With a rapidly changing world , an abundance of information, it is a common knowledge that all websites require constant updates as static content simply isn’t useful to visitors and customers.

It is also forcing organizations to find creative ways of leveraging this information or content to create a competitive advantage. These organizations can look towards adopting a software as a service model to manage their multiple digital assets from a single centralized interface.

Content is king these days and websites need to be managed and driven by the business people, far less by the underlying technology that is needed to build up the content.

New and neat content is driving people and customers to websites and it clearly builds a long term relationships with viewers and visitors of the site.

A modern business or organization needs therefore an engine to streamline all its digital content from one single interface and needs an engine that is scalable and manageable by different types of content contribution. An engine that can be used as a service, rather then as a software product, whether it is custom build or open source software. A content management system provided to you as a service guarantees an end-to-end responsibility of the vendor that the software will work according to specifications and that your content will be on-line in a timely manner and will remain there.

Adopting a software service model for building up web or digitized content, is also choosing a fast deployment model, a low cost deployment model, a fast adoption cycle within the organization, a fast proof of concept and transparent updates and upgrades, as you will always be running on the latest available release of the software without additional costs.

Important as well, is that in the cycle from proof of concept to launch of your digital platform, Help will be available to you in order to guide you through the process. Although open source CMS system play a role in the content management market place, they quite often lack the support resources to build up a feature rich and function-rich environment. Other hidden costs coming from development, maintenance, upgrades and hosting that are common for the open source CMS systems, are completely transparent for CMS systems sold as a service.

The service delivery guarantee plays is an important plus for CMS vendors that have adopted a service model, as all payments are predicated upon service delivery. Because the risk of canceling the service when it does not meet specifications or SLA’s, the vendors with a service model become more accountable and are certainly driven to make your site a success for the business.

By using a service model, organizations can cut down on their own risks, and choose different functionality as they grow their digital presence. Also the vendors are scrutinized and evaluated on a permanent basis, because one can shift to another competing vendor almost overnight. Vendors are billing monthly, quarterly or annually, but the costs are spread over the lifetime of the usage of the service. In a traditional product model, the entire cost is paid upfront and the risk of product implementation, adoption and continuity is on the shoulders of the customer.

There are serious productivity gains to a service model. Any business user or any user if allowed can contribute to the content of the website, and this from any location and at any time of the day and by simply using a web browser. The entire rights can be managed and changed depending on the needs of the business and the organization. Different people can be given different editing rights, depending on their contribution. Templates will guide content contributors through the editing cycle. It allows basically anyone with editing or admin rights to quickly and easily create, edit, manage and publish unique content to the digital content of your website.

And not least, there are significant reductions possible in the cost of ownership of your digital content. And it start with your proof of concept, that can now be done in a matter of weeks, rather then months. Then the price of the service, whether billed monthly or quarterly is substantially lower then comparable custom made software and hardware. There is a substantial costs, hidden in the case of open source CMS system, open in the case of custom build CMS systems that goes to upgrades, support, Helpdesk and trouble shooting. All those services are included in your monthly subscription if you choose the CMS service model.

And all the above is available without having to compromise on functionality, because most of the CMS systems delivered as a service have come to market quite recently and have a full set of modern features and often include capturing, editing and managing more digital content then equivalent custom build content management systems. And the functionality is growing by the day, it is adapted to the latest demands in the marketplace and that functionality is made available to the entire customer base as soon as it launched. Traditional software vendors can very often have big disruptions in their releases and come up with a completely new technology. Service models can and will never be able to do that.

In conclusion, in the web 2.0 world there are thousands of reasons to move your digital content to a content management system. Other then the obvious cost of chance, there is no reason not to do it. About 40% of all businesses have adopted some sort of CMS system and by 2011 that number will be at 60%. For small and medium sized businesses and for all non-profit organization the choice remains difficult and to a certain extend risky. The risk can be diminished and the cost can be well controlled by choosing a Software service model for managing your digital content. You can enter the modern digital era without having to do a major upfront investment.

