To clarify, a CMS (Content Management System) is a web-application that allows you to manage pretty much any aspect of your website. Whether it is menu links to pages, text or images within a page, uploading and linking to PDF documents and so on. It makes it possible for a person with limited technical expertise to manage a very large (or very small) website.

So for this reason the term CMS gets a lot of business owners nervous because it sounds expensive.

On the contrary - what would you say if I told you it was Free!

I am not kidding - one of the best CMS platforms that I have used to date does not cost you a cent. There is an initiative called Open Source that in summary is way of developing software by harnessing the talents of a global community.

One community in particular is responsible for developing and supporting a CMS called Joomla! It has won numerous awards and is one of the best and most flexible CMS platforms on the planet.

And as I said, the best part is, it doesn't cost you a cent.

There is a downside though (there always is). Because it is a web application and not just a number of static HTML files there is a level of complexity that exisits that affects 3 main areas of setting up a CMS based website:

1. Setting up the hosting requirements (PHP, MySQL database etc.)
2. Installing and configuring the CMS software
3. Creating the CMS template

So while these 3 points make it trickier than setting up a standard website, a CMS gives you a HUGE amount of benefits in the ongoing manageability of your website.

So once those 3 points are taken care of (something that we can defenitely help you with) from there you log in to the CMS and start typing in your content using a nice WYSIWYG content editor. As you can see - here is a screenshot of when I was creating this very article... It has all the features you would be used to, like Bold, Underline, font colours,

• dot points,

1. number points,

and as you can see on the right, 'insert image' etc. etc

So adding new pages or modifying existing pages has now become very simple!

In addition to the core CMS there are hundreds if not thousands of add-ons you can install in to the CMS to give you added functionality such as e-commerce shopping carts, on-line product catalogues, image galleries, slideshows, advertising components etc. etc. And if an add-on doesn't exist because it is such a versatile platform, we can make it for you.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.