I haven't built any sites in over a year. Anyone have an opinion? Anything new out there people are really happy with? Seek something simple to use. Meaning I can get something up and running quickly without a steep learning curve. It could be a content management system or a website design software. I have many a couple dozen sites and more parked domains that are keyword rick for my niche. Would like to build some more sites for some of those domain names. Thanks.
Honestly, Wordpress is a great CMS if you know how to use it properly. The page system is perfect for stand alone pages and there is tons of support and development behind it's core system and plugins. It's also easy to manage and the template system isn't too hard to understand.
I have built some sites on WP and know many will laugh but never found it to be particularly easy. It's okay but not as easy as people make it out to be. I also forgot to add that SEO is of primary concern. Lastly, it's 2012 now, how are sites such as Weebly, Squidoo and Hubpages doing? Are they still well-regarded? Weebly was real easy to use and you could use your own domain name but I'm not sure if you can gain valuable domain SEO rank with that or not. But, it's easy, that's for sure.
For latest CMS id say Wordpress or atleast slightly skilled developers, or Concrete5 for complete noobs. Joomla and Drupal: Tried but i hated them, development wise and also becuase they do not use web designer/ coder terms, they use more server admin terms so its hard for me to get use to when navigation thru files and CMS admn panel.
We have a CMS that might be for you. CMS + native forum or integration with popular forums.. especially useful for any community type sites that you plan to get off the ground. Subdreamer CMS My opensource suggestion would have to be Wordpress since it can accommodate such a range of website needs, with relative ease of use and a big community.
No. Everyone pretty much knows that they are just spam article dumps for backlinks. Those days are over.