[Have a question you’d like answered? Use the comments form at the bottom of this page to submit it. We’ll review your question before posting (don’t be shy about asking!) and get back to you with a response.]

Last week, I mentioned one of the most frequently asked questions we receive is: “What is Drupal?” A close second is: “What’s the difference between Drupal and Wordpress?” This is closely related to the frequently asked, “Which is better: Drupal or Wordpress?”

Drupal, which you learned last week, is a content management system (CMS) that you can use as your website. It’s also great at handling big gobs of information, like contact databases, or handling things like online shopping. It can also have a blog in it.

Wordpress, on the other hand, is a CMS that’s purpose-built for blogging. There are some pretty sophisticated Wordpress sites that can do a lot, but it really excels at blogs. It handles new posts (like the one you’re reading right now) and comments excellent. It also has really great SEO.

In summary, Drupal is great if you want a scalable, easy-to-use, super-powerful website. Wordpress is nice if your primary goal is to publish blog articles and develop some conversation around those.

[This little gem is the text of issue our e-mail newsletter subscribers just received. Want a slice of this for yourself? Sign up now.]

Hi, Friends.

Synagogues, congregations and tiny organizations, hold on to your socks. Big news here at Talance. We’ve just launched a super-sweet deal for you. In addition to our excellent custom websites, for only $1999, you can have a fabulous Drupal website that can grow and evolve with you.

»Click here to get started!

Here’s how it works:

1. Pick your favorite design

Get started with a clean, super-powered website hosted on the Drupal content management system (CMS). It includes tools for improving search engine optimization, a Microsoft Word-like text editor and six months free Web hosting. Yep, free.

2. Customize

Send us your logo (if you have one – we can help if you don’t), your two favorite colors and a couple pictures to include on the homepage. You can also pick from any of these Web tools for free:

E-Newsletter
Interactive Calendar
Blog
Advanced site search
File storage
Listserv
Membership forms
Members-only section
Photo album
Registration form
Shabbat times calendar
Weekly Torah Portion (from MyJewishLearning)

You can keep updating from an extensive list of advanced Web tools.

3. Relax

We do all the set-up and configuration to get you up online fast – in just five working days. You read that right. Five.

» Get started right now!

And make sure to tell your friends about this stellar offer! We’re at (888) 810-9109 or use this form.

Your Internet pal,

Monique

Spotlight on Mass Mentoring Partnership

We’re really glad to have worked with this stellar organization on a few projects, the most recent being a redesigned website. Check out the new and improved Mass Mentors, including it’s snappy new slideshow, colors and upgraded design.

»See it

Two Learning Opps for Organizations

Please join Talance for two special in-person appearances in Massachusetts:

Online Tools – How Can They Help Your Business Grow
eBiz 2009, sponsored by the Arlington Chamber of Commerce
Oct. 23, 2009
8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

It’s your chance to pick up advice and tips on free and nearly-free online tools from Talance’s CEO Monique Cuvelier at this panel discussion hosted by the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. Sign up for a full day of e-business tips.

»Sign up for eBiz 2009!

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and More: Creating Relationships with Volunteers and the Public through Social Media, sponsored by the Massachusetts Service Alliance
Nov. 10, 2009
8:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon.

During this 3-hour in-person workshop, Monique Cuvelier will cover 1) How to maximize your reach to existing and potential volunteers; 2) Strategies for putting together a social media plan; and 3) The essential tools and services, including tips on streamlining your social media practice.

»Sign up for Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and More!

Blog Favorites

In honor of our new offering for congregations, here are some highlights from the Talance Friendly Web Tools Blog. Make sure you’re reading http://talance.com/blog and get automatic updates of new articles.

10 Things To Include on Your Synagogue Site – Now!

30 Ideas on How Congregations Can Use Twitter

Five Great Takeaways from Church Websites

Killer Church Websites

Nonprofit Tech Tips from a Wired Rabbi

Need Some Help?

Talance has helped clients launch scores of projects, ranging from websites to online newsletters to CRM projects. Please click here to schedule a time to talk about your next project or to request a proposal.

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Don’t keep this good stuff all to yourself. Click that Forward button and send to a friend.

[Have a question you’d like answered? Use the comments form at the bottom of this page to submit it. We’ll review your question before posting (don’t be shy about asking!) and get back to you with a response.]

