Which CMS?

[Olliewebster]

Hello YE,
I am looking to include a pre installed CMS option on my client's sites, but most of the CMSes come with a 'Blog like' structure...
Am I meant to use CMS even if my client's site isn't a blog?
Also, I like to write my own CSS and Markup (and PHP with MySQL too, if needed) -- would this work with CMSes?
With some of the CMSes I have briefly tried, they seemed to be a lot like template sites -- and since customers are paying for my service, I would not like to have their sites made from templates.
Thanks

[ndawson293]

Lynda.com have some great tutorials on PHP with MySQL. In the essential training you build a CMS yourself. Quite good experience and teaches you plenty.

I'd check it out if I were you, I'm on the next step of it now.

[Olliewebster]

Wow, that seems like a long method -- how long does it take? I wouldn't mind developing a CMS, but what I don't like the thought of is wasting quite a lot of time on a CMS if I could have installed a pre-made one, which is better...
Is there not a suitable CMS already out there?

[jlevy]

I would take a look at Drupal. The platform is incredibly flexible (not just blogs), and you can style the site any way you like. They have several great starter themes that save a lot of time (zen, fusion, etc.). When I say starter themes, I don't mean templates. What these do is setup a css file for you with all of the classes listed, commented, and empty. Then you add your own styles to the classes you need to style the site. Of course there are more advanced ways to alter the design as well. Check it out!

[jabari]

i think you don't have that much of time to develop your own CMS so you can try joomla its really user friendly and customizable for your needs

[monsterzero]

Ollie,

There are a few good CMS options out there. Wordpress is great if you're looking to start a blog but not much use otherwise. I used to use Joomla and Drupal before discovering FrameWork Sites. I'm a designer and I like FrameWork Sites because I can install it for free with any host, it gives me total freedom of design (plus it's W3C standards compliant by default which Joomla, Drupal etc are often not) and my clients like it because it's super easy for them to make updates and it comes with ecommerce built in.

I would check out the existing options before trying to code your own CMS!

[Olliewebster]

I think drupal will be my choice, as my hosting company has some video tutorials on it, and it is supported on my hosting package. I will probably make every one of my client sites with drupal, but then design the site myself using CSS. I can't seem to find FrameWork Sites on my hoster's list of installable applications, but I will give it a try if it appears.
Thanks!

[zoomactive.com]

Check into:

Joomla
Drupal
e107

These are portals / cms and are ideal for what you require, there is a learning curve however the systems are powerful. If not, visit opensourcecms.com for more potential cms systems.