About ReadyMadeWeb
ReadyMadeWeb is your guide to using off-the-shelf technology to build your website, promote your brand, and enhance your productivity. We’ll show you the ins and outs of open source content management systems, how to take advantage of the growing number of free social media tools, and which low-cost web-based software can free you from your clunky desktop applications and costly servers.
Cord Blomquist created this virtual toolkit because too many businesses and non-profits are wasting their time and money on antiquated, proprietary software. Hundreds of thousands of people—from the White House to the New York Times to the small business down the street—have embraced this world of open, standardized solutions. Why should your organization reinvent the wheel when it could use the ReadyMadeWeb?
To learn more about our three areas of concentration—web design, social media marketing, and web-based software—delve into the descriptions below. And, of course, subscribe to the blog.
Open-Source Website Solutions
It’s common for web design firms to offer to build you a custom, one-of-a-kind platform for your website at a premium price. As you may already know, these custom solutions are often too custom, straying away from industry standards and making your website so tailor-made that it’s compatible with little else. To make matters worse, the company that just built your white elephant has to maintain it, because no other web developer would know what to do with it. This sort of approach locks customers into relationships with contractors who can hold them hostage for whatever labor and maintenance charges they choose.
The ReadyMadeWeb philosophy helps you avoid this sort of trap. So long as you choose widely-used, open-source software you’ll never be stuck with a bad contractor, as there are thousands of developers who work with these platforms. By choosing open source, you’ll also gain the benefits that come along with joining a community of hundreds of thousands of users and developers using the same platform—that means countless pre-made designs and functionality add-ons along with user groups and forums to help you customize your site without the help of a developer.
The platforms we recommend and regularly write about—Drupal, WordPress, and a host of other open source solutions—are also being used by CNN, the BBC, WhiteHouse.gov, and The New York Times. If these big-name brands with big budgets are choosing free, open-source solutions, then why should anyone burn precious dollars on proprietary systems that never seem to live up to their sales pitch?
Still not convinced? See how your website platform stacks up against the top open source solutions by checking out Water & Stone’s annual Open Source CMS Market Share report. The report delivers hard statistics about just how dominant open source solutions have become and will help you choose the right solutions for your needs.
Marketing & Social Media
Taking advantage of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or email marketing doesn’t require the advice of a guru or deep technical knowledge. What you really need to build a successful brand online is a basic understanding of the technologies and a few simple best practices.
We hope that by presenting simple how-to guides, ReadyMadeWeb can help you learn what social media can do, and perhaps more importantly, what it can’t. Marketing can’t replace great content that’s produced on a consistent basis.
But, when you start with quality content, social media is a powerful and cost-effective way to expose your brand to its largest possible audience. Our “How-To: Grow Your Twitter Followers” guide is the perfect example of a straight-forward guide to seeking out your audience via social network. Stay tuned for similar tutorials for Facebook, YouTube, and other communities.
Why We Love Web-Based Software
Why are you spending your time worrying about servers, sifting through install CDs, chasing countless downloads and updates when you should be worrying about growing your business or helping your non-profit succeed?
Software should be handled by software experts. That’s why web-based software is so great. All you need is an Internet connection and the web-based software providers—like Google, 37Signals, or SalesForce—take care of the rest.
Web-based services are safer and more secure than traditional, client-based software. The web service providers we recommend do the backing up for you and they keep your data secure using the latest in enterprise-class security. Keeping your data online also means it’s all in one place. No more chasing down files on a desktop machine or a laptop that can’t be found. With web-based software, if you can connect to the web, you can run your business.
Companies like Best Buy, Kellogg’s, Motorola, and Adidas are using the web-based services we recommend. And we do too—we only recommend products we use ourselves.
Check out our Portfolio to see the ReadyMadeWeb approach put to the test.
