I'm Creating a New Website

Debbie Songster · 01-03-2009, 03:22 PM

I thought since its a new year and I have these niche topics bursting out of the idea folder on my computer, I should get busy using them.

I figured I'd create a website and if anyone wanted to contribute their ideas while its being built - it might be fun.

Or if you just wanted to follow along I'd tell you what I'm doing and what I used.
If you want to follow on twitter you can and I started a blog post here in the WF if you want to add comments but don't want to continue on this thread.

The domain is

FitStartingToday.com

If you guys think this is worthless information or inappropriate then just let this thread die.

Ok I have to go load Joomla and set up the database
I'll check back to see if anyone wants to participate.

Amber_Writes · 01-03-2009, 03:29 PM

Just a bit of advice...

Since you are just doing the initial install of Joomla, I wouldn't suggest that you post the link here live just yet. Wait until you've gotten it online first, then include the link in your post.

Debbie Songster · 01-03-2009, 03:33 PM

I figured no one would read and look quite so fast but its ok now as its installed - now on to the template

I thought of that after I posted but the install took 2 min so its fine now

Thanks for the advice

Debbie Songster · 01-03-2009, 03:46 PM

Well I figured some newbies might want to follow along.
I'll go load the template and start getting rid of the demo content.

I'm grabbing a template from YOOtheme - Web 2.0 Joomla Templates - Home

They have some pretty mods as well

JerryIL · 01-03-2009, 04:14 PM

I'll be happy to follow along and learn...thanks.

Jerry

Debbie Songster · 01-03-2009, 04:23 PM

I'm working on structure - specifically the sub topics
Since the site is about being fit
What do you think the sub topics would be?
So far I've got dieting, exercise, nutrition, supplements, equipment.

Can you think of any more or ones that would be better?

BeauJustin · 01-03-2009, 04:50 PM

Hey Debbie,
I have no idea the level of your experience with Joomla, so I'll just tell you my experiences, and what I've learned about Joomla from my own trial and error. I had been building web sites on top of a Joomla installation for about 3 or 4 years until I switched almost exclusively to Wordpress or my own Rails concoction - whichever works best.

Joomla is outstandingly flexible among CMS's. You can have an unlimited number of pages, and with module tweaking each page can have a completely look and different feel, all while maintaining the sites overall theme. Or each page can have a different theme if that's your thing.

Flexibility is probably, to me, Joomla's greatest strength, that and the extraordinarily vast pool of third party modules, components and plugins, which can make it very, very powerful.

But, while Joomla! is a great content manager, it has some huge weaknesses, especially in the new 1.5 version. I haven't messed with it in a while, so they may have fixed them in the last year or so.

One of the biggest drawbacks, in my experience, is the creation of pages vs. posts. This is an enormous pain if you're new to the software. Once you get the hang of it, it doesn't take long to realize that the process is kind of bloated. Doable, but bloated.

And that's a word that I like to associate with Joomla, i.e. Bloat.

TinyMC is, the article creation interface (or Wysiwyg) where you write your posts and such, can be very buggy and again, bloated. Write your posts in Notepad (not Word or anything like Word), and then copy and paste them into your Wysiwyg. There are third party Wysiwigs which are worlds better than Joomla's default, but I'll touch more on third party software in a moment.

The administrative panel is extensive, but again, the mere size of every page can slow working in the backend to a crawl. Unless you're on a nice, powerful web server, and using a reasonably fast computer you may experience bloat-lag when working on the backend. It doesn't sound like a huge problem, but when you're working on a deadline trying to make that last tweak, and the page won't load or save fast enough... well you get the picture.

Third party software. Joomla is unmatched in third party, plug and play software. And most of its free. However there is some outstanding paid software out there, so don't limit yourself to the free stuff.

Which leads me to the free stuff. It's great. It's outstanding. It increases Joomla's extensibility, and makes virtually anything possible. There is quite literally a plugin for everythingl. Here's the problem. It's not guaranteed. Joomla 1.0 and 1.5 are promised to be leak free, in other words if you're running straight Joomla! you shouldn't get hacked. However, the third party software? Not so much. Some of them are so open to exploitation that it will only be a couple of days before someone has hacked your administrative side, and changed all of your pages, or worse, deleted your entire mail list... it happened to me.

