There was a time not so long ago, when website developers were treated with almost as much reverence as pilots and surgeons. After all, without a website, your business was just not a player, non-existent, invisible to the world. No one had any idea as to what they did, or how they did it, just that they were able, as if by magic, to put our business into cyberspace in full view of a global audience.

There were pictures and there were words too. It was marvellous. Who will ever forget the day our website went live. But, as is life, we wanted more. A new product range, a change in pricing perhaps, or maybe even some customer feedback comments. Suddenly things got a little tricky. We were told that there was no development time available for at least two weeks, or the site would have to be rewritten as expansion was not part of the initial brief, blah blah. Bottom line? It cost money. Every change or tweak became an uphill struggle and a nightmare scenario.

Luckily all this is now a thing of the past. The reason? Content Management Systems, or CMS for short. These little beauties have given us the power now. No longer beholden to our developers, we proudly add, tweak and change to our hearts content and glory and revel in our new found freedom. And best of all, there’s no extra costs. involved.

From humble beginnings as a simple textual template editor tool, CMS has now really come of age and is simply an essential ingredient in any website design. Today’s systems are dynamic tools that give you the power to produce high quality web content without any programming knowledge. In the main, used via a simple menu system, CMS will allow you to add new pages of content and images, format your page design, add titles and navigation, edit existing pages, put in SEO meta data, allow for multiple users and let you roll back to previous versions if you make a mistake.

There are however, some rules to this heavenly scenario that should be observed at all costs.

1. Now that you have free reign, your web content should be written to be informative to your visitors of course, but it also must be search spider friendly. This is crucial to getting your website successfully indexed and ranked high by Google.
2. CMS systems can be widely varying in cost which will be determined by the power and flexibility you are looking for. The cheapest option might sound appealing but could prove to be a serious mistake when you realise that you really need much more flexibility and there is no doubt you will, so try to future proof if possible by picking a system that will not restrict your progress.
3. Is the system secure. You will need, if you are allowing multiple user access, to ensure you have sufficient overall control.
4. Does it work across all platforms? These days websites need to be seen on different browsers and mobile technology too.
5. Is there comprehensive support for you, because one thing is sure, you will need it at the most unlikeliest of times.

With all these possibilities factored in, you will find that the freedom, speed and cost savings you experience through installing a versatile CMS on your site will more than justify the price tag.

Keep an eye out for part two of this series on the topic of Content Management Systems.

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I was contacted over the christmas and new year by Actually Digital to help out one of their clients who had been let down by another developer. The brief was clear and simple, to develop a custom WordPress theme from a design they had provided and to turn it around within 24 hours. I took up the challenge for two reasons:

1. I have been doing more and more work with WordPress recently so I was keen to take on any work that could keep my momentum going in this area.
2. I respect what the site owner is doing and the causes he is supporting over the coming months

If you would like to know more about Mark Bowness and his mission to give up alcohol for twelve months in order to develop his spirit, mind and body you can watch his introductory YouTube video below and checkout www.dontbuythismanapint.com. Mark is making maximum use of social media to support this challenge so you can also follow him via Twitter, Facebook, RSS and YouTube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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1. Adding jQuery to a custom WordPress theme I have been doing a little bit of WordPress work...

I have recently been working on my professional profile on-line and have published my Prolific Notion Facebook page under my trading name of Prolific Notion. I would of course appreciate any followers that might be interested in my work or my services so head on over there now and become a fan! I don’t think I can get my vanity url until I have a least 1000 followers so I have a way to go yet.

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Today Prolific Notion became an Approved Sage Pay partner!

After referring two customers already and carrying out integration work for two separate sites I made the decision to become a Sage Pay Partner and promote them as my recommended Payment Service Provider to any future clients.

I can now offer the following benefits:

• Affordable transaction processing – you can benefit from their flat rate
• Pricing with no set up fees, no annual fees and no transaction charges
• Rates among the lowest in the business
• High levels of security
• Fraud prevention:  Ensure that your business is protected from fraud with the Sage Pay range of risk management services
• Reliable and available service:  Sage Pay infrastructure and disaster recovery procedures ensure that you can benefit from a highly reliable service

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