And if that's not enough to entice you, we'll be giving away our fantastically redesigned Web Designers Are Sexy T-shirts to everyone who creates a free LightCMS account at our conference booth. The new shirt design is top secret, to be unveiled for the first time ever at the Future of Web Design conference. Web Design goodness, a trip to New York, and a free Web Designers are Sexy shirt. What more could you ask for? See you there!

Two separate classes will be added to the markup of the comments. One class is added to comments created by any logged-in user. The other class is added to comments created by the post's actual author. Since "authors" are a subset of "users," both classes will actually be added to the author comments, giving you ultimate flexibility.

Our system defines the actual author as the user who first created and saved the post. If a different user updates the post later, that won't change the actual author.

Why the two options?

We wanted to make sure you had flexibility. We can envision cases where you would want to style only the author's comments uniquely and also cases when you might want to style any logged-in user's comments. For example, here on our LightCMS blog, there are several members of our team who contribute to the blog, and we'd like to identify all of their comments uniquely. So we are styling all users' comments and then adding a special bit of styling to the actual author to set him or her apart. However, if you have a website with lots of users, you may not want all of those users' comments styled, so in such a case, you can just use the author comment hooks.

How it works

The author or user must be logged into the system when leaving the comment for it to be recognized correctly. Comments left by any logged-in user will have a class of "userComment" added to the <dt> and <dd> tags surrounding the title and body portions of the comment. Comments left by the actual author will have both the "userComment" class and an additional “authorComment” added to the same tags. A sample of the markup generated by an author comment is included below.

<dt class="comment userComment authorComment" id="comment90451">
  <a href="#comment90451" title="Link to this comment" class="commentNumber">1.</a> 
  <a title="" href="" rel="nofollow">Name of commenter</a> wrote:
</dt>

<dd class="comment userComment authorComment">This is the content of the comment.
  <p class="commentDate">August 26, 2010 @ 10:23 AM</p>
</dd>

Please note: this new functionality will only apply to comments left after the point of release of the update, which was approximately 10:30am CDT (GMT -5) on Thursday, August 26th, 2010. Prior to this release, we were not tracking the user information associated with comments, and so the classes will not be applied to comments left before that point.

See an example

We're going to leave some sample comments on this post below so that you can see how it works with the styles we've created for the LightCMS blog. Of course, you can style your comments however you wish. Ours is just an example. So, check it out, and leave us a comment while you're at it!

The first is another step forward in making the system more accessible on mobile and touch devices. We recently enabled touch devices to access element menus and settings screens. Now we’ve taken the next step in making the content areas themselves editable. Previously it was impossible to edit the content in text elements, blog posts, and calendar events because WYSIWYG editing is not compatible with mobile browsers. So we’ve improved this by presenting an alternate editing interface when you access the system through a mobile browser.

The new editing interface is very simple, allowing you to view and edit the raw HTML found in a content area. Login and pull up any content editing screen on a mobile device, and the new interface will appear, allowing you to make changes to the code in your content regions.

Again, this is just another small step designed to enable users to make tweaks and changes to the content on their sites from mobile or touch devices that don’t support WYSIWYG editing. There’s more to come in the area of mobile content management, so stay tuned.

Did you know? We’re now publishing information about smaller changes to the software as they happen. You can follow it to stay up to date on all the tweaks and changes to LightCMS and even have some fun along the way. Follow @aLightCMSserver.

This year’s list tracks growth from 2006-2009. During that time frame, we saw an increase in revenue of 81%, landing us at #2,774 out of all private companies in the US. We’re so grateful to all of you for the support you have shown us. We say it all the time but it’s so true – without you, there would be no company and no growth. So, thank you! We are humbled by your support and we look forward to working with you for years to come.

For more details, check out the official announcement on our company blog.

The basics

These links were selected to help you become familiar with what CSS3 has to offer your web designs. As a reseller, you will definitely want to be familiar with the basics.

• CSS3.com 
• W3's CSS3 resource 
• SixRevisions basic CSS3 techniques
• WebDesignerWall's CSS3 basics
• Smashing Magazine's CSS3 printable cheat sheet

More advanced techniques

These resources highlight ways to creatively utilize CSS3 in your web designs. Get the most out of these websites by working through the examples and deepening your understanding of how the code works.

• Smashing Magazine: Take Your Design to the Next Level
• W3Avenue: Pure CSS UI Components
• Smashing Magazine: 50 Brilliant Coding Techniques
• WebDesignerLedger: Pure CSS Techniques for Creating Javascript-like Interactions

Navigation bars

These links help you create the navigation or menu bars that are perfect for your web designs. They utilize many different techniques, which is great as a reseller, giving your portfolio a more diverse and unique look.

• Speckyboy: Tutorials and Techniques
• HTML Drive
• Splashnology
• Only CSS Menu

Dealing with IE

The articles below offer help and assistance with graceful degradation so that your sites render in all browsers. As a reseller, you can strengthen your portfolio by following the popular design motto, “Build for the worst, design for the best.”

