In my industry - mortagages- there have been so many changes hitting so often that I can't even begin to keep up with my web site so I've decided upon a different format. I want to use some sort of preformatted template with weekly videos and a blog that is tied to each video but isn't viewable unless you are on that particular video. There would be have to be some sort of log in system to keep the competition out so that they can't blast us. The website would have minimal additional text pages.
The last time I built my company website I used Dreamweaver and designed everything which took forever, but my son in law was telling me that at his work their search for an easier and faster way led them to Joomla & WordPress as both of them had oodles of aftermarket support in modules and formats. They ended up using WordPress because it seemed to have a little more support.
I am definitely not a programmer and the reason for the change is that I don't have the time to spend on the website. I am already doing an weekly market update for all my customers so instead of delivering a paper copy I'll use that time to make the videos and save myself the gas. I've made a couple of trial videos and they take less time than the personal visits.
Does anyone else do videos and do they store them on their servers or just use Youtube?
I am hoping to have this up and running by the end of the holiday season and I haven't even bought the software yet so any sage words of wisdom for the collective out there?
I am a fan of Joomla. It is pretty simple once you get the hang of it but it is very powerful too. There are tons of functionality extensions and it is not that daunting to code up your own if you have the skillset.
It is arcane - but so are all CMS systems. If you have a general familiarity with the problems it solves then its pretty easy to make it do what you want. If it is your first foray in then the curve might be a little steep. The community is pretty strong if you need questions answered.
WordPress will be easier to get started and to configure but it is nowhere near as flexible in terms of doing your own custom development. The online community does not seem to be very strong.
So, my nickel assessment:
- If you are looking for an "out of the box" change a few settings and forget it solution go with Wordpress (Joomla will do this job too though)
- If you want the answer to always be yes and are willing to do some work, need some advanced administration or want to learn to do custome stuff yourself then Joomla.
Thanx Giant Purple Whatever I'm hoping for a pretty simple format that I can stay with for a long time. My last foray required a steep learning curve due to some things I wanted that weren't standard and that has bit me in the long run so I'm trying to stay very simple this time. I've thought it thru and I think that, other than adding some text pages later as things in the industry change the format I have in my head is one that will last me for years.
I forgot to mention I'll be doing this on a Mac. I have a couple of PCs but I prefer to do real work on the Mac.
carguy123 wrote:
I forgot to mention I'll be doing this on a Mac. I have a couple of PCs but I prefer to do real work on the Mac.
They both use PHP & MySQL so you will want to install MAMP (Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP) to make getting all the deps in place easy.
You might want to just try them both to see which is going to fit you best.
We were struggling with this very same question. We're moving forward with Joomla because of the flexibility it offers, and the fact that it's very widely supported. Our need are probably a little different, but it's a data point if nothing else.
I just switched to Joomla! for my Company Intranet
Very Flexible, easy, looks very current.
I switch from sharepoint to Joomla in 2 days and can't believe the responses I've gotten about how much nicer it is.
Picture Galleries with Bio's for a staff directory
RSS Feeds from local TV station for News and Weather
Indexable & Searchable file storage.
Wrapped external links
I could go on and on
Pic of default landing page
I picked wordpress for a blog myself, just easier for me, less thinking. I mean I'd prefer not to code anything if i don't have to.
self hosted video can be expensive!!! check transfer rate charges of your website isp to be sure. And check for data caps as well. if your expected traffic will be low, then maybe. Storage is another concern. if everything will reduced to lo-rez, then maybe. Otherwise push it to the "cloud" via youtube, vimeo, smugmug, etc.
Another vote for blog style s/w a la wordpress, blogger, etc.
