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30th
JAN
How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off by Your Web Designer
Posted by admin | Filed under Internet
First of all, you need to decide what you really want and expect from your website. When I say want, I mean everything - A to Z. How do you want your website to look aesthetically? How do you want your navigation? Do you want a static site or a dynamic one? How frequently do you want it updated? Will you write the content yourself or will you seek the services of a copy writer? (warning: if you copy content off some other website you are doing copyright infringement and may receive a DCMA complaint and even get sued). Always plan your website content keeping the focus on your customer. What does your customer seek before arriving at your website? It is advisable to visit a few websites, especially your competitors and see how they have their websites done. This will give you pointers and help you take directions.
Once you know what you expect from your website, start inviting web design and development quotes from multiple sources, like recommendations from friends and associates, online sources like elance, yellow pages, etc. Also ask them what type of hosting plans will be required. Once you’ve taken sufficient quotes, do some research for hosting providers on Google; you will get several choices. I’ve found that AwareINDIA.net is one of the good ones who give excellent support. Their rates are also very economical (just a few cents to a few dollars a month depending on the plan you choose). You will also need to have some idea of search engine marketing (SEM) costs before you form a budget for web design. SEM is a great way to ensure free long term visitor traffic to your website. While SEM will not be required immediately, it makes sense to know if all expenses meet your budget, else you will require making some compromises. It is also advisable to let your SEM company work hand in hand with your designer, as your website also needs to be search engine optimized (SEO) so that SE robots can index your pages properly and rank them higher for your desired keywords and phrases.
It may interest you to know that there are several open source software available which can take care of your website needs. For example, OS commerce and Zen Cart are some great options if you plan to have a shopping cart system and ecommerce enable your website. If you want a discussion forum, PHPbb is one of the best used extensively. If you’re looking out for a Portal or CMS software, there are Joomla, Drupal, Mambo, Post Nuke, PHP Nuke, and many more. Some folks even use blog software to power their website which gives it an interactive edge. Popular blog software are wordpress, b2evolution and nucleus. The good news is, most of these software can be installed for free at the click of a button without requiring any technical skills, if your hosting provider supports fantastico (AwareINDIA.net does support it). In fact, you can even buy ready made templates specially designed for and compatible with these software. Some companies even make customized templates. It’s a good idea to research on these software and also discuss this with your programmer and weigh the options if it is viable or not. Building a system from scratch would be quite expensive, especially if you’re on a tight budget. In fact, just mentioning about fantastico and these open source software with your designer will immediately cause him to feel as if you’re very much aware of the market and he will certainly think twice before giving you an exorbitant quote!
Some hosting providers also provide a Do-It-Yourself website builder which is quite easy to use, eliminating the need for a web designer altogether. However, there are some limitations with such options. AwareINDIA.net does offer this option; in fact, you can even get a free trial and see if it suits your requirements. If you’re comfortable using Microsoft Word, you should be able to design your own website without much hassle.
If you do plan to use the services of a designer, make sure you have everything in black and white. Keep the terms and conditions of the contract crystal clear. This is good for both of you as it is binding. Use an escrow service if required - most online portals like elance have this option. If you wish to read more of my work, you can visit http://www.bharatbhasha.com/author.php/Nirjara%20Rustom - I’ve written several articles related to SEO, online success, marketing tips, email marketing, etc.
By: Nirjara Rustom
Tags: Budget, Copy Writer, Copyright Infringement, Focus, Global Audience, Google, Left Behind, Own Website, Pointers, Web Design, Web Development, Website Content
27th
JAN
Comparing Joomla to Other CMS Programs
Posted by admin | Filed under Internet
Any perceivable differences are limited to a few specific traits. For some there is the cost factor which could deter many potential purchasers from buying the commercial products. While there are a few open source products that have low costs the commercial software products tend to be much higher.
Many proponents of the commercial CMS software suggest the product is a better choice once installed, primarily because of the post sale support such as training and stability associated with security experiences with the software.
Since most of the open source CMS developers are largely volunteers the issue could appear to be a potentially formidable challenge. This is where Joomla, for one, works very hard to capitalize on several factors that are currently feeding the product’s success.
An example of Joomla’s out-of-the-box approach to creating a trouble free product is a recently held “Doc Camp.” This international get-together was a follow-up to a weekend Joomla “bug squashing event.” The company promoted the events with the goal of increasing the viability and functionality of the product while focusing on cleaning us any inconsistencies in its operational functions.
