"CMS" is another one of those three-lettered-acronyms that everyone loves to hate, but this page will hopefully explain what it's all about.

CMS stands for Content Management System - but what does that mean?

Think of a CMS like a word processor with a few smarts thrown in. It allows you to write any number of articles, pages and documents to be published on the Internet.

The beauty of a CMS is that you can contol the content that you want on your own site. If you feel like your website needs to be updated or changed, you don't have to pay for expensive companies to update the website for you. You can simply log into the system and make the changes yourself.

A CMS is a lot more than just about content on a website, however. A good CMS will have a number of additional modules you can turn on or off with the flick of a switch to give your website a bit more punch. Additonal modules which are useful depending on the requirements are:

• Product Catalogue
• Online Shop
• Forums
• News
• RSS Feeds
• Photo Albums
• User Commentary
• Contact Us Forms
• Maps

...and the list goes on!

As you can see, a CMS is really about a dynamic website which delivers both what you need as a business owner as well as what the customer needs: timely information which is readily available and easily updated.