Free Online Web Applications...

As a web designer, I don’t need to tell you how awesome the internet is. You can truly find about anything you need on the net. It’s the wild west of the 21st century. As web designers, you also know how important web applications are. What’s better than just web applications for your projects, how about free web applications. Today, I have compiled a list of free design applications that you can use for your web design endeavors. It is important to note though, that these applications are not just for the hardcore designers, they are for everyone from managers, teachers, nurses, students or office workers. Though these applications are not very well known they are great for anyone interested in improving their work efficiency. Check them out!

One online application that is sure to help you in your web design endeavors is FreshBooks.  FreshBooks is an online invoicing and time tracking utility that saves your business time and money.  This application will also make you appear more professional in the eyes of your clientele.

A great way to get an understanding about how your readership feels about your website is through surveys. Premiere Survey is a free survey application that allows online surveys, web surveys, and email surveys. It also offers customer satisfaction surveys, employee satisfaction surveys and market research surveys. So if you want to better fine tune your website for your market, surveys are they way to go.

The Doodlekit website builder is powered by a database backend. This means you get extra functionality that you won’t get with most other website maker tools. We help you make your website a success with: blogs, forums, shopping carts, custom forms and much more. Our free website builder is ever-expanding, which means the longer you own your site, the more new features and functions you’ll discover.

Whether you’re a novice or an experienced web user, Doodlekit’s website builder can help you create the perfect website for your business or personal needs.

Another great application for you internet business is Zapproved. Zapproved is a web tool that makes group decision-making more efficient and accountable. This unique solution introduces peer-to-peer and organization techniques to improve the process of building consensus.

A great application for your web design purposes is FileDropper. The great thing about FileDropper is its simple interface. FileDropper provides one click file hosting. To do this, you just click the upload button and select you file and the file is taken to the page where it is hosted. You can upload to a remarkable 5 GB.

W3Counter offers you website analytics, real time web stats and web counter. The best thing about W3Counter is that it’s free and that it answers the questions: who’s using your website, how did they reach you website, and what do the find attractive about it.

These free web applications should help every web designer out there who wants to work more efficiently and improve upon their website. In addition, these applications are also beneficial for anyone wanting to improve upon their quality of work. Check them out and delve deeper into these exciting programs.

Content Management – An Overview Of Its Work...

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.

Sitecore CMS Implementation...

eDynamic completes Web Strategy, User Experience Design & Sitecore CMS Implementation for Aviva

New Delhi, June 8: : eDynamic has successfully re-designed & developed the Aviva corporate website. This end-to-end Web Solutions engagement with Aviva includes Web Strategy, User Experience Design, Content Management System (CMS) implementation, Portal Revamp, Product Microsites & Online Marketing. The new website – avivaIndia has been launched recently.

Aviva’s core objectives for this initiative were to re-position the website as a key engine for branding as well as customer, agent & employee acquisition. Their aim was also to ensure an enriching best-of-breed experience that completely revitalizes the Web journey of their end users.

eDynamic partnered with Aviva to chart out a roadmap to achieve these objectives by strategizing on a new website that would market Aviva’s products aggressively and also drive high lead conversion & customer engagement. This new website is based upon proven tenets of high usability & has been created with future flexibility & scalability in mind.

To create a dynamic, cutting edge Web presence that would be friendly to Search Marketing & other Web 2.0 channels, eDynamic implemented the new website on Sitecore’s CMS. eDynamic is a Sitecore partner for North America, the Middle East & India. Sitecore’s CMS is a leading, .NET CMS that is rapidly becoming the preferred technology for flexible & easy to manage websites.

To elevate the online experience of Aviva’s prospects & customers, eDynamic also developed innovative tools, calculators & other Web applications for the website.

Phase II of this engagement includes a complete revamp of Aviva’s Customer Portal along with the launch of strategic product microsites. This phase would also see eDynamic strategizing & executing a Search Marketing program for higher Web traffic & conversions for Aviva.

Speaking on the launch Subir Singh, Partner, eDynamic said, “We have worked with the best in the Insurance industry. The relationship with Aviva carries forward our legacy of Insurance successes & gives us plenty of pride & opportunity to create best-of-breed solutions for a world leader in Life Insurance”.

About Aviva : Aviva is UK’s largest and the world’s fifth largest insurance Group. It is one of the leading providers of life and pensions products to Europe and has substantial businesses elsewhere around the world. With a history dating back to 1696, Aviva has a 45 million customer base worldwide. It has more than £359 billion of assets under management.

