DevNet Author Profile

Thanks and taking on new opportunities

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 29 May 2014 07:10:51 GMT

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost five years ago that I left Microsoft to join Kentico. Being part of the tremendous Kentico growth over the last several years has been an incredible journey. The community and partner ecosystem has been an important part of this journey. Also, the many fantastic people I have had a chance to meet and work with at Kentico. Unfortunately, I have made the tough decision to leave Kentico to accept another opportunity.

Get the May edition of the Kentico 8 hands on labs!

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 14 May 2014 04:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that provided feedback and ideas. I am happy to announce the second release of the Kentico 8 hands on labs manual. With over thirty labs and over 180 pages. It’s packed with lots of Kentico Version 8 hands on examples and information.
If you have any lab ideas or requests please email me.

Getting Started with MVC 5 and Visual Studio 2013

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 13 May 2014 04:00:00 GMT

Many thanks to the folks at ComponentOne for their willingness to record my session at the recent South Florida Code Camp! It was a great session and a packed room!

Wrap up: Ask the experts – A Kentico Virtual Panel #6

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 08 May 2014 04:00:00 GMT

I hope everyone enjoyed the session! As always our experts were fantastic and it looks like they enjoyed themselves. Thanks to everyone on Twitter who asked some great questions. Stay tuned for our next ask the experts!

Bryan Soltis – Ask the experts #6

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 01 May 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Are you ready for the upcoming Kentico Ask the Experts #6? We catch up with Brian Soltis, Kentico MVP, to hear what he has been up to. More information about Ask the Experts #6 is available here.

Brian McKeiver - Ask the Experts #6

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 04:00:00 GMT

Are you ready for the upcoming Kentico Ask the Experts #6? We catch up with Brian McKeiver, Kentico MVP, to hear what he has been up to. For more information about ask the Experts #6 take a look at - http://devnet.kentico.com/articles/announcing-ask-the-experts-6-a-kentico-virtual-panel

Jeroen Furst -- Ask the Experts #6

Thomas Robbins — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 16:27:34 GMT

Are you ready for the upcoming Kentico Ask the Experts #6! We catch up with Jeroen Furst, Kentico MVP to hear what he has been up to. For more information about ask the Experts #6 take a look at - http://devnet.kentico.com/articles/announcing-ask-the-experts-6-a-kentico-virtual-panel

Kentico Rocks #7: Kentico 8 in the trenches

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 04:00:00 GMT

In this podcast join Brian McKeiver and Bryan Soltis, Kentico MVPs as talk about their first impressions and favorite features of the just released Kentico 8.
Subscribe on ITunes

Kentico Connection 2014 Sydney – Call for content open

Thomas Robbins — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 11:00:00 GMT

Kentico Connection 2014 is coming! Whether you are a rock star developer, marketer or have an amazing case study we’d love to hear from you. I am happy to announce opening of the Kentico Connection Sydney call for content!

How to Series: Forms with Kentico 8

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 04:00:00 GMT

Online forms are one of the best ways to interact and collect information from customers. With Kentico 8 the building of forms is done using a visual designer and then published to your site. In this video we look at how you can build and deploy online forms.

Webinar wrap up: Using MVC with Kentico 8

Thomas Robbins — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 10:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended!

The ASP.NET MVC Framework provides a powerful Model View Controller (MVC) approach to building web applications and provides separation of concerns, control over HTML output, intuitive URLs, and increased testability. We will start by looking at the -what and why of ASP.NET MVC. Then we will explore the various pieces of ASP.NET MVC including routes, controllers, actions, and views. If you are looking to get started with MVC then don't miss this session.

You can find the slides here

Webinar Wrap Up: Simplify integration with Connect and Conquer

Thomas Robbins — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 04:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended!

This webinar will provide a demo of the integration possibilities which are achievable between Kentico EMS and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Valuable customer website behavior data can be gleaned and made available in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. You will see how Connect and Conquer can be configured in a fast and easy way to achieve this.

Feature Series: A/B Testing with Kentico 8

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 04:00:00 GMT

With Kentico A/B testing is a technique of online marketers to optimize pages of a website according to the reaction of visitors. This is done by creating a modified version of the page and running a test. The system then divides traffic between individual page versions and tracks how the changes affect the user experience and activity of visitors. When a visitor navigates to a page that has a running A/B test defined, one of the page variants configured for the given test will be displayed to them. In this video we look at how to create an A/B test with Kentico 8.

