(I'm not sure if this is the right way to think about this problem at all)

**kinda my first impressions of concrete5**
When I would look for a cms for projects. I was in the mind set that the best cms would be more of a portal application then a standalone system. such as a cms that could connect to phpbb or vanilla or moodle -etc (stand alone applications). When I ran into concrete 5 (I think it was a top cms review like site) I did a simple google search found the youtube videos and was like meh (not interested) to business oriented *not allot of functions and simply plane. (in other words I didn’t think I could mold it into my needs of a membership like site)

Also I was confused that it wasn't labeled in the cpannels action scripts as a cms its under the category site builder. Because most site builders cost monthly I assumed concrete5 would be one of those pay for use systems too.

If I hadn't said “what the hell ill try it anyways” I probably would have never learned how robust concrete5 actually is starting with theming to advanced permissions. However I was still hesitant because I would have to construct allot of things from scratch because there is no real default settings for this type of site or that type of site beyond a blog that I could use as guidance. (before learning about things like the composer and stacks, single pages and everything amazing)
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about 2 years later still with c5 and happy

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but the question is growth and how to grow to a large usage.

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Problems -
1) I think concrete5 is miss labeled my initial thought as a site builder was that I would have to pay for it. (I know there is a website called concrete5 that explains everything but most people don't look past the part that it isn't labeled as a true cms by action scripts)

2) It looks like allot of hard work at first glance. Even after using concrete5 for a month or 2 I was like ok I should really start buying addons ( the first time buying one was kind of daunting because I still didn’t know if concrete5 was going to be right for me in the long run – I also wished there was like starter add-on package that had a list of useful add-ons instead of everything being individual)


3) while concrete5 can be made into almost any site, everything seems to be truly focused towards the small business owner (not bad but limiting)

4)relative small user base (however extremely active)

5) little guidance for specifics like if I was to just make a blog or if I was to just make a portfolio site (its up to the user to design *not a bad thing but this about growth with more people)

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(kind of a naive approach just off the top of my head)
I think the easiest way to promote growth would be to piggy back. On standalone systems to grab people who want to use those systems. When I would create gamming websites for friends it would be vbuilltin and phpbb. But it was always a Hassel creating the front page were I would look for a cms that could portal into a system.

Not saying concrete5 needs to port into one of these to grab people but it would add growth and for the concrete5 community it would be another added benefit of usage

Such as if concrete5 wanted to stay small business it could add integration with something with like big blue button and advertise something like with integration with big blue button you can hold web conferences from your own site.
*note these could be projects that come from the community I know there was a project with phpbb but I think its gone now.

Another would be simpler default for users. Like a default portfolio for photos allot of people are just looking for simple things to either share their work or have the ability to share family photos. I think what made word press so catchy was that it was built for 1 thing blogging there for if you wanted to blog (witch was the hit new thing to do back in the day) it was the first go to with many options without needing to download plug-ins and add-ons (it was kind of simple if only used as a blog) and then it grew and people started exploring with the add-ons.

I think Concrete5 sits very different then most cms. Because in a way it doesn’t try to be anything but a solid building tool for the web, so it has blogs it has amazing slide shows and so on the discussions isn’t bad either. But in the end there is no real 1 solid default free single click for what you want to build. And when it comes to selling to the masses you need to be extremely simple and while concrete5 grows it dose what it can at becoming simpler for the average user and adding more exciting things on the back end for people who need it to act like a real cms.

What the team has been doing is fine. The semi weekly totally random is a great way to ground the cms into saying hey were then just a cms were people who care about giving you a product that’s worth your time and these are the faces that care. Things have been getting simpler 5.7 looks to be another big leap. But I don’t see concrete reaching out to other communities on the web that it could be a benefit to so maybe that’s a direction (like maybe write the integrated api then let the community update it)

**end rant with opinions of things that might help growth

to note *of course im talking out of my a-## because I can’t code and saying this should happen or what not without being able to do it and only having the ability to be a sideline quarterback makes most of these points mute.

I am extremely happy with concrete5 as it is and the direction Franz and Andrew have been taking

Thanks for these thoughts, they certainly ring true in many ways.

You're right, in being a ubiquitous building material (I often say we're a
screwdriver, use it for a doll house or a sky scraper) we make our adoption
curve and sales cycle pretty organic and hard to track.

As we move forward, we're trying to dial in the user experience to be much
simpler for the DIY crowd to begin with. The power of concrete5 will make
itself apparent as it's needed.

I like the idea of partnering with more folk, its met with mixed success
however... Shopify for example - just not going much of anywhere with
that... but yes I agree more cross promotion is a great way to get others
talking about concrete5.


best wishes

Franz Maruna
CEO - concrete5.org
http://about.me/frz