CMS Jam Content Management Systems: News and Resources

If you want to do more than dip your toes into the CMS water, and would like to do a little extra customization of your CMS, you might want to consider purchasing CMS Builder. This tool makes the process of creating your new site fairly easy (although I’m not sure I would believe the less-than-5-minute claims they make). If you already have a design in mind (or an existing web site), you simply use their generator to create code for you to manage each section of your site (news, about us, contact us, etc.), adding, editing, and deleting fields to store the data as needed. Then, you copy/paste that generated code into your site’s design template. You can further customize that code by tweaking the…

This is just a really quick tip for those of you considering several different content management systems. If the CMS you are considering doesn’t have an easy way to back up the database and files (preferably automated), take it off of your short list and choose one that does. Backups are critical, and because CMS’s generally use a database to store all of your content (rather than you hard-coding the text into each page), you’ll need an easy way to backup that database. (Databases are generally not easy to backup for the non-techie). So no matter what features you need in the CMS you choose, make sure backup of the database and files is included in that list.

That’s the CMS Jam top o’ the day…

A few days ago, I mentioned two “ultra-light” CMS editors that allow you to edit pre-defined portions of your existing web pages. Since then, I’ve been told about another one that has been around for a while, but is pretty sweet.

SnippetMaster is described as “a free content editing tool for website owners or designers who want a very easy, quick, and visual way to edit pre-defined areas on any web page, through any browser, without messing up the rest of the web page.” Like the other two, you essentially define portions of a web page, using special tags, that can be edited via the CMS admin area. Like the other two, it’s super simple to do. Just do this to a page…

Page content goes…

Although I wouldn’t recommend using this type of “ultra-light” CMS for most people, I can see using it for a few. If you already have a small site that you occasionally update by changing the files, and then ftp’ing the changes up to your server, you may have been wishing for a quick way to edit just the text without dealing with FTP. There are a few CMS’s that are designed to that - and only that - so you may want to check them out.

Lil’ CMS

The first that I’ll mention is Lil’ CMS. As you’ll see from the one-page site, there’s not much to this CMS. All you’re really getting is a simple little text file editor, and instructions on how to create includes…

I promised this site was always going to be geared towards newbies, individual webmasters, and mom and pop businesses, and anyone who needs a website that is easy to manage. To that end, my aim is to focus on any CMS that lends itself to being easy to use. My assumption is that most people who want a web site aren’t programmers, aren’t techy geeks, and don’t really want to hire one. Instead, they just want to be able to putz around and get a decent site up by themselves. I applaud that DIY spirit, and hope that CMS Jam can help foster it.

Nevertheless, there are times when the easiest CMS’s may not be the right one for you. Maybe you aren’t a programmer…

The following tips apply specifically to CMS Made Simple, but some may also apply to any CMS that relies on Smarty as its backend template engine. (Smarty is used in quite a few CMS products).

You’ve been told that CMS Made Simple is … well … simple. And it is … up to a point. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, and CMS Made Simple is no exception to that rule.

If you plan to create a simple web site, with nothing more than text and graphics, you probably won’t find a much easier to user CMS than CMS Made Simple. But if you want to get a little fancier than that, you’ll need to put on someone’s geek hat and at least…

No matter what CMS package you decide to go with, there are some steps you should take to prepare for the creation of your new site. You should begin the site creation planning long before you determine which CMS will best fit your needs, and you should expect to spend at least a week to accomplish these tasks.

Step One: Make sure you don’t want your site to be just a blog. If you DO want the site to be essentially just a blog, then by all means, stop thinking in terms of CMS applications, and head right on over to WordPress to download the latest version. If, however, you don’t want your site to be a blog, (or you only want a blog to be…

What is a hosted CMS? A hosted CMS is one in which the company that created the CMS software is also the company that hosts your site. A hosted CMS is very tempting to use because all of the installation and upgrade hassle (no matter how easy it is) is in the hands of someone else. With a hosted CMS, all you have to worry about is creating content, right? Well, not exactly. The biggest worry of choosing a hosted CMS is that of lack of control. By placing control of your site in another company’s hands, you run some very real risks.

• What happens if the company folds? Does your site and all its content simply vanish?
• What happens if the company uses inferior

Over time, definitions of web-based applications tend to change. In many cases, what were once separate systems tend to be combined in mashups and how we define such systems must necessarily change. I believe we are at a crossroads in which various types of systems and sites have undergone enough iterations that we now become confused with what each means.

Although CMS stands for “content management system”, and that in itself seems like a simple thing to define (a system that allows us to manage our site content), it has historically evoked some sort of complex system that cost many thousands of dollars and could only be managed by a team of uber-geeks. I think we’ve finally begun to realize that a CMS doesn’t have to involve high…

If you frequent social networks, you’ll have seen a fair amount of buzz in the last few months about using WordPress as a CMS. I’m here to tell you that for 99% of you out there, that would be a bad idea. Don’t get me wrong. I love WordPress. I have blogs that use WordPress, including this one. I even have one non-blog that uses WordPress - as a CMS! But that doesn’t mean everyone should run out and use WordPress as a CMS, and I’m here to tell you why.

Why should most people not use WordPress as a CMS? Because it is decidedly NOT easy to do so for the average Joe. Perhaps in time it will be, but for now…