Tips for Easily Creating Websites

Nowadays, creating a website has become quite a bit easier for beginners who do not possess programming experience. Some open source project development teams have created great Content Management Systems(CMS) which really make it so easy for beginners. CMS are in fact websites but have a very special characteristic. They are created as a general container for your needs. When you install such a software at your host server, you just get a simple website that is FULLY customizable to your needs. Therefore, instead of focusing on programming a website from scratch, you receive a nice workspace to work with and have no need of programming knowledge(though it helps for sure sometimes).

There are various CMS that you can find for free but some of them are really well known and used worldwidely. Before focusing on the best of them, however, i would like to briefly discuss the pros and cons of using or not using such CMS.

Advantages of using a CMS

1. It’s easier to create and design your website since all the code that does that is already there for you.
2. They contain lots of modules for various tasks, like user messaging, RSS, chat, IM, Forum and many many more that would otherwise need LOTS of coding to create.
3. Most of them make Search Engine Optimization a very easy task, due to their automated modules.
4. They contain very nice admin panels that would need quite some work to be created individually for a website.

Disadvantages of using a CMS

1. Since CMS are there to serve various website needs, it’s most probable that you would need some very good customization to bring the website to your needs.
2. Because they contain lots of modules and code that was created to serve for various tasks, they tend to be quite slow when compared to individual websites.
3. They work like a “black box”. They operate well but you do not really know what is under their code unless you’re an experienced programmer. This makes it hard to change the source code even if you are a programmer. The good news is that you rarely really have to do that.
4. CMS, due to their overwhelming size of source code, might possess some security threats, especially if you use lots of modules.

In short, CMS are a good way to easily create a website if you can suffer these small drawbacks. I am not against them, i also have used them for some websites i created in the past, but i tend to like my individually created websites better, because they closely fit my needs.

“I decided to use a CMS, which one should i use?”

Well, opinions differ quite a bit. Not every CMS is for every occasion. In terms of generic website CMS, the conquering software are Drupal and Joomla. Lots of discussion has been made about them and i reckon both of them to be pretty good for most needs. Personally i tend to use Drupal more but Joomla is really a good alternative. I would say that if you need to select one, keep in mind that Joomla is a bit better for beginners.

Of course, Joomla and Drupal should not be used for every website just because they are generic. Say, for instance, that you need to create a dating website. In that case, although both of them can be transposed to a dating site, they would not really be a good choice. Instead, you should go about using a dedicated dating websites CMS like OSDate(free) or AbleDating(commercial).

Or say that you need to create an arcade gaming flash website. Again, Drupal or Joomla would not be the best choice. You would be better off trying a CMS like GameScript or such.

Find the perfect tool for the job you need to do. Take some time investigating what software is available and choose what you feel is better for you.

Is Wordpress a CMS ?

Of course ! Wordpress is the most well known(and probably best) CMS for creating online blogs. You could always go about programming your own blog from scratch, but with wordpress i don’t really feel the need to. WP is already a very good blog system and quite fast as well. The best about WP and niche oriented CMS is the fact that they do not contain code doing just about anything but focus on their main topic, being blogs and blog tools for wordpress. So, if you go about creating a blog, i would highly recommend Wordpress.

To conclude i would say that most times i would vote for creating a website using a CMS. This way, you create your website fast and already have great SEO techniques working for you under the box(after you do some trivial configuration that is). Then, you are better on focusing on content and marketing in order to communicate your website to others. Therefore, if you feel that a CMS is good for your case, go for it. But DO NOT RUSH IT. Take your time optimizing your website before starting to create content. After all, the first thing you need to focus before writing content, is creating an appealing website,  because we live in a world where appearance matters, not only for people but even for websites.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 7:03 pm and is filed under General Website Creation Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.