Webinar Wrap up: Here Comes Kentico 8

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 10:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended!

Kentico 8 is here! It includes an amazing list of technical enhancements. Attend this webinar to join Kentico’s CTO, Martin Hejtmanek explore these new Kentico Version 8 enhancements. In this interactive session Martin will show some of his personal favorites and why he thinks they are important for Kentico developers.

Slides available here

Feature series: Shopping Cart with Kentico 8

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 04:00:00 GMT

The shopping cart is one of the most important parts of your e-commerce site. It helps to organize the information for a successful transaction and ensures that things run orderly and smoothly. The shopping cart as a mediator between the payment processor and websites. A shopping cart that is easy to navigate and flexible enough to offer personalized experiences makes online shopping a pleasant experience for customers. In this video we look at the how to use the shopping cart with the E-commerce sample site in Kentico 8.

How To Series: Adding products with Kentico 8

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 04:00:00 GMT

Products are the most important objects in your on-line store. They feature the actual products and services that you offer and sell to customers. Your customers can purchase products separately or with options, which may include product accessories and attributes. In Kentico, products exist as product objects associated with product type documents. This means that if you want to present a product on your website, you need to display a product type document with a product object assigned to this document. In this video we look at how you can add products with Kentico 8.

Announcing: Ask the Experts #6 – A Kentico Virtual Panel

Thomas Robbins — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 22:00:00 GMT

Join us for our sixth- Ask the Experts – A Kentico CMS Virtual Panel
Date: May 6, 2014
Time: 7 AM PST/10 AM EST/3 PM BST
Location: Everywhere! Google hangouts and Twitter

Check out the event page for more information!

Webinar wrap up: The Online Marketing Solution with Kentico 8

Thomas Robbins — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 10:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended!

Welcome Kentico 8 and the updated Online Marketing Solution designed to optimizes the digital customer journey by easily delivering actionable data that helps strengthen marketing campaigns, build customer loyalty, and generate higher conversion rates. Join this interactive webinar to learn how the integrated marketing solution provides easy-to-use tools for tracking and optimizing customer journey from discovery to purchase intent to conversion.

How to Series: Editing content with Kentico 8

Thomas Robbins — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 04:00:00 GMT

Editing page content is one of the most important aspects of maintaining a site. In this tutorial we look at several ways this can be done with Kentico 8. First, we look at Live Site editing that allows page editors to make changes directly on public facing pages. Then we look at editing content through the Administration interface.

Webinar Wrap up: The E-commerce Solution with Kentico 8

Thomas Robbins — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 10:00:00 GMT

Welcome Kentico 8 and the updated E-Commerce Solution designed to quickly build a consumer-centric online store or donation center that’s easy to navigate and support. Join this interactive webinar to learn how you can win and retain new B2B customers, B2C consumers and non-profit donors, using fully-integrated marketing tools to manage the prospective customer journey and increase customer loyalty.

How to Series: Installing E-commerce Sample Site

Thomas Robbins — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 04:00:00 GMT

The E-commerce sample site of Kentico 8 contains an amazing amount of features. You aren’t able to access any of these great features unless you get it installed! In this video we look at at how you can install it on your local machine.

Webinar Wrap up: Say hello to Kentico Version 8! Your integrated marketing solution has arrived

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 10:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended
Kentico 8 is your comprehensive pain-free solution that works across multiple channels to provide customer behavior insights, nurture sales leads and strengthen engagement between your B2B and B2C customers. Kentico’s integrated marketing solution optimizes the digital customer journey by easily delivering actionable data that helps strengthen marketing campaigns, build customer loyalty, and generate higher conversion rates. Join Oldrich Januska, Director of Kentico Product Management for this first look at the new Kentico 8.

The Definitive Guide to the Cloud and Kentico

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 04:00:00 GMT

Cloud computing is a broad industry term that describes a wide range of services and components. As with any other major development in technology, many vendors have started to push the term Cloud and Cloud computing. Unfortunately, they may be using it for product and deployment options that sit outside of the generally-accepted definition. In order to understand the value of the Cloud, it’s important to first understand the types of available Cloud services. This allows organizations to choose where, when, and how they use Cloud computing.
In this whitepaper we explain the different types of Cloud Computing services commonly referred to as:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS)

We will illustrate how these services work, and provide some real-world guidance on using Kentico with each flavor of Cloud computing. This whitepaper explores the concept of Cloud computing and provides practical guidance on which flavors of Cloud computing and how Kentico may work best for an organization.

