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Many people don’t know how a website is really built: webmasters don’t just spend hours and hours coding websites, to then have to recode it to update the website a little bit. Most people use Content Managing Systems (Or CMS), or Publishing Engines. That way, maintaining and updating a website is a tad easier. If you want to know which are the top server side applications for content publishing and management, then continue reading this article.

CMSs and Publishing engines are designed to make the job of owning a website easier. They typically have an intuitive, simple to use back end management menu that allows you to control all the content of a website, and make it easily updatable. They also allow you to install a various range of plug-ins and applications that will extend the usability of your website.

There are basically two types of content management systems, or publishing engines. There are the “website” type, and the “blog” type. You can find both free and paid CMSs, but we’ll be talking about the free, open source ones. Don’t worry, though, even if they’re free, they are very powerful and easy to use.

Joomla CMS
Joomla is the most popular website style CMS. It’s very customizable, relatively easy to use, and there is a HUGE number of plug-ins and free templates available. Through Joomla, you can set up anything from an e-commerce shop, to a blog (however, a blog-oriented publishing engine is recommended if what you want to do is blog). Joomla must be installed on your web server in order to use it. It’s a little tricky for inexperienced people, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes really easy to use. Even if you feel a little lost, there are many “how to guides” that will guide you through the installation. Just make sure your web hosts meets the minimum requirements of Joomla.

Mambo CMS
Mambo is very similar to Joomla; after all, they both were created from the same source code. Some say Mambo is less customizable than Joomla; however, you should stay with the one that offers what you want.

Wordpress Publishing Engine
Wordpress is the most popular blogging engine available. This is because it’s easy to use, light, powerful, extremely easy to modify, and there are ton of free themes and plug-in. Wordpress is perfect for blogging, because you can add an infinite number of applications, from MySpace, to Google, to Adsense. There’s even a plug-in that will let you use Wordpress as a website-style CMS instead of a blogging platform! Installing it literally takes only five minutes, and upgrading to the latest version is easier than serving a cup of coffee. If what you’re looking for is a blog, then Wordpress is the way to go.

Blogger
Blogger is also a very good blogging engine. They are owned by Google, so integration with Adsense is very easy. While they don’t have plug-ins like Wordpress, they do have a wide number of templates available. The advantage of Blogger over Wordpress is that blogger is actually simpler to use, which makes it great for new bloggers, as well as other nice features.

Now that you know the big content management systems and publishing engines, how do you pick the one you like? Here are some tips that will help you choose:

•    Check out the templates for each application: in the end, it’s all about what the visitor sees, so pick the one that has the right layout for you.
•    Check out the plug-ins for each application: along with appearance comes usability: check out the plug-ins for each application to see if you find what you need.
•    Check out the admin interface: it has to be comfortable to work with. You can get a free online demo from Joomla and Mambo, for Wordpress you can get a free blog from wordpress.com with a sub domain name (where you could check out how simple it is to use), and blogger is also free if you use a sub domain.

Those are the four big CMSs, and the choosing criteria for when you’re picking one. Remember to choose wisely.

There are hundreds and hundreds out in the wild, all with a variety of features at and prices, so choosing the right one can easily become a task. Find out all you need to know to choose the best webhost for you right here, right now.

The very first thing you have to find out is probably the most overlooked by starters. We’re talking about the uptime of the server. The uptime directly influences the reliability of your website, because it numbers the percentage of time that the servers are working, and as long as the servers are working, you can be sure that your website is accessible. Many webhosts advertise 99% uptime, and that is “great”, because this means your site will be up 99% of the time, but don’t be fooled: 99% is on the low side, because it represents a loss of four days in a year. Try looking for webhosts that have %99.5 and up to ensure the best reliability.

The other thing you should be looking for is the available bandwidth. It determines how many times your site can be viewed, so the larger your bandwidth, larger the amount of traffic you can get. Choose wisely, thinking about the size of one page of your site. Let’s say each page is 1 MB (which is very large, by the way) and your host allows you to have a bandwidth of 100 GB. This means that a page can be loaded a total of 1000 times. It is a big number, but it is actually low: if your website has, for example, five pages, and each user loads on average 3, this means you can only admit around 330 users per month. Remember to keep in mind the size of your websites and/or files that will be loaded when you have to choose a host in terms of bandwidth.

Something else you have to look out for is the download speed, which determines how fast your website loads. If you keep a small enough size, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Larger websites however do require larger download speeds to load within an acceptable period of time.

Then you might want to look at storage space and overall features. It’s like your hard drive. If you’re just hosting a normal, light website, 100 MB should be more than enough, but, if you’re hosting large files, you should aim for something bigger that fits your needs. As for overall features, it’s really a matter of personal choice, because it is up to you to determine what you need. If you were planning on installing an application or CMS like Joomla, or Wordpress, find out the minimum requirements, and then look for a webhost that fits your needs.

If you keep note of these recommendations, you should be able to ease the process of choosing a webhost. Just remember to look out for features and reliability and you should be fine. Good luck on your search!