Dec
Recently someone asked me what I think of Joomla, a popular type of website software with lots frills. I responded roughly:
“I don’t like Joomla. It’s too complicated for the average user and most Joomla websites look terrible. The most “civilized” and best website you can have is a Wordpress website.”
People ask me all the time:
- What kind of website should I have?
- Do I need a blog?
- Is wordpress a blog?
- Should you have a blog AND a website?
I think these questions show that there’s still a lot of confusion when it comes to building a website. I see it all the time not just with people who are getting started, but often with those who have established website.
Let’s clear the confusion:
- You need a content website, and a “blog” type of website is the BEST way to organize information.
It used to be that you could start a simple website by just putting one salesletter on the web as one long page and call it your “website” and wait for orders to come in.
Not anymore.
Every serious business now features a ton of content on the website.
In the old days of the web, adding content to your website was a mess. You had to create separate pages for each article based on a template, and then update all links throughout your site manually.
Then came the “blog”, which was initially used for people to share their own personal journals or “web logs” (that’s where the term comes from), which facilitated adding new articles and updating your website automatically. This was perfect for the non-technical user, but also for the website visitor who could easily find what they were looking for.
But now, the term “blog” should easily be replaced with “RSS” website, which is the technology behind what makes the blog work.
Now, you’ll find the “RSS” logo on almost every credible and recent website, which means that almost ALL good content websites on the web are now “blogs”, even if they don’t call themselves that way.
One feature of the blog or “RSS” website is that each new article or “post” shows up with the most recent ones at the top. It’s also easy to archive those articles and search through them, or event subscribe to the website news using a separate program, like Google Reader.
I won’t go in the technical details of this, but the bottom line is that you need a content website, and your content website should be a blog.
So then, the question of “should you have a website and a blog” is pointless. Your website IS your blog, and your blog your website.
Everything will work with the same RSS technology, allowing you to add articles and organize your information easily.
For example, take a look at my new website, the one you’re viewing right now. The entire website is done in RSS. However, I still kept a separate link for “blog” where articles are listen one by one.
- Wordpress is the *king* of blogging software
Ok, so now you realize that your website should be a blog. If you have an older website that was started before blogs became popular, you can probably convert it to a blog, like I’m planning to do with my main raw food website.
In any case, at the very least you should have a blog.
What kind of blog software should you use? There’s only one to recommend: Wordpress
Wordpress is so versatile that that there’s practically nothing you can’t do with it. Wordpress can be used for your blog, but also for your membership sites, and for anything you can think of. Wordpress is an open-source program, meaning that it’s not a software you have to pay for. Hundreds of programmers are working on it just to improve it. However, you probably will have to pay someone to install Wordpress on your website, unless you can do this yourself. You can also pay for a theme and custom design to make it look good, which is what I recommend to do.
In my upcoming course “How to Make a Living in the Natural Health Movement”, we will have a new feature where we’ll show you exactly how to set up your Wordpress website live. It will be a live webinar and by the end of it, your website will already be set up! The next course is unfortunately not available until January, but if you’d like some personal coaching to get started right away, join us for the Do What You Love Success Group at: http://www.dowhatyouloveuniversity.com
Frederic
PS: Do you have more questions? Post them in the comments!
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Hi Frederic,
I took your course last summer and have been putting the finishing touches on an eBook. But in the course you suggested a sales page. Is that no longer what I should do? I did also start a Wordpress.com blog, but I wasn’t sure I could sell my eBook on that blog. Can you please help me understand what I should now do with my eBook?
Thanks!
Kathleen
Hi Kathleen. There are many roads to reach the same goal of online profits. A salespage is necessary to sell a product. Many times, you can set this up first. In the “Write Your Own eBook Course”, I focused heavily on the process of selling one eBook. In the Make a Living in Natural Health course, I focus more on the building of your blog/website. Obviously, you’ll need BOTH to succeed: a content website (blog) and a salespage selling your eBook. Your next step is obviously to start selling your eBooks, and then also build a blog to build your list. Remember that the goal of the blog is actually to convert traffic into subscribers.
As both a WordPress and Joomla user and trainer in both, I would like to add a few comments about Joomla. I teach and advocate WordPress, but prefer Joomla for my sites. To dismiss Joomla as ugly and hard to learn is very simplistic. You’d have far more control revamping your extensive raw food site as a Joomla site. You have a lot of content, and the one thing Joomla excels is organizing content!
I do not understand why the very people who write Joomla themes have the UGLIEST and most difficult sites themselves! They are better programmers than designers.
