Does any one knows if there is a software I can buy/use that will let me offer website creations with my hosting company for clients who does not know how to create sites?

So if a user bought a hosting package and does not know how to create a site from scratch, I will be able to offer pre-maid templates and an automated process.

http://www.iblurbs.com

Check http://psoft.net not only SiteStudio, But HSPhere, too.

"Add value to your internet service by providing your customers with the industry's leading browser-based solution for website design and construction. With SiteStudio, your users need not know anything about FTP, HTML, Telnet, HTTP, or imaging software. If they can surf the Internet, they can build their own professionally looking website. Your customers will appreciate the ease and speed with which they can build their website, and the ease with which they can change just about any aspect of it. With different layouts and color schemes, dozens of designs are available in SiteStudio, and because of its flexible nature, many more can be added later."

:rolleyes:

Would like to know your opinion.

See

http://www.kemford.com

Sean

Just in case you were actually going to go with them, Kemford regularly spams hosts trying to sell their product.
Ew.

I got that impression already about them..
Thanks for the warning though.

Originally posted by lovelie
Just in case you were actually going to go with them, Kemford regularly spams hosts trying to sell their product.
Ew.

It's called sales people doing their job by going out and finding prospects and sending out a letter to the prospect. They are not out there spamming a million hosts all at once.

It's not spam, it's the way real business works. JMHO

Well, now I'm REALLY disappointed.

They never spammed ME.

Guess I'm just not big enough for them to spam.

:bawling:

Sean

Check http://psoft.net not only SiteStudio, But HSPhere, too.

We too looked into this. The price is not worth it in our opinion. They charge $2/customer for each customer you have. Even if they do not use it. I couldn't understand this, but they replied to this question the same both times.

We were looking for a solution that would allow cusomters who want to use it, can, in which case we would be billed for that user. However this was not the case with psoft. I really can not see paying for something that people are not using.

http://www.iblurbs.com charges you only for the ones in use.

It's not spam, it's the way real business works.

http://www.kemford.com are spammers. How do I know. We received e-mail from them to addresses we use for forms. These addresses are not anywhere on our site and can only be retrieved by harvesting. Sorry if you feel buying harvested addresses, and mass e-mailing them is real business, but I do not.

Originally posted by UmBillyCord
http://www.kemford.com are spammers. How do I know. We received e-mail from them to addresses we use for forms. These addresses are not anywhere on our site and can only be retrieved by harvesting. Sorry if you feel buying harvested addresses, and mass e-mailing them is real business, but I do not.

If they are harvesting, then yes they are spamming but no one said anything about that above. I was under the impression they were actually finding the sites by hand. I have recieved an email from them and from what I could tell it was a form sales letter sent to the contact info I had listed. But if what you say is true (and I'm sure it is) then they suck.

On the iblurbs front, there is http://www.prewired.com. Their system is really, really nice. But they are really expensive. They offered me a special for something like a $400 setup fee (this is the reasonable part) but it costs a minimum of $10 per month per account that uses it. If you add hosting on top of that, you are actually reselling their service for what it costs and making the same $$ off the hosting. It's just not worth it. If they just lowered the per account cost to $3-5 it would be perfect.

Their e-mails all start out the same -

-----------------------------------------
"TO: ............................
Business Development Dept

I am Tony Burroughs, CEO of Kemford LLC. Over the last month, I've made it a point to spend a couple of hours a day talking with ISP providers and hosting companies who were interested in bundling our Instant Website Templates - see http://site-show.kemford.com - with their own services.

Their response was overwhelmingly the same. Here is an example:
-----------------------------------------


Anyway, I too, like lovelie, prefer companies who don't spam.

Hey, just played around with the demo for Site Studio, not bad. I mean, it's not exactly cutting edge design, but is good enough to get the newbies going.

I looked at isubs. Didn't care for it. If kemford spams, then they should go to the hall of shame :mad:


There are scripts you can get that do about the same thing, but you would need to know about programming and such, or find someone to help you. Check out www.hotscripts.com and do a search.

sPoT!

Thought while I was at it, I'd try the prewired site too. :D

Real nice system, and the templates are much better than the ones from Site Studio, but I believe you can make your own for that.