Get the first edition of the Kentico 8 hands on labs!

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 04:00:20 GMT

Thanks to everyone that provided feedback and ideas. I am happy to announce the first release of the Kentico 8 hands on labs manual. With twenty five labs and over 150 pages. It’s packed with lots of Kentico Version 8 hands on examples and information.

if you have any lab ideas or requests please email me.

How To: Kentico 8 Installation

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 04:00:00 GMT

Now that you have downloaded Kentico 8 it’s time to install. In this video we look at the requirements and the installation process for Kentico 8.

Using the Firefox Responsive Design Mode

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 05:00:00 GMT

It may have taken a while to catch on but responsive design is here to stay. If you haven’t run across it - Firefox has added a few tools to make developing responsive sites a little easier. In the Firefox developer tools is a responsive design mode button. When selected this button provides a window within a window. Essentially, this allows the resizing of a displayed website to offer an experience like you would see it on the device viewport. The benefit is that, this is done without having to resize the main Firefox window. In this blog post we will take a look at how this works.

Introducing MVC Controllers with Visual Studio 2013 and ASP.NET MVC 5

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 05:00:00 GMT

In Getting Started with Visual Studio 2013 and ASP.NET MVC 5 we created a new MVC application and took a look at some of the basics. As a quick review it’s important to remember there are three parts to MVC.

Models: Part of the application that handles the application logic and contains classes representing data structure.
Views: Part of the application that handles the generation of HTML responses
Controllers: Part of the application that handles user interaction and incoming browser requests, retrieves model data and specify views

In this blog post we will take a look at Controllers and how they can be used

Getting Started with Visual Studio 2013 and ASP.NET MVC 5

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 05:00:00 GMT

The Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern separates an application into three main components: the model, the view, and the controller. The MVC framework is defined in the System.Web.Mvc namespace and is a part of the System.Web namespace. The MVC pattern helps you create applications that separate the different aspects of the application (input logic, business logic, and UI logic), while providing a loose coupling between these elements. The pattern specifies where each kind of logic should be located in the application. The UI logic belongs in the view. Input logic belongs in the controller. Business logic belongs in the model. This separation helps you manage complexity when you build an application, because it enables you to focus on one aspect of the implementation at a time.

Kentico Rocks #6: Kentico 8 is almost here!

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 05:00:00 GMT

In this podcast join Brian McKeiver and Bryan Soltis, Kentico MVPs as talk about their impressions and favorite features of Kentico 8.
Subscribe on ITunes

Webinar wrap up: One Size does Not Fit All: Selecting the Right Mobile Strategy

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended our session and Jeff for a great session!
The key to a successful mobile strategy is aligning user needs with your business goals and evolving mobile technologies. Once you have alignment, the focus turns to determining the right strategy for your business:

•             Responsive website?
•             Mobile website?
•             Native application?

Kentico Rocks #5: Being a Kentico MVP

Thomas Robbins — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 05:00:00 GMT

In this podcast join Brian McKeiver and Bryan Soltis, Kentico MVPs as talk about what’s it’s like to be a Kentico MVP and their experiences in the Kentico community.
Subscribe on ITunes

Getting started with MVC 5 and Visual Studio 2013

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended the session at the recent South Florida Code camp!
The ASP.NET MVC Framework provides a powerful Model View Controller (MVC) approach to building web applications and provides separation of concerns, control over HTML output, intuitive URLs, and increased testability. We will start by looking at the what and why of ASP.NET MVC. Then we will explore the various pieces of ASP.NET MVC including routes, controllers, actions, and views. If you are looking to get started with MVC then don’t miss this session.

Webinar: Simplify integration with Connect and Conquer

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Join us for a webinar!
Date: March 12, 2014 8AM-9AM PST/11AM-12AM EST/4PM-5PM BST
Register here

Webinar Wrap up: Kentico/Questionmine – Making your videos interactive!

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended the webinar! Thanks to Questionmine for providing such great information.

Attend a Kentico 8 Launch Webinar

Thomas Robbins — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 05:00:00 GMT

It’s almost here! Are you ready for the release of Kentico 8? To help you get ready we have planned a series of fantastic launch webinars. Hope to see you there!

Webinar wrap up: Introduction to Scrum

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended! Most of all thanks to our fantastic guest speaker Bob Hartman.