About eDynamic (www.edynamic.net): Established in 1999, eDynamic is a Global Web Solutions Firm. We offer a wide range of services including Web and Enterprise Content Management, Portals, Web Design/User Experience, Online Marketing, Custom Application Development, Business Intelligence, CRM & Managed Services. eDynamic’s clients include American Express, New York Life, HarperCollins, Moneris Solutions, PepsiCo, Frito Lay among many others.

About Sitecore: Sitecore’s award-winning CMS software allows over 1,500 customers to create and maintain dynamic Web sites. Over 5000 sites are currently being managed with Sitecore, including Sara Lee, Siemens, Toshiba, Dollar Rent a Car/Thrifty, Omni Hotels, Computer Associates, WebTrends, as well as a number of government and independent associations.

Corporate Event Management: See your Business Grow...

Corporate events are the most effective and strategic tools to make the advertising and corporate communication more reliable and effective. Corporate strategies are now very eminent while organizing press conferences, promotional events and other corporate launches. The moment you start to organize the corporate event you need to put-in an effective management decision to execute the best available resources.

These corporate events include Dinners, meetings and events, product launches and other sort of corporate conferences. The number of details needs to be considered is much greater than what we consider. Since the corporate events are very big thing to manage a good and effective corporate event management should place-in to make the things more corrective and usual.

The corporate event management planning companies are the expert care takers of the corporate events and there management. A number of activities are taken care during the event management module. These activities include venue selection, catering arrangements, planning and sitting arrangement etc.

An effective corporate management handles all the effective activities in the corporate event management like press conferences, product launching, corporate meetings and various corporate seminars in very planned and managed way. The professionals who are expert at corporate event management have enough expertise in handling corporate events such as award ceremonies, film premiers, fashion shows and film launching and releasing ceremonies.

These corporate events are very much imperative in nature as it leaves a very lasting impression on the target audience and also enhances the brand awareness and company goodwill. Some of the facilities for the corporate event management may be outsourced in the need of hour. These utilities may be the technical audio-visual materials and the equipments needed for the technical executions.

Many companies are nowadays doing successful planning and execution of various kinds of event management schedules. Some corporate event management organizers invite industry analysts, customers, partners and even journalists to acknowledge the status of the event. Whether the extent of the event is small or big, the nature of the services is catered to make the event customer-centric and very much target-oriented. Nowadays a number of interactive software are available that manage the automated handling of corporate event management effectively.

Get the well designed corporate website through Of...

Are you willing in expanding your global business domain?

Of course yes, everybody wants to have broader ruling reign and hence business masters prefer corporate websites. Here comes the name ‘DesignGenies’ that has prominently marked its presence on the global horizon of offshore web application including the field of corporate website designing and development. Here in this article, we will explore varieties of aspects of corporate websites.

Corporate websites are equally significant for beginner as well as already established companies. So, the company like DesignGenies comes on the top of our priority list. It has expertise in web hosting, flash multimedia design, logo and graphic design, and domain registration. Additional expertise like search engine optimization and internet marketing make it the most desired offshore web application service provider. In more specific words, it is the ultimate platform for complete web solution. Hence, whenever we speak about offshore web development, the DesignGenies comes on the top of the list.

One can never ignore the term like ‘e-commerce’ if he/she is in the process of developing a corporate website. To be the best offshore application service provider, one must have fine understanding about some of the essential integral tools of corporate websites like shopping cart, safe and secure payment gateway, wisely framed privacy statement, and the most important one ‘certification seal’. Hence, due to the immaculate understanding upon all these terms, the name like DesignGenies stands far ahead from all its competitors.

A corporate website must be immaculate from all aspects be it security or looks. So, the prudent designers do not hesitate in using tool like flash animation as well. Though, it is suggested by search engine optimizers due to its unfriendly nature with search engines. Company like DesignGenies makes sure that the corporate website could showcase products or services in interactive and entertaining way or one can say that the company makes sure that every visit to the corporate website should be memorable and full of pleasing experiences for every potential client.

The company believes that there must be long lasting impression about the products or services. Long last impression always works. It influences impressed person to be associate directly or indirectly. Hence, he or she either directly hires you or recommend you to all his or her friends and concerning business fraternity.

Content Management System (CMS) – An Overview...

Why CMS?

