The new CMS is the profile of an emerging new type of content management systems that is not bound anymore to a specific web site and which acts as a hub to first gather, aggregate and filter relevant content, and then to create, edit and format it for scheduled publishing across multiple devices and types of output (email, RSS, ebook, social media, web site, blog, etc.).

Great examples of this new type of CMS are at one end of the continuum tools like Shareist, OpenTopic and B2BContentEngine and at the other simpler ones like Kurasie, Hootsuite. 

Here is my take on which other the key defining characteristics of this new breed of online publishing tools. 

Full article: http://www.masternewmedia.org/the-new-cms/ 

Reading time: 13'

What's ahead of us when it comes to web publishing? How will the tools, methods and approaches to design, to create and to package news and information change over the course of the next few years?

In the second part of this article, I am looking at these key trends:

1) Dusk of Blogs
How blogs are changing their role and importance within the information ecosystem.

2) Beyond WordPress
WordPress has been a revolutionary tool for small and large independent web publishers. But in its fantastic growth, it may have lost track of its true original purpose. What's there now to replace it?

3) Instant Publishing
When it comes to publishing online, it's not just "ease of use" that web publishers want. Immediacy, real-time, is the new in high-demand frontier. How rapidly can you go from thinking of a promotion or a new report to actually having a professional-looking page of it online?

4) Invisible UI
Just-in-time interface controls are the future. The time of multiple toolbars with tens of buttons and icons, is definitely over. The new UI is basically invisible... until you need it.

5) Design Intelligence
The web design and publishing ecosystem presently doesn't allow for non-technical people to create and maintain professional-looking websites without having to heavily depend on a web design studio or agency. This is about to change. Rapidly.

6) Design Marketplaces
Big opportunity ahead for those who will make it easy and efficient to find, select and organize the best web design templates available out there in a fast, easy and effective fashion.

Full article: http://www.masternewmedia.org/future-webpublishing-trends-beyond-2014-part2/

Reading time: 19'

See Part I here: http://www.masternewmedia.org/future-webpublishing-trends-beyond-2014/

Peek is a new online service which allows you to get a real human to visit your site and to record a custom video in which your site is explored with the eyes of a first time visitor and with the recording of his own voice recounting his first time impressions.

The result is invaluable for any serious web publisher wanting to improve the organization, usability and design of its web site.

To use Peek you only need to type the URL of your preferred web site, and then wait for an email that will provide you a link with the video.

Your response time may vary, but in my case I got the video in less than hour. The clip is 6'+ minutes long and provided me immediately with lots of useful insight about what I could improve right away. 

Free to try and for three verifications every month.

Extremely useful. I'd say invaluable. Every web publisher should try it once. 

Try it out now: http://peek.usertesting.com/ 

If you are looking for a simple and inexpensive way to publish a database of information on the web, check out Knack. 

Knack is a web-based app that provides you with all the features you need to create a web-publishable database, without needing to be a programmer.

Not only. Knack actually allows you to build very simple "apps" on top of the data or structure you have created, so that you can create a public member directory that users themselves can update or a multi-step application form or a directory of tools and services in a specific industry.

All the info you publish with Knack remains under your full ownership, though the data and structure, even when published through your site, will remain on Knack servers.

Prices start at $25/mo for a 10,000 records database.

Free try out available.

Pricing: https://www.knackhq.com/pricing/ 

Features: https://www.knackhq.com/features/ 

Database / app examples: https://www.knackhq.com/online-database-examples/ 

Find out more: https://www.knackhq.com/ 

Lucidpress is a web app which allows you to design, layout, format and publish most any type of document or publication without needing to buy an expensive software program.

The key advantage of Lucidpress is that it offers one editing environment to prepare both print and digital publications for the web or mobile devices.

Final work can be exported to high quality PDF files, or to JPG, PNG or PDF files for individual pages. 

Lucidpress integrates with Google Drive and it allows to easily import texts, images as well as video clips from YouTube. 

My comment: There is certainly a need for an easy-to-use web-based design environment for pubs of all kinds which Lucidpress attempts to intercepts. The design app is quite powerful and well designed but unless you are a designer you are going to be disappointed with the results. Available templates are few and very old-fashioned. This is probably the area where Lucidpress has the maximum opportunity for improvement. Integrating quality design into the service and non-design customers will do the rest. 

