WDI

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Content Management Systems (CMS) and Web Content Management Systems (Web CMS) are ‘hot topics’ at the moment. It seems that that they are being discussed in many different places on the Web (forums, blogs, articles, etc.). Since choosing a CMS and Web CMS system has become such an important decision these days, I thought it would be a good idea to review two of the more popular Content Management Systems, Drupal and Joomla! (the exclamation point is part of their name which frequently gets omitted).

As a foundation for this topic, I thought I would use Wikpedia’s definitions of CMS and Web CMS:

“A content management system (CMS) is a program used to create a framework for the content of a Web site. CMSes are deployed primarily for interactive use by a potentially large number of contributors. For example, the software for the website Wikipedia is based on a wiki, which is a particular type of content management system. As used in this article, Content Management means Web Content Management. Other related forms of content management are listed below.

The content managed includes computer files, image media, audio files, electronic documents and web content. The idea behind a CMS is to make these files available inter-office, as well as over the web. A CMS would most often be used as an archive as well. Many companies use a CMS to store files in a non-proprietary form. Companies use a CMS to share files with ease, as most systems use server-based software, even further broadening file availability. As shown below, many CMSs include a feature for Web Content, and some have a feature for a “workflow process”.

“Workflow” is the idea of moving an electronic document along for either approval, or for adding content. Some CMSs will easily facilitate this process with email notification, and automated routing. This is ideally a collaborative creation of documents. A CMS facilitates the organization, control, and publication of a large body of documents and other content, such as images and multimedia resources.”

And here’s their definition of Web CMS:

“Web Content Management Systems are often used for storing, controlling, versioning, and publishing industry-specific documentation such as news articles, operators’ manuals, technical manuals, sales guides, and marketing brochures. A web content management system may support the following features:

• Identification of all key users and their content management roles.
• The ability to assign roles and responsibilities to different content categories or types.
• Definition of the content work flow tasks, often coupled with event messaging so that content managers are alerted to changes in content.
• The ability to track and manage multiple versions of a single instance of content.
• The ability to publish the content to a repository to support access to the content. Increasingly, the repository is an inherent part of the system, and incorporates enterprise search and retrieval.
• Some content management systems allow the semantic layer of content to be separated to some extent from its layout. For example the CMS may automatically set the color, fonts, or emphasis of text.

While the two definitions don’t sound that different from each other, they both serve slightly different roles. Each has a slightly different primary focus, yet both can accomplish pretty much the same tasks. The question when trying to choose a system to use really comes down to what the primary role of the CMS will be for the company in question. Once that role has been established, choosing an appropriate CMS program is critical for you and your client. Two of the major players in this market are Drupal and Joomla!. Each appeal in different ways to different people. Again, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about each of them:

“Drupal is a free and open source modular framework and content management system (CMS) written in the programming language PHP. Drupal, like many modern CMSs, allows the system administrator to create and organize content, customize the presentation, automate administrative tasks, and manage site visitors and contributors. Although there is a sophisticated programming interface, most tasks can be accomplished with little or no programming. Drupal is sometimes described as a “web application framework,” as its capabilities extend from content management to enabling a wide range of services and transactions. Drupal runs in many environments, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and any platform that supports either the Apache (version 1.3+), or IIS (version IIS5+) Web server and the PHP language (version 4.3.3+). Drupal requires a database such as MySQL or PostgreSQL to store content and settings.

Joomla! is a free, open source content management system for publishing content on the world wide web and intranets. The system includes features such as page caching to improve performance, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, website searching, and language internationalization. Joomla is licensed under the GPL, and is the result of a fork of Mambo. The name Joomla is properly written with an exclamation mark as that is part of the name, but this is commonly omitted. It is written in the PHP programming language and uses the MySQL database by default.”

The final thing to consider is whether or not your customer really needs to have a CMS. If their website, for example, is only 10 pages and doesn’t need consistent updating, a CMS is probably not the best choice for them. However, if it is a larger website that needs consistent updating or new content added frequently, a CMS is probably a good idea for that customer.

Here’s a comment I found in a forum that I thought made a lot of sense and is directly related to the topic above:

“A year or so ago I realised that a CMS would be a great thing to offer my clients. Because they don’t have the technical knowledge to update their website, in my opinion it is essential that they have a way to update their website - whether this is via a CMS or a content maintenance service that my company provides. And in some situations, a CMS is just the best option.”

