The Content Marketing Institute recently published an article entitled “12 Content Marketing Predictions for 2012“. Some interesting ideas, a couple of which were food for thought, several of which observations of current trends more than predictions of anything brand new. Here’s my take on the predictions of the content marketers:

Baggott: Agree, but loyal customers may spend more, cost less, and evangelize your brand more than new customers.

Blanchard: Certainly a possibility, but I’m skeptical. If it happens, it will be a company that relies more on information than image. I could stand to see fewer insurance company commercials on TV.

Bolen:  Companies are already shifting more money into inbound marketing, much of which is dominated by content marketing.

Chapman: I’d be encouraged if companies would interact less on social media, and do more to improve their interactions via their customer service departments. Why build up a loyal customer base only to lose customers because a customer service rep is incompetent, indifferent, or not empowered to actually service customers?

Davis: I’d better get on board before my CEO asks about this. My ignorance of Lady Gaga’s splashiness is clearly holding me back.

Gago: Excellent point, but both creation and curation have their place in an overall content strategy.

Leibtag: Makes sense, both for the business and the customers.

Miles: I had a couple of jobs in the 90s that fit that description.

Pasquinucci: In a small business, there is no distinction between the marketing and editorial on my blog/website. As a media consumer, however, I consider this a creepy and dangerous trend when it leaps from the business-owned platform to “independent” media outlets.

Riggs: I’m still a toddler when it comes to Google Plus, but I’m using more and more Google Apps so incorporating Google Plus into the mix seems inevitable.

Roetzer: Quality. What a concept. Hopefully readers/customers will vote with their eyeballs and gravitate to quality content. But then they might miss out on Lady Gaga’s splashiness.

Stelzner: Seems this is already happening, simply by virtue of having blog posts and articles that anyone can read. There’s a place both for free and premium content.

What trends do you see in content marketing?

In a previous post on open source web development platforms, I gave some background about exactly what Open Source means in terms of web design and development. In this post I’ll delve a little deeper into the pros and cons of using and open source web design and content management systems (CMS).

The main attraction to open source systems, for most people, is cost. As in zero. Zip. Nada.

OK, you still have to pay for your web hosting. But budget web hosting starts at under $100 per year.

Once you get your website up and running on your budget web host, you install your theme and plugins (I’m using WordPress terminology here, but the same applies to other open sources CMSs). There are thousands of free themes and plugins, but there are some with more advanced functionality that have licensing fees. These are not going to break the bank, but they can add to the “free” price tag.

Why would you pay for a plugin or theme, when there are usually dozens of free alternatives?

1. Quality. Free plugins and themes are created by developers for a variety of reasons: as a labor of love, to give back to the community, to learn new skills, to boost a resumé. And although most developers of free plugins are competent, some are not so competent, and their work can be riddled with bugs. Someone who is selling their work as a business has a vested interest in happy customers.
2. Dependability. For many developers, writing a free plugin is a side project—something they do in their spare time. A new job, a new baby, or simply getting bored and moving on may mean that a plugin is no longer supported. As newer versions of the core software are developed, the free plugin you love may no longer work as the developer does not make the necessary changes for it to keep up with core upgrades. Unless a business goes out of business or discontinues a product, they are likely to do their best to keep it current.
3. Ease of use. Many plugins are easy to use as a tricycle, which is one of the aspects of open source web development that is so exciting to a web designer. But some plugins still require a greater knowledge of HTML or PHP than your average user is likely to have. Businesses—the successful ones, at least—know that their customers are not likely to be fellow engineers, and will go out of their way to make the software user-friendly.
4. Documentation. Plugin developers are focused on the code and functionality of the plugin. There is usually some minimal amount of documentation, but for more complex plugins, it may not be all the information you need to get the most out of the plugin. Often, it is written in engineering-speak rather than user-friendly language. Businesses are more likely to hire an experienced technical writer to write documentation—or at least to give documentation more than a glance and a nod.
5. Support. This can be iffy whether the plugin is free or purchased. It’s rare that there’s an 800# you can call and talk to someone about your issue—but that’s par for the course with most software these days. Hopefully, whether pay or free, there will be a forum where you can post a question, and be helped not only by fellow befuddled users, but by the developer or a knowledgeable person on the developer’s team. The more complex and critical the software—e.g., an ecommerce system—the more important it is that you know you can get answers when you need them.

