Free, Open, and Easy: tech that makes me :)

Part 1 of ?

CMS, CRM, and Mass Mailing made easy(ier)

I love free stuff. More than that, I love stuff that makes my life easier. As a programmer, I love solving problems, but I HATE re-inventing the wheel.

So let me cut right to some of my favorite Open Source tools for Web Publishing and Marketing

(note: To install these successfully you will need your own domain with ftp access, PHP, MySQL, and Apache on Linux is recommended)

Joomla: A decent Content Management System with LOTS of options. 1.0.13 is available as an one click install if you are on Godaddy.com. Otherwise you can get it from http://joomla.org/

Although v. 1.5 may sound tempting, be warned that community support is MUCH more extensive for the 1.0.x versions. For now, I am running spyderboy.com on the 1.0.13 version... a 1.0.14 has just been released, and soon as I have the time, I will prob upgrade to that.

Drupal: Another good CMS. I actually enjoyed working with this more, during the initial setup. But in the end, it looks like Joomla has nearly twice the community. I will re-visit Drupal when I can find time. Can be found at http://drupal.org/ one click install is also available with a Godaddy.com acct. Version issues are similar to those with Joomla.

SugarCRM: This is a powerful, full featured Client Relationship Management tool. But it is NOT for the faint of heart. Features include mass emailing, statistics gathering and graphs, as well as project management. The Open Source nature of SugarCRM means there are no limits to extensability. Plugins are available to synch with Microsoft Office products. I would like to see better Open Office support... http://www.sugarcrm.com/

PHPList: So you have a few thousand friends you want to send periodic emails to? This email program is VERY easy to use. Getting it set up can sometimes be tricky though, especially if you are on a shared server. A good amount of info on setting up and using PHPList can be easily found on the net. I'll be posting tutorials on this in the future... http://www.phplist.com/

I will be adding more links to my favorite tools soon. Be sure to subscribe to my articles and you won't miss them!

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