As was mentioned in the previous article, the choice of the technology/platform is dictated by the type of website you want to create. Different website types have different requirements on content, services and structure. The various technologies/platforms that are out there all have their advantages and disadvantages. There is no single best platform or technology for building all types of websites. This is a good thing actually since it narrows down your selection of tools so you will not get lost as to decide what to use. You cannot change platform and technology everyday so selecting the right one is very important.
Platform selection should be a future proof decision to avoid any obstacles if later on you decided to add something new to your website. Thus you should decide what you will offer to your visitors from your website. For example: will you offer them a bulleting board to post their messages? will you require other people to be able to alter content in you website? will you offer a chat service? will you offer a shopping cart? will you need to change the content often? will your site be in multiple languages? You should ask yourself questions such as these in order to decide on the offered services. It is very important though not to think that the you may need everything or, most probably, you will end up in a messy situation with a big website management overhead for simple services, that it would have been much easier to manage using another tool. Plan ahead in order to decide.
If a platform is geared towards a certain type of website it is usually very good at it, since, it will provide you all the tools and components you need for building that specific type of website. If it is a try-to-do-everything tool it is either more complex to operate, or not very good for the specific website that you want to create. Of course if your choice it to provide many different services from your website then you are bound to use a somewhat more complex tool but do not be afraid, I 'll show you what you need to know and help you with selecting the right one for you.
