That was then …

What is a CMS

One of the aspects which seems to be the cause of most of the debate is the definition. Engineers, knowledge workers, developers, designers and users alike have for the longest time disagreed on exactly what makes something worthy of being labelled a Content Management System. The diverse definitions stem from varied understandings of what the term Content actually means and from the fact that we’re talking across lines of discipline.

Content can be any type of data or media for that matter whether digital or not. I Library is technically a Content Management System.

Some CMS Types Include:

• Document Management System
• Customer Relationship Management System
• Digital Asset Management System
• Media Management System
• Enterprize Content Management
• Inventory Management System
• Web Content Management System

To correct the first point of disagreement, we’ll further specify that WordPress is an “Open Source”, “WEB”, Content Management System. OSW CMS. We’re not advocating for WordPress as a Customer Relationship Management System for example, though there have been a few examples of it being used on that way here and there.

Lets look at what Wikipedia has to offer on what a Web CMS is.

A web content management system (WCMS)^[1] is a software system that provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage website content with relative ease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_content_management_system

Just because some Web CMS’s do CRM or analytics really well, does not necessarily give them an immediate edge over their rivals. It depends entirely on how the debate is framed. Lets frame it from our perspective.

Some Elements of a Web Content Management System

• Content in Database
• Workflow Management
• Access Management
• Taxonomy
• Front End Templating System

Why the debate

There’ll always be those who haven’t made the jump from their old stuffy CMS to the New, Cooler and Way Way easier One. There’ll also be those who prefer to live in the past, where every single website needs to be built from absolute scratch, CMS & all. Some Developers also obsess about the technical definitions of things to the exclusion of those who actually need to use these systems on a daily basis.

We believe a system which is easy to use, serves the majority of needs, can be self maintained, can be easily updated, extended and generally managed, is way superior to something only an engineer is able to understand and configure(in the majority of cases, Science Labs Excluded).

Those who make it their business to build custom CMS solutions for customers requiring highly sophisticated web applications would naturally disagree, but for the rest of us who are interested in a Content “Management” System, not a rocket science experiment, WordPress pulls out all the stops and allows us to Manage our Web content at light speed.

There are a couple of F1 or rolls royce CMSes out there, some which cost an arm and a leg, and some which contain tons of unnecessary or under utilized built in modules. WordPress is not one of those. The WordPress core has all the base requirements to build upon, and provides a super easy way of extending to your hearts content. We don’t expect the CIA, or NASA to use it for their top secret missions of course, nor do we expect Highly sophisticated business systems to emerge running on WordPress.

WordPress is by far, the easiest (for majority of users) most flexible Open Source Web Content Management System available currently. The numbers, and experiences speak for themselves.

Why say – WP “as” a CMS

People used to think of WordPress as purely a blogging system, and it’s true, that’s where it all started out, but it’s matured into much more than just that. The proof is in the pudding!

WordPress “IS” a CMS, An Open Source Web CMS to be specific.

Other Useful Links & Alternative views on the Topic:

• 2009 Interview with Matt Mullenweg by CMS Critic
• What is a CMS – CMS Critic
• Wikipedia List of Content Management Systems
• State of the Word 2011 WordCamp Presentation
• CMS or WCM, Which is Which

A recent post written on web design depot regarding Drupal, another very well known and much more mature CMS than WordPress. No doubt Drupal is powerful, but it’s a pain to operate for anyone who’s less than a developer and for content creation and management can drive your average web user nuts. Let’s not even talk about Joomla.

Also Just Found a WordCamp Boston Presentation on WordPress as a CMS

This post has been updated since WordCamp Cape Town 2011!

WordPress #2 skill demanded on Elance.com
http://publisherblog.automattic.com/2011/03/01/elance-wordpress-top-cms-choice

Odesk skills demand
http://publisherblog.automattic.com/2009/01/12/odesk-wordpress-most-in-demand/

They’re not just blowing their own trumpet – Google stats on CMS usage worldwide
http://www.google.com/trendsq=blogger%2C+drupal%2C+sharepoint%2C+wordpress&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all

Web3 Tech survey of cms usage
http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management/all

It’s taking over the Interwebs

58,286,818 wordpress websites in the world get on the minute wp usage statistics (at the time of publishing)
http://en.wordpress.com/stats/

Plugins
16,213 PLUGINS, 215,893,368 DOWNLOADS, AND COUNTING (at the time of publishing)

Themes
1,431 THEMES, 37,543,049 DOWNLOADS, AND COUNTING (at the time of publishing)

Awards

• In 2007 WordPress won a Packt Open Source CMS Award
• In 2009 WordPress won the best Open Source CMS Award
• In 2010 WordPress won the Hall of Fame CMS category in the 2010 Open Source Awards
• In 2011 WordPress won the Open Source Web App of the Year Award at The Critters
• Best Open Source Web Application 2011 - BOSSIE Awards (Added 22/09/2011)

• What do you want to achieve, Goals
• Who are You Targetting
• Who will be responsible for managing the site

Design Needs

• What you want the site to look like
• Colour, Layout, Style etc

Functional Needs

• What Must the site do
• What Must Users be able to do

Content Needs

Many Ways to Skin a Camel

Firstly, decide – Do I really want to skin this camel, or can I just throw a carpet over it?

Trust me, some of the ways will get you into really sticky situations

1. Custom Development
2. Free or Premium Themes
3. Plugins Free or Premium Plugins
4. Mix them up

Use me for my Brain Please

Entails hiring a reliable WordPress developer or development team to create a Theme, with built in functionality to do just what you want your site to do. Minimal plugins involved.

• Budget (can be high)
• Time (depends on requirement)
• Trusted developer (there’s a ton of chancers our there)
• Knowing your future path for your site (don’t box yourself in)
• Build many features into theme
• Plugins Can be toxic – Less is more in most cases

This is the recommended and Much more reliable approach!

If we were skinning a Camel, this would be the messy blood & guts approach.

• Use sparingly (avoid the guts)
• Use reliable plugins
• Check ratings & feedback before using
• plugin repository more trusted
• When in doubt, ask the community
• test, test, test

Image from - http://mochiland.com/articles/get-to-know-the-mediameg-development-team

Premium Themes can solve many problems, but can create others. It’s really tricky choosing one if you’re not 100% sure what you want from your site.

Some Pros

• High end design
• advanced functionality for fraction of the price
• theme options in most cases
• support in most cases
• Some theme building features

Some Cons

• Compatibility with plugins
• Vulnerable advanced scripts in some themes
• Premium Themes contain loads of crazy almost uneditable code
• In many cases difficult to repurpose or change direction
• Load times for heavy loaded themes can be well, “heavy”

image by - downhilldom1984 on flickr

Here are some of the Areas You’d Need to Master to Fly this baby to the moon.

• Dashboard Homepage
• Pages & Posts
• Tags & Categories
• Image/Media Management
• Custom Menus
• Front page settings
• Comments
• Users & Role Management
• Installing Themes
• Installing Plugins
• Permalinks
• Sidebars & Widgets
• Page Templates
• Custom Content Types, Fields & Taxonomies
• Custom Fields & Custom Write Panels
• Branding & Customizing The dashboard

There are literally thousands of resources available online both free and paid for to help you Master your WordPress Site Management. For more information and resources to get you started on managing your WordPress site have a look at the following:

• http://www.wp101.com – Training Videos Series
• http://easywpguide.com – Guides on all aspects of WP management