Joomla. Do you? Would You? Have You?

by Phil Jacobson

Posted: 16 years ago 24 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I've been struggling with my first real website I made with BeBiz but the site just hasn't turned out the way I wanted.

I've been trying to get some good feedback about Joomla but have had conflicting replies.

I took a look at this wso and it seems like a good enough deal. Actually too good which is why I am a little skeptical.

http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...html#post60695

I especially need to know how newbie proof this is and if there are any drawbacks.

Any unbiased experiences with Joomla would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Phil

#joomla

woah316

16 years ago

imo, joomla rules... if robust, but not too too hard to understand... pretty easy to install... its not as simple as something like wordpress of course, but it has a lot more features. and since its so popular, ppl update it all the time.

i recommend joomla personally.

Thanks
2 replies

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Lloyd Lopes 16 years ago

Hi Phil

Simpleweb's offering is actually very newbie proof - and if you are looking to put up a simple site then its great!

I use Joomla - and I can tell you that you don't want to look at using it until you have defined your site requirements ( in some detail ) and then go and look at extensions.joomla.org and make sure the extensions you want to use are compatible and have a relativley clean reputation.

Otherwise , its a somewhat complex ( not complicated ) and pretty powerful app.
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sparrow

16 years ago

I have setup several Joomla sites and from my personal experience I have mixed feelings.

If you leave things alone they are fine, but I am constantly tweaking them and find the interface not that user friendly for me.

But otherwise I think if you leave things along they are fine.

just my experience

Ed

Thanks
1 reply

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Tiger

16 years ago

Going from easy to hard, the major CMS platforms
would be like this :

Wordpress
Joomla
Drupal

But if you have a programmer's heart they would be :

Drupal
Joomla
Wordpress

If you dont like messing with code, go with Wordpress. If you do,
go with the others.

I enjoy learning all the different features of Joomla. I enjoyed
learning about how to install it and what webhosts would not
and would work with it. (Most will.)

But... I enjoy tinkering with stuff also... so if you do too, try Joomla!

/Steve

Thanks
2 replies

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flashgordon 16 years ago

I use joomla for one of my sites. It took awhile to figure it out (programmers don't know how to write friendly user interfaces), but once you figure out what everything is called, it is really great. Lots of power. Tons of add ons. I'm sticking with it.
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- 1 reply
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- Kevin Riley 16 years ago
  
  IMO, it depends upon your needs. I decided upon Joomla for an upcoming site because it will be very large and Joomla provides the content management that I need. It also manages advertising spaces on the site, which I'll need.
  
  I had Mohsin Rasool (fellow Warrior and my Kouhai) install and modify a template to meet my expectations, as I don't want another Joomla-looking site. The initial setup is not easy, but in the long run will be worth it.
  
  However, if you're doing something that WP could handle, then Joomla is using a baseball bat when a fly swatter would do.
  
  Thanks
  
  2 replies
  
  Signature
  
  Kevin Riley, long-time Warrior living in Osaka, Japan
  
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  Andy Money 16 years ago
  
  I had 1.5 installed and it got hacked, I'm going back to the old version.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
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  Frank Bruno 16 years ago
  
  Joomla is an awesome CMS system but it has a steep learning curve.
  
  One of the most difficult projects I've ever completed was a Joomla membership site using Amember.
  
  Actually Amember was easiest part, it was learning Joomla that was the difficult part.
  
  It doesn't matter if you outsource your Joomla project are not, you're still going need to learn how to use the CMS system.
  
  There's a lot of great plug-ins for Joomla that you can use to enhance your site.
  
  The support for Joomla completely sucks. What I mean by that is if you go to the forums about Joomla looking for answers, all the answers are typically from programmers who are experienced with PHP and CMS systems and have been with the Joomla since the birth.
  
  For Internet marketers who has no desire to learn the intricacies of Joomla it makes it very difficult to get simple answers.
  
  If I had to start all over again to create a membership site using Joomla I would probably strongly reconsider unless I was being compensated for about two months worth of my time.
  
  Well that's my honest unbiased opinion of Joomla
  
  Frank Bruno
  
  Thanks
  
  2 replies
  
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  Clark Cassidy 16 years ago
  
  I use Joomla. I love it. There is a bit of a learning curve at first, but as soon as you learn it it's like riding a bicycle.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Andy Money 16 years ago
  
  If you search YouTube for how-to videos on using Joomla this is the best way to learn, I learned how to use it easily in three days after struggling for weeks on my own.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
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  Kevin Riley 16 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Frank Bruno
  
  It doesn't matter if you outsource your Joomla project are not, you're still going need to learn how to use the CMS system.
  
  Yes. Still will need to get Mohsin to train me on that. But it will be worth it in the long run.
  
  This site will be a long-term authority site, but I would seriously consider before using Joomla for something with less CMS requirements.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  Kevin Riley, long-time Warrior living in Osaka, Japan
  
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David Neale

16 years ago

Like Paul said I agree with Tiger and most of the comments here.

I spent a week with Joomla and Drupal recently (installing and testing both for a client) and it should be noted that Joomla still has the edge in the quality of templates available.

The client ended up with Joomla because of the amazing quality of the templates.

I've never seen any CMS that has higher quality templates than Joomla.