The reseller level is not bad, for what you get. The basic site is $19.95, and you get 60 per cent of that, which if my math is right, comes out to $11.95 per site. From a value added service standpoint, that is not terrible. But of course, it is not the same as running your own service etc.

Also, I access on a Mac; the site kept generating warnings about not having the latest version of IE or being on Windows. A definite turn off to anyone on another system. (mac/linux/ opera/ icab/etc)

sPoT!

Originally posted by Joana
Does any one knows if there is a software I can buy/use that will let me offer website creations with my hosting company for clients who does not know how to create sites?

So if a user bought a hosting package and does not know how to create a site from scratch, I will be able to offer pre-maid templates and an automated process.

We have made one such engine <<EDIT>> which allow users to manage content. But we have not made any marketing research to find if such software is needed, and how much will be suitable for web hosts to pay for such a front end/back end solution.

If you like the idea - <<EDIT>> can start to make commercial version of this product.

<<MOD NOTE:>>
If you have something commercial to talk about, we have advertising forums for this purpose. Please email/PM users directly otherwise.
<</MOD NOTE>>

Originally posted by UmBillyCord
[B]

We too looked into this. The price is not worth it in our opinion. They charge $2/customer for each customer you have. Even if they do not use it. I couldn't understand this, but they replied to this question the same both times.


You statement is not true. The software costs
$1.50/customer, one time fee. You don't have to
pay for every customer, but for every customer,
who has access to the software. You do not have to pay for customers under the plans that do not have access to SiteStudio (or have to pay for it). More
than that, licenses are reusable - if one customer left, you can use it for the other customer.

iseletsk,
Do you have any examples of sites that uses the site studio?
I just want to see how it's implemented.

Originally posted by sergio


We have made one such engine <<EDIT>> which allow users to manage content. But we have not made any marketing research to find if such software is needed, and how much will be suitable for web hosts to pay for such a front end/back end solution.

If you like the idea - <<EDIT>> can start to make commercial version of this product.

<<MOD NOTE:>>
If you have something commercial to talk about, we have advertising forums for this purpose. Please email/PM users directly otherwise.
<</MOD NOTE>>
Did you found promotion of any commercial thing that we already sell? Is 7seri.com a product which we sell and you cleared it for that or why? I was asking if we should start selling it (and before we'll be able to do it few months of development will pass)

Sorry about the pricing.

About the license. Here was your response

------------------------------
If you offer this to everyone, you will have to pay for every user. This is why the pricing is so low. Most our clients reporting that up to 60% of the new users are using or tried to use the software. For the old user this number waries depending on the type of user/hosting company somewhere between 5% and 50%.

Regards,
Igor.
------------------------------

So if a web host wishes to advertise this service to its customer base like *****, Webhosting.com, Hostway do, then I believe we would be billed for each customer. We do not know who would use it and who would not. So if we put a section on our web site called "Create your web site now", then we would be billed for all customers, right?

Can we offer it as a feature for hosting plans, then have a login site for only those wishing to use it? Then when it is used, we are hit with a license?

I know we can treat the service like FrontPage Extensions, and just give access to those who request it, but it is nice to have everything seamless, built into the control panel.

Your software is very good. Especially the fact that you can customize the look and feel to brand to our web site. It is just a matter of figuring out how we "offer" to our customers, but be billed only for use.

Originally posted by UmBillyCord
Sorry about the pricing.



So if a web host wishes to advertise this service to its customer base like *****, Webhosting.com, Hostway do, then I believe we would be billed for each customer. We do not know who would use it and who would not. So if we put a section on our web site called "Create your web site now", then we would be billed for all customers, right?

Can we offer it as a feature for hosting plans, then have a login site for only those wishing to use it? Then when it is used, we are hit with a license?

I know we can treat the service like FrontPage Extensions, and just give access to those who request it, but it is nice to have everything seamless, built into the control panel.

Your software is very good. Especially the fact that you can customize the look and feel to brand to our web site. It is just a matter of figuring out how we "offer" to our customers, but be billed only for use.

If you treat it through control panel, where person have to click on "I want SiteStudio first",
and only after that he will have access to SiteStudio - you will have to pay only for those who clicked - and once they are gone, you can reuse their license. The only thing is you have
to actually tack who requested the service/using the service.
It does not matter if you have "Create you website now" on your front page, as long as you request them to "activate" this service.