Kentico Videocast #1: Sauder.com and BizStream

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 05:00:00 GMT

In this first episode we talk with Brian McKeiver, from Bizstream a Kentico gold partner about their work with the Sauder Woodworking Company.

Get the updated February book of Kentico Version 7 hands on labs!

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that provided feedback and ideas. I am happy to announce the February release of the Kentico 7 Hands on labs. Now with over 30 labs and more than 180 pages. It’s packed with a lot of Kentico Version 7 hands on examples and information!

This month includes a new lab on building landing pages and additional formatting based on people’s feedback.

Download the PDF from here

if you have any lab ideas or requests please email me.

Let’s catch up – South Florida Code Camp 2014

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

I hope you will have an opportunity to attend the upcoming South Florida Code Camp on February 22, 2014 at beautiful Nova Southeastern University campus. This is always an excellent event and the speakers (check out the agenda here) are amazing! I hope you will take an opportunity to stop by and attend my session on MVC 5!

Quick Tip: Visual Studio 2013 Line/Region Move

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

One of the new productivity features I ran across in Visual Studio allows the use of the keyboard to move lines and regions in your code. This makes it easier than having to do a copy and paste operation. In this post we will look at how to use this feature.

Wrap up: Ask the experts – A Kentico CMS Virtual Panel #5

Thomas Robbins — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Webinar: One Size does Not Fit All: Selecting the Right Mobile Strategy

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Join us for a webinar!

Date: February 19, 2014
Time: 8am PST/11am EST/4pm BST

Register here

Quick Tip: Visual Studio 2013 Using Navigate To

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

One of the new productivity features in Visual Studio 2013 is called Navigate To. This productivity feature allows you to search for objects, definitions, or references in your solution without having to open the Solution Explorer. Unlike the old Navigate dialog box this new way allows a preview of your code. In this post we will take a look at how to use the Navigate To feature.

Web Designers vs. Web Developers [Infographic]

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

If you don't work in the tech industry, many don't know the difference between web designers and web developers. In fact there are many differences from qualifications, to job duties. In reality the two don’t always have a lot in common. I readily admit this infographic by wix.com has some old data but the top portion makes me laugh every time I see it! Any personal characteristics you think are missing?

Getting Ready for Ask the Experts #5 with Jeroen Furst

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Hanging out with Jeroen Furst, A Kentico MVP from IBL-Software. We talked about what he’s been up to as we get ready for the next ask the experts session!

Looking for more information on Ask the Experts #5 click here

Quick Tip: Visual Studio 2013 Using Map Mode

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

One of the new productivity features in Visual Studio 2013 is an improvement in the scroll bar called map mode. This productivity feature makes it possible to see a map of your code directly in your scroll bar. This makes it easier to see the big picture of the current file and click to access a specific area. Not only will this help to make navigation easier but it simplifies code refactoring by giving easier access to various sections of any code file. In this post will take a quick look at map mode is turned on and used.

Get the updated January book of Kentico CMS Version 7 hands on labs!

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that provided feedback and ideas. I am happy to announce the January release of the Kentico 7 Hands on labs. Now with over 30 labs and more than 150 pages. It’s packed with a lot of Kentico CMS 7 information!

In addition to new labs, I continued to make formatting changes based on people’s feedback.

Download the PDF from here

if you have any lab ideas or requests please email me.

Getting Ready for Ask the Experts #5 with Brian McKeiver

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Hanging out with Brian McKeiver, A Kentico MVP from BizStream. We talked about what he’s been up to as we get ready for the next ask the experts session!

Looking for more information on Ask the Experts #5 click here

Getting Ready for Ask the Expert #5 with Bryan Soltis

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Hanging out with Bryan Soltis a Kentico MVP and the Director of Technology and Research at Bit-wizards. We talked about what he has been up to as we get ready for the next ask the experts session!

Looking for more information on Ask the Experts #5 click here

Webinar: Introduction to Scrum

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Join us for a special webinar!

Webinar: Introduction to Scrum
Date: February 11, 2014
Time: 8:00am PST/9:00am MST/11am EST/4pm BST
Register here

The Secrets of a Killer Blog Post [Infographic]

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 05:00:00 GMT

No matter what industry you blog in, you can guarantee that you have competitors. With an estimated 2 million posted every single day, you want to avoid being considered just noise. This infographic from WhoIsHostingthis.com shows some of the secrets of creating a killer blog post. According to the infographic is all about grabbing the reader’s attention. Anything you think may be missing?