Yes, these are generalizations. There are developers of free software that is easy and solid and well-documented and well-supported. You can pay good money for difficult to use, buggy software with poor documentation and no support, that is abandoned by the developer after version 1.1.

So how do you figure out what free software to take advantage of, and which is worth paying for? More on that question in a subsequent post.

Several of the most popular web development platforms, including WordPress, Drupal and Joomla, are “open source” software. What does that mean? Why should you care?

Open source software is developed in a very different way than proprietary software. Proprietary software is developed along the same lines any commercial product is developed, under the control and direction of the decision makers in a corporation. Open source software is developed by volunteers who work on everything from the source code to bug testing to documentation.

The open source software movement dates back to the 1980s. The Linux operating system, which is now one of the main operating systems used for web hosting servers, was one of the first major open source software efforts. Open source software is available for free to anyone who wants to use it; the source code is available to engineers who wish to change, improve or adapt it.

The philosophy behind open source software is well stated in this mission statement from the Open Source Initiative:

The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.

We in the open source community have learned that this rapid evolutionary process produces better software than the traditional closed model, in which only a very few programmers can see the source and everybody else must blindly use an opaque block of bits.

So how does this work in the real world, without descending into chaos? These pages can give you a glimpse into the process:

• Call for contributors to WordPress, showing the range of skills needed
• Map showing recent contributions to Drupal, showing that this is truly a global effort (map is at the bottom of the page)
• A list of bug reports and feature requests for Drupal. This shows the excruciating detail of how software is developed.

Although open source projects generally begin as the brainchild of a small group of people, the larger open source web development platforms have spawned nonprofit associations dedicated to advancing the development of the software. The WordPress Foundation, Drupal Association and OpenSourceMatters (for Joomla) are nonprofits backing these three popular web development platforms.

Although WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are the most popular, they are far from the only options. As of this writing, there are 141 different content management systems listed at opensourcecms.com. And that is just content management systems. Virtually every type of software can be found in an open source version.

In addition to contributing to the core software, programmers can expand the capabilities of a web development platform by writing add-ons for specific purposes. These are called modules in Drupal, extensions in Joomla, and plugins in WordPress, but they all serve the same purpose of expanding the functionality of the platform for specific applications.

As of this writing, there are 15,614 plugins available for WordPress. Plugins (and their Drupal and Joomla counterparts) add specific functionality to a website: a photo gallery, social media integration, ratings systems, events management—you name it, there is probably a plugin available. The advantage of plugins is that a non-programmer can easily add advanced functionality to a website. On this website, WordPress plugins are the basis for the portfolio, the home page animation, and the contact form; they protect comments, forms and email addresses from spammers and display my twitter feed on the blog pages.

Open source web development platforms are free, and make it easy for a non-programmer to build a sophisticated website. There’s a lot to like about them. But they do have their pitfalls. In a subsequent post, I’ll dig a little deeper into the pros and cons of open source web development platforms.

In a recent post, I wrote about the pros and cons of using the free website building tools that come bundled with a web hosting account. Another way for someone with no web design or development skills to build a website is by using a web design template. Like the free tools, web design templates can be a good solution for some, but you should be aware of the limitations.

How web design templates work

A web design template consists of a set of html files for your home page and (usually) at least one other page of your website, plus all of the supporting graphics and style sheets (CSS). You can find hundreds of websites offering web design templates by doing a Google search on “web design templates”.

As mentioned in the review of website building tools, one of the risks of using a template is having a website that is nearly identical to the website of anyone else who has used the same template. Not the best idea if you are trying to brand your business uniquely.

The advantage of a web design template is that you can get up and running quickly with a nice looking website based on standards-compliant code. Depending on your budget, level of expertise, and need for a uniquely branded look and feel, a web design template may be a good choice. But beware: web design templates may not be as easy and cheap as they first appear.

Easy and cheap, or frustrating and expensive?

