Product Review and $1600 Giveaway: Light CMS
Collis Ta'eedTHE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS TO ALL THOSE THAT ENTERED!
Disclosure: Light is a paying sponsor of FreelanceSwitch. My opinion however is not (nor can be) paid for 
If you’ve ever built a website for a client you’ll know all about those tedious and annoying updates clients love. Sure they can be an OK money earner for not that much work, but if you’re anything like me half the time you don’t charge for them and the other half you put it off until your client gets annoyed and you finally get around to doing something that takes you a few seconds and then you don’t charge for it anyway.
The alternative is to give your client some way to manage the content themselves. This can mean building a custom system, giving them a copy of Contribute and hoping they don’t hurt themselves, or using an off the shelf product. I’ve tried the first two options, but today we’re going to take a look at the last, specifically a product called the Light Content Management System or just Light for the keyboard challenged.
Using Light I built the Guide to Passive Income subsite that we launched last week and now know the system inside out.
So how does it work?
To use Light for a website you follow this process:
(1) Build your site into HTML as normal but leave blanks where anything you want to be managed is going to wind up.
(2) In the HTML insert some code in those manageable spots. The code is pretty simple and looks like this:
<$region name=”MainContent”$><$/region$>
You upload your ZIP file containing HTML files embedded with little code snippets. If you feel really underconfident they provide a service to do the HTMLing for you, but it’s really, really easy so I doubt you’ll need it.
(3) Zip it all up and upload to your Light account. Light checks through the HTML and finds the spots with the code snippets and knows that those are going to be manageable areas.
(4) When your client logs in they can do a variety of things in those manageable areas like placing images, links, a photo gallery, a form, a blog post, a calendar, files for download and of course text in all its variations of font, colour and style.
Here’s what the client sees, lots of editable areas appearing in situ on the site for them to edit.
There are of course a few other things you have to do, but that’s the main crux of it all. So let’s get to some questions that you’ll want answered:
So websites are hosted on the Light servers?
Yes. Your site has to be hosted with Light. That means you can’t drop in a PHP script or anything like that and you don’t have FTP access. The hosting itself is pretty rock solid, we sent well over 10,000 visitors to the site I built over the course of 24 hours and the site didn’t bat an eyelash.
There’s a stats control panel for the client to check, though you can embed Google Analytics or a similar script as well. As you can see we hit the servers with 15K pageviews in a single day and it was OK
Can you use a domain name?
Yes. Light by default gives you a domain like freelance.publishpath.com. This is OK for testing, but with domains going for a measly $9 a pop, you may as well get your client a domain name. To point your domain you have to go to your registrar and set the ‘A’ record. I’d never done this before (for most webhosts you modify nameservers), and I had to look into my domain registrars help file, but it turned out to be a pretty simple copy+paste of an address that Light provides into a text field.
What does it cost?
Light is offered on a subscription basis. There’s a free version you can try out which is pretty neat, but if you were going to offer it to a client, you’d of course shell out for one of the paid versions.
Subscriptions make sense since you are getting hosting included. The good thing is you can add a premium to each subscription when you pass it on to the client and make yourself a tidy income.
Is it brandable?
Yes you can add your own logo to the content management system so your clients won’t be able to tell what system they are using (and if you’ve marked up the price, won’t notice that you’ve added a few extra dollars). And in a newly released feature, you can now brand the support system as well.
The support documentation is also brandable, meaning you can leave your client to their own devices with just a support URL to reference.
What are the downsides?
As with anything, there are some drawbacks to using Light. The two main things that I could see are that:
- You’ll need to find some other email solution
While most webhosts will create an email and hosting package for you, when you are setting the site up with Light, you are going to have to sort out email some other way. This means setting up with a webhost anyway or using some other solution. This isn’t the end of the world, but is something you’ll need to figure out. - There’s no FTP
The lack of FTP isn’t that bad, but after being used to controlling my files without having to use HTTP upload buttons, it felt a little heavy handed.
My Experience
Overall my experience was pretty good. The system is very easy to use, there are some help videos and the documentation has everything you need to know. It took me less than two hours to learn the system, prepare my site, upload it, point a domain AND start editing content. Now I don’t know about you, but that seems pretty fast and pretty easy. I once tried to learn an open source content management system called TYPO3 or something like that and gave up after a few hours of poking through help files. Most of my other experiences with setting up CMS’s have been similar to that.
