Let's now review the core features of a general-purpose CMS.

Most web CMSs also allow you a good level of control over how your site looks. The question is: How can we use a system that gives us such features? We have plenty of options actually!

Here are some possible uses of a portal or a general-purpose CMS.

As such, you can use a general-purpose CMS for almost anything. Many such systems even support plug-in architecture. You can add new features by installing readily available plug-ins or develop one on your own.

Here are some example sites.

Thousands of web sites use CMSs. Here are a few examples covering a wide variety of purposes:

If you are wondering what CMSs were used to build the sites listed above, here is a list of some top general-purpose CMSs.

Let us now review more specific CMSs—tools that serve particular needs.

Blogs are web sites, but have certain unique features. Let's see what they are. Using blogs we can:

Blogs are social media. More than 100 million people blog these days, and they also use blog CMSs. Here is how you can use a blog:

You can use a blog however you like. After all, it's all about your self-expression.

Here are some of the popular blogs that use open source blog CMSs:

Of course, there are millions of other blogs.

Most of the top blogging sites mentioned above run on open source blogging software. The following are some top blog CMSs:

Blogs are great for running personal sites and can be extended for many other purposes with plug-ins. We will cover using blog CMSs in detail later. So, let's look at another type of CMSs.

There are some e-Commerce software applications that have solid CMS features. For our purposes, we will consider the following as the main features:

Online commerce has matured now. There are many commercial and open source e-Commerce CMSs. How would you use them? The following are some of the possible uses:

The uses of an e-Commerce CMS are obvious. The purpose is to sell, and a CMS should make it easy to sell. Here are some example sites:

Again, there are millions of other e-Commerce sites and you can learn a lot from them. Here are some top CMSs you can use to build an online store.

We have covered the main types of CMSs so far. Let's look at some of the more specialized CMSs now.

Wikis are used both in private and public networks, and can be customized to suit your needs. Here are some core features:

Wikis are collaborative by nature. The quality of content improves as people contribute.

Wikis are great for research web sites, or any site that wants its users to freely contribute. Here are some of the possible uses of Wikis:

As you use Wikis more, you get bigger benefits. Wikis can be used inside an organization to promote a culture of collaboration and contribution. It's easy to correct a piece of information, but difficult to capture it.

Wikis allow the capturing of knowledge, and also refining it. Take a look at what people have created with Wikis in the following list of sites:

There are many other sites using Wikis, or similar styles. If you want to build a Wiki, the following are some CMSs that you can use:

That was quite exciting! Let's look at another CMS type that breeds on collaboration.

Forums are one of the oldest web-based collaboration tools, and have evolved over time. Here are the core features that you can expect in a forum CMS:

Since forums have been around for years, you will find a number of them online. People have started using Wikis, blogs, and other systems instead of forums in some places.

Nothing can beat a forum when it comes to discussions!

Forums are used mainly for support sites these days. But innovative uses are possible. Here are some examples.

You can use a forum to support users or to encourage collaboration. Here are some CMSs you can use to build your own forum.

If you are looking for commercial alternatives, vBulletin (http://www.vbulletin.com/) and InvisionBoard (http://www.invisionpower.com/) are the most popular.

Now that we have looked at discussion forums, let's check out online learning.

Here are some features you will see in top open source eLearning CMSs (often called as Learning Management Systems).

You can use an eLearning system to run a simple course on cooking, or manage the operations of a university.

Open source eLearning solutions have grown over years. The following are some of the possible uses:

Although eLearning is not a common need, a CMS can ease a lot of pain involved in offering online education.

Most open source eLearning solutions were developed at universities, and may require some reworking to suit a corporate environment. But they help you effectively manage and deliver your course content. Here are some of them:

Most eLearning deployments are for internal users, so we don't have a lot of example sites here.

Here are top eLearning CMSs. You can find a lot more information from their web sites.

A few of the CMS types that we covered—Wiki, eLearning, and so on—are popularly used within organizations, too. You may even want some additional features if you are doing an internal deployment. Let's quickly look at CMSs made specially for Intranets.

The following are the core features you can expect from a collaboration CMS:

A wise choice would be to take an open source Intranet CMS and customize it to your needs.

Intranets can significantly reduce email, or communication, overload and speed up processes. They also help to keep most of the information in a single place. Here are some possible uses of Intranets. They:

You can come up with innovative uses of a collaborative CMS as you start exploring options. Most of them (shown below) are very powerful and can easily be extended.

From work-centric Intranet CMSs, let's now move to something more fun—photo galleries.

Let's look at the core features of photo gallery CMSs. They:

You can publish photos of your bachelor parties using a photo gallery, or keep it limited to corporate-event photos! Here are some uses of a photo gallery CMS. Using it, you can:

Managing your photo gallery on your own gives you full control. It allows you to customize the design—and this itself is worth the effort!

The following are some nice photo galleries:

If you want to set a gallery for yourself, you can easily do that with one of the top gallery CMSs.

Have fun with your galleries.

That completes our overview of the major CMS types. We have gained an insight into what's special about each CMS, and how they serve different purposes. But there is a lot of overlap in major CMSs because a lot of things they do are common.