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You have all heard about the more popular open source content management systems such as Joomla and Drupal. However, there are many more open source content management systems out there that are more than capable of accommodating the needs of your website. In fact, some of the less popular CMSs actually provide features that cannot be found in the standard CMS. Not all CMS live up to their developer’s hype though, so we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the top 20 open source content management systems.

1. Drupal: One of the most popular and powerful content management systems available. Many believe Drupal is the best.

2. WordPress: While this CMS was originally made for blog publishing, it has quickly become a one of the most popular CMSs on the planet.

3. Joomla: Considered to be in the top three of any CMS list, by any CMS user. Joomla has been used to build many corporate and professional websites, such as the United Nations page.

4. b2Evolution: A fully functional weblog creation utility/CMS that provides support for several categories/sub-categories, skins, multiple blogs, comments, statistics, photo management, and anti-spam filters.

5. Movable Type: Similar to WordPress, Movable Type is also a very capable blog creation utility which is commonly used for creating dynamic sites.

6.Alfresco: A very capable professional CMS providing a variety of document management features.

7. Xoops: This expandable object-oriented CMS is extremely simple to use, and is very popular amongst PHP coders.

8. e107: Another popular PHP-based CMS specifically designed simple and fast creation of community portals and professional sites.

9. DotCMS: A Java wCMS (Web Content Management System) with included events management e-communications,  and personalization/CRM tools, an AJAX calendar, eCommerce hooks and much more.

10. ImpressCMS: An open source CMS designed for efficient site building and maintenance. This CMS is supposed to be an excellent solution for business users who are building a business oriented community website.

11. Exponent: A competent CMS that lets webmaster conveniently create and maintain dynamic sites   with absolutely zero coding experience.

12. KnowledgeTree Document Management System: A comprehensive document management system specifically designed for business collaboration and easy document storage and organization.

13. Liferay: This CMS provides an enterprise portal solution using Web 2.0 and Java technologies.

14. Pivot: A CMS utility designed for the management of dynamic websites, blogs and online journals. Includes a variety of post organization features.

15. Magnolia: Commonly used by Government websites, this CMS provides a user-friendly editing interface that lets authors preview content exactly as it would be seen by the website visitor. This CMS has the top of the line (best-breed) JAVA technology.

Conclusion

The above list is by no means a comprehensive one, however. There are many more open source CMS available, and the only way to make a fully informed decision would be to review every CMS you can find. If you;re not willing to do so, then the above list will help you decide which CMS is right for you based on the key features of each CMS listed.

Practicing proper search engine optimization can be difficult for a busy online business owner, especially one that does not have extensive knowledge in internet technology. Search engines use very complex algorithms to index content and judge it’s usefulness. Although these algorithms are complex, their main functions can be summed up fairly easily. Search engines look for specific patterns and then base their results on these patterns. The patterns they search for are located within the sites content, both on-page and internally. Everything from anchor text to meta tags gets indexed in a very short period of time and then used to determine the sites page ranking. Manually keeping up with all of this information can be almost impossible for the average site owner. For this reason there are tools that can be used to automate the process of properly optimizing the internal structure of a website.

WordPress and Search Engine Optimization

If you know anything about content management systems then I am sure you are familiar with WordPress by now. WordPress was originally a blogging platform but is now the world’s most popular content management system. The entire process of building and maintaining a website can be simplified within WordPress. It is not surprising then that WordPress can also assist you in proper search engine optimization. WordPress itself cannot optimize you site for the search engines, but with the help of plugins and a few preferential adjustments, you can have your site’s internal content automatically structured for maximum benefit.

Custom Link Structure

One of the ways you can get more search engine traffic to your site or blog within WordPress is by changing the link structure in the permalink section of your WordPress admin. Once you’re in the permalinks section select the bubble that says “Custom Structure.” Here you can enter a variety of commands that will dictate how the URL of your pages will look. It is important to note that the structure of a URL is very important to the search engines, as it affects the result of a search query.

If you’re naming your posts based on keywords, then you are wasting your time unless your URL structure shows your post name. In order to get the most out of your search engine optimization efforts you need to change the link structure to /%postname%/. Now if your post name is “ Post Name” then the URL for that post will be “Yourdomain.com/postname.” This way one someone searches for the keyword “Post Name” your site stands a better chance of showing up at the top of the search engines.

SEO Plugins

Another way to enhance your search engine optimization efforts in WordPress is to use that plugins that automatically optimize your sites tags, meta tags, anchor texts, link structure, site maps, and other aspects. A good plugin to have which is free is the Platinum SEO pack. This plugin will automatically optimize each page and post to give it a maximum impact on the search engines.

Search engine optimization can be a very complex process that requires a lot of skill and determination, especially if you’re trying to dominate a very competitive niche. Most search engine optimization experts use a variety of tools to bring their sites to the top of the search engines as quickly as possible. Most people do not have access to these tools however, and have to use other more manual methods to accomplish the same tasks.

