crap, it wasn't attracting people or anything. I then decided to make my MySpace profile a fan page -- dedicated to my favorite band, Pink Floyd. I spiced it up with a lot of my personality -- designed with the way I felt was comfortable. I really made it for myself, to express my love for Pink Floyd.

BUT .. it happened to attract a lot of people. I get thousands of visitors a week and even at one time, I asked what I should change about it, and told people I was thinking of changing it, only to receive some critical emails telling me to leave it as is. I haven't changed it in over 5 years. MySpace has since updated their whole system and I can't even edit my profile anymore because it will force me to update it. So I just leave it. And still, it attracts so many people.

So my point is.. I think when I stick to what I feel is more my personality, I am more successful with it. When I listen to others -- and believe me, I do my best to receive, listen to, and change based on visitor feedback -- because it is you who are visiting and can tell me the truth of my site -- so your feedback is certainly never ever ignored. But I also feel like when I change it too much, I lose interest in it myself, because it's no longer my personality, but someone else's design that I am catering to.

The only thing I can think of is to try a slightly lighter black color, and I will try this and see if it works. I am just wanting to generally make it work with that top image. It is the theme of the site -- perhaps there is a story behind it that I just haven't revealed yet, but maybe someday I can figure out how to incorporate the story in with it.

I am using the Google Analytics tool to determine bounce rate. If it was so horrible, I'd have people leaving immediately.

I also put my site on Linkreferral and another forum that I've been posting at for like 10 years. I get a lot of general advice about user experience from those.

One of the hardest things with using black is finding a font color that is easy on the eyes. White is the easiest to read abut reading large amounts of texts with white on black hurts. I established a light blue color that seemed to be much easier on the eyes.




It is interesting to discuss this -- when does personal become professional and when does professional become personal?

Years ago, I might make a website with tables, some graphics, and writing, and that was my personal website. Hardly professional. A professional website would be typing in AOL.com or CNN.com and getting news and other stories.

What is the personal now considered, with so many advanced websites and tools to make those websites? Is every website professional now?

I want my site to look professional -- more YouTube style but with my own hint of personality within the mix. So that it remains personal yet still looks slightly professional. However, my goal is not to really attract businessmen or someone at work. My goal is to attract these people when they are at home, winding down, looking to relax, watch a few videos and listen to some great music. This way, they are more inclined to stay on the site longer when they are relaxed and not at work.

Okay, so perhaps I could attract that audience as well, but as Ahsaniqbal111 put it: start small.

But my expectations that they will stay on the site longer is even less -- because I observe my own behavior on YouTube. Once in a while, I might be more inclined to spend a lot of time on YouTube, listening to songs one after the other, while others -- I watch a video and leave.


I would love to just attract a daily fan base who want to contribute music to the site.


My site is now -- for now -- a YouTube / Dailymotion portal. I could add others but for now, that's where the majority of everything comes from. I know it's small. This is my first site and I'm just doing a lot of experimenting. I consider my site more of a categorization site -- of music. Something YouTube does not do. And probably a good thing because it keeps it so general, and has given me a reason for making such a site.


I'm actually liking the CMS I'm using because I can create categories and subcategories of music. The only thing the user has to do is submit the link to the specific category. If they don't see their specific category, than they can just upload it to the general category and I'd move it to a specific category.

What is lacking -- and the CMS isn't extremely advanced -- is the ability for users to create their own subcategories. But that could also become chaotic, if a user comes along, thinks he doesn't see a specific artist (subcategory), and creates one on his own, while it really does exist.

I guess a more advanced system would determine what the user is submitting and actually automatically create or insert it into the existing category. Definitely a project I'm not up to messing with right now.

I guess that's what makes it slightly more personal. So for starting small, I think it's good the way it is. And I will experiment with a few lighter colors.

[manuleka 0]

What is lacking -- and the CMS isn't extremely advanced -- is the ability for users to create their own subcategories. But that could also become chaotic, if a user comes along, thinks he doesn't see a specific artist (subcategory), and creates one on his own, while it really does exist.
I guess a more advanced system would determine what the user is submitting and actually automatically create or insert it into the existing category. Definitely a project I'm not up to messing with right now.

I guess that's what makes it slightly more personal. So for starting small, I think it's good the way it is. And I will experiment with a few lighter colors.

definitely theming takes a lot of research and user feedback... i think it's also important that you are also implementing your personal emotions into it

having users create anything other than making posts has high tendency to result in mayhem. i think your site has a lot more potential and great future yet to come...

[Xarex 1]

definitely theming takes a lot of research and user feedback... i think it's also important that you are also implementing your personal emotions into it
having users create anything other than making posts has high tendency to result in mayhem. i think your site has a lot more potential and great future yet to come...

Thank you manuleka. I am discovering this too. A whole lot of potential.

I realized this when I was always searching for videos and reading the comments to see the reactions of the videos. There is a huge subculture that is just so spread out. So eventually, I'd like to make it more social-community based -- as in -- making friends with these people who have very similar interests.

Even just the domain name itself is a very good domain name. I am always creating subsections and experimenting with new ideas, different CMS, even posting on Twitter or Facebook to have people visit those areas for a week, and see if its working.. see the general reactions, how long people are spending on the site, and if they are involved or interacting at all -- through Google Analytics. Very awesome tool. But it can't determine everything, and a week isn't always enough time to really say anything. But it seems, no matter what kind of site I'm designing.. I'm attracting a certain amount of visitors, and always getting a few people registering.

I'm sure it's frustrating for some of my returning visitors who have signed up more than once and seen multiple websites, but I was trying to find something that worked for me, that was easy to manage and maintain. And what I've come to is the video site. It was a video blog .. but that just happened to be too much work right now -- to deliver music and write about it. And maintain a forum sections (which was an extension of my blog -- for various different topics & articles such as psychology, philosophy, tutorials, etc.) -- a lot of work. And this is just a part time job (well, not paid actually) and a learning experience for me. But I'm taking a lot of what I'm learning and applying it to my professional resume -- such as the marketing and design of the site -- learning what attracts people, using specific keywords.


Anyways, I appreciate your positive feedback. Always work to be done and when you think it's done... there's still always more. Probably for the best -- to improve the experience and attract daily visitors who hopefully "convert" (register).

[manuleka 0]

you're just starting... and it takes effort and determination to drive something and expose it's potentials... all the best and i hope you're site will be successful (which it will)