CMS Services
A content management system is a database driven architecture which enables one or more users or authors to easily add and manage content such as articles, product information, inventory, invoices, scientific data, images, audio, or video without the knowledge of HTML and associated internet programming languages.
Up to date project information can be accessed and added by owners, managers, engineers and workers locally to worldwide. Create a discussion space for employees working across the country to coordinate. Multiple user security levels of information access allows only appropriate data and discussions to be accessible to each personnel level.
In addition content type categorization makes organizing diverse data types (plants, items, products, etc) much simpler to navigate, sort, and search.
Some examples of content management systems:
Informational records : High Plains Gardening This website provides a database of plant profiles which grow well in the High Plains of Texas.
Searchable product databases such as a grow nursery's plant list e.g. Canyon's Edge Plants Plant list of hummingbird attracting plants. As this example shows CMS include powerful categorization tools and structures which allow easy navigation through databases. Narrowing a list by adding category options to define the list displayed give the site user an extremely easy method to identify the record they are looking for.
Article Catalogs
Product Inventory
Creative guild collaboration
Reporting systems
Financial Record Keeping
Scientific Data storage, categorization, manipulations
Social Networking systems
Blogs
Discussion Forums
Pricing
Generally pricing for CMS websites is figured after a meeting were I discuss the needs of the customer.
Some of the benefits of CMS websites
1. A CMS web site is database driven.
This allows you to create and store hundreds or thousands of pages in the database without the need to update each one of them.
2. Separate design and content.
The design of the site template is separate from the content. This allows you to change the design any time without affecting the content stored on the site. Also because content is stored separate from design, the content from all authors is presented with the same, consistent design.
3. Use cascading style sheet (CSS) to control site appearance.
Altering one CSS file will allow you to change the design and/or color of your CMS site. The consistency of the design can be preserved.
4. Multiple authors
If you have different authors that wish to contribute to your CMS web site you can set up multiple user access in the administration panel. They can just login and begin adding their content. Users can be configured with different levels of access permissions e.g. editor, supervisor, author,data-entry secretary, etc. Authors can be given limited permissions to prevent them from editing content which they are not authorized to change. CMSs generates accountability for authored content (logs) and cooperation between authors.
5. Access from anywhere
Authors and editors can access the site from any computer with an internet connection. This means users can update the site at the same time from any location in the world. Users can also use their preferred browser (IE, Firefox, Opera)
6. Web site management panel
The backend administration panel not only provides the ability to add content but also to add modules such as polls, banners,forums, shopping applications, news management and menus. The panel gives access to statistics of page views, top pages, top searches phrases, and general status reports.
7. Schedule content updates
Publishing content can be controlled by creating a draft first then publishing it later. This is handy if you need to coordinate content from multiple authors.
8. HTML knowledge not required
A CMS site allows non-technical people with average knowledge of word processing to create the content directly. They just need to login with a user name and password then use the web editor that’s built into the CMS to add their content.
9. Saves time.
If you were using a static site to add content from multiple authors, each author would have to download the pages from the server to their computer first, update them, then upload them back to the server. This would be very time consuming and could generate a lot of errors. Navigation is automatically generated and adjusted. Menus are typically generated automatically based on the database content and links will not point to non-existing pages.
10. Create search engine friendly pages
The separation of content from design allows you to easily include keywords in the URL of each page. If the title of your article was “Content Management System Benefits” your URL would be written as:
http://www.domainname.com/content-management-system-benefits
Some CMS sites automatically generate the correct meta tags for each web page which would help them to spidered by the search engines.
11. Attracts visitors
A CMS site attracts visitors because it can be constantly and rapidly updated. It not only generates pages that are search engine friendly but can produce lots of links from the new content that is added and syndicated.
12.Better customer service.
Your CMS might have a public component that allows your customers to contact you directly through your web site as opposed to e-mail. This provides an opportunity to integrate customer requests directly into you customer service systems where they can be handled more quickly and bypass e-mail systems.
13. Create automatic RSS Feeds.
RSS or really simple syndication is integrated automatically into many CMS sites. Every time you create a post or make a comment it creates a feed for it. This allows visitors with RSS Feeders to read the post at their own leisure.
Bottom line:
You save money. Plain and simple, in the long run you'll save money versus paying someone, whether they're a member of your staff or an outside consultant or service, to make all your changes and updates by hand. Chances are, this other person will use a CMS anyway, just to make their own lives easier, but still charge you the cost of doing it manually. Whether you buy a system, have one built, or subscribe to a CMS service, they're a more cost-effective solution versus the alternative.