How can you use a CMS to manage multiple websites in Creator Economy?

Certainly, utilizing a Content Management System (CMS) can offer several advantages in content management. Let me elaborate on two valuable tools you can use for this purpose: QuickReel: QuickReel is an excellent platform for content creators, especially in the video content space. It simplifies video editing and allows you to repurpose your content easily. With QuickReel, you can efficiently create short video clips from longer videos, making content management and distribution a breeze. Buffer: Buffer is a versatile social media management platform that streamlines the scheduling and publishing of your content across various social media channels.

The benefits of a CMS don't extend only to those who already identify as a creator but can enable anyone to build a website or even SaaS solution without using code or learning how to design. Choosing an easy-to-use CMS with a large available network of third-party tools, plugins, and add-ons can greatly accelerate your time to market if you're a budding entrepreneur or a business owner creating an online presence. Most CMS solutions come with extensive resources such as tutorials and templates enabling an out-of-the-box configuration, often already specified to your niche or functionality.

If you are using an open source CMS such as WordPress, and the CMS is just a base of what can become a much more useful tool to manage your business activities.Open source systems offer unlimited extensibility. Whether you need to sell products online, allow customers to book meetings directly into your calendar, or arrange deliveries of products, ordered from your restaurant; you'll be able to either find a ready-made solution that can do it, engage someone to modify that solution to meet your exact needs, or build a custom solution from scratch.

Frist of all, Wix, Squarespace and Shopify are not CMSs. They are website builder (and Shopify a shop builder) with some light CMS functionalities. They all lock you in on their platforms and if you do something that might "not comply" to their terms, they may just switch off your business. Compared to that, self-hosted WordPress is 1% more difficult to set up but in combination with Elementor (and for eCommerce - WooCommerce), you are completely independent. Your hoster does not like you? Migrate to the next one. You don't like shared hosting? run your own server with something like Plesk or cPanel. They even offer you to manage multiple sites over the WordPress Toolkit right out of the box.

Selecting the right Content Management System (CMS) can indeed be a challenging decision. Here are two crucial factors to consider before making your choice: Identify Your Specific Needs: It's essential to understand your content management requirements thoroughly. Define your goals, the type of content you'll be creating, your target audience, and any unique features you may need. Conduct Research and Seek Feedback: Research is key to finding the right CMS. Explore different options, read reviews, and compare features to determine which CMS best suits your needs. Additionally, don't hesitate to seek feedback from other content creators or professionals who have experience with the CMS platforms you're considering.

Choosing a CMS can also be based on strategic considerations. Within the CMS market, there are open-source solutions and proprietary solutions. Open-source solutions have a source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. It is usually free to use as the core code that makes up the CMS isn't owned by a company. You have the control to use or write new software that extends the CMS however you like. Because it is more versatile, it can be more difficult to set up. A proprietary CMS is owned by a company that manages and controls the use, price, roadmap, and strategy of the CMS. While that can result in more ease of use, it puts more constraints on the extendability and control you have over the solution.

Once you've chosen a Content Management System (CMS), the next step is to set it up. Here's a simplified guide on how to set up a CMS: Sign Up: Create an account on your chosen CMS platform. Customize: Configure site settings, themes, and user permissions. Create Content: Begin by adding your content (e.g., articles, posts) using the CMS editor. SEO and Analytics: Set up SEO settings and integrate analytics tools. Security: Implement security measures and regular backups. Test and Publish: Preview and test your site before publishing it. Monitor and Optimize: Keep an eye on performance and make improvements as needed. Learn: Explore CMS documentation for ongoing learning.

A proprietary CMS, like Wix or Squarespace, usually offers a complete solution that includes hosting, domain name, email, and a proprietary CMS to help you build a site. Using an open-source CMS, this can be purchased separately or self-assembled from a company that offers all the above services as a full package. If you wish to delegate certain complexities of setting up and managing your open-source CMS, you can choose to have it managed. Managed hosting companies can take care of your infrastructure, but if you want to use a prebuilt, managed open-source CMS without the hefty agency price tag, you can also choose a Website as a Service. A Website as a Service (WaaS) is a way of owning a website, by subscribing to it as a service.

When choosing a hosting service, you should consider the importance of the website for your business. Do you want your website to load fast for all users, including customers who are logged in (on an e-commerce site, for example) and your employees who update your website? Then you need to make sure you have quality hosting, with proper page and object caching to help your site load faster. For best performance, you may want to choose an upmarket host such as WP Engine, or Kinsta. Or even better, ask your web design company to installed on your own virtual private server, which can be upgraded as your needs evolve.

Location of your hosting service is also very important. For best speed and SEO results, your website should be hosted as close as possible to the bulk of your customers. If all your customers are in Melbourne, for example, then you should make sure your website is hosted on a server in Melbourne. Finally, for your peace of mind, it is absolutely vital to ensure that you have at least one backup of your website running regularly. Most ideal would be a daily or even hourly backup of your website to the server. It's on, plus a daily backup to an external storage provider such as Amazon or BackBlaze.

After setting up your CMS, you can connect it with multiple websites. I'd recommend using Framer for website creation, as it offers numerous options for integration.

While creating multiple websites as part of a multisite network is certainly the oldest method, it is not the most scalable. On a multisite, all subsites share the same database, filesystem, and server. This introduces a single point of failure, causes privacy concerns such as infringes on GDPR, and can lead to scaling challenges once the filesystem becomes too complex or server performance is required. A modern way to create and manage multiple websites is by using a multi-tenant cloud platform. On a multi-tenant cloud platform, all individual websites share the same codebase. This leverages the same cloud infrastructure that proprietary CMS solutions use to scale, but introduces it to open-source solutions such as WordPress and Drupal.

While I'm a strong supporter of WordPress, many WordPress fanatics will now starting to talk about multi-site WordPress (same database and WordPress core used for different websites). Not a good idea - not a flexible approach and a problem on one site could impact another of your sites. Best use a small VPS (virtual private server) and use a 1-click Plesk or cPanel on it. Then you get WordPress Toolkit for free and managing multiple sites, including automated security and performance - becomes much easier.

Large businesses often have employees who can do all this server and website management in the house. Small businesses usually find it easier to to let their Web Design providers arrange hosting. For Digital Marketing Agencies or IT departments tasked with building and managing websites, the easiest way to create multiple websites on fast and reliable hosting, is to use a system such as Gridpane or CloudWays. These systems act as control panels that connect to virtual private server providers, and allow for a perfect website set up every time. Using a system that with built-in protocols for ensuring websites are secure and optimised, can allow for major cost savings, and greatly improved website performance.

Managing multiple websites can be quite a challenge if you're hard-coding them. However, as I recommended earlier, Framer provides numerous options for customization, making the process much more manageable.

Managing websites on a proprietary CMS is easy as updates and management are handled by the provider. You can make changes to the content by logging into each site manually. Open-source solutions offer more control over the sites. Choosing a plugin to manage multiple websites is an easy, convenient method. Just install and activate the plugin, and your sites pop up on the dashboard. Plugins do lack a robust and reliable system to deploy changes and manage updates. Since plugin updates or installations are immediately pushed to live websites, this may cause unexpected errors and cause downtime. The most reliable method to manage multiple sites is a Git or local environment or via version control of multi-tenant WordPress.