6 Reasons Why the Latest Version
of one of the Most Known CMS’s is the Greatest Yet

The Future of Joomla

Since its introduction in the year 2005, Joomla has become one of the most broadly adopted open source Content Management Systems (CMS) on the web, providing web publishers with a series of features at zero cost from the very beginning. Now, six years later, Joomla 1.6 has arrived and it is a vast improvement on its predecessor, which had already been around for almost 3 years.

Here is an overview of the core differences that Joomla 1.6 brings along over its predecessor and why they take the usability of this CMS platform to a whole new level.

1. Better Menu Manager: With Joomla 1.5, many users were left disappointed with the lack of depth of the Menu Manager, which at the time just showed four boxed-shaped options at the moment of creating a menu. However, now with Joomla 1.6, users are presented with a much more flexible and integrated Menu Manager that blends in a far more transparent way with the display of menu links.

2. An Overhauled Interface: The new interface of Joomla has received a much welcome improvement as well, with a far more elegant design, better buttons, much better (and more logical) menu organization and many other time-saving details (like the new different SAVE buttons) that make the user experience much smoother overall.

3. Access Levels and Group Organization: With Joomla 1.6, users can choose from many access levels and can also group other users and can assign those groups to any of the existing access level they want.

4. Add Metadata: Joomla 1.6 brings in the possibility of adding meta descriptions and even keywords for categories. Also, articles can change the page title and names can be added to page titles as well.

5. Access Control List: One of the best features that Joomla 1.6 brings over its 1.5 counterpart, is that almost any element of the system can now be controlled using the new ACL system. Also, each element of the ACL System can be accessed in an easier way and can also be set either individually or in groups. And when set individually, items are now able to inherit the settings from items on higher levels, like a single article automatically inheriting the settings from the category to which it belongs.

5. Better Template Styles/Control: The new version of Joomla allows users to apply a series of different setting and looks to any given template and provides also support for layout overrides. And what makes this new feature even more interesting, is that it applies to front end templates and to administrator templates as well.

In summary, the new version of Joomla is by far a vast improvement over its predecessor in ways that will appeal to both advanced users and novices alike. With these changes this CMS platform instantly becomes far more interesting, which will help it acquire users in greater numbers.

If you want to know more about this new version of Joomla or simply have something to say about it, feel entirely free to post a comment or follow us on Twitter.

A quick joomla post, as I’ve been seeing recently quite a few searches on how to check the module positions in a joomla website. This is particularly handy when you are repositioning the order of modules inside the template.

View all module positions live in your browser by adding ?tp=1 or &tp=1 to the end of your URL. I.E http://yoursite.com/index.php?tp=1.

This is an example of all module positions in a diagram. Many professional joomla template companies will have such a diagram which is a helpful bookmark when building your site.

If you have any easy “how to” development tips when customizing your joomla template, let us know here and we will pass them on.

This is a tutorial on setting up Joomla through Cpanel.

If you are a purist you will be able to find many that say you have to go through the experience of installing joomla manually. I will agree that there is benefit to understanding the process of joomla installation. Yet if you are building a business website and need to get going you will already have to spend a lot of time thinking and creating good content. After all that’s why they call it a content management system. The idea behind a CMS system, like joomla, is that you don’t have too focus on being a web developer to use it, unless of course you want to.

To start

The easiest way to get going with joomla is to work with a great web host provider. I recommend Liquid Web because they have 24 hour phone support. If you tell them you want to set up joomla they will know the correct configuration for your needs.  There are many others that host joomla and it usually comes down to the type of support you want. DIY- forum or phone support are the 2 main options. Do your self a favor, pay a bit more and get phone support. It will save you a ton of time in those emergency situations.

What you will need

This description assumes that you will be installing  joomla 1.5 or soon out (officially,  joomla 1.6).

First you will want hosting that has cpanel in your account. This will not only allow you to set up joomla in minutes but it will also be invaluable in the future if you want to do perform other functions, like setting up your own company email accounts and forwarders etc.

The easy way to intall joomla 1.5 and 1.6

Server & account requirements

You don’t have to understand php, msql or apache only that they are installed on your server. Again if you say you are installing a joomla cms, a reputable Host will know the requirements and will have the latest versions of all this software installed. For your reference:

Cpanel – www.cpanel.net

PHP 5.0 or higher – www.php.net

MySQL 4.0 or higher www.mysql.com

Apache 1.13.19 or above – www.apache.org

Finally

Once you are setup with user name and password for Cpanel; login and look in your admin panel for a button or icon called Fantastico. This is a software that automatically installs many different types of software. Click on fantastico. Look on the right hand side for the joomla version you want to intall. Once you click on the that version simply follow the instructions. It’s really that simple.

While their are many other aspect to joomla from setting permissions, to security and so on, this basic instruction will get you up and started with joomla where you can actually start working inside the joomla admin and adding content, different templates and much more. If you have any questions on joomla installation or “business friendly” hosting companies leave a comment or you can go to eMediaWright for more resources. If you want the manual joomla install version you can visit the joomla offical website. This video link, http://help.joomla.org/ghop/feb2008/task167/joomlainstall.html will make it easy. Or just send me a tweet and I forward you the steps.

Google Webmaster Tools and Joomla

Google gives you 4 options for site ownership verification when adding a new URL to your webmaster tools account.

1.Add a DNS record to your domain’s configuration

2.Add a meta tag to your site’s home page

3.Upload an HTML file to your server

4.Link to your Google Analytics account

When doing this for a joomla site I have found it easiest to use either #2. meta tag or #3. html verification.

Meta Tag verification:

Log in to joomla administration and go to extensions > template manager.  Click the template you are currently using. Your template edit screen will come up. Click the EDIT HTML icon on the right of your screen.