Announcing: Ask the Experts #5 – A Kentico CMS Virtual Panel

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Join us for our fifth- Ask the Experts – A Kentico CMS Virtual Panel
Date: January 22, 2014
Time: 8 AM PST/11 AM EST/4 PM BST
Location: Everywhere! Google hangouts and Twitter
Check out the event page for more information!

Get the updated book of Kentico CMS Version 7 hands on labs!

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that provided feedback and ideas. I am happy to announce the December release of the Kentico CMS 7 Hands on labs. Now with over 30 labs and almost 150 pages it’s packed with a lot of Kentico CMS 7 information!

Webinar: Kentico/Questionmine – Making your videos interactive!

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Join us for a webinar

Date; February 12, 2014
Time: 8am PST/11am EST/4pm BST

Register here

Marketing Automation on CMS Connected!

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 05:00:00 GMT

I always appreciate the opportunity to talk with the folks at CMS Connected! Especially when we talk about marketing automation and happenings around the CMS community.

Agile development – Who’s hiring and who’s hirable [Infographic]

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Yoh and job site CareerBuilder have produced a great infographic that shows if you are a software engineer skilled in agile development, be very, very, very happy. You’re in high demand. According to this infographic agile developers are getting above average salaries and being pursued in startups, development shops, and established enterprises such as Microsoft, IBM, and Northrop Grumman.

Why you need marketing automation

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Marketing automation solutions are designed to support marketing professionals as they create, run and evaluate campaigns. It's important to remember that automation programs are designed to support a company's marketing staff, not replace it. With automation marketing professionals free up time to focus on more productive tasks. Instead of wading through confusing website search data and trying to calculate conversion statistics from social media sites, marketing team members can instead focus on nurturing quality leads. Putting the focus back on actual interaction with potential clients can have major advantages where sales and revenue are concerned. Here are my top 5 reasons why you should consider marketing automation. Anything I may have missed?

Kentico Rocks #3: Upgrade tips and tricks

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 05:00:00 GMT

In this podcast join Brian McKeiver and Bryan Soltis, Kentico MVPs as talk about their experiences with upgrading Kentico CMS and best practices they’ve learned over the years.

Subscribe on ITunes

17 Linkedin Profile Must Haves [Infographic]

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Linkedin is one of the premier locations for managing your professional identify for networking with other potential employers. I’d be surprised if anyone reading this didn’t have an account. However, because it’s an online profile, it tends to get a bit sloppy. Maximize Social Business, created this infographic listing 17 Linkedin profile must haves. It’s the little details like adding a professional photo and using your full, professional name can bring a lot more coverage.

The Definitive Guide to the Cloud and Kentico CMS (updated)

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Cloud computing is a broad industry term that describes a wide range of services and components. As with any other major development in technology, many vendors have started to push the term Cloud and Cloud computing. Unfortunately, they may be using it for product and deployment options that sit outside of the generally-accepted definition. In order to understand the value of the Cloud, it’s important to first understand the types of available Cloud services. This allows organizations to choose where, when, and how they use Cloud computing.

In this whitepaper we explain the different types of Cloud Computing services commonly referred to as:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS)

The Adoption of Cloud Services is Growing in the Enterprise [Infographic]

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Based on a Gartner study it’s clear that the cloud has become mainstream for storing data and managing systems. Enterprises are starting to rely heavily on the use of cloud with over 90% either investigating, implementing or monitoring a cloud service today.

Get the updated book of Kentico CMS Version 7 hands on labs!

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that provided feedback and ideas. I am happy to announce the November release of the Kentico CMS 7 Hands on labs. Now with over 20 labs and 100 pages it’s packed with a lot of Kentico CMS 7 information!

In this edition I made some minor formatting changes and also included a new lab on creating an advanced workflow for auto-posting to your social media accounts.

Get the updated Kentico Connections 2013 Mobile Application

Thomas Robbins — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Are you attending Kentico Connections 2013 or just want to see what’s going on? Well I hope you will take a look at the updated Beta of the Kentico Connections 2013 Mobile app! Based on the attendees feedback this year we went with an HTML 5 mobile application code optimized for the webkit-based browsers found on the IOS and Android devices.

Visual studio quick tip – using regular expressions in search

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 05:00:00 GMT

How much time do you spend picking or searching through your code? Looking for things and trying to remember where stuff is. I was talking with someone the other day and realized that they weren’t aware they could use regular expressions within Visual Studio search. In this blog post I’ll take a quick look at how this is done.

