Content Mangement System’s (CMS) and Return on Investment (ROI)
Content Management System (CMS) Return On Investment (ROI)
CONTENT MANAGEMENT (CMs)
Wayne’s article (The Simple Joy of Website Updates) already discussed the merits having the power to make your own edits. What you may not have considered is giving your customers or community the power to submit content to you! Editing and publishing content submitted by your users is a great way to stay customer or user focused.
SYSTEM (cmS)
In a CMS, the page organization and links are managed by the system, because of this you can organically grow your site and re-organize its structure to fit your business as it’s needs change. The cost of setting up an tailoring the system for your business creates additional overhead for new sites but is mitigated quickly as you save money in navigation/structure/interface edit costs.
Built-in Base Level Search Engine Optimization
Content Management Systems (CMS’s) provide basic formatting that makes it easy for Search Engines to find you and “Spider” your content. Search engines use programs that check websites for new and updated content. Organizing your content is key for search engine placement. They also provide basic tools so you can improve search engine placement. One of the many things we teach customers who participate in our marketing programs, is how to effectively use these tools each time they edit or add a page to the system. Our periodic review of statistics will help you make good decisions in improving the search-ability of your site. In some cases we can produce better results through a fine tuning process called Search Engine Optimization.
Design Independence
Content Management Systems (CMS’s) “load” a web design. This means that your design is separate from the system or the content. When it’s time for a new design, we simply create it and load it in. Unless we are changing the structure of the site, no changes to the system or content are required. This represents a huge savings and empowers you to compete visually.
Plugins for Additional Utility
Content Management Systems have a plugin architecture that allows the developer community to write add on programs to extend the functionality of the system. There is seemingly limitless potential for custom development. Custom development of course is expensive, but most commonly used programs have already been written. As long as you are willing to accept the way these pre-written plugins operate, you can have amazing functionality for relative little cost. Examples of the more commonly used plugins include:
- Community Management Tools
- Calendar and Event Management
- Photo Galleries
- Shopping Carts
- News and Blog’s
- Multi-Admin/Editor Management
- Custom User Experience Based on Role or Group
Fair Use & Copyright : Print
There is a lot of plagiarism and downright stealing on the internet. It appears as the perfect storm mixing the ubiquitous and openness nature of the internet and often confusing license methodologies. Many people use the term “Fair Use” to cover flagrant abuse of excerpts or even direct copying.
Let’s take a look at what the U.S. Copyright Office has to say:
The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.”
Copyright protects the particular way an author has expressed himself; it does not extend to any ideas, systems, or factual information conveyed in the work.
Certainly, if you are in the United States, there is a clear understanding of how publicly available content can be used. Some however, choose to license their content. Let’s look at three the more popular content licenses:
Creative Commons Licensing : Variable licensing options available.
The Creative Commons licensing provides many options that allow you to choose how, and for what purpose your content is legally distributable. The options are varied and I recommend you take a look at this page for more information.
GNU Documentation License : Viral licensing aimed at making everything free and editable.
The GNU Documentation License is derivative of the GNU License for software. It is viral in nature meaning that all offshoots of the original work must carry the same license. Full editing privileges are extended to anyone who uses content from the original source. In order to create a commercial companion to a GNU licensed work, you must make a very clear distinction with no carry over from the GNU source to the commercial piece. If the distinction is not made clearly the viral nature of the GNU license will apply to your work rendering it freely distributable.OPL (Open Publication License) : Licensing for distribution but not editing of the material.
The OPL is also a viral license which requires attribution. It also allows the author to restrict editing of the document in whole or in part under Section VI Licensing Options. The OPL license is favored by content creators who want to make their content easy to distribute but need to maintain control of the messages and how they are used.
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