When large enterprises think of content management, they often think of large, all-encompassing systems that will develop, maintain, and manage the content on the Web site. They look to companies like Interwoven and Documentum to create a system that will do everything on their Web site, from the marketing content to the sales on the ecommerce sections of the site.
While this is all very important, many CMS tools are much more complex and expensive for the average small business or individual. This has resulted in small businesses relying on straight HTML and Web development because they can't afford a better tool. And individuals are often forced to either learn HTML and Web development, or use the sometimes inferior tools provided by their ISP for Web page hosting.
But There is a Better Way
Weblogs or "blogs" are a software tool that makes it simple to put content on Web Most weblogs offer features such as:- no HTML required
- easy to setup and use
- hosting of your pages
- nice looking templates
What is a Weblog
Weblogs originated as a form of online diary. Many people use them to record their thoughts and feelings, and many are also used to keep their readers up-to-date with specific topics. The standard use for Weblogs is for short, link-heavy content. But with the tools that are available now, it's easy to create Web sites using the Weblog software as a content management tool, not just for writing "blogs".Weblogs are often considered to be online diaries or "web pages organized by time". But they can be almost anything you would like them to be. Depending upon how you set up your template you can create a weblog to:
- write and post articles
- display reviews of movies, books or software
- include a quick "what's new" of your Web site
- provide tutorials for your customers
- display ecommerce merchandise
- much more...
Converting a Blog
Using software like Blogger.com makes it easy to create a daily (or more or less often) online diary of your thoughts. But did you know that it's just as easy to create a site like the Web Design site where you write articles and they are listed on your site. Here's how I would convert a Blogger site to look more like About:- Login to Blogger, create an account, and then a new blog
- Once inside the new blog, click on "Settings" at the top
- In the "Formatting" section, change the "Show" from 7 days to 1 and to "latest posts" on main page.
- In the "Archiving" section, change the "Archive Frequency" to Weekly.
- Save your changes and go in and write your article.
Then, every week, when you write a new article, your old article page will be replaced by your new one, and (depending upon which template you chose), your old articles will be displayed in the archives section.
The free version of Blogger doesn't allow you to put titles on your posts, but if you know a little HTML, you can do some of that yourself. Or, you can check out some of the other Weblog software that's available.
The other neat thing about the Weblog software is the templates. You can create a template that looks exactly like the rest of your site. But that is another article.
