Contact Form Script
Summary of website content management systems
A website content system is used to publish a range of content. These can be simple pages or complex pages sourced from databases, training materials, online manuals, or general business documents. The websites can range from large e-commerce sites, personal blogs, school lessons, to corporate sites. There can be thousands of pages with extensive linkage between pages.
The very first thing you need to do in selecting a website content management system is to ask yourself about your future goals and potential needs. Obviously there can be no single best list of requirements which can cover everybody’s future needs and potential goals. Every organization or person is going to have unique requirements.
A website content management system goes through stages of development. It spans from the initial content creation to the final end user delivery. To simplify the process, stages of the life cycle can be categorized into groups: a) Content creation; b) Content management; c) Publishing; d) Presentation; and e) Contract & business.
Content creation is functionality required by authors who are creating the material that shows up on websites. For a system to be successful, it must be easy to create and maintain content. The core of a system is content management, which is a central repository supported by a range of tools for manipulating and managing the content. Key parameters are version control and archiving, workflow, security, integration with external systems and reporting.
Final pages are created by the publishing engine, using content stored in the repository. Primary elements include stylesheets and page templates. Multiple formats such as html, print, pdf, wa, etc may need to be supported. Larges sites will require personalization and usage statistics.
Content presentation is another important aspect that must not be neglected. The appearance and layout of the web pages will be dependent upon decisions made on this facet. To provide the most value to your users, the page presentation must meet certain criteria. They are as follows: usability, accessibility, cross-browser support, speed, navigation and metadata.
The final requirement, contract and business, relates to the project management and business procedures when the website content management system is being implemented by a third party or vendor. Some of the parameters which need to be addressed are training for using the cms, skills required for running and maintenance, documentation, resource requirements in terms of hardware/software or any specific databases, cost, scalability, etc.
A website content management system is often crucial to the popularity of the website that it helps creates. Millions of dollars may depend on the website in the case of complex enterprise system. Therefore, it is imperative that the website content management system meets the neccessay needs of the website. Addressing the goals and necessities remains the most important task, and all persons involved should perform this job beforehand.
- Robert Taylor
How to Set a Price for Web Design Work
Your prime objective here is to charge what your work is worth Not to you but to your client and that means that you need to give them a guarantee that they will be completely happy with the finished product you provide. The simple way to start is to set a fixed fee for the complete web site and to do this you will need some incremental prices. It is affordable web design and reasonable web design pricesthat an online cost estimate for web design will convince your web site visitors to choose your company.|Your prime objective here is to charge what your work is worth. The cost of your work must be acceptable to your customer and they must be happy to pay your fees. One way to insure their satisfaction is to offer a money back guarantee. The determination of fees is a subjective process but if you plan on providing the client a fixed fee for the complete web site you will need to break down your charges for each step in the design process.
Here are some categories to price for your Price Schedule:
Standard Page We suggest you start by taking your day job salary rate per hour and use it for your base rate per hour. Now determine the time you start on a ten page web site and then design that site. Do this with five different web sites and then take the total number of hours you have spent divided by five, times your hourly salary rate and you have a starting place for a price per page for a ‘Standard Page’ your design fees. Interactive Page For your interactive pages depending on the type of form you use you may charge 1.5 to 3 times what you charge for a Standard Page.
Forum The setup fee for a phpBB should be about three times what you are charging for your Standard Page. This is dependant on your client’s ability to administer the Forum and assumes they will be doing the complete administration of the board.
Shopping Cart (PayPal) Setup (with 30 items). We suggest you pick one shopping cart to become very familiar with and use it almost exclusively. If the client requires a specific cart then charge by the hour to setup their cart. A reliable and easy to use cart is available form PayPal.
Shopping Cart (PayPal) Items (rate per item above the first 30). If you are using a PayPal cart, $5.00 per item is a reasonable price for additional shopping cart items.
Web Site Maintenance fees. A very difficult rate to set for a beginning firm because of the possible time that may be required for the site. Most web sites require very little maintenance while certain types require many hours a week.
The next step after you have established you prices is to decide how to present them on your web site. You want a simple but clearly described price schedule and you may want to give three or four levels of web site prices. I like to see an example of the cost estimate a vender will provide for a Request for a Proposal (RFP).
