If you want to build a complete business website solution in the shortest time possible, you need a set of tools to streamline the development process. Take the drudgery out of business website development with a content management system. Now you can effectively compete with the big boys without breaking the bank.What Are Content Management Systems?For those that may be unaware of the term, content management systems are web development tools that allow non-programmers to set up and maintain a professional web presence within a user interface that often provides the features of a word processor. Such a system makes it easy to add content at any time without the need to hire a programmer to do the job for you.Content management systems (CMS) have been around for many years. Many such systems are open source packages, meaning you may download and install them on your web host servers free of charge. Many packages, such as Joomla, WordPress, and DotNetNuke, are excellent systems with a growing list of features. These systems are great for individuals and business professionals looking for web development solutions that are simple to build and maintain.Basic Content Management SystemsFor individuals on a limited budget or without much knowledge of setting up websites, WordPress is probably the way to go. WordPress allows you to quickly set up a website with a web log (blog) format that may be extended with a variety of available plug-ins. The blog format is great for anyone wishing to get online quickly to promote themselves or their business. The additional plug-ins provide an array of features. These allow you to monetize your site with contextual advertisements (ex: Google AdSense), quickly and easily add audio and video, increase traffic to your site through social bookmarking, generate sitemaps, and more.Systems such as Joomla and DotNetNuke require a bit more work to set up and maintain, but they provide many additional features that are well worth the effort. These systems can be used to create complete membership sites to develop a community portal for your customers. The e-commerce capabilities provided through various plug-ins allow you to accept payment for products and services sold from your website. You may also charge a monthly or annual fee for access to your membership site. There are plug-ins and third party tools that integrate into these content management systems to provide this functionality.Premium Content Management System for Online BusinessFor those wishing to take their online business presence to the next level, there is a new tool that has just been introduced. It is called CMS Infusion, and it is being proclaimed a revolutionary web development tool for marketing on the internet. This system includes an array of powerful features:
Create Multiple Levels Of Membership – up to 20 levels deep.
Create Alternate Billing Levels In Seconds (ex: free, one-time, recurring, etc.)
Full automation of membership upgrades
Manage All Member Information Quickly And Easily
Manually Add, search, edit, and delete members (even block specific domains)
Fully Automate & Schedule Data Backups (download member database or subsections)
Run on Complete Autopilot – Automate Registration, Password, Welcome Messages
Complete Control of Mailing Lists
Send or Schedule Email Broadcasts
In addition to these standard features, there are numerous plug-ins available to enhance the basic system. You can manage secure delivery of digital downloads. This feature is often made available as a premium service (read – extra fee) of online shopping cart system. To make it better, it allows full product URL’s to improve search engine optimization. If you would like to feature one of your available products on your landing page, you can do this quickly and easily with another available plug-in.Other plug-ins include complete multi-tier affiliate and joint venture partner management systems. The affiliate system includes everything you would expect in a professional package. The joint venture module provides hands-off management of joint ventures between members. As with many other features, this may be set up as a paid or free service.To analyze the click-through rates of your various promotions, you can implement a professional link-tracking system through another available plug-in. This is essential for implementing and monitoring your affiliate promotions. See, at a glance, the raw and unique click rates for each of your promotions.There are many additional features included in the base system. Add audio and video to your site with the multimedia plug-in. You can effectively manage your site content with the included article and content management system. This module allows you to add unlimited content categories, set access privileges to content, and to allow users to submit their own content. You can even set the system to automatically integrate Google AdSense into the submitted content. This one module provides some very powerful features for building a content-based site.One very interesting plug-in is the Member2Member module. The power of this module is easy to miss, but it is extremely valuable to your site’s membership. This plug-in allows you to manage a variety of offerings between members of your website. Offerings may include specials and discounts available only to other members, pre-launches of new product offerings, and more. This is an excellent way to provide the ability for your membership to grow their mailing lists. It is definitely a feature that you could promote to your potential subscribers.The Future of Online Business Development – Content Management SystemsNo matter what system you ultimately choose, you will find that content management systems can reduce the cost of developing and maintaining a professional web presence. It is clear that the future of web development lies firmly in the realm content management systems. The power of the tools provided in these systems cannot be denied. The playing field has essentially been leveled for even the smallest of operations. Choose your system, and begin building your online business today.