Watch a few short videos, use the support documentation or use something called the Web Concierge. It’s all pretty simple though, so you can probably manage with just the docs
Once the system was set up I entered all the site content myself (since the site I was building has no client). This task was also pretty easy, though for someone used to coding in dreamweaver or hand-coding, feels a little tiresome because you have to click a few buttons and go through a few page refreshes to do anything. Of course your clients aren’t web developers so probably won’t find this tedious at all.
The tools the client have are excellent and feature packed. You’ll pretty much be able to leave them to their own devices to build all sorts of creations without you, and no doubt they’ll be very pleased with themselves for it.
A small gripe that I had was that the text editor does the <p></p> tag in a really weird way. If you paste in some text, say a paragraph and then press enter, instead of wrapping the paragraph you just pasted in a <p></p> it places an empty <p></p> in between that paragraph and the next. The result is some odd line breaking. I could see what was happening because I just switched to the HTML view, but I imagine a client might find it a bit confusing.
Styling The Basic Components
Another slightly tricky element was styling some of the things that the system can do. So for example, the user can place a form on to the site but unless you specify a few things in the stylesheet ahead of time, the form is going to come out looking pretty lame. So what I had to do was place the form, look at the HTML and then go back to my stylesheet and add the appropriate styles.
Similarly when I placed the gallery component, it was even trickier. The gallery comes with its own CSS stylesheet, so I had to open that up and copy the code then put in some new stylesheet definitions that overwrite those ones to make it work the way I wanted.
Finally when I tested my form CSS in, because that was in a stylesheet and because the form comes with CSS hardcoded in, the hardcoded stuff took precedent over my own. This meant I had to wrap the form in another tag and then do an overly complex specification in my stylesheet to fool the browser into using my stylesheet code instead of the hardcoded styles that are right next to the form itself.
All of these things are OK because I know quite a bit of CSS. But it would be annoying for a web designer who wasn’t used to hand-coding CSS (e.g. a person who uses Dreamweaver’s GUI most of the time).
Still it’s a pretty easy fix, if the Light crew add some documentation into the help files about these issues, users should be able to work out what to do without jumping through the hoops that I did.
Other Features
There are quite a few other features in Light that I haven’t mentioned or I didn’t really use in my particular project. Things like multiple users so your client can have an editor and specific content writers (good for larger organizations), the ability to create multiple levels of pages and subpages, add breadcrumb navigation, create a sitemap and 404 page, and quite a few other things.
Would I use it?
The big question is would I use it, in short, yes I think I would. I used to actually build little PHP systems for my clients and it was a royal pain in the bum because I’m a designer not a programmer, often clients would turn the option down because it was too expensive and the systems would never be particularly feature-full.
Light is easy enough for a novice to set up, powerful enough for the vast majority of clients and bends to fit your design, not the other way around.
In any case, they offer a free trial version of the software, it only took me a couple of hours to get my head around the system, so I suggest you take an afternoon, give it a try for yourself and make up your own mind.
And now for the giveaway!
Light have generously offered two lucky readers a PRO-level website for one year at no cost. At a value of $69/month, that is an $828 value for each winner.
To win this prize, answer the following question in the comments:
“How would you spend the extra cash you’d make every month from Light?”
We’ll pick the answer we like best, and another will be drawn at random. You have until Monday 1pm Sydney Time (you can check Sydney time here) to enter!
Good luck!
Daniel
July 18th, 2007
Lollies… I’d buy lots of lollies.
Montoya
July 18th, 2007
I have a question… when Light says that the basic plan allows you to have 3 pages, does that really mean that the site you get only has a maximum of 3 web pages? That doesn’t sound like something you can build a real website with!
blogjunkie
July 18th, 2007
If I had extra cash from Light every month, I’d use it as seed money to build my web business. I’d use the resources in the Guide to Passive Income subsite and hire freelance developers from FSw Jobs. And to maintain a stable, recurrent, passive income, I’d continue building my client sites on Light CMS of course.
FSw has taught me well!
