Successful Joomla Web Site in 7 Steps

Building a Joomla web site can be a daunting task if you realize all that the Joomla CMS framework is capable of. We have broken this down into seven easy to follow steps that can get you started in the process of achieving superior results with your new portal. We hope this can help ease your mind and provide a simple process and approach.

Step One: Defining your business goals.

The first step in this process is to clearly understand what the goals are for investing your time and money into this project. What quantifiable results do you want to achieve with this initiative and who else will be involved in the process of achieving these goals. Very much like starting any new business you want a clear understanding of your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).

Step Two: Defining your Project Plan.

Once you have a clear idea where you are going you need to develop a strategic plan for getting there. Project plans need to consider where you want to go both short term and long term with this project. It needs to have a focused and phased approach that takes into consideration your available time and resources over time to sustain this project. It needs a timeline and content acquisition checklists that will help you stay on target and on focus with your priorities.

Step Three: Defining the Look and Feel.

The first actual development tasks with your Joomla Project are to define your Joomla Website design and choose your template or process of implementing one. There are three key parts of a template you need to consider.

1. Graphical design elements: Colors and style
2. Layout options: Wireframes or in Joomla terms Module Positions
3. Features and Functionality: Standards compliance, special modules and capabilities.
It is important to realize that the Joomla template is a foundation for which you will build your site and you need to consider this decision carefully. However, you can easily change templates in the future with often little effort.

Step Four: Defining Content and Navigation.

Now that you know how you want your Joomla web site to unfold, both from a design perspective and from a road map ahead you can start mapping out the intended content and collecting any graphics or generating article copy. Typically you will want to bring every page of content into an offline document that can be edited prior to inserting into your new site. Sometimes if this is a site redesign you can cut and paste from an existing site. If you plan to get the most out of search engine optimization you will want to get targeted keywords generated and pass these on to your authors for consideration in developing the copy.Now is a good time to think about the Sections and categories for which you will organize your content and how you want your users to navigate with the best possible user experience. It is a good idea to use a mind mapping tool to define your site navigation.

Step Five: Features and Functionality.

With a clear understanding of the content you want to present and manage you will have a better idea of the types of Joomla Extensions that you will need to implement this. With over 4000 extensions and the list is growing every day, you may need to make lists of the options, compare the features and review the demos and reviews before installing them on your site. Once you have narrow this down you can then test them on your new site once you get it installed. Sometimes you may find that there are not existing components that provide the features or functionality that you need. This will require creating a development spec that clearly itemizes the features you want to add to an existing extension or for building a custom extension for your site. It is a good idea to get this sorted out early in your development process.

Step Six: Installation and Configuration.

Once we have all of our objectives, a defined roadmap, site plan and specific template in hand we can begin the installation and configuration process. Some ISPs have automated tools for installing Joomla but I prefer to get the latest release directly from the Joomla.org site and to install it manually. Once Joomla is installed we go through a process of configuring this specific for your needs. Installing extensions, installing the template and setting up the parameters, once you get the baseline of your site configured with all of the components, modules and plug-ins and perhaps a couple place holder content articles and menu items it is a good idea to make a back up copy of this and there are inexpensive extensions that can automatically do this for you.

Step Seven: Populate your Joomla web site with content.

Having a good baseline for your framework in place and backed up prior to beginning to populate content and fine tuning the configurations helps you move quickly and safely through the content population stage in your project. This is the point where we provide training or you would go through tutorials on content management techniques. Once you get this underway most of the outcome is in your hands. With a good support team that is well rounded in both strategy, branding and marketing expertise as well as the technical support and programming expertise you can increase your effectiveness through a collaborative Joomla Website development approach. We highly recommend that you work with a qualified team to guide you through this process. In the end it will give you a much more professional web site, better train your team and give you the technical support to get the very best value out of your investment.

Moving Forward

Joomla CMS is a superior choice for growing a solid business online. There are endless extensible possibilities and freedom to expand this as a platform for success. There are many other steps you can take to optimize your content and leverage more in-depth capabilities of the Joomla framework over time but this should get you an overview of the initial steps for getting started. With a good strategic and tactical plan you can keep your focus. In a world fill with exciting possibilities it is very important not to lose sight of your intended business results. Regardless of your web expertise, choosing a qualified support team to help you build, launch maintain your project will give you the very best return on your time and capital investment.

Tips to integrate Joomla CMS and CRBM Platforms

Joomla is a powerful framework for delivering Complex web portals. With over 4700 extensions and counting, the largest developer network in the world and the most user friendly interface has made the award winning Joomla CMS the fastest growing open source CMS project perhaps in the world. With millions of users and enthusiasts from all around the globe and a low cost of entry this is quickly becoming the dominant content management system (CMS) for small businesses (SMB's) and even larger enterprises and institutions. We compared Joomla vs Drupal and Joomla vs Wordpress which are other worthy technologies but Joomla seemed for us to be the best overall platform for recommending to our customers. As Joomla integrators and Joomla Component Developers we deliver complex Joomla configurations for a wide variety of customers. Joomla is a perfect framework for the micro small business owner that needs training and mentoring to work independently on building their web empire as well as the small business enterprise with complex Joomla configuration needs.

