Hi, I'm a web developer and I usually spend a lot of time generating custom CMS's for my clients. Obviously I charge them appropriately! But, I'm wondering whether it's not just better to use a pre-built CMS and then sell templates for these for their site? The reason I ask, is that I could possibly turn one of my own CMS' into a product which I could then sell on to further clients in a particular niche. What seems to make more economic sense to you? Mike.
Economically, I would think that it is better for you to spend time trying to engage new clients and build up a large portfolio of clients than writing your own CMS. If you write your own CMS, you are competing against open and commercial CMS', both with (I imagine) more resources and experience then yourself. The cost in time to develop, test and support your own CMS would be huge. One exception is that if your clients need an extremely fast CMS, then you might think about building a custom system, tailored to that particular client. The generality of most commercial and open CMS' slow them down. However, it is hard to imagine that all your clients will want the same features from a CMS, even in a partiular niche, so you would have to develop (or modify) your cutsom CMS for each one. Whatever you decide, bear in mind that you must ensure your clients always have the most up-to-date versions of the CMS to ensure they are as stable and secure as possible.
Obviously you can do it if your CMS could have some outstanding features. e.g. easy to install , easy for use, forum integrated, free templates , and reasonable price. Vivvo is a successful case.
Specific needs and you'll have to make, at least part of it, from scratch. But it always a good idea to think things into context. If your client needs a basic/standard type system, no need to reinvent anything. It won't hurt you to offer a choice... and its easy to browse through opensourcecms.com.
I think rather than developing my own, I'll just use something like Joomla and charge for tuition on that and for making a template. It does seem to make sense, because I can spend more time on marketing. Always a good idea!