Collis
July 18th, 2007
@Montoya, yeah I think that really is 3 webpages, or maybe its 3 templates, I’ll ask one of the guys and get back to you. But yeah the free plan is really just for you to test out and see if its worth actually paying for
Colin Rowley
July 18th, 2007
Who needs hosted email when Google offers it for free through GMail. Anyone ever heard of this???
Great view, guys!
Michael Dick
July 18th, 2007
I would re-invest the money back into Light.
Ryan Whitaker
July 18th, 2007
@Montoya, the Basic plan allows for 10 pages.
Andrea Decker
July 18th, 2007
The nice thing seems to be that blog posts and event details don’t “count” as pages. So, the limitation on the free test site to three “pages” is not such a limitation after all.
Jeff
July 18th, 2007
If I win I’d definitely give that money back to my parents because they already did so much for me..sending me to school, paying for college fees, buying me my computer, feeding me…
Ryan Terry
July 18th, 2007
I’d finally buy groceries…and maybe an iPhone. Yes…but switch the two. iPhone first!
Jon Engle
July 18th, 2007
I’d use the extra cash to adopt a Koala at the local zoo… and buy him a case of beer every other week. Even cuddly, fuzzy tree-dwelling beasts need to party once in a while.
Nick Pulido
July 18th, 2007
I would buy oreos, for my cats.
Sam
July 18th, 2007
With the extra money I’d generate from Light, I’d use it towards paying part of my student loans from college. The other part of the money I’d put towards my savings fund for my first car…
Mirko
July 18th, 2007
Good review, I’ll probably give it a shot, I am hopelessly looking to get rid of the programming pain.
Frankie B
July 18th, 2007
If I were in a position that I received money from Light, I would more than likely put a long-waited engagement ring on my wonderful girlfriend’s finger, buy our 2 year old son some of the gifts I had no money for on Christmas and his birthday (Friday).
Depending on what was left I would distribute that between buying actual software and paying some of the bills my girlfriend has been burdened with the past 7 months while I looked for a job.
I, like Collis, am a designer, not a developer. This has hurt me in my freelance career and learning how to program hasn’t gone as well as I’d hope.
I am sure there are others who deserve this amount of money more than I do, but it would definitely help my relationship and quite possibly my career.
Lee
July 18th, 2007
I would like to think that I would do great things with it like end world peace or solve climate change… alas I can only make incremental changes as a person and hope others will do the same.
If I had the additional cash every month I would lease a Segway to use in my daily running around. Our city (Cranbrook BC Canada) is not very large population wise but it is spread out. Currently I have to drive as we have a fledgling transit system and it doesn’t cover enough of the city. I have been wanting a Segway for a while but the $100/m was too much, this would be attainable if I had extra funds lying around.
-Lee
Chris
July 18th, 2007
Simple. First, I would save the extra cash to buy a MacBook Pro. After that, I would spoil my three daughters more than I already do.
MJ
July 18th, 2007
..I would spend the money for advertising to market the website. Naw, just kidding. I would spend it on pot.
Collis
July 18th, 2007
Hey guys, just fixed up some HTML, I’d been trying to write in <p></p> tags, but it was trying to interpret them in the post. Anyway its all fixed up now, hope it didn’t make for too confusing a read
Tim
July 18th, 2007
Nice review. I’ve customized my wordpress backend so it does allmost everything it does for free though.
Rian
July 18th, 2007
I suppose it’s a really lightweight solution for a quick deployment.. Then again, once a basic setup has been done in Typo3 deploying a website is nothing more than this either..
Typo3 will take some getting used to though but it’s options are much more elaborate as lightCMS’, which is the intention of Light of course.
I’d probably not deploy a big client’s website on this system, however.
John
July 18th, 2007
…. I’d spend the money on beer, flamin’ hot Pringles and a large Big Mac meal. Simple enough.
Even after a year, its hard to leave the student days behind. Leaving deadlines til the last minute, late night marathons to get work done, sleeping in til afternoon, drinking more beer than I can afford and just about getting away with the work I’ve done. Why change a winning system?
Have given Light ago, seems pretty good to me and would use for clients with simple demands, however, was a bit frustrated with the image gallery. I couldn’t find away of listing only the most recent few images on the front page while keeping the gallery on another page. If I only knew how to do this, I’d be a happy camper.
