Joomla Basics for newbie poker affiliates

[leporello]

I've used Simple Meta Management on a number of different sites using 4 different hosting companies and havn't experienced one problem thus far. I disagree that you need a coder. This is simple stuff even if you have zero CMS experience.

[pirate46]

So far i have started blogs using wordpress, but now would like to start building actual websites. I have been considering using Joomla as a cms, but having no real coding experience it does seem daunting, but I do want to give it a go. Is it possible to get a basic template and build a tidy looking site without having to get too technical ?.

[Catfish]

Use simple meta management suite for controlling title tags and other meta if you need to (this also allows for simple insertion of GA and Webmaster Tools codes).

Where did you find that extension?

[leporello]

Where did you find that extension?

I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you searched for it. Googling "simple meta management" reveals:

Simple META Management Suite v1.5.1

It's also in the Joomla extensions database under SEO.

Top class plugin and makes SEO and Google Tools integration a breeze.

[Catfish]

Sorry didnt google it, but couldnt find it at joomla.org/extensions. Thanks for the link!

[MPC]

I know the intent of this thread was not to start a debate about Joomla vs WP. The reason I make this post is for those who have little experience with a CMS and are considering both Joomla and WP. This is my opinion only.

I have used Joomla for many years, then gave WP a try. I have not encountered anything that joomla did that I could do in WP in terms of my needs as a poker affiliate. I found that many of the tweaks and customization I needed done for SEO purposes, and for other things, required modifications of the core files with Joomla, which is bad. This was a huge drawback because it meant a lot of work to upgrade when new versions came out (to the point where I just decided not to upgrade anymore). I found that the way WP was built, I was able to do all my configuration tweaks via the template and CSS files only, and without touchign the core files - the way it should be.

In general, Joomla is more code heavy and this is a bad thing. Having played with both system and having done some extensive tweaks in both, WP takes the win hand's down as the CMS of choice for the typical affiliate.

While WP was initially designed with blogging in mind, it has evolved. The WP community has grown significantly and the development of third party components is off the scale. That was always the strenght of Joomla - odds were that someone already coded what you needed. You could download a component. WP has pretty much reached this level now with hundreds of pluggins availble and a growing community of users. (including many former joomla users in fact)

I am not saying joomla is bad. It is a great CMS which evolved from the Mambo CMS. I just find it takes a lot more work to tweak, the learning curve is greater if you want to do out of the box tweaks, and the coding of the core files could be better. If someone is starting to build websites, with limited experience with CMS, WP is the most efficient - better coded, much smaller file size, simple admin interface, easy to learn, lots of good plugins. Joomla is overkill for the requirements of most people here.

My 2 cents.

[Viriatu]

Totally out of point MPC although i understand you might not got a hang of what joomla is all about. ALL templates or designs\mods i use i configure via the css, and there is a lot of stuff you can do with joomla that WP wont come even close when it comes to coding your site or managing it.

I find the opposite, i need much more handy picky work to tweak WP... most of what you are saying is valid only to joomla 1.0. Joomla 1.5 makes all that crap go history and offers a solid free CMS with much more capability than WP.

If you want a blog fine go with WP, and remember this is your needs only for the ones of us wanting to manage 300 pages with news divisions , menus and blog or list display, plus customization of description and other stuff joomla is a much more solid choice than one point sites like WP...

again this is my 2 cents of course

[MPC]

I did use joomla 1.0 so perhaps the joomla world has changed since I gave up on it

[laptopacc]

Has anyone found a good "go" plugin for Joomla? I mean one of those cool redirects that take user to page mysite.com/go/pokerstars and then actually redirects to your affiliate url.

[MPC]

No pluggin require. create a directory called "go" in your root html folder. Create seperate php files (like pokerstars.php) with the following redirection code.

<?php
header("Location: http://www.affiliatelinkgoeshere");
?>