There are several layers in deploying a Joomla CMS project.

* Planning and content architecture
* Template Design and graphics
* Components and Configurations
* User experience
* Customer Programming
* Legacy System Integrations
* SEO and Marketing
* Joomla User Training
* Ongoing Technical Support

Just to name a few... With any technology there are different points of entry depending on the experience and technical aptitude of the humans interacting with the system, the technical and business process requirements and the overall dynamics of the organization implementing the particular solution. We CNP Consultants try to help folks "Get the most value out of their technology investment". Yea you will see this in our marketing but this is much more than hype. Value can be the key to success or failure. Among the biggest mistakes we have seen folks make and even made ourselves are:

Common Mistake #1

Just because you can do something with technology does not always make it practical.

I have personally implemented many powerful tools that accomplish their intended functionality but they actually never get used to their full potential by the end customers. While these were fun for us to build as developers and to see something cool that works, it did not really serve any of us well since our clients customers do not use them and thus they have a significant investment they are net getting a return on and thus until this first investment is paid for they are not all that excited to engage us to build more stuff.

The key here is determining first the business priorities of the project and then making sure everyone is listening to the needs of the end customer or user. Hey sometime folks build web tools just for themselves. I know I often post blog articles with a lot of links I want to not only share but also refer back to and we put plenty of tools online that we want to use ourselves as much as we want to and share with our customers. Just make sure you are clear why you are doing something and assess if it is going to deliver the right return on your investment.

Stay focused on what your customers are saying and what will yield the greatest return.

Technology implementation can be a never ending pit you throw money into, something that my father used to say about owning a luxury boat. If you are building your site for the shear ego of having a beautiful site with all kinds of creative features and functionality, have at it and of course we love to work with entrepreneurs with big ideas. However, like any relationship and any good investment a long term strategy is often much more practical. Our consulting customers get good advice about products and services that can grow their business or allow them to continue to get value from their investments. I have seen folks to often go for a quick sell and end up with dysfunctional customer relationships that ultimately cost more than the profit you made in the first place. Ask yourself many questions including "Is what I am doing today going to matter a year from now"? If you ask the right questions up front this can help you get the most out of your initiatives.

Technology is a moving target

One of the many reasons we got behind the Joomla CMS project as a core competency was because it was open source which offered freedom and scalable options for solving the greatest amount of business problems. We took the gamble from the trends in the market place that Joomla would continue to grow with features and stability and that the developer community would continue to be attracted to the Joomla framework thus building more confidence in the market place. With a scalable platform that is built on open source code for use was great since we wanted to work with technology that sold itself and that we could support and expand upon it to meet the needs of the types of customers we wanted to attract. Any kind of dynamic web portal project is a moving target and often needs to change course in mid stream. You have to keep good forward momentum yet listen to the trends in the marketplace so you can sail into the wind effectively. An innovative and scalable open source platform like Joomla is a perfect foundation for meeting this challenge.

But wait there is more...

A couple years ago, after a good year of working with Joomla we were looking for solutions that could actually help us build an all-in-one web based framework for managing our business in a Virtual Office Environment (everything accessible on the web). This is when after trying and implementing several CRM and project management tools ranging from Sugar CRM to MS Project to SharePoint we found Info@hand CRBM. This was the perfect platform since it was open source code base and integrated with the Joomla CMS and QuickBooks. Now after 3 years of connecting the dots we have a powerful web infrastructure with "Complete transaction life cycle management" and "Customer Relationship Business Management". Very very very cool platform... we love it and so do many of the customers we have introduced to it. Though this system is also wired up with the DimDim.com conferencing and collaboration suite it also fills many gaps in client customer collaboration. These types of regular new innovations continue to add low cost of entry tools and value to the small business.

Sounds complicated but it is also very simple if you have time as your friend

What we have learned as "early adopters" is that there is much more to it than the technology if you are going to be successful. Complex Joomla Integrations are getting simpler as this platform evolves. The old carpenters saying get the right tool for the right job is very good advice. Since there are so many tools now in our toolbox and we fully understand how they all can work together I know I can start talking about it and it does not take long to get that "deer in the headlights look" from a prospect. The trick here is making sure we establish a clear roadmap and strategy for implementing technologies that will bring the greatest reward to your business and value to our customers. This takes time and effort to get it right and should be done early on in your process.

Common Mistake #2

Just because you have the technology does not mean you should implement it.