• Smashing Magazine: CSS3 Solutions for IE
• Stories in Flight: HTML5 / CSS3 
• Jon Raasch: Graceful Degradation with CSS3

Online Tools

These sites provide awesome tools that you will definitely want to bookmark for reference later. They let you graphically customize the element you want and then spit out the code necessary to be used in your web design.

• The Gradient Generator
• The CSS3 Generator
• CSS3 Rule Generator
• CSS3 Maker
• CSS3 Watch
• The HTML5 Readiness Wheel
• Modernizr

But how would we go about doing this? One idea was to enlist one of the new guys to type the notes into a new Twitter account manually. But that would be too simple, and intuitive simplicity is something we already specialize in. We needed something new, something that would set us apart, something complicated. Meetings came and went, and our coffee supply dwindled. That's when someone stood up and said, "Why not upload an artificial intelligence algorithm to one of our servers, hook it up to Twitter, and let it tweet to the free world our latest system tweaks?" It would be complicated. It would be wholly unnecessary. And so we did it.

And now we're pleased to introduce our brand new, intelligence-enabled server. You can find and follow it on Twitter as @aLightCMSserver. Its tweets may be a little dry and its humor somewhat machine-like, but try to cut it some slack. Remember, it's just a simple server, tweeting completely autonomously with absolutely no help from any of us humans.

Anyway, please follow @aLightCMSserver to stay up to date on everything happening with the LightCMS software. Enjoy!

This new feature will allow touch devices to:

• Access the "manage posts" page on blog elements
• Access the "manage entries" page on form elements
• Access the "settings" pages for all elements
• Use the "move up" and "move down" buttons to move elements within a region
• Use the "delete" button to delete an element

This update is just a small step in our continued work toward improving the LightCMS experience on mobile devices. We hope you enjoy it!

About Bradley Benson Design

Location: Southlake, TX
Website: http://www.bradleybenson.com
Primary contact: Brad Parnell email

We specialize in custom web design, but also offer branding, print design, and design consultation. Our backgrounds are in traditional studio art, and we have experience that comes from several years at different prestigious design agencies in the DFW area.

One thing that sets us apart is the way we approach projects and the relationships we establish with our clients. We don't have a cut-and-dry ABC process or cookie-cutter approach to anything we do; everything is relational and unique to that project and client. We have our backbone systems and project management, but to us, it's all about the experience for the client and keeping ourselves fresh and creative.

LightCMS Examples

Q & A with Bradley Benson Design

What did you use before LightCMS and why did you switch?

Before LightCMS we used Wordpress and Adobe's recently acquired Business Catalyst. For both those systems, we felt like the technology drove the design and that they were limited in creativity.

We were ready to commit to something new that had excellent support and intuitive tools for our clients to update their own content. That's when we found LightCMS.

How does LightCMS help you better meet your clients' needs?

It gives our clients an easy way to edit their websites, manage their billing information for their hosting packages, and view analytics. These are just a few of the features that ordinarily would be three separate services our clients would have to log into to view and manage. When we use LightCMS, our clients can tell their hosting is top tier, and they love how easy it is to log in and update their content any time they need to.

What would you say to another designer or agency that was considering using LightCMS?

LightCMS is hands down the best solution for building out custom website designs that need a robust and easy CMS. It also has a great dashboard to manage all of your websites on the system.

Any tips or tricks to give other LightCMS users?

Think, design, and build outside of the box. Be aware of the functionality and modules you can use, but don't let that drive your design. If you don't need a photo gallery and calendar on the homepage, don't put it there!

Anything else?

LightCMS has an all-star support team, and we'd like to thank Chad, Tim, Ben, Richard, and everyone else working on or with that team. You've been an invaluable help along the way. We've gotten to be the company we are with the help of this great product!

Are you a LightCMS designer and interested in being featured in a LightCMS case study? Contact vince@elementfusion.com for more information.

It's a pleasure to use the 301 redirect manager for @LightCMS.

We're glad you like it, Alan! For those of you that haven't checked out our 301 redirect manager before, look at how easy it is to use and set up here. If you have any questions on setting it up, be sure to let us know in the comments or by email.

First, there are some things you'll want to be aware of before you begin.

• Static FBML can only be added to business / fan pages. It cannot be used on your personal profile.
• You don't have to use any <header> or <body> type tags. Just start typing in your HTML (well, FBML).
• Make sure you call external stylesheets rather than including styles between <style> tags. For example, use <link href="http://" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> This is to accommodate IE, which, as you might imagine, doesn't work like all the other browsers.

Now, let's get started.

1. To add the Static FBML app to your page, you will first have to have your Facebook fan page set up.
2. Once there, click on the "Edit Page" link right below the main avatar graphic. You'll be presented with the editing screen, where you'll see a section called "Applications." At the bottom, you should see a "More Applications" section that should have Static FBML listed.
   
3. If it isn't listed there, just search for it in the search box up top.
   
4. Click on the Static FBML link to go to its site.
5. On the Static FBML page, click the button that says "Add this to my page," and then select the page that you want to add it to. 
   
