From the category archives:

Must-Have Tools

How to Spend Next to Nothing on Your Non-Profit’s Web/IT Needs

by Cord Blomquist on March 13, 2010 · View Comments

in CRM Solutions, Hosting & Servers, How-To, Must-Have Tools, Web-Based Applications

After talking about tools like content management systems (CMS), customer relations management (CRM) software, bulk emailers, social networks, web forms, and a bunch of other tools here on ReadyMadeWeb, it seemed like it was time to do an overview of these tools and outline how to run an entire organization using only ReadyMade tools.

SalesForce.com Foundation

For a small non-profit, it’s impossible to beat SalesForce.com at a customer relations management (CRM) solution. Through SalesForce.com Foundation, this revolutionary web-based database is available for up to 10 users at absolutely no cost and additional users can be added at incredibly discounted rates. SalesForce.com comes with all the advantages web-based software like enhanced security, managed backup, accessibility from any web browser, and SalesForce.com is regularly updated three times per year—updates which require no involvement from customers and are guaranteed never to break customizations.

SalesForce.com serves as the central database for non-profits in the public policy world like the Charles G. Koch Foundation, the Atlas Foundation, and International Policy Network. The Center for American Progress has described its deployment of SalesForce.com as “outrageously successful.”

Price: $0 for up to 10 users.

Google Apps Standard Edition

Many non-profits may resist the notion of switching to Google Apps because its productivity software—Docs & Spreadsheets—lacks many of the features that Microsoft’s Office suite contains. However, a transition to Google Apps doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposal. Adopting Google Apps to replace your Microsoft Exchange email server can save your organization a heap of cash without having to abandon your Microsoft Office desktop-based applications.

The primary reason to switch from Exchange to Google Apps is price. In January, I wrote a head-to-head comparison of Exchange & Google Apps which noted a study showing that adopting Google Apps Premium could cut the average company’s email hosting costs by about 65% when compared to Microsoft Exchange and by about 55% when compared with Microsoft’s own cloud-based email service.

But the premium addition of Google’s email offering is likely overkill more most non-profits. Google Apps Standard Edition offers a whopping 7.4GB per inbox, offers full POP3 and IMAP email compatibility, and boasts bevy of free applications for the Blackberry, iPhone, and Android.

Finally, Google Apps integrates seamlessly with SalesForce, allowing you to instantly add notes to customer contact records whenever you send an email. No more clunky copy/paste needed!

Price: $0 for unlimited users.

WordPress & Drupal

Your website needs to be flexible keep up with the pace of technology. That’s the primary reason why ReadyMadeWeb recommend WordPress and Drupal, the only self-hosted CMS solutions used in our portfolio.

According to Water & Stone’s 2009 Open-Source CMS Report, Drupal and WordPress weekly downloads clock in at 62,500 and 433,767 respectively, making them gargantuan in comparison to their competitors. These thriving communities of users and developers are the driving forces behind the flexibility of these platforms.

As both WordPress and Drupal are open-source, additions to the projects are also shared amongst the community of users. This means that rather than paying a developer to add social networking features to your website—a job that could cost tens of thousands of dollars on a proprietary platform—you can pay a developer to simply implement one of the many freely available add-ons that’s just sitting on the (virtual) shelf.

Too many non-profits are spending their donors hard-earned money making web design companies rich when they could be embracing open-source solutions.

Price: $0 for either software package.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics integrates with Drupal and WordPress to measure your website’s performance and also integrates with SalesForce and MailChimp to track customer conversion rates and traffic from email campaigns.

Price: $0

MailChimp

Once you have people interested in your cause, you need to stay on their radar. You can keep that presence of mind by sending regular emails updating your supporters, contacts in the media, and colleagues at other organizations. Using a bulk email solutions like MailChimp will ensure that your emails aren’t blocked by spam filters and will also allow you to measure how frequently your emails are opened and what links your recipients are clicking on.

MailChimp also features out-of-the-box integration with Google Apps and SalesFoce, allowing you populate lists with the contacts you’ve gathered using either platform.

Price: $0 per month for up to 500 subscribers. Pay plans vary from $10 for to $240 per month based on your number of subscribers.

FormSpring FormStack

To easily gather information about donors, process donations, and automatically populate your database and email lists, check out FormSpring. SalesForce, MailChimp, and Google Apps integrations make this web form creation service a no-brainer for non-profits following the ReadyMadeWeb approach to web software.

Price: $0 for up to 10 forms and 50 sign-ups a month. Pay plans vary from $14 to $159 per month based on number of forms and entries.

Update 6/7/2010: FormSpring has changed its name to FormStack.

