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recommend CMS for small business? idiotprogrammer 05-02-2008
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Posted by idiotprogrammer on May 2, 2008, 1:34 pm
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 Hi, I'm a content manager with very light design experience.

A local businessman asked me to put together a small website for his
business.

A simple site. Probably 10-20 pages, maximum. I don't expect to have a
lot of updated information and additional content added over time.

He currently has a 2-3 page site now.

I'm about to recommend wordpress for the backend of his site. Not
because it's really that good, but simply that I'm most familiar with
it.

Are any alternatives out there? Something lightweight and easy to
support. (I support several wordpress sites, so it would be relatively
easy to handle the upgrades of this one).

Things I'm concerned about:

1)Themes that are less blog-centric and more focused on business
needs. (We're not running ecommerce here, although we'd want a simple
contact form).
2) Although we will have some media (including two or three videos).
I'm concerned that there may be a need to create custom templates. I
assume that they would have to be separate templates or added as
Pages. That seems rather cumbersome.
3)Can anyone recommend a site with WP themes that have more of a
business focus? (I could probably do simple php manipulations, but I
wouldn't be doing a lot of visual design).

Also, anyone know of WP plugins that work well with business-oriented
sites?

Robert Nagle

Posted by 1001 Webs on May 2, 2008, 4:56 pm
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> Hi, I'm a content manager with very light design experience.
>
> A local businessman asked me to put together a small website for his
> business.
>
> A simple site. Probably 10-20 pages, maximum. I don't expect to have a
> lot of updated information and additional content added over time.
>
> He currently has a 2-3 page site now.
>
> I'm about to recommend wordpress for the backend of his site. Not
> because it's really that good, but simply that I'm most familiar with
> it.
>
> Are any alternatives out there? Something lightweight and easy to
> support. (I support several wordpress sites, so it would be relatively
> easy to handle the upgrades of this one).
>
> Things I'm concerned about:
>
> 1)Themes that are less blog-centric and more focused on business
> needs. (We're not running ecommerce here, although we'd want a simple
> contact form).
> 2) Although we will have some media (including two or three videos).
> I'm concerned that there may be a need to create custom templates. I
> assume that they would have to be separate templates or added as
> Pages. That seems rather cumbersome.
> 3)Can anyone recommend a site with WP themes that have more of a
> business focus? =A0(I could probably do simple php manipulations, but I
> wouldn't be doing a lot of visual design).
>
> Also, anyone know of WP plugins that work well with business-oriented
> sites?
>
> Robert Nagle

Mambo

* Official WebSite:
www.mambo-foundation.org
* Mambo Open Source Official Forum:
http://forum.mamboserver.com

--
Kind Regards
1001 Mambos
http://www.1001webs.net/en/cms/mambo_en.htm

Posted by Jurgen Nijhuis on May 2, 2008, 5:39 pm
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On Fri, 2 May 2008 10:34:21 -0700 (PDT), idiotprogrammer

>Hi, I'm a content manager with very light design experience.
>
>A local businessman asked me to put together a small website for his
>business.
>
>A simple site. Probably 10-20 pages, maximum. I don't expect to have a
>lot of updated information and additional content added over time.
>
>He currently has a 2-3 page site now.
>
>I'm about to recommend wordpress for the backend of his site. Not
>because it's really that good, but simply that I'm most familiar with
>it.
>
>Are any alternatives out there?

Hi Robert,

you should take a look at Website Baker, which is an open source CMS
that is excellent for small and medium sized websites. It's one of the
most friendliest systems available, both for designer and manager
(client). It comes with many plugins and templates, and it's very easy
to use your own designs with it as well. There is a very friendly and
helpful user forum for help and support.

http://www.websitebaker.com

Also take a look at the comments at http://www.opensourcecms.com and
the demo there. Don't let the simple looks of the demo fool you
though. It can eb used with any design you like easily.


--
Jurgen Nijhuis
http://www.argosmedia.nl

Posted by Andrew Heenan on May 3, 2008, 5:17 am
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> Hi, I'm a content manager with very light design experience.
> A local businessman asked me to put together a small website for his
> business.
> A simple site. Probably 10-20 pages, maximum. I don't expect to have a
> lot of updated information and additional content added over time.

If your are *sure* it's going to saty at 20pp or thereabouts, then a simple
template and handwritten HTML would add an SEO edge for a slim, trim,
cleaner than clean site.

And at that size, no need to learn about a quality open source cms with all
the mistakes that human beings make!
--

Andrew
seo2seo.com
sick-site-syndrome.com

UK Residents:
STOP THE "10p Tax Ripoff"
Sign the petition to stop the government stealing from the
very poorest tell your friends about this petition:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/10penceband/



Posted by idiotprogrammer on May 12, 2008, 1:32 am
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One of my concerns is that I will need to patch a php-based cms over
time. I suspect my client would be loathe to do that.

Maybe a more basic question: is going with a php-based cms inherently
asking for trouble (or at least constant vigilance)?

rj


>
> > Hi, I'm a content manager with very light design experience.
> > A local businessman asked me to put together a small website for his
> > business.
> > A simple site. Probably 10-20 pages, maximum. I don't expect to have a
> > lot of updated information and additional content added over time.
>
> If your are *sure* it's going to saty at 20pp or thereabouts, then a simple
> template and handwritten HTML would add an SEO edge for a slim, trim,
> cleaner than clean site.
>
> And at that size, no need to learn about a quality open source cms with all
> the mistakes that human beings make!
> --
>
> Andrew
> seo2seo.com
> sick-site-syndrome.com
>
> UK Residents:
> STOP THE "10p Tax Ripoff"
> Sign the petition to stop the government stealing from the
> very poorest tell your friends about this
petition:http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/10penceband/


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