What makes a good CMS?

[adultsitecms]

This was part of the speech that was presented in the recently concluded Cybernet 2010
entitled Content Management Systems – Lecture Cybernet – SFO

* A good CMS should be easy to install. Almost all of the adult industry uses some kind ofUnix as their core operating system for hosting their sites on. A CMS should work well with this system and be very easy to install. Usually most of these CMS systems use Mysql as their database of choice, and PHP or a similar coding language.

* The administrative area should be easily understood. The more intuitive it is the better. My rule is if you cannot figure out most of what you need to do in 30 minutes when using the CMS without having to refer to the documentation over and over than this is probably not the CMS for you.

* It should use a basic template structure. Templates should be managed in the administrative area and be in as basic a form as possible. Simple HTML of WYSIWYG format.

* It should use some kind of thumbnail and page caching system. In order to make it load as fast as possible and require the least amount of server resources pages that the CMS controls should be cached or saved as static pages.

* Does the CMS handle photo content easily? Can you upload photo content in the admin or batch upload it via FTP or some other way. Does the CMS automatically create thumbnails for you? Can the CMS program create zip files if you want to offer them to your users or watermark your photo images?

* Does the CMS handle video content well? Can it support multiple video formats? Does it have a flash player built into it? Can users watch videos embedded on the page or download them? Some of the more elaborate CMS system can actually create thumbnails from videos as well as encoded them into various formats automatically and watermark the videos automatically.

* Does the CMS come with a simple to edit default template?

* The CMS should be well tested and well documented. Always look for how long a company offering a CMS has been around, look for reviews and see what is the current revision of the CMS. Look for phone numbers and contact information and where the company is located.

* Does it work the way you want? Without having to modify the CMS greatly, does it fit within your business model. Can it be used as as a membership site with the capability of showing previews and controlling protected content, or as a dating, or webcam or other site?

* Is it easy to integrate with the billing mechanism you need? What billing companies does it work with or can. Choosing a billing company is one of the most important business decisions and if you cannot integrate your chosen CMS with that company, or seems extremely difficult or even impossible, it is always best to find another solution.

* Are there good working samples of the CMS? And client demos?

* Does the CMS have good user functionality? Does the layout make sense? Can uses do things like add to favorites, rating, comment and find content easily?

Remember that once you choose a CMS and you start to add content, customize the look of it and integrate it with a billing company, you essentially become married to it. Which means moving away from it can be very difficult and costly.