Aaron Forgue
July 18th, 2007
I would buy my wife one lovely gift each month of the year. She deserves it!
brad knapp
July 18th, 2007
I’d move to Montana spend my mornings on my bike in the mountains and my evenings flyfishing in the trout streams …
Kuswanto
July 18th, 2007
I would buy new MacBook :p
Jeff Hartman
July 18th, 2007
I’d buy a grater, because there is so much cheese in some of these answers.
Andy
July 18th, 2007
I’d donate to the Gippsland Flood Appeal through the Salvation Army.
It wasn’t that long ago that I was giving to their Drought Appeal!
Michael Shawn McCabe
July 18th, 2007
I would initially tell myself (and others) that I would do something noble and intelligent with the extra money made by using Light. Then I would likely find myself spending a little extra on lunch, buying that next new CD, letting my beautiful daughter get that new toy, or having my wife rationalize that she “really needs” a new outfit. Life would continue to be sweet like that. Despite the most discerning intentions I would likely be content with my wonderfully easy-to-use CMS courtesy of Light and squander the savings for another rotation on this incredible Earth.
Chris
July 18th, 2007
I would take the extra money earned from Light and purchase as many PVC “tubes” as possible and create my own internet…with Al Gores supervision of course.
Rajesh Shakya
July 18th, 2007
Hey,
I will buy some good books from the extra money I earn from light.
Rajesh Shakya
http://www.rajeshshakya.com
Helping technopreneurs to excel and lead their life!
Terry
July 18th, 2007
Thanks for this review–I’ve been waiting to read it–as my own ‘testing’ of Light has kinda stalled because of my hectic schedule. I hadn’t even considered those two main drawbacks–email and http://FTP. (That’s kind of a kick in the nads!) Maybe future versions of Light will address these issues somehow…
For a while now, I’ve been trying to develop a subscription-based hosting system for my clients. When I finally manage to make that happen (using Light, or any other CMS for that matter), I’ll be on my way to a more stable source of side income, and I can then begin building the rest of my Evil Graphics Empire!
(That’s what I’ll do with the money…all thanks to the helpful and benevolent folks at FreelanceSwitch!)
Kara
July 18th, 2007
Thanks for the great review! I just started using Light last month for my annual fundraiser (www.thegreathotdogcookoff.com) And I’ve had a very similar experience- easy to use, but sort of clunky when it comes to the overriding the default CSS. Still, I think its a perfect solution for a lot of my clients who are small nonprofit organizations (who also have a history of causing disasters when given Dreamweaver access to sites!)
I’d love to get free Light services for one of my futures client’s site (I’ve got a list of 5 sites who want to go Light w/in the next two months). The money saved, hands down, would go to getting health insurance!! I’ve been freelancing since January, and while I’ve managed to keep my head above water, the health insurance thing is something I managed to keep putting off. No longer! I’ve got my freelancer’s union health insurance paperwork ready to go… just need the extra dollars. You can help me make that happen, right?
Michael
July 18th, 2007
With a free money-saving chunk of $828, I’d buy myself some much needed time off to spend with my 4 y/o daughter who, yesterday, heart-crunchingly told me I could have her piggy bank money so I wouldn’t have to work so much.
Scott Nelle
July 18th, 2007
I’d spend it here, of course! : )
(Sorry for the double post, the first one went through before it was ready)
Drew
July 18th, 2007
I’d buy a case for my iPhone, take my wife to dinner, and go to Disney World.
Ryan
July 18th, 2007
I’m still trying to decide what I’d do with the money. Until then, does anyone know of any good sites that teach how to use WordPress to do this (Tim)? I’d like to learn more about using WP as a CMS.
Jeff Brown
July 18th, 2007
I am a public high school teacher (web design, yeah how I got lucky enough to teach that all day I’ll never know).
If Light gave me a free years subscription I would give it to a student organization to use free for the year. Or I would use it with my classes to evaluate/show the CMS.
Ryan Neill
July 18th, 2007
If anybody needs a good, free (and open-source to boot) CMS I would suggest using Drupal (drupal.org) over Light or any other pay to use CMS. I’ve used Drupal for well over a year now to construct a number of sites and found that having full access to the code base to be a supreme benefit. Using a system like Drupal also leaves you with the freedom to pick your hosting service (so long as it supports PHP and MYSQL).
