Content Management Resources

If you own a website, then a content management system (CMS) can make your job a whole lot easier, as it can add or update information, whether it has 10 pages or 10.000 pages. A content management system is a tool that enables you to manage the pages that make up your website. With a CMS program, you will be able to create, edit, publish, update and archive your website’s content and what’s most importantly, you can do all these without any help from your web designer. Maybe the most popular and easy to use CMS is WordPress. 

Here are the most common publishing uses for a CMS:

• News, announcements and press releases 
• Articles and newsletters
• Product details
• Special offers
• Testimonials and case studies
• Vacancies and personnel profiles
• Useful links
• Online resources and downloads

In case you’re wondering whether a cms will benefit you, well, here are some questions that will give you an idea of whether a content management system would be good your business:

·         Do you need your web designer to update text and images on your website on a regular basis?

·         Do you fully depend on your web designer to keep your website up to date with all the activities in your business, like new product releases, price changes or marketing campaigns?

·         Do you feel that the maintenance price you are paying your website designer is getting higher and higher?

·         Are you becoming frustrated that some of the content on your website is obsolete or inaccurate?

·         Do you ever miss business opportunities by not being able to add timely or topical content in response to changes in your market?

If you answer “Yes” to one or more of these questions, you should use a CMS to update your website. And if you are still not convinced, here are your direct benefits of a CMS:

1.      Lower costs for website maintenance

The immediate benefit of using a content management system is cost reduction.  Updating your own website yourself, rather than paying a website designer to do all the changes on your behalf, will save you lots of money. When you start using a CMS you will usually pay a fixed charge that does not vary with the number of changes you make to your web page. So, the more you use your content management system, the lower the cost per change becomes. On the other hand, every time your web designer makes changes on your behalf, he will charge you for each change, meanings that the cost per change is never reduced.

Businesses that choose to use a content management system for their website always expect to increase their productivity and improve the web ROI (Return on Investment) by improving the quality of the web and intranet content. In order to calculate the ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment and the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. In simple terms, the formula for ROI is

(Profit – Investment)
Investment

Return on investment is a very popular way to measure your benefit, because of being so easy to use and implement. In other words, if your investment doesn’t have a positive return on investment percentage, or if you can find other businesses with a higher ROI, then your investment should be not be undertaken.

2.      Timely and updated content

As previously stated, a CMS enables you to make immediate changes to your website.  Perhaps you’ll want to upload certain infos at a particular time of year, Christmas or Valentine’s for instance, or maybe you want to show something at a time that’s in sync with a particular event like the World Cup or the elections. Many content management systems allow you to set a particular start and an end date for your content, plus your  CMS could automatically remove the details of each event from your website as soon as it is no longer of interest.

3.      Higher ranking in the search engines

Search engines simply love fresh content added on a regular basis. Think about it: updated web content, including keywords phrases relevant to your niche market – you will definitely boost your chances of search engine exposure and this will increase traffic on your website.

All these being said, you probably convinced yourself of how much help a CMS could bring to your business and how it could boost your website’s effectiveness by offering your visitors timely, fresh and appealing content. Undoubtedly, a content management system will help you improve your website content, making your customers keep coming back for more valuable information and you can rely on it as a regular source of business opportunities.

Arnima Design
http://www.articlesbase.com/programming-articles/content-management-systems-boost-website-productivity-729452.html

Is your business running on that old static website? Are you still hoping to change your contents one day? Do you have HTML skill in your organization? No! Then go for the Content Management System to drive your website and take a break to watch your business grow.

If you do not have HTML or other relevant language skills in your organization, consider deploying a content management system. With a content management system, you do not require the skill of a skilled programmer to write your contents. Using the content management functionalities of the content management system, you can easily manage creation, modification, and removal of contents from a Web site, without any knowledge of HTML language, while the content delivery application of the management system would compile the information and update it to your website. The features of a content management system varies, but generally includes, Web-based publishing, format management, revision control, indexing, search, and retrieval.

A content management system does wonders to your business, by helping you to easily manage your business website information in line with your competitors. The information in your website is your asset and that needs to be managed. Keeping the contents updated is the only way you can put your business at the forefront of your competitors. These contents need inevitable changes, and your content management system allows you to manage these contents with perfect ease. Without a content management system and with none of the relevant skills available in your organization, your website would surely but steadily erode your business prospects.