There are all sorts of other great ReadyMade services and open-source software platforms out there that also integrate with many of the platforms we’ve talked about here. Keep reading ReadyMadeWeb to learn about more and feel free to email us at info@readymadeweb.com if you ever want advice choosing the right solutions form your non-profit. We’re glad to help.

Three Tools for Website Data Collection Forms

by Cord Blomquist on March 4, 2010 · View Comments

in CRM Solutions, Must-Have Tools, Web-Based Applications

Many programs—especially bulk emailers and payment systems—have their own form creators which will generate a form for your website, but that form is single-purpose, processing data for only that one program. Its great that services provide these form-creation features, but they just don’t cover situations like automatically processing a payment, adding a person to your CRM, and placing them on a bulk email list.

Up until recently this sort of data processing could only be done by paying a developer to build a customized HTML/javascript form that would send information out to all the services you employed. But with so many people using the same set of popular services out there, a clear space in the market has developed for data collection form experts to simplify the process and give more control to site owners.

That space has been filled by services like Wufoo, FormSpring, and StringTwo software, which offer data collection forms that are incredibly easy to build and even easier to plug-in to a whole variety of other services.

Wufoo - The biggest feature offered by WuFoo is its incredibly wide range of 3rd party integrations. The bulk emailers covered are Campaign Monitor, MailChimp, CakeMail, and Sendloop. Website building services Yola and BroadChoice are coveredalong with Amazon’s human-powered automation service Mechanical Turk, which is a big plus for anyone needing data review to be done by hand but outside their own shop.

Wufoo notably covers a whole range of payment option integration—PayPal, Google Checkout, Authorize.net, USA ePay and FreshBooks are all covered.

HighRise, our favorite simple CRM solution, is also on the list along with a handful of other services.

For more on WuFoo, take their product tour.

FormSpring FormStack - With drop-dead easy drag and drop interface, FormSpring FormStack is a technical solution fit for even the most non-technical person. FormSpring FormStack’s functionality and ease-of-use is covered on their What it Does page which includes a quick video overview.

Though FormSpring FormStack doesn’t integrate with as many services as WuFoo, it does offer integration with SalesForce. So if you’re a SalesForce user, FormSpring FormStack is your solution for data collection.

HighRise is also covered by FormSpring FormStack along with bulk emailers Campaign Monitor, Email Center Pro, Exact Target, and MailChimp. Rounding out the roster of 3rd-party integrations are Google Apps, the accounting solutions FreshBooks, and TypePad for painlessly dropping forms into your blog.

Update 6/7/2010: FormSpring has changed its name to FormStack.

StringTwo - If you’re an advanced user who would rather implement a licensed software solution than pay a monthly fee, then StringTwo may be your answer. Currently, StringTwo offers form processors for HighRise or FreshBooks for $39.00. Both processors create new contact records in HighRise or FreshBooks when any data is added to them, which could be an issue for businesses that see a lot of repeat traffic through their website. That said, if you’re just looking to get information into HighRise or Freshbooks, why choose anything else? The cost savings make the one-time implementation well worth the effort.

Give Your PHP Code Even More Speed with eAccelerator

by Cord Blomquist on February 17, 2010 · View Comments

in Hosting & Servers, How-To, Must-Have Tools

photo credit: Zach Dischner

Many of today’s best open-source CMS systems are written with PHP, an incredibly popular and powerful scripting language. PHP’s power lies in its ability to dynamically generate pages, eliminating the need to code pages by hand in HTML. However, that same dynamism is one of the chief disadvantages of PHP because of the processor power needed to generate pages on the fly. Thankfully, that disadvantage can be easily mitigated by using caching programs like eAccelerator.

So what’s eAccelerator? Here’s the official description from eAccelerator.net:

eAccelerator is a free open-source PHP accelerator & optimizer. It increases the performance of PHP scripts by caching them in their compiled state, so that the overhead of compiling is almost completely eliminated. It also optimizes scripts to speed up their execution. eAccelerator typically reduces server load and increases the speed of your PHP code by 1-10 times.

I’ve found the 1-10 times speed increase to be a conservative estimate as many PHP sites will gain even more speed—even more reason to install this awesome software package.

Below I’ve outlined the process which I followed to install eAccelerator on a Media Temple dedicated virtual (dv) server version 3.5 running CentOS 5 and Plesk Control Panel version 8.6. Your setup my differ substantially, so please read through the documentation on the eAccelerator website and consult your hosting provider before proceeding.

Media Temple customers should visit their servers admin menu within the Media Temple Account Center in order to install the developer tools on your server as several of the software packages included in the developer tools will be needed for this installation, including “make” and “gcc.” This process will take a few minutes, so go grab a cup of coffee.

To begin the actual install process, login to your server via SSH using Terminal if you’re using a Mac or an SSH client like Putty if you’re using a PC. Here’s a quick guide to linux command-line commands if you need a reference.

