With all the advanced tools currently available at our fingertips, content management systems like
WordPress and WordPress themes or site builders like Weebly make it much easier to create and
manage a website since much of the work is done by using WYSIWYG editors to add and manage
content.

There are four basic steps to get your website up and running:

Step 1: Find a Name for Your Website (URL)
Step 2: Choose an affordable website hosting Provider
Step 3: Build your Website
Step 4: Publish your Site

Step 1: Finding a Name for Your Website (URL)

Start by choosing a domain name for your site and buying the domain name.

Since most of the more common names are already taken, you will have to be creative, but still, come
up with something that fits your business or website topic.

You can check for prospective names anywhere domain names are sold. Once you have found an
an available name for your site, you will be ready to move on to step 2.

Search our partner Hostlabs for a domain name here.

Step 2: Choosing an affordable website hosting Provider

When choosing a web host, there are a few things you should consider.

Price: Find a host that can provide quality services for the price you need. The key here is to find quality
hosting and not just the cheapest.

Reliability: Reliability is critical for a website. If your server is frequently down, visitors will not be able to
access your content or make purchases. Does the hosting provider guarantee your site’s uptime?

Support: Should a problem arise; will technical support be available to help at any time day or night?

Along with reliability, support is helpful in the event something does go wrong.

Step 3: Building your Website

Now that you have your very own website registered to you, it’s time to start building a website.

Typically, website builders are provided by your web host, but you can use anyone you like. Some web
hosting services have awesome site builders that make it extremely easy to get your site up and running
in just minutes utilizing the data, you provide when answering a few questions about your site.

If you prefer taking your time to customize your website, then you might want to consider using a CMS,
or a content management system such as WordPress.

Your hosting provider should allow you to easily install WordPress via the cPanel. If you do not have
access to a cPanel, FTP is also available, although a little more technical then the one-click installs from
cPanel.

WordPress will come pre-installed with free themes and there are premium themes that can be
purchased from various websites. Premium themes will usually allow for more customization and have
more features available to build the website you want.

Once, you have picked a theme. Upload your images and content, then add them to your site, by
logically placing to avoid clutter and confusion. It is imperative that your website is user-friendly since if
users are unable to find what they are looking for in a few seconds, they will look elsewhere.

Step 4: Publishing your Site

When you have finally finished creating your website, give it another look over and then click publish to
make your site available to the public.

Don’t count on receiving traffic right away, in the first few days, weeks, months, or ever… without a
good marketing strategy to drive traffic to the website.

20 Years of Quality Web Hosting

Putting a good-looking website without being a developer or designer is possible if you use the right
tools. But a pretty website won’t matter much if you don’t build it on a good website foundation. A web host can be a difference.

There are many web hosting providers on the web, but not many that have been around as long as our partner
HostLabs. They have been giving quality web hosting for over 20 years.

Compare their web hosting plans here and build a website today!

The post Building A Website Design When You Are Not A Designer appeared first on Greenhouse Design Group.

User-Friendliness In Configuring And Managing A Website

All three CMSs are easy to install and since most users install using a script rather than manually, there is no big difference. When it comes to managing a website, one needs to consider ease-of-use in day-to-day site management and administration across all user roles and levels of the system.

WordPress

WordPress is immensely popular among users and developers alike. The WordPress philosophy is to build an intuitive and easy-to-use CMS that its users regardless of their technical knowledgexe2x80x94can use to publish on the web. WordPress is simple to use from the start, especially for anyone familiar with word processing tools such as Microsoft Word.

Joomla!

The best feature in Joomla! from the perspective of ease of use is its consideration of user levels -traditional website visitor access, front-end editors, back-end managers and administrators. The front-end area with defined user roles makes it easy for newbies and lower-level users to manage content.

Drupal

The out-of-the-box interface in Drupal is fully functional but it is not user-friendly for non-technical users. Users should be comfortable with PHP, HTML, CSS, and other web languages to operate in Drupal. For that reason, Drupal has the steepest learning curve and is designed to be customized at all levels.

