Joomla Basics for newbie poker affiliates

[Viriatu]

Im openning this thread in hopes some of you can find some value in it. This is designed mostly for thoose like me having litle to no skills in coding and designing and so in need of a fast and easy way to put something up.

What is Joomla?

Joomla is a powerful CMS (content management system) that allows you to get a site with a professional look and does not have limits like one point sites (wordpress).

How to install joomla?

assuming you have a hosting account, or are going to get yourself one. There are two ways you can install joomla.
Using something like Fantastico panel or Installatron OR manually.
I always use point click software depending on the host and i would advice you to do so but if you know better go ahead and read more in this joomla tutorial to make sure you get it right.
I take like 4 minutes to install joomla in a host using instalatron or fantastico takes more time to do it manually.

Tutorial Video

Should i install the sample data?

If its your fist time with joomla yes i would advice you to get the data inside so you can look and feel how the system works.
This can be a pain later on when you have to delete \ clean trash for older articles but will make your understanding of they system easier to learn.

Ok im done now what the hell do i do here??

First and foremost make a domain\yourdomain.com folder in your browser, then put your domain inside the domain.com folder plus the yourdomain.com/administrator - this will save you some clicks on the long run lots of clicks.

Login to the backend and have a browse around get a feel for it, now that you have done some browsing i will point you the most important aspects to look for.

Menus and Modules

The menu modules are what i think the basis of all the linking on your home to your inner pages and so one of the most important parts of your structure.

Take a look at this Joomla Menu items video and you will find it most useful.

Sections and Categories

Sections and categories in Joomla provide you with a method for organizing your articles. A Section contains one or more categories, and each Category can have articles assigned to it. One Article can only be in one Category and Section or can also be left uncategorised. I cant stress enough how a good organization of your sections\categories is important in the overall site navigation and structure.

Joomla Templates

A lot of places offer free templates you can use under a GPL licence i will leave 3 im sure you can all goggle some more this are the places i fish from.

Joomla Templates, Joomla Extensions for the Joomla CMS - Home
Joomla Templates and Joomla 1.5 Templates from Joomlashack
Joomladesigns Free Joomla Templates

What do i look for in a template?

You will be looking for a clean, with several template positions to fit your needs. I normally try to look for css\tableless based templates.

How do i see the templates module positions?

You use the command www.mydomain.com/index.php?tp=1

Ok im done understanding modules positions and menu items how do i improve my joomla site?

The good thing about something like joomla is the value in the support community.
This means lots of coders will make fun and useful stuff to improve your joomla experience. Some solutions are free some are paid.

Ok right so were do i start?

You can look for add ons and joomla extensions here. Make sure the extensions you are looking at are available in your joomla version or you might need to turn LEGACY on.

And what would you recommend?

Some stuff i use and can say they are a must for me so i will leave them here so you get some shortcuts.

SEF urls


This will help you creating and using search engine friendly url in your joomla installation. This includes meta tags and descriptions.

Jcrawler

JCrawler does the same as the Google crawler. It crawls your Joomla site and stores all the urls in a XML file without any plugins. After crawling you can ping Google, Ask.com, Moreover, Yahoo and MSN.

Creating mass content

This extension will allow you to:
- create multiple pages(static and non static) with only titles
- add these pages to a section and a category
- link the created pages to a menu
- add some intro text
- edit some parameters (published, access level..)
- create multiple sections and categories with a similar way
- delete content, categories and sections

Google analytics

Google Analytics Tracking Module is used for inserting Google Analytics tracking code to the Joomla site as a module.

Live.Com Webmaster Verification

A simple plugin to make Live.Com Webmaster Central site verification easier.

Google Verify

Small Plugin to make Google Webmaster Tools site verification a bit easier. Works with the Meta Tag method and no template adjustements are needed.

Banner Slider

A simple way to slide banners in Joomla v1.5 with fade-in/scroll effect. It supports both Image and Custom Code field, so we can slide images with other advertisement html codes (like Google adsense)

Other interesting modules\plugins.

Coming soon...

Awesome, but i think i would take to much time starting up...

I would love to guide you and work with you in any projects we can partner up. Feel free to PM me im sure we can add value to both our operations by networking.