Content plays an important role in determining any website’s popularity, that’s why it is known as “King of the web”. So it is very important for us to keep our website updated with the latest happenings of the company. Everyone is nowadays struggling to keep their websites up-to-date. Gone are the days when static websites were used. As more people are becoming familiar with internet, it has become very essential for us to revise our websites around the clock. To design the content for the website, we need to employ website designers and for further modification also we need to rely on them. As human-being always have some limitations. So it is not a good idea to rely on human being for something which can be easily done with the help of software (CMS).

With the advent of content management system it has become very easy to build and manage the content of our website without having any technical knowledge, which is otherwise a big task. CMS is equipped with lots of in-build libraries of graphics, affiliate program links, which can be utilized even by common man to build and manage the websites.

What is CMS?

According to Wikipedia CMS is a computer application used to manage work flow needed to collaboratively create, edit, review, index, search, publish and archive various kinds of digital media and electronic text. CMS are frequently used for storing, controlling, versioning, and publishing industry-specific documentation such as news articles, operators’ manuals, technical manuals, sales guides, and marketing brochures. The content managed may include computer files, image media, audio files, video files, electronic documents, and web content. 

What are the benefits of using CMS?

CMS provides flexibility and convenience for any person to design and manage their website on their own without actually relying on any technical people with ease. Content management system can be a great help for those consumers (school/ college pupil or housewives) turned into publishers also, who are trying to find out ways to manage their content output. These people don’t have time and money to spend for website designers or programmers but they want to publish their thoughts as soon as it strikes them and customize their websites frequently on their own.
There are various other advantages of CMS, some of them are:

Saves time: CMS greatly saves the time to publish the content; it makes you to publish content faster, which is very necessary in order to create value to the content in modern days.
  Simple & affordable to deploy : Many CMS like Joomla is open source CMS are coming for free and its portability between lots of versions and its scalability on different platforms makes it very simple to use.
  The CMS service can be delivered through internet. It doesn’t require any hardware to manage or software to install separately only for CMS.
  Easy to use and publish content online even without any technical knowledge.
  The handling and controlling of errors makes it very simple to use.
  It is equipped with lots of customizable templates which are ready to use and can be easily applied to the content.
  It can speed up the creation and maintenance of websites using web components and plugins.
  CMS can also keep you in touch with the social media by using blogs, message boards, RSS etc.
  It can be shared by multiple people having different user and administration rights in an organization because it establishes defined publishing processes.
  Reconstruct/Reuse the content: CMS is equipped with the feature of reusability of the content since the content is stored in database. It generates completely new output with the available content.
  Content scheduling: Content publication can be scheduled using CMS to keep track of who is publishing what, how quickly content is getting published, whether the publication schedule is being stuck to, whether out-of-date, content is being removed quickly enough, etc. In this way using CMS one can easily measure the success of your publishing efforts.
  CMS allows you to consistently manage the metadata through content template structures. Metadata plays an important role in SEO. Eventually it helps you to get good rankings in Search engines.
  Using CMS one can secure its intranet privacy of content, which is really an important thing as different people of an organization could have allocated different rights to view, edit and publish the content.
  Distributed maintenance: One can easily edit the content from anywhere, anytime using a common web browser which removes lots of bottlenecks.

Summary: CMS provides great comfort to the user to manage the content effectively and lucratively. CMS can also be helpful to those publishers who want to publish lots of content but don’t have technical knowledge. CMS also allows you to design common and consistent web content architecture, which is very essential to have a competent website. By using CMS user can get updated with the latest technologies of the world with ease. But before selecting any CMS, be mindful, as bad CMS can worsen your life.

Cms Development – it is Extremely Necessary for ...

Before elaborating upon CMS Development, it would be better to expand the acronym CMS. CMS stands for content management system. It is a sort of engine that is operational in the back-end of a website, thus allowing website owners to manage content posted on their sites. Content can be in the form of texts, pictures, music and documents. If you want to make your website reliable, flexible and user friendly, then CMS development can come in handy for you.

Whether you want to add new content, upgrade or delete the present content, or whether it involves website templates adjustment, CMS allows web masters to take care of all the aspects concerning their website. For CMS development, you can contact different firms that deal in CMS development. A true CMS will allow you to have full control over your website, helping you manage the content in whichever way you want.

It saves your time as it helps you focus on unique content creation without wasting your precious time dealing with stubborn software that you are using at the moment. When you are hiring a company for CMS development, just let it know some of the details such as what kind of content you are seeking, what kind of role you are seeking for your users, and what kind of access you want to provide for users. The leading companies that have high experience in CMS development provide optimized CMS that can bear high server loads. It will run on SQL database.

