CMT advice

Okay, what is the function of CMS?

What are the main advantages of using CMS?

Are they any pitfalls someone using CMS should be aware of?

How much does it cost for CMS and what are your recommendations?

Cheers
Darren

 

Sorry, but what's CMT?

 

lol it was early meant CMS - content management software!

 

For instance: Instead of typing 12 individual complete html files on 12 articles you can use a CMS package like Mambo to just type the text instead of the entire pages. Add to that admin for links and loads of other dynamic functionality. Makes maintenance a lot easier.

Advantages being easy maintenance and updating. Easy publishing (push button). No need for all staff to know HTML etc.

Potential pitfalls could be non SEO-friendly publishing. It requires databases etc.

 

Agree with T0Ps there

CMS allows you to publish much quicker and more efficiently - Blogger is a fairly simple form of CMS because you get the new post/edit interface and then Blogger automatically updates all your history/ archive links for you. So apart from any personal hacks/add-ons it does all the work for you

I'm so looking forward to using CMS on one of my biggger sites becuase it should take all the tedium out of doing all the manual SEO stuff - if I can get or modify a CMS system that's SE friendly and up to the job of doing <next prev> title attributes etc. etc.

 

I couldn't live without our CMS...

I don't think any site should be run without a CMS of some description...

THere are some excellent options out there that you can use, ranging in price from being 100% free, to costing upwards of £4k+ p/a (If you have the cash for a somewhat more custom CMS, give me a shout )

 

Excellent advice, thanks guys, sounds like EXACTLY what Im looking for. So my next question.. what CM software is out there - at low cost!

 

Well, there are a few...

WordPress 1.5 seems to have developed into more of a CMS type thing than just a blog creation tool.

Mambo is also supposed to be excellent, although I have had little experience with it...

 

If you can code PHP or similar I'd always go Open Source because it's unlikely you'll find that exactly 100% matches your needs. That way you can alter it to your heart's content.

A couple of links:

http://www.opensourcecms.com/
http://www.oscom.org/
http://www.mamboserver.com/
http://ez.no/

Good article: http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2897730,00.html

 

Cheers SE

Tops, can you use Mambo without PHP experience? I've had a look and first impressions it looks perfect.

 

When I tested it I found the installation a bit troublesome but yes, you can get it going without any specific knowledge other than the ability to read the instructions carefully - which I probably didn't do at the time.

 

Excellent! Will have a play with it this weekend

Thanks for the advice! Appreciated.

Darren

 

If your hosting comes with Fantastico, setting up Mambo is just a matter of keyboard taps and a couple of clicks.. that's way to simple...

I've had the experience of setting up both with and without Fantastico... without Fantastico, I've struggled a little but eventually got it figured out... My travel site (see sig) is using Mambo with AkoGreenPlanet template...

If you need any help, just give me a shout... I'll try my best... Good luck this weekend...