A content management system provides effective media for managing the informative content, results in the management of the information content, which in turn generates generous return. The use of a content management system lowers the operating costs, there-by increasing the profits. The key benefits, achieved through the deployment of a suitable content management system, and weighed against your investments, may be considered as follows:

 The content management system renders easier and rapid management of your website information, letting you create, edit, and publish the contents on a website, without any technical programming skill what-so-ever. Such a management system has a direct positive implication on cost saving in your business operation.

 Your content management system allows you to set up a discipline amongst the individuals, responsible for each management activity of the system, and the departments responsible for disseminating the necessary information required for management of the contents. The process automates the management of your website, with proper check-points, and expedites the delivery of the newly created or edited content information to your website, intranet, and extranet. This makes the management of such sites more effective and efficient, changing the way you interact externally with your customers.

 It is necessary that you maintain the accountability of the system that you are managing. A content management system allows you to track the changes that you are making and maintain a log of work history. This enables you to identify which specific content has been changed, and review the history at times to look at the specific concerned pages that have been changed.

 You can manage your work-flow through the inherent intelligent feature of such a management system. This will enable you to ensure that your contents are passing through a proper quality procedure before getting published. The process of internal messaging and tracking ensures a smooth work-flow process, which provides constant review and control of the management system in place.

 You will need to manage consistency through out the design of your website, and in that way controlling the branding. A content management system allows you to maintain such a consistency through out your WebPages, maintaining it to a desired level. This can be done regardless as to who is responsible for the management of the actual content. Your website gets a more professional outlook, and provides confidence to your clients.

 A content management system allows you to create a content once, which can be re-used many times. This facility provides the opportunity to deliver the same content to multiple locations in various presentation formats and multiple languages.

 Are you being able to keep pace with your competition? Your content management system makes it easy for you to keep your website updated through effective management of your contents, enabling your partners, customers, and your employees to find the correct information at any point of time. It is imperative that you manage your website contents to keep pace with your competitors in order to gain an effective outcome of your business activities.

 The search engines require your website to maintain consistency, in order to find relevant contents in your website rapidly and effectively. A content management system, manages the required consistency all through your website pages, making it search-engine friendly, providing a better visibility.

It is essential to be consistent in implementation of any design philosophy for a website to become successful web communication. It is entirely undesirable to have an ad hoc development of any website, having a manual editing feature, as associated with traditional static websites. This results in confused appearance of the site, in its appearance and navigation. Such designs inevitably lead to dilution of corporate image and branding, and require extreme supervision and control.

A content management system provides a way to establish consistent design philosophy and maintains uniformity in maintaining corporate branding and its identity. As one of the most important features, a content management system allows templates to be designed once, to be re-used through out. This, not only maintains the consistency of the WebPages, but also is far easier to implement and cost effective, allowing the corporate information to be presented in a suitable manner.

Prabir Sen
http://www.articlesbase.com/information-technology-articles/key-benefits-of-content-management-112390.html

It is hard to imagine a world without e-commerce nowadays, and more and more people are trying their hand at creating websites and earning money online. For anyone thinking of running an e-business, you have to give considerable thought and planning to the content management of your website. The web content management for your website involves a number of defined measures and schemes to optimize your site and your business.

Strike A Balance Between Content Management System And Website Requirement

The website can help boost the client’s presence and business over the internet. The content on the website needs to be in sync with the client’s products and services. The responsibility of the team is to pinpoint the most important areas of the business and emphasize those areas by effective use of copywriting and graphics. Here are the steps that the management team generally follow through the course of website development to satisfy the needs of the client:

* It is the responsibility of the management team to perform a postproduction review to see whether the content of the website will meet the needs of the customers visiting the site. So before uploading the pages, the team thoroughly goes through the content once again.

* The responsibility does not end with placing the material on the server. The management is also responsible for updating the content to keep with the changes in the industry.

* The management should always keep their eyes and ears open to current affairs and make necessary additions or omissions as and when necessary.

Technical Aspect Of cms

* The creative process occupies a major portion of the content managers’ work. Yet they also have to have a good idea about the technical aspects of web related activities.

* They should also be aware of the several kinds of content management software that can help to enhance the quality of the output.

* One of the major responsibilities of content management is to make the visitor experience to the website informative and at the same time user friendly. The website should be easily accessible from any part of the world and capable of supplying the information the visitor seeks.

So if you want to make your company’s presence felt in the cyber world, you have to focus on the aspect of content management. First be clear about the goals for your website and how you expect it to impact your business, and then hire a good website development company to help you accomplish your goal.