Many “free” templates are restricted to non-commercial use only, which makes them unsuitable for any business. Pay-to-play sites usually sell templates for commercial use for under $100. Some template websites also offer limited customization of a template, which can add anywhere from $50 to hundreds of dollars to the price tag, depending on the level of customization. Some also offer the option to pay a premium price and buy that template outright. It’s then removed from sale, so you don’t run the risk that your website will look identical to hundreds of others. A lower buyout price is offered if the template has already been downloaded by others. The buyout doesn’t change that, but prevents anyone new from purchasing the template. The cost for a unique or buyout template is usually in the $2,500-$3,500 range (although I’ve seen them for as low as $400 and as much as $8,000). In this price range you may be better off hiring someone with whom you can work directly to customize the site to your needs.

You can also customize the template yourself if you know a bit about HTML and CSS, or you can hire a designer to do the customization for you. I would recommend that you bring the designer in before you purchase the template though, as what appears like a nice-looking site may actually be a mess of bloated and deprecated code under the hood. At the very least, make sure that the website offering the template makes some guarantees about the quality of the underlying code.

A web design template is not a content management system. If you want to customize it yourself, you need to be comfortable editing copy and changing graphics within the HTML file. That’s generally not too difficult once you learn what to avoid, but be forewarned that accidentally deleting so much as one “>” character in the file can break your entire page. So you need to be careful, and save backups of your files as you go along. You may also be able to make changes using a WYSIWYG editor, but they often add a lot of unnecessary code to pages, which you can avoid if you edit the HTML directly.

You can make pretty substantial changes to the look and feel, and even the layout, of a template using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). In theory, it’s not too difficult to learn to make basic changes in CSS such as font size and color; in practice, how the “cascade” of styles is structured, relative size values using ems, !important tags, collapsing margins and browser inconsistencies can turn “I’ll just make this one simple change” into hours of head-scratching as you wonder why your changes don’t look the way you intend.

A decent web design template will come bundled with the layered Photoshop files needed to modify any of the graphics used in the template. So in addition to being conversant in HTML and CSS, you may also need to know how to use Photoshop in order to do much in terms of modifying the template. As of this writing, a new copy of Adobe Photoshop, not bundled with CS5, lists at adobe.com for $699.

Realize that a web design template has nothing whatsoever to do with web hosting. You will still need to sign up for a web hosting account so that you have someplace for your files to live. You’ll also need a way to FTP the files onto your web hosting account, either by using tools that are including with your hosting account (such as the File Manager that is part of cPanel), or by downloading and installing FTP software. Some template websites offer an option of installing the template for you, usually for another $40-$60.

Support and documentation

Little, if any, support is offered with free templates. If you run into problems, you’re on your own.

Some templates are documented. Documentation can be a good starting point, but may not be that useful. I worked with one client who was very excited about the template he’d purchased because it was so thoroughly documented. But the documentation was not much more than a guide to what sections of the Photoshop mockups related to what sections of the code. I use the Firebug extension to Firefox, which gave me the same information, and more, in a more usable format.  The documentation didn’t save me any time, or the client any money.

You may purchase a template assuming there is support, because you can see a tab labeled “Support” on the menu. Be sure to investigate how deep and useful the support is before you buy. The support “tutorials” about CSS on one template site consisted of a definition of CSS, a pointer to where to find the style sheet, and instructions on how to do three random style changes. If you were counting on it to help you style your website, you would not get very far. If you want a more thorough tutorial on CSS, check out w3schools CSS tutorial. They also have a CSS reference guide that is useful to keep bookmarked.

Beware the wrath of Getty

Getty Images is a major publisher of stock photos. They have a number of different licensing agreements with photographers who supply them with photos. Photos are generally licensed to a single user, and may have additional restrictions on where, how, and for how long a photo can be published.

Some completely innocent, unwitting, well-intentioned people have found themselves to be recipients of the dreaded “Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter” as a result of having used images that were part of a web design template. This letter may demand thousands of dollars (or pounds or euros) for copyright infringement. They will not care that you got the photo through a template. If it is on your website, you are the one in violation. In their eyes it’s the equivalent of stolen goods. Telling them you downloaded a free template is about as effective as telling them you bought that photo off some guy who said it fell off the back of a truck. Be absolutely sure that you have proper licensing or permission for any photos on your website. When in doubt, don’t use it.

