This is the opportunity for all you geeks to strut your stuff and impress everyone with your awesome knowledge.
I need some professional advice. I have been trying to figure out what content management system would be best for a non-coder like myself. I need something for small to medium websites and it needs to be relatively easy to use and understand. It would also be a plus if there were some free templates/themes/layouts available for it.
I know WordPress has the ability to do some but I'm a little concerned about the flexibility and it seems to be getting hacked a lot recently. I've looked into Joomla, it seems OK but pretty complicated and, once again, I don't know about the flexibility.
I know for a fact I am blessed with some great programmers and coders as readers here, that's why I'm asking for your input. Please make a suggestion and, if possible, why you feel it would be a good choice.
I want to thank you in advance for taking the time to help me out on this one.
12 comments:
I am not that familiar with wordpress but you may want to check out Typepad - I am exploring it now it seems very user friendly for content management. Also, don't shy away from Joomla - it is supposed to be very user friendly, but you may need help setting it up (the guys at strongcode.net helped with my site and they are experts with joomla and a good team to work with) Hope this helps and good luck!
WORDPRESS!
It fits the description you gave while describing what you are looking for. Free Themes, Easy to use with little or no coding, it is flexible, and there is a vast community of support. Most of the plugins and widgets are free.
You did mention Joomla, so I will tell you that it has a pretty big learning curve. The other downside is that they have a lot great plugins and widgets however, you have to pay for most of them.
I like wordpress a lot, but if you'd like to build a site which should not be seen as a blog you would have to modify wordpress a lot I guess.
I found this site
http://tinyurl.com/285dr2
I know, it looks very disordered but if you'd like to research a few content management sites this is a good recource.
A few online contacts of mine say Typo3 is by far the best CMS. But it doesn't fit your description: I heard you need at least a week to learn how it functions.
I hope you'll find a good one. Do you reveal which project you're planning on this blog? :)
@ Lady Language - Thanks for the tips. I haven't checked out Typepad yet.
@ Joe - I know you love WP, I just haven't seen any themes that aren't either blog or magazine.
@ Markus - Good link! Lots of info there. I'm not a coder so i have to keep it simple.
Thes are just some personal projects I'm wanting to do.
Thanks for the helpful input guys :)
Yes. I know what you mean. Have you checked out shoemoney.com? They had their site modified by uniqueblogdesigns.com. Once the theme is done, everything else is just wordpress. Smootthand easy!
Joe - I've see Shoe's site but what I'm talking about wouldn't have anything to do with a blog at all. I don't know.
I know WP is the best for blogs I just don't know about regular sites.
I've seen one regular site built with WP and it looked nice but I know it was heavily modified.
One site to check out is Geeks on Steriods. Here are some of their designs that you might like (that don't look like blogs):
sample design #1
sample design #2
sample design #3
sample design #4
They have lots of other designs, I just saw these on the first 2 pages.
There's also Ultimate Web Designs. They're Iowa-based and have some nice designs. Just click on "portfolio" to get past the chick that's talking. As per their website, most of their clients use Adobe Contribute to update their content. I know a web developer that recommends Adobe Contribute to his customers because it's easy to use. It costs $149. Go to the Adobe Contribute site to download a free trial copy.
Regardless of the company or product you choose, you'll submit your content using some sort of editing software.
I personally vote for locating a web design company. You'll get the look and functionality you want and they'll code it so you can easily add content. Web design companies deal with people that have no html experience (and don't want to develop it) all the time.
Otherwise, you're forced to use someone else's template, and odds are, you'll want to tweak that, which will require some coding.
As for video screen capturing software you can't go wrong with Camtasia. A friend of mine uses it all the time and loves it. It costs about $299. Get a free trial version at the Camtasia website.
Hope this helps! And thanks for the great Stumble!
WOW! Thanks Chanya for the great response. What a wonderful amount of resources!
I know the best way is to hire a pro but I'm really trying to avoid that if I can.
I wish i could have been of more help. But i have tried only Wordpress so far and i feel it is good for newbies as well.
Madhur - Every little bit helps. Thank you :)
Hi AdTracker. Do you have a right CMS now? I know, you are searching for a free solution, but this theme looks really cool for wordpress. It doesn't look like a blog: http://www.revolutiontheme.com/
But if you found another interesting, easy to use CMS it would be great if you could share it with us :)
Markus
Markus - The revolution theme is interesting but I'm having a small problem with it right now.
I'm trying t figure out if I got a trial version or partial version because I seem to be missing some pages on the one I was sent. So it's back on the back-burner now.
Still trying to decide before I make any investments. Thanks for the input, I'll be sure to share what I decide.
Post a Comment