One of the most common questions we’re asked here at Talance is: What is Drupal? It’s the technology that envelopes our every single day, but that doesn’t mean that everyone – or the common Web user – knows what it is. But it’s worth understanding, because a website built on Drupal can make your life a lot easier.

First off, let’s get the name out of the way. “Drupal” is a non-grammatical variation of the Dutch word “druppel,” which means “droplet.” It was invented by Dries Buytaert, who is Dutch, in 2001. It’s pronounced “DREW-pull.” Rumor has it he tried to call it “dorp,” which means “village” in Dutch, but made a typo when he registered it.

Drupal, in a phrase, is an open-source content management system. Now hold on, all of you now thinking, “But what do ‘open source’ and ‘content management system’ mean?” I’ll decompress that phrase.

Content management system

A content management system (CMS) is a used to manage the content of a website. It allows someone who may not know anything about how to create or edit webpages with languages like HTML, to manage the creation, modification, and removal of content from a website without needing the expertise of a Webmaster. Most CMSs include publishing, format management, revision control, indexing, search and retrieval.
(From SearchSOA.com Definitions)

Open source

Open source software is usually developed as a public collaboration and made freely available. It is intended to be freely shared and possibly improved and redistributed by others.
(From SearchEnterpriseLinux.com Definitions)

Those two definitions get to the core of what Drupal is. It’s a free piece of software that anybody can use to build and manage a website without being a technical genius.

The “free” part means that you don’t have to pay for license fees, as you would with a system built by a company like Microsoft. You only pay development costs, which boils down to much more powerful websites for much less money.

Websites built with Drupal aren’t any old brochure websites – you can really build on to these. Drupal websites incorporate blogs, forums, e-commerce functionality, contact management, donation management, social networking tools and a whole lot more. Here’s a sample of the things we regularly put into the websites we build.

Too many of the non-profits and religious organizations that come to us think of their communications strategies as one-way streets that never intersect. While they may send messages through their website, Twitter account or Facebook Page, many never ask for feedback or take steps to build a conversation. Instead, they’re focused on one-way announcements of ticket sales or special initiatives.

Usually, those messages never intersect with a blended communications strategy. You may see that a church has a Facebook account – but only if you happen to come across it on Facebook.

The important thing to remember is that someone who might be really interested in what you do might not be a Facebook or Twitter user. So that means that if you put all your energy into Facebook or Twitter or any other singular thing, they’ll never find you. Spread it around.

Here are a few good examples of how to blend different communications initiative:

Detailed Twitter Background

Add a custom background on your Twitter page that has information on how to find your website or subscribe to your blog. Check out ours.

Double-Duty Tweets

Send messages on Twitter that point people to useful information on your website or blog. Rather than, “Did you know we have a blog?” try something compelling like a snippet from a recent blog post or initiative, “We’ve placed a bounty on Michael Vick. You read that right. Get details.”

Use Facebook Connect

This plug-in, which works with Drupal and Wordpress, in addition to other websites, lets members log onto your website using their Facebook login and share information in both places at once.

You’re a busy person. You don’t have oodles of time, money and technical expertise to put into your synagogue website.

And now you don’t have to.

Talance is launching a new service called Synagogue Sites 1-2-3 that makes it a breeze to have a website that truly communicates with your congregation. This is no electronic brochure.

>> Get more details and pricing here.

Here’s how it works:

1. Pick your favorite design

Get started with a clean, super-powered website hosted on the Drupal content management system (CMS). It includes tools for improving search engine optimization, a Microsoft Word-like text editor and six months free Web hosting.

2. Customize

Send us your logo (if you have one – we can help if you don’t), your two favorite colors and a couple pictures to include on the homepage. You can also pick from any of these Web tools for free:

• E-Newsletter
• Interactive Calendar
• Blog
• Advanced site search
• File storage
• Listserv
• Membership forms
• Members-only section
• Photo album
• Registration form
• Shabbat times calendar
• Weekly Torah Portion (from MyJewishLearning)

You can keep updating from an extensive list of advanced Web tools.

3. Relax

We do all the set-up and configuration to get you up online fast – in just five working days.

Special Bonus: Are you a Synaplex synagogue? Mention it when you sign up, and receive 20% off through September!

Learn more and sign up today!

A publisher asked me the other day for advice on how to pare down the number of programs, software and tools his company uses. He is using a graphics program, a workflow program, a listserv and websites – that’s just what I know about. There’s probably more, including programs that handle subscriber databases, mailing lists, invoicing, purchasing and heaven knows what else. He’s desperately looking for a way to streamline the number of programs he has to deal with in a day.

