[support] Is Drupal Appropriate for Our Site?

Sat Sep 25 13:08:05 UTC 2010

+1 on what Victor said :)

Ryan LeTulle

bayousoft.com <http://www.bayousoft.com>
twitter.com/bayousoft <http://www.twitter.com/bayousoft>

On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 3:00 AM, Victor Kane <victorkane at gmail.com> wrote:

> The Times They Are A'Changing. Use Drupal, man, and don't look back.
>
> When you say "for a simple site, use WordPress", for a complex site use
> Drupal (admin headeaches worth it then), for a (wet thumb stuck up in the
> air to feel the wind) not so complex site, use a half-assed CMS that has
> Apache writing to root.
>
> But now, your clients don't want websites. Nor do you if you want a decent
> professional blog, capable of creating a portfolio content type and listing
> it and theming it with views.
>
> They want website applications. Which means you need a development
> framework to develop with, not an off-the-shelf-solution to stick somewhere.
> Which means, to be productive, you need to get involved with a framework,
> make reusable components of your own with it, get involved in its community,
> know which modules to use, because you can't do this alone. Which means you
> need to solve once and for all your administration processes on all your
> customer sites, and teach your customers best practices on how to upgrade
> Drupal and modules, or provide maintenance services, etc.
>
> So, you can be a dilettant, and think in terms of half-assed solutions for
> half-assed websites, or you can be a website application developer who works
> with a CMS framework they have gotten to know well over the months and
> years, and with which they have become productive. Which is not to say you
> never whip up a few well formed A List Apart style HTML+CSS for a small
> static site, or that you never install WordPress for you uncle's blog (he's
> not going to update it tho).
>
> A website application developer is something to be.
>
> Victor Kane
> http://awebfactory.com.ar
> http://projectflowandtracker.com
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 12:11 AM, Miles Fidelman <
> mfidelman at meetinghouse.net> wrote:
>
>> Rich Shepard wrote:
>> >     Most of theu pages on our site are static; I'll add new newsletters
>> or
>>
>> > white papers to the documents.shtml page, but that's about it. I would
>> like
>> > to add polls, a form-based e-mail capability for those who prefer to ask
>> for
>> > information that way rather than via regular e-mail, and -- perhaps --
>> the
>> > ability to comment on issues raised in newsletters and white papers.
>> This is
>> > why I ask whether Drupal is really the appropriate tool for me to learn
>> and
>> > apply.
>> >
>> For a simple, relatively static site, I'd probably go with Wordpress,
>> for more complex ones, Drupal or maybe Plone (I've used all three,
>> played with others).  The KISS principle applies to web sites, just like
>> anything else - why eat administrative headaches if you don't need the
>> extra functionality.
>> >     I don't know that any professional services consulting company's Web
>> site
>> > actually generates clients. I know that a poor site can drive away
>> potential
>> > clients, but in the 17 years I've run my business no one has hired us
>> > because they found our Web site somehow and decided they needed our
>> > services. Of course, if I can actually generate new business via a
>> spiffy,
>> > Durpal-based site, I'll be very pleased to have that result.
>> >
>> These days, its more that the web site is a combination newsletter and
>> brochure - to the extent that you do a lot of writing, someone might
>> track down a paper and that can lead to a sale, but beyond that, the web
>> site is where someone will turn to find out about who you are AFTER
>> you've made initial contact through a referral, sales pitch, or more
>> traditional means.  (Having said that, I once retained an attorney,
>> based on a web site that presented in-depth information about a very
>> specialized area of practice.)
>> >     You can see the current site at http://www.appl-ecosys.com/. I'm
>> > completely open to suggestions to make it more of an attactant, and
>> whether
>> > Drupal is appropriate for this type of site.
>> >
>> For what it's worth, and since you asked - the web site does not present
>> a clear image of who you are, and what you do - it takes work to dig
>> that out.  My suggestion would be to really streamline the "who, what,
>> where, when, why" message - one sentence that jumps out about what you
>> do, and then make it really easy to find bios and case studies.  If you
>> want to add value, some how-to material, and maybe a blog that provides
>> useful, current information (someone may not be a prospect today but
>> might be tomorrow if you keep them on the hook).
>>
>> Having said all of that, I'm currently doing none of the above.  I work
>> in a primarily big-ticket sales environment, it's all direct sales
>> followed by proposals.  When I build web sites, they tend to be to
>> support a specific project, mostly for internal communications.  So take
>> anything I say with a grain of salt.
>>
>> Two web sites that are pretty simple, but to the point, are
>> www.millervaneaton.com
>> and
>> http://www.baller.com/
>> both law firms that specialize in telecom. law (an area I used to be
>> involved in).  No bells and whistles - just clean presentation of the
>> firms, their practice areas, their key people, and some useful
>> information that adds credibility.  Not a bad model for a consulting
>> firm's web site.
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>>
>> Miles Fidelman
>>
>> Miles Fidelman
>>
>> --
>> In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
>> In<fnord>  practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra
>>
>>
>> --
>> [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
>>
>
>
> --
> [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/support/attachments/20100925/b556d0ce/attachment.html 