Data never sleeps [Infographic]

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Next time you run a Google search think about the fact that it’s just one of 2 million that Google will receive that minute. In the same amount of time, Facebook users post about 684,478 pieces of content. Even crazier is that online shoppers spend an average of $272,070 every minute! That over $391 million every day! DOMO created this infographic, which shows just how much data is generated every minute. It’s pretty amazing to see the amount of data created across some of the key platforms.

Get up to speed with Windows Azure and Kentico CMS 7

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Looking for more information about Windows Azure and Kentico CMS7? We have over seven hours of conference videos from Windows Azure and Kentico CMS 7 virtual conference you can use to get up to speed quickly.

Get the big book of Kentico CMS Version 7 hands on labs!

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that provided feedback and ideas. I am happy to announce the update and release of an updated version of Kentico CMS 7 Hands on labs. With over 15 labs and 90 pages it’s packed with a lot of Kentico CMS 7 information!

Insights on Social Media Worldwide [infographic]

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Nobody should argue that marketers have taken to social media. Social media has become an incredibly important part of marketing success. The more time we spend on social media the more businesses are able to study who we are and what we like. This infographic from IDG provides some fantastic data on the importance of social media and its promotion of brand marketing.

Guide to Web Testing Using Kentico CMS 7

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 04:00:00 GMT

If you've ever wondered why your digital marketing efforts haven't panned out, the fault may be in your lack of testing. Successful digital marketers live and die by the meticulous testing and tweaking of every aspect of their digital campaigns, until they find the combination of words, backlinks, media, and tone that draws the biggest returns. If you treat every marketing campaign as an experiment, you may find the success you've been missing. There are two basic forms of testing used in digital marketing analysis, and both have something to offer any individual or company looking for the best way to sell their products or services.

Best Practices: Making the Most of Your Tests

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 04:00:00 GMT

A test is only as good as the practices behind it. To make sure you're getting the most out of your A/B and multivariate testing, I have put together three best practices. Anything else you would add?

Testing Matters – Don’t forget

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 04:00:00 GMT

In 2012, Adobe conducted a Digital Marketing Optimization Survey that questioned participants on their best practices for increasing online conversions. Sadly, their responses to question on testing revealed that it simply isn't a priority for many marketers. Over half of the respondents admitted that they perform little to no A/B or multivariate testing while creating a campaign or developing a website. Only 10 percent of survey respondents said they commonly use testing to improve their campaigns.

A quick guide to understanding web testing

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 04:00:00 GMT

If you've ever wondered why your digital marketing efforts haven't panned out, the fault may be in your lack of testing. Successful Internet entrepreneurs live and die by meticulous testing and tweaking every aspect of their digital campaigns. Until they find the combination of words, backlinks, media, and tone that draws the biggest returns. If you treat every marketing campaign as an experiment, you may find the success you've been missing. There are two basic forms of testing used in digital marketing analysis. Both have something to offer any individual or company looking for the best way to sell their products or services.

Ranking factors and Rank Correlation 2013 [Infographic]

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 04:00:00 GMT

It’s a question everyone asks. What do web pages that are well positioned in Google have in common and what distinguishes them? To help answer this question Searchmetrics examined the 30 top search results for 10,000 keywords, analyzing over 300,000 websites to create this infographic. The infographic highlights great information about the power of backlinks, social, and content. Backlinks are a huge factor in helping page ranks. Also, the study found that site speed is also incredibly important.

MVP Chat #1: Who enjoyed Kentico Connections?

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 04:00:00 GMT

In this new podcast show we welcome Brian McKeiver and Bryan Soltis, Kentico MVPs as they talk about Kentico CMS and thing going on in the developer world. In their first show they talk about the fun they had at Kentico Connections and what they learned.

Do you speak digital marketing with Kentico CMS 7?

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended the fantastic J Boye Group after Kentico Connections. As requested you can find my slides below

Who’s not online and why

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 04:00:00 GMT

I know it’s hard to believe in today’s world that there are still people not online. But it’s definitely still the case. According to this recent study by Pew Internet of May 2013 15% of American adults ages 18 and older do not use the internet or email. Here are some of what I think are the more important highlights.

Webinar wrap up: Introduction to UI Personalization with Kentico CMS 7

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended!