Susan Jan
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/web-content-management-to-enhance-your-business-online-81466.html

Internet has become the greatest source of all kinds of information, whether it is business or literary, academic or hobby-related. Just type in any keyword in your favorite search engine and millions of websites will pop up before you to answer your queries. You may be quite aware that these websites were created by content writers and website designers. However you may be less aware of the contributions of the content manager. The term “content management” may sound new to you, but they play a big role in the web content development.

Like any other managerial work, content management also involves coordinating a network of myriad actions, and is done essentially in a chronological order. The designing and content development are two simultaneous and important aspects of website creation. content management involves the coordination between these two parts of website development.

Content management involves the integration of two creative aspects, namely designing and writing:

* It is the writers who put pen to paper the thoughts and messages of the website owner. The designers on the other hand try to bring the content to life by complementing them with suitable graphics and other forms of visual designs.

* Both aspects of the production are monitored by the content manager. From time to time the designers are provided with necessary templates, and writers are provided with guidelines on the articles by the content management team.

* Finally, both productions merge into one to create the product, that is, the webpage.

* Now is the time for the content management team to give final touches to the product and here the role of the editorial manager becomes crucial. This is the most important stage in content management, as it is the final stage before the product finally hits the market.

* It is the efficiency of the content management system that can actually make or break the success of the WebPages. It is the scrutinizing power of the content management that decides the fate of the webpage once it has been uploaded to the server. However, a thorough scrutinizing or detailed editing does not alone influence the popularity of the website. It is the foresight of the management in choosing the topic that determines to some extent how popular the website is going to be. Thus research work should be of high quality, and it is the responsibility of the content manager to ensure that the best materials are used to produce the output.

So the content management workflow involves:

* Knowing the trends and needs of the market before deciding to launch any product

* Conducting refined research

* Thorough scrutinizing of the contents

* Smoothly coordinating between words and designs.

Susan Chen
http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/content-management-an-overview-of-its-workflow-85426.html

Web site design is not a one-size-fits-all practice. As web sites can serve a number of different purposes – supply information, attract new sales, create a community, etc – it only makes sense that web design possibilities be just as varied. One of the first considerations in creating a web design is whether a content management system, or CMS, makes sense. There are some situations when a CMS is clearly the best choice, while it may be an unnecessary collection of bells and whistles at other times.

What is a content management system?

In a nutshell, a CMS is software that organizes, powers and monitors a web site. It includes a “front end” viewable by any web user and a password-protected “back end” the general public does not see. Management of the site is centralized from this back end. Depending upon how the site is built, a content management system could include features for archiving older content, entering new content, accessing traffic metrics, managing navigation, banner rotation, polls, streaming media uploads and shopping carts, for example. The possibilities are limited only by the content management system’s configuration and capabilities.

How are traditional web designs and content

management systems different?

Unlike a CMS, “traditional” or basic HTML-based web design does not include a front and back end. Effective management of these sites requires knowledge of good coding practice, the ability to create new or integrate pre-written scripts to add functionality as needed and the creation of an efficient file/directory structure to accommodate growth.

A content management system, on the other hand, does not require specialized technical skill to use. Managing or expanding the web site is a centralized process. More advanced coding knowledge would only be required should installation of additional functionality be desired.

Major benefits of a content management system

* Coding skills are not required – A good CMS back end will be as complex to use as basic word processing software. Adding content is a simple matter of entering and formatting the text. Accessing features should be no more complicated than using a pulldown menu.

* Convenience – A content management system provides a centralized administration area from where a wide range of features from archiving to metrics may be accessed. Consequently, multiple users can manage their respective areas of the site or a single user can run the site in its entirety.

* Scalability – A properly configured CMS can accommodate the management needs of a growing website as well as accept “add-on” components to power new features as necessary.

When is a CMS unnecessary?

Despite its convenience and options, a content management system is not always the best choice. Web sites created to act only as a point of contact for a brick and mortar business, for example, may have no need for cms functionality. Similarly, small informational web sites with no plans for future growth would not benefit from a content management system’s scalability. If the benefits of using a CMS do not speak to the purpose or scope of a site, it really can be an unnecessary choice.

Choosing the best web design

Whether or not a web design should be CMS-based or not depends entirely upon the site’s purpose, plans for growth, functionality, and the availability of a webmaster or technically-savvy personnel to manage the site. A CMS would be the ideal web design choice for a business seeking to offer its customers the convenience of Internet orders, but not for a business only wishing to inform it customers of its location and hours of operation.

R. Harvey Bravman
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/understanding-content-management-systems-139703.html