Free to use.

Try it out now: https://www.lucidpress.com 

Tutorials: http://support.lucidpress.com/categories/20121236-Tutorials 

Simplebooklet is a free web-based app which allows you to convert your existing PDFs into a flippable browser-based format, or to create brand new ones from scratch by leveraging a nice set of professional ready-made templates.

Simplebooklet makes it easy to integrate text, images, video clips, audio tracks, geometric shapes, clipart and a number of call-to-action modules for selling, subscribing, and other lead generation actions.

The final publication looks like a web magazine with flippable pages and with useful buttons to see all pages thumbnails, to share on social media or to download bonus files.

Your finalized multimedia booklet can be published on Simplebooklet, shared on social media and embedded on any site.

A PRO version costing $36/year allows for creating up to 50 booklets, for uploading PDFs as large as 100MB and for integrating downloadable files as well as call-to-action modules such as email me, buy this or subscription forms.

My comment: Quite useful to convert PDFs into flipboard style web-magazines which are and will increasingly be the new of reading on the web. Excellent integrated-design features make it possible also to create flippable multimedia booklets from scratch that will have a professional-look no matter your level of design expertise. Worth trying. Still in beta and buggy.

Try it out now: https://simplebooklet.com/ 

Templates examples: https://dl-web.dropbox.com/spa/782adzfe036gp2y/4url7xiw.png 

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/spa/782adzfe036gp2y/tse7xajp.png 

Scroll Kit is a web-based and mobile publishing editor, that can work in tandem with WordPress, and which allows you to work freely on the page by positioning and styling your content in any way you want.

With Scroll Kit you can edit text in-line on the actual page, and move the text in any location you want. Alignment of different text blocks or other objects is made easy by an invisible grid that shows up only when you drag an object around.

It is also possible to style text, change fonts, add images and graphic shapes, as well as embed "iframes", YouTube videos and Twitter content.

A useful feature alllows you to preview how your content will look on mobile devices too.

My comment: Scroll Kit is a good example of a new breed of web publishing editors, which further simplify the editor's job while providing maximum flexibility.

Scroll Kit is a fantastic web design and publishing tool for web designers capable of leveraging its notable power. For those who have no design skills this may not be a great solution as having all this freedom is good only when you know exactly what to do. (Some pro-looking templates may help in this direction - a few are already available, more will hopefully come later)

Here the Scroll Kit Manifesto:

"The web is the most advanced publishing system we've ever had but
the process in which most people publish
is backwards next to print.

On the web, your design is set
before you figure out what you want to say.

This is true for the publishing they do at nytimes.com with their article template and it is true for the publishing you do when you type "happpppy birthday. I luv you" on the facebook page of a good friend. In print, every fiber of the page is yours to define, and on the web, the page belongs to Mark Zuckerberg or whoever coded your template.

You express yourself on the web by filling out text forms.

Another way is possible."

Free to use.

Find out more: https://www.scrollkit.com/

Try it out now: https://www.scrollkit.com/s/glmduha/try

WordPress ready: http://vip.wordpress.com/plugins/scrollkit-wp/

nFiles is a new free web service which allows you to easily upload, store and optionally share/publish online any content or file instantly without needing to register, setup or login into any service. 

To use it you simply send an email to i@nfiles.es and you get an instant email reply with personal URLs for accessing your newly created cloud storage and sharing/publishing space. 

The space is organized in three sections: a general folder containing all the files you have uploaded, an email page where all of the emails and their contents are stored, and an image page where all of the images you have sent in are archived. 

nFiles acts also as a full screen image viewer as well as universal reader for documents of any type.

nFiles can turn also into an instant bare-bones web publishing system as this page can attest: https://nfil.es/w/3IhS2s/ - its contents are nothing more than the contents of an email sent to nFiles and publicly shared.

Storage space is unlimited. But max upload file size is 15MB.

Excellent tool for posting online images or documents rapidly and with the minimum friction. Ideal for journalists and citizen reporters in crisis situations as well as for many other reporting, sharing and educational uses. 

Free to use. No ads.

Try it out now: https://nfil.es/ 

Visual guide: https://nfil.es/w/3IhS2s/ 

Key features: https://nfil.es/#more 

If you are looking for ways to embed a Pinterest board on your site or blog, here's all that you need to know.

Good instructions. Illustrated. 8/10

Full article: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-embed-pinterest-boards-on-your-website-quick-tip 

(Reading time: 4' mins.)

If you need a handy reference for your web publishing needs I have spent a few days pulling together the best tools I use and know-of that I would recommend to use, in an organized and curated link directory of over 70 different categories.

From "landing page builders" to "survey tools" and "domain name finders" I have you covered. 

In general, I have limited the amount of tools and services listed per category to the top 5 I know as to serve also as a curated filter for the vast number of choices available out there.

This is definitely a work in progress as you need to continuously edit, refine and improve a directory like this to make it really useful. You are welcome to suggest tools and services that I have not included and I'll make sure that if they are valid ones they get their space too.

Free to access.

Full directory: https://web-publishing.zeef.com/ 

If you are a web publisher looking for an easy way to license some of your content under Creative Commons, here is a simple tool that can save you lots of time.

Go to http://creativecommons.org/choose/ and just select your preferences for the type of license you want and this Creative Commons tool automatically generates a logo and also some code that you can copy and paste into your selected web pages.

If you have an ebook or PDF I suggest you take a screenshot of the image and you include it with a link to the type of license you have selected. As a matter of fact this tool also provides the ability to generate a simple image that you can simply save by right-clicking on it. It remains your duty to link that image to the specific license type you have selected to make this truly effective.

For clarifying first your doubts about which type of license to use, I suggest that you give look at these two excellent infographics which illustrate quite well the different options and license types you have available.

a) http://visual.ly/what-creative-commons 

b) http://www.tagseoblog.com/what-means-creative-commons-infographic 

Finally, if you are interested in placing your work in the "public domain" without any type of license restriction you can do so here: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/ 

More info on CC license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ 

Considerations before licensing: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Before_Licensing 

FeedGrabbr is a web app which allows you to create professional-looking custom RSS news widgets by mixing multiple RSS feeds. 

FeedGrabbr makes it also very easy to customize the look and feel by selecting one of the alternative templates and configuring the different options available. Final widget can be easily embedded on any website or blog.

In the PRO version ($4.95/mo) you can filter the incoming feeds by keyword, eliminate the FeedGrabbr logo. 

My comment: Useful for those in need of showcasing specific custom thematic news feeds to complete their content offering. Easy to use. Professional look and highly customizable.

Pricing info: https://feedgrabbr.com/pricing/  

More info: https://feedgrabbr.com/  

ImpactFlo is a web app which allows any organization, individual or company to showcase the "on-the-ground" impact of its projects and initiatives, by providing a simple database where to collect key information and a public web-based set of info-pages and impact maps where to illustrate visually the work done and the actual results to the public.

ImpactFlo makes it easy for those visiting such a hub to search through all of the projects realized by type, geographic location or by project needs and to engage with these projects by allowing visitors to easily share this content on social media.

Impact maps can be personalized with an organization logo, can be used to collect direct donations, and to organize projects separating the completed ones, by those upcoming or in progress.

Indispensable for NGOs of all kinds.

Find out more: http://impactflo.com/

Marquee.by is a web-based publishig platform designed for people who love to write and who like technology to intrude the least possible in their work.

Marquee.by has a clean, extremely simple and intuitive interface which allows you not to get distracted by many buttons and commands. Once you start editing a story you only have to worry about writing and deciding where you want to add images or links to other sites or stories.It takes in fact just the copy and paste of any link to embed any video or web site into your story.

It's as simple as that.

From the official site: "Marquee is a flexible publishing platform that helps you craft great content for your audience. It operates as a fully hosted service, or can integrate into your existing workflow."

You can get a personalized URL like RobinGood.marquee.by or you can publish directly under your domain name, and your final work can be seen perfectly across different types of computers and mobile devices.

Marquee.by is free for everyone for 60-days after your registration and then is $8/month. (no credit card required to sign-up)

Find out more: http://marquee.by/

Example site: http://heartbreakhell.marquee.by/