Templates vs. template frameworks

From a design point of view, I make a distinction between a template and a template framework. Most templates are designed to be used as is with minor customization; a framework is intended as a starting point for a custom design. I commonly use the Thesis theme framework for WordPress websites. The distinction is that Thesis, like other frameworks, offers a structurally sound, standards-compliant platform that is close to a blank slate, visually. The documentation is actually helpful, and provides capabilities that an ordinary WordPress theme does not include. There is also a support forum in which questions are answered by identifiable experts, not by random people who happen to pop into the discussion that day. As a designer, I can dive in to customizing the look and feel of a website without worrying if the basic structure is going to break in Internet Explorer, or choke on the next WordPress upgrade. Websites I’ve designed using Thesis include this website, as well as sites for Natural Healthcare and Diagnostics and Excellence in Performance (and a couple currently in progress). If you are looking for an instant look-and-feel, a template that begins as a clean and spare starting point may not be appealing. But if you are looking for a stable starting point for your own customizations, go with a quality framework.

So should I use a template, or not?

Web design templates are a big step up from free website building tools. In summary, here are the issues you should be aware of if you’re considering a web design template:

• Free templates are not usually free to commercial businesses
• If you are not technically adept, you may find it frustrating and/or limiting
• If you are technically adept, a well-supported template framework may be a better option
• What appears cheap may cost a lot more if you want installation, customization, or exclusivity
• Be careful that you get good, solid code and support
• Be sure any images are licensed for you to use

There is an excellent discussion about RFPs going on over on A List Apart, a website “for people who make websites”. The author, Greg Hoy, outlines why he finds RFPs (Requests for Proposals) a poor way to choose a creative firm.

In theory, I think RFPs are not a bad idea. By setting a baseline of comparative points, a company is able to look at several vendors and compare apples to apples, rather than having a bunch of us creative types show up and do portfolio dog and pony shows.

In reality, though, RFPs require firms to jump through a variety of pointless hoops to provide information that is already available on the web. My company background, personal bio, and portfolio are all right here on this website. As a sole proprietor, it is not the best use of my time to package publicly available information into a document printed on paper that is a minimum of 30% post-consumer waste*, is not stapled*, is not folded*, and is delivered to a physical location by 5pm on such-and-such a date.

Beyond the basic information that most design firms provide on their websites, RFPs often request methodology, timeline and price for completing a project…without providing sufficient information about the project, or allowing for the opportunity to ask questions. That is easy enough information to provide for uncreative, boilerplate, production-run type of projects. For instance, it is much easier for a printer to respond with a set price for a run of 2,000 20-page 8-1/2″ x 11″ page size CMYK offset booklets on 100# matte text stock than it is for me to set a price for designing that booklet, which may or may not involve providing multiple creative concepts, custom illustration, photo retouching, designing charts and graphs, and dealing with multiple levels of decision makers.

Without having the opportunity to discuss the project in detail with the decision makers, it is almost impossible to respond with any accuracy. Often the one point of contact for an RFP is an administrator, not someone who will be involved in the development and approval of the content.

Some RFPs do provide a specific budget amount, which makes it much easier to provide an accurate proposal. But if you are preparing an RFP, be realistic. Don’t submit an RFP requesting pages and pages of detailed company background, references and project plans that will require the better part of a day to prepare, when your project budget is $2,000*.

I am happy to respond to RFPs that are worth the time it takes to prepare. I don’t know of any designer who would turn down an opportunity just because it came in the form of an RFP. I would define a good RFP as one that (a) respects the time and professionalism of the designer, (b) provides at least as much information as it requests, and (c) provides opportunity for discussing the project in more detail. Otherwise, the proposals you receive may provide less useful information than you could gather by picking up the phone and talking to a few designers directly. And some of your best prospects may decline to respond at all.

*All examples from RFPs I have received.

A few years ago, a friend called me on a Friday afternoon in a panic: the next day was Earth Day, and her organization had a booth at a local fair. They had ordered thousands of pencils with the URL of the organization printed on the side. She had planned on putting up a simple, quick website using their web host’s website building system, which was touted as being so easy you could build your website overnight.

She couldn’t figure out how to get word one on the home page.

We sat down together to build a simple page on the web host’s simple template system. I’ve been geeking around with various website building methods since the mid-90’s, from hand-coding HTML to Adobe Dreamweaver to both open source and proprietary content management systems. I figured I could whip up a web page for her in 5 minutes, no problem!

It took me 45 minutes to figure out how to enter content on the page.

