My Love Affair with CMS.

Posted on March 21, 2008
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A few years ago I became enamored with the concept of CMS, “content management systems”. The idea that my clients could now update pages on their websites without me, well, this was going to change my life, change the way I do business. I would now be free to work on my business, re-design my own website, get up to date on invoicing, start a blog, maybe even do a little grocery shopping and prepare a home cooked meal for my kids.

It may come as a surprise to some of my clients that I don’t in fact plan to become wealthy by updating their web pages. The truth is web maintenance often bogs me down. Keeps me from taking on new and challenging web development projects. Dampens my creativity. Makes me grumpy. You get the point, and so my love affair with CMS began much like any new love affair; Blindly, enthusiastically unwilling to see any possible fault or downside to my new partnership. Honestly, perhaps I did have an inkling of a fault or two but this early in the relationship those faults were simply endearing, cute traits that would not matter in the long-term. Easily overlooked in favor of all the positive energy that would be mine now that I had found my soul mate. That is of course, until it began to matter very much.

I wasn’t the only one excited about my new relationship. Many of my clients were right on board with CMS. I suppose we engaged in a sort of a menage et trois. They were equally besotted with the idea of updating their own web pages. Giddy with pleasure at the romantic phrase, “cost effectiveness”!

You are no doubt wondering what happened, how did the affair end? As you well know, all affairs that begin with such passion and high expectations burn out, and quickly. I am relieved to tell you that the affair is not over, it has developed into a more mature and realistic relationship.

I was foolish to believe that CMS could solve all my problems, make me blissfully happy and never cause me sorrow. To be honest it never followed through on its single most important promise, that of freedom from drudgery. In fact, I found that maintaining and supporting CMS was even more time consuming than simple web maintenance.

I had intended to share the pros and cons of CMS in this article but instead I see that I have become passionate and long-winded in the telling of “my story” so I will write a follow-up, something with less drama and more practical advice for web designers and their clients who may be considering their own relationship with content management.

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