I have a few clients that I do SEO for - and now they want me to create web sites (people are also calling me to create websites). I know HTML & CSS - but I don't have a lot of time on my hands (work a full-time job and this part-time biz doing SEO) - but wondering what CMS would be the fastest but most professional looking.

Wondering if anyone can help?

Am I correct in assuming that you're reading 'CMS' into the equasion? If customers are asking you to create websites, they're asking for just that - not a website with a CMS.

Look at it from a profit for you point of view. The clients are only asking for a website and you know html/css. You stand to make a tidy profit by designing and delivering a static html/css website because you can do that now without additional training.

If you throw a CMS into the equasion, 1) you would have to charge more for the project and 2) you would have to invest the time into training youself on how to skin/theme the CMS.

Most customers who want a CMS to be able to update their own content don't really need it. They're more anxious about exorbitant fees for website updates, or only want to update the site a few times a year. If you charge these customers minimally for content management, say $60 per hour, you're acting in their best interests.

Why? Because you can update the html a sh!tload faster than they can. If they only want to update the site content say once per month, it will cost them less to get you to do it than for a CMS.

Only suggest a CMS to customers that want to update their content a lot, several times a month. You should also referr these kinds of jobs to an associate who knows CMS systems because someone has to support the customer after the site is published. Once your up to speed with a CMS and you can support a novice using the system, then you can safely offer that CMS as a service in your business.

Having said all that, I suggest Joomla as a starting point. Download it, install it on your own computer, and start playing. That'll be a good introduction to CMS's for you.

No offense, metho, but I disagree. A CMS will increase your productivity and your profit margin once you learn it. Most CMS's have a template system that is far more manageable than creating a static website. Consider time spent on maintenance and updates with a template system versus static HTML. You'll save yourself quite a bit of time for anything beyond just a page or two by using a CMS. When you start adding anything interactive like a contact or a quote form, a CMS becomes even more valuable.

I don't think you'll lose much business by using a CMS. A lot of customers are intimidated by using one, so you could end up still making updates for them.

Mark, I would suggest either Joomla or Wordpress. Both have a ton of extensions and a huge community behind them. Joomla has the easiest templating system of any CMS I know and is easy to set up in most cases. However, it's not as easy for the end user. Wordpress is easier for the end user, but harder to set up for anything but a blog. (Drupal is just hard for everyone).

I was addressing the immediate scenario VM, and an intermediate plan to get to know a CMS before offering it as a service. Solid advice in my opinion. Jumping straight into CMSs as business product without adequate skills is a recipe for disaster.

My apologies. I read it as advocating not using a CMS at all.

NP's, I think you missed the key point in the post:- "Once your up to speed with a CMS and you can support a novice using the system, then you can safely offer that CMS as a service in your business."

I guess I'm missing the distinction here!

A CMS as a backend is still a "website" and it can take a similar amount of time (if not more) to create a CMS templated layout as it does to create a layout where the content is put in manually.

In my view, the distinction was everything that happens after that layout is created. The maintenance, updates, etc. should be easier with a CMS.

I have to agree there.

Because It's usually far more problematic trying to teach end users how to update (never happens) their site by "hand" or actually pass on the information needed!

At least with giving them a CMS to do it themselves, if they can't be bothered, they can only blame themselve instead of you for not asking them enough times!

No arguements here for websites where customers want & need a cms. It certainly is easier with a cms. But if you don't know one, haven't got the time atm to learn one, what do you do for the customers knocking on your door NOW.

Jebus guys, is my writing that difficult to understand? I agree with you both re cms's. However what can the guy do for potential customers asking for websites now with no cms knowledge...

No, I don't think it's your writing, metho. I just misread it the first time around. It's been a while since I first learned it, but I remember the learning curve on Joomla being fairly low. If Mark is good with PHP, I don't see any reason why he couldn't implement a website using Joomla right now. For most sites, it would add a day or two to the project versus doing it statically, learning time included.

Providing he's good at PHP ya; but he isn't. Add a month or two to learn PHP, MySQL and then Joomla and he's in business. I recon Wordpress would be quicker to learn. Trouble is, Wordpress isn't what I'd call a CMS; it's primarily a blog with rudimentary cms capabilities.

Concrete5 is a hidden gem. I can't understand how it hasn't taken off so much already. If you know CSS and HTML, all you need to do is take down a few cut-n-paste PHP code blocks to use, and you're set. Completely SEO friendly - just an all around awesome CMS. The package is OpenSource, but they have a few paid add-ons for almost nothing. I started using it about 6 months ago.