Themes. There aren't a lot of great free themes available for Joomla. Most of the better ones are the rejects that the paid themers didn't want to persue. There are, however, some very good paid themes, and theme clubs out there, which offer up a web presence that just screams "I paid a bundle for this site!".

Here are a few:

rockettheme.com - is probably the most well known, and successful of the lot. I've used them before, and while the themes are beautiful, and I mean beautiful, I believe they get bogged down by the special effects.

Yootheme.com - is another great themer. Again, gorgeous themes, but they have the same problem as Rockettheme - bloated. There are a few, though, of their minimalist themes MEE comes to mind, which are almost perfect.

Joomlart.com - They've been around since the beginning, and while the themes are simple, it wasn't until about ten or twelve months ago that they got on board with modern web design practices, and began to crank out some really, and I mean really cool themes. They've got some of the same personal issues with drop down menus, java, that the others do, but they're not quite as overdone in my opinion.

shape5.com - is one of the lesser known themers out there. But they make some of the best. Go figure. Their crossroads them is one of my favorite.

I like minimalist web sites. And here are some great themers if you like small web sites:

joomlajet.com - handsdown makes some of the best themes available for Joomla. The web site is on an Australian server, so it takes a while for it to load. But be patient. It's worth the wait.

joomlabamaboo.com - All minimalist. They have some javascript, and such, but it's not over done. Some of their themes are very elegant. They aren't my favorite theme club, but some of their themes are worth the effort.

Anyway, that's my take. In my opinion if the design and layout of the site are the most important factor in your startup, then go with Joomla! You can create some really fantastic sites that offer your visitors a ton of options. However, if you're content driven then Wordpress might be the way to go.

In the past anytime I've started up something on Joomla! the design and layout of the site usually became a bigger focus than the content. Joomla just requires so much nursing in the beginning.

Anyway, I've got a lot of Joomla! experience so if you have any questions shoot me a PM, and I'll help any way I can.
God bless,
Beau

BeauJustin · 01-03-2009, 04:54 PM

Nevermind. Double Posted.

BeauJustin · 01-03-2009, 04:56 PM

EDIT: I made this post before I realized that Debbie has everything well in hand. The site looks great so far Debbie. I can help in anyway let me know.

It has now been edited, and condensed, so that I do not feel like a big dope. :-)
--------------------------------------------------
Here are some other great theme sites that maybe you're not familiar with.

rockettheme.com - is probably the most well known, and successful of the lot. I've used them before, and while the themes are beautiful, and I mean beautiful, I believe they get bogged down by the special effects.

Yootheme.com - is another great themer. Again, gorgeous themes, but they have the same problem as Rockettheme - bloated. There are a few, though, of their minimalist themes MEE comes to mind, which are almost perfect.

Joomlart.com - They've been around since the beginning, and while the themes are simple, it wasn't until about ten or twelve months ago that they got on board with modern web design practices, and began to crank out some really, and I mean really cool themes. They've got some of the same personal issues with drop down menus, java, that the others do, but they're not quite as overdone in my opinion.

shape5.com - is one of the lesser known themers out there. But they make some of the best. Go figure. Their crossroads them is one of my favorite.

I like minimalist web sites. And here are some great themers if you like small web sites:

joomlajet.com - handsdown makes some of the best themes available for Joomla. The web site is on an Australian server, so it takes a while for it to load. But be patient. It's worth the wait.

joomlabamaboo.com - All minimalist. They have some javascript, and such, but it's not over done. Some of their themes are very elegant. They aren't my favorite theme club, but some of their themes are worth the effort.

Anyway, I've got a lot of Joomla! experience so if you have any questions shoot me a PM, and I'll help any way I can.
God bless,
Beau

Debbie Songster · 01-03-2009, 05:03 PM

Beau
Thank you for that wonderful post
I'm sure those who are curious about Joomla will find it useful

I totally agree that Joomla is unmatched in their plug and play software. I think those who make the mods are brilliant.