Kelter
July 18th, 2007
Great review - thank you!
I’d probably put the money int upgrading my phone - an iPhone obviously - then I’d be able to test my sites (LightCMS sites too eh?) on the iPhone Safari browser.
Phaze
July 18th, 2007
What would I do? I would use the money to invest in my web design business and by offering more savings, tools, and services for my clients and those who just need information. I would also use the money to host free 1 hour seminars to help clients and prospects in understanding the website planning process.
Verne
July 18th, 2007
As a web designer working with clients, I’d be concerned with offering a solution that can’t be hosted locally or on the client’s server. As you move towards the upper scale of the small business domain, they tend to get pickier with details like hosting.
Definitely some great value for the smaller clients though. I’d be interested in giving the free demo a whirl to see what it’s made of first hand.
As for the question…
If we’re being serious, with the money I make from using Light, I’d donate back to FreelanceSwitch! Somebody’s gotta help keep the community running (how else would we get the in’s on cool stuff like Light?)!
If we’re not being serious, with the money I make from using Light, I’d buy myself a monkey. The monkey would then use Light to start up and run the next big thing on the internet and go on to term the phrase “web 4.0″.
Actually, I’m not sure which one is serious anymore…
Jen / domestika
July 18th, 2007
How lovely, a new toy to play with!
I’ve heard some not-good things from a writer friend who had Contribute inflicted on her by her employer, so it will be interesting to get together with her and compare & contrast with Light.
What would I buy with the savings?
Wish I could honestly say that I’d donate it all to charity, but that’s just not going to happen. An old house always has things that need fixing… urgently… so I’d channel the money towards our local roof-repairing guy! He has a young family, could use the cash, so it’s not entirely selfish… right?
Razvan
July 18th, 2007
I would spend the money advertising and marketing the site. I’d reinvest everything back into it until it produces steady income.
James Lytle
July 18th, 2007
I’ll sponsor a child from Compassion International.
Birdfreak
July 18th, 2007
Great post… something I will definitely check out!
I would spend the extra money on rescuing Special Needs Dobermans out of Goldenrod, Florida. I have enough gadgety junk.
cindy-mindy
July 18th, 2007
Can we backtrack here… what is the clients url in this case? client.lighturl.com? Not in love with the fact that they host the site and one would have to find an alternative email for clients.
Paul Enderson
July 19th, 2007
I’ve been in this game for a very long time now, so it takes something special to make me sit up and pay attention..! But I’ve just spent almost an hour watching (and re-watching) open-mouthed at the demo videos of Light, repeatedly saying “wow”. Colour me very impressed!
I can think of at least ten clients who I could move easily onto the platform (and charge for it of course) - so I’d use the Pro account to rework my own portfolio site (which is currently on Joomla).
I definitely know what I’d spend the profit on. You see, while I was glued to the demos somebody broke into my car and stole my car stereo. I didn’t notice though - such was my fascination with this new way of working! So I’m going to be spending any profit on a new unit - and maybe electrifying my car door handles.
matt cram
July 19th, 2007
I would put the money toward bringing the children of the world together to sing in the spirit of peace and harmony…
… oh and use my financial influence to crush those that oppose me.
Carmen
July 19th, 2007
If I made extra money from Light, I’d save to get me a hollydays to Australia (have been wanting to do this for years:D )…. and maybe I could say Hi! Guys! ha, ha, ha…
fork-spoon Man
July 19th, 2007
“How would I spend the extra cash I’d make every month from Light?”.
That’s so simple. Once per month I would take a day off work to implement Light into every website I’ve ever built. And life would be better. No more whinging whining clients who depand immediate, outrageous and free updates. I’ve finally seen the Light !
ps - my email starts with “light”. This was meant to be.
Justin
July 19th, 2007
I would reinvest it into marketing my freelance business so I can be free of my daytime job.
Jacool
July 19th, 2007
What I would do with the money: Put the money towards college. I’m planning on majoring in business/marketing with a little computer science mixed in there. It would be a great investment in my future!
Rene
July 19th, 2007
With the extra money I would finally replace my dying PowerPC G4 Mac for a Macbook Pro. Its really on its last leg.
