Choosing your content-managed website platform

From Joomla to Wordpress and Drupal, free and paid-for templates, and a plethora of modules, components and extensions, the world really is your oyster when it comes to choosing and implementing a content managed (CMS) website.

Your website: it’s your digital sales force, your 24-hour storefront window, and it makes you global player from the moment you go live.

In order to make the most of this opportunity though, you need to keep your content fresh and relevant, and you have to be able to update it regularly – without getting a degree in web development or breaking the proverbial bank.

The worldwide introduction of content managed website platforms such as Joomla have really changed the face of digital marketing in South Africa. These open source website solutions now allow anyone to put together and manage a website, without years of training, or an agency on 24-hour call.

Says Chemory Gunko, MD of Dsignhaus, “For the first time, companies can meet and match the demanding tastes and pace of their consumers with fresh, relevant content, and focus their efforts on building a large and sustainable client pool, by keeping them coming back for more.”

The concern though, comes in when you are considering which CMS platform to choose. “There are just so many out there,” says Gunko.

At present, you have the big gun players such as Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress, and then you have all the small bit players who have developed their own CMS platforms, and are selling these to clients at a monthly rental fee.

“Unfortunately,” Gunko says, “we’ve seen too many clients over the past few years who have bought into a custom CMS platform, only to discover that tracking is inaccurate, and largely fudged.”

“In addition, the systems are difficult and complex to use, and do not offer the kind of functionality, such as modules and extensions, that the client believes they are getting.”

What’s worse is that many of these platforms don’t support external modules and extensions, so you land up having to pay for custom module and extension development over and above your already-existing monthly fee.

“One of the key features of a large, open source platform like Joomla, is that there is little to no cost involved,” Gunko explains.

With a proper Joomla site, your only monthly cost should be for hosting. There should be no monthly charge to continue using the platform. “In fact,” Gunko comments, “it is entirely possible to build a fully-populated and impressive Joomla website with no money at all.”

“On the flip side,” Gunko explains, “the open source nature of Joomla means that you have some of the best developers in the world creating, and commercially selling, templates, components and extensions for the Joomla platform, which will give you the effortless, easy-to-use website maintenance experience you were after in the first place.”

In addition, a well-setup Joomla website, should be a pleasure for you to update, and should make maintaining consistency across your pages easy and effortless, and you should be able to learn the basics of updating and managing your site in a couple of short hours.

Gunko concludes, “With so many well-developed and stable CMS platforms available out there completely for free, South African companies now have access to the tools they need to ensure that their digital marketing makes an impressive impact, and fulfills its role as your 24-hour sales force.”

A note to the editor

Dsignhaus is a B2B Marketing Services Agency with in-depth and specialist knowledge in the field of email marketing.

Submission & EnquiriesChemory GunkoMD & Creative DirectorDsignhaus (Pty) LtdTel: 011 025 4165Cell: 082 224 2357Email: chemory@dsignhaus.co.za

Web: www.dsignhaus.co.za

SOCIAL MEDIAwww.twitter.com/#!/dsignhaus www.facebook.com/Dsignhauswww.linkedin.com/company/dsignhaus