Integrated Content Management System
Content Management Systems (CMS) enable you to easily place, and change, content in specific areas of your website. There can be multiple areas, and they can be placed almost anywhere, within the design constraints of the site.
Posting updates of new products, notices of a sale, general news items, etc., will keep your regular customers informed, and bring in new customers.
Stan Holz, owner of the Village Gun Store in Whitefield, is using a CushyCMS section I set up on his home page in the section below the "News and Events" heading to keep his customers informed. He has told me his regular customers keep an eye on it, and that he has had customers coming from far and wide, including Canada and Manchester N.H., to patronize his store after seeing his website. If you would like to ask him about it, he has graciously consented to tell you about his experiences with it, and answer any questions you may have.
Fresh, relevant content, particularly on your home page can boost your sites search ranking.
I currently use two content management systems,CushyCMS and Pulse CMS. Both work in a similar fashion. In a nutshell, you will go to a specific, non-public page from any computer and login with the username and password I give you. You will be presented with a dialog box within which you will enter what you want to appear on your site. This box will have a toolbar, like a miniature word processor, enabling you to insert links, images, and style the text. When you are finished you simply click on a save/publish button and the content will appear on your website. To change the content simply repeat the process, deleting the old content and replacing it with the new.
View this short CushyCMS demo video and this video on how to use Pulse CMS.
If I'm providing the hosting for your website, any adjustments, such as setting up additional areas on your site to use the CMS, or general troubleshooting will be handled at no charge. If your site is hosted elsewhere, any troubleshooting or work done beyond the initial setup will incur an hourly fee of $35.00/hr.
A Blog To Compliment Your Website
Unless you have a need for very frequent news/updated info, as in daily, or even multiple times a day, a CMS system for your site is just right for you. If you do have a need for very frequent updates, you may want to start a blog to accompany your website.
If you would like to have a blog accompany your site, I would suggest Tumblr. It is free, easy to use, has all the functionality you are likely to need, and I can link it to your website, and style it to match. Please see the NEK Catholic, and NEK Catholic blog, as an illustration.
Use Facebook or Twitter
Other alternatives are integrating Facebook or Twitter with your site. See the home page of the Village Gun Store or Wes Ward Auto Repair, to see their facebook "badge" integrated into their websites. Twitter, if you don't already know, is a very popular micro-blogging service which sends out short messages similar to a cell phone text message. Your Twitter "stream" can be displayed on your site in addition to your "followers" getting your message.
Both of these services are free, Twitter in particular is very easy to use, and if you have frequent messages to get out, are a viable alternative to setting up a blog, plus, as I said, they can be integrated right into your website helping to attract more visitors.
Imagine you are a grocer, you want to have a one day special on hot dogs to reduce your inventory; log into your Twitter account; post your "25% off hot dogs, today only" message; it instantly appears on your website and shows up in everyone's inbox that is following you on Twitter. Try doing that with a newspaper ad!
