I feel that I need to tell you a secret about content management systems (CMS). For those of you who don’t know what a CMS is, it’s a style of website built for people who want to manage the site themselves but have no training in coding or coding programs. Here is the secret!! Most of the time, they are not built “custom for you.” There are CMS out there already created for your use. A small handful of my clients use them. It’s called WordPress. There are others like Drupal and Joomla. The hard work was already done by the creators and are there for your use for FREE!!. You just have to put the files onto the server where your website goes.
I see examples of other designers’ proposals for website designs with a CMS system and they charge for HOURS worth of work “creating the content management system.” One guy said it took 20 hours to create it. Here’s the rest of the secret. It takes about… 20 minutes to get WordPress uploaded onto the servers. I charge for several hours for the whole process – download to finished pages. I pick your design, customize it just for you, and add fancy things called plugins, like Share Buttons, Google Analytics, etc. I’m the mechanic that tells you, your car is fine except for the loose hose which is why the AC isn’t working properly. I’m the handyman that tells you a wire is loose and tightens it instead of replacing your entire control panel. I’m stepping off my soap box now.
