| | Published September 25th, 2013
| Nick Gerber Brings Microweber to America
| | By Sophie Braccini | | |
Building a web presence for a new service or non-profit can be daunting or costly, or both. There is rarely a way around it. As Moraga entrepreneur Nick Gerber was wrestling with the problem for himself, he stumbled across a technology created by two Bulgarian engineers, Peter Ivanov and Boris Sokolov. He found their tools, in his own words, fantastic, so he contacted them and proposed a joint venture to spread Microweber. For all intents and purposes the service is free, at least up to a certain size, and Gerber plans to link it with his other products such as his accounting software.
"This is meant to be exceptionally easy," says Gerber. "If you know how to drag and drop, you can build yourself your own website."
Building a website is indeed easy. You can get a free site name through Microweber (www.microweber.yourname.com), buy a unique domain name through them, or transfer an existing domain hosted by another service provider. From there, interactive menus take you through the steps of personalizing the free templates and adding more functions and pages. A caveat though, Microweber is an open source product, so it works better with open source operating systems such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.
Once in the product, the template is easily customizable; you can change everything if you like, adding pages, menus, hierarchies. "We have something that's called 'live edit,'" says Gerber, "you can add titles, pictures, videos, menus, add pages, a contact form, a shopping basket, social media links, or a blog." And of course the sites are "mobile-ready."
People can open shop using Microweber; the shopping basket function creates a data file that is sent to your email, and a Paypal button can be added. Microweber creates application programming interface (API) files that can be used to manage inventory. This function allows linking to complementary software to manage other processes such as client management and shipping.
Microweber will also provide an interface with Gerber's other brain child, Numia - a free accounting software for small businesses. "A non-profit can even download the Microweber program that's open source and play with it," adds Gerber. Advanced API function requires purchasing premium services.
Now Gerber's job is to promote Microweber. "I am the chief cheerleader," he quips. He believes that the product is so attractive that it will lead to the creation of a giant community. "People can even make money with us by creating their own templates using Microweber and selling them through us," he adds.
Microweber profits come from hosting sites with private domain names and from users purchasing premium services, such as bigger space, support from Microweber, or advanced API functions.
Check it out at www.microweber.com.
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Lamorinda Weekly business articles are intended to inform the community about local business activities, not to endorse a particular company, product or service.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA