Content Management Systems - Stay Away From Home Grown!
When it comes to content management systems we always recommend that a client not develop their own.
The Internet has been around for a long time and as a result many types of applications have been developed and fine tuned. E-Commerce and Content Management fall into this category of applications. While you can still develop these applications from the ground up there are many reasons why you should not. Here are but a few:
- New software is always buggy - existing solutions have had most of their bugs worked out
- Feature Rich - existing solutions have all of the features, bells and whistles you can ever imagine needing
- 3rd Party Extensions - most existing solutions have a plethora of 3rd party solutions which will extend the functionality with limited cost
- Search Engine Optimization - existing solutions have been hammered by Internet Marketers to the point that they all support the necessary SEO features to ensure your site ranks well in the search engines
By not using an off the shelf solution such as Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, TypePad, Express Engine, or MS Sharepoint (for those who have the extra money or need) you really run the risk of investing alot of money on a solution that will not support you in the long run and certainly won’t make it easy to capitalize on the inexpensive leads available through solid Internet marketing services.
If your company is embarking on a redesign of your site and content management is a core component I highly recommend you pause for a moment and seriously consider the options available to you. It could mean the difference between a successful new launch and failure! Would you rather be the one responsible for this years growth in the bottom line vs a decline? Take the time to make the right choices!
April 11th, 2008 at 10:08 am
At work we use an in house content management system that manages many instore websites.
It is so bloody clunky, its funny as my colleague was working on it today and said they should have used wordpress, ha.
The off the shelf solutions you mentioned are very strong and can be customised for almost any situation.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Some businesses have no choice but to develop something custom - especially when it needs to be integrated with a CRM or back office system. However, even the solutions I mentioned can be extended and integrated with other systems with a little bit of extra work.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
I’d never underestimate the use of a plain, simple, vanilla static HTML site as well.
I see a lot of sites using Wordpress where I see no compelling reason for the use of any kind of CMS. (ie they’re not regularly adding pages etc)
With software like Interspire’s WebEdit and Macromedia’s Contribulte, ease of use is no longer an issue as far as updating static sites.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Yeah.. on one of my sites (funlol.com), I’ve been using a custom CMS for a while now and I always encounter problems… its just too hard to develop a very good one for yourself. I’m finally switching over to one thats more widely used this summer.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:02 am
I agree with you on this one. Why go for a unknown CMS when there are perfectly good growing solutions out there!
April 14th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I definitely agree. I don’t know about the others, but Joomla and Wordpress are definitely easy to use with just a little bit of practice. I’ve taught my grandmother how to use both!
April 14th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
I think Drupal is a fantastic Content Management system with a lot of available plugins. I have seen a lot of success with it.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Why would anyone go through all the troubles of making a custom cms when there are perfectly designed cms already available for free such as joomla and drupal.
I use joomla for my sites and am loving it :)
April 15th, 2008 at 7:49 am
For most situations an off the shelf CMS does the job perfectly! Only in certain circumstances should someone try and develop a custom solution. Personally I still opt for the off the shelf most times.