Although a Content Management System costs typically more to develop upfront, in the long run you save money on website maintenance costs.  You also save time waiting for your website developer to get around to making your changes – you can update your website whenever and wherever you want.

Do you need one?  It certainly isn’t a requirement, but I would highly recommend it.  You can use a content management system to add fresh content to your website on a regular basis. Adding quality content to your website is one of the best ways to improve your search engine rank.  The more pages you get listed in Google, the better chance you have in ranking higher for a wider set of keywords.  Fresh content also gets people coming back to your website more often and hopefully will link to your articles from their website or social media.  The more inbound links you get, the more important your site becomes in the “eyes” of Google.

With a CMS, you can easily add new pages to your website and the menu gets automatically updated.  A CMS usually has a blog feature as well, which is a popular means for adding content.  Just like Home Depot makes it easier for home owners to make home repairs themselves, a CMS makes it easier for businesses to update or add to their own websites.  Both allow you to DIY (do-it-yourself) without the need to hire an expert.  Save time, save money, and help your search engine rank.  What else could you ask for?

A little background info

As little as 5 years ago, web sites were developed in programming languages that required special software for editing (i.e. Frontpage or Dreamweaver) and sometimes required programming knowledge (i.e. PHP, Perl, etc.)  In those days, it was easier and cheaper to have your web designer update your web site for you.  So in addition to designing and building new web sites, I also had a steady stream of income from maintaining web sites for my customers.

In January of 2009, I saw that the web site industry was moving toward Content Management Systems and I embraced this technology by learning WordPress and Drupal so that I could offer my clients multiple options.  Yes, this meant less income because now my customers could update their own web sites without paying me, but I knew in my heart that this was the right thing to do for my clients and my business. 

When technology changes, businesses must change with it or be left behind.

The Dilemma

Now that clients are maintaining their own web sites, I am often called upon with technical questions such as ” how can I do this?” and “Uh, oh!  I messed up my home page and don’t know how to fix it!”  Sometimes the fixes are 1-2-3 but sometimes it can take me 30 minutes to an hour trying to figure out what they did wrong or researching and typing up instructions on how to do something. 

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining or using this post to vent my frustrations.  I like helping people and I want my customers to feel comfortable approaching me with questions – especially when their new web site has just been launched.  But sometimes these calls/emails come more than 6 months after the web site has been handed over to the client.  Do you think there should be a cut off date for free support?

I personally hate when I buy a product and then have to pay for support when I have a question.  I bought for my 75 year old mother a Dell computer last Christmas and 2 months later it was infected with a virus.  When my mom couldn’t get in touch with me (her personal tech support), she panicked and called Dell.  The warranty that came with the computer only covered software that came pre-installed (not viruses.)  So they charged her $200 for a support plan and then probably downloaded a freeware program onto her computer to clean it.  This bothered me because I felt like they had taken advantage of an elderly woman.

I want people to have a positive image about Web Image Designs and don’t want them to feel they’ve been taken advantage of.  The other side of the coin is that I’m spending non-billable time doing research and providing free support.

So what’s your take on this?  Should I offer free technical support for an initial period and then charge by the hour after that?  Or should I continue to provide free support indefinitely with the hope that the good will I am generating provides a better return?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

I recently received a call from a small business owner who purchased a $50 template for his Drupal web site.  He already had an existing Drupal installation but wanted to “upgrade” the look & feel of it.  His website had well over 50 pages including blog articles.  The template company offered to install the template for an additional fee and requested that he provide them with a backup of his database. 

Three days later his website was a mess and he was on the phone with me.

The template was installed but instead of displaying his copy, it was displaying the “ipsum lorem” dummy marketing text and the site was live!  Instead of installing the template in a temporary location, they replaced his live site and they didn’t know how to restore his data!

YIKES!  A company’s worst nightmare!

After some investigation, we uncovered the location of his data (unfortunately his backup file was a mess too!) and we were able to restore the real content to his website.  He was so happy with our work that he asked us to help him “tweak a few minor things” on the design.  Normally the changes he requested would have been easy – had the template been designed properly.  But this one was a nightmare.  The entire Drupal installation was non-standard so none of the components were where you would expect them to be.  And to boot, they didn’t give him a username and password with full administrative rights — so some parts of the admin were off-limits!

After pulling in a database expert, a Drupal expert and pulling out some of my hair, we finally got everything into place.

His $50 template ended up costing him roughly $1000 to fix and made me vow never to work on a cheap CMS template again!

As the old saying goes, ”You get what you pay for.”

