I've finally taken the step and setup PRServices to look after my many customers with web sites to provide to you my customers my best service when it comes to web hosting, web design and old fashion customer service.
PRServices offers web hosting, web site development using the open source content management system (CMS) called 'Joomla'.
Why Joomla you may ask!
After building several web sites for companies that I have worked for and having been part of a refurbishment of several web sites into one large web site where we had over 100 pages of information, forms, etc I came to the conclusion that you need a content managed system (CMS) behind your web site. So every time you need to add or change content in a web site you need a system that makes it as easy as possible to do just that. I searched the web for several years looking at proprietory CMS and playing with open source CMS and I found the proprietory CMS were generally overly expensive and the open source systems just hadn't got to the stage were the average Joe could look after his web site without the need to know how to code HTML, javascript, PHP and all the other things that you can build web sites with.
Finally, I came across Mambo which at the time was pretty good, but not long after that the core developers split from the Mambo project and Joomla! was born. If you want to know more about the split Google 'mambo joomla split'. I've been using Joomla! now since it's inception in September 2005 and let me tell you it's pretty damn good for what the plethora of developers have done. It is an ever evolving system, getting better every day, easier to use, more functionality, more security, and so on and so on. And there are thousands of web developers out there using it. It is the most prolific open source CMS out there. You get my drift. Check out the Joomla web site if you don't believe me.
In my opinion Joomla! is the best open source content management system out there by far and even makes a lot of the proprietory CMS look pretty shabby as well.
The biggest thing that most people need to understand about Joomla! CMS web sites is that they build the web page from information held in a database, a template and a style sheet. There are a few other components that make up your web site but for the purpose of this explanation those three bits are important. You might think I'm getting technical here and you're right. The basic process is the content comes from the database, the look and feel of the site comes from the template and the colours, text sizes etc come from the style sheet. That is a really simplistic view of how it happens but basically it identifes the three essential parts of the web site:
- the database
- the template, and
- the style sheet
So what does that mean to you!
The database (where your content is stored) is independent of the template. Your content lives in a MySQL database along other information like what your menu structures look like, where content actually sits on the page and a whole lot of other information for your web site. Being in a database means it can be backup very easily.
The template affects the look and feel of your web site. That is where everything is placed on the page, it's structure. So you can change the look and feel of the site just by changing to another template. Is this easy? You bet! A mouse click will change the way the whole web site will look or just one or two pages.
The style sheet is an interesting file because there sometimes are several of them, but most importantly the style sheet controls things like what type and size the fonts are, what images come up and where in the template, and a few other things.
Have I lost you yet?
Well the database, template and style sheet/s are what the web developer will need to create, change, modify etc to get your site looking the way you want it. So three things you need to think about for your web site are:
- what content do I want, how many pages, titles, menu and it's strucuture,
- what look and feel do I want the web site to have, where on the page is content going to be, and
- what main images images, font colours etc do I want.
Is it that Simple?
Well actually the answer is NO! There are lots of other things you need to consider when getting a web site developed. This is information is just to give you an idea of what you need to start thinking about before you start down the track of approaching someone to build you web site.
The good thing is if after you've had your web site built and you think it's time to change the look of your site, you can change it without affecting the content and you will probably not need the same web developer to do it for you. He or she will like that you do consider them for the job since they built it for you but your hands are not tied. There are lots of web developers out there who know what they're doing. So revamping a web site may not be that expensive if you already have a Joomla web site. If you have an existing web site converting to a Joomla web site isn't that hard either.
Now that you have your Joomla CMS web site with little or no training you or someone else can have the content changed quickly, simply and without the need for a web developer to do this every time it happens. The more complex the web site is the more training you may need but basic web site content is easy to add and change. You can do it from any computer that has internet access. Looking after a web site is no different to anything else particularly if it's part of your business. You have to work on your web site like every other part of your business. So don't neglect it.
Your web site is an investment in your business and the old saying "you get what you pay for" holds true for web sites just like everything else. Treat it like a $100,000 dollar investment and you will reap the rewards. It won't cost you that much but a well designed web site can make or break your business.
So if your contemplating building a web site or upgrading your web site use a Content Management System (CMS). I recommend Joomla! If you don't use my services to build your web site PLEASE consider using someone who knows Joomla! . You won't regret the decision. Check out the list of developers in the Links section.
Regards
Paul Raymond