Reports indicate literally thousands of volunteer developers were on the project. Industry observers state Joomla has a strong commitment to timely upgrades and new releases. Credit is given to the marshalling of volunteers and their exuberant, as well as technologically strong support.
Comparisons tend to favor open source CMS options due to several features:
Consumer friendly free downloads
Strong documentation.
Reliable training.
Ongoing support and development
The Players
In addition to Joomla other open source CMS’s are Mambo, Drupal, PHPNuke, Post Nuke, Plone, TYPO3, e107, Open CMS, MODx CMS, WordPress, XOOPS and Zope.
The commercial entrants in the field are Vignette, Alfresco, RedDot CMS, Interwoven Teamsite, Tridion, Microsoft CMS, Oracle portal, Immediacy CMS, GOSS iCM, Hot Banana and Fatwire Content Server.
Can Joomla Hold On To The Top Spot?
Joomla tends to meet the strictest parameters expected of companies that would like to be considered leaders in the field. The competing team at Mambo also renders a build quality and application strength that keep them squarely in Joomla’s sights.
The remainder of the group provide add-on features like, job posting, guest books, and chat to name a few of the most popular features.
Once thing all open source CMS have in common is they are distributed under GNU GPL and tend to work well with most operating environments. Joomla gets the higher marks mainly because of the strengths of its largely volunteer developer family.
When looking more closely through the list of commercial CMS contenders we find the licensing differs greatly. Additionally databases and related servers in addition to programming languages are similar but created specific differences depending on the applications.
Overall, when comparing features like, building applications, operability, performance and user friendliness, Joomla out ranks 99.9% of all comers in every category. It must be hard to be humble when you’re that good and Joomla’s legion of fans is expanding more rapidly at every download.
By: Alex Rich
Tags: Box Approach, Cms Programs, Doc Camp, Inconsistencies, Industry Observers, Mambo, Open Source Cms, Open Source Products, Several Factors, Strong Commitment, Viability, Volunteer Developers
2nd
JAN
Presentation of the Joomla! Content Management System
Posted by admin | Filed under Internet
A content management system (CMS) is a software system designed for organizing and easing creation and management of documents and other content. By content, we mean any type of digital information : text, images, graphics, audio, video files, archives etc. Specifically, a web content management system like Joomla! aims to facilitate the tasks required to publish web content on web sites, in a collaborative manner.
What can I do with Joomla! ?
Joomla! is a free open source content management system licensed under the GNU/GPL license which can be used to easily manage every aspect of a website, from adding content or graphics, to updating a product catalogue or managing important data. Joomla!, which means “all together” in Swahili, is a powerful, flexible, customisable, powerful and relatively easy to use Web Content Management System. To create and run a website site using Joomla!, all you need is a web hosting account with PHP and MySql support. Joomla!s use and scope is very large, from the creation and management of personal homepages or small businesses to complex enterprise-level websites or applications. It allows numerous themes and extensions (most of them will have to be installed and activated afer the main installation though). The template system is one of the easiest to learn in the Content Management System family. It offers two types of administration - a front-end for registered users, author and publisher and a back-end for the Manager, Administrator and Super Administrator groups.
A Brief History of Joomla!
Joomla! arrived in 2005 as a branch of another well-known CMS, Mambo after an epic controversy between the Mambo’s development team at that time and the Miro Corporation, which also develops its own commercial version, accused of betraying open-source and community values by granting most of the project’s control and future to Miro Corporation via the recently launched Mambo’s Foundation. As there were also several issues with Mambo’s name and copyright, all of this finally led the core team to resign from the Mambo project in August 2005, regrouped under the name of “Open Source Matters” in order to develop the project independently. The two code bases were almost identical at this stage but the latest version, Joomla! 1.5, has now been completely rewritten from scratch. Joomla! now powers millions of websites world-wide and its community is very active. Both Joomla! and Mambo have won numerous prizes and awards in the last three years and now live two separate lives.
By: Christophe
About the Author:
Cliftonwebdesign is a website design agency based in Bristol, UK. It creates affordable websites for a range of clients, from small businesses, to community organisations and individuals.
Tags: Community Values, Content Management System, Digital Information, Gnu Gpl License, Information Text, Open Source Content, Personal Homepages, Software System, Template System, Video Files, Web Content Management System, Web Hosting Account
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