[ddemchuk]

Launching a digital marketing startup. I've had the opportunity to fully immerse myself in the CodeIgniter framework and I love it. I have used it to build a custom CRM and also an internal tool that will allow us to launch new micro sites in 60 seconds, including buying the domain name, parking them on the server, and spinning the content and publishing everything. Very fun.

Have learned a lot about linkbuilding and SEO as well. It's interesting to play with different linkbuilding techniques and watch the results happen in just a few days because of how low the competition is in our niches. Am planning on developing a fully automated linkbuilding tool that will require me to wear my gray hat while I work ;-)

[clistctrl]

How does the CRM compare with sugar? I've been looking to replace that for a while.

[ddemchuk]

Well I had actually played with using Sugar initially, and while Sugar is nice, it was a little too robust in some areas and lacking in others for our needs. We have a certain sales model that is basically "hit and run" (We move quickly from client to client with short sales loops instead of detailed and long sales processes, just the nature of the product) so we needed something that matched our model and was finely tuned for how we work.

I personally feel like CRMs are just like CMS systems for developers. Yes, there are good solutions out there for your initial build, but eventually, it's better to build your own to get exactly what you want. You shouldn't compromise anything for your business in my opinion.