|
Developing a simple,
inexpensive content management system
How can a business leverage its content
for marketing purposes?
| "We are a highly
targeted online publication focused on digital imaging
technologies. We have a dedicated base of readers
but we believe that other websites could use some of our
content and we can benefit from increased exposure.
We would also like to syndicate content from other
websites so that we can feature content that will be of
interest to our readers but we currently do not
provide. I like iProceed's simple content management
system. Can you guide us through the steps of
implementing a web content management system?" |
Content management
is critical to growth of an online publication. That is why
a website needs to have a web content management system put in
place from day one because once a website becomes large (and if it
gets there in a haphazard manner) putting a content management
system in place can be difficult and expensive. Please note that
content management system has essentially three components:
- Managing your own content generated for
the website
- Leveraging your content by syndicating it
to other websites to gain exposure
- Using content from other websites and
online content providers to feature on your website
Management of content generated by you
This should be the
core of your website because this is unique content and will
differentiate you in the marketplace. Only on the basis of
this content, you develop a core group of readers who not only
visit your website but also become your agents for viral
marketing. That is why it is important to implement a
high-quality content management system right away. Some of
the companies that provide web content management solutions are
Ektron, Interspire, Macromedia, Crownpeak, BrowserCMS.
Syndicating your content to other
publications
Content syndication
is an excellent tool to create brand awareness and drive traffic
to your website and must be part of any web content management
system. We have implemented a very simple
system to syndicate iProceed content. Here are the
steps:
- Create a file in a notepad and copy and
paste the following code in it and then save it as
makejavascript.php on your server:
<?php
function ob_makejavascripthandler($output) {
return sprintf('document.write(unescape("%s"));',
rawurlencode($output));
}
ob_start("ob_makejavascripthandler");
?> |
- Create a second file in notepad and copy
and paste the following code in it and then save it as
content-syndicate.php on your server:
<?php
include('makejavascript.php');
include('content.php');
?> |
- Create a third file called content.php
and this will carry the HTML code for your syndicated
content. You may see the iProceed example below in
which we have created a simple banner to display our
syndicated content. This is the file that you will
need to edit every time you update your content and it
will then update it everywhere the code is placed.
- The code that others will need to display
syndicated content from your website is very simple.
All you need to do is to replace yourwebsite.com
with your actual domain name:
<script
type="text/javascript"
src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/content-syndicate.php">
</script> |
Using syndicated content from others as part
of your content management system Let
us say you will like to display business news in real time on your
website. Using syndicated content from news providers is the
only way to do it but you can also use syndicated content from
other websites, in the same manner as you will syndicate your own
content. Just insert the script similar to that in #4 above
in the appropriate location on your website and you will be
done. You can see how we provide our syndicated
content to other publications.
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Questions,
comments, feedback, and suggestions
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