Using Business Catalyst for Newsletters - Several Questions

Hello everyone - I hope the format of this forum question is okay.  I have designed our company website with Muse and we host it with Business Catalyst (webBasics+).  We like it a lot and are looking to possibly upgrade it to the next package (webMarketing) simply because of the potential for newsletters (as well as all of the other benefits like blogging and the helpful modules).
My company currently uses Constant Contact for our quarterly newsletters and holiday emails and we send to about 2800 people.  It seems obvious to me that we should ditch Constant Contact as we pay more than $50.00/month and I think it is very limiting as far as being creative goes.  It just makes sense that I should use Bc because I already use it...and the 5,000 newsletters is only $6.00 more.
My questions are:
Are there a lot of templates to choose from?  100's? 1,000's?
Is it easy to create my own template?  Do I need Dreamweaver (Only have Creative Suite and Muse)?
Is it easy to transfer an email list I have? We have software called ACT and I am a little unsure how this works but I assume there is a certain file type we can export and just upload into Bc.
Are there options to have links to social media (facebook, twitter, etc.) in the newsletters?
Are the newsletters limited in size?  I think Constant Contact limited the width of an email to 600 pixels - occasionally we had text in a graphic we made in Photoshop - so things go a little fuzzy.
Add-on question from #5 Are there ways to layer graphics on top of one another in the newsletters aside from flattening it in Photoshop?  This was the most limiting factor in Constant Contact.
I appreciate any help with answering these questions. Again, I think it is pretty obvious and maybe you have some things to tell me that I am completely clueless about.  I basically have to make the pitch to the powers that be and I want to make sure I have a lot of the ends covered.
Thanks!

Hope this helps.
1) When using Adobe BC I can use dreamweaver cs6 as well, correct? Yes. BC works in DW CS6
2) If i download Adobe BC on my computer to build the website can I also use it on another computer to keep the products updated? I read that it's online so i'm assuming this can be done for no extra cost but i want to make sure. Yes you can have SFTP access from any computer.
3) Can you host your website using godaddy or other hosts while using business catalyst? NO, BC is a hosted solution. You can although host email services third-party (i.e. Gmail).
4) Lastly, if you were to make an ecommerce website for a CLIENT how would you do it? WOuld you use business catalyst or other software such as, authorize.net and a shopping cart? BC includes a full-featured shopping cart (http://www.businesscatalyst.com/features/online-store), so you would manage products in the backend. A payment gateway like Authorize.net or Paypal will be needed (http://www.businesscatalyst.com/features/payment-gateways).

Similar Messages

  • I have stopped using business catalyst for hosting

    I paid upfront for 2 years, how do I go about getting my money refunded, I have already switched over and I can no longer sign into my business catalyst account, thank you

    I tried to have a look at a page already loaded, Safari tried to refresh it and then gave an error message. So the page that was already loaded was gone. So stupid.
    As has already been mentioned, this is caused by the limited amount of RAM the iPad has (256mb)
    If you have lots of tabs open in Safari (and perhaps some other Apps frozen in memory), they all use up some RAM.
    If you open yet another tab in Safari it needs some RAM to load that page into, so if there isn't enough free RAM, it will clear the contents of the least recently viewed tab, meaning when you next switch back to it, it will need to be reloaded into memory.
    iOS 4.2 has improved memory management and the amount of system memory available to apps is increased and the amount they use is decreased. So you should see some improvements in iOS 4.2.
    You can also help things yourself by not having lots of Apps open and lots of tabs open in Safari.

  • Is there a known issue for using IE11 when using business catalyst cms

    Is there a known issue for using IE11 when using business catalyst cms?  I have a client trying to update pages on her site using IE11 and the it says it updates successfully, but the new content is not saved.

    I concur with Barry; I see no significant difference in using the Home button vs. the gestures. But the "fade" effect is part of iOS 7.1 and there's no way to disable it that I know of.
    Regards.

  • Creating database for MUSE website using Business Catalyst.