Great review by the way!!!
Teh Theng Heng
July 19th, 2007
I will save the money and use it in a rainy day.
Jonathan Guevara
July 19th, 2007
Reading FreelanceSwitch for the past few months have brainwashed me so much that I am actually quitting my daytime job pretty soon and would be get my hands dirty with full time freelancing. (YEAH!)
I’ll be moving back to my parent’s house to lessen my expense. Having extra income from Light would definitely help me battle my way through my first few months on going solo. Most importantly, that should also help keep my mum from evicting me from our house (yeah, she can be that viscious!!! hehehe).
A successful freelancing kid born out from FSw. Now how cool is that!
Tim Wall
July 19th, 2007
Cindy-mindy,
For full disclosure, I am the product marketing director for Light. You can assign any URL you want to any website on Light. The front-end site and the admin side can both work off of your own custom URL.
On the email issue, we’ve found that most of our clients already have an email solution and don’t want to move it anyway. Email isn’t our primary business and there are a lot of great places you can get much better email, some even for free. So, we just provided a way to point your domain to us for the website only and leave your email wherever you want.
We always recommend Gmail because you can use it on your own domain and it is free. We even use this for our own company’s email solution and we love it. By the way, we don’t get any kick-back from Google for promoting Gmail. Too bad
Thanks for the great questions.
Tim
Jens
July 19th, 2007
“How would you spend the extra cash you’d make every month from Light?”
I would definatly buy a iMac. I never worked before with a Mac, so this is a totally new experience. After a brainwash by my colleagues I was hooked to buy a new iMac.
I am a poor student, But with some help from the “Light Side” I will be a iMac richer!
(Sorry for my bad English, I’m Dutch you know)
Ryan Bickett
July 19th, 2007
I’d probably use the money to rescue a dog in light of the michael vick indictment. That jerk.
Then again, I may use it to help kick start my freelance business as well.
Vance Lucas
July 19th, 2007
@Ryan:
“If anybody needs a good, free (and open-source to boot) CMS I would suggest using Drupal (drupal.org) over Light or any other pay to use CMS.”
Since this review seems to be geared primarily towards designers, that is probably not an option for most people here. I’ve used Drupal before, and besides there being over 70 database queries for EVERY page load (not counting any add-ons), it is really not the most user-friendly system. Light may not be for everyone, but the goal is extreme ease of use for your *client*, who may not be so tech-savvy. Light seems to be doing a pretty good job of achieving that goal.
That being said, I would use the extra cash to spend on marketing for some of my existing built properties to hopefully achieve a more steady and stable revenue stream from them.
David
July 20th, 2007
It seems like a great package and if I can find the time, I will have a look. If i do make money from it, I think I will put the money on top of my house, set fire to it and hope that the local businesses all see me and decide that I’m a money maker and thus order a new website.
Vinay
July 20th, 2007
Well.. when you have a little extra money I would def. spend some in donation and keep rest to share with my family and give them some entertainment!
Cheers,
Vinay
William Profet
July 20th, 2007
Very good, I like it! But most of my customers are very happy to use Joomla, which is free and takes 5 minutes to install.
But I will download the Light to check it. I am sure that it is developed very professionally!
Alex
July 20th, 2007
I’d spend it all on ribbon candy and comic books.
drury bynum
July 20th, 2007
With the extra money generated from using Light, I would invest in efforts to learn to better communicate with animals. My office surrounded by trees and birds and every time I go outside they are chattering away. I know their language is complex and specific, like alerting one another when I’m around, “Brown Cap Man! Brown Cap Man.” Heck, they probably even make jokes about me, “Ugly shoes, bad choice, Ugly shoes, I’d go with purple”. Purple, I know, but birds like different colors than we do, that’s one thing I’ve learned.
It wouldn’t be just birds I’d learn to communicate with, there is also the opossum who comes around the house some nights. I’d love to ask him, “Wouldn’t you prefer some cat food rather than chewing on our recycling? I mean, you’re just reinforcing the image people have of you being an oversized rat. We could really work on your image, maybe add some accessories - sweatbands or something.” I really don’t know how the opossum might respond to that, they are hard to read, supporting the need for this research.