For this reason, it can be very difficult to compete with the SEO pros in a competitive niche, and often times the only way to do so is to hire one of them to do it for you. Unfortunately, this is not going to put you at the top of the search engines, in fact you’re likely to have your idea stolen by someone who is more capable of monetizing the niche than you are. There are ways you can get good search engine rankings the old fashioned way though, however you’ll need to be sure are doing it the right way.

Building Backlinks Organically

Building backlinks has long been known as the best way to enhance the popularity and overall search engine optimization of your website. If your site has a lot of backlinks online, then more people will be exposed to your website. As more people are exposed to your site, more people will indefinitely link back to your site if the content is good. This creates a type of cascade effect and before you know it you’ll have hundreds, maybe even thousands of backlinks online within several months.

These backlinks are indexed by the search engines, and ultimately will raise your page rank. Building backlinks manually is a very easy, yet time consuming process that requires a lot of attention. You can choose to post backlinks to web 2.0 sites like Squidoo and Hub pages, and you can also have your backlink put on other websites based on the owner’s permission.

Building a Link Network the Right Way

One way to get guaranteed backlinks to your site, while also building a traffic network that is to your benefit, is by making a link network. A link network is network of sites that link to each other and are all owned by the same person. You can buy .info domains and you could even use free domains as mentioned. However, it is very important that you make sure all of the sites you are using are on different IP addresses. If Google finds out your sites are all on the same IP address, then you run the risk of having all of your sites completely de-indexed from Google. If you are de-indexed from Google, then you will experience a huge decline in the amount of traffic your site receives. So how do you get each of your sites on a different IP address to create a safe link network?

Using SEO Hosting To Get IP Addresses

One way you can have all of your sites on different IP addresses is by purchasing a new IP address from your hosting company. If your hosting company does not offer them, then you can use SEO Hosting, which is a division of Host Gator.

The new Photoshop CS5 is soon to be released and after having seen the preview on Youtube I gotta say that it’s looking pretty cool. Shadows and objects are easily removed (no need to do this manually anymore) but the most impressive feature is that you can extend your images. Sounds complicated or just plain out incomprehensive? Just take a look at the video and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. VERY impressive and don’t forget to look at the entire video. The object removal/grass thingy in the beginning is cool and all but it’s when he’s extending the images that it gets really interesting.

VPS(Virtual Private Server) hosting is a popular alternative to dedicated hosting, which is slightly more expensive than other hosting solutions. Choosing the right web host can be difficult if you are not aware of the various kinds of hosting and their benefits. If you have been doing the necessary research then I am sure you’ve already read about VPS hosting and it’s benefits.

VPS hosting lets you lease a private server that you can control from a remote location using the web hosting manager (WHM, or control panel that is given to you by the hosting company. Although VPS hosting is cheaper than dedicated hosting, it offers many of the same benefits, including increased bandwidth and disk space, as well as included access to dedicated IP addresses. Since VPS hosting is such a unique solution, it requires a unique control panel to effectively administrate. One of the most popular control panels used in VPS hosting is the HyperVM control panel.

What is HyperVM?

HyperVM is a very competent control panel that is specifically designed for the virtual private server hosting environment. With HyperVM, users can easily manage nearly all aspects of their server and website, without having direct access to the server. HyperVM is not as comprehensive as other control panels, such as cPanel, primarily because it is a compact yet fully capable solution that focuses on functionality combined with usability.

What is Special About HyperVM?

One of the aspects that sets HyperVM apart from other control panels is it’s ability to show server usage in neatly organized and easy-to-understand graphs. HyperVM effectively shows the amount of memory usage, disk usage, and bandwidth usage, accurately depicting the amount of load that is being place don the server. Users can also conduct tests on their server to see how their server is performing without having to risk site performance by pushing the limits of their web server. Using the test features within HyperVM, users can conduct boot tests, shutdown tests, and reboot tests. The IP address used in the test is also displayed and the rest of the control panel can easily be accessed from within the test module.

How Much Does HyperVM Cost?

Usually HyperVM is automatically integrated into your monthly web hosting expense, so there is no expensive startup cost involved with HyperVM. If your web host does not include HyperVM in your hosting package, then you can talk to them about switching from your current control panel to HyperVM. Some web hosts will not allow you to do this, so it is important that you contact your web hosting provider before making the decision to purchase HyperVM. If you do decide to purchase HyperVM for use on your server(s), then you’ll be relieved to know that the it only costs a few dollars per month extra.

Conclusion

Due to it’s unique user-interface, VPS-based functionality, and low cost, HyperVM is a suitable solution for anyone using a virtual private server to host their websites. Using HyperVM, you’ll be able to easily control nearly every aspect of your websites and your server without having any prior experience in server management. In fact, HyperVM even provides email support and remote server administration for a set hourly fee.