I just installed a multimedia mod for the site - you can find a selection at
Joomla! Extensions Directory

I'm using allvideos 2.5.3

Having an organized structure is very important when constructing a Joomla site. If you can wrap your brain around the category and section manager then you are home free.
It offers so much more than Wordpress - however if someone is creating a basic site or blog then Wordpress is enough.

More about this later - I need to swap out some demo content with real stuff so the site starts to take shape.

kurt naulaerts · 01-03-2009, 05:06 PM

Debbie,

About the topics, certainly don't forget perseverance... I know from experience!

Good luck,

Kurt

Debbie Songster · 01-03-2009, 05:12 PM

Kurt - perseverance sounds like that belongs under mental health.
I really need a better title for that section - what do you think?

kurt naulaerts · 01-03-2009, 05:24 PM

I would simply say: Don't give up!

Doesn't need to be fancy.

01-03-2009, 03:22 PM	#1
Debbie Songster Songster Shops War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: , Arizona , USA. Posts: 969 Blog Entries: 19 Thanks: 93 Thanked 178 Times in 86 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... I thought since its a new year and I have these niche topics bursting out of the idea folder on my computer, I should get busy using them. I figured I'd create a website and if anyone wanted to contribute their ideas while its being built - it might be fun. Or if you just wanted to follow along I'd tell you what I'm doing and what I used. If you want to follow on twitter you can and I started a blog post here in the WF if you want to add comments but don't want to continue on this thread. The domain is FitStartingToday.com If you guys think this is worthless information or inappropriate then just let this thread die. Ok I have to go load Joomla and set up the database I'll check back to see if anyone wants to participate.
	Do you need help with your project or website? Checkout our services for hire Jibbitz Shoe Doodles , Italian Charms , Fashion Sunglasses, Learn Marketing

01-03-2009, 03:29 PM	#2
Amber_Writes Writing Maniac Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Southeast region, USA Posts: 127 Thanks: 2 Thanked 16 Times in 6 Posts	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... Just a bit of advice... Since you are just doing the initial install of Joomla, I wouldn't suggest that you post the link here live just yet. Wait until you've gotten it online first, then include the link in your post.
	I'm about to launch my writing services site, and I need your testimonials! I'm offering up to 20 Warriors 1 free article of 500 words in exchange for their review. If you're interested, simply pm me the details and I'll get started. Thank you Warriors!

01-03-2009, 03:33 PM	#3
Debbie Songster Songster Shops War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: , Arizona , USA. Posts: 969 Blog Entries: 19 Thanks: 93 Thanked 178 Times in 86 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... I figured no one would read and look quite so fast but its ok now as its installed - now on to the template I thought of that after I posted but the install took 2 min so its fine now Thanks for the advice
	Do you need help with your project or website? Checkout our services for hire Jibbitz Shoe Doodles , Italian Charms , Fashion Sunglasses, Learn Marketing

01-03-2009, 03:46 PM	#4
Debbie Songster Songster Shops War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: , Arizona , USA. Posts: 969 Blog Entries: 19 Thanks: 93 Thanked 178 Times in 86 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... Well I figured some newbies might want to follow along. I'll go load the template and start getting rid of the demo content. I'm grabbing a template from YOOtheme - Web 2.0 Joomla Templates - Home They have some pretty mods as well
	Do you need help with your project or website? Checkout our services for hire Jibbitz Shoe Doodles , Italian Charms , Fashion Sunglasses, Learn Marketing

01-03-2009, 04:14 PM	#5
JerryIL jerryil War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: , , .IL Posts: 49 Thanks: 41 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... I'll be happy to follow along and learn...thanks. Jerry

01-03-2009, 04:23 PM	#6
Debbie Songster Songster Shops War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: , Arizona , USA. Posts: 969 Blog Entries: 19 Thanks: 93 Thanked 178 Times in 86 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... I'm working on structure - specifically the sub topics Since the site is about being fit What do you think the sub topics would be? So far I've got dieting, exercise, nutrition, supplements, equipment. Can you think of any more or ones that would be better?
	Do you need help with your project or website? Checkout our services for hire Jibbitz Shoe Doodles , Italian Charms , Fashion Sunglasses, Learn Marketing

