CMS is short for  “Content Management System.”  I often explain to clients that it is like an engine that powers your website.  You plug in the content (such as text and images) and the CMS delivers the content to your users according to your specifications. A CMS provides a graphical interface that allows you to specify preferences, make configurations, and create content. You can do all of this without the need to learn HTML, CSS, or any programming language!

That’s just the beginning of what you can do with a CMS. But the greatest advantage that it offers my clients is the ability to update content after I have created the design and made all of the configurations for them.

There are many CMS options available. Some are commercial applications and others are Open Source. For individual website owners, nonprofits, and small- to medium-sized businesses, the latter is usually the best way to go. That’s because Open Source means free! Open source software is developed and maintained by communities of programmers and is available for anyone to use.  And just because it’s free doesn’t mean that  the quality is in any way inferior. The CMS that I primarily use (Drupal) is even being used by some of the largest players in the corporate world such as Yahoo!, AOL, Warner Brothers Records, US Magazine and many others.