First of all, what is a Content Management System?

A Content Management System, or CMS for short, is an application designed to facilitate the creation and management of content.

So, do you need a CMS?

Whether or not you may need a CMS solution depends on the size of your website, the amount of traffic you receive, your skills as a webmaster, the number of users who will be adding content to the website, and many other factors.

Website Size

The content of a large website can be very difficult and tedious to maintain if a content management system is not used. Most CMS solutions will store the content in a database in an organized fashion. The administration interface of the CMS should provide an easy way to manage the content.

On the other hand, a CMS solution for a small website may be overkill. A website with a small number of pages is easy to maintain, but may need a content management system solution as it grows.

Website Traffic

The amount of traffic a website receives can be a significant factor in deciding whether or not to use a CMS. Static html pages have always been the fastest loading, whereas dynamic pages need to be compiled or pull information from a database. The processing behind these operations can add time to the loading of the page. It is important to consider the amount of processing that takes place behind the scenes in a content management system. Fortunately, there are many lightweight CMS solutions these days for high traffic websites.

Webmaster Technical Skills

A content management system can be an easy solution for a webmaster who lacks the necessary skill set to create their own website. Most CMS solutions contain a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. The editor allows for the creation of website content without HTML or other website specific knowledge.

There are many templates available which can be easily installed in many content management systems. Some of these templates are free and some come with a small cost. Another solution to creating the look for your website would be to hire a website designer. This can come with a significant cost, but you'd be getting the exact look and feel you want for your website.

Website Users

In many situations, a website will have more than one content provider. In this case, it may be beneficial to consider a content management solution, as a good CMS system will have the ability check in and check out content. The purpose of check in and check out is to prevent more than one user from editing the same content at the same time. Multiple users on a static website can create many problems with content updates without the help of a CMS system.

Conclusions

There are certainly other factors to consider in whether or not to use a content management system, but hopefully the information contained above will help you in making an informed decision.

Before you actually begin your website you have to put a lot of consideration into things such as the domain name itself and the hosting company you sign up with. These decisions can have a major affect on the end result so ensure you do your research to get the best outcome.

Once you have found the desired domain name you have to get it registered, there are a number of companies that offer the registration of domains so how do you decide which to use? The first thing you should look for is their reputation, you would hate to deal with a dishonest company that doesn't offer the customer service you deserve. In order to find a reliable company you can ask for recommendations from friends and family or other webmasters to see who they use. The next factor you should look at is the price, don't be fooled for the cheapest companies out there. Just because they can offer a cheap service doesn't mean that it's the best choice, check for renewal prices and any other disadvantages you may be faced with so that you can be confident you are receiving the best deal.

When you have your domain name the next step is to choose hosting, you cannot afford to rush this decision as it will determine the results of your website. Put the time and effort in to check which hosts are reliable and offer great customer service. Never accept anything below 99.99% up time as you will be loosing money every time your website goes down. You then have to spend the time in order to get it back up and running as intended, loosing even more money. Browse through each of the different hosting companies, checking the additional features, benefits and mainly the price in order to get the best deal based on your requirements.

You can find various companies such as name cheap, triple and go daddy who can be the solution to all your problems. You can register your domains with them and buy hosting at the same time, this takes a lot of the hassle out of the equation as everything is in the one place. There are some advantages to doing this, you can often get a reduced price if you buy them both together. It will give you more time to focusing on your website and if you ever have a problem you only have to contact the one company. Ensure that you check out the hosting package before you buy it to make sure that it has the features you require.

With the benefits it does have it's disadvantages, depending on the company the hosting may not be the best option out there and you can often get various coupon codes to make things cheaper and by shopping around you can always save a great deal of money.

Normally, if you want a professionally designed, custom-built website for your new virtual assistant business, you should be prepared to spend at least a few hundred dollars.

But, all that can change if you know where to find the best deals and the best designs for the lowest price.

First, it costs more to have a brick-and-mortar company design a website for you. Have you seen those newspaper ads that offer a 5-page website for $500? These are probably companies with physical locations. They have to charge more simply to pay for their overhead: office rent, designers' wages, advertising costs and so on.

Therefore, it would be wise to use a virtual assistant (VA) instead! As you already know, VAs often work from home so they do not have high operating costs like a big company does. On the other hand, a VA will be able to design images with quality similar to (or better than!) those of designers from big companies.

However, choose your VA with care. The best way to find the right VA for your project would be to go to visit the website of a VA association. There you can post your RFP (request for proposal) and have hundreds of talented VAs bid on your project, so you will get the best deal. You will also be able to choose your designer based on her experience, past transactions and client testimonials, so your value for money is secured.

Another route you can take is to purchase the Virtual Business Startup System, created by Tawnya Sutherland. It comes with several beautiful, easy to use templates, perfectly suited for a new VA. The templates are easy to edit wth the help of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs such as Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver and so on.