Improving EdenWeb CMS: Usability, Marketing & Management

When we last visited the garden, we introduced the Eden Platform, a self-optimizing web content management system released by Preation. Designed to let entrepreneurs and marketers create and maintain an optimized website and generate more results without the need for any technical or web marketing expertise, Eden proved to be both affordable and useful.

Since then, the platform has seen a number of updates and enhancements directed at improving usability, marketing and website management. Let’s take a look.

May '09 — File Manager

The SaaS model CMS otherwise known as Eden Platform added functionality to their dashboard, which let users add and integrate marketing events (including Twitter and PRWeb), documents and other files from the file manager to pages.

The file manager interface was also upgraded, optimized to be more intuitive and user friendly. Page editing functionality was also improved so that anything pasted is properly formatted.

Image 1: The first step to adding content to the page is moving your mouse over the blue General button on the page editing interface. General content elements will be displayed. For example, most websites at least have the Content and Sub-Navigation elements.

July '09 — Page Tree

During the summer, the Eden Platform page tree was completely redesigned and improved, allowing users to expand and collapse the pages of a website's page tree. As well, the page tree now remembers how you left it and reloads with the last settings used.

Image 2: The page tree interface is one of the most powerful and flexible parts of Eden Platform.

Multiple documents can be loaded simultaneously via the file manager and a new forms module interface improved its design and functionality.

September '09 — Form, Email & Image Management

As autumn approached, the Eden Platform administrative area added support for Internet Explorer 8.0 and above. In the forms module, users can now include details submitted in a form in responder emails as well as deliver responder emails to the email address of the person who filled out the form.

Image 3: Eden allows you to create the online forms you need to connect with your website’s visitors directly on your website.

Image Management

More updates to the file manager allowed users to import images from external web pages in bulk, simplifying the process of importing content from an old website into Eden Platform. Additional updates enabled resizing and cropping capabilities.

Image 4: Upload one or more files directly from your computer or point Eden to a page on your existing website and it will import them for you.

December '09 — Affiliate Referral Program

Winter in Eden brought an affiliate referral program that allows users to share their unique affiliate URL. If referrals sign up for Eden, a user’s account will receive an automatic credit for commission.

January '10 — Domain Name Management

The New Year brought even more improved capabilities for the Eden Platform. Among the updates was a domain name management interface, which allow users to assign a domain name to an Eden website and apply additional domain names that will forward traffic to the website.

A new special content element, called an iFrame element, lets users add outside content to any page of an Eden site through an iFrame.

What does the rest of 2010 plan to bring for Eden?

A continued focus on site optimization and marketing strategies. The Eden blog has already tackled issues of customer retention, social media integration and email marketing. The future of Eden is poised for more updates and increased functionality.

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