There are many difficult and daunting tasks to creating and managing a website, especially when doing it alone. As the site grows, the tasks become more complex and there will be more of them. At this point, having a group of employees to assist with the day-to-day functions can be a blessing. Most large sites are crafted and maintained by a group of people, not just one.

These large-scale sites cannot be implemented properly without a content management system on the backend. There are three primary areas where content management systems can help you manage the whole site (including your employees). These include:

• Control employee access
• Upload content
• Delegating work

For a group of workers, they will need a way to access the website with special permissions due to their role with the company. It is always a good idea to limit various employees’ power so they don’t have too much access. This can easily become a security risk. With a quality CMS you can enter permissions, assign tasks and create restrictions which improves organization, security and limits micromanaging allowing for a more productive worker.

Although employees will have limited access, it is in your best interest to let them upload unique and original content as they create it. Uploading the content yourself all at once can be an extremely daunting and time-consuming task. By allowing team members to complete this task, you can save several hours each day. This time could be allocated towards completing more important tasks.

Utilizing your employees to their maximum ability by keeping them busy is important for the proper functioning of any website and to maximize productivity. Telecommunication delays can be filled by a content management system. Many systems allow the administrator to communicate with their team members through a private messaging system. This gives the webmaster complete control and instant communication during a project.

Controlling employee access, allowing employees to upload content and delegating work is three of the most important aspects of running a large, successful website. There is so much work to complete that cannot be done by a single webmaster. As a result content management systems have great support and overall features.

The development and ease of content management systems has been a blessing for many administrators. As technology improves, administrators will have an easier time managing their site and employees.

One of the more popular CMS solutions is Drupal. Other solutions are Joomla and WordPress. All CMS programs give you the opportunity to choose the format and template of your website. Most CMS solutions have the same features when it comes to design functions. However, Drupal seems to simplify the process of employing themes with your site, more so than your average CMS. One of the best things about Drupal is that the design of your website has been centralized and your entire site can be controlled and manipulated using a central database. The process of using Drupal is for the most part simple, to fully take advantage of the design features offered by Drupal there are a few key notes that must be taken into consideration.

Choosing the Right Theme

One of the first things involved with designing a web site is choosing a them that would properly fit with the aesthetics of your website. Themes can be found all over the web and are offered by a variety of third party websites that specialize in web design. Simply searching engines, such as Google, for web design themes and templates can return hundreds or even thousands of results. When choosing your theme it is important to note whether the one you have selected is compatible with the version of Drupal you are using. If after browsing through the available themes and templates you still cannot decide which would be best, enlisting the services of a web designer may be in order.

Hiring a Web Developer

Web designers are readily available and can assist in fabricating a custom design for you site. Designers can be found that will work at reasonable prices. Making sure you enlist the help of a reputable designer is paramount. You do not want to enlist the help of someone with little to no experience in the field. Hiring a designer who is also highly acquainted with Drupal’s functions and capabilities is also important. Making sure that the designer you contract to your cause is willing to make changes to the final product is very important. If you are paying for a service then obviously you will want it done right and not just done.

Integrating your Theme

Now that you have developed the theme that is right for your site you will need to install it to your site and get it on the web. The first thing that must be done is to go over all documents related to the development of your theme as they may provide pertinent information to the installation of your theme. After becoming properly acquainted with the installation process it is time to upload your theme to the correct location. This location is usually: “/sites/all/ThemeName”.

All that is left to do at this point is log into your site under an administrative account to finish the process. Accessing the administrative functions of your site is as easy as typing a web address into the address bar of your browser. To access the administrative functions of your site you will need to type “yoursitesname.com/admin” into the URL bar of your internet browser. Once you have accessed the administrative interface you will need to locate the proper location to add your theme. Locating the proper location for doing this is easy and is usually labeled as “Site Building Area.”

Once you have accessed the building area you will then want to click on “Themes” to upload your theme. Once you have done this you will be able to see a list of your uploaded themes. Now that you have found your themes it is just a matter of choosing the one that you have fabricated, setting it as your default and saving your site. Once all this has been done all that is left to do is click on “Save Configuration” to finalize the process.

There are hundreds of millions of websites across the internet from every corner of the earth. Hence the reason it’s called the World Wide Web. As technology progresses and websites are easier to build, even an individual with the lowest comprehension of computer knowledge can get one up and running in a short time.

Due to the technology currently available, the publishing of a website can be completed in only three steps. These include:

• Create the website
• Find a hosting plan
• Upload the site

Depending on your skill level, a website can be created manually utilizing Dreamweaver or notepad. On the other hand, sites can be almost automatically created with numerous open source programs. The second method is the easiest and requires the least amount of programming.

One of the most popular methods of website creation is WordPress, a content management system. It was originally created to help create blogs, but this has been extended to any type of website including stores. There are thousands of user-created themes for your website. Additionally, plugins, widgets and other tools are available to the user for different tasks, most are free.

