Content Management

CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (CMS)

Today there are many content management system's (CMS) available—from free solutions, to hosted software-as-a-service OpenSource solutions, licensed proprietry solutions, and off-the-shelf products.

The right choice balances considerations such as the functional needs of your website, the project budget, available in-house resources, licensing stance, and considerations for the future 'portability' of your website (allowing reassignment between hosts and/or developers). 

Using a CMS will greatly increase your ability to respond to your customers needs, to market changes, and your own inspirations.

Some CMS are focussed on being an 'all-in-one' solution, while others are deliberately simple.

I can usually recommend a particular system once I have had a good discussion with you, and can weigh up the aforementioned considerations.

The most common systems I use are:

• Adobe Business Catalyst (an all-in-one software-as-a-service offering)
• WordPress (highly popular and OpenSource)
• BareBones CMS (my own deliberately simple offering) 

While I also use other systems, these three tend to fulfil the needs of most of my clients.

During our briefing I demonstrate the use of each of these CMS.

 

 

 

 

 

Self-managing your website content

Not too long ago, the only way a website owner could professionally manage or update their content was to either learn the technical coding skills themselves, or by employing a designer/developer (usually at hourly rates) to do the work.

This situation was usually not a practical option for either party. Maintenance invariably took a long time for the designer/developer to get onto, and the costs to the owner were often high and repeated.

Web developers saw the need to make a website content management system (CMS). These CMS would allow website owners the freedom to manage the website content by themselves, without the need for highly technical training, or high dependence upon the designer/developer.

However, a common criticism of many CMS is that they are too complex for the average needs. Personally, I too could not find a system that I felt comfortable promoting to my clients, so I set about making my own—the BareBones CMS—which aims to fulfil the most common authoring requirements of a small website.

The needs of each website are different, and I will demonstrate the different CMS for you.