Does anyone use Joomla?

[autumn1220]

I am in the process of building a site with Joomla. I know that there are several online tutorials and was wondering if anyone has some recommendations?
Judy

[Mel]

I've never used Joomla but have been thinking about putting up a small site with it just to get an understanding of how it works in case a future client needs help. These are the two sites I've bookmarked for reference...

http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/joomla/ - This site has tutorials for both 1.0 and 1.5 versions. From what I've read, 1.5 is not like an upgrade but a totally new version.

http://www.joomlatutorials.com/joomla_t ... rials.html

[LorettaOliver]

I've been wanting to get into joomla and play around since I keep hearing good things about it. Just haven't had the time to try it out yet. Those look like good tutorials, thanks for sharing Mel

[JustJules]

The best information I found on Joomla when I first learned how to use it was at joomla.org.

This demo version was really helpful. It lets you create in real time without "messing" up your own site.

And the Beginners Guide was helpful as well, with a lot of reference links.

[LorettaOliver]

I never noticed that demo site before! That's definitely nifty to play with.

[soapin'Angela]

I've played around with Joomla and actually built myself a site to play with.. It's pretty complicated to figure out at first but I think once you're familiar with it it wouldn't be too bad. There are a lot of themes out there for free, similar to finding themes for Wordpress.

Mom Masterminds has some great tutorials on using Joomla when you're a full paid member, as long as they haven't been removed (pretty sure they're still there). I'm not sure the advantages of using Joomla though, didn't really get that far into it before I gave up and went back to wordpress, lol..

[WAHParents]

I agree with Angela about joomla being a little confusing. Actually I am pretty internet savvy, but I got really frustrated with joomla. The learning curve just seemed really big.

In the future, I think I am sticking to static blogs or XSite Pro.

Just my thoughts.

Mindy

[thriftycook]

I think the reason people like Joomla is they want a membership (paid) site or a community with passwords etc... I'm trying to build a site using it now and it IS confusing and a big learning curve. I've been reading that you can build a membership (paid) site that is automated with wordpress too - so who really knows which is better, to me they are all a little confusing .

Can you build a paid membership site with xsitepro or any other way that is relatively cheap like joomla or wordpress?

[Kit]

My developer friends say the way to go (for most people) is WordPress over Joomla.

[thriftycook]

There is a lady who will build you a wordpress membership site for what I THINK Is a good price:

http://www.thewordpressdiva.com/

I don't know her, and I've not used her yet, but I am highly considering it because I am starting to think my TIME is worth more than "this" lol.

[3Dmerchant]

Not any more. First, I would say, everything you ever really wanted to know about Joomla is on the official web site, and maybe add joomlahacks.com.

I own a company (no new clients, sorry) that has developed web sites on all levels, from ground up Content management to Joomla and many other canned programs. SEO has always been a top priority for any solution.

My final take after 10+ years?
Wordpress is easy to use, great for SEO, easy to update with new software versions without blowing up all the customization. You can make Wordpress look like a web site with the right customizing. Even better, even a novice can change the look and feel over time. The plugins are endless.

Joomla is OK IF you are going to use it regularly. If not. it can be a little tricky to remember the nuances of how it does things. They both have their niche. They are both good. But if you are seeking something easy, definitely go with wordpress.

Who should you host with? Your decision is going to be a long lasting one as you won't ever want to have to deal with moving a database. http://wordpress.org/hosting/
Blue host- I tested this because for SEO reasons, it's best to spread around sites to different IP addresses. I digress. Once I had full access I realized they were missing essentials. Sorry, I can't remember what they were (lousy web statistics? ) but it was important and since it was cheap, we just walked away.

godaddy- can't say I've ever hosted there, but I have a number of domains registered with them. They have great domain management tools.
I don't know any of the others. I use Liquid web so if you could find a reseller there, I recommend them.

[lancehibner]

I have experience with both Mambo and Drupal, and I've used AdSense with both of them.
I have nothing bad to say about Adsense module for Mambo, but Mambo itself is not a good choice for high (and may be even medium) traffic websites. It's not a well opimized engine and requires a lot of "code changes" if you want to handle good traffic. It becomes slow and eats a lot of server's resources.

[JeanLA]

I have used joomla in the past and it works great. But when I found out about wordpress, I converted my site to it becasue of the great interface and quick search engine indexing.