Introduction to content management systems

1. What is CMS?

2. Why CMS?

3. A list of CMS @ wikipedia

Some popular CMS (open-source ones):

DRUPAL
JOOMLA!
Wordpress (.org)

4. Where to start?

Get a free web hosting account which supports MySQL Databases and PHP (e.g., http://100webspace.com/ ) and do the installation yourself: You need to ftp a bunch of files and set things up yourself. Also you need to bear with a banner ad on top of your page.

Or, you can buy a hosting account with everything already installed for you (e.g., bluehost.com or http://www.hostmonster.com/): You can save some time, but still need to install modules yourself by doing ftp later anyway.

So FTP is IMPORTANT -- BevoWare includes SmartFTP.

FYI:
Demo login of Hostmonster.com --
http://login.hostmonster.com/frontend/hostmonster/index.html
Click on Fantastico to get a list of soft applications available.

5. Alternative -- (not as flexible but much more convenient)

wordpress.com (different from blogger.com because it supports "PAGES")

6. Examples of final products created by CMS:

http://straightshootermag.com/

http://austinsportsreport.com/

http://swimaustin.org/

http://www.lasimmons.com/eastbecomescentral/