A window will open allowing you to  edit the HTML code of your template.

Simply add the code just above the </head> tag.

The code will look something like this:

<meta name=”google-site-verification” content=”gzqCKvvm0NgJaAPYg_jkPz2MzMmPBmJUzk3BPPovcZQ” />

SAVE.  Then go back to Webmaster tools and click verify. Your done!

Note: You do not have to be that familiar with PHP/HTML to do this but I would always backup my file just in case.

Joomla Akeeba Backup is a simple and easy component to install and use.

The second method:

Uploading an HTML file to your server.

Note: this example is for Joomla 1.5 and for those using SEF URL’s with “add suffix to URL’s'  as YES. This is found in your Joomla Global configuration panel…under SEO Settings.

Again, inside your Joomla admin panel go to content>article manager> new.

Copy the HTML code in the title and into the body.

The code should look something like this;  google97a0e98859299a13.html

(You have to add something to the body in Joomla 1.5 or you won’t be able to save the file.) Under the section and category area click “uncategorized”

SAVE.

Then go to your menu manager and add this article page as a menu item. You can add this to your main menu if you wish because you are only going to keep this live for a few seconds until you check that the link works and appears in your address bar. Then clicking verify in webmaster tools.

That’s it! If you have any questions or comments or other suggestions please let me know. Or send me a tweet.

If you work in Joomla CMS , at some point you may want to set up a banner in your website.  Below is short video done sometime ago when we had a social small business training community named QuestSocial.com. This community has since been reshaped and re branded as eMediaPlace; a community for Search Marketing and eMedia people to connect.

I had some feedback the other day that suggested it may be a good idea and useful to some to add more training videos to this blog.

If you work in joomla or word press and are have some challenges let me know and I may put up a short training video that addresses those focus areas.

Your comments or remarks will help give suggestions as to future training videos. Thx C

A quick post for those interested in learning about Joomla as a CMS platform. This is a small training video on how to set up a banner in Joomla. Really simple stuff, I think. If you found this useful or if you have any comments please let me know.

If you like this Article… Cast your vote on Sphinn

These are some of my must have tools to be installed for Joomla 1.5. If you are small business building an IN House CMS website or a web developer, using Joomla, I suggest looking at these top Rated tools to get your site optimized, verified and tracked quickly.

These are pretty much straight out of the box with very little configuration or modification necessary.

1.       JoomSEO

Developed by Phillip Brown – JoomSEO is a Search Engine Optimization BOT making Joomla content more Search Engine Friendly. JoomSEO dynamically creates meta keywords, meta descriptions, changes the title on the fly, adds heading tags to content titles and more…..

2.      Google Verify

Developed by Michiel Bijland – Small Plugin to make Google Webmaster Tools site verification a bit easier. Works with the Meta Tag method and no template adjustments are needed. This is ideal for website with multiple templates or demo sites, no templates adjustments needed when you add a new template this plug-in ….

3.       Missing Meta data Module

Developed by Dan Rahmel - Missing Metadata module adds a panel to the Control Panel of the Joomla Administrator interface that lists any published articles that have empty meta description or meta keys fields. Search engines (particularly Google) use the meta description text as the summary text for site-listings displayed in search results. Any articles that fail to include this metadata will suffer…..

4.       Big Shot Google Analytics

Developed by Kenneth Crowder – This Plug-in will add the Google Analytics Tracker Code to your site automatically.

5.       JoomlaWatch

Developed by Matej Koval – JoomlaWatch allows you to watch your website visitors and bots in real-time from the administration menu. Especially their IP addresses, countries they come from, geographical location on a map, which pages they are viewing, their browser…..

See more resources and links on optimizing your Joomla ROI

Can you build a professional website and manage your own SEO in house?

Yes. I can say this because of the great free enterprise system we live in. There are those that believe that information should be available and not controlled by large software corporations. Mentioning no names here! The small guy should have a chance especially since the small bootstrap startups in this country are the very ones that take the risk to create the good ideas. So, they need a break – thus open source technology and content management systems. Used by multinational corporations and small business alike. Open source is freely available for use by the General Public under the (GNU) General Public License. Great technology built by smart people donating their talents from around the world.
So do not delay. The site builder website that you have through one of those mass market hosting companies will not do your time justice. Plus you don’t really own it and it will never have the professional reach that most people really want.
If you want to find out more register in the QuestSocial community and start accessing tools, website training, SEO videos and lots more. ?

I find I am having a lot of conversations these days about cutting costs to the bone. People are giving up a lot of personal conveniences and little luxuries (like the morning latte) to save money.

I’m finding, with businesses especially, the smaller companies and self employed individuals; want more control over their costs.

Business owners as a rule have a lot to juggle; sales, marketing, purchasing, overhead and more. They need to have a basic working knowledge of how these systems work in order to know whether they are working correctly, or if the person in charge is doing a good job.

One persistent theme though, is increasing sales and maintaining or lowering costs.

Thus my point, website development, maintenance and the ongoing marketing to make this new medium work is a perplexing decision for most business owners. There are just too many options to get a handle on the ongoing development of a website and Internet marketing. I have been doing this for 10 years, and getting to understand the “nerd department” (I have become a bit of that myself) and there culture has been a challenge to say the least. Heck, my background is marketing and economics. So there in lies the difference.

To get a handle on your new marketing program you have two clear options: either try and understand this new culture yourself in order to hire the right Website and Internet Marketing company; Or, work with an in house staff member and train them to mange your web and marketing program.

The tools are now available to manage the output and costs economically in house without having to be a web developer or Internet Marketing expert.

You can now take charge of your web program and have a very sophisticated business website to build business. This program is used by small startups to large multi national corporations.

For more information on how you can take charge of your web program call 386-690-1800 or email info(at)mediawright.net. Cheers