6. Return to the editing screen of your page, and look back under the applications section. You should now see something that says FBML. All you have to do now is click on "edit" and enter your information. You'll see a section to enter the name of your tab, and you'll also see a larger input box labeled FBML. Insert your code, and you've got a custom tab!
   
7. If you're interested in adding additional tabs to your page, you won't see that option with the rest of your application boxes. Instead, you'll have to click "edit" on an existing FBML box under your applications. In the bottom left corner of the editing window, you'll see a link that says "Add another FBML box."
   
   Clicking on that will create a new FBML box in your applications.

Remember that not all valid HTML is valid Static FBML. As far as I know, there isn't a definitive source for what is specifically valid and invalid. However, there are many great resources that help you to integrate some of FBML's cool features. Be sure to check out these other sites for more information.

Mashable's FBML HOW TO

Techipedia's FBML tutorial

HyperArts's FBML tutorial

So did you create a custom FBML tab? Drop us a link in the comments and let us see!

And don't forget, if you win, feel free to send us a picture of you wearing the shirt so we can post it to our gallery of sexy designers!

Summary of the changes

• The detail view of the images has been improved with a sleeker, new interface. All of the content and functionality of this view remain the same.
• The thumbnail views are not changing at all.
• The interface for managing the photo gallery is not changing at all.
• The most important change is behind the scenes, where we have removed the use of the Prototype JavaScript framework and we are using jQuery instead. This is designed to resolve issues in some instances where jQuery in your own templates could conflict with the photo gallery.
• Prototype is still used in the Form Builder elements, but we will be working to change that to jQuery in the future.
• This is an incremental step in improvements to the Photo Gallery. There is more to come in the future.

Potential issue for customized styles on the Photo Gallery detail view

There is one way in which this change could potentially impact an existing website design on LightCMS. If you have created custom styles to change the appearance of the detail view of images in the photo gallery, those styles will no longer work. However, nothing will break as the photo gallery will now simply utilize our improved photo gallery detail view, which is what you see on the video above.

Please note, this only affects you if you have customized the look of the DETAIL / LARGE view of images. The thumbnail view of images will not be affected. We are not aware of any websites on our system that have done this type of customization, but it is possible, so we want to make sure you are aware of this change. If you have any questions about this, please email our support team at answers@speaklight.com.

Here's an image you can show to your clients

If you'd like to communicate this change to your clients, you can use the image below, which is unbranded, to show them what the new photo gallery detail view will look like.

Tentatively scheduled for next Wednesday or Thursday

The launch date is tentative at this point, but we are aiming for Wednesday or Thursday, July 28 or 29, 2010. We do not anticipate any downtime with this update. Thanks and we look forward to bringing you the changes!

Infinite - Love

Infinite - Sunshine

Infinite - Truth

Venture - Big Desk

Venture - Pier

Walter Lee - Brandeis

Walter Lee - Egyptian

Walter Lee - Flats

• minimize the number of templates you create
• reduce IDs and classes on content
• eliminate clutter within your CSS
• dispense with extra JavaScript files
• and avoid the sometimes-necessary evil of inline styles

This means that you’ll be managing less code. Furthermore, you’ll reap the benefits of caching as you simplify your CSS and JavaScript files.

Why classes?

Our main guideline in creating this feature was to keep you in control. We didn’t want to create some system-generated string of confusing numbers--that is, we didn’t want you to have to recite pi to the twentieth or thirtieth place every time you want to change your code. We chose a body class instead of an ID because some developers might already be using IDs on the body tag. And the last thing we want to do is to tell them how they should code.

One of the great benefits of the body class is that there can be any number of classes on an element, and it shouldn’t interfere with custom JavaScript or styling. If you want to add multiple classes to the body, simply insert a space between the class names. For example, inserting “you rock” into the body CSS class text field will apply the body classes “you” and “rock.” Easy, right?

For example

In this scenario, we’re going to specify style and behavior differences based on context. Suppose you have a media page. It’s based on the regular “inside” template, but it has a lot of custom stuff. The background image for the site changes, all the headings are a different font or color, the blog element needs to be styled differently, and the main and sub column widths are slightly different. A lot of LightCMS designers currently create separate templates for this sort of thing, which means they create extra CSS and JavaScript files too. This is the problem we wanted to address.

Now you can go into Page Settings for the media page, click the Advanced tab, and add the body CSS class “media-page.” From here you can add the new CSS and or JavaScript to your existing files.