Once you’re logged, drop back to the root directory:

cd /

Next, you’ll need to create a directory for eAccelerator, and then navigate into that directory:

mkdir /ea/

cd /ea/

Download and unzip the installer:

wget http://bart.eaccelerator.net/source/0.9.5.3/eaccelerator-0.9.5.3.tar.bz2

bzip2 -d eaccelerator-0.9.5.3.tar.bz2

tar xvf eaccelerator-0.9.5.3.tar

Set your current directory to the unzipped file:

cd eaccelerator-0.9.5.3

When you have only one php install (check your server settings), it’s safe to run these commands in the source directory. This next series of commands will configure and install eAccelerator:

phpize

./configure

make

make test

make install

After compilation, there should be a “eaccelerator.so” file in the modules subdirectory of the eAccelerator source directory. Check to make sure this is present.

Next, copy the eaccelerator.ini file into the /etc/php.d/ directory:

cd /

cp /ea/eaccelerator-0.9.5.3/eaccelerator.ini /etc/php.d/eaccelerator.ini

Edit eaccelerator.ini using the text editor:

vi /etc/php.d/eaccelerator.ini

Now change this uncommented line:

zend_extension=”/usr/lib/php4/eaccelerator.so”

To this :

zend_extension=”/usr/lib/php/modules/eaccelerator.so”

Now, restart Apache:

service httpd restart

To Verify that this installation worked, first check out PHP:

php -v

You should see these lines somewhere in the mix:

Zend Engine v2.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2008 Zend Technologies

with eAccelerator v0.9.5.3, Copyright (c) 2004-2006 eAccelerator, by eAccelerator

Finally, you can create a php file, and drop this line into it:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

When you load this php file in your browser you should see the configuration information from your installing of PHP and eAccelerator will have added its own block of information. It will show the configuration, but also the amount of allocated memory, cached scripts and so on. When this says that eaccelerator is enabled and any number of scripts are cached, eAccelerator is working.

If you have any questions about eAccelerator or anything else we’ve covered on ReadyMadeWeb, please leave a comment or email us at info@readymadeweb.com.

Plugin Monday, er, Tuesday: Get the Speed You Need with WP Super Cache

by Cord Blomquist on February 16, 2010 · View Comments

in Hosting & Servers, Must-Have Tools, Plugin Monday

photo credit: tequilamike

Note: Presidents’ Day festivities delayed Plugin Monday. We hope you can make-do with this rare Tuesday edition of our weekly WordPress plugin feature.

In the spirit of the recent Daytona 500, this week we’ll be covering a plugin that will make your site speedier, WP Super Cache.

Unlike other plugins that put more load on your server’s process and slow down your site’s load time, WP Super Cache make your site faster by creating static HTML files from the PHP scripts that run WordPress. Those HTML files will be served in place of your dynamic WordPress pages, saving your server an incredible amount of strain.

This plugin is especially useful for WordPress users running WP on underpowered servers or users experiencing heavy traffic flow. This means that running WP Super Cache can save you cash by allowing you run WordPress on an inexpensive server without feeling all the lag that can often come with cheaper hosting services.

WP Super Cache is cleverly designed so as not to interfere with the functionality of your site in any way. Dynamic pages will still be served to users who are logged into your site, users who have left a comment (so they can see them), and users who are viewing a password-protected post or page, so there’s no need to worry about WP Super Cache affecting the experience of your users. If anything, user experience will be improved dramatically as your site will be faster and more responsive.

If you decide to move forward with installing WP Super Cache, it is important to note that installation involves some small edits to your site’s wp-config.php file as well as the .htaccess file. These edits aren’t very extensive, but errors in the code of these files can cause your site to have serious errors or be disabled entirely, so be sure to make backups of these files before you begin the installation process.

To Install the plugin, follow the detailed instructions on the plugin’s page at wordpress.org. Once you have the basics of the plugin up and running, I’d recommend leaving all the defaults in place with the exception of enabling Super Cache Compression. Though this compression feature can cause problems with some server setups, chances are that your server will deal with this option just fine and compression will make your site just that much faster.

No matter how you configure WP Super Cache, it’s a good idea to browse through several pages on your site, make a few test comments, and visit any password protected pages in order to test the caching functionality. Be sure to do this both while logged into your site and while logged out.

After your installation is complete, get to work promoting your site on Digg, as you’ll be able to absorb the traffic of a Digg front page link without a problem.

If you have any questions about installing WP Super Cache, please leave a comment or send an email to info@readymadeweb.com and we’ll get back to you and the rest of our readers with an answer.

