How do you find a CMS?
in the labyrinth of Content Management Systems
It started for me at the end of 2001 when I traveled through Australia with my family. I was looking for a way to share my photos online with those who stayed at home. I found out that I could have our analog photos put on a CD-ROM when developing. So digitized, all I had to do was upload them!
But not to a boring ready-made weblog-photo-gallery website, that was beyond my honour.
Because at that time I had spent a few years at Ericsson and now I was working at MeesPierson/Fortisbank, "New Technology" department, where we worked with JAVA on the first website - with CMS - of that bank. In addition, I had started my own web company, specialized in Flash websites. All in all, understandable that I wanted something personal, my own customization, without of course spending my vacation behind a computer.
I scoured the web for options, made a selection of systems, tried one or two, and was quickly impressed with the system that still earns the majority of my income to this day. From Sydney, with friends on the iMac, I made a website with it on my server in the Netherlands and everyone could enjoy the adventures on our trip Down Under in a fairly up-to-date way!
Coming home, back from the trip, this got me thinking. I was aware of the problems my clients experienced with the more "dynamic content", I had them myself. Of course you could work with text files in Flash. And where Flash is, there is Dreamweaver, the tool to build the most beautiful HTML websites. And although a kind of content management link was built in, you actually had the same problem: to change content, the website owner had to go back to the web builder far too often. Even for the smallest point and comma. This situation was not sustainable for anyone. The web builder was not always present when it was urgent and the costs skyrocketed. And to be honest, I found it tedious work, it had a low creative content.
With the system I had found on my journey, all these problems were solved at once. I could continue to create my custom websites in HTML and load it as a template in the CMS, including styles and scripts. The customer could then create his own pages, with the menu structure automatically created, and fill the pages with text, images and any imaginable media. If he made a mistake or wanted to fine-tune, he could quickly make improvements. At the same time, a lot of functionality was added, such as login pages, news functions, forms, webshops, newsletters, and so on. In a few cases I was even able to incorporate Flash websites into the CMS and later also iPad apps.
And last but not least: optimization for search engines like Google became a piece of cake. How easy did it become to customize a page title, URL, description, and content to rank higher? Very easy. And this system excelled at it then and still does.
How quality finds its way…
Where many website owners have missed opportunities due to a lack of good technical and communicative help - if you consider how much attention and sales some have missed - I have never lacked attention. In the past twenty years I have not sat still for a day thanks to this system and my knowledge and skills associated with it.
In the beginning, a few Dutch companies such as Netcreators and Alternet had already embraced this system. For example, the former has built up a substantial business around it in the east of the country since the late 1990s. The other has devoted itself with great dedication to the Dutch municipalities; that is why you will find this system in many governments. There were also freelancers spread across the country who were specializing.
A promising company that today flourishes like never before, as one of the best in the market of Open Source content management systems. With numerous high-quality super good providers.
... and brings success to both me and my clients
As a smaller specialist, I have always moved at the top of knowledge and technology. In such a situation you have to excel in everything, you will agree as a self-employed person, especially if you also have larger companies as customers. And that worked out pretty well for me.
Imagine the pre-smartphone era. At that time, if you had a small company based in Groningen that rented holiday homes all over France that you had to travel to every time, this was one of your challenges: how do you keep the information about the availability of the houses up to date on your website? Taking into account the poor mobile connections in France's hilly and wooded landscape, my team and I devised a solution that enabled crucial data traffic between a simple Nokia and the management module of the website in real time via WAP (the Wireless Access Protocol). Final score: the company was sold for a lot of money to a large national travel organization.
When the iPad was introduced, I created several apps whose content - text and media files - was controlled by the CMS. Even an iPad game was fed that way. Imagine, an editor can manage texts and files in a "native app" via the backend (add, modify, delete) and assign them to different user groups with login.
And now that the internet is everywhere, in the sense that data and content are available everywhere, preferably dynamic and tailor-made, technical solutions always require new angles and ideas to distinguish and do the right thing at the same time. With a solid system you can focus more on what it's all about: your creative and business impulses.
My offer is state-of-the-art
If I want the best for myself, I have to do at least as well for my clients. I work extensively and precisely and come up with the best solutions that make my customers happy. In addition to my internet business, I run a gallery in Amsterdam for my own oil paintings and for the works of other artists. Although this is still in its early stages and the marketing machine has yet to get going, the first successes are already visible. And in addition to the physical location of De.Studio, there is the online presentation where we are building a "web gallery" that converts works of art into NFTs and thus expands the market for artists to global proportions.
I understand exactly where the pain can be for smaller entrepreneurs and organizations, and I come up with solutions. My career in business also allows me to empathize with more complex organizations and ICT needs. There are actually no small websites. The scale varies and that requires different forces, but I have several small companies as clients, and by that I mean with few staff, with websites of hundreds to several thousand pages with dynamic content.
Big websites small websites?
What is big? I have provided ECN in Petten, now owned by TNO, and NRG internally with TYPO3 services for three years. From streamlining processes to delivering dozens of websites for projects, two new main sites for ecn.nl and nrg.eu, and for example the first version of the website for the new Pallas reactor. I was hired for the same period at travel agency PIT, partly on location, to improve the link between the CMS and the travel data database, to modernize the website and to make it easier to find again. At KAN Design in Antwerp I have been responsible for all technical matters concerning TYPO3 for several years now; they have built a worldwide image bank business based on TYPO3. With these companies, my work was and is definitely not a solo performance. And a different kind of involvement: the project leader at the municipality of Utrecht called in my advice and second opinion on issues related to their website, in short TYPO3 in their ICT architecture.