Code - CSS

Change background Image

body.media-page #container { background: url(img/media-bg.jpg) no-repeat center top; }

Style Headings

body.media-page h1.title,
body.media-page h1,
body.media-page h2,
body.media-page h3,
body.media-page h4,
body.media-page h5 {
	font-family: "Droid Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
	color: #f31c77;
}

Style Blog

body.media-page .blogList ul li {
	background: url(img/li-dot.gif) no-repeat 0 13px;
	list-style: none;
	padding: 6px 0 6px 19px;
}

Adjust column widths

body.media-page #main-content {
	float: left;
	width: 560px;
}

body.media-page #sub-content {
	float: right;
	width: 330px;
}

Code - Javascript (using jQuery)

Run a block of code only on the Media Page

var mediaPage $('body.media-page').length;

if (mediaPage) {
	//run code on pages with the media-page class only
}

Target elements on the Media Page

$('body.media-page #page-title')

The phone's appearance is pretty sweet. It looks like a giant iPod, but it's not so big as to be problematic for smaller hands (like the Droid X might be). It's lack of a curved back undoubtedly increases the space inside, so it's slimmer than the 3GS while weighing the same (4.8 oz). The sharp edges give me the feeling that I should hold it like a dainty cup of tea while making calls, perhaps even lifting my pinky a little to avoid the no-signal strip at the bottom of the phone. One of our designers, who demanded anonymity if he were to critique the new iPhone, said that the design seemed incomplete without the bumper. Speaking of coworkers that have experience with this new iPhone, here are some testimonials from around the office today:

"It's so awesome that it's hard to put down!"

"It's friggin' awesome."

"I feel as if I have a relationship with my phone... there is bad and good, but I would never want it to end."

While I am completely in love with the open approach to technology that the Android employs, I cannot deny what a thing of beauty the iPhone 4 is. The new display is shockingly clear. I can read news sites on it without zooming in. The 326 ppi makes it seem like it's beyond high definition. The A4 processor, while reportedly a bit slower than the iPad's A4 (so somewhere below 1 gHz), is nothing to complain about, being noticeably quicker than the 3GS that runs at around 600 mHz. With the new iOS 4 and multitasking, loading applications seems even faster than the processor alone merits. The iPhone 4 is sickeningly smooth, responsive, and interested in your every click. If the phone lagged, I was too busy being enchanted by the magically clear font resolution to notice.

So before I become too ensnared in my love for the iPhone 4, let's talk about some of the weaker points where Android has been flexing its muscles for a while.

1. Multitasking - Android has had a nearly hands-off approach to what applications can do in the background. Pandora's been able to run in the background since Android dawned, or at least close to it. My wife and I leave our Google Latitude widgets running, which run the GPS just long enough to geotag our locations. Most apps limit their resource usage while not being used, though I suspect there are limitations in the OS itself. 
2. Folders - The iPhone 4 folder system is static, and there's absolutely no way to visually differentiate between folders. Instead, their "icon" is made of smaller icons of the first four apps enclosed. Ew. Android has folders that look like folders, and you also have the option of using any icon you want through the use of 3rd party applications.
3. Notifications - The iOS has always been criticized for how it handles notifications. Nothing's more annoying than a popup that stops whatever you were doing. And if you're socially active and work through your phone, that can be a big, big problem. I've heard that if you get ten notifications, you have to click through all of them individually before you can even pick up an incoming phone call. Android, like others, has developed a really nice and non-obtrusive notification system that utilizes a pull-down menu at the top of the screen.
4. Widgets - Android has widgets, which are basically mini-apps that run on your home screen. For example, I have my calendar, my tasks, and my weather all on my first page, which allows for quick interaction and at-a-glance reminders. I can even quickly post a tweet without even opening up my Twitter application. As far as I can tell, this is a totally alien concept to many iPhone users.
5. Customization - By using a 3rd party launcher, Android users are able to choose how many screens their phone has, how the application drawer works, and even how their wallpaper works. Android users can even install "themes," which change how all system graphics are displayed.

In conclusion, I can't say I'm not insanely jealous of my coworkers that are touting about their fancy new phones. The video is amazing, the battery life is exceptional, and the features really do push the limits of what I thought was possible with a phone right now. But to be fair, most of the things that impress me about the iPhone are hardware related. Like the Android Market, the potential is there... it's just up to users and manufacturers to make the right combination of elements happen. The CEO of Google may have recently stated that Apple and Google aren't in competition with each other, that they occupy very different positions in a vast market. But Apple really knows how to put hardware together, and a small, bitter tear leaves a glistened trail down my cheek whenever I see that beautiful display resolution.

How much is it to break a contract with T-Mobile again?

Justin J.
Creatovision, Inc.

Laying the groundwork

I want to reiterate that this is a pretty major upgrade, touching nearly every screen in the system. It represents a complete rework of how the system handles administrative screens. But this update is really just a first step in what will be a series of improvements. Think of it as laying the groundwork for many more changes to come. By unifying the administrative interface across all system pages, we offer ourselves the opportunity to bring you even more improvements in features and UI in the future.

New look and feel

The most visible changes are in the look and feel of the top toolbar and the administrative screens you encounter when editing content or adjusting settings. I want to point out that this does not change how our admin controls overlay on top of your website content. Rather, these change only impact the top toolbar and the screen you access when you click to edit content or settings.

The toolbar no longer uses drop down menus. Instead, available functions are listed horizontally as menu items. A new menu item, “content,” provides an easy way to get back to viewing the website with admin controls overlaid. The other menu items should be familiar as they are the same as those that exist currently in our drop down menus.

The settings screens follow familiar conventions, but offer an updated and polished look and feel. See the images below for more details.