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Joomla is one of the most popular content management systems. There are two reasons for popularity. The first one is the universality of this CMS, the other is availability of many thousand extensions and templates. With Joomla you can make almost any imaginable website. Joomla in its basic form after installation has all the required modules and functionality you need for a website. But usually you need to add few additional extensions to simplify some tasks or to add some features that were not supported in the original system.

Every Joomla user has different needs and different approach to solve problems. For every additional functionality in Joomla there are at least few different extensions. It is up to you to choose one that works best for you. Some extensions are free while for others you will have to pay. This doesn’t mean that free extensions are not as good as those for which you have to pay. It only means that you have a choice.

There are many extension for adding ads like AdSense, AdBrite or Amazon to desired module position. The alternative solution is to use a module with which you can add any code at any module position. These ads are nothing more that just a few lines of code. Therefore with some extension as CustomCode or Jumi you can have total control on what code is added to your Joomla website. Google Analytics can also be solved with such universal extension but you can also use a dedicated Google Analytics module.

Maybe the most important aspect of any website is backup. You should have a copy of all the files and databases in the case you will have to restore your website after a major server crash. Maybe the best component for Joomla backup is JoomlaPack. It does everything for you. The final result of the backup is one single file which contains all Joomla files and the database. All you have to do after the backup is finished is to download this archive file. To restore the website you need also a small PHP kickstart script which unpacks the archive and starts the Joomla installation process. With JoomlaPack you can also easily clone Joomla websites.

Another pretty useful Joomla component is JoomlaWatch. JoomlaWatch monitors in real-time visitors and bots that come to your website. While this may not seem a big deal there are many benefits of having this component installed. For each visitor you see where did he came from, which pages is he browsing, how long does he stay on our website, etc. You have also a detailed statistics about the keywords people used to find your website, their IP addresses, countries they came from and if you spot some malicious visitor you can easily block his IP address.

A good idea is also to have a sitemap of your website. It can be either a simple page will the links to all pages or a XML file which is downloaded by the search engines. Xmap is a simple Joomla component that automatically creates sitemap from the menus we select. You can configure parameters like page change frequency and priority.

Joomla itself is an excellent product and a universal content management system. Even without any additional extension you can make a nice and useful website. But you can make it even more useful and pretty with just a few additional modules and components.

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The easiest way to create a website is to use one of the free open-source content management systems. Many bloggers choose WordPress because it has a simpler user interface and beginners need less learning. Joomla is considered to be more complicated and not suitable for beginners. The truth is that for every new system you have to learn something new and the best method is learning by doing. Joomla is universal CMS, you can adapt it for almost any online purpose. If you have no experience with creating websites or content management systems, Joomla has everything needed to make the first steps in online presence. One of the strengths of Joomla is also a great web community. For any problem you may encounter there is some answer on the web waiting for you.

To get first experience and to learn the basic principles of creating web pages it is best to have Joomla installed on your computer. Since typical web CMS is not a desktop application but only a script, you need a special environment to run it. This means Apache web server, MySQL database and PHP processor. You don’t have to install them separately, there are some simple solutions like WampServer or EasyPHP which provide everything needed to run any PHP script. You will also need a database–install phpMyAdmin and use it to create one database and remember its name, username and password. Joomla installation is also very simple, you simply unpack the archive in the www folder and start the installation procedure. You will have to enter the database data and a password for administration. You will also be asked whether to install sample data. You should do it unless you already know Joomla. After the installation is finished you have a working website. You can test it in the browser by entering “localhost” or the address of the computer where you have installed it into the address bar of the web browser.

You will need some time to understand basic principles of CMS and website creation. Simply log in to the administration back-end and check all menus to see what is available there. Try to make some changes and see what effect they have on the website. You should also search web for Joomla tutorials. Again, if you are new to Joomla and web content management systems you will need some time before you will be able to make the website according to your needs and taste. Whenever you have a question or problem simply Google for it. Joomla has a big community of developers and users, every task or problem is already described somewhere.
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