Simplicity comes first
Hi Karen,
I know that our founder Jennifer already replied to this on the Facebook group but I wanted to get a response on this forum post too, for those who might be reading this later.
We're all disappointed to read that you find the limitations frusrating. But our primary focus is simplicity. We try to offer our customers the features indie artists need, but in a way that's really really easy for them to use -- so they can concentrate on their art and not on futzing with their website. Obviously this is a hard balance to strike, because everybody is different. One person's simple tweak is another person's incomprehensible process. But when we have a decision to make, we try to err on the side of simple.
That said, many of the things you're asking for can be done with the rich text editor -- and if not, our more technically minded users can always click on SOURCE and edit the HTML directly. If you have site-wde CSS changes to make, our customer support team is happy to upload them for you. But we don't offer arbitrary changes of the theme or layout through the dashboard because we think that's just too complicated, and we want to stay simple.
The numbered issues at the end of your post involve RSS feeds, subscriptions, and analytical reports. Our general philosophy is rather than implement lots of features that only some customers want, instead we will integrate with the best services out there. So all IndieMade sites have RSS feeds created automatically -- because there is nothing for you to do. But to offer subscriptions by email, you can integrate your RSS with MailChimp or other subscription services. Google Analytics is awesome, and free, and it's easy to add to your IndieMade site. Every site comes with its own contact form... and if you want a different kind of form that collects other information from your visitors, you can add a form from WuFoo quite easily. And so on. We're always delighted when we see customers ask for new integrations of stuff we haven't even thought of.
Finally, Karen, thanks so much for taking the time to post this. We really do listen to our customers' feedback. This is really helpful to hear your perspective, and I can promise you that we take it seriously. So thanks. :-)
Axel
Improve Blog L&F
The blog interaction and appearance is weak. Typography is weak with no options to add sub-headers and to edit template design details. There are no options for editing photo sizes, layout position, or captioning. And since I lack any real ability to tweak the code myself, there is little I can do to improve things (beyond requests to IM support for the specific improvements I want - while this is a very nice service, it is an incredibly slow and limiting process to make improvements). Personally, as a creative person (and especially as a UX designer), I find it very frustrating.
The following are adddtional notes from another user (in the Facebook IndieMade Users Group):
There are several features that are said to be essential for a good blog.
1. Uses Your Business' Own URL (Indiemade = Yes, possible)
2. Enables Subscriptions Via RSS and Email: (Indiemade = I don't see one.)
3. Automatically Integrates With Social Media (Indiemade = yes)
4. Makes Publishing Easy: (Indiemade = yes)
5. Report Email & RSS Subscriber Growth Over Time: (Indiemade= no reports).
6. Track Article Performance = (Indiemade = no reports)
7. Measures Visitors and Leads = (Indiemade = no reports)
8. Has ways to follow, connect to or contact the author: (Indiemade= offers no connections that I can see.)
9. Offers Blog categories: (Indiemade = no categories, just tag words and archive by a month.)
The ones that irk me are #2, #8 and #9. The reports I can get from Google.