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EasyWeb Marketing



User: Guest 10 years ago
Thought I would start a topic on this for Admin feedback ... my own curiosity as I currently study marketing.

A thought occurred to me. We have all compared EasyWeb to iWeb, but in the real world, iWeb is 4 years out of date and not a competitor in the EasyWeb market and not been available for the last two years with Lion ... Mountain Lion. I think it would be more Sandvox, 1...1, 123-Reg ... maybe GoDaddy that the type of competitors are for building websites "out the box".

Has anyone used anything like the above that can be compared to EasyWeb?
What was better?
What was worse?
What is value for money?
What would you expect to pay?
Would you prefer the Adobe approach to Pay Monthly, yearly or a one off payment?

(Paul, please feel free to edit questions incase you disagree)
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User: dan y 10 years ago
Your questions, for the most part can't be answered at this time but I will say this. From my dabbing into a number of other applications the only app you can compare Easyweb to is Iweb. Nothing else compares.

I don't like and will not pay monthly fees to construct a website that locks me into a company and their services. I'd rather buy something, be done with it and have the ability to take my business elsewhere if I desire to do so. I understand the policy of Rage at this time with Easyweb. If Easyweb doesn't become available for purchase in a year I'll drop it and search for a different website design tool.
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User: Guest 10 years ago
I have to agree with you. For personal and small business it has to be a buy once option. I do however understand if EasyWeb had to be packaged with a Rage Hosting account, but personally believe that this would almost half the initial customers that have not tried it.

As for iWeb... Lets be honest, we have been using it the last 2-5 years and we Love it. On the same note, we all knew it would end someday and to me EW in a basic form that does most of iWebs functions plus many more.

Keep the thoughts coming ye all...
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User: Paul-RAGESW 10 years ago
You can use EasyWeb anywhere with the publish to folder option. But just like iWeb did with MobileMe, it would be impossible to provide certain features without having control of the server. So when we can make a better experience, and provide better features when we integrate hosting and software, obviously you will have to use our hosting.

We will make it so that you will want to use our servers because of the better features it offers.

In almost all cases it will be more expenses to have the most up to date version of EasyWeb and pay for third party web hosting. Just hosting considered, $99/year is already a competitive offer. But you also get EasyWeb and all upgrades for free.

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Paul
EverWeb Developer
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User: dan y 10 years ago
What additional features does Rage plan on offering that will tie into Easyweb and not be available on other servers? I would think that there would be a hint of things to come with a couple of features already implemented by Rage into Easyweb to encourage users to sign on with Rage as the hosting company once Easyweb is out of beta. There isn't a hint of any at this time.

I moved a domain to Rage and am getting to know Easyweb as the replacement to Iweb. This is the first I've heard that you will be offering additional services that will give benefits to using Rage as a hosting/software package. As early users of Easyweb how about a brief summery of your planned hosting/software Rage specific features that will not be available elsewhere.

Personal thought on $$$$. Ease of use and features trump the 'expense' issue. If I was in my teens money might be a real issue but as an adult messing with computers cost is secondary (at least for me).
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User: Roddy 10 years ago
You already have one of the features - the contact form.

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Roddy

Website: http://everwebwidgets.com
Contact: http://everwebwidgets.com/ewWidgets-home/contact.html
NOTE: I am an EverWeb user and NOT affiliated with EverWeb! Any opinions expressed in this forum are my own.
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User: Paul-RAGESW 10 years ago
One important feature right now is the email management within the software and being able to auto-configure your email addresses. This may not be important to you but we get a ton of people who have so many issues setting up email in Apple Mail and even getting email addresses set up on our server.

We deal with publishing issues all day from iWeb users. It could have been an iWeb bug, people entering their wrong FTP details (especially just having a space character in one of the fields), or third party hosting issues. We took these problems out with EasyWeb's publishing.

iWeb had a really bad bug where it would cancel publishing if an image started with a space. We provided a solution for that to everybody with a video tutorial. If something like that happened with EasyWeb we could fix it right away. With iWeb, it will never be fixed.

These two features deal with something you may or may not encounter, but looking at the whole community, thousands of iWeb users are having these issues (based on the iWeb forums and users contacting us).

You deal with one company. You have an issue we can fix anything that comes along. That to me would be the #1 reason to use our hosting. Do you know how many people have issues that end up being something on their web hoster's side and have no idea how to deal with it? They waste days going back and forth trying to fix it. As a small business owner, I would imagine this is not something you want to spend your time dealing with. Nor is it something I would want our support department to spend time tracking down.