I also was looking /trying at H-Spere. Do you have any references of hosts using it successfully?

Originally posted by microsol
I also was looking /trying at H-Spere. Do you have any references of hosts using it successfully?

There is a separate thread regarding it:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13547&highlight=Hsphere

Originally posted by iseletsk


You statement is not true. The software costs
$1.50/customer, one time fee. You don't have to
pay for every customer, but for every customer,
who has access to the software. You do not have to pay for customers under the plans that do not have access to SiteStudio (or have to pay for it). More
than that, licenses are reusable - if one customer left, you can use it for the other customer.


I got an email confermation of this just this morning. A one time $150 for the first 100 users, and it is *not* month to month. That is not bad. It might be a good selling point to come and host with your company.

I also went to the Kemford site, even though they are known by the group as spammers. The layouts and such were pretty professional, and the terms seemed to be okay. But, I did not like the idea that there is a "minimum" amount you can sell a template for.

All of these solutions are viable ideas, without alot of cash out of pocket. If you are looking to add pre-defined websites without making your own, these services aren't a bad idea; you just have to live with the terms.

sPoT!

Any clients/web hosting company using Studio??

Originally posted by Joana
Any clients/web hosting company using Studio??

We have a large number of websites that using SiteStudio. Please emails me at iseletsk@psoft.net, and I will send it to you.
I don't fill right publishing them on the public forum.

I saw another community builder earlier, and thought I would toss it into the mix :D :D

Has anyone tried www.communityarchitect.com ? I was looking over the site last night, but have not tried a demo on it. Supposedly, you can offer site building and email services for about $50 a month. There is a more expensive plan, and one that is free, but as I said, I did not try the demo. Maybe one of you have some experiance with them?

sPoT!

I think Site Studio is a really nice product and we are still deciding whether to use it but I do have a few concerns about it.

First off, it's java based and java is a beast when it comes to resources.

Second, if you publish a page and look at the source you see something like this.
======================
<!-- BOF: ./personal-templates/show.body -->
<!-- BOF: ./personal-templates/simple/generic/show -->
<!-- BOF: ./personal-templates/simple/generic/functions -->
<!-- BOF: ./personal-templates/simple/generic/navbar -->
<!-- EOF: ./personal-templates/simple/generic/navbar -->
======================
If this is how the published pages really look, then it could be both good and bad. First it would be good because your customers can't take their design with them when they leave. On the other hand, it would be bad because if every page has to make a call to get each section of the page, it might start creating large loads on the servers if a few of these sites became popular.

And lastly, if the sitestudio button stays on each page and that can't be changed, that would suck. It should be pointed to the host using it. (It may already and I not know about it.)

JeremyL:

I'd have to agree about the button pointer. To me, it is fine to say a product is developed by a certian company; afterall, I do believe in branding, and want the publisher to succeed. On the otherhand, I would want the file to point to me as the host, and not to the publisher, for the same branding reason. I guess it is just one of those catch-22 things.

Would you thing the java would really drain that much resources??

sPoT!

Originally posted by sPoT!

Would you thing the java would really drain that much resources??


Yes, on an almost empty server, the memory usage averaged 10%. As soon as we added tomcat it kept going up to and staying at 25% everyday. And no sites were even really using java yet. That was just from installing it.

Originally posted by JeremyL
I think Site Studio is a really nice product and we are still deciding whether to use it but I do have a few concerns about it.

First off, it's java based and java is a beast when it comes to resources.

Second, if you publish a page and look at the source you see something like this.
======================
<!-- BOF: ./personal-templates/show.body -->
<!-- BOF: ./personal-templates/simple/generic/show -->
<!-- BOF: ./personal-templates/simple/generic/functions -->
<!-- BOF: ./personal-templates/simple/generic/navbar -->
<!-- EOF: ./personal-templates/simple/generic/navbar -->
======================
If this is how the published pages really look, then it could be both good and bad. First it would be good because your customers can't take their design with them when they leave. On the other hand, it would be bad because if every page has to make a call to get each section of the page, it might start creating large loads on the servers if a few of these sites became popular.

