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To CMC or Not to CMS

Many organizations want to manage some of the content on their websites. This type of site is called a content management system - or CMS.

Media Architects can customize monthly & quarterly maintenance packages where we make content changes pertinent to your specific site and business type. These contracts are normally less expensive than CMS hosting for specialty CMS sites, such as club/team, church, and real estate websites. 

What is different about a website that contains CMS versus one where the updates and other changes are made by your designer or "webmaster"? It means that the site is designed from the beginning so that pre selected areas can be updated by anyone who has a password in your organization, and that has a basic familiarity with the Internet. These areas usually include blogs, messages from the company president, project photos, etc. You, the client, perform the updates in a framework and design that is created just for your business.

 

Using a url on the Internet to access a login page, the User provides a login name and password and then proceeds to edit certain or all pages of their website. The overall look, feel (brand) and functionality of the site is static however. That part is designed by the website pro, like Media Architects.

 

Does the CMS approach to a website design cost less?

Normally, cms sites cost more up front if you pay a designer who customizes and brands your website. CMS sites require a more work on the part of the designer. They also sometimes cost more to administer over time, given that the administrator becomes responsible for the function of possibly hundreds of heavily coded files integral to CMS functioning, including required file updates, as is the norm with the ever-changing Internet. If you accept that part of your "self sufficiency" is to be responsible to perform these updates yourself, and fix issues with technicians over the phone when they arise, then CMS is still for you. Alternatively, you can ask us to keep aware of and perform updates. We'll build that responsibility into an annual fee.

 

CMS can cost less over time if your organization requires changing the site content frequently, as would be the case with a retail site, special event, restaurant or club site, or a site that includes a blog. I recommend CMS for these types of sites. What you would have paid us to do, for example, you are paying your staff to do instead.

 

The up front cost is more; much more coding is required, but it can pay off in the long run if control is your goal.

 

Note there is free CMS available, where there are no hosting fee increases. We use it for customers as indicated. We can not assure you that the "free" nature of the service will continue however; e.g., Drupal Gardens just implemented fees for their cool sites, which require more than entry level Internet skills but are very powerful when you get to know the program. Wordpress templates are another tool in which we can design on your behalf and then have you assume the updates. They have both free and fee-based sites.

 

A free cms tool that has remained free for some years now is Google's calendar. It can be incorporated into a website as a page, which the site owner can constantly update by signing in with their own Google acct.

 

Be aware, some freebees require all the file transfer (ftp) information to work; e.g., cushycms.com. This is not an optimum security compromise for all types of businesses, but we will incorporate it into a site at the client's risk if it's requested.

 

When is it better to have the designer perform your edits?

 

If there is a Top Ten for why you want your designer to execute the updates to your site, it is because, in reality, you know in your heart that it won't get done otherwise. You will think about it, and think about, but your plans for updates will not come to fruition. This is deadly for a website that is used for more than pointing customers to information. Not only should content be fresh for returning visitors to your site, but search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing will tend to ignore your site over time (unless other internet activity is connecting people to it, like a Facebook page or group, for example).

 

When your website just needs little tweaks several times of the year, this is cheaper and more efficient if your website designer does it; to highlight new projects through a series of photos, for example, and/or to change text here and there to optimize your site for search engine results (SEO). We have both: the talent and the software to make your custom website banners for promotions and business highlights (and for printed matter and other media as well). We can also derive something useful from marginal photography efforts from your staff (e.g., project photos), so, it's a matter of efficiency.

 

Media Architects can customize monthly and quarterly maintenance packages where we make content changes pertinent to your specific site and business type. These contracts are normally less expensive than CMS hosting for specialty CMS sites, such as club/team, church, and real estate websites. 

 

Please contact us for more information:

Phone: (978) 463-9151 / Hours: 9:00 am to 6 pm weekdays, and Sat. mornings by appointment