The option to break a website up into segments utilizing PHP calls, most commonly a header, footer, right and / or left sidebar and main content has always been a possibility for years, it’s required long hours of coding and continuous testing, all by hand.  Content management systems, or CMS for short, have helped redefine how websites are built on both small and large scales.

At the core, a CMS is a database, usually MySQL, that allows users to create, edit and store content (HTML) and manage it all from one centralized location.  CMS is the framework that holds your site together and you fill it with your content.  This framework is installed on your web server and then accessed through a web browser to the administration area, typically called the back end.  For web visitors, the site appears as nearly any other website on the Internet.

Choosing to build your site with a CMS has many advantages, from allowing others within your company to quickly edit, add or remove specific content on pages or deploy pages on their own to the flexibility of managing the entire site from one centralized back end location; no more need to keep all the pages of your site on a local drive to edit in a text editor then FTP to your server.  CMS allow you to focus your time on content, not coding, since most all of the popular models include a very straight forward what you see is what you get editor, commonly called a WYSIWYG.

The other huge advantage to CMS is the speed and flexibility to easily install and launch thousands of the most common and helpful web applications.  Each application of CMS has their own terms for what they call these add-ons, some are called plugins while others refer to them as widgets or modules.  These add-ons install in seconds and can give you functions like photo galleries, contact forms and even social media bookmarkers, all of which would have taken hours to install manually page by page.

Among the most popular CMS out there are:

• WordPress (being used more and more for CMS and not blogging)
• Drupal
• Magneto
• Silverstrip
• Joomla
• Pligg

With the arrival of WordPress in 2003, the future of content management systems was revealed. Few would have thought that in seven years, WordPress would develop into the premier CMS for individuals to use and, by 2010, would be responsible for managing 2% of the top 10,000 websites on the Internet. Like it or not, WordPress has become the top program to use and amazingly, it has stayed free for over 202 million websites worldwide to take advantage of.

Using WordPress, therefore, as your content management system should be a no-brainer. It allows someone with very limited web skills to begin publishing content almost immediately after installing the program – albeit, it would be nice to have a solid theme on the site as well as some basic search engine optimization. More importantly, though, it allows for changes to the site to be done with minimal coding skills. Why then, would anyone not want to use it?

If you’re honestly considering using WordPress as your CMS, skip the free route of WordPress.com and go with the self-hosted version. Purchase a domain name, get some hosting and then install the program. Don’t worry about difficulty because WordPress has amazing tutorials on how to do just about anything. Once you’ve got the site set up, there are a few things that are absolutely necessary pre-launch.

• Publish some initial content. You want there to be articles on the site immediately so that when readers come to it, whether it is one or many, they have something to read and engage with.
• Get a theme set up. There are free ones available; however, if you’re going for the professional look, consider getting a custom one done. That’s something ThoughtMechanics.com does.
• Put a newsletter on the site. If you’re looking for clients, a newsletter is the best way to get return visitors.
• Start working on SEO. This includes, but is not limited, to purchasing links, doing article marketing and getting your name out there while building link juice for your site. This is something that ThoughtMechanics.com does as well.

WordPress is an incredible program to use for your site. It is sleek and well constructed. Using it for your CMS can take the hassle out of running a website. Following the basic tips provided above is an effective method of launching your site properly. The goal is to get new business and more money; WordPress is a great way of accomplishing that.