Hani Dalqamouni - Planning Your Site- Hani Dalqamouni - Planning Your Site-Hani Dalqamouni - Planning Your Site- So, you've decided to use a CMS, and you want to hire a web developer to handle some of the technical details. Your developer can't handle all the details, of course. You'll need to provide lots of information. However, you also need to be careful to let the developer use his or her expertise. Here are some details your developer will probably handle best.
Your Domain Registrar and Web Host
If you're building a new site, you'll need to both register the domain name and find a web host to actually serve up your site. There's a bewildering array of choices, but your developer hopefully has a few companies he's already familiar with.
Unless you have a really good reason, go with your developer's recommendations here. Even if the hosting is a few more dollars per month, that will quickly pay for itself if it means less developer time. Different companies have extremely different offerings.
One word of caution: always register the domain yourself. Find out which domain registrar your developer recommends, then order your domain with your own name and credit card. It's a hassle, but you should not have your developer do this. You need to maintain control of your domain name.
On the other hand, you can let your developer handle the details of the web host, especially if she's going to include the hosting costs on your invoice. As long as you get regular backups of your site, you can always build your site on another host if you need to.
The Choice of CMS
If you're hiring a developer to build your site, there's a good chance you don't have a strong preference about which CMS to use. You know what you want your site to do, but if you knew the best software to do it, you probably wouldn't be hiring help.
Let your developer decide which CMS will serve your needs best. If you want a complex site, don't insist on WordPress just because you've heard of it. It might be possible to do what you want in WordPress, but the complexity could easily mean more expense.
On the other hand, don't think you need to use a complex system like Drupal to prove you're a "real" business or non-profit. If your needs are simple, a system like WordPress or Joomla could be a better choice.
One possible exception is if you're already familiar with a piece of software. If you blog every day with WordPress, that's a solid reason to consider using it for your new site.
Still, if you want something complex, be open to the possibility that you'll be better off learning a new CMS. Your initial investment of learning time will be much smaller than the long-term cost of pushing a CMS beyond what it was meant to do.
Some Features Are Just Too Hard (Expensive)