The general rule of thumb is that if a site needs a CMS, it should meet at least one of the following three reasons:

1. The site has content producers and managers who need to update and modify content on a regular basis.
2. Human audience — if the site is “social” in its aspect, then a management system needs to be in place for those people who use, consume, and potentially enhance the site’s content.
3. The machine or software audience — If the site needs to be ranked highly, then you need to have a system in place for those devices or applications that will consume/read machine readable forms of your content (RSS, etc.).

Generally, this is where designers start discussing the pros and cons of Joomla! and Drupal. A lot of designers rely heavily on referrals. Word of mouth recommendations and advice from other designers/developers who have had direct experience with one or more CMS programs carries a great deal of weight. In forming an opinion of what to use, many designers hit the forums and start asking questions. Here are some interesting viewpoints that I picked up from some forum discussions about Joomla! and Drupal.

“Drupal’s built in forum isn’t very good to start with, but look into the advanced forum mod. It isn’t as easy to setup as most Drupal mods, but you can make your board look a lot like a standard phpBB/vBulletin board, but without the additional risks that using those bring. Drupal is pretty well locked down, and is xHTML Strict compliant (most of the time, certain mods aren’t perfect). Drupal appears to have a steep learning curve, but it really isn’t. Just a few days of reading and you’ll feel very comfortable with Drupal. Joomla makes it easy to start without doing any reading, but it’s very difficult to really do anything that is in any way advanced. Drupal is the opposite. Your first few days are hard, but everything after that is smooth sailing.”

“Drupal is one I have found that is well commented out and has a nice user support forum.”

“Joomla is really nice and is easily configured. There are tons of Joomla templates available. If your a web designer, this saves you a but load of time and the client can update his own site.”

“Joomla has a ton of potential for managing large-scale sites, but I’ve begun to be frustrated with how far behind the curve it is when it comes to clean code, web standards, bloat, and so on.”

“What I particularly like about Drupal over Joomla is that you can design pretty much whatever you want and tie it into Drupal without any tables, which is simply not possible using Joomla. Another thing of real benefit is the SEO effort is massively  simplified by some of Drupal’s core concepts.”

“Joomla seems too big and bloated.”

These type of comments are pervasive in forum after forum. Judging from what I’ve read, I’d say that Drupal comes out a clear winner about Joomla!. Personally, I’ve never used either system, so I have no direct experience to rely upon. However, in cases like this, opinions of designers who have used them directly carries a lot of weight with me. The general consensus seems to be that Joomla! is buggy, very susceptible to hackers and bloated. Overall, it seems that between the two, Drupal is clearly the favorite.

I would like to encourage lots of feedback on this particular article. If you have direct experience with CMS, let us know your opinion on what you think works best. Keep in mind though that we featured these two because they are free and fairly popular. There are lots of other CMS programs out there that you can purchase. So, let me know what you like, dislike, use, avoid, enjoy when it comes to CMS!

Sources:

http://www.webmaster-talk.com/website-design-forum/122480-community-site-cms-and-forums.html
http://www.webmaster-talk.com/website-design-forum/123309-do-you-offer-cms-when-making.html
http://www.cmswire.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupal
http://cssbeauty.com/skillshare/discussion/2244/
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=45404&st=0&p=324580&#entry324580

Popularity: 6%

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Finding A Great Writer For Your Content

In a previous article, we discussed the need for good written content that works well with the design, form, and function of the website you created. But, as a designer, what’s the best way to find a good, qualified writer to produce the content you need? Do you know where to look? Do you know how to choose a qualified writer? Let’s discuss some ideas of how to secure the services of a good, qualified writer.

Content is king. Everyone agrees that content is what keeps a site visitor in place and coming back time after time. So, how do you find a writer to create the content that will “establish dominion over the domain” that you have designed? One of my first recommendations is to ask for referrals. Ask a fellow designer that you admire who he/she uses to write their content.  Another thing I recommend is to try and use someone locally. If you can find a writer locally that you can work well with, it will be advantageous to you in the long run. Having the ability to meet face to face if needed, easily, can be a big plus on larger, more detailed projects. It’s not a completely critical component when searching for a writer…just an added bonus if you can find one locally.