With all that being said, you'll have to wait for more specific features because I don't want to make an announcement here and if we don't come through in our estimated time, I don't want users to be disappointed. We want to take the limitations in iWeb and make them better. One example as explained in the facebook page is the publish changes feature in iWeb required them to have java script navigation bars which sucked for SEO. We could do it a different way if we control both the software and the servers.

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If Easyweb doesn't become available for purchase in a year I'll drop it and search for a different website design tool.


To me having this preconceived intention sounds crazy, but that is my opinion. If the service sucks, then I get it, but to have this already in your head to start doesn't make any sense to me.

Most shared web hosting is going to be very similar anywhere you go. Shared hosting, by definition, has security risks. If all users are using EasyWeb on our servers and nothing else we can reduce the security issues tremendously. Look at Godaddy whose servers got taken down for 24 hours last year. For EVERY SINGLE USER. Thats one extreme example but a huge benefit of having the server set up for one specific purpose can drastically reduce security concerns.

And in another way you aren't locked in because you can add anything you want to your website. It is only really the web hosting part which you need to pay for anyways.

These points are irrelevant though because even as it stands now, you can publish anywhere when you publish to a folder.

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I have to agree with you. For personal and small business it has to be a buy once option. I do however understand if EasyWeb had to be packaged with a Rage Hosting account, but personally believe that this would almost half the initial customers that have not tried it


You have to pay for web hosting anyways, and it would be cheaper, and easier, to use our 1-click publishing. As well, all software has upgrade fees. Every single one! You're paying ongoing fees no matter what. And even though it sucks to have to do that, we have to pay our programmers, support dept, graphic artists etc... to continually update EasyWeb. Wouldn't it suck if EasyWeb is discontinued in a few years like iWeb was?

ANY other WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web building software you purchase along with hosting will be more expensive than EasyWeb. I can almost guarantee you that.

That being said, we hope to make EasyWeb your choice by making sure it has the features you need to create a great website!


The notion that a web hosting service should be separate from a web building app is out dated thinking. Everything can be better by combining them. As more software moves to the cloud that is what is going to happen. Most other options that people are turning to after iWeb are online based web builders that "lock" you in to their services.

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Paul
EverWeb Developer
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User: Guest 10 years ago
WoW! That certainly answers many questions. For me having everything in the same place makes sense. As for a previous comment price is an important factor. Personally RageSW is a little more expensive than my last hosting provider, but given the massive amount of Free iWeb support RageSW gave me, it made perfect sense to move to the people that knew what they were talking about.

My comment on EasyWeb + Hosting as a package putting people off, was mearly because RageSW is not so widly known as others (like godaddy) ... people can be a little "ill stick with what i know". Marketing the package the right way would encourage others, but the most important factor i think will be the launch ... reviews from places people already trust eg: MacWorld etc... I think most people on the forum already trust RageSW, but we are a small minority compared to the thousands of customers you will expect world wide ... all feedback is good. ;)
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User: dan y 10 years ago
For the most part I don't understand your answers as related to features only found with a software/server relationship but will accept it. The only statement that is easily understood is your referance to fixing a problem because it's your software. That does have significance and is a bonus I hadn't thought about. If I was using a non server application I'm sure the support wouldn't be there. Most of your other outlined features appear 'at face value' to be software specific. I expect the Easyweb application to have more, better and upgraded features than Iweb did at it's demise but that's a different issue and I don't see how I need software tied to a server to accomplish it.

Rodney mentioned the contact form as one feature impossible to implement in software alone needing server support. I don't understand why it's a software/server necessity but will accept it as well for the time being.

I don't have any preconceived intention to bail on Rage. I just really don't like setting up any reoccurring expenses that for all intents and purposes make it so difficult to move business elsewhere (if desired) It will continue until the end. That business practice is very popular these days. I see it as a way to increase 'long term' revenue through manipulation. Therefore, I'm looking forward to Rage making my experience so good I will be encouraged to stay but not because it's just too much of a headache to move my business..

Keep up the good work. I believe that signing on with Rage was the right decision given what I've been told and am looking forward to what the future brings. For me, that future includes my recent purchase of a Synology NAS (I'm currently setting up) to explore operating my own server.

final note, I don't like cloud services. Again, it may be the future but not my style. I see it as just another way to hook you into a subscription service forever. I took inventory of my small reoccurring expenses a couple of years ago and in tallying them up found I was paying for almost $400.00 of nickel and dime credit card auto deduction expenses half of which I didn't use. I just paid for them. That was just 'stupid money' being spent.

I guess the concept of controlling your product isn't important for most which makes me not mainstream in my thoughts.
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User: Paul-RAGESW 10 years ago
Quote:
For the most part I don't understand your answers as related to features only found with a software/server relationship but will accept it.


