Content Management: Why Automation is Better

Now that you've decided how things should look, and you've also decided what kind of content you'd like to put on your website, you then need to decide how to manage this content. If you're wondering what "managing content" means, some simple examples might include

• A bed & breakfast wants to add a note to every web page so that people know they now include free breakfast with a night's stay.
• A retail store wants to post an announcement of a new product line they are carrying.
• A bar or venue wants to update a calendar with their upcoming list of shows and musicians.

There are basically 2 ways to manage content - by creating static files, or by using a content management system, or CMS. If you're using static content, you'll either need to use a program like FrontPage, DreamWeaver, or a direct HTML editor to make your changes. You'll need to make the changes on every page that you want them to appear, and then re-upload the pages to your website with FTP.

Using a CMS, you'd enter a username and password, go to the administration page for your website, click on "add new item" or whatever your CMS uses to let you add new content, and you'd type in what you want to add, and click save.

There are several free CMS' available, and a variety of commercial ones. Popular CMS' include:

Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org)
Joomla (http://www.joomla.org)
Drupal (http://www.drupal.org)
DotNetNuke (http://www.dotnetnuke.com/)

There are many, many more out there as well. This website - http://halifaxit.com/ - was created using Drupal. Regardless of which one you choose, a CMS will make your life easier and simpler in the long run.