I am sure Visa and Mastercard would like to know you are taking people’s info over a NON-secure socket.

Your on a shared server, that gets less then 5K visitors a month. Your site has broken links and you dismiss my input.

I was giving you good advice, no doubt if you run it by a half way decent dev, they will agree with me.

Since when has OO code been software, moron its all hard code.

Beefy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBQ79FrHxmA

I appreciate the time you took to add your opinion. I am not sure we are on the same page though. I am lookin to add a Content Management System for my existing application “You Design It” which is my core business. Creating my own CMS and trying to sell subscriptions is about as far off as I could get from my core business and revenue model.

Also, thanks for the suggestions on hardware. The only thing that is really clear is that you don’t have a clue of what you are talking about. Did you really suggest encryption software? Is it 1991 and we just figured out that people might try and steal our credit card info? Did you think I was just hosting this blog in thin air? Of course I use servers and “encryption software”. Do you think I should have firewalls too? Give me a break.

Btw, use a real name because I see that you are in Houston and maybe I would hire you to take out the trash for me. CLEARLY, you are qualified for that.

1. You ask which one has a better ROI. This depends how you look at it. Yes, if you are looking for a cheap way to get a CMS up and running quickly then yes OS CMS is the route to go. One thing you don’t know about those systems is when you upgrade, it may not be compatible to your current Server software which will cause a bunch of problems. So the notion that when they roll out new modules you will get them free is not realistic. Open Source does not always = lower cost. When you have humans doing things for you, it costs you money. Object-orient development is hard code. I think you were trying to say its more flexible then hard code.
2. Yes, in-house dev’ing will cost you money. But, you own it and you are free to do what you want with it. Meaning. Resale to other start ups that can use your software. Sell it as a subscription (Web 2.0), and let the subscriptions pay for the future improvements and modifications. Here is a free tip, go Ajax with your application. That will make you stand out from the rest (You do want to separate yourself from the rest right?)
3. For Server side scripting I would use PHP. This will run on Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac. Since I mentioned Ajax, you would use JavaScript for your client side scripting. And of course hard code HTML. Make it dynamic so use MySQL for the Data base. Again, runs on any platform. Personally I run Redhat on my servers. You will want to get a dedicated server that is managed. Don’t buy your own server because if any hardware breaks they will repair it for free. Also, you will want to get a Hosting company that is reliable, lots of security too if you will be housing Credit Card info. So encryption software is a must.
4. I am not sure what CMS system you are looking at as you state competitive features. Again, do it in-house and use Ajax. When you say grow, software is software, you should concern yourself with hardware. I think one server is good enough for your business. Seeing Internet logs your sites are not that busy.
5. Going custom is not as fast and its not re-inventing the wheel. The Internet is evolving, the question is this. Will you take your new application to the new experience of the Internet or will you continue to use a flat approach.
Its clear you should hire your own developer and build your own application. Not only will the application make you money from your visitors on your site, but you can also resell the software for a monthly subscription plus a setup fee.

Keep posting, curious to see which route you go. Gotta go and work now  Beefy