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This is my first guide ever so i might improve\edit it at any time to make it more complete or user friendly. Enjoy guys

[jdogg4000]

thanks a lot i have been wanting to learn to use joomla

[RayUK]

Nice intro guide! Just one small point - the Google Analytics tracking module is a bit out of date, it uses the old urchin.js rather than the new ga.js - a more up to date module for Google Analytics tracking would be JoomlaGATor:

JoomlaGATor! - Joomla! Extensions Directory

What I am doing to get used to Joomla before 'going live' on the internet (as it were) is I have installed XAMPP on my desktop PC and have installed Joomla 1.5 into it - so I can play about and break it as much as I like before I let loose on a real site.

[Gaben86]

I use Joomla for 70% of my sites. It's a really great CMS with lots of extensions and maybe the best for newbies who have no coding experience. You can also find lots of free and paid templates.

My best paid template site is Rockettheme.

[Viriatu]

Nice intro guide! Just one small point - the Google Analytics tracking module is a bit out of date, it uses the old urchin.js rather than the new ga.js - a more up to date module for Google Analytics tracking would be JoomlaGATor:

JoomlaGATor! - Joomla! Extensions Directory

What I am doing to get used to Joomla before 'going live' on the internet (as it were) is I have installed XAMPP on my desktop PC and have installed Joomla 1.5 into it - so I can play about and break it as much as I like before I let loose on a real site.

thanks for the tip! The guide included in the install part for windows XP using the first tutorial video but now for some reason that site is not available...

[Trikkur]

I've tried to use Joomla once but got frustrated and quit pretty fast. Now I use Wordpress. Can you list some of the reasons that Joomla is better than WP? I would give Joomla another shot if I knew it had some benefits.

[RayUK]

I've tried to use Joomla once but got frustrated and quit pretty fast. Now I use Wordpress. Can you list some of the reasons that Joomla is better than WP? I would give Joomla another shot if I knew it had some benefits.

Joomla is much more versatile, but also therefore more complicated to use. This article seems quite good:

YOUmoz | Wordpress vs. Joomla: A Handy Guide

It is a little out of date with respect to its SEO comments, the sh404SEF plugin is excellent for improving the SEO for a Joomla site (I view it as the equivalent of Wordpress' all in one SEO plugin). You can get some very nice SE-friendly templates too.

Also, Joomla has a couple of WYSIWYG editors you can plug in to it, that makes it very like Wordpress in that regards. I hate WYSIWYG editors, I work in the text editor (i.e. the HTML) - this probably says something about me that you can colour this comment with!

Basically if you are happy with Wordpress and it will do what you want it too, look good, then stick with it I would say. I use both (not on gaming affiliate sites (yet!)) - Wordpress is excellent at blogs, and sites that can be run like they were blogs. Joomla is a true content management system in that it can do lots more things, but as a result can be bewildering to use at first - it isn't very intuitive, I have two 'beginners guide' type books and often look up things. I tried to just wing it when I first used it, that doesn't work. I had to work through the book and learn the thing. I don't mind that kind of propeller head stuff though, but I know others just want to get going quickly with something intuitive - Wordpress you can do this with.

All the above is just my opinion, hopefully others will chime in with theirs too, as I wouldn't mind hearing other's views on this.

[Gaben86]

I've tried to use Joomla once but got frustrated and quit pretty fast. Now I use Wordpress. Can you list some of the reasons that Joomla is better than WP? I would give Joomla another shot if I knew it had some benefits.

You cannot say the WP or Joomla is better than the other because you use for other functions.

WP is better for blogging and it's very user friendly. With Joomla you can build a more complex community sites. Have lots of own modules what you cannot find in WP. For example forums, autoresponder, affiliate tracking system, shopping charts, etc.

[xYassassinYx]

Great guide for ppl wishing to use joomla!

personally i think wordpress is far superior than joomla - i just find it so much easier personaly

[Haynesey]

For example forums, autoresponder, affiliate tracking system, shopping charts, etc.

Just to let you know you can do all of them in wordpress (not sure about the tracking system). And if you can think of something that isn't available you will definitely be able to find someone who can make a plugin for it.