If you’re running on a hosted CMS such as Hubspot, then the hosting company should be keeping the software up-to-date for you – this is covered under the monthly fee that you are paying them.  If you are running a plain-vanilla WordPress site, then you may need to occasionally update to the latest version of WordPress, especially if there is a security update.  However, if your web site has additional features (modules) installed, you really should consider a maintenance plan.

Truthfully, I think it’s best that most people don’t try to update their own modules but call in an expert instead.  Consider this, I have worked on some Drupal websites that have over 30 modules installed and activated.  At any point in time, one or more of these modules could require updating.  When it comes to updating modules, you really need to know what you are doing; otherwise you could end up bringing down the entire web site.

Web Image Designs can assist clients with WordPress updates, but Drupal is much more complex so we turn to Matt Miller of Total Business Group for our Drupal Maintenance needs.  Matt and his staff have been working with Drupal for years and are very knowledgeable when it comes to the nuts & bolts of Drupal.  They offer an annual maintenance plan in which they will review your Drupal installation on a quarterly basis and update all of modules that require updating.  Like an insurance policy, this gives you peace of mind that your web site will be kept up-to-date and function properly.  After all, you have so many other things on your mind – why not let someone else worry about your web site?

One of the wonderful things about a Content Management System is the ability to easily expand your web site with new pages and new features.

Once your web site is built on a CMS, the options are practically endless – especially if your CMS is Open Source, such as WordPress or Drupal.  These are two of the open source Content Management Systems that I typically work with.  Open Source means that the source code is available to the public and therefore developers from all over the world can expand on the functionality of the CMS by adding new features.  These new features are called modules, widgets or plug-ins, which you can download and add to your own CMS web site.

For example, I am working with a client whose target market spans multiple industries and each industry has its own set of problems and situations.  We recently moved this client’s web site to a Drupal CMS and they would like to add Forums for each of their target customers.  To develop something like this from scratch would be a large and costly undertaking.  With Drupal, I just had to download and install the Forum module.  Once the forum module is installed, you can begin to add your forums & topics.  In this instance, I did do some customization to the look & feel of the forums before going live but it could be used right “out of the box.”

The Forums module is just one example of the many modules available for Drupal.  WordPress is another great CMS that offers many plug-in modules and widgets for customizing your WordPress web site.

So beef up your web site.  Use the power of your CMS to add a blog or a forum & start to interact with your customers.  An interactive web site is likely to see more traffic because it keeps them coming back for more!  Offering free advice in a blog or answering questions in a Forum increases your credibility and can help you to close the sale.

Technology never stands still.  As the owner of a web design business, I have to keep on top of the moving trends in my industry or become obsolete.  This year, the technology I have embraced is Content Management Systems.  Once you have a CMS, you’ll fall in love and wonder how you ever survived without it (just like your cell phone!)

The Benefits of a CMS include:

1. Take control of your website!  It’s a great feeling to be in charge.  Update your own website whenever you like, without having to wait for someone else to do it.
2. Save Money!  You no longer have to pay your web developer to make those minor updates any more.
3. Easy to Update!  No technical skills or HTML knowledge required.  Most CMS platforms have a built-in editor that is as easy to use as Microsoft Word.
4. Built-in Blog.  Add a blog with a click of the mouse.  It’s that easy.  Now you just have to start writing those blog posts! 
5. Easy to Add New Pages – Click “Add a New Page,” enter the page title, and start typing the copy.  Easy as 1, 2, 3. 
6. Plug-able Add-ons:  Some CMS platforms, such as WordPress, allow you to easily install new features. 
7. Multi-user Environment.  Create different “roles” for your users to control what pages in the CMS they have access to. 
8. Up and Running in no Time.  Most hosting companies allow you to install a CMS with a click of a button in your control panel.  They automatically install the database and CMS files for you.  Your website is now ready for content and customization. 
9. Template or Custom Design.  Installing “out of the box” doesn’t usually get you a pretty web site, but you can choose from different templates (some free, some not) or you can hire someone to create a custom design for you.
10. SEO Friendly.  The early content management systems were not SEO friendly and used long, hard to remember URL strings.  Today’s CMS programs are built with SEO in mind.  They use shorter, SEO-friendly URLS and allow you to customize your titles and meta-tags with your chosen keywords.
11. Affordable.  CMS technology use to be only for very large corporations who could afford the cost of implementing a CMS.  The technology has improved greatly, making CMS software easier to install and customize, therefore bringing the price down so that small businesses can afford to have a content management system.

If you are already using a CMS – please share with us what you love about it in the comments below.