And lastly, if the sitestudio button stays on each page and that can't be changed, that would suck. It should be pointed to the host using it. (It may already and I not know about it.)

We have single server installation that handles 20k users. Another thing is, that once website "published", it is all static pages. So no java is used there, and the load is very light. The comments you see are used to make it easier to find template to modify, when you want to modify look & feel.

Originally posted by iseletsk


There is a separate thread regarding it:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13547&highlight=Hsphere

Sorry, i was actually talking about the Studio not H-Spere :rolleyes:

Originally posted by iseletsk


We have single server installation that handles 20k users. Another thing is, that once website "published", it is all static pages. So no java is used there, and the load is very light. The comments you see are used to make it easier to find template to modify, when you want to modify look & feel.

Ok that's good to know about it not using java except in the build.

Now on those comments, from the demo I can see no html in the source. In a live version, when the site is published is there html for the people to see? If not, where is all the information coming from? MySQL?

Originally posted by JeremyL


Ok that's good to know about it not using java except in the build.

Now on those comments, from the demo I can see no html in the source. In a live version, when the site is published is there html for the people to see? If not, where is all the information coming from? MySQL?

Scroll down :).
The HTML is static pages, they are automatically placed into user account, using internal ftp (for multiple servers) or file publisher.

Originally posted by iseletsk


Scroll down :).
The HTML is static pages, they are automatically placed into user account, using internal ftp (for multiple servers) or file publisher.

DOH! I was wondering where in the world the HTML was :)
You guys love spaces in your code don't you.

Originally posted by JeremyL


DOH! I was wondering where in the world the HTML was :)
You guys love spaces in your code don't you.

All the HTML is saved as a static HTML files on the clients account.
Templates are also plain text (HTML + macro language) residing with the SiteStudio software.
The user website data is stored in java serialized format, so that user can always come back and modify it.

Hi Igor:

How about lang files for SiteStudio?
Will it become available, too?

Originally posted by Anatole
Hi Igor:

How about lang files for SiteStudio?
Will it become available, too?

The lang files are available, the translations are not. So if anyone wants to translate - there is only one file to translate.

So actually, the server load will be minimal, unless everyone gets online and makes changes to thier sites all at once?

sPoT!

Originally posted by sPoT!
So actually, the server load will be minimal, unless everyone gets online and makes changes to thier sites all at once?

sPoT!
Yes. Even if buch of users will come in all together, we have very strong in-memory cashing algorithm, that can handle large number of users.

What's the URL for SiteStudio ?

http://www.psoft.net

Are any of you who are using Site Studio based at Alabanza ?

Originally posted by successful
Are any of you who are using Site Studio based at Alabanza ?
No, the access they provide to the server is too limmited for us to install it. On the other hand it can be installed on some external dedicated server, and offered to all the clients across several alabanza servers.

Guys I see that www.iBlurbs.com came up earlier in this discussion. We've been mentioned previously on these boards while we were still in beta testing. Since then we have completed our beta test and are now fully live as of Friday 5th.

Regarding the positioning of our product - Many of you seem to be looking for site building products that do the whole job including putting your customer's sites into pre-built templates. That's not where we're positioning iBlurbs. We believe that a professional looking site that supports the customer's brand needs to be built by a web designer.

That's why iBlurbs is designed to be slotted into a traditional website. Web designers can add iBlurbs to their portfolio of services allowing them to sell their web design services as they always have but also offer their customers the ability to maintain their own websites.

On top of that we offer web designers the chance to create an on-going income from any sites they design using iBlurbs. Our reseller scheme pays 15% and you get that for as long as the customer keeps paying for their blurbs.

John (john@iblurbs.com)

floyduk, do you have a onetime buyout of the site design? Like Image Cafe? I know a lot of host are looking to add a feature like SiteMerlin with Verio. Something that allows a designer to crank out cheap sites for someone not wanting to pay a lot for design.

I'm not sure I entirely understand your question here.

Our standard reseller system has the reseller signing up with their own iBlurbs account which is then converted to a reseller account. That account can then be used by the reseller to create their own customer accounts, their customer blurbs and so on. The reseller's customers do not see invoices and it is the reseller's responsibility to pay for the blurbs and then charge their customers. A typical reseller might be offering microsites, for example.