Use CamTwist to Live Stream Your Desktop, SlideShow, or Movie

by Cord Blomquist on February 7, 2010 · View Comments

in Must-Have Tools, Video

Services like Ustream.TV, Justin.TV, and Stickam.com are no longer limited to streaming the signal from your web cam thanks to CamTwist. This free software will turns your desktop, a slide show, or a video file into its own virtual web cam.

The software—available for Mac OS 10.4 and above—presents the user with a variety of options for video sources. Effects can then be added to these sources—though I can’t imagine much use for these effects beyond mere amusement. From there, CamTwists video feed can be accessed just like any other web cam.

The software also works with popular chat clients like Skype and Yahoo Messenger, allowing you to integrate screencasting or media files into one-on-one communication as well. Online training sessions or video conferences become much more rich and interesting when this sort of media can be integrated smoothly. Note that iChat is not yet supported.

Check out this instructional video to learn the basics of CamTwist:

Using Mass-Follow Tools to Increase Your Twitter Followers

by Cord Blomquist on February 4, 2010 · View Comments

in Must-Have Tools, Twitter

photo credit: carrotcreative

When you follow someone on Twitter, by default Twitter sends an email notifying them that you’re a new follower. Sometimes this results in someone looking at your profile, checking out your previous tweets, and following you back. So, following people can result in increasing your followers, especially if you can figure out a way to follow people on-mass.

Several tools exist to do this including FlashTweet, TwitterMass, and Tweepi. All of these services contain the same basic tool set—auto-following people who tweet certain keywords or phrases, following the followers of another Twitter user, and a mass un-follow tool.

Imagine this use case scenario for these tools: You run a political commentary blog and you’ve been covering the health care reform issues. Using a mass-follow tool you could expand your audience by following a people who are using the phrase “health care reform” in their tweets or by following people who follow other major political bloggers, like @dailydish or @TheDailyCaller.

Of course, not everyone you follow will end up following you back, so you’ll end up with a glut of folks you’re following who weren’t polite enough to return the favor. That’s where the un-follow tools in all of these suits comes into play. These tools will identify the non-reciprocators and drop them.

Combining mass-following with occasional un-following will allow you to drop a simple message to hundreds or even thousands of people a week.

Of all of the tools I mentioned above, I’d recommend FlashTweet and Tweepi for beginners. Tweepi is totally free and is good for folks still getting used to the idea of mass-following while FlashTweet costs a mere $8 per month and will follow a large swath of people at a time, but the interface can be a bit frustrating. TwitterMass is a very automated system that costs anywhere from $24 to $99 per month depending on the number of accounts you’d like to manage.

Good luck and good tweeting.

If you have any questions about using mass-follow tools, running a Twitter campaign, or anything else about Twitter, please leave a comment below or email us at info@readymadeweb.com.

RSS is Not Dead: Why Google Reader is a Great Tool

by Cord Blomquist on January 23, 2010 · View Comments

in Mobile & Smart Phones, Must-Have Tools

photo credit: *ejk*

To barrow a line from Mark Twain, the reports of RSS’s death have been greatly exaggertated. Okay, so RSS readers aren’t used by a lot of people, but they really should be.

Products like Google Reader allow you to keep everything you love online organized, categorized and quickly viewable in one place. Google Reader specifically allows you to take your reading with you and share it with others.

Google Reader can also make your web-reading work flow a lot more organized and streamlined. If you’re regularly blogging about topics in the news, Reader will allow you peruse headlines, highlight the items you want to look into further using the “star” feature, and thereby quickly create a reading list for your daily blogging.

This isn’t just limited to your PC or Mac, you can take reader with you and use it fill many of the otherwise unproductive parts of your day. My favorite mobile reader app is Byline for the iPhone, a great interface that allow for quick reading, starring, sharing, and has nice little features like “Mail Link to this Page” which makes for quick sharing with non-users of Google Reader.

If you’re using an Android-based phone, Google Reader is, of course, supported and several alternative interfaces to Google’s own can be found in the app store. If you’re using a BlackBerry or another mobile device, you can check out google.com/mobile/more to see what applications are available for your phone.

For people working in groups, Google Reader can be an incredible resource. The sharing feature allows group blogs and other writers working in teams to quickly move good stories in front of other writes on their team. Just be sure to be following the shared items of the other writes in your group and you’ll make the discovery process for good fodder for stories take much less time.

Whether you’re a blogger or just a regular reader of more than one blog, by investing the short amount of time to setup and get into the rhythm of using Google Reader, you’ll save time and give yourself a bunch of tools to do more with what you’re reading.

Check out this video by the folks behind Google Reader to get familiar with the basics:

Update: Mashable covers a new feature in Google Reader that allows you to follow ANY webpage, even if it isn’t associated with an RSS feed.