Domains, hosting and security

Can I use my own domain instead of publishpath.com?

Absolutely. When you first setup a website with LightCMS, we'll assign you a placeholder domain such as mysite.publishpath.com so that you can access and administrate your site before it's live. But, when you're ready, you can assign any domains that you own to your websites on LightCMS. For more information on how to do this, see these articles on our support site. You can even do this on free websites.

Do I have to pay for hosting, too?

Nope. Every LightCMS website includes free cloud hosting on our amazing servers in our rock-solid top tier datacenter with redundancies on every critical system. Our hosting costs us a lot and it's far superior to the cheap hosting solutions you'll find advertised about. This is just one of the many advantages of LightCMS's web-based system.

Can I access my site's files via FTP?

Yes. Unlike many hosted CMS systems, LightCMS lets you access all of your design files, images, documents and other media via FTP. This allows you quick access for uploading, downloading and working on designs in your favorite web or text editor. Get instructions on our FTP page.

How secure will my website be?

Very, very secure. In 2007, we moved the entire LightCMS system to our top-tier data center facility located at the Infomart Telecom hotel in Dallas. This is the largest internet hub in the southern United States and it features multiple redundancies on all critical systems. It just doesn't get any better than this when it comes to hosting environments. Plus, we back everything to multiple locations every night. Get more details on our hosting page.

Can I extend LightCMS with custom programming?

You cannot extend the software itself, but there are many ways to bring custom functionality into LightCMS. Our company works with hundreds of custom clients and we often create special features and functions that work with the software. You can skin an external application to seamlessly integrate with a LightCMS website; you can use client-side scripting to bring extra functionality right onto the CMS pages; you can add widgets and plug-ins that utilize client-side extensions; and you can even just use iframes to show through outside functionality.

What about email?

We don't provide email with LightCMS so you can host your email wherever you wish. We often recommend Google's applications on your domain because it is a really great service and the standard edition is free. If you want to use Google's service, you can set it up yourself, or if you need our help we can do it for you for a one-time $50 fee. For more information or to order this service, please contact us.

How do I know LightCMS won't just close up shop?

You can take a look at our company. We're a growing, debt-free business with a solid reputation that we've built since 1999. We are heavily invested in our products, which host websites for thousands and thousands of clients around the world. We are in this for the long haul, and as such, we are firmly committed to our products and our customers.

Reselling and billing

I want to resell LightCMS, do I have to sign something or pay a fee?

No. LightCMS was built specifically for reselling and there are no contracts or fees to private-label it and resell it as your own. Reseller features are built right in from the moment you sign up. Simply add sites, add designs, set your own pricing, and enjoy your monthly profit. For more information, please see our reselling page.

How much commission do you pay to your resellers?

That's up to you! We let you set your own pricing so you have control of the commissions you earn. If you choose to charge our suggested retail pricing, the average rate of commission is around 35% on every website, every month. Plus, as you add more sites, you'll be eligible for more and more LightCMS rewards.

How do I bill my clients?

You have two options. Through our client billing system, we can bill your clients directly at the prices you set. Or, through account billing, we can bill you directly for your client websites and you can bill your own clients through whatever method you choose. You can put any number of websites on either system so there's ultimate flexibility. For more information, see our Account page.

How do I collect my commissions?

If you use our client billing system (see "How do I bill my clients"), your profits will accumulate in your "money pile" as we bill your clients each month. You'll be able to withdraw your earned profits at any time and we'll deliver them to you by PayPal. If you use account billing, you'll collect your commissions by billing your clients directly for their monthly charges, including your mark-up.

Do I get a discount if I add lots of paid websites?

Yes, you get extra cash plus a whole lot more through our LightCMS Rewards program. As you add more and more paid websites, you'll reach new tiers that offer you a host of rewards, including monthly cash back.

How do I add client sites to my LightCMS account?

Log in to any website under your account and visit the "My Account" area. Click on "Websites" and you will see the "add a new website" button. It takes less than a minute to add a new site to your account. For more details and a video demo of this process, please see this article on our support site.

What does it mean that LightCMS is a "private label" system?

It means that you can put your own brand on LightCMS and when your clients use the system, they'll see your brand instead of the LightCMS brand. Account-level functionality is hidden from your clients and you are able to upload your own logo which will replace the LightCMS logo throughout the system. Most systems charge hefty upfront fees for this type of branding, but with LightCMS, it's included with every account at no cost from the moment you sign up.

Is there a contract commitment when I upgrade a website to a paid plan?

No. With LightCMS there are no setup fees and no contracts. The only thing you pay for are the websites you choose to upgrade to paid plans. Each of your websites is billed by the month and you can upgrade, downgrade, disable or delete them at any time without incurring any additional fees.

Designs

How do I get my designs onto my clients' websites?

You have two options. Either do it yourself or have us do it for you. If you do it yourself, it's free and we provide you with lots of help in the process. If you want us to do it for you, we offer HTML Xpress where we take your designs as images and do all of the coding and integration work. You can find out more on our design help page.

Does LightCMS work with HTML and CSS standards?

Absolutely. In fact, HTML and CSS are the only languages you need to know to integrate a design on your own. There are no proprietary languages with LightCMS.

Can I use JavaScript in my designs?

Yes. Since you have full access to the template files, you can implement any client-side scripting just as you would on any other website.

Can my designs have fly-out menus?

Yes, as long as they are CSS or JavaScript based. We include basic styles for CSS-based fly-out menus in our barebones templates which are free for you to download and use.

General

Do blog posts and calendar events count toward my page totals?

No, even though each blog post and each calendar event has a "detail page," those detail pages don't count toward the page limits listed in our website plans. You can have unlimited blog posts and/or calendar events on any website plan on our system.

Does LightCMS work on Macs?

Yes! and on PCs. LightCMS is an online application so there's nothing to install. All you need is an internet connection and a modern web browser. Both Safari and Firefox are supported on Mac. On PC, we officially support IE7 or later and Firefox. Linux users can also use Firefox.

Who makes LightCMS?

Element Fusion, a growing, debt-free company based in Oklahoma City, OK. Find out more about us on our company page.

How long has LightCMS been around?

LightCMS was launched in 2006. Element Fusion, the company behind LightCMS, has been around since 1999 and has created other content management systems prior to the LightCMS system.

Why should I pay for sites on LightCMS instead of using free systems?

There are lots of great reasons. Perhaps the biggest one is saving time. LightCMS is designed to streamline your business and let you focus your time on design. Free systems can drain your time and, after all, time is money. For more on this and a host of other reasons, we invite you to take a look at our Worth the Cost page.