What is a Joomla site?
In a previous blog article I briefly discussed using a content management system (CMS) for your website. In this article I’d like to talk more about one CMS platform in particular, Joomla.
First of all, what is Joomla?
Joomla! Is an open source content management system (CMS) for publishing information on the Internet. Many businesses including corporate businesses, online magazines, e-commerce, non-profits, and community-based portals have used Joomla for their website needs.
What does Joomla do?
Joomla allows your Web developer to quickly build a website for your business and then enables you to manage your own site yourself. Joomla also integrates with numerous extensions (most free) in order to add specialized functionality to your website (i.e. shopping carts, social media aspects, photo galleries, etc.).
Advantages of Joomla:
1) Free – The cost of the application is free. The only fees associated with setting up a Joomla site is the cost of a base template (usually around $50) and the cost of a developer setting up your initial site.
2) Extensions – There are many extensions that will boost your sites functionality. They can be installed and configured in minutes. Building a custom programming feature is costly and could take days or weeks to install.
3) Maintenance – It’s very difficult to maintain a coded website unless you know HTML. Joomla allows you to maintain your site even if you have no prior HTML knowledge. Updating the text within your website is as easy as updating a Word document.
4) Multi-linguistic – You are able to build sites in many different languages using Joomla.
Disadvantages of Joomla
Joomla has a lot of great features but we want to play devil’s advocate for a second…
1) Changing a template, or developing a custom template, can be costly – if possible stick to the out of the box templates and customize colors, photos, content, modules, etc. It will save you time and money.
2) Some plug-in’s do cost money – while there are many that are free, there are some modules that cost money. For example, there’s an excellent WordPress blog integration module that’s $80. Yes, it’s $80 but the time that it saves you copying over your existing blog entries to your new Joomla website makes it worth the money spent.
3) You might need a developer for some of the changes you’d like to make to your site – depending on the changes you request, you might need a developer to create custom modules for your site. Be sure to let your designer know, in advance, if you anticipate any custom needs so they can gather a quote before your job starts.
4) If you have a large site or your site requires a lot of complex programming, Joomla may not be for you - It might be better, and more cost efficient, to build your site in either Drupal or a custom content management system according to the specifics of your site. Your web developer will guide you if a different CMS platform is required.
Want to see some samples of Joomla sites?
Here are a few Joomla sites that Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design has created in Joomla:
www.happilyeverafterevents.biz
http://www.bizechicks.com/chick-magnet/index.php
Are you interested in creating a Joomla site for your business? Give us a call! We’d love to discuss how Joomla can enhance your current or upcoming website. We look forward to hearing from you!
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