Ease-of-Use in Creating and Publishing Content

WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal are all capable of supporting publishing workflows for non-technical users, such as inputting or creating content, updating it on an ongoing basis, formatting, and displaying it to users. For non-technical users wanting to create a new site using a pre-built theme, WordPress may be the best option, even Joomla! would work just as well but Drupal may not be the right pick for you. Since creating and publishing content is the bulk of the work you will do in a CMS letxe2x80x99s look at each platform in a little more detail.

Drupal

There are several default content types right out of the box in Drupal: Besides basic pages used for static pages, articles (similar to WordPress posts) and book page, which is a collaborative type of content that many users contribute to, are offered. There are also forum topics on which comments and reply threads can be added and polls offering a question with a set of possible responses for community members to vote on. You can also create new content types with different section headings, functions, features, multimedia elements, and capabilities. Drupal is an excellent choice for developers building a complex site with tons of content and numerous users because of its flexibility and ability to easily create and define own content types.

Joomla!

Joomla! allows users to create and store content as articles, which are then attached to a menu to be displayed on the site. It is also possible to place content in different positions and areas because of the way Joomla! uses modules. Joomla! may not have the most intuitive setup, especially for users without experience in any other CMS, but it is still worth spending a few hours learning it as it is an incredibly powerful system. With its innate structure and ability to create once, publish everywhere, content can be used in multiple ways throughout the website. For example, a blog post can be repurposed as a page, an event, and an article simultaneously.

WordPress

WordPress offers three default content types:

Post- For some websites, WordPress is used for its blogging capabilities alone. Blog posts are easy to create and publish with a time and date stamp and they are automatically added to your RSS feed. Posts can be assigned categories and tags, for easy archival and sorting.

Pages-Website pages are easy to build and add to the menu. The system has a drag-and-drop editor for easy management of the menu structure.

Media– This type of content is primarily for storing and organizing images, videos, or other files. WordPress media uploader enables drag and drop uploading, file size limits, automatic image resizing, editing and a visual gallery for management. It also has a built-in photo gallery tool.

WordPress also uses widgets to store other content that wouldn’t be considered pages or posts. They are generally regulated to a sidebar or footer, though some WordPress themes provide a lot of flexibility in creative use of widgets. WordPress is restrictive in its ability to re-use existing content differently. However, WordPress does allow “custom post types,” for creating your own unique content type, such as videos, whitepaper, case studies, and more, similar to Joomla! or Drupal. It is easier to review and create content on WordPress because it keeps content types separate.

Security

There is a myriad of threats to your website from cross site scripting, zero-days breaches, brute force attempts, and distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks to software vulnerabilities. Each of the three main CMSs have different security features. Let’s take a look at them.

WordPress

Hackers are more likely to try and find vulnerabilities in the WordPress system because of its popularity and reach. There are over 75 million WordPress sites on the web, in comparison to about 3 million Joomla! sites and less than a million Drupal sites. You need to modify WordPress core files to enable Secure Socket Layer connection or Two-Factor Authentication on its dashboard. Most advanced security features are entirely dependent on plugins. The most commonly used plugins are often subject to hacks and malware, as they are considered less secure and have less oversight. But if site owners are vigilant about which plugins they install, and update regularly then a WordPress site is no less secure than any other CMS. WordPress Core is still extremely secure. WordPress has a robust reporting process and vulnerabilities are fixed and patched quickly once theyre discovered.

Joomla!

Out-of-the-box, Joomla! comes with a feature to force connections over SSL and another option for enforcing 2FA[MK1] . It offers its unique set of security extensions, and developers working on Joomla! also maintain a list of extensions with known vulnerabilities. Joomla! has a dedicated Joomla Security Strike Team (JSST) who are quick to patch any vulnerabilities as soon as they are discovered. Joomla has very few documented vulnerabilities and most are not knowingly exploited.

Drupal

Drupal commands the smallest marketshare but it is most popular with enterprise users who are more technically savvy and therefore Drupal enjoys a reputation of being the most secure CMS of the group. Drupal modules are usually targeted less but the lack of an automatic update makes it difficult to spread the word about the vulnerability to compromised users.