It’s a problem that we’re seeing more and more often with our clients: there are so many free and useful tools out there that it’s easy to be sold on every one of them. Before you know it, you’ve got a million little programs with a million different users and one big mess.

Three things you can do to streamline your system:

Get yourself a CMS. A content management system (go, Drupal!) is the first step anybody should take when trying to figure out how to streamline. Imagine building a house out of Legos, but without the flat foundation piece to stick the bricks to. I always try to tell people to stop thinking of CMSs as websites and to start thinking of them as company platforms. It’s the thing you build from.

Get a whiteboard and markers to sketch out a production flow. And then reproduce that flow in your CMS. CMSs are master of ushering content where it needs to be, that’s why they’re called content management systems. These things are made for you to move pages from writer to editor to publisher in a regulated way. Once you figure out how your content should travel, you can come up with a production/editorial flow and permission settings that can bypass any outside software that does this. This also goes for CRM systems, where you might be tracking how people donate or subscribe or attend events. It should all fold into the CMS.

Ditch the listserv/newsletter service. Look at getting a newsletter plug-in for your site. That way you can build up a web archive of content, do some site-specific branding on your missives and eliminate one tool from the arsenal. The newsletter tool we use lets you do unlimited newsletters with unlimited issues, so you can have a quarterly update, a weekly blast and a monthly newsletter and they can all look different or the same. It also synchs up your site visitors with subscriptions, which is useful. (If you want to see it in action, sign up for the Talance newsletter, and you can see flexible it is.)

Lemme know how your streamlining goes. Use the comments form below to ask questions and report back.

http://www.jfsmetrowest.org

We’re glad to announce the launch of Jewish Family Service of MetroWest New Jersey. It’s a social service agency that needed help reaching families in need and more donors via the web.

Jewish Family Service of MetroWest New Jersey offers a wide range of mental health and social services to people of all ages. But the agency was having a hard time delivering its message online. They were worried about their low presence in search engine rankings, the site’s confusing navigation, a lack of new donors and a low number of new client intakes. What’s more, the in-house staff couldn’t edit – or even see – the old website.

We (Talance, Inc.), a Boston-area Web development and design firm that specializes in user-friendly websites for non-profits, created for them an easy-to-use website with high visibility and the ability to accept online payments.

The Drupal-based website—which includes optimized search engine capabilities, an online shopping cart for accepting donations and selling tribute cards, a calendar of events, a news updates section, a newsletter and more – is now manageable by a staff without any in-depth technical expertise. The site also effectively informs its constituency about upcoming events and community resources. The new platform has helped JFS MetroWest achieve its goal of having a lively website that’s easy to maintain, increase donations and publicize a rich selection of programs and services.

Project Breakdown

• Better design: the old black and white design was replaced by a vibrant site with color photos that represent the services offered by the agency.
• Expandable text-based menus: Given the extensive menu of services available to the community, Talance created a menu that allowed for many options that don’t look overwhelming.
• Shopping cart: The new shopping cart allows donors to purchase tribute cards, make donations and buy tickets for events.
• Calendar: The new and improved calendar brings the numerous events and programs onto the homepage while highlighting what’s available on the current day.
• JFS in the News: A list on the homepage allows the agency to highlight its most recent media coverage.
• Newsletter: A customizable newsletter can go out to the constituency while being archived on the website.
• Friendly URLs: As part of an overall search engine optimization (SEO) campaign, each page has a unique address that’s easy for visitors to read and that is easily catalogued in search engines.

Check out the whole case study to learn more.

If you’ve heard the words “Drupal” and “Joomla” but think they may be ancient tribes, have I got the online seminar for you. Since one of the most common questions I hear from a potential client is “What is a CMS, anyway?” we’ve put together a webinar to answer just this question.

Sign up on our website (for free), and you can learn:

• What a CMS (content management system) is and what it does (hint: it’s a great way for you to manage your website)
• Why it’s important for nonprofits
• Advice on how to budget for a CMS project
• And more!

Hope to connect with you May 20 at 2 p.m. Eastern.

http://www.talance.com/event-registration

Let me know if you’ll be in Boston for Drupalcon 2008 – I’d love to meet you. I’m on the planning committee for the event and am helping to organize. If you’ll be in town, let me know, and I’ll be happy to see you there! http://groups.drupal.org/boston2008