 
Control bars overlay your website content just as they have previously. The only differences when browsing the website are the changes to the top toolbar. Note that the LightCMS logo can be replaced with your own logo and you can set the toolbar colors however you like as well.

Here’s a look at the new editing interface when using the WYSIWYG editor. This same, unified interface is utilized across all settings screens.

Customize the toolbar colors

You can change the colors used on the top toolbar for all websites under your account (for details and a screen shot, see our previous blog post on this). This feature gives you even more control over the private-label branding of the system. You’ve always been able to upload your own logo and place it on the toolbar, but now you can also set the colors of the toolbar to blend seamlessly with your own brand. You access all of these branding controls under My Account –> Account Settings. You’ve had the opportunity to set your toolbar colors for a few weeks now. If you set them before our launch tomorrow, your color scheme will go live immediately when the new features are released. If you don’t set them yourself, we’ll roll out the toolbar with our default “gray” color scheme (that’s the scheme you see in the screenshots on this post). Of course, you can update your toolbar colors at any time.

No more admin templates

Once these features are live, you will no longer need to include an admin.html file with your templates. That’s one less file you have to create! For backward compatibility, if you have an admin.html file already, it will continue to be used for your login page, unless you override it with a login.html template (more on this below).

An easier way to view and change design templates

When viewing a web page, you’ll see an information button (“i”) and an indication of what page you are viewing on the bottom left of the toolbar. Clicking the information button will show you the template used by the page you are viewing and give you the option to change the template right there.

A few more goodies

Alongside these massive changes, our team has been working on a few other little features we’re rolling out tomorrow as well. We haven’t announced these until now, but here’s what you can look forward to.

• Login page template. Include a login.html file in your design and that template will be used on the default login page (/login). If you don’t have a login.html file, the admin.html file will be used (this is for backward compatibility, see above about “admin templates”), and if you don’t have a login.html or an admin.html, the default template of your website will be used.
• Comment moderation alert. If you run a blog with comments set to require moderation, an alert box will now inform the user that their comment has been submitted for moderation whenever they submit a comment.
• Blog post list on blog delete confirmation screen. If you choose to delete a blog element, you’re already presented with a confirmation screen asking if you want to merge posts into another blog or just delete the blog element. Now that confirmation screen will present a listing of all the blog posts in that blog element, making it easier to see what is about to be deleted.
• Specify body CSS class in page settings. Under page settings on the advanced tab, you’ll now have the option to specify a CSS class that will be inserted into the body tag for that page. This advanced feature makes it easier to create CSS styles that target specific pages on the site.

Launching tomorrow

This upgrade is scheduled for tomorrow morning, likely between 6am and 8am CDT (GMT-5). We don’t anticipate any downtime with this upgrade. We will post updates to our Facebook page and Twitter feed when the upgrades are live. We look forward to bringing you these upgrades. Enjoy!

To get involved with LightCMS on Facebook, click on the logo in this post or navigate to www.facebook.com/lightcms. Once there, click the "like" button near the top of the screen, and then you'll be able to post comments on our wall. We look forward to seeing you there!

“Why so tentative?” you ask.

This is a pretty major upgrade that touches almost everything on the platform. As a result, we’re involved in a vast amount of testing, re-testing, further re-testing and testing some more as we hammer away to ensure everything is exactly right before it goes live. We want to get these new improvements out as soon as possible, but most importantly we want to ensure your upgrade experience is as seamless as possible.

Server upgrades still scheduled for tonight

The interface improvements mentioned above are separate from our server upgrades that are still scheduled for tonight. Remember, our maintenance window is from 12am to 1am CDT (GMT-5) Wednesday morning with an expectation of about 15 minutes of downtime. Though many of you will likely be asleep at the time, you can check our system status website for updates on the progress of the upgrades.

In order to make these upgrades, we will have to take the system offline. We anticipate the upgrades will take about 15 minutes, but just to be safe, we're scheduling a window of one hour, from 12am to 1am. While we're performing the upgrades, all LightCMS websites will be offline. We apologize for this inconvenience and we've scheduled the upgrades at the time of lowest system usage in order to minimize their effects on you and your clients.

We appreciate your understanding and support. As always, we're excited that our growth continues to demand expansion of our hosting resources and we are absolutely committed to staying ahead of the curve and ensuring our LightCMS customers enjoy the best possible hosting experience.

Please note: the upgrades mentioned here are separate from the new user interface improvements we have previously mentioned and scheduled for release on Thursday, June 17th. Those improvements are still tentatively scheduled for the 17th and at this point we don't anticipate they will require any system downtime when launched. Stay tuned next week for more on these improvements as the time nears.

Let's check out some of the main questions you should ask when deciding whether a CMS is built with SEO in mind.

Does your CMS give you control over your site's HTML?

Search engines have an easier time sifting through standards-based, semantic HTML when looking for keywords, meta tags, and context. Some CMS providers force you to learn a proprietary system language. Others create pages in Flash or with visual page-creation tools. But all of these can be difficult or unreadable to search engines. If you don't have control over the HTML used in your sites, then you lose a potentially great advantage by not being able to provide search engines with meta tags, streamlined and recognizable code, or easy-to-see links.