- Millard Hiner
How to start an online Web Design Business
You have to be able to publish to the Internet To do this you have to use Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which is a relative easy programming language. For the day to day design work you probably will buy and learn to use one of the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editors. However, learning the basics of HTML is still a prerequisite to starting a successful web design shop even if you use one of the canned HTML editors. Buy yourself a HTML reference book and a good find one is at the Dummies web site.
There are several very good WYSIWYG HTML editors for sale such as Microsoft’s FrontPage 2003 or Macromedia’s – DreamWeaver 8. FrontPage is probably the best choice for a beginner while DreamWeaver is a bit more sophisticated it is also more difficult to learn. In addition to these two HTML editors there are many more available and a search for ‘HTML editors’ on Google returns over seven million web sites.
Next you will need a hosting company to display your web site and there are hundreds to choose from. You may want to start cheap and the domain name registrar GoDaddy.com has server space for rent that will host a small web site for a very reasonable price. Or looking ahead you may even choose one of the companies offering reseller hosting plans so that you will be able to host the web site that you design thereby creating a built in source of reoccurring income. After trying almost a dozen different hosting companies BlackGyr now uses midPhase and recommends their service without reservation for their support, reliability and price.
So now you need to practice. Start on your own web site and work to create a site that YOU are proud to send any prospective client to for an example of the work you do. When you have reached this level of competence you are ready for the next step, pricing the work that you offer and that will be my next article and I will address web design prices which is the basis for a competitive business. Now affordable web design is not rocket science but a cost estimate for web design that makes sense to your clients is a must.
- Millard Hiner
Web Design Tools
Web design tools like developer software and templates are for those that cannot create a website or that do not have the time. Article Site Developer is a must if you want to create websites quickly.
Joomla Templates
Web Page Templates
Web Design Software
Joomla is a very powerful web site design software tool. This program is an open source code, so there is no charge for acquiring and using the software. Now that, you must admit, is a tremendous deal. You will surely agree after you take some time and review Joomla.
It is almost unbelievable, if not ludicrous and irrational, that the developers of this software freely give it away. But, that is the impetus behind open source code- to share with the public. Truely a design to help empower those that do not have the financial wherewithal to acquire high end software and compete with large corporations.
Noting that Joomla is openly downloadable for public use or what is commonly referred to as shareware makes its professional design even more incredible. Creating a high quality software program is a major challenge for any corporate team of developers. Because Joomla was developed by a group of web designers and programmers outside of that corporate shadow, the group responsible for Joomla’s development had few limitations on creativity. The melding of minds in the group resulted in a very powerful software program that is used by individuals and companies alike.
Review the Joomla “Core Team” members.

In my opinion, this is the best (no charge) web designing software available. Its popularity has brought other programmers to develop custom modules that can be loaded with Joomla for further enhancement. These enhancements make this already superb web site and design software that much more powerful and flexible.
Addons, or extensions as they are known in the Joomla comunity, are continually being developed and upgraded by programmers outside of the main core group. Typically when a new module is developed it will be made available to others at a reasonable price. Like the main program, the addons are suitable for small to large company web sites.
If you are concerned about support, there is a great many forums that you can read and review for tach issues. Of course, the best forum is the main community support system associated with the web site- forum.joomla.org/. In many cases, you do not have to make a post in the forum because it is likely your question has already been asked and answered.
For your convenience, we have listed a quick link to some joomla templates created by third parties. Please do not discount the fact that the templates were created by programmers other than the original joomla developers. You will find the templates extremely beneficial to your Joomla website devlopment needs. These are full website templates ready to load- including graphics.
Well, load it up and give it a spin. You may find that Joomla will replace all of your old website design software programs. For loading the program, you can check with your web hosting company. Many offer a preloaded script or tool that makes loading Joomla a five minute breeze.
Be patient when learning the many different settings and uses of the program. Sometimes the addon modules require a little extra time for installation. However, your overall experience with this mightily equipped program will no doubt be an impressive one.
Article Site Developer
Create Web Pages
Article Site Developer
allows you to create web pages or more specifically, add keyword specific and optimized articles to your web site in just minutes. This is an incredibly fast method of adding content to your web site. And we all know the experts say “content is king”.Add four or five articles or 50 – 100 articles to your site without spending hours on research. Add in your Google Adsense ads and/or affiliate sales links and you have easily and exponentially boosted your sales revenue.