01-03-2009, 04:50 PM	#7
BeauJustin HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 118 Thanks: 34 Thanked 44 Times in 28 Posts	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... Hey Debbie, I have no idea the level of your experience with Joomla, so I'll just tell you my experiences, and what I've learned about Joomla from my own trial and error. I had been building web sites on top of a Joomla installation for about 3 or 4 years until I switched almost exclusively to Wordpress or my own Rails concoction - whichever works best. Joomla is outstandingly flexible among CMS's. You can have an unlimited number of pages, and with module tweaking each page can have a completely look and different feel, all while maintaining the sites overall theme. Or each page can have a different theme if that's your thing. Flexibility is probably, to me, Joomla's greatest strength, that and the extraordinarily vast pool of third party modules, components and plugins, which can make it very, very powerful. But, while Joomla! is a great content manager, it has some huge weaknesses, especially in the new 1.5 version. I haven't messed with it in a while, so they may have fixed them in the last year or so. One of the biggest drawbacks, in my experience, is the creation of pages vs. posts. This is an enormous pain if you're new to the software. Once you get the hang of it, it doesn't take long to realize that the process is kind of bloated. Doable, but bloated. And that's a word that I like to associate with Joomla, i.e. Bloat. TinyMC is, the article creation interface (or Wysiwyg) where you write your posts and such, can be very buggy and again, bloated. Write your posts in Notepad (not Word or anything like Word), and then copy and paste them into your Wysiwyg. There are third party Wysiwigs which are worlds better than Joomla's default, but I'll touch more on third party software in a moment. The administrative panel is extensive, but again, the mere size of every page can slow working in the backend to a crawl. Unless you're on a nice, powerful web server, and using a reasonably fast computer you may experience bloat-lag when working on the backend. It doesn't sound like a huge problem, but when you're working on a deadline trying to make that last tweak, and the page won't load or save fast enough... well you get the picture. Third party software. Joomla is unmatched in third party, plug and play software. And most of its free. However there is some outstanding paid software out there, so don't limit yourself to the free stuff. Which leads me to the free stuff. It's great. It's outstanding. It increases Joomla's extensibility, and makes virtually anything possible. There is quite literally a plugin for everythingl. Here's the problem. It's not guaranteed. Joomla 1.0 and 1.5 are promised to be leak free, in other words if you're running straight Joomla! you shouldn't get hacked. However, the third party software? Not so much. Some of them are so open to exploitation that it will only be a couple of days before someone has hacked your administrative side, and changed all of your pages, or worse, deleted your entire mail list... it happened to me. Themes. There aren't a lot of great free themes available for Joomla. Most of the better ones are the rejects that the paid themers didn't want to persue. There are, however, some very good paid themes, and theme clubs out there, which offer up a web presence that just screams "I paid a bundle for this site!". Here are a few: rockettheme.com - is probably the most well known, and successful of the lot. I've used them before, and while the themes are beautiful, and I mean beautiful, I believe they get bogged down by the special effects. Yootheme.com - is another great themer. Again, gorgeous themes, but they have the same problem as Rockettheme - bloated. There are a few, though, of their minimalist themes MEE comes to mind, which are almost perfect. Joomlart.com - They've been around since the beginning, and while the themes are simple, it wasn't until about ten or twelve months ago that they got on board with modern web design practices, and began to crank out some really, and I mean really cool themes. They've got some of the same personal issues with drop down menus, java, that the others do, but they're not quite as overdone in my opinion. shape5.com - is one of the lesser known themers out there. But they make some of the best. Go figure. Their crossroads them is one of my favorite. I like minimalist web sites. And here are some great themers if you like small web sites: joomlajet.com - handsdown makes some of the best themes available for Joomla. The web site is on an Australian server, so it takes a while for it to load. But be patient. It's worth the wait. joomlabamaboo.com - All minimalist. They have some javascript, and such, but it's not over done. Some of their themes are very elegant. They aren't my favorite theme club, but some of their themes are worth the effort. Anyway, that's my take. In my opinion if the design and layout of the site are the most important factor in your startup, then go with Joomla! You can create some really fantastic sites that offer your visitors a ton of options. However, if you're content driven then Wordpress might be the way to go. In the past anytime I've started up something on Joomla! the design and layout of the site usually became a bigger focus than the content. Joomla just requires so much nursing in the beginning. Anyway, I've got a lot of Joomla! experience so if you have any questions shoot me a PM, and I'll help any way I can. God bless, Beau

01-03-2009, 04:54 PM	#8
BeauJustin HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 118 Thanks: 34 Thanked 44 Times in 28 Posts	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... Nevermind. Double Posted.