Does your CMS give you control over page URLs?

An important factor that can often be overlooked is whether your CMS allows you to have control over the URLs generated for the pages you create. Creating a relevant, keyword-rich URL is one of the best things you can do for SEO. If your CMS generates dynamic or numeric page addresses, however, then making an SEO-friendly website can be a lot more difficult. Although there are methods for improving the performance of non-HTML URLs, there is little to be done about the loss of important keywords. The best approach is to make sure that whatever CMS you are using lets you create SEO-friendly, keyword-rich URLs.

Does your CMS use fast, reliable storage?

Another SEO ranking factor to consider is site speed. A higher loading time can result in lower SEO rankings. It's important for SEO purposes that your CMS uses quality, reliable hosting. Hosting often becomes an issue with free or low-cost services. High quality hosting and services are available, but cost can be prohibitive for a single user. One of the best ways to get high quality hosting at an affordable price is to use a CMS that offers hosting through software as a service (SaaS). With this method, your CMS pays for high-quality hosting by dividing the cost over a large number of subscribers.

Other things to think about:

There are a lot of other factors that you could look at as well. For example:

• Does your CMS provide an easy way to set up 301 redirects?
• Where does your CMS store CSS and scripts relative to its other resources?
• Does your CMS support the use of XML and user-friendly sitemaps?
• Does your CMS support the use of robots.txt?
• Does your CMS give you page-level control over your META description and keyword fields?

Although this post can be a great guide in considering any CMS, we naturally like to point out that LightCMS was designed with all of these SEO factors in mind and therefore is a great option to consider as an SEO-friendly CMS. In fact, our company runs a successful SEO business using our CMS system for our own clients with great results. Take a look at our features, compare it with others, and we believe you'll agree.

Are there well-documented factors for SEO that we haven't mentioned here? Feel free to let us know in the comments!

@RadFiveDesign have you looked into LightCMS ? That's what I use and I loooooove it, I'm not much of a coder either.

For the LightCMS team, nothing makes a great Friday better than hearing that our community loves using our software. We take a lot of pride in offering our designers a CMS that is both powerful and flexible. The code-oriented designer can take complete control over the HTML and CSS used in their designs and templates. But even a talented designer with less coding experience will find LightCMS intuitive enough to bring their visions to life. Thanks again, Kelsey. We love working with you too!

First, we’re setting a tentative launch date of Thursday, June 17th for these interface changes to go live across the system. Stay tuned to our blog and Twitter feed for updates on this launch as the time nears.

Second, we want to give you the opportunity to customize the colors of the new toolbar for your clients before these changes go live.

Customize your toolbar colors now

The functionality allowing you to customize your toolbar colors is already live inside your account. As the account owner, you are the only one who can access these tools (your clients can’t see them). Since the new toolbar isn’t yet visible to your clients, the changes you make to your toolbar colors now won’t have any effect on your client websites immediately. However, they will affect the toolbar colors all of your clients see when we roll out the new interface changes across the system later.

To access the tools, log in to your account and click “My Account” on the top toolbar, then click “Account Settings” on the submenu. Find the section labeled “Top toolbar colors” (pictured below) and follow the instructions. You can select one of our pre-defined color palettes or specify your own custom color options. The image below shows you what this looks like (clicking on one of the custom hex codes will load a handy color picker tool).

The choice is yours

You don’t have to customize your toolbar colors. If you don’t, we’ll implement our default "gray" color scheme on the new toolbar we roll out in a couple of weeks. It’ll all work out just fine. However, the new customization capabilities of the toolbar offer you a great opportunity to tie the CMS even more closely to your brand. So, we know that many of you will want to take advantage of the opportunity to set your own color scheme, and that’s why we’re giving you a window of time here to set things up before we take the new toolbar live.

Remember, no more admin templates

This is covered in detail on our original blog post, but just a quick reminder that once we launch the interface improvements in a couple of weeks, the system will no longer use the admin templates associated with your designs. This means you no longer need to include an admin.html file when adding a design to LightCMS. Adding designs to the system just got that much simpler.

What about the login template?

We’ve had a few people ask about what template will be used on a website’s built-in login page (/login) if the admin.html template is no longer used. Here’s how it will work:

By default, the system will use the default template of the website as the login page template (the default template is typically the “inside.html” template, but it can be set to anything under “My Website -> Settings”). However, if you wish to further customize the /login page, you can add a “login.html” file to your design and the system will use that template instead of the website’s default template. This approach ensures that the /login page works out of the box, while still giving the option for customizability through a dedicated login template.

If you have any questions about these improvements, please just let us know. You can leave us a comment below, post a message on our forum, or email our web concierge team at answers@speaklight.com.