What is small? Communicating directly with the owner does not mean that the business is small, and anyway, the personal interests are usually greater. The website is directly related to the toppings on sandwiches. Then you can call etuconsult.nl, Zuivergezond.nl and studiepark.nl small companies, but the solutions are vital and highly professional in nature. Therefore manufactured with TYPO3. The webshop of sidiargan.nl is not large and the company is small. A few people work at endurance.nl, but many are involved. The page you are looking at now is a so-called one-pager: it is almost impossible to get smaller. But I am self-employed in a very large network of specialists, so the impact is great (this is not my only website).
My offer is called TYPO3 CMS websites with complete service
TYPO3 is the system in question. The name has already been mentioned several times. It's fully called TYPO3 CMS, you write it with capital letters, and actually it's also an application platform.
It is a CMS that originated in Denmark in the late 1990s. The name looks a bit odd. The story goes that a typing error was the basis of this system, and that typing errors can be easily and quickly corrected. And even that they can lead to something better. The 3 stands for the first real public version, but that number has always stood - currently version 12 is coming (TYPO3 version 12).
I was there relatively early, in 2001. It started for me with version 3.6. The basic concept is still visibly present, namely the clear page structure in the backend (that is the management module) that reflects the menu structure on the frontend (that is the website). Just like a folder and file structure on the computer actually. Since then I have seen the system and especially the organization around it grow. In the early years, the customer preferred to work with other systems such as Joomla, Drupal and later WordPress. TYPO3 had a bit of a nerdy image and it threw up a threshold because the builder had to be really technically prepared or had to deepen his knowledge of the material first. The marketing was a neglected child and was mainly left to the people who worked with it like me, but which was mainly done by the larger providers. But I also remember a presentation I gave about TYPO3... not long after, one of the other presenting companies also had TYPO3 in its portfolio.
TYPO3 CMS is hot
The technically strong basis of TYPO3 is paying off today. The system is so solidly built that it is considered the most stable and safest in the industry. And because it is modular - after a Scandinavian model I think; Ericsson's telephone exchanges in terms of software, IKEA's furniture, and not to forget LEGO - from the core it is much more than a weblog, more than text and pictures as it is the starting point of other systems.
TYPO3 is an advanced system that powers the websites and applications of many companies and organizations worldwide.
What do I have to offer among the other TYPO3 CMS providers in the Netherlands and abroad? Me, operating under the company name ViBiS, which stands for Very Interesting Business & Internet Solutions, or Vincent's Interesting Business Oriented Internet Service... Or whatever it stands for, the tagline reads
"be ViSiBle"
and that's what I'm working on, together with my teammates, on your visibility, on that of your company or organization. And my concrete offer consists of the following seven parts.
This is exactly what you get when you work with me and TYPO3 CMS
The seven components needed for a good professional website with a content management system.
Part 1: the basic installation
A brand new TYPO3 CMS installation.
Always the latest stable version.
Set up according to the latest guidelines using Composer.
€ 75,- Value
Part 2: A basic template
Installation of a TS Bootstrap base template.
Guarantee for an optimally working "mobile first" website.
Set up according to the latest guidelines using Composer.
Easy to update later.
€ 75,- Value
Part 3: a contact form
A contact form with - depending on your wishes - one of these extensions:
- Forms;
- PowerMail.
Set up according to the latest guidelines using Composer.
Easy to update and adjust later.
Includes spam protection.
Set to your wishes and in accordance with privacy legislation.
€ 75,- Value
Part 4: the web design
Custom web page design.
On the basic template, therefore, both technically up-to-date and in accordance with the latest trends.
Based on your house style and preferences.
The design files will be owned by you.
€225,- Value
Part 5: instructions and manual
Custom instructions on how to work with the website.
Instructions at our office, or at your local office, or online.
Quick guide tailored to you.
Aftercare by WhatsApp, e-mail or telephone.
€150,- Value
Part 6: initial filling and SEO scan
Set up a page structure of up to seven pages.
Filling those pages with text, images and media files supplied by you.
Quickly scan content for language errors and improve readability.
Fast content scanning to improve findability (SEO: search engine optimization).
€ 150,- Value
Part 7: hosting the website
One year of specialized up-to-date web hosting.
Ubuntu Linux.
If you already own a domain name, you can keep it under your control.
Include a .nl, .com or other domain under ten euros if needed.
€ 60,- Value
You can easily pay a few thousand euros elsewhere for a really good website.
And that can be quite a reasonable price. It will not work for a few hundred euros anyway, then you will get stuck sooner or later. Building it yourself remains an option if you have a little insight, but you will see that it will take time that you might better invest in your business. Especially when you see the price I'm offering it for now.
Usually you pay me 810 euros for a brand new website built with TYPO3 CMS. Conform to the seven items above.
But now I offer it for
only 585 euros!
How can I achieve this, a top quality TYPO3 CMS website for this price? I have hardly any office and personnel costs that others have to pass on. Incidentally, I do work from an AAA-location studio in Amsterdam, but that is a shared space with an art gallery that costs little. It's a nice place for you to drop by for an explanation, if necessary. Furthermore, I work on my own optimized servers, so there is no dependence on third parties. The 810 euro was already competitive, but the last step in the price reduction has come through a new and much more efficient working method. Now I only charge the hours I make for the customization.
There is no distinction, this offer applies to everyone, to every organization and to all companies.
You can try the system in advance for free on a special website. This guarantees that you will be satisfied and that you can work in the system as desired. If you are still not satisfied with it within sixty days, you will get your money back. Mind you, ranking first in Google is up to you.
To end the year well and start the next well, I do not charge web hosting costs for assignments entered into in December and January. So you have an advantage
only 525 euros
a custom website in accordance with the seven components, built with TYPO3 CMS.