BlogSmall business, Marketing, Promotion and Web Design

For the second round of blog editor software reviews I decided to go with Qumana Blog editor. Available at Qumana.com, this free software is available for both Windows and Mac OS platforms. Current version as of writing this post is 3.0.1. The software is written in Java. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but it forced me to install Java run-time on my laptop in order to even proceed with install.

SEE IMPORTANT UPDATE at the end of the post!

Externally, Qumana Editor is not really different from Zoundry. The interface looks more contemporary and buttons even have bubbly glow. However, editor allows same basic WYSIWYG functionality. Two tabs below the editing window let you flip between editor and source view.Tags for Wordpress are inserted in the actual text of the post. I am no WordPress guru, but I am sure it’s done a little different. Default Times New Roman font for WYSIWYG editor looks horrible and there is no chance of changing it without changing the actual post.

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Popularity: 40%

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While contemplating on my ideas of blogging editor I stumbled upon various reviews of existing blogging clients. One of them caught my eye, so I ventured ahead and downloaded Zoundry - free blogging client. I am attempting to write this post in Zoundry, version 1.0.40.

Generally, I am not looking for features I came up with a week ago. What I want is pretty interface that would inspire blogging (instead of fighting with it) and ease of use of features that are already there. So, features offered, usability of existing features, interface and overall performance would be my criteria for blogging software reviews.

Read more »

Popularity: 29%

You might also be interested in reading this:

• Qumana Blog Editor (January 16, 2008): For the second round of blog editor software reviews I decided to go with Qumana Blog editor. Available at Qumana.com, this free software is available for both Windows and Mac OS platforms. Current version as of writing this post is 3.0.1. The software is written in Java. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but [...]
• Blogging Editors - My Wish List (January 10, 2008): At various moments I tried to use different blogging tools. Most of the time I blog using WordPress admin interface. However, sometimes I feel like I need a special piece of software, that would help me work the words. This post was written with the help of yet another (after Windows Live Writer, Writely and many [...]
• Blogging Editor - Crazy Wish List continues (January 14, 2008): In continuation of Blogging Editor saga - here's some crazy ideas that I think worth mentioned. Not sure what would be the best course of action - write the whole thing up and pass it to someone who can create a piece of software or jump on this project myself. The problem with creating the [...]
• Hacking WordPress theme - external URL for post title (January 12, 2008): Sometimes something weird happens - I demand something that isn't available. With software it's easy (that's how I got into computers), you dig in the code and you tweak and hack around until it does what you want. When I just started this blog on Blogger quite a while ago, there was this feature that allowed [...]

Elaborating on the previous post (WordPress or Joomla?), next often asked question that we at Zealus Web Design see is which shopping cart should one use?This one is just one notch easier. First - we already know that customer wants a shopping cart solution. Second - he is aware that whatever choice he makes is going to affect him in the future. Uploading or entering inventory is a time consuming task and not many people have time to experiment with that. But the ultimate question remains the same - what kind of problem the customer has? What is he/she selling and in which quantities?

Speaking from experience, I’ve seen customers who’s only reasonable solution would be an eBay. Some people can use quick shopping cart options, like PayPal’s shopping cart or even CafePress. Some could benefit from ZenCart, osCommerce, VirtuMart or peers. Sometimes company grows out of bunch of Excel spreadsheet and starts using CRM, sales and inventory tracking systems, such as RegKeeper, some flavor of QuickBooks or other platforms.

Using full-blown shopping system if you only need to sell two flavors of your widget is unwise. Using PayPal for web store with thousands of clients may cost you significant percentage of your business. Each tool has its own (limited) scope of use.

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