    We are building a membership site using Adobe MUSE. We are also using Business Catalyst to build the CRM customer database. We are using this as an alternative to MySQL since there is no direct connection between MySQL and MUSE. The only work around we know is to export the MUSE website to HTML. Import that HTML into Adobe DREAMWEAVER and the build the connections that way. This is time consuming and prone to errors as this does not create  a  flow in both system and data manipulation design.
    We would like so home in creating, maintaining and performing searching on the database we create in Business Catalyst.

    Hi there,
    As I mentioned, when a form is filled (Email is always required) then this the contact is added to the CRM.
    You can not render the CRM on the front end as I think you will want. You would have to look to form web apps and display things that way.
    Please note that Muse is a designer tool and has limited scope in terms of its functionality compared to building a full rich website, So you will reach certain walls with what your doing.

  • Updated to Adobe Muse 2014 this morning and have worked in it for the last 8 hours. Now when I try to publish the updated site to Business Catalyst for my client to preview it crashes everytime. I have tried just publishing altered files only, then tried

    Updated to Adobe Muse 2014 this morning and have worked in it for the last 8 hours. Now when I try to publish the updated site to Business Catalyst for my client to preview it crashes everytime. I have tried just publishing altered files only, then tried the whole site again, and then tried publishing as a new site altogether. Thought I would then try to export as HTML in the hope of uploading the files via an FTP client and Muse crashes and locks up again. I am extremely stressed about this as I am in the last few days of of website I have been working on now with no issues since December. We are due to go live and my client needs to see it. I am desperate for an answer. It is not looking good. I am on an Apple Mac and have not had any isses publishing it for the last 6 months. Not very happy to say the least. Need desperate help.

    Hi Zak, I got onto Adobe Customer Care Live Chat this morning and gave them the error message. After some trouble shooting with them it appears the older archived file of the site still publishes. I have now reverted back to the old file and copied and pasted out of the new file and from some ideas given to me by support I am now able to publish to Business Catalyst. It seems there was something corrupt within the new pages added yesterday. I have no idea if this would have still happened if I hadn't updated but I am glad it wasn't a Muse specific problem. I am loving using Muse and the support from Adobe has been excellent. Thanks everyone. By the way I do love the new version and apart from this hick up that lost me a few hours, aged me some more and gave me grey hair I really love Muse. Thanks again.

  • Business Catalyst for Creative Cloud subscribers

    If you have a Creative Cloud subscription and want to learn more about Business Catalyst, read on. 
    What is Business Catalyst?
    Business Catalyst is a web hosting platform that lets web designers  host, build, and sell websites to clients. A Creative Cloud membership includes free hosting on Business Catalyst for five sites. You must  install and use Muse or Dreamweaver CS6 to publish your free sites.
    Where does Muse and Dreamweaver CS6 fit in?
    You use Muse or Dreamweaver to create and update websites. You use Business Catalyst to host them.
    For more info and tutorials on using Muse or Dreamweaver with Business Catalyst, see the following articles:
    Business Catalyst for Muse users
    Business Catalyst for Dreamweaver CS6 users
    Charles

    Great share Charles!
    I would also include our FAQs.
    Creative Cloud and existing Business Catalyst partners
    New Creative Cloud users and Business Catalyst
    Cheers!
    -Sidney

  • Do I need to use Business Catalyst to use the built-in forms?

    I use FTP voyager to host my website. I have a contact form on my website, when I fill out the form this dialog box appears: "This standard HTML form is configured to work with Adobe Business Catalyst". Once I click OK I then get the message the from has been sent and recieved, I check my email and I have not recieved an email.
    Can somebody please tell me if there is something I need to do to overcome this issue, or do forms not work unless you are using Buinsess Catalyst?

    I'm sorry. At this time, contact forms only work using Business Catalyst. Please see this forum thread for more info:
    http://forums.adobe.com/message/4608066#4608066#4608066#4608066
    Hope this help,
    Julia

  • Using Business Catalyst to publish my Muse Web design

    I have a creative cloud membership to create a website in Muse.  Is there an additional charge for BC to publish my site?

