Designers offering CMS to Clients?

[marketingwebaus]

Hi All,

Not sure if this is the right forum but it relates to running a web design business, so here goes.

Most of my web design/development work I do either in basic (X)HTML/CSS, or I use Wordpress, or I use Joomla, depending on what suits the clients best.

I've noticed recently that most of my direct competitors (i'm in Australia) working on the lower end of the market (cheap websites) all advertise "includes a CMS to edit your content".

I personally don't think that a CMS is best in every situation, particularly since some of what i'm talking about are basic packages for a 3 or 5 page website. BUT it makes it look like my offering has less.

Does anyone know what CMS (white labeled) most of these will be using? Is there any concensus or could it be any?

Or to put it another way - are there any CMS systems that are very simple for the end user, can be added into just a normal html website (rather than say a full wordpress install), and come at a once off fixed cost under $100 (not a monthly fee)?

Thanks in advance,
Matt

[mack]

A lot of design companies will have their own CMS system that can be tailored to a customers needs. As opposed to a full install that would be overkill, they are able to offer only what the client requires.

I have also saw a lot of companies offering open source CMS systems.

Mack.

[marketingwebaus]

Hi Mack,

Thanks for your reply.

Obviously some have their "own" CMS systems, but many i'm talking about are smaller designers who would not have the resources nor the know-how to build their own. So suspect there is one or more solutions that are being used and "whitelabeled".

What open source CMS systems are you talking about? Definately not anything like Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal etc.....

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I think it very well could be Joomla and Wordpress. Many hosting companies for example offer a one click install of WP. Some designers specialise in this.

I appreciate what you are saying here and if it is any consolation I am in the same boat. I have even started offering some clients free updates rather than have then hacking around what I have created for them.

[rocknbil]

Most of these companies won't have their own proprietary CMS. By the description ("cheap websites") they won't invest in that, and are probably using something open source (read: FREE) or third party solution like <gak> Weebly.

They might not even be doing the work. There's a good deal of businesses (for lack of better word; entrepreneurs? Exploitists?) that simply manage outsourced contractors to do this work in a quantified process. Let the customer choose a free template, give it to a coder, have them build a Wordpress theme around it, have a less skilled person input the content and upload images, done. The only real work is in managing it and sending out the invoices.

It does devalue the work, but there's another side you need to consider: adapt or die. Figure out a division of your work flow to accept similar pricing and procedures. OR, seek a different market that doesn't want cookie cutter approaches and emphasize why this is a better for the client in the long run. What happens then is the lower end cookie cutter producers cease to be your competition.

[marketingwebaus]

Turns out there are quite a few options i've found.
www.concrete5.com
www.surrealcms.com
www.simplecms.com
www.impresspages.com
www.pagelime.com
www.getperch.com

Not sure which if any are the answer for me yet, but thought i'd post incase anyone else came across this thread. Most of these are not free, but the costs aren't too bad.

[rocknbil]

Why isn't Wordpress on your list? It's used a LOT. There's also modX, Drupal . . many others. Part of the choice is regular support and updates, ease of use, ease of install, system-lightweight.

[jimbeetle]

There are many more options than that, marketingwebaus. One CMS review site lists almost 100 platforms starting with the letter A alone. Find a good CMS comparison site and find a handful of platforms you're comfortable with for deeper investigation.