01-03-2009, 04:56 PM	#9
BeauJustin HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 118 Thanks: 34 Thanked 44 Times in 28 Posts	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... EDIT: I made this post before I realized that Debbie has everything well in hand. The site looks great so far Debbie. I can help in anyway let me know. It has now been edited, and condensed, so that I do not feel like a big dope. :-) -------------------------------------------------- Here are some other great theme sites that maybe you're not familiar with. rockettheme.com - is probably the most well known, and successful of the lot. I've used them before, and while the themes are beautiful, and I mean beautiful, I believe they get bogged down by the special effects. Yootheme.com - is another great themer. Again, gorgeous themes, but they have the same problem as Rockettheme - bloated. There are a few, though, of their minimalist themes MEE comes to mind, which are almost perfect. Joomlart.com - They've been around since the beginning, and while the themes are simple, it wasn't until about ten or twelve months ago that they got on board with modern web design practices, and began to crank out some really, and I mean really cool themes. They've got some of the same personal issues with drop down menus, java, that the others do, but they're not quite as overdone in my opinion. shape5.com - is one of the lesser known themers out there. But they make some of the best. Go figure. Their crossroads them is one of my favorite. I like minimalist web sites. And here are some great themers if you like small web sites: joomlajet.com - handsdown makes some of the best themes available for Joomla. The web site is on an Australian server, so it takes a while for it to load. But be patient. It's worth the wait. joomlabamaboo.com - All minimalist. They have some javascript, and such, but it's not over done. Some of their themes are very elegant. They aren't my favorite theme club, but some of their themes are worth the effort. Anyway, I've got a lot of Joomla! experience so if you have any questions shoot me a PM, and I'll help any way I can. God bless, Beau

01-03-2009, 05:03 PM	#10
Debbie Songster Songster Shops War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: , Arizona , USA. Posts: 969 Blog Entries: 19 Thanks: 93 Thanked 178 Times in 86 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... Beau Thank you for that wonderful post I'm sure those who are curious about Joomla will find it useful I totally agree that Joomla is unmatched in their plug and play software. I think those who make the mods are brilliant. I just installed a multimedia mod for the site - you can find a selection at Joomla! Extensions Directory I'm using allvideos 2.5.3 Having an organized structure is very important when constructing a Joomla site. If you can wrap your brain around the category and section manager then you are home free. It offers so much more than Wordpress - however if someone is creating a basic site or blog then Wordpress is enough. More about this later - I need to swap out some demo content with real stuff so the site starts to take shape.
	Do you need help with your project or website? Checkout our services for hire Jibbitz Shoe Doodles , Italian Charms , Fashion Sunglasses, Learn Marketing

01-03-2009, 05:06 PM	#11
kurt naulaerts HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Belgium Posts: 154 Thanks: 0 Thanked 7 Times in 6 Posts Contact Info	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... Debbie, About the topics, certainly don't forget perseverance... I know from experience! Good luck, Kurt
	A1 \| A2 \| A3

01-03-2009, 05:12 PM	#12
Debbie Songster Songster Shops War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: , Arizona , USA. Posts: 969 Blog Entries: 19 Thanks: 93 Thanked 178 Times in 86 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... Kurt - perseverance sounds like that belongs under mental health. I really need a better title for that section - what do you think?
	Do you need help with your project or website? Checkout our services for hire Jibbitz Shoe Doodles , Italian Charms , Fashion Sunglasses, Learn Marketing

01-03-2009, 05:24 PM	#13
kurt naulaerts HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Belgium Posts: 154 Thanks: 0 Thanked 7 Times in 6 Posts Contact Info	Re: I'm Creating a New Website - Do You want to help.... I would simply say: Don't give up! Doesn't need to be fancy.
	A1 \| A2 \| A3