For a one-time fee we will provide a re-branded version of the iBlurbs interface. It would be the same iBlurbs system except that it would be accessed using the reseller's URL and the iBlurbs branding would be replaced with the reseller's. This has the advantages that the site looks like it is run by the reseller and the reseller's customers cannot see any of the iBlurbs promotional information (including prices).

I hope that answered your question. If not then I'd be happy to try again here or in email.

John (john@iblurbs.com)

iseletsk,

Can you be more specific about why SiteStudio can't run on Alabanza. We are considering using it.

I don't know if it can be installed on Alabanza servers.
It can be installed on some external server, and publish website to alabanza servers - this is for sure.

The problem is:
1) Sometimes Alabanza does not provide the root password
2) I am not sure what Alabanza servers are running
3) Xvfb is required for SiteStudio (X virtual frame buffer). This software requires some X libraries.
4) The user database is located on some external server anyway, and I am not sure how to tap in to it.

Originally posted by spcover
See

http://www.kemford.com

Sean

You know that any company that doesnt outright post the price of a product / service on their site and makes you fill out a form, its gotta be pretty expensive

All I can tell you is it was free to sign up as a partner when I did a month ago. You have nothing to lose, by requesting more info and seeing if becoming a partner is still free.

I haven't finished setting up shop, but my Kemford site gallery is up and running, customized to my site design. You can see it at

http://site-gallery.westchesterinternet.com

I'm very happy with their system and I'm looking forward to selling their templates. There's a 50% margin on their site templates and they have over 100 of them and seem to add about 5 new templates each month.

Sean

Hi,

Where are the generated files stored in those services?

Regards.

Jose

Originally posted by spcover
All I can tell you is it was free to sign up as a partner when I did a month ago. You have nothing to lose, by requesting more info and seeing if becoming a partner is still free.

I haven't finished setting up shop, but my Kemford site gallery is up and running, customized to my site design. You can see it at

http://site-gallery.westchesterinternet.com

I'm very happy with their system and I'm looking forward to selling their templates. There's a 50% margin on their site templates and they have over 100 of them and seem to add about 5 new templates each month.

Sean

At the beguining of this thread...people are flameing Kemford for spamming. Now at the end of the thread...you are recommending. It just proves that there is no such thing as bad publicity...It's publicity all the same.

That probably answers the question as to why ***** and DonHost are so popular with the paying public. If we keep talking about them...good or bad...they will profit!

Ben :bawling:

Hello
On the Kemford thing, I think its entirely appropriate that they should e-mail mycompany offering thier services.
I do not consider that spam.
I also don't consider it spam if someone sends me a price list for rack mount servers.
Surely this is part of the normal process of running a business.
If you had a shop on a high street you would be visited by sales reps offering you products to sell in your shop.

I can't see anything at all wrong with what they do.
I actually store all those sorts of e-mails for future reference.

I can remember when I was spamcopped for sending a server maintenance notice to a customer.
We should concentrate on killing real spam otherwise the anti spam battle will be well and truly lost.

Gordon

I think this is the real spam. If I never asked for the email - it is SPAM.
I give my email address to potential clients, friends. I post it on website - for my clients & potential partners. Yet, nowhere on website on website I wrote stated "If you have something to sell me - please email to this address".
The funniest part is getting email from competition where they offer services. I am pretty sure that I did not ask for it, and that I am not looking to purchase. So, how come it is not a spam? I am getting 50% of my spam from legitimate companies that offer their services (the other half is MLM/porn type). All of them waste my time
and bandwith.

The person who complained that our maintenance notice was spam made the same claim:
he had not asked to recieve it (which is absolutely true).

As the Kemford guy posts from a real address just filter it out at the server.
That way you will not see it.
Or you could ask him not to send you any more.

At least he is using a genuine address unlike real spam which does not.

By setting out your stall you are (by the normal rules of business) saying you are buying as well as selling.
Its part of normal business life and you should expect to receive these sorts of approaches.

Gordon

Hi!
You could try another one...

http://www.rlaj.com/

A client had recommended it and it seems to be quite good .... :)

Have a great day :)

regards
amar