Truthfully there is not much difference between WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla! as far as security is concerned. The greatest security risk for any site is the users and administrators of the site. So if these content management systems are managed responsibly and monitored properly by someone with the required technical knowledge, most security breaches can be prevented. This is a major reason why website owners should opt for managed website hosting, instead of traditional web hosting.

Upgradability

WordPress allows easy updates for both minor and major upgrades to plugin, theme, and custom functions though it may be better to test things out on a staging site first to prevent any incompatibilities later. WordPress also enables automatic updates for minor version changes so that the latest security patches are installed without having to update manually.

Joomla! updates work just as easily as WordPress for minor versions. Even upgrading between major versions usually works just as well but it can occasionally require manual intervention.

Minor version upgrades on Drupal are a simple affair but upgrading between major versions requires a more involved effort than for Joomla! and WordPress. For someone without a lot of experience on CMSs, you are better off hiring a professional to perform major upgrades or rather choosing WordPress/Joomla! with an easier upgrade path.

For The Win

So which CMS would best suit your site?

All three Content Management Systems are usable and powerful. Depending on your unique situation.

Generally speaking WordPress is more suitable for blogs, simple business websites, news sites, marketing sites, small eCommerce stores, and any site managed by new users.

Joomla! offers a mid-ground between the other two platforms with flexibility for complex content publishing sites, social media networks, eCommerce stores, and more.

If your site is set to grow significantly and requires extensive features and unlimited customization possibilities, go for the most complex CMS, Drupal. This platform is capable of supporting the largest enterprise sites, community sites, and large online stores.

These are other factors like intangibles, integrations or transfer-ability that may determine your choice of CMS. But no matter which one you choose, just keep upgrading. Call us to talk with one of our experts about which content management (CMS) may be best suited for your site.

The post WordPress vs Joomla! vs Drupal: Which CMS Is Best For Your Business? appeared first on Greenhouse Design Group.

WordPress

WordPress is one of the most popular CMS available. It was initially developed for Bloggers but now has morphed into a framework for corporate website development. Some of the more popular WordPress websites are  Mashable, Phone.com, Anderson Cooper 360, and many others. Key Features of WordPress include:

• Easy installation.
• 1000’s of high quality themes and plug-ins.
• Easy to add popular and common features
• Easy to administer

Drupal

Drupal was designed for mid to high traffic sites. Drupal is a powerful and expandable system that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Some popular Drupal websites include: Penn State University, FastCompany, MTV United Kingdom, and many others. Key Features of Drupal include:

• Highly scalable
• Large support base
• Easy to use end-user interface
• Very expandable
• Large support base

Joomla

Joomla is another common open source website CMS. It is recognized for its ease of use as well as for creating e-commerce, media portals, online communities, and fantastic looking websites. Widely known Joomla websites include IHop.com, TheHill.com, Linux.com. Features of Joomla Include:

• User Management
• Polls
• Search
• Content Management
• Menu Manager
• Largest number of plug-ins

Umbraco

Umbraco was not designed to be a plug and play solution like Drupal or Joomla. Umbraco has become very popular with designers due to the open template system and ability to build in guidelines that automatically format the content writers provide. Also, it uses ASP .NET “master pages” and XSLT, so you won’t have to work with a heaped-together template format. Umbraco boasts that it powers more than 85,000 websites is one of the most deployed Web Content Management Systems on the Microsoft stack. Other sites utilizing Umbraco include:Heinz.com, SanDisk.com, and Speedo.com. Key Features of Umbraco include:

• Enhanced User Interface
• .NET support
• Tighter package integration
• Built in media library
• Widgets
• Multi-level galleries

Pligg

Pligg was created with social networking in mind. The benefit of Pligg is the ability to create your own social network. Pligg enables the user to utilize social publishing software that persuades visitors to register on their website allowing them to develop and submit content while connecting with others. Some popular Pligg websites include Marketing Land and BizSugar. Features of Pligg include:

• Private messaging
• Module system
• RSS feeds
• Multiple language support
• Advanced comment system

More companies and individual are turning to open source CMS systems to build their websites. Are you using an open source CMS, if so which one and how has your experience been?

The post 5 Open Source CMS for Websites appeared first on Greenhouse Design Group.