    Hi
    With creative cloud subscription , you get 5 free sites to publish in BC. The free sites would be web hosting sites.
    For using those free counts you don't have to pay anything extra. Create the site in Muse and publish to BC.
    More details :
    http://helpx.adobe.com/business-catalyst/using/business-catalyst-muse-users.html
    Thanks,
    Sanjit

  • I'm a normal user, using cad programme, not using my laptop for games, my question is: do I need to get 16 gb ram in my retina macbook pro or 8  gb ram is pretty enough?

    I'm a normal user, using cad programme, not using my laptop for games, my question is: do I need to get 16 gb ram in my retina macbook pro or 8  gb ram is pretty enough?
    Thanks for support.

    8 GB may be sufficient for CAD but 16 would be a much better idea.
    All the Macs I have ever owned were eventually upgraded to the maximum amount of memory they could use. Considering that as of now, the RAM you specify is all the RAM you will ever have, get as much as you can. That is the only way to maximize its economic life.
    If Apple offered a 32 GB version I'd get it.

  • Using Business area for External Reporting-Pros & Cons?

    Dear Freinds,
    We are a Retail Business Group half way through SAP IS Retail implementation. We have 8 legal entities, currently their complete Annual Financials are being made & audited separately. In SAP the structure is that there is Single Co. Code & transactions will be seggregated by Business Area (made manadatory for data entry) and Annual Accounts will be drawn up using Business Area.
    This to me does not seem to be the right structure. I have joined the group recently, I will be much thankful to you all if you please help me list the Pros & Cons of using Business Area for external reporting.
    Rajesh Agarwal
    [email protected]
    Edited by: Rajesh Agarwal on Jan 27, 2008 6:54 PM

    Dan: <i>For management reporting you may not want to post eliminations between companies where the business areas are the same.</i>
    If the Business wants to see the eliminations between companies, within the same business area, as part of BEx reports, what should I do? They do not want to execute consolidation functions in UCMON but just want to see how the eliminations have taken place between companies with in the same business area. 
    Dan: <i>As long as the partner company and partner business area are consistently included for the intercompany transactions, the eliminations between Legal and Management will agree at the top-level of each hierarchy.</i>
    Have I to introduce one more InfoObject Partner Business Area in the data basis and assign the role Sub-assignment once again?
    Thanks in advance.

  • Learning curve for a non techie-Business Catalyst. Two specific questions.

    Hello everyone,
    Thanks for reading. I am a non techie who is looking at website development as a secondary skill.ie. having the know how to atleast relay my ideas to web developers and ideally to be able to tweak and in the end able to create my own websites.
    In this regard, I feel Business Catalyst is an excellent tool, for people like me which mitiagtes the knowledge of coding to an certain extent. I am currently going through some of the content listed in the forums. Is there a book that provides end to end detailed steps of all the implementation to complete a fully functioning website and how much is the learning curve in this regard?
    Also,
    Business Catalyst offers all in one features, is it possible to use 3rd party in place of default tools for specific function, say use wordpress for blog and a different email marketing service?
    Have a good one.
    Thanks
    Satish

    I personally would tend to prefer wordpress for a small non-commercial website/blog. Its ecosystem of plugins is far more diverse than BCs and you get direct access to the code if you want. BC's blog and forum modules seem somewhat like afterthoughts designed by marketers for marketing, and there's some unevenness to the way they implement what HTML and templates you have access to and what you don't in different context, so to a degree wordpress gives you more fine-grain control over a site.
    The transverse of this is that with open source software you don't necessarily have the quality control or guarantee of long-term maintenance that you might with BC. Business Catalyst is far more initially optimized for business (obviously) and its servers can likely experience a higher load and greater uptime than you might get on a typical hosting service with wordpress.
    Wordpress is kind of notorious for being hackable, mostly because of its ubiquity, although if you work on it it can be secured to a reasonable degree I think -- I'm not aware of any security issues regarding Business Catalyst, apart from recent issues with the captcha and spam which might have been resolved with Akismet and Recaptcha (both of which you can also get on Wordpress obviously) but personally I don't like having all of my accounts linked with a single Adobe username/password.
    But then again, I have to trust that Adobe has their **** together and there isn't some festering zero-day sitting at the heart of all of it because the price you pay for playing in BC's sandbox is just that -- it's their sandbox. They're not releasing the code. If you can't change it with an existing module setting or can't hack around with with javascript then complaining until they fix it's your only option.
    In short, I think it depends on your needs. Neither is entirely the wrong answer, and both have their issues. I've been just as frustrated with some of the rendering bugs and limitations in BC as I have with the way Wordpress (IMHO) overdoes abstraction while simultaneously sticking with its horrendous code-and-content mixing template style. If you have inventory and need to push stock and don't really care about mucking around with server-side code or anything really complex than BC will probably work for you, and of course there are always sites like bcgurus and these forums to help out with edge cases.