Once I figured out the logic of her host’s website building tools, I was able to kluge together a functional page for her. Not nearly what she had hoped to build for the next day’s event, but at least visitors wouldn’t be faced with a blank “This domain is reserved” page. The tools were very slow and clunky to use, requiring multiple clicks of the mouse to do the simplest task. Attempting to lay out the web page in an aesthetically pleasing manner was both difficult and limited. At one point I turned to her and asked “Couldn’t I just build you a website from scratch? I think it would be faster.”

The website building tools that come bundled with a budget web hosting package have their place. If you have to toss up a quick Under Construction page with minimal content and your contact information, and you don’t know how to code HTML or how to FTP an HTML page to your hosting account, then having a website building tool comes in handy. But I wouldn’t recommend it as the ultimate solution for building your website.

Pros and Cons of website building tools that come bundled with your webhosting account

The advantages of simple, template-driven website building tools are:

• No need to know HTML*, CSS*, or any other alphabet soup
• Free or very cheap
• You can do all updates and maintenance yourself
• No need to worry about upgrades—the web host takes care of those automatically
• Usually a good variety of templates
• Usually some level of customization per template (e.g., add your own logo, color/font choices)

The limitations may not be as obvious until you start actually using the tools. And while someone may encounter technical or aesthetic limitations fairly quickly, the business limitations may not be obvious to someone who is building their first website for their first small business:

• “Easy” is not instant. There is still a learning curve, and if you’ve never used any kind of design template before (or even if you have!) you may find it frustrating to figure out how to do something relatively simple, e.g. resize a graphic. Since it’s likely a proprietary tool, the knowledge you learn won’t be directly translatable to another tool.
• There are things you simply can’t do. I had a client who insisted on using his web host’s tools for his website. He also wanted a subtle image in the background of the entire page. It was simply not possible with his web host’s website building tool.
• There are things you simply can’t do unless you know HTML or CSS. Some website building tools do have a back door that allows you to circumvent the limitations of the tool. But that back door is that you know how to hand-code HTML or CSS.
• Generic website designs. Many of the templates are designed to be all things to all people, so they can look very dull and generic. Sometimes it’s possible to personalize them with your logo and some unique images, but you are often limited in what you can do.
• Standard website designs for specific purposes. Sometimes the web design templates will have themes: e.g., there may be one soccer-themed template. The problem there is that you risk having a website for your soccer team that looks nearly identical to the website for your chief rival.
• Non-unique, non-branded web design. Using either the generic or specialized templates for a business is not ideal. Your website should help to define your brand, and your brand should convey your unique selling proposition. If your brand is generic, or looks the same as your competitors, then it’s not really a brand at all.
• A website that is not standards-compliant. Standards compliance is one of those aspects of web design and development that most end users don’t appreciate. A website that is not standards compliant can have several limitations, including limitations in search engine optimization (i.e., being found by Google) and accessibility. Your website may not read well, if at all, on mobile devices, which are a rapidly growing segment of the web browsing market. If you decide to move your website to a more robust system in the future, you may discover that most of the code is unusable because it is built using tables or includes deprecated tags.
• Limited set of features. You may discover that simple things you’d like to have on your website—a contact form, an embedded video, an interactive map—may not be supported by the tool.

When is it appropriate to web host’s website building tools?

As a professional web designer, you might expect that I’d look down my nose at the so-easy-a-caveman-can-do-it website building tools. But I really don’t—I just believe they have limited usefulness. With all except the first of these, I’d include the caveat that there are better options that will allow you more features and greater aesthetic options. Nonetheless, here are some circumstances in which I think it would be appropriate to use your web hosts’ website building tool:

• An under construction page. While you’re building your real website, you can toss this up with your phone number and/or email address so that people at least have a way to contact you, and you can start directing people to your URL.
• A temporary page. If you are just looking for a place to deposit information temporarily for an upcoming event, or make a birth announcement with a couple of photos, it may be worth using these tools rather than going through a longer installation and learning process.
• A hobby page. If you are just looking for a place to tell the world about your passion for model trains or growing orchids or collecting pez dispensers, this will allow you to do so cheaply.
• A small association or non-profit. By “small” I mean a group with an operating budget somewhere between $1,000 and zero. If you are serious about gaining members or raising funds, there are plenty of better options. If you just want people to be aware of your mission, find your phone number, maybe see a couple of photos or news items, your web host’s website building tool may be sufficient.