Well you can just look at iWeb. Blog search, blog commenting, hit counters and password protection were all DISABLED on non-mobileme websites. In addition, Google Maps and other widgets required MobileMe to be active and once it was discontinued they no longer worked. Since Apple is the largest tech company in the world they were able to provide these widgets free of charge because the costs to them are minimal and you also were paying them $1000+ for all the products and services.

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Most of your other outlined features appear 'at face value' to be software specific.


What is your criteria for determining this? How would you know when a feature is software specific or not?

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I expect the Easyweb application to have more, better and upgraded features than Iweb did at it's demise but that's a different issue and I don't see how I need software tied to a server to accomplish it.


Well it has;
- drop down menus
- mouse over/mouse down transitions
- better support for all web browsers
- retina websites
- better mobile support
- social media integration
- faster loading websites
- SEO features built in

to name a few.

Quote:
Rodney mentioned the contact form as one feature impossible to implement in software alone needing server support. I don't understand why it's a software/server necessity but will accept it as well for the time being.


This will most likely work on any server that supports PHP soon. But if a server doesn't have PHP it won't work. Now most servers do have PHP but some may have an earlier version that isn't compatible. Do you really want to spend your time trying to figure out why it doesn't work?

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I see it as a way to increase 'long term' revenue through manipulation.


I don't see it this way. You aren't taking a product and using it once. You are using it on an ongoing basis. You need to pay monthly for a website anyways, all the time. It will never change because you are consuming resources.

If you think a product is not adding value to your life you don't need to keeping paying for it. But if you are using something all the time, requesting support and expecting it to be further developed, how can that happen if the people working on it aren't being paid to do so?

Quote:
For me, that future includes my recent purchase of a Synology NAS (I'm currently setting up) to explore operating my own server.


Unless you have specific needs, that is going to be much more time consuming and expensive. But that being said, the customers we are after are NOT setting up their own servers and just want a hassle free website.

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final note, I don't like cloud services


No matter what your website needs a web host which is a monthly or yearly fee. As stated before, it will be cheaper to use our web hosting plus EasyWeb instead of buying EasyWeb outright and using a third party web hosting service.

I don't like paying for anything on an ongoing basis either. But you are consuming resources with a website and no matter what it will be an ongoing expense.

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I guess the concept of controlling your product isn't important for most which makes me not mainstream in my thoughts.


Apple became the largest tech company in the world by having tight control of all their products and providing a great user experience.

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Paul
EverWeb Developer
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User: Yelena 10 years ago
I have one question about pricing and such...

I do have an account with RageSW and I love your support, tutorials, products,etc. But I need to understand something.
At the moment I have 3 different websites all hosted separately and I purchased 3 year option. In order to be able to have add-ons I need to pay $3/month extra for each and it would only allow 3 add-ons. It suits me right now because two website belong to people I created websites for and one is mine. Each is paying for their website. However, I do have about 9 other websites hosted elsewhere that are mine and my family members. I am paying them $140 for 4 years and I have an unlimited plan and can have as many websites as I want. I understand that being "add-ons" they can all crush if there is a problem with one of them. But they are not large, commercial websites but rather smaller and more informational websites. I had problems once or twice but they were quickly resolved.
So my question is how do I justify paying a lot more to host the same websites and pay at least 3 times as much or more? I wish you offered an unlimited option. I don't mind paying a little more for great service and a product that I use and like. But when it becomes a lot more I don't think I can - as much as I would love to transfer all my sites to you...
So for the moment my solution is to have two servers and publish one of the sites I created with EasyWeb to another server...


Any thoughts on that?

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Yelena
MacBook Pro OS X 10.10.3
IMac 21" OS X 10.10.3
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User: Paul-RAGESW 10 years ago
The hosting plan for EasyWeb is different than what you have. You can have unlimited websites with the EasyWeb plan but are limited to 2GB of space (you can purchase more if you need). As long as you don't have video you should be able to have all your sites under the $99/year plan which is cheaper than what you have now and you get EasyWeb for free.

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Paul
EverWeb Developer
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User: Yelena 10 years ago
That is great news! When you say videos do you mean YouTube for example?

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Yelena
MacBook Pro OS X 10.10.3
IMac 21" OS X 10.10.3
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User: Paul-RAGESW 10 years ago
No Youtube videos don't take up space on your server because they are hosted on youtube. I mean videos you publish to your website. Videos take up a lot of space. Most people do not need much space for their websites if they don't use any videos.

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Paul
EverWeb Developer
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User: Yelena 10 years ago
Got it - sounds great....

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Yelena
MacBook Pro OS X 10.10.3
IMac 21" OS X 10.10.3
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