  • Business Catalyst for Teacher/Student

    Is the Business Catalyst software and Story Plus software included in the Student/Teacher edition of Creative Cloud?  The "download" buttons are not on the apps screen.

    If you go to the Forums Index http://forums.adobe.com/index.jspa
    You will be able to select a forum for the Adobe product you use
    This forum is not to discuss products
    There is a forum for Creative Cloud

  • Dreamweaver error when using Business Catalyst module tags in template

    Hi all,
    this is a recent and very distruptive error I have come accross in Dreamweaver CC.
    When editing a document attached to a Business Catalyst template in Dreamweaver,
    I was getting an error message (attached) saying:
    "You have made changes to the code that is not marked as editable. If you retain those changes, they will be lost the next time you apply a template update to this file. Do you want to retain the changes until then?"
    This happened every time I added a new html tag to the page, p div etc... which made DW unusable for editing files.
    Having not got any useful help from BC support, they told me to contact Dreamweaver support!
    In the end, I found through troubleshooting that it was the content holder module tags from Business Catalyst that were causing the problem,
    I had recently converted my Header, Footer, Scripts etc to Content Holders in the site admin,
    and when I removed these tags from my template and replaced them with the original html the problem disappeared.
    The problem was happening on both my macs so the problem looked real to me,
    but from searching online I couldn’t find people with similar issues, which made me think I must be doing something wrong.
    As an aside,
    I find the workflow between Dreamweaver CC and Business Catalyst, particularly in relation to DW templates very confusing.
    I couldn’t find any up-to-date best practice guides for using DW in the Business Catalyst workflow that discusses the real issues I get every day:
    - Best practice DW template editable region for {tag_pagecontent}
    - BC pages updated from DW lose their page titles {tag_pagetitle} in BC admin (always causes problems for me)
    If anyone is having these issues and found a way to get around them I’d be very interested,
    I hope that this post will help some people who run into the same problem.
    thanks, Kieran Mahon.

    I found what may be at least a temporary solution to this problem. The error seems to something to do with the template file not having been updated, so whenever DW reads the file it looks like the template code has been changed (which of course it hasn't). It may be to do with the way BC treats the template code on the server side, as it seemed to start happening after I had downloaded some files from the server.
    I opened the affected page and clicked Modify->Templates->Update Current Page and so far no error messages. Just one gotcha though. If you have any BC tags or Liquid code in your templates, DW converts it all to some kind of gobbledegook, so before you update the Template, copy all of your editable code and then paste it back in once the update has been done.

  • How may I use business catalyst with a reel name of domain ?  ..

    I don't want to have mydomain.businesscatalyst.com  but mydomain.com  but I want to use the business catalyst solution because my clients will have to admin their site
    I think it's not possible if I put that site on another server
    thank you for your answer
    JC

    The instructions to do that are here:
    Business Catalyst Help | Change the domain name of your site

  • Web hosting using business catalyst

    its prob a stupid  question ..but if make a website with business catalyst and for some reason I don't renew my cc subsciption where does that leave me with editing and updating the site..
    thanks

    BC site subscription depends on your CC subscription, If CC subscription is not renewed then web hosting site will not be renewed thus will convert to a trial site.
    Same with Muse subscription , you can still edit and update your site with trial version, but please note that trial version has a limited time of 30 days.
    Thanks,
    Sanjit

Maybe you are looking for