I will develop your website around an open source CMS (Content Management System).  I favor Joomla, I can use others but I consider Joomla the best.

There are basically 2 ways your website can be created and displayed. One is html based, your site is made up of a bunch of pages (files) and graphics that are pre-assembled (simplest of terms) and if you want to change or edit the information you have to edit the actual pages using special software then re-upload the pages to your website and the new information displays.

That is the primary reason you will see many web designers trashing the concept of CMS and going on about how they create every site totally from scratch, they want to keep control, if you are powerless to do anything to update your website, you have to pay your designer to do it.  Many of my clients choose to have me handle their changes and updates, but as many want a site they can maintain themselves.  Using a CMS you have freedom of choice you can have either, both, or the combo that meets your needs and web budget.

A content management system differs in that the software that creates your website resides on the internet and creates the pages on the fly from information it has stored in a data base. It is literally a program that operates as your website, and one of the really great perks with a CMS is that as the site owner you can add information, make changes, or change the layout quickly and easily.

You certainly don't have to do that, I can do the updates and changes for you, but if you want to have the ability it is there, you are not totally dependant on me.  Personally I think that is a good thing, if you have an employee that is familiar with Joomla, they can easily do a quick update or change for you.  Or should you be inclined, you can easily learn to do it yourself.

Did I mention Joomla is free software, and always will be?  Joomla is part of a growing movement called open source  the idea is, a bunch of developers and whoever is interested, get together and create and maintain a piece of software that is really good, and as a result people really want to use it.

Joomla is a great example of that, now you must be thinking... free... it cant be good... or, there must be some sort of a catch, somebody has to be making a dollar somewhere!!!  Well someone is, you see the idea is to make great free software, and with most things there are people into learning the details and doing it all themselves, or there are people who need to convenience of someone doing it for them and they are willing to pay for it.

Thus a community of add-on software developers begins to grow around the open source software, offering services or programs to enhance it, sometimes for a fee and simply to make it better.  Sounds kind of utopian doesn't it, interesting thing is it has become a huge community. The open source movement is one of the great things the internet has created, Joomla is currently in use on well over 1,000,000 websites.

One last thing, I can design your site without using a CMS, but honestly I can not  think of even one good reason to do that, html is basically old school web design,  CMS is the future of the web, so  if for some reason you insist on not using a CMS I will most likely turn down your job.
 

Yellow Page books are going the way of the buggy whip!