Another helpful content management system is Joomla which creates the site and manages the content. To use Joomla simply install it properly and that’s it! There are tools for site creation if you have the need.

Once the website is created, its time to find a hosting plan that fits your needs. Generally you don’t want to use a free service since the quality is usually not up to par. Since most web hosting companies are charging beans for service, it’s almost free. The most important aspects of choosing a web hosting provider are scalability, storage, bandwidth, CPU and cost.

Once you’ve found a web hosting provider, its time to upload the site. Find a free FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program and connect to your site through the IP address. Simply drag the files from your computer to their server and that’s basically it. Many web hosting providers can automatically install CMS’s like WordPress.

Creating a website has come a long way in a short amount of time. There is so much software available to create a website without any programming knowledge needed. With the addition of freeware and open source software, it’s also extremely inexpensive. As technology continues, this task will become even easier and almost everyone will have a website.

There are many different developer certifications available. To add to the long list is a .NET web content management system certificate offered by Kentico. This will certify its graduates as CMS technology experts.

While there are many vendors that offer CMS certifications, Kentico is the most recent. The basics of the course include:

• Upon completion, the result is a Kentico Certified Developer
• One year of Kentico CMS development experience is required or completion of Kentico CMS 5 Certified Developer Training
• Demonstration of the understanding of ASP.NET, the .NET framework, web interfaces, CSS and website deployment are scrutinized

The exam for the certification is 50 questions an available anytime online for $199. The long debate over whether certifications immediately make someone an expert continues. There are plenty of good developers that didn’t pass certification exams. They are still experts; they just don’t have a certification document proving this fact.

Many believe that time and money is better spent on Microsoft certifications as their courses tend to cover more information and different types of vendors. Unfortunately most experts believe that a non-committed or poor developer that obtains a certification will weaken the whole system.

Kentico is adding to the certification list to provide a quick and easy method to recognize highly-skilled developers. They claim the return on investment is maximized and time to market is reduced through their certification course.

The Kentico CMS certification course is a partner of Microsoft. This proves their conformance with Microsoft testing protocols such as Microsoft Platform Test for Windows Server 2003, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Test and Microsoft Managed Code Test.

There are two types of courses offered by Kentico: the Certified Content Administrator Training and the Certified Developer Training. The administrative training instructs students on how to use Kentico CMS 5 to create and publish content. It also teaches users how to perform their daily tasks utilizing this software. The developer training focuses on speedy website deployments, best programming and design practices, as well as showcasing the capabilities of the Kentico CMS.

Kentico is providing another addition to the list of vendor certifications by offering an administrative and developer training. These courses teach all aspects of the Kentico Content Management System to the users. This is helpful with daily tasks as well as following good design and practices. Any additional courses do add credibility to your workplace experience and this is no exception.

Content management systems have become an integral part of a webmaster’s daily duties, simplifying the process of managing and operating a website within a centralized user-friendly interface. Before content management systems website owners had to have training in HTML, PHP and CSS in order to create, organize and upload web pages manually.

Fortunately, with the advent of CMS like WordPress and Drupal, webmasters can now create and manage stunning websites with little or no web development experience. The two aforementioned content management systems are the best in the industry, but which is the crowd favorite?

WordPress

In terms of popularity, WordPress is leaps and bounds above all competitors. Originally designed as a blogging platform, WordPress has grown into an extremely useful content management system over the past few years. The strong point of WordPress is the abundance of plugins that have been designed by independent developers. Literally every aspect of site creation, organization and search engine optimization can be dealt with using WordPress plugins. These plugins are basically additions to the CMS, which enhance the functionality of the user interface.

With hundreds of WordPress plugins available, and new ones being created each day, it is easy to see why WordPress is easily the crowd favorite. Many people find it difficult to find the right plugins to simplify a specific task. Fortunately there is a large WordPress community that can offer advice on which plugins to use and how to use the WordPress content management system properly.

Drupal

Drupal is a unique advanced content management system that gives the user complete control over the development of a site. Unlike other CMS which utilize WYSIWYG editors and simplified interfaces, Drupal is made specifically for web developers. In fact, it is said that Drupal is actually more of a development platform than a simple CMS. Even though Drupal is not very user-friendly, it is perfect for professional web developers that need full control over scripting and advanced site design. One of the strong points of Drupal is the massive user community full of professional web developers that are constantly sharing advice and tips on how to use Drupal. When used correctly, Drupal can create the best websites on the internet, and due to its advanced capabilities there are very few limitations.

Conclusion

Both content management systems have their own pros and cons, however WordPress is generally seen as being the best choice for novice webmaster. More advanced web developers should consider Drupal, as it offers freedom and control not seen in any other CMS. Many webmasters use both Drupal and WordPress, depending upon their needs for a particular website. The limitations of both content management systems depend entirely upon the user’s experience and resources. With the right plugins WordPress can beat just about any CMS in existence. However, when utilized by the right developer Drupal can create sites that WordPress cannot even manage! Ultimately, the decision is left to the webmaster, their experience level, and their needs.