One of the loveliest Joomla sites is http://www.midnightpalace.com/ . I used the same theme for my http://betterlifeinfo.com/ . Neither of us are true programmers, but you can see the similarities/differences. I’m in the process of changing my sites, so I don’t know how much longer it will be up.
The advantages of WordPress include the fact most people use it. Many people are signing up for a variety of programs to help them sell on the net. Pre-made themes in WordPress are often one of the included products. Plus there’s such a large community of users, support, themes, and extensions.
WordPress has become the de facto blogging platform, due to endless promotion of the people behind it and its users. Nothing wrong with that other than the too-often cavalier dismissal of Joomla (with its stupid name).
That doesn’t mean WordPress is the best platform for everyone. Most people will be involved in one topic or another. People like you, with years of information and several different programs, products, etc, might find Joomla much more accommodating.
WordPress was created as a blogging platform; Joomla to organize a lot of data and is a true content management system (CMS). WordPress now has better CMS than awhile ago. Joomla now has many blogging extensions.
IF you have a lot of varied content and want a lot of control, and DO NOT have the money or expertise to hire a true PHP programmer, you might fall in love with Joomla as I did.
I don’t find it any more complicated than WordPress to use. It was just as hard to learn WordPress and find extensions which added functionality. Extensions could not conflict with each other and needed to be compatible with WP latest’s version. I invested many many days to find current extensions which didn’t conflict with each other! That’s not an issue with basic built-in functionality in Joomla.
I like using Joomla far better and it’s easier for maintenance and updating. Joomla’s search engine functions are superior, IF people set up all the options.
The IDEA of Joomla, and the constant “it’s so hard to learn” mantra has needlessly turned people off. I don’t know which sites you’ve seen which are ugly, but that’s more to do with the person who created the site than with Joomla itself. I’ve seen plenty of ugly WordPress sites too!
I chose Joomla for my punk photo archive, JennyLens.com, because I needed more customization available in Joomla. I recently installed a new theme and haven’t fine-tuned it, but right out of the box, it worked better than most in WordPress or Joomla.
I initially tried tons of free WordPress themes, but they quickly became unusable when WordPress released an update or it was hard to customize because many free (and professional) WP themes are badly written.
I purchased a WordPress theme from a top designer, had problems installing it (the designer KNEW the problems but didn’t fix them). I customized it, then the minute a small upgrade was announced, my site fell apart. A year ago I wrote him, and he would charge $5,000 to customize a theme similar to what I could license in Joomla for less than $100.
I kept coming across Joomla and gave it a try. I can now customized layouts and themes far faster and better than in WordPress.
However, not being a PHP and CSS programmer, none of my sites ever suited me 100%. I’m about to revamp several of my sites because I finally found a theme which suits my needs.
I’m so relieved, because the freedom and ease of using Joomla allows me to focus on the content. BUT my sites will be very content-oriented, where the latest news is not always the only thing people want to read. But of course I’ll be blogging too. The best of both worlds.
What will my sites be about: a web coaching membership site: everything from domain registration, using a cPanel, writing for better SEO and some social media and more, including using WordPress. Revising another site on Personal Development. Might revive my health site, but that’s down the line.
Yes, giving people what they want and need, but using the software I prefer, even if I use something else. For years I taught people how to use the PC and came home to a Mac. Nothing wrong with that. It’s called freedom of choice.
I don’t see us as competition. There’s so many people in the world, and we each have our own following. You because of your work in the raw foods world, mine because of my punk photos and other interests. We each have our own approach and delivery.
For years, I’ve been writing in emails and in conversations, my praises of you! Everyone always asks me to spell your name. Just like they ask me how to spell Joomla.
PS I’ve been following you online for years. It’s great fun to see how you’ve become such a leader in online training. Plus Raw Secrets is one of my all-time fave books. Your staff sent me Green for Life, because I had another book which was part of an offer. So thanks to you and your staff, I have my two fave Raw books, out of countless others I’ve bought.
Happy holidays and Namaste. AND you are now in my hood!!! Are you doing anything locally? I’ll spread the word. Namaste.
I agree with you, Frederic, everything depends on the goal. Maybe, for you, Wordpress is the best website to have while for others, who are non-techie and experienced wordpress, xsite pro is the best, this is why this guy (his website is http://www.websitebuildingforbeginners.com) is transforming his site with wordpress blog to a content site using xsite pro.
I tried to learn wordpress but takes me two months with so many here and there resources, that I gave it up. That was 3 years ago. By now, there are many improvement, many people showing you videos to see visually how to set it up, might already be easier.
I bought xsite pro just a day