UI personalization allows the creation of a simplified user interface. It’s a great way to create personalized and extensible user experiences that empower people to get things done. System administrators are able to remove tabs, menu items, actions and parts of UI pages that aren’t needed. This allows users to not be overwhelmed by loads of unnecessary options. System administrators are able to deploy intelligent user interfaces. In this session we will examine how this feature is used within Kentico CMS 7. We will cover the basics of technical implementation, design concerns, extensibility and security. In this webinar we looked at how to implement the basics of UI personalization on your Kentico CMS 7 site.

Who’s minding your cloud? [Infographic]

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Security is an extremely important issue. Even though cloud computing is just as safe as traditional system when it comes to vulnerabilities and security holes. It’s important to remember that the nature of cloud computing, the public cloud gives lots of people access to the data. Regardless, according to this infographic by CA Technologies the cloud continues to grow but security continues to be an open questions.

The mobile revolution continues

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Thanks to Janus Boye and a great CMS Experts session here in Seattle!

Welcome to modern marketing! Desktops, mobile phones, Digital signage, TV’s, tablets, netbooks, mini-tablets… the list of connected devices your customers are using to consume your marketing never stops growing! The modern marketing world is a myriad of screen sizes and effective calls to action. What are the best choices? The landscape of consumerism has changed in a few short years allowing our customers more choices for reading, watching, communicating, socializing, shopping, and making purchase decisions.

Get the updated Kentico Connections 2013 Mobile Application

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Kentico Technical Learning – Introduction to UI Personalization with Kentico CMS 7

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 09:26:05 GMT

UI personalization allows the creation of a simplified user interface. It’s a great way to create personalized and extensible user experiences that empower people to get things done. System administrators are able to remove tabs, menu items, actions and parts of UI pages that aren’t needed. This allows users to not be overwhelmed by loads of unnecessary options. System administrators are able to deploy intelligent user interfaces. In this session we will examine how this feature is used within Kentico CMS 7. We will cover the basics of technical implementation, design concerns, extensibility and security. In this webinar we looked at how to implement the basics of UI personalization on your Kentico CMS 7 site.

Wrap up: Ask the experts – A Kentico CMS Virtual Panel #4

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:00:00 GMT

I had a lot of fun and hope everyone that joined did as well! As always the experts were fantastic and it looks like they enjoyed themselves. Thanks to everyone on Twitter and those who submitted questions ahead of time! Stay tuned for our next ask the experts!

Getting Ready for Ask the Experts #4 with Jeroen Furst

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 04:00:00 GMT

As we get closer to Kentico Ask The Experts #4 I caught up with Jeroen Furst, Kentico MVP to talk about what he has going on.

Three responsive design concepts

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Responsive design is definitely one of the most talked about industry topics. As I covered in this Introducing Responsive Design post, it’s an approach to web design that adjusts to the user across varying browser sizes. The popularity of responsive design has grown exponentially with the increasing number of tablets and smartphones and users accessing the Internet with these devices. This has made it essential that developers think about all the ways their information is viewed. This article covers just three questions I often get asked. What others would you add?

Getting Ready for Ask the Experts #4 with Brian McKeiver

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 04:00:00 GMT

As we get closer to Kentico Ask The Experts #4 I caught up with Brian McKeiver, Kentico MVP to talk about what he has going on.

Help Kentico Win the 2013 Community Choice Awards

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 04:00:00 GMT

I am happy to announce that with your support Kentico has been nominated for the 2013 Community Choice Awards sponsored by Dev Pro. You can find Kentico nominated for Best Content Management, e-Commerce Package and Best Vendor Support. Please take a moment and go here to help cast your vote for Kentico.

Getting Ready for Ask the Expert #4 with Bryan Soltis

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Hanging out with Bryan Soltis a Kentico MVP and the Director of Technology and Research at Bit-wizards. We talk about his thoughts around the last Ask the Experts session, Kentico Connections and what he’s been up to as we get ready for the next ask the experts session!

Get the Updated Kentico Connections 2013 – Mobile App Beta

Thomas Robbins — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Video: MMT Digital Presents Kentico

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Kentico Gold Partner MMT Digital has a fantastic video that looks at some of their work!

Announcing: Ask the Experts #4 – A Kentico CMS Virtual Panel

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Join us for our fourth- Ask the Experts – A Kentico CMS Virtual Panel
Date: September 12, 2013
Time: 7 AM PST/10 AM EST/3 PM BST
Location: Everywhere! Google hangouts and Twitter

Webinar wrap up: How To Propel Your Website Past Your Competition

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that attended!

