What is a Content Management System (CMS) and why would I use one to create my website?

I am a huge fan of Content Management Systems (CMS). In my opinion, A CMS hides the technical aspects of a website from the user and leaves the website owner to deal with what is going to generate profit. You don't want to be spending most of your time lining up HTML tables or manually inserting graphics into your website. Either use a CMS or hire someone to design and maintain your website.

With a Content Management System, you simply load the software onto your server or use a hosting service that provides the software for you. You can then quickly generate a website with little technical knowledge. Don't get me wrong, any software has a learning curve, but if you are comfortable working on the internet you can get a website driven by a CMS up and running much faster than you could with an HTML editor. In fact, I find that my development time is decreased by an average of 60% over typical HTML development when using a CMS.

You will be able to login to your CMS and then add pages using an editor which has functionality similar to a text editor. You can easily add text, tables, images, etc by clicking on the appropriate tool.

Content Management Systems can be broken down into two types — Standard and Blog Format. Obviously the more you are willing to pay the more features you will get, and several of the free Content Management Systems are loaded with features that will allow you to display your content in virtually limitless fashion. A list of the different Content Management Systems can be found on WikiPedia.

One CMS that is not on the above mentioned WikiPedia list is WordPress. WordPress is free blog software but it is also a CMS. You can create a complete website with WordPress and there are even plug-ins available to create an online store with WordPress. I recommend WordPress when a website owner wants to frequently update a website with new content. For example, this website, InternetBusinessAnswers.com is built with WordPress.

If you don't want to use the blogging features WordPress has available, another great free CMS is Joomla. Joomla is easy to install and manage. It is also very reliable.

If you are not comfortable with installing CMS software you can simply find a hosting provider that makes it easy to install Joomla or Wordpress. Simply visit Google and type in searches such as "Joomla Hosting", "Wordpress Hosting", or "Fantastico Hosting". Fantastico is a tool that automates the installation process of many popular Content Management Systems.

A CMS is a great way to get a website online quickly and it also makes maintaining the website much easier. Since many good Content Management Systems are free, consider a CMS to bring your timely content to the waiting world.