Rapid Niche Websites vs Semiologic Pro Review – Part 1
With all the talk about Wordpress and Authority Sites, I’ve had quite a few questions about the software I mentioned in my post on my authority site case study called Rapid Niche Websites. I have also received some questions about how I built this blog, the Affiliate Marketing Diary.
By the way, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the Wordpress platform, I recommend you read my post about the 9 Reasons Why You Need To Use Wordpress.
I am a huge fan of Rapid Niche Websites; however this blog was actually built using a different set of tools called Semiologic Pro.
If you aren’t familiar with what Semiologic and Rapid Niche Websites does, they are both in essence a collection of proprietary and public Wordpress plug-ins that make your blogs SEO and IM friendly (amongst other things). Rapid Niche Websites also has a robust theme building component as well, which allows you to create your own custom Wordpress themes…
The goal of this post is to provide you with a comparison and an overview of both Semiologic Pro and Rapid Niche Websites.
Before I get started, I should also note that I use these two products for different reasons, which I will try to illustrate below…
By the way, if you want the information on the products directly from “the horse’s mouth”, I highly recommend you visit the Semiologic and the RNW websites.
Ok, let’s start with the documentation:
Rapid Niche Websites – When I first purchased Rapid Niche Websites, I was a bit worried about the learning curve but luckily RNW includes a very thorough (over 300 pages) documentation with step-by-step guidance on how to set-up a RNW “blog” from start to finish.
In other words, you could take these tools “out of the box” and have a completely customized SEO friendly theme in Wordpress uploaded to your server within the first hour of you using this package. There are also some videos available (in the member section) that takes you by the hand and show you how to edit the templates (if you are of the more visual type).
Semiologic Pro – I have to admit, when I purchased this package a couple of years back, I was pretty under-whelmed by the documentation. Although there was a manual, it had not been updated in a while… all I can say is that it was lackluster at best. But on the bright side, Denis De Bernardy (the creator) has re-vamped quite a bit of it recently by offering online tutorials instead. Also, Sherman Hu’s Wordpress Tutorials cover the Semiologic Pro theme quite well, so it might be a worthwhile investment to get up and running quickly.
And he offers one free installation for first time users, which can come in handy.
By the way, both of the creators, Denis De Bernardy of Semiologic and Jeff Walters of Rapid Niche Websites, are very accessible in their respective forums (in their member areas).
The Features:
Rapid Niche Websites – It is very easy to use, yet complex at the same time (it can be as easy or as complex as you want it to be). I thought it was very simple to use and relatively intuitive, particularly if you follow the step-by-step guide.
What I like the best out of all the features RNW offers is their RapidFormatter software. It takes something that only a seasoned php / css programmer could do into a wysiwig point and shoot solution. Sort of like a Microsoft Frontpage for PHP / Wordpress Theme design. Since I know neither, this software is extremely handy, and was one of the primary reasons I picked up RNW. In other words, RapidFormatter allows you to change / edit the color schemes, headers, layout, menu options with a few simple clicks… And, if you feel up to the task, you can really customize it by going deeper into the RapidFormatter software to modify code to your heart’s content.
I should also mention that the Rapidformatter tool is also where you can define placement of your Ad units for Amazon, Affiliate programs, Adsense / YPN etc; and where you want the ads to appear (in the header, footer, sidebar etc.) Defining the placement here allows you to insert the call to the actual ad plug-in (custom for RNW) that actually inserts and displays the ads (The Ad Plug-In for RNW also enforces Google maximum of 3 Adsense blocks and 1 Adlinks block per page rule).
The RapidFormatter also offers a built-in ftp program that allows you to upload all the plug-ins as well as your custom theme (separately or as a whole… it’s your choice) quickly and easily. You will however have to install Wordpress by either installing it through Fantastico (in your cPanel) or by downloading Wordpress from Wordpress.org, then ftp the files to your server.
Semiologic Pro – Semiologic unfortunately does not have a theme layout software such as the Rapidformatter tool. However, it offers a number of pre-designed skins and layouts, and allows you to change headers relatively easily. However, to make significant changes to a theme in Semiologic you will have to edit code or upload files into various folders (which unfortunately is not intuitive); having said that, the editing of code is probably not necessary for most users.
Where Semiologic shines is in the use and implementation of the various plug-ins and relies heavily on the use of widgets, which by the way are awesome. Everything is drag and drop, or as simple as checking off a box. Dennis really took the time to compile and/or create a HUGE amount of Internet Marketing friendly plug-ins as well as tools/widgets.
By the way, another nice thing that Semiologic offers is a drag and drop feature for putting widgets into your sidebar, and the integrated social bookmarking features. (Note: The sidebar widgets are now integrated into Wordpress 2.2).
I could go on and on about the various plug-ins of Semiologic, but there are way too many to mention here. Check their website for a list of all the plug-ins and widgets.
To be continued…
[tags]blogging, blog marketing, rapid niche websites, semiologic, wordpress, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, authority sites[/tags]
Comments
Steven do you find these programs less useful now, than say a year ago, due to the recent improvements with Word Press?
Thanks
Phil
Hi,
can i know how to start blogging effectively? i heard so many talks about it but not sure where to start.
I was looking for a review of Semiologic and found your article to be very useful in helping me understand the basic pros/cons of these two WP themes. I’ll probably give Semiologic a try.
This looks like a very neat product, although I love wordpress, sometimes I wonder if it would be easier just designing a normal site with web software. Mainly due to the fact that many wordpress themes are difficult to modify and customize into affiliate sites, adsense, affiliate image links and working forms. I will definetly have a close look at Rapid Niche and Semiologic, thanks for the info!
i am just starting out with affiliate marketing. i have signed up with Clickbank and Amazon. i am still reading lots of stuffs on the net how to be successful on affiliate marketing.
Hi Steven:
I’d be interested to know your curernt thoughts on these products. I own both and find them obsolete for the same reason.
While both products are great at what they do best – Rapid Niche with its layout capabilities and Semiologic with its well designed plugins and ease of use — they suffer a lack of attention to detail when it comes to current aestetics. The templates just don’t look as up-to-date as other premium themes.
What do you think and how do you feel Artisteer fits into the equation now?
Hi Dan,
I would tend to agree with you. I’ve pretty much moved on from both RNW and Semiologic (although I still have dozens of sites I built with RNW).
Haven’t used Artisteer so I can’t really comment. It looks nice… but there are so many decent “pre-built” themes out there I just don’t spend a lot of time customizing themes anymore.
These days I just use a couple of premium themes along with some choice plug-ins. If you’re interested in knowing what I use, have a look here: http://supersimpleblogging.com/wordpress-installation/ (look under the section on “themes”).
All the best,
Steven
Thanks for the critique of RNW. I was thinking of buying the software. I found it at http://www.softwaresupplyhut.com. I would like to build different theme sites and am looking for the right software to use.
Trackbacks
Leave a Comment