I think you are correct. Joomla is not as comfortable as Wordpress. I've bought the Joomla tutorials but haven't gotten to them yet.

I anticipate taking some time off work (4-6 weeks)and hope to learn some of this stuff.

I have a licensed copy of Fantasos and the JVM1 reseller license. I am still trying to set it up and figure it out.  Last time it gave me a wierd error message. I think my web host service has something that needs to be tweaked. I may have to get a web/script guy like you have to help you.

FH> "large multi-user membership content sites with it or even just “normal” sales page type sites with just a simple sales page, OTO, thank you and download pages."

John Delavera is releasing an all-in-one script to help the beginner do just that come May 2008.

I use Aweber in conjunction with the MaxBlogPress unblockable popup.  That Wordpress plugin allows you to specify how often the popup appears to your visitors, and I set it to 10 days so as not to annoy people too often.

If there were some way of turning it off altogether once someone has subscribed, I'd do it.  I may change it to something like 20 days for a while as I think that's probably more reasonable.  In fact, yeah, I'll do that now.

-Frank.

I played with Joomla for a while, but it just didn't seem as comfortable to me as Wordpress.  There are other people who swear by it.

I also bought CMSI when it came out, now Memberspeed I think, and again it didn't feel quite right or intuitive like Wordpress does.

I'm not saying my CMS when it's released will be any better than Joomla or Memberspeed, but I like to think it will have already built in all the key functions that a marketer might need to build a site with.

What I mean is, Joomla is free, but costs quite a bit in add-ons to get it to the point where it's useful for a marketer.  Memberspeed is something like $3,000 now.

My CMS will be reasonably priced and have what most marketers need from a Content Management System.

I actually have a resellers licence for JVM1 and at some point in the next couple of weeks I have to put in some time to get to grips with how it works.  So far I've found the documentation to be confusing with little explanation of why you're supposed to do certain things, only how to do them.

You wouldn't know how it works by any chance?  Or even be willing to put in a little time setting up a couple of sites for me?  That would help in my understanding if I could see my own sites working under JVM1.  I could probably piece it all together then.

In return I'd pretty much give you everything I release this year, and get Paul (the developer of the CMS) to give you a copy or set up a site for you.

At the moment, it's in use on several sites, but Paul has had to install it and configure it on each one, and it's just a basic framework right now.  Paul will be adding in all my required marketing functionality over the summer.

My intention is you can just eventually bang out large multi-user membership content sites with it or even just "normal" sales page type sites with just a simple sales page, OTO, thank you and download pages.

Right now it's not easy to install either, which is something Paul has to complete before we can launch it.  That's why Paul has to do all the installs - I believe he takes a site design and then customises the CMS around the design.

Anyway…  There's the offer.

Do you know how to use JVM1 to the point where you could do a couple of installs for me?

-Frank.

There is another steep learning curve right there. The right kind of template (theme, skin, whatever Joomla calls it) could really help.

About the timing of the sales. Fantasos (or JVM) has a function where you can put up only x number of copies of a product at a set price. You could do the 1st 20 copies at $5, the next 20 copies at $6.

Yeah Wordpress is pretty good really.  It's just missing a few functions that could turn it into a real CMS.

Hmm, maybe I could get someone to code them up for me.  Then again maybe I shouldn't, as one of the products I'll be launching this year is a fully featured CMS.

I haven't polled my subscribers about the best time, but I get least complaints when I do it at that time.

Two hours earlier, complaints.  Two hours later, complaints.

I can't win really can I? 

-Frank.

This blog function is quite useful!

"launch … 3.00pm GMT (10.00am EST) as that seems to suit most people."

Really? Have you polled your audience? I am at work then and would prefer either 2 hours earlier or 10-12 hours earlier.