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Read moreEnabling project staff to update and post new site content prevents bottlenecks.
 Just as this June 24, 1959 evening rush hour traffic jam on Chicago’s Congress Expressway caused bottlenecks, so can webmasters who are responsible for posting web content. Allowing authors and project staff to post directly to a web site can bypass the bottleneck.
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Problem
Relying on a technically inclined Webmaster to post content to a site is cost-prohibitive and can result in project delays.
Solution
Allowing authors and project staff to post content directly on the site, without having to go though an intermediary, streamlines projects and saves money.
Discussion
Typically, Webmasters are experts in the design and maintenance of the technical aspects of a website, rather than experts in the site’s content. Although their expertise is invaluable, it is unnecessary to have a technical expert perform what is essentially an administrative task.
Hiring a Webmaster to post content to a site can cause a project to incur a number of unnecessary expenses, including the salary of a staff member who must act as a liaison with the Webmaster and the cost of the Webmaster’s time.
As a project grows, a Webmaster can be a bottleneck to successfully creating and updating content for a website because of his or her time constraints or due to the necessity of back-and-forth communications with project staff. As a result, content developers and users get frustrated at the slowness with which the site is updated. Even “quick fixes” can take days to implement.
While content management software (CMS) allows authors to bypass the Webmaster and post directly online, projects that don’t use CMS can still take steps to prevent bottlenecks:
- Use templates for content pages.
- With a little training, an html editor, and a program to upload content to your web server, a staff person can post and edit text.
- If you contract with a Webmaster, negotiate an agreement whereby he or she will work on your site during a certain window of time each week or month. Such consistency will let authors and staff know when the site will be updated, and they can plan accordingly.