Beginner's Guide

Clients may wish to know why you've chosen Joomla for the site, or why it's a good choice of
technology for them. Some arguments I use when selling Joomla include:
•
Joomla is one of the top three open source content management systems
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in the world, backed by
a thriving community and an active development process. New releases of software occur every six
months.
•
Joomla powers over 23.5 million sites worldwide
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, and it is the choice of over 3000 government
sites.
•
Because Joomla is open source technology, the client is not tied to a single web development firm,
the way they would be with proprietary software. There are many firms available to help with your site.
•
Joomla's interface is easy to use, and clients love the ability to make changes to their site without
involving a web developer.
It's unlikely you'll use just Joomla's core to build your website. In most cases, you'll want to add some
third party extensions to your website. A great place to start looking for these is the Joomla Extension
Directory
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(JED). Debating which Joomla extensions are "best" or "critical" to each website is a topic of
conversation that never seems to get old among Joomla designers and developers.
Do not stack your Joomla site with endless extensions. It's best to pick a minimum number of
extensions, just the ones you need most, and don't load the site up with unneccesary additional
technology. Each extension should address a purpose identified as part of the goals development process
described above. Just because you can put in extra extensions because they're "cool" or you think they're
interesting to use does not necessarily mean they should be used on the site, unless they contribute to
reaching a site goal.
NOW YOU'RE READY TO BUILD
With a plan established and extensions selected, and your site map in place, you are ready to
assemble your Joomla website.
1. Install Joomla.
2. Create categories for your planned content. The categories may be driven by your site map. For
example, if you have a part of the site called About Us, you might create a corresponding category.
Joomla! 2.5 - Beginner’s Guide
Monday, 30 January 2012! Page 236
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http://trends.builtwith.com/cms
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http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/11/joomla-quietly-crosses-23-million-downloads-now-powering-
over-2600-government-sites/
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http://extensions.joomla.org/