Selecting the correct CMS can be a daunting process. There are many options on the table, how do you determine which is right for your web site?

I based this article on a good write-up of what to look for in a CMS (Content Management System) for your website that appeared over at the Online Journalism Review. There were some good points brought up that I believe every business owner who is starting, or updating their website, needs to analyze and apply to their own work.

When looking to start your online business, or bring an updated approach to an existing online presence, something you may want to consider is reaching out to your clients, or audience on a more regular basis. After all, your clients come to you for a reason, your expertise in your field. You can generate a stronger following, increase your viability, and possibly drive new sales by sharing some of your talent with the web. This is where a CMS comes into play. The CMS coordinates your site, allows you to generate content without coding every page. They allow you to connect with your audience in ways that, until recently, required specialized programing be developed for your site. So, without any further fanfare, here is a recap from that OFR article.

What you need to keep in mind when selecting your CMS

1. No Developer Required This is not to say you don’t need someone to help you customize it, make it your own, and help get you going, but gone are the days when you needed a team of code-monkeys to build a completely custom web application.

2. Easy to monetize Make sure you can integrate sales, subscriptions and advertising into the site.

3. Open There are many solutions out there, but not all of them allow you to create “plug-ins” for them. You want to be able to offer videos, audio, photos, and what ever new flavor of the week technology comes along.

4. Community Generated Content You can’t build a community if you are the only one posting.

5. Off the shelf cross-promotion Easy to add features to drive traffic from one article to the next in your own site.

6. Outbound RSS Give ‘em a way to follow you without always be on the site.

7. Flexible templates Templates are what give any CMS that custom look. Most come with at least one template. There are designers, such as myself, who will build a custom template for your site, in most cases your are only talking a few hundred dollars and not several thousand to get you going.

8. Pictures and Video It better be able to handle it, this is the internet after all.

9. Social Media Integration Twitter, Facebook, Digg... They all help create a community, generate followers, and drive traffic. Your solution better have a way to link all of it together.

10. Analytics Your solution should let you track how your site is doing.

11. Event Calendars, and community connection.

12. Mobile Some of the CMS systems out there allow you to create a custom template that presents to mobile viewers. Depending on your client base, this may be important to you.

(I am adding this one myself... Its important to me, and to many of my clients)
13. Control of services Some of the CMS solutions out there are called hosted solutions. These are solutions that are run on a system operated by a third party. Operations like blogspot are a good example of this. They let you get up and running with out all having to deal with web hosting and setup. However, having your own web host and domain gives you a level of control over your operation that you will never get with a hosted solution. Better yet, if you find a better deal on hosting, you can take your toys an go to their sandbox.

His criteria are pretty much spot on, and for constructs that are bloggers only, his chosen solution may be a good one, but following the article, there was a comment that said exactly what I was already thinking after I looked at neighborlogs.
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especially noting that neighborlogs is a hosted only product, it is definitely important for local bloggers and startups to be able to host their own sites as they desire.
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I contend that for a serious business venture, you need to be beyond a hosted solution like that, if only for a professional point of view. What looks better www.mynews.com or mynews.blogspot.com?

Other than the hosted product issue (which has dangers if they upgrade their system and take you with it) his points were everything that goes into my decision making process for myself and clients.