HTML5 references

• Wikipedia's comparison of layout engines - a great resource for comparing support, by layout engine, of HTML5 semantics versus HTML4
• When can I use - a web-app that shows you when different aspects of HTML5, CSS3, SVG, and more will be supported by different browser versions
• HTML5 Demos - a fun list of HTML5 tricks along with demonstrations and browser-support information
• Veign's HTML5 cheat sheet - a quick-reference PDF that gives quick information about HTML5 tags
• Smashing Magazine's article "Designing a HTML5 Layout from Scratch" - a great article that walks you through the steps of creating your own HTML5 layout
• Smashing Magazine's article "HTML5 and the Future of the Web" - an easy to read presentation of what HTML5 has to offer (with lots of helpful illustrations)
• Tag reference from w3schools.com - a thorough HTML5 tag reference
• HTML5 reference by HTML-5.com - a large selection of detailed and helpful HTML5 information

Just for show

• 9elements - an awesome example of canvas in the form of music and interactive, blinky circles
• CSS3 ATAT - the one and only non-Flash animated ATAT
• Dynamic Shadow - another great example of CSS3 using an interactive lightbulb and a shadowbox
• Sketchpad - a web-based paint application and fantastic example of the power of HTML5's canvas
• HTML5: seriously, it's not just for video - a compilation of great examples of what HTML5 is capable of

HTML5 galleries for inspiration

• VisionWidget's HTML5 gallery (22) 
• 1stWebDesigner's HTML5 gallery (25)
• TheNextWeb's HTML5 gallery (5)
• Speckyboy's CSS3 and HTML5 templates (15)

@LightCMS Yes, it's so easy I literally gasped the first time I used it. You guys rock, as per usual.

If you haven't looked at it before, be sure to check it out here.

Allez

Allez-Comp

Allez-Pro

UniCorp-Grey

UniCorp-Tan

These plans are not 100% finalized

Since these changes will impact what your clients see when they log into their websites, we want to give you as much lead time as possible to prepare. As a result, we’re telling you about these improvements while things are still being finalized, so I just want to make a general disclaimer that the specifics of what we say here could change somewhat as we near the launch. There may be some differences between the screen shots we display here and what actually ends up in the final interface. And, while we do feel confident about the specific features mentioned below, there is always a possibility that some things could get delayed or changed. It’s also possible that we’ll add even more features!

We’ll be following up with more communication as we near the time of launch to fill you in on how things are progressing. But now, on to the details.

No more admin templates

Perhaps the most significant change we’re implementing is that we’re moving away from utilizing custom admin templates for admin screens. Currently, LightCMS utilizes a template from the design of your website when displaying admin controls such as the WYSIWYG editor or other settings screens. You are able to customize this template currently by providing an admin.html file with your design that the system will use in these admin screens. Once the changes go into effect, LightCMS will no longer use the admin.html template. Instead, it will use its own admin layouts to display all admin content. As a result, it will no longer be necessary to include an admin.html template in your designs.

Why are we moving away from custom admin templates?

There are many reasons we are making this change. I have outlined a few of them below.

1. Avoiding conflicts. The use of a custom template on admin screens leaves open the possibility for conflicts between your custom admin designs and our system admin controls. Though we have worked to harden our admin layouts to protect against conflicts with custom designs, there is no way to completely avoid situations in which custom designs don’t work right with the admin layout. Moving to system layouts on these screens will eliminate these potential conflicts.
2. Setting up for much better user interfaces. Currently, the user interfaces on our admin screens are intentionally very barebones in order to avoid, as much as possible, the conflicts mentioned above. By moving these screens into system layouts, we will then be able to move forward with huge improvements to the design and usability of these screens. This will benefit you and your clients greatly as the system controls will become more polished and accessible.
3. Making things consistent. Currently, some of the admin interfaces exist on system screens while others exist on custom admin templates. This is a confusing inconsistency that we are moving to correct. After this launch, all admin interfaces on the system will have a consistent look and feel.
4. Removing design hassles. LightCMS has a primary goal of remaining the friendliest and most hassle-free CMS for designers. Requiring designers to create an admin template for every website is an extra hassle that really doesn't offer you much benefit. With this change, we'll be providing the admin layouts so you don't have to, saving you time on every design. Creating sites for LightCMS is about to become even easier!

As you can see, this change to a unified system layout for admin screens will greatly improve the user experience for you and your clients when using LightCMS. Additionally, it will allow us to continue development on further improvements to the interface in the future.

Your brand is our priority

You can rest assured that throughout these changes, we have kept your ability to private-label the system with your brand at the heart of our decisions. The new admin interfaces your clients experience will be neutral in their designs and free of any LightCMS branding (see image). This will be consistent with every other part of the LightCMS system.

But we’re not stopping there. We’re also rolling out some major improvements to the admin toolbar and your ability to customize that toolbar to match your own brand. Read on to see what else we have in store with these updates.

Redesigned admin toolbar with full color customization

We’re redesigning the top admin toolbar that you see when you are logged into a LightCMS website.  You can read more about the new admin bar below, but first I want to introduce a new level of private-label branding that will be immediately available.

Customize the color scheme of your admin bar

Currently, you can upload your own logo to appear on the admin bar for your clients. In this new release, we’ll be adding the ability for you to customize all of the colors of the admin bar as well. This will allow you to tightly integrate the admin bar with your logo for a completely branded look.