Where’s the best place to look? Beyond word of mouth referrals, one of the best places to search out good content writers is by using several good websites: Craigslist, Elance, Guru, and Online-Writing-Jobs.com. These three are at the top of my list for find good writers. There are a lot of freelance writers who use Craigslist to advertise their services (it’s a free ad for most of them, why not use it!).

While you’re looking for a writer, do you know what type of content you need to have written? Make sure you have defined exactly what you need. Make sure you know what makes up good web content. In a nutshell, it’s written content that does four things:

• Grabs the readers attention
• Builds their interest in the topic being discussed
• Creates a desire for the reader to engage
• Motivates the reader (call to action)

The content on any webpage (primarily the home page) only has seconds to implement those four components!

Once you have found a writer that is of interest to you, ask for samples of their writing. When reviewing their previous work, look at it with those four aspects in mind. It’s okay to ask for samples and links to articles or websites where their work can be viewed. If they don’t have a way for you to read their previous work and you want to give them a chance, ask them to write a sample article for you. BUT, make sure you pay them for it. It’s rude to ask someone to work for free. You wouldn’t design two or three web pages for free would you? Just ask them to write a sample article for you and offer to pay them a flat rate for it.

Make sure that the writer in question can deliver your desired content in the proper time frame too. Keep in mind that most freelance writers have multiple clients and other projects they are working on simultaneously. Generally speaking, the more time you allow a writer for a project, the better it will fit into your budget.

Outline what you want written and accomplished, be specific in your details, be clear with your deadline, and ask for a specific price. It’s also a wise idea to ask the writer to include at least one round of revision in their pricing too. This allows you to be able to modify and adjust the content once the writer has delivered it to you without incurring additional costs. Once your price is set and agreed to, it’s not uncommon for a new writer to ask for a 50% deposit. It’s a safety net for the writer since he/she hasn’t done work for you previously. If things go well and you start using the same writer over and over for multiple projects, this shouldn’t necessarily have to occur each time. But, for the first project, it’s not an unreasonable request.

Following these recommendations will set you on a good course for procuring the services of a good content writer. We’ll delve into this subject more over time in future articles. There are certain pitfalls and dangers that need to be avoided when using sites like Guru and Elance. We’ll discuss those as well as define in detail what makes up good web content. If you have other recommendations, as always, please let me know and we’ll discuss them!

Popularity: 5%

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Hot Cosmo Title Examples

It’s hard to come up with goot catchy titles or headlines when trying to put together a nice piece of content. From reading a lot of blogs online I see that many suggest using the headlines on the cover of the Cosmopolitan magazine as examples. Take the title they have and modify it to apply to your article. Well actually I guess you’re suppose to do this the other way, create a catchy title first and then write the article accordingly. Many cases however, don’t turn out this way. I, many times, already have the article and need to create the title afterwards, so it becomes a bit harder.

Today I went through a handfull of Cosmopolitan magazine covers and picked out these headlines that can be modified to fit your content. Just fill in the blank.

Popularity: 6%

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What Web Designers May Not Know About Links

A Successful Home Page is a Link Rich Page

Recently I read an article about the rise and success of link rich home pages over the past several years. After reading through it and processing the information, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of the ideas that were brought forth in that article. It’s especially useful for web designers because we are in the business of building successful websites for our clients. So, this article and the following discussion about it could really be classified as one of those ‘magic lanterns’ I referred to in an earlier article. I don’t think that David Ogilvy will mind if we adopt his term for classifying this useful information.

Mr. Spool, the author of the original article used Dove soap’s home page as a ‘link poor’ example. He then alluded to how well their site map was arranged so that visitors could “find their way” to the information they were seeking. In essence he was saying that Dove’s home page should be more like their site map page. We have previously emphasized over and over again the need for simplicity in a site’s form and function. While the suggestion of creating a link rich home page may seem to go against that concept, it doesn’t have to at all.

“Nobody starts their design with the objective, ‘We need our home page to be as complex as we can possibly make it.’ On the contrary, everybody wants to build simple designs. Yet, somewhere along the line, simplicity translated into ‘Provide as few links on the home page as possible.’”

