A Content Management System (CMS) allows you to easily update text, images, and other media on your Web site without having to write code. Whether you're updating quarterly reports, product details, or your daily online journal, a CMS makes changing your site's content quick and relatively easy.

A CMS is server-side software used to change the text and images contained in predefined templates. Most come equipped with standard editing tools to add hyperlinks, images, and basic text formatting like bold and italics or bulleted or numbered lists. While not as robust as stand-alone word processor software, a CMS can be used to compose original documents.

CMS software runs the gamut from enterprise-strength -- and costly -- products such as Vignette Content Management; these are only suitable for very large-scale sites. On the other end of the pricing scale, open-source CMS applications like Drupal and Joomla! are free to use. But you should be aware that formal technical support will cost you. But if you can't find answers on their community forums, they do have robust user-generated support communities. Blogging platforms, such as WordPress and Moveable Type, are really simple content management systems.