*HTML (hypertext markup language) and CSS (cascading style sheets) are the scripting languages used for building websites. HTML is used for the basic structure of the page, and CSS is used for styling the page with color, images, typefaces and spacing. HTML and CSS are not programming languages, i.e., you don’t need to be a computer programmer to use them, but they nonetheless require a fair amount of study to master.

Mindful Financial is a financial services company whose slogan is Increased Financial Awareness and Peace of Mind. One of the images we considered for the website (still in progress) is a stack of rocks. The stack of rocks indicates a stable foundation—a good thing to have both financially and mentally—and also connotes a sense of balance. In a logo, though, the stack of rocks didn’t work as well: at a quick glance they tended to merge into a single shape. Separating them may defy gravity, but they also form an image of stepping stones. Since Mindful Financial has a 5-Step Plan to Financial Peace of Mind, this worked out perfectly as a metaphor for your step-by-step progress towards financial peace of mind.

The circles have several layers of meaning. They are evocative of coins, and therefore of money, a clear association with financial planning. The inner and outer circle, each themselves containing an inner and outer circle, are like ripples in water, implying the effects that the smallest actions can have far-reaching consequences. Circles are also symbolic of wholeness and harmony.

An amusing and historical article in Slate about why you should only use one space between sentences when typing.

There is one exception to the rule: when you’re using a typewriter.

The first thing I do when I receive a Microsoft Word document from a client is to do a search-and-replace to convert all the double spaces to single.

The poll isn’t closed yet, so you can still weigh in on this poll by the American Marketing Association on what will be the most significant marketing trend in 2011.

As of this writing, Social Marketing is the frontrunner at 43%, with mobile marketing a distant second at 25%. Database marketing, experiential marketing, in-store marketing, marketing automation and ROI/metrics are logging under 10% each.

Personally, I think that social marketing will continue to grow in 2011, but to transform from the Next Big Thing to an expected part of the online marketing mix. I’d wager that mobile marketing will become hotter as people start relying more on the smart phones for web browsing.

But maybe all this online stuff is just a flash in the pan anyway. I talked to a business just yesterday that doesn’t have a website, and don’t think they need one, because the web doesn’t drive them much business.

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around that logic.

One of the most confusing aspects for a new business building their first website is determining what level of customization is ideal. Prices vary wildly—from free to hundreds of dollars per month. Systems touted as “user-friendly” still have a steep learning curve if you’ve never done anything like it before. Deciding on the merits of various web hosting accounts can be baffling when you have no idea if you will ever need cron jobs or php.ini access or custom style sheets. Determining the value of extra perks such as $100 worth of free Google ads is difficult when you don’t have anything to advertise yet.

The first step in determining how to build your website is to determine your website goals. Whatever your goal—lead generation, ecommerce, fundraising—there are likely to be open source modules designed for your type of business, specialized services that can build websites precisely suited to your needs, and online marketing firms that can not only build your website but also provide strategy and support so that your website is constantly optimized to meet your business goals.

The second step is determining your budgets. And yes, I mean that to be plural. You need to determine not only your financial budget, but your budget in terms of the time you want to devote to your website. Many business owners are more than willing to have someone else design and build their website, but assume that they will be responsible for ongoing copy writing and other updates. What often happens is that the website is never updated, and becomes a public sign of neglect rather than the engine of business growth it is meant to be.

Many business owners never consider their budget past building the website, and figuring in the cost of web hosting and domain registration. But a Software as a Service (SaaS) system, although more expensive per month, may save you hours of headaches and enable you to build a more powerful website than you could do otherwise. Being found via search engines is also not a one time expense: you will want to monitor and tweak your search engine optimization on a regular basis. So you don’t want to only think about the cost of building the website, but the investment you will make in growing your website as a critical part of your marketing strategy.

It’s also important to remember that your website doesn’t exist in a vacuum. What is your social media strategy? Will you be incorporating email marketing? Will direct mail or other offline advertising be driving traffic to your website?

In the next few posts I will be looking more closely at the pros and cons of various web building strategies, including web design templates, open source content management systems, custom content management systems, Software as a Service, and custom web development.