The second most challenging aspect of implementing a complicated project is the thought process of "let's do it all at once". I have often had clients that want to load up their sites with a ton of components and then they want to throw these new features out to their customers or workforce all at once. Well this is a huge horse pill that never gets swallowed. Hate to say it but until recently I have been guilty of this myself. There is a fine line between "Build it and they will come" and "Here take a bite and let me know if you like it".

Remember this is all about relationship management

I remember back in my days of dating that it only takes one or two words to "turn off" and scare someone away. Essentially this is a similar process we go through for attracting customers. While you want to make sure what you are presenting is honest and has substance you do not want to overload, overwhelm folks with more information than they are particularly interested in at the moment. You also want to put out information and web tools in a way that they want to have them presented. As in listen well and be a good conversationalist. Such is the case even more now with the Social Technology boon. I used to say "it is not hard to fall in love since people are impulsive by nature but the real challenge is falling in love with the right one". The same is true with technology. It can be easy to get excited about some new features and want to add them right away to your site just because they are cooler than the site next door. However, every time you push something new out it may distract or turn off your customers.

In relationships of any kind they are best nurtured over time. Deploying technology is a complex multi dimensional relationship. Moving too fast has greater risk of failure for everyone involved. You actually have several relationships and processes that need careful consideration over time:

* Solutions: Customer Needs - Business Process Need - Technology Implementation
* Relationships: Vendor Teams - Client Teams - Customers

In Conclusion work smarter with a good plan

Plan carefully and gather the right information about your customers and how technology can get you the best results in Joomla Design as it relates to your business strategy. Make sure you deploy solutions over time with good the right vendors and the right customers. These systems have enough complexity that you have to really keep your eye on the ball or you can and will often times fail. None of us want to waste time or money and the wrong decision in this economy could cost you business. Before you travel anywhere it is a good idea to get directions, a map or invest in a GPS. Why would you not want to invest in good quality consulting to help guide you along the path of implementing technology?

Joomla Roadmap and Planning Guide

Value Builder Methodology

We have since built consulting practices to address these two common mistakes folks make with complex technology implementations. Yea sure we have to be geeks and able to wire all this stuff up and yes we do this well but the trick to getting value out of your technology is much more that the groovy tools we can dish out. With a few exceptions, most of the technology these days is all ready built and what that means is there is a greater need for configuration and being able to map the humans with the technology in a way that will allow you to stay focused on your priorities. Just start asking yourself questions like: What actions will give the best long term results? What will put out the fires of tomorrow before they start? How can I make this profitable to my company and add unique benefits to my customers?This should help get you on the right path.

Joomla CMS best for Small Buisness

Joomla is a dynamic portal engine & free award-winning content management system that enables a web developer to build customized applications and dynamic websites. Joomla is most user friendly web development application. Users with minimal programming knowledge can also build websites on Joomla. Above all other benefits, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone. Joomla is designed in such a way that it is easy to install and set up.

The framework of Joomla is written in PHP and it consists of modules that can be customized as per your website needs. Joomla is used all over the world for everything from - simple websites to complex corporate applications & it offers solutions that are easy to understand and quick to implement. Whether you are a Joomla expert or have just started working with Joomla, you will enjoy working on it. Joomla is used everywhere to power your websites of all shapes, sizes and tastes.

Joomla is user friendly because of following features:

1. · Database Driven site engines
2. · Browser uploading and images
3. · Customizable layouts & dynamic forum
4. · Polls, voting booths

For clients who needs specialized functionality, Joomla is highly extensible, with over thousands of extensions (most for free under the GPL license) are available in the Joomla Extensions Directory.

The core Joomla framework enables developers to quickly and easily build Data reporting tools, Application bridges, Inventory control systems, Reservation systems, Complex business directories, integrated e-commerce systems, Custom product catalogs and Communication tools. Since Joomla is based on PHP and MySQL, you're building powerful applications on an open platform that anyone can use, share, and support. The new MVC framework of Joomla is built to enable people with the basic Joomla knowledge to override the core of the CMS without actually modifying the original code.

Now a days Joomla is the most popular open source CMS currently available and this is evidenced by a vibrant and growing community of Joomla users and talented Joomla developers. Joomla’s roots go back to 2000 and at present with over 200,000 community users and contributors, the future looks bright for the award-winning Joomla Projects.

What is Content Management System (CMS)?

Content Management System as the name reveals allows the easy management of websites without knowing technical details of web development or one can say that Content Management System (CMS) is software that keeps track of each & every content on your website same as your the library keeps track of books. Also the main advantage of using CMS is that it requires almost no technical knowledge to manage contents. In simple words, a CMS will allow you to update your website contents easily and smartly. So, if you are a non-technical guy, then too CMS will allow you to update your website contents without much of a hassle.

For more information on Joomla CMS, Joomla Design Services, Joomla Development Services visit http://www.joomladesignservices.com