How do you decide when to use a Content Management System (CMS) and when to develop the content yourself? The answer lies in your marketing strategy and specifically your strategy for web-based content. Do you know who the intended target audience for your strategy is?
In some cases it might prove a better bet to develop content from scratch, such as a brochure-ware type of website. Brochure-ware websites generally have a very static nature and are used to market a product or service in a very visual way. Such websites often use technologies such as Adobe Flash to promote that product or service. Adobe Flash can accomplish animations and effects that cannot be replicated with AJAX or any standard web development technologies. Flash has a few limitations as well, but for impact Flash can be used very effectively. Microsoft also recently released their Silverlight technology, but it might take some time for Silverlight to be adopted as widely as Flash. Both technologies, however, incur some cost because their development environments are not free or inexpensive. Adobe Flash requires an Integrated Development Environment as does Silverlight. For Adobe Flash you may require one of the CS3 range of software packages that include Flash and for Silverlight you might want to look at buying Visual Studio 2008. Both products also tend to force you into using other proprietary software as well which also costs money. Developing Silverlight applications require Windows Server software to run those applications, which costs more money as well.