Properly designed CMS are user friendly, functional and flexible, without being complicated due to buttons and functions in excess quantity. For a better website development, you need a highly customized CMS. You will be able to control navigation and sound using CMS. A well developed CMS allows you to control Flash animations , gaming, page or news generation without having to gain web programming knowledge.

So, CMS development is necessary for a highly featured website development so that you can derive high traffic. The target audience should not feel difficulty in navigating through your website. You will be able carve a niche for your online business.

The Best Web Design and Graphic Software is Availa...

Macromedia’s Studio 8 Suite Academic Software Package

Macromedia Dreamweaver

My first choice for HTML editors is Macromedia’s Dreamweaver. It has an easy to use, intuitive user interface and state of the art design tools. With a customizable user interface, you can work the way you need to. Although the student software doesn’t come with manuals, Dreamweaver has excellent online tutorials.

You can design intricate CSS-based layouts and designs easily with tools that allow for quick selection and control of page and site wide style properties. There is a built in graphics editor that uses Macromedia Fireworks technology. Dreamweaver allows you to develop HTML, XHTML, XML, ASP, ASP.NET, JSP, PHP, and Macromedia ColdFusion websites.

It has a cross-browser code validation feature that automatically checks tags and CSS rules for compatibility across all the leading browsers and allows you to configure browser preview for multiple browsers.

One of the nicest features is the Property Inspector that enables quick, comprehensive property editing that makes getting it perfect a no-brainer. This is the editor I use to create and maintain all of my web sites. I have used the entire professional and many of the other HTML editors available and can say that Dreamweaver is absolutely the best HTML editor. Since Dreamweaver is taught in most graphic design curriculums, it inclusion in the academic software package is needed.

Macromedia Fireworks

Fireworks is Macromedia’s answer to Photoshop and is included in the student software package. Fireworks have all the tools, a web professional needs to create everything from simple graphical buttons to sophisticated rollover effects. You can import, edit, and integrate all major graphics formats, including vector and bitmap images and easily export Fireworks images to Flash, Dreamweaver, and third-party applications.

Besides all of the normal features you would expect in a professional photo editing program, fireworks includes new interactive design features and the ability to create pop-up menus in the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) format without the need for programming. One thing Fireworks does exceptionally well is batch processing. I use Fireworks batch processing all of the time to optimize entire directories of photographs. I can resize and optimize 50 photographs in just a couple of minutes.

Macromedia Flash Pro 8

Flash is the industry leader for creation animation and video movies for streaming over the internet. Flash creates movies with surprising small files sizes. That translates to quick download times and the availability to use flash animation on slower links and mobile devices and comes complete with tools for video creation especially for mobile devices. Flash pro 8 provides everything needed to create great looking videos. Since flash is being used more frequently is essential that it be part of an academic software package.

Macromedia Contribute

Contribute is Macromedia’s answer to the problem of content management. It provides the ability to change the content of a website without having to know anything about HTML, but does not need all the expensive software and databases that a regular content management system uses. Contribute allows companies to buy an inexpensive tool that lets them provide content without messing with the design. Contribute is a solution that is custom-made for small to mid-sized companies that don’t need all the power of CMS, but would like some of the benefits. Being included in the academic software package will give students an opportunity to see how a very simple CMS system works.

Macromedia Flash Paper

Flash Paper generates compact, fast-opening Flash documents that can be published to any website using Macromedia Contribute, Dreamweaver, or any other HTML tool. Flash Paper creates Flash documents through intuitive Microsoft Office integration and file drag and drop. Create Flash documents that are immediately available cross-platform on any web browser. Compact Flash documents open within a web page, eliminating the need for a separate viewer application. Flash documents can also be incorporated into Flash projects. Adding this to the student software package allows the student to experience using a very handy tool.

Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 Premium Academic Software Package

Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is the graphics industry standard and my choice of photo editing software. I have to admit I love Photoshop. You can create original images or modify photos using a wide range of painting, drawing, and retouching tools. You can work the way that’s best for you by creating personalized workspace and tool settings and customized keyboard shortcuts.

You can achieve sophisticated results by compositing images, text, and effects on hundreds of layers that you control by grouping into sets, color coding, and locking. You can simulate traditional fine-art techniques with dry and wet brush effects, pastel, charcoal, and more and even use brushes to add special effects such as grass and leaves.