Lastly, the squirrels. I’ve always had a thing for squirrels and I feel I’ve already made some headway in communicating with them. I think I know how to say “white bread” and “giggle” in squirrel talk. What I’d really like to ask them about is time management. “Do you guys work like 70 hours a week, and if so, is it all nut collecting or do you include some leisure stuff? If so, what?” Once I thought I saw some squirrels doing some comedy improv, but they quit as soon as they saw me. That’s the kind of barriers I’d like to break down. To be able to say, “Oh, no, don’t mind me, proceed, proceed. I like what you’re doing”
I don’t think there are any specific tools I would buy with the extra money, save for some tiny microphones to record interviews. Most of it would be just to cover my expenses while I’m in the field, or the backyard, as it were.
Thank you for taking the time to review my proposal.
Zed
July 20th, 2007
I’d count the extra money as holiday pay, since when I’m not working I don’t get paid.
Though candy and books is tempting too…
Avinash
July 21st, 2007
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Check us out at http://www.asksunday.com
Cyan
July 23rd, 2007
Hi guys - thanks for all your entries! The giveaway is now closed.
Ryan
August 13th, 2007
The system looks really slick and I’d be very interested in using for my business, but the prices are just too high. The rates they are charging their resellers are higher than the rates that I’m charging my clients. There’s no way I could get my clients to pay that much more.
If they were to make their wholesale rates more affordable though [hint-hint]…I’d jump on it like a bulldog on a porkchop and would welcome their contacting me to negotiate a better price (I can’t find any contact info on their site).
Simon
September 7th, 2007
You guys should checkout silverstripe.com for a lightweight CMS, its more scalable and the interface is primo.
Blair Rorani
February 26th, 2008
Could you use Light CMS to build and manage freelanceswitch.com?
Michael
March 14th, 2008
After using Light and custom code through Element Fusion, I don’t have any extra cash to spend. In fact three months into a very frustrating project I had to restart development on my project else where. Element Fusion were less than sympathetic. I have rebuilt the project in about 4 weeks with less than half the budget after making payments to EF. I was assured that the solution would be exactly what I needed and would not go over budget. After rebuilding and paying for the hours EF insisted on I will be about $5000 out of pocket. I can do a lot with $5000 what about you?
Erica
March 19th, 2008
I was looking into Light CMS also though I already resell hosting so using Light would defeat that purpose. So my search continues. I’m wondering though if anyone has used Big Medium CMS? It looked pretty good though seemed to lack some features (like calendar) that Light offers.
nick
April 10th, 2008
Tim howdy - as communications officer with a church group in australia can i use Light CMS for our site directly or not as I think you mentioned you market another lightcms product [which is just the same as LightCMS] for ‘non-designers’ even tho I am the poor mug who has to look after + build the 45 page school web site? i am now looking at teh 10 user monthly package and need to sign up asap.
PS:: i would use the money for a holiday for drury bynum - the guy in this thread who seems to be talking way to much to squirrels!!!!
cheers
nick
adelaide marist brothers
BlueSquares
May 6th, 2008
What timing. I was just reaching a point in my professional life where I no longer wish to update Wordpress or Joomla because of [insert new security exploit here] just to find out [insert plugin here] no longer works. And the email is not an issue. I’ve been offering Gmail to all my clients much to their delight. This is definitely a breath of fresh air.
The only thing really, really bothering me….is the billing. I don’t want to pay anyone’s bill nor do I want to become a monthly collection agency for my client. This, I fear, is where the company will fail. I’m trying to establish good relationships and hounding people for last month’s payment will kill my referrals.
Or am I getting this wrong?
By the way, it’s nice to know the blog posts don’t count as pages.
Andy in Chicago
October 28th, 2008
My biggest issue is not having access to the markup in the error file directory. I have flash based navigation that requires php to call it, but since i don’t have access to the error directory and can’t assign these pages a template or do anything with the markup, I’m sort of screwed - this goes for the site map as well. If you know something about this that I don’t, please send me an email. I’d greatly appreciate it! Nice write up BTW, over all I’m loving cms light and I’m only 10 hours or so into it.
Mike
November 8th, 2008
Are you kidding me? limiting accounts to a certain # of pages?!? I use Squarespace and they are about 10 years ahead of these guys!