Now, let's picture the following scenario:

You've had a website for a while, which started out with a single page, and has grown over time. It works pretty well, and nobody has really complained (or maybe they have), but it's hard to find information on your site. A lot of your content is out of date, but since webmasters don't come cheap, you hesitate before asking for any changes.

You know what? You're not alone. This ugly scenario actually has happened to many people who started websites using manual tools, such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage.

Issues like these are exactly why we love to tell people about the wide wonderful world of Content Management Systems.

What the %^* is a content management system?

A Content Management System (popularly known as CMS) is pretty awesome. Your basic CMS is a piece of pretty nifty web-based (accessible by any computer's web browser) software. The CMS helps you create and edit your website pages without knowing complex code or web design systems. It covers the complete lifecycle of the pages on your site, from providing simple tools to create the content, through to publishing, and finally to archiving. It also provides the ability to manage the structure of the site, the appearance of the published pages, and the navigation provided to the users. For a more complicated and detailed explanation of how a CMS works, please check out steptwo.com's really awesome description.

Usually, you need a little help to get up and running, unless you're one of those stubborn types that can spend hours reading discussion boards and FAQ's, in which case, all the more power to you. For everyone else, it's usually easiest to have your website template set up by us, along with a menu system and basic structure. 

Why do you need a CMS?

Very good question, really. Even though the concept of CMS has been around for more than five years, many people don't know what they are, or why they should be utilized. Hopefully, you now know what a CMS is, so let's explain why you need one. 

Your website has been set up, and business is going to start rolling in. You've hired a marketing expert, and your web design team is doing a great job. The site looks beautiful. So far, so good. What about when you decide to move to a bigger office? Now you need to update your business address. You just launched an awesome new product, eh? Now you want to add an advertisement for it to the front page, of course.

Going back to your web design team for these kinds of changes is expensive, frustrating, and inconvenient. It would make a lot more sense to have one of your regular employees, like your secretary, make the changes for you. Unfortunately, nobody in the office knows how to code, so you're stuck paying the designers to make very small changes.

This is exactly why you need a CMS. The front end of a CMS provides you with a super-simple way to update your content. The web-based interface gives you the ability to point-and-click, type in your words, upload pictures with another point-and-click, then hit save and the site is instantly updated. 

It''s also easy to add new pages, and delete or archive old pages. Your changes can be made anytime, day or night. You can assign staff to update the site, and give them specific permissions. You'll be able to see who changed what when, and approve or deny changes if you wish. The pages' design will be consistent, and menu navigation will be done automatically. 

Wow, that does sound pretty cool. How much does it cost?

It really depends on which CMS you pick. Some CMS are very specialized and expensive, intended for enterprise-level deployment. We tend to recommend free CMS, such as Drupal and Joomla, but we have worked with a variety of CMS. Drupal and Joomla have a number of extensions such as guestbooks, chat, discussion boards, blog components, user management, and much more. Some of these extensions cost money, but the majority are free. The same goes for template designs.

If you wanted to have us set up and design a CMS-based site for you, it would be relatively inexpensive, with the most bare-bones setups starting at $60, with the final cost based on your specific needs.

Now you see why we love CMS, and we hope you will too!