There are tools to improve the color, contrast, and dynamic range of any image, easily remove dust, scratches, blemishes, wrinkles, and other flaws with the Healing Brush. Photoshop can give high quality output by working with the complete raw data files from most major digital camera models. It’s great all-around imaging software. Photoshop is taught in all graphic curriculums and had to be included in the student software package.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is also taught in every school’s graphic curriculum and is another essential part of a student software package. It is also an essential tool for anyone who needs to express ideas visually in print, on the Web, and in any other medium. When my clients send me a rough pencil drawing of the logo they want for their business, I create the logo in Illustrator then import into Photoshop to get it ready for their web page.

Illustrator has great 3D features, advanced typographical controls, Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) integration and enhanced printing options. Illustrator will help create and efficiently publish your artwork anywhere.

One of the nicest features is the ability to apply live effects without affecting the underlying artwork, so you can edit at any time without starting over. There are blending modes and transparency effects similar to those in Photoshop software but, unlike Photoshop, Illustrator has intuitive tools such as the Pencil, Smooth, Erase, and Pen tools.

Adobe InDesign

InDesign is the best page layout software available and is the choice of most print design professionals. With the advent of paid subscription totally-digital magazines, it is getting popular for laying out the print like pages of these products.

It can integrate with both Photoshop and Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) file formats and supports the multiple layer capability of Photoshop. It is an all around necessary tool for the professional graphic designer. Although not usually covered in most curriculums, it is a welcome addition to any academic software package;

Adobe GoLive

GoLive is Adobe’s answer to Dreamweaver. It has all of the features that you can find in Dreamweaver and is integrated directly into the rest of adobe products. Personally, I prefer Dreamweaver but golive is an excellent HTML editor and completes the suite for a web designer. Although usually on touched in classes, GoLive is welcome addition to any student software package.

Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat is the number one tool used to create the widely used PDF document format. With it’s built in security features that can prevent the user from copying or changing the document and the ability to require a password to open the document, acrobat is still one of the leading choices for creating paid e-books. This program is an absolute necessity for a web designer and therefore a welcome addition to the academic software package.

Adobe Version Cue

Version Cue is a file manager that tracks the different versions of the files you create with the graphics as well as some others. It is a very nice tool if you have several people collaborating on a project since you can maintains a complete change history of the files.

Joomla Open source – Build website instantly...

Open source Content Management system is a software program adaptable to all websites in helping to organize the content on website. It does not matter if its Text, Images, Music files, Videos or what ever, the content management System will be very easy to organize all. Open source Content Management systems are easy to operate. It is easy to use and user friendly software which does not requires high skills. Some one with little bit knowledge of computer and programming can easily operates it. Open source Integration is really easy and a person who does not have programming background can also implement it for building a nice website.

Joomla is one of the best open source content management systems (CMS). When you plan to build a website first thing comes to your mind is a hassle free operation of your website. For this Joomla, Wordpress and other CMS like Drupal, Magento are getting huge popularity with their user friendly Admin.

For placing any content, picture, video, music or for building an Ecommerce website CMS are always very helpful. Open source implementation can build a website very quickly so you do not have to wait for very long time to ready your website. With less time in building a website it’s very easy to promote business and start earnings. Joomla provides the basic framework for software applications, but because it is an open source code, anyone can develop a module that will take the basics to unlimited dimensions. Building great websites with Joomla using free Joomla templates is really very easy, even though the software does have a reputation of being difficult to learn.

Joomla and wordpress are two most famous and great featured CMS and both have their unique values. Now a days its very necessary for any website to be SEO friendly for getting higher rank in search engines for better return on investment(ROI). Our skilled Joomla developers have achieved great amount of proficiency in Joomla development, Joomla Component development, Joomla customization, Joomla Modules development and Joomla integration. While making websites with Joomla usually means creating portal type of web site & small personal web sites can easily be built too.

Joomla has its own modules, component which can reduce a huge time of coding. Joomla component development will be needed some programming skills and it can be developed easily. Rightway solution is one of the leading PHP Programming and software development company expertise in Open source customizations.

Talking for another Open source content management system Wordpress, it is having a blogging platform system. If any one wants to have a good blogging website with great blogging features wordpress can really a best option. Wordpress has Plugins, widgets which can make your blogging website very powerful and attractive. Wordpress installation is very simple. Full installation guide can be found by visiting at http://wordpress.tv/category/how-to/installation-how-to/

It doesn’t matter which Open source content management system you decide to use but make sure that it is right one for you to fulfill your website requirement. Every CMS offers different functions and having different modules now.

Understanding Content Management Systems...

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.