3rd party content management help

[i_am_beam]

Hello,

I'm new to web design. I'm a musician on the local scene in my area and learned how to create websites for my projects. Recently, I've been getting a lot of requests from various places who have seen my sites to create websites for other local musicians and businesses. I am able to do so with one problem:

The other bands need to be able to update their sites fairly regularly. While most of the pages will remain the same with contact info and such, there are usually "upcoming shows" pages and things like that. I was hoping there was a way to set up the site so that someone who doesn't know much about web design could edit the content of a page. What would you do?

What do most designers do? Would I charge a monthly fee that would include hosting and be responsible for updating content?

I'm interested to see how professional (or non-pros) would approach this problem.

Look forward to the responses!

I_AM_BEAM

 

[CaldwellYSR]

Wordpress
Joomla!
Drupal

This is what you're looking for. They're the three most popular Content Management Systems.

I ordered them by difficulty easiest first. Although Drupal is the most difficult it's also one of the most powerful so you have to find the balance. Personally I'm a fan of WP and Joomla! I haven't quite figured drupal out yet but I also didn't really try to hard so...

 

[i_am_beam]

That's interesting!!!

I've used wordpress as a blog before. Am I able to design the site using dreamweaver and have wordpress access the editable regions?

Thanks.

 

[CaldwellYSR]

What you're wanting is to start template designing. You'll need to be very comfortable with html, css, and a little bit of php knowledge (enough so you're not completely lost looking at it). The quick answer is yes you're able to design this with dreamweaver and WP will access the editable regions. The long answer is yes you can but it won't exactly be easy. If you're down to learn to design WP templates and have the time to do it then go for it. It will help you tremendously. If you're not down for that much work I'd suggest either buying a WP template or finding a free one that will work for your site.

 

[i_am_beam]

Ok. I think I understand where I need to go. I've already designed the site using dreamweaver, I just wanted to give someone else access to the editable regions on one page. I guess I'll have to learn a little about PHP and start designing templates as opposed to sites.

Does that sound like I'm headed in the right direction?

 

[CaldwellYSR]

Sounds about right to me.