When I built my first website (back in 2006), I looked longingly at the custom websites the ‘big guys’ were using. I coveted those things!
I’m a writer, not a designer, but it probably wouldn’t have made a difference – because I’m also something of a perfectionist, and anything I build myself is never going to be good enough.
I invested in Headway Theme, and dragged and dropped and tweaked until I had a functional website that looked OK – one which worked for myself, and for my visitors.
Times changed, and the web moved on. My heroes changed their websites again, and I was building new sites so I bought a StudioPress theme (and then another one, and finally the whole shebang). My sites were never the ones that had people saying, “Wow, who built your site?” about, but they were clean and functional, they attracted traffic and income, they were secured from hackers, and they never got hit by the ‘google slap’ – in fact, every time Google released an update, my sites went up the ranks partly thanks to Scribe – an SEO plunging that helps you optimise your posts and pages in a reader-friendly way (you can learn more about Scribe here).
I thought about changing to a custom site a few times, but was too busy to really sit down and think through what I wanted so I stuck with a theme (or a series of themes), and here’s what I discovered:
There are some really great themes out there;
If you use a theme security updates are never a problem for your site;
Premium themes give you a lot of customisation options and have great dashboards;
Back in the day when I only worked on my own sites I thought all WordPress sites were as easy to use as my own. Now I know that some Custom sites are much more complicated than my templates (and for good reason have fewer options). Using a theme I can add plugins, remove them, and update to my heart’s content so my site is always up-to-date and protected from security issues.
When the Copyblogger folks released Synthesis secure WordPress hosting I signed up because I liked the promise that they would take care of the security an updates, so that I no longer even had to log in and update (as well as many other things about Synthesis like their great support and uptime promise).
Now There’s New Rainmaker!
Mid-2014, the good folks at Copyblogger released New Rainmaker, which is website nirvana for online marketing and content creation as far as I’m concerned! For a single monthly fee you get: –
- Secure Hosting with all your updates taken care of;
- A choice of premium themes you can set up and modify to a reasonable degree;
- Clean coding to keep your site running quickly;
- All the plugins you need/can use updated and ready to use;
- Sophisticated Google analytics that go way beyond the standard free version most of us use;
- Membership sites and forums just waiting to be created;
- Content categories for added visibility in search;
- Link to major email/auto-responder providers like Aweber, Mail Chimp and Infusionsoft;
- Easy Shopping cart and Merchant Account setup;
- Ability to host and promote your podcast;
- Scribe subscription included;
- Fantastic landing page templates for every type of funnel are just waiting to be used;
- Built-in split testing for headlines, landing pages, and many other items so you can test results;
- Automatic site backup
- More features added every month…
What I Love About New Rainmaker and Why: –
I want my website to look good, and to work effectively. I don’t get a kick out of playing with all the gizmos and moving things round. New Rainmaker lets me get the results I want without digging deep into coding. I also have control, so I only need a designer when I want to use one.
- Everything I’ve tried to do on the website ‘just worked’. From linking my Google accounts, analytics, and Infusionsoft, to developing a membership site or setting up a content library and merchant account. I’m happy to take the time to work things out and follow directions, but I like the end result to function. This does.
- Scribe is totally integrated with the site, so there’s no need for a separate subscription for New Rainmaker sites (I love Scribe).
- All my security updates are taken care of so I don’t need to worry about being hacked.
- It’s easy to see what widgets can be installed, and how to do it. I don’t get overwhelmed with choice, and there is nothing extra to pay.
- If I want to change theme, I can. I have around 20 themes to choose from and they all look great.
What People Complain About: –
- You are restricted to the Studiopress themes, and can only do certain modifications to them, so they can guarantee a secure environment.
- You can only install allowed plugins for security reasons.
- Some features haven’t been released yet, so you may not be able to do all the things you dream of.
Who New Rainmaker Is For: –
New Rainmaker is perfect for the entrepreneur or small to medium-sized business which wants a highly functional website but does not really want to take care of too many moving parts. The focus is on content creators who want to get their ideas out into the world and build a community. It does work for straight e-commerce, but is not the ideal solution if your website is solely focused on selling products.
If you fit this profile and are considering a new website, I strongly urge you to check out New Rainmaker. A custom site with these features would cost well over $10,000 to build, and New Rainmaker includes your hosting in a secure environment as well as tools to help you create content and market more effectively.
You may think I’m a Copyblogger fan-girl who just promotes their stuff because they’re persuasive sales people and they’ve got me hooked, or because I’m affiliated with them and I get paid when you buy their stuff through me (which happens). The reality is I promote their stuff because it does what I need done. I like the way they think about providing value online, and I love the fact that they make the software and interfaces that work for them available to the rest of us at a fraction of the cost it would take to copy it myself.
I really encourage you to check out New Rainmaker if you want to strengthen your online presence at a reasonable cost – I believe the security, flexibility, and continual development makes it a very valuable investment.