If you are planning out your digital strategy you need to think beyond your website and embrace the whole customer experience. Today, marketers are trying to figure out how to attract the right people into their website with targeted and consistent content while converting them into the sales and marketing processes. Don’t miss this webinar by Galvin Technologies and Kentico show what companies need to do to propel their website past the competition while increasing revenue.
This webinar will cover:

How to increase conversion rates with targeted content
Strategies you can implement now to beat your competition
Stop ignoring “Big Data” and use it.
Why your website is critical to your sales processes

Get the Kentico Connections 2013 – Mobile App Beta

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Are you attending Kentico Connections 2013 or just want to see what’s going on? Well I hope you will take a look at the Beta of the Kentico Connections 2013 Mobile app! Based on the attendees feedback this year we went with an HTML 5 mobile application code optimized for the webkit-based browsers found on the IOS and Android devices.

Get the application from your mobile device by going to:
http://bit.ly/KenticoConnections

How To Propel Your Website Past Your Competition

Thomas Robbins — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 10:59:23 GMT

If you are planning out your digital strategy you need to think beyond your website and embrace the whole customer experience. Today, marketers are trying to figure out how to attract the right people into their website with targeted and consistent content while converting them into the sales and marketing processes. Don’t miss this webinar by Galvin Technologies and Kentico show what companies need to do to propel their website past the competition while increasing revenue.

Webinar: Kentico Technical Learning – Introduction to UI Personalization with Kentico CMS 7

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Date: September 17, 2013
Time: 8-9AM PST/11-12PM EST/4-5PM BST

Register here

Webinar: How To Propel Your Website Past Your Competition

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 11:00:00 GMT

Join us for an exciting webinar sponsored by Galvin Technologies!

Date: August 7, 2013
Time: 8AM PST; 11AM EST, 4PM BST
Register here

The Definitive Guide to the Cloud and Kentico CMS

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Wrap up: Website “Build It” workshop – Kentico EMS 7

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Chad Heinle, a Senior Consultant from High Monkey Consulting, shared the steps we followed to build our own website in Kentico EMS 7. This workshop will first review the planning and requirements stage and the creation of an Information Architecture and wireframes. The majority of the webinar will be focused on the build process and the implementation of Kentico EMS 7. In addition to seeing the public facing and CMS Desk views of HIGHMONKEY.COM, Chad Heinle will be doing some live site building on a Kentico demo site. Everyone is welcome to attend; however, this workshop is primarily intended for webmasters, site builders, page and site designers, and content editors. There will be some discussion about the details of how things are built but this workshop is not a “deep dive” into code or custom development.

This “build it” workshop will give you an overview of what goes into building a website using the Kentico EMS platform and some best practices to consider for your next website build.

What is the Google Penguin Update?

Thomas Robbins — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 04:30:00 GMT

SEO is such an important ingredient for any website success and we shouldn’t forget that Google sets the rules. While Bing is starting to move up the search traffic list, most traffic still continues to be delivered by Google. When Google updates their rules we need to pay attention. If you’re not familiar, Google rule changes are delivered in the form of an update to the algorithm that regulates the ranking of a given page against a search query. The Google Penguin 2.0 update was released on May 22nd. With this update, Google continues to target black hat SEO techniques.

Getting started with Personalization

Thomas Robbins — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Like anything with modern marketing, personalization means you focus on understanding your customer intent through engagement. This also includes focusing on context and letting context help to drive relevance for visitors. Here are several things to keep in mind as you develop your personalization strategy.

Website “Build It” Workshop – Kentico EMS 7

Thomas Robbins — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 04:11:58 GMT

Chad Heinle, a Senior Consultant from High Monkey Consulting, will be sharing the steps we followed to build our own website in Kentico EMS 7. This workshop will first review the planning and requirements stage and the creation of an Information Architecture and wireframes. The majority of the webinar will be focused on the build process and the implementation of Kentico EMS 7. In addition to seeing the public facing and CMS Desk views of HIGHMONKEY.COM, Chad Heinle will be doing some live site building on a Kentico demo site. Everyone is welcome to attend; however, this workshop is primarily intended for webmasters, site builders, page and site designers, and content editors. There will be some discussion about the details of how things are built but this workshop is not a “deep dive” into code or custom development.