Tag results for wordpress

Content Management Systems

WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, and other such content management systems are commonly talked about on the web. In fact, studies indicate that content management systems (CMS) power around 26.3 percent of the web. That percentage should only go up, because CMS is the best way to power a website. The question must then be asked, what is CMS?

CMS allows web designers to set up their clients with a template to which content can be added via an administrative interface. It is used commonly for blogs or shopping carts that contain content which is constantly being updated. With CMS, every page of content (whether that be text, images, video, etc) contains variables which can be changed by the website owner. This means the site owner doesn’t have to call up his developer just to adjust some text, replace an image, or add a menu item. The owner can do it himself.

If you’ve ever set up a blog with WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, or the like, you’ve used a content management system. The administration area, where you login to type a new post, is known as the backend to CMS. The backend is where a user can administer his/her blog. However, as you may have guessed, CMS doesn’t stop with blogs. CMS is used for e-commerce, social media, podcasting, and even normal websites!

Most of the best CMS out there are free and open source. They include WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, SilverStripe, and many more. As a web designer, I encourage all my clients to go the route of CMS, because it can help give them the independence to update their site without having to use me as a crutch. Allow me to set you up with a CMS website today!

Written by Tim on June 14, 2011
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WordPress.org vs WordPress.com

A few months ago I went over the difference between Blogger and WordPress. At the time, I was still using a remotely hosted blog platform for Prorarity’s™ blog. Since then, I have switched to a self hosted blog platform. If any of you read this post, you will know that I did not recommend using WordPress for your blog.

Ironically, the platform I am now using is WordPress! This seams like a contradiction; however, there are actually two different WordPress’! One is WordPress.com and the other is WordPress.org. While still owned by the same company, the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com is simple. One is a self hosted blog platform, the other is a remotely hosted blog platform. WordPress.org came first and is an open source project for those want to create their own self hosted blog. WordPress.com uses the same software, but is meant for the light user who simply wants a blog hosted on WordPress’ servers.

For those of you who are eager to get a blog up quickly and easily, a remotely hosted blog is definitely what you want. However, if your goal is to make your blog look and act exactly the way you want, a self hosted blog is a must have! There are other self hosted blog platforms out there, but I think WordPress beats them all, hands down.

If, on the other hand, you simply want a blog up fast and do not want to worry about spending much time on it, a remotely hosted blog is the perfect choice. In my post entitled Blogger vs WordPress, I explain why Blogger is a much better remotely hosted blog platform than WordPress.com. If you would like to know why, I suggest you read that article.

Blogging is a great way to promote any business. Although remotely hosted blogs work fine, you will get a much more professional look when you host your own blog. Hosting your own blog means you must pay monthly for a server (if you don’t already), and you will have to spend more time to get it up and running. Which ever you decide, blogging will definitely help market your company!

Written by Tim on June 27, 2010
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Blogger vs WordPress

Although there are others, Blogger (Blogspot) and WordPress are the two most popular blog platforms. Today, I will attempt to give a fair comparison between the two. (I do realize that I may not make a completely fair comparison considering, as is obvious, I use Blogger!)

As far as templates and layout, Blogger wins hands down! Although WordPress offers many templates to choose from, you have to pay to be able to edit them. As far as free editing goes, WordPress is very limited. Blogger, on the other hand, offers a lot of great tools for editing your blog to make it look just the way you like. With Blogger, you can edit both the CSS or, if you aren’t very code-savvy, Blogger provides some simple color editing tools. You can also very easily (no coding required) change the layout of your template.

Blogger and WordPress both allow you to use your own domain or sub domain. However, WordPress charges for this feature.

WordPress has done a good job with their widgets and have more than Blogger does. Although this is good, Blogger offers the “HTML/JavaScript” widget. This, in essence, allows you to make whatever code you want into a widget. You can use third-party codes, or simply make your own.

The last thing I want to point out is that WordPress allows you to import content from many different blog platforms. Blogger only allows you to import from Blogger blogs.

WordPress has a lot of cool features, but you have to pay for most of the good ones. Blogger, however, is completely free. Blogger also gives you much better customization. So, in the end, I think that Blogger wins. If you like WordPress, post a comment. I’d like to hear what you have to say about your favorite blog hosting!

Written by Tim on April 26, 2010
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