A Content Management System allows a website owner to create, adjust and delete content without the need for special technical knowhow or access to experts.

When motor cars first came into popular use, you had to be a bit of a motor mechanic if you wanted to drive one. Even up to the 1960s or later, a "handy chap" was one who could change a clutch or replace brake pads. It doesn't hurt these days to be able to do the odd job on a car, but modern cars are just a lot more reliable and self-contained. They are more complicated too, but the complexity is largely hidden from the car owner. Instead, the car owner is presented with a sophisticated set of features related to transport and entertainment.

Using a Content Management System gives you a strategic advantage over your competitors who stay with a HTML editor to maintain their site.

A Content Management System hides the complexity of a working website. Instead of focusing on how to "FTP html files up to a host", you get to focus on your business. Your website becomes an easy-to-use productivity tool and ceases to be a pain-in-the-neck dependency on technical people.

Once you have used a proper CMS to manage your website, you'll wonder how you ever did it any other way. If you find that hard to believe, take a look at, for example, the Big Medium product from GlobalMoxie.com. Don't focus on the glitzy sample websites, look at the screen shots of how content in managed.

Oh, I nearly forget to mention: A good CMS enhances your position in search engine results.

Next tip tomorrow...