BTW: both installed easily and flawlessly on Windows server which surprised me a bit

Originally Posted by Tiger

Going from easy to hard, the major CMS platforms
would be like this :

Wordpress
Joomla
Drupal

But if you have a programmer's heart they would be :

Drupal
Joomla
Wordpress

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

David Neale

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dustinlemos

16 years ago

Personally I think Joomla is bloated with features that I would pretty much never need. My all-time favorite CMS is Coranto. Like Joomla, it's free and open source, easy to install, easy to learn, and can do pretty much everything that Joomla can, only you don't have to install plug-ins for the extra features that most of us wouldn't need. I think it's perfect.

Thanks
1 reply

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Jelasco

16 years ago

Originally Posted by dustinlemos

How many third party templates and addons are there for Coranto?

Thanks
1 reply

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Phil Jacobson 16 years ago

Thanks everyone, I ended up grabbing that WSO so I can try it out for free. I am really enjoying how good the templates are. I think I can make a better looking site than I ever have before.

Thanks

Phil
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- Sean Donahoe 16 years ago
  
  Just to throw in my 2c....
  
  I use Joomla for pretty much every web project from membership sites, informational website, city portals, review sites and much more. It is very robust, has excellent SEO and is as fast as lightning. It is more complex than Wordpress but it is much more than a blog and has a massive userbase. The amount of functional components you can plug into this foundation is almost limitless.
  
  It does have a steep learning curve but one you get past the initial hurdles of manipulating modules, components etc you will probebly use nothing else.
  
  The only real area lacking with Joomla is the ecommerce offerings, VirtueMart is pretty good but is a pain to template so I use X-Cart with Joomla with my own bridge and it is pretty much the perfect pairing. I have used this combo for some amazon competitiors handling 200,000+ products.
  
  Joomla recently had a security issue that some script-kiddies exploted with a worm like hack which was fixed almost immediatly but some people who were not patched were vunerable but there are various components for security that will protect against 99.9% of all security problems. This risk is the same with any software, but you can protect yourself with proper precautions.
  
  Personally, I am also staying with 1.0.15 for the sole reason that most of the components I use are not 100% 1.5 Native yet. Once they are then I will make the switch but 1.0.15 provides me with everything I need.
  
  Thanks
  
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- Sean Donahoe 16 years ago
  
  If you are looking at templates, RocketTheme is great and there are many other great template vendors out there, even templatemonstor.com jumped into this arena recently so there is no shortage of design resources.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  MizzCindy 16 years ago
  
  As a techno-noob, I have no guidance to offer, but I do want to say thanks to all who participated in this thread.
  
  I'm still learning the intricacies of WordPress and I didn't even really know what Joomla and Drupal were until reading here. (Hey - I said I was a techno-noob!)
  
  I just went to peek at some free Joomla templates and they are VERY impressive. Obvioulsy, at some point, I'm going to have to investigate Joomla further.
  
  Thanks for all the great information! Warrior Forum rocks!
  
  Cindy
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Paul Buckley 16 years ago
  
  I've looked into Joomla (and Drupal as well). I even have copies on my hard drive. But I decided that, at least for the moment, it is too complex, therefore too time-consuming, to learn right now.
  
  I'll reconsider when I have a few months to devote to it AND a particular project in mind for which Joomla is ideally suited.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  "Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something." -Plato
  
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PaulSchubert 16 years ago

Hi Phil, I have used Joomla since before it was conceived by the Mambo developers. I know just about every aspect of the Joomla CMS and thus consider myself somewhat of an expert. I have worked on the Joomla administrative documentation committee (although brief due to time restraints), and based on my experience must say that the posts here in this thread reflect very fine ideas and solutions to your original question. Steve (Tiger) laid it out very direct, and I agree with him 100%. Kevin Riley has a great closing line in his post, which sums it up theoretically. If you need any additional help, PM me, and I will try to assist you. Good Luck.
PAS
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Paul Alan Schubert - "Success is a State of Mind"
PaulSchubert.com
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bartolomo

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Phil Jacobson

Don't be afraid to try Joomla. I used it for my FIRST site just last week. It could be easier to learn, true. But it's hard to argue with the results. I just joined this forum and don't want to include my site on my first posts.......but if you want to see it, pm me. thanks.

bartolomo

Thanks

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Chris W. Sutton 16 years ago

I think you will find a lot of people who will tell you that Lloyd Lopes is the person to go to when it comes to Joomla. He has a lot of very happy customers!
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- Mike Hill 16 years ago
  
  I've used Wordpress and most recently I setup 2 Joomla sites... I got templates from RocketThemes and modified them to suit.
  
  I was brand new to Joomla but after spending about a day (Slow learner) I managed to figure it all out and see how they were storing the information so I could setup and employ what I wanted.
  
  The biggest help was installing the template with sample content so I could definitely see were things were compared to what it was being called in the admin area.
  
  It won't take long to figure out Modules from Plugins to Articles, etc... I used the 1.5.6 and got used to that. Then I went and installed 1.x on my other domain (much harder to learn from my experience)...
  
  All in all the 1.5.6 has been a really good experience. Great plugins and very easy to get around in after a few hours of trying things out.
  
  Mike Hill
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Simplweb 16 years ago
  
  For me, the distinguishing thing about Joomla is that considering its power, its very easy to use.
  
  Now, when I say that, its not as easy to use as Wordpress perhaps, but the reward/effort ratio I think far exceeds anything else out there.
  
  Fortune 500 companies are using Joomla.....
  
  Note: Alot use Drupal as well, but that CMS is very developer cost heavy compared to others.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  Simplweb - Joomla 1.5 Websites
  Compass Designs Blog - Learn everything Joomla!
  
  NEW WSO!!
  Turnkey Membership Websites with Web 2.0 Social networking features
  
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Joomla. Do you? Would You? Have You?

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