This quote sums up the problem well. It also targets exactly what we need to do to make a site successful for the end users. This is another one of those cases where we need to make sure that our focus is on what is best for the site users. It’s a complex negotiation between pleasing the client you are designing the website for while at the same time ensuring that the end user has a website that will work well for them too.

News websites have long understood the need to provide multiple links on their home pages. The majority of news sites are loaded with links designed to deliver in-depth information to users. CNN, Fox and many major newspaper sites have hundreds of links displayed on their home page. Is it too many? Take a look at the sites listed below and check out their standings.

*The Bureau of Labor and Statistics website isn’t a news site. However, it is a good example of a home page that is comprised entirely of links. While this site is very narrow in its appeal, it is heavily used as you can see from its rankings.

Judging from the rankings shown above for these link rich sites, it’s a good choice to include many links on your homepage. However, my advice would be to take a look at the manner in which links are displayed on these sites. They are done tastefully. So essentially what I’m saying is that you can still maintain the simplistic design approach while at the same time creating a ‘link rich environment’ which will perform well for the end users of the website.

This is also good reference material for you to use when discussing site creation with a potential client. Please feel free to use the information in this article to point out the need to create a great looking, link rich home page on your client’s website. Hopefully this information will help them understand just how important it is for them to allow you to create a home page that will grab a user’s attention and provide them with a wealth of information at the same time in an easy to use, easy to navigate format.

If you have other examples of good, link rich home pages for other websites, please let me know. I’d like to take a look at them and possibly review them here in the blog.

What Web Designers May Not Know About Links by
Web Design Ideas Blog is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Popularity: 4%

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Hot New Website Killed By Poor Content

Web design is a great occupational field. It’s full of opportunity. At times it’s overwhelming due to the high demand for good, quality driven web designers. But I’m just wondering…doesn’t it ‘irk’ you sometimes when you have put together a great looking, customer oriented, feature packed website only to see the client fill their web pages with junk? They paid for a great website and killed it with poor content. What can you do about it? One suggestion is to add the ability to create web content for your customers too.

When you do a search on Google for ‘web content’, it generates close to 200,000,000 results. It’s obviously an important topic. Because of this, my recommendation is to seek out and team up with a good copywriter. Look for and secure the services of a qualified writer who can create relevant, readable, well formed text that will complement your web design services. Keep in mind that the text they create needs to assist in keeping customers on the website. I’ll discuss some of the critical components of content in another article soon. Add appropriate pricing and encourage clients to let you help them create verbiage and content that works well for their company. There are a myriad of companies out there that post their prices for creating content on their websites. Make sure your pricing is competitive and ensure the customer that putting together an entire package all at the same time is beneficial to them.

As an example of how well great design and great content work together, I wanted to use a friend’s site to point out the effectiveness of this approach. PrintBusinessCards.com is a site that has been around since 2000. This site re-launched in 2006 with a completely new design. At the same time, they immediately started publishing good, relevant pages full of good content related to their industry…business cards. Over an 8 month period their page rank has increased, their Alexa ranking has dramatically increased…breaking them into the top 100,000, and their pages come up higher in Google searches across the board. All of this is a result of huge organic growth and has ultimately boosted sales dramatically at the same time. This site is a prime example of filling a website with great, relevant content. At the same time, they also launched a blog where they have consistently published good business cards related articles, relevant tips, announcements about new pages, and press releases. The blog has become another good contributor for attracting customers to their site. The blog is well written and always points readers to various features of their main website. Again, this is a prime example of creating good content that benefits the customer. Blogs are a great way to build long term results for clients. It takes time though. The general consensus is at least a year of good, consistent articles on a blog before the main site starts seeing results. This is true for PrintBusinessCards.com too. Their blog now has a page rank of 3 and is climbing on its own through the rankings while at the same time funneling quite a few potential customers every day to the main site. Design, function, and content. These 3 critical components are all displayed on this site. Their presence on the web is increasing everyday. It’s a great example of how teaming up with a good copywriter can enhance the design and function of a website.

So, as web designers, my recommendation is to include the creation of good, relevant, quality content as part of your pricing and services. In doing this, you should attract more customers while creating more satisfied customers at the same time. Again, as I mentioned before, I plan on discussing some of the critical components that are comprised in quality content for any website. If you have other examples of websites where content, function, and design work together very well, please let me know. I’d like to check it out!

Popularity: 3%

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