What You Need to Know Before Using a CMS

After you have chosen the right CMS, you will need a web hosting account with access to a database. A content management system uses from 3 MB to 30 MB of disk space for the core system. The database also requires space to store information such as news content, articles, membership data, sales or order details, images, forum postings, video, etc. 300 MB should be the minimum disk space available for your CMS. Disk space can be increased as content warrants.

As you choose a hosting account, also look at the amount of bandwidth available for your site to use per month. A new site that attracts less than 100 visitors a day can safely begin with 3000 MB of bandwidth transfer. As you begin to advertise and attract more traffic, the bandwidth will need to be increased.

When your web hosting account is established, you will receive a welcome email that tells you your username and password for accessing the back office or control panel. You will need this information to load files from the CMS package on your computer to your Internet web hosting account.

Then the configuration program that activates your CMS needs to access your database to make the system operate properly. The database resides on the control panel within your web hosting account.

Example cPanel® MySQL db link

Information on how to use the particular db available with your hosting account can be found in the documentation or tutorial provided by your web host.

cPanel® example

Then choose the topic

You will need the information about which databases are available to you and how to access them before you can configure your CMS to work correctly. Most CMS packages work with a number of databases. MySQL, administered with phpmyAdmin is the most popular.