These customizations will be available through a screen in your account area where you can set all of the admin bar colors and even view a preview of your admin bar before taking it live. We’ll be making this preview screen available to you ahead of our launch date so that you’ll be able to set up your new admin bar before we take these changes live to your clients. We’ll have a fairly small window of time for this advanced customization, though, so you’ll want to be watching our blog and Twitter feeds over the next few weeks for details on when that is available.

Quicker access to all our tools

The new admin bar removes the drop-down-style menus used currently in favor of simple buttons that let you access the controls you need. The admin bar will contain the same controls and option that exist currently, but the layout and look of these buttons will change. See the image below for an idea of what the new admin bar will look like. Remember, the colors will all be customizable by you.

Easily view and change your page templates

One added feature of the new admin bar will be a handy tool that allows you to more easily see what template the page you are viewing is using. Clicking the “You are currently viewing” area will display the design template information and provide a quick link to change the page’s template. Here’s a shot of what that may look like.

Stay tuned for future updates

As mentioned above, things are still being finalized and we don’t have a solid launch date at this time. We’re giving you this heads up so that you can start preparing yourself and your own clients for what is coming. At this point, it looks like the launch will be no earlier than the week of June 1st, 2010, so that gives you about three weeks to prepare for this transition. Of course, the launch may end up being a little later than that giving you even more time. Be sure to stay tuned to our blog and Twitter feed for more details as the time approaches.

As always, thank you for your support and your business. We are constantly hard at work at updating and improving the LightCMS system. We look forward to bringing you these updates and many more in the months to come.

Can I create new Light CMS designs using HTML5?

Absolutely. The great thing for our designers is that Light CMS has always been standards-friendly. Since day one, we've committed ourselves to giving you complete control over the creation and management of your designs, especially when you want to design using HTML and CSS standards. Designers using Light CMS are free to create their templates in HTML5 markup. Some CMS providers require proprietary languages, but we believe that just hinders the creativity of your designs. Do you want to take advantage of the new <aside> tags? No problem. Want to embed a CMS token within a sub-navigation bar inside those new tags? It'll work great. In other words, Light CMS is the HTML5 designer's friend.

As a side note, we'll likely be adding new designs featuring HTML5 to our CMS in the future as well.

Will the rollout of HTML5 affect older Light CMS designs?

Not at all. Existing Light CMS designs, including our own free design templates, will still render just as they always have, provided the designer declared the <!DOCTYPE> properly when the design was created (for more information on DOCTYPES, click here). Since previous standards are still supported by browser engines, there shouldn't be any problems with using them.

Light CMS + your designs + HTML5 = win

As you can see, designers using Light CMS to create content managed websites for their clients have nothing to fear from HTML5. With complete control over the HTML and CSS standards used in their CMS designs, designers have the freedom to utilize HTML5 when they are ready. Of course, things are always changing, and we'll be keeping an eye on how the upcoming changes affect our products and making adjustments as necessary.

If you have thoughts on HTML5, let us hear from you in the comments.

Posterous is a simple, online blogging platform that allows you to post to your blog by simply sending an email. Posterous then provides a service called “autoposting” where it will distribute anything you send it to the services of your choice. So you can hook Posterous up with your Twitter account, your Facebook profile, and many other services you use, and any time you post to Posterous, it will get posted to your other services as well.

Posterous can also work with blogging platforms via the MetaWeblog protocol, which means it can autopost to your LightCMS blog. So, send an email to Posterous and it gets posted on your LightCMS blog (and any other services you choose as well). Pretty simple, right? Let’s take a look at how to set it up.

First, you need to create a Posterous account. It’s free and easy. Just visit posterous.com to get started.

Once you’re set up on Posterous, log in to your account and click on the “Autopost” menu item to set up autoposting. Click “Add a service” (see image below).

Then, choose “Other blog” from the list of available services (see image below)

On the next screen, enter the publishpath URL for the page on which your blog resides. Then, enter the username and password that you use to login to your website. Finally, click “Advanced options” and you can edit or delete the default content Posterous will insert as a footer on any post you create (I usually delete this so that posts from Posterous look just like other posts, but you can set it however you like).

That’s it. Your Posterous site is now connected to your blog. Simply send an email to Posterous using the email address they provide you, and your content will be posted to your blog. Easy!

Posting by email is very convenient from your desktop, laptop, or even your mobile phone. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

The new Login Status token allows you to add content to your templates based on the login status of the user visiting the site. In addition, if the user is logged in, it allows you to add personalized content for that user.

So, for example, if you wanted to put a “Login” link at the top of your page and then have that link change to say “Welcome, Ryan” whenever a user named Ryan is logged in, the new Login Status token can help you do that. Of course, you can do much more than that as well. You can populate the token with any amount of HTML content for both the loggedin and loggedout states, allowing you tons of flexibility, especially for sites like intranets or other sites with lots of login activity.

Full specifications on the token can be found on the Login Status page of our Token Reference Guide. Check it out and give it a try!