You know that you must do updates. Visitors quickly get bored of going to sites where nothing has changed for weeks. If you don't want to lose that valuable web traffic you've worked so hard to attract you've got to find ways to make updating easier, right?



The good news is that there is a solution. Content Management Systems (CMS), also known as Web Content Management Systems, can simplify the whole process. Basically, a CMS is a type of software that runs on your site's server and makes it easy for you to organize documents and even multimedia items, such as images or sound clips.

With CMS, you can create standardized templates so all of your materials will have a consistent look. You won't have to do any additional coding; you just have to cut and past the information into the software. Plus, if you have copywriters or contributors who supply the content for your site, you can provide them access to the CMS so that they can enter the information directly into the template. Although you'll still have to publish it to the site, at least part of your job will be taken care of.

The nicest part of CMS for many site owners is that they don't have to pay a web designer just to do the updates for the site. Because the CMS requires little to no technical knowledge, almost any user can effectively make these changes and create a professional-looking, up-to-date web site easily.

Some examples of Content Management Systems are:

Macromedia Contribute (now owned by Adobe). The nice thing about Contribute is that it allows a novice to maintain their own site. It is very cost effective (around $100-200) and once installed it allows you to make changes to your site through a web browser. It is geared to the complete novice and is mainly used to update your site's content. If you want to just update your site's text and photos this is the site for you. It is even easier to use than Frontpage, which is often considered the easiest wysiwyg tool out there. WYSIWYG stands for What You See is What You Get. That means that the software tool that you are using to design your site shows you what you are working on is pretty much what you are going to get when you publish or upload your website's files.

As always, when working on your site you should make sure that you make backup copies just in case something happens when you are making changes to it. Don't always rely on your web hosting provider for backup copies. They might not always have the most recent version of your site plus it is a hassle to get these files from them sometimes.

There are a large number of these systems available. You can talk to your web designer about which programs he or she might suggest or you can do some research on the Internet. Either way, you should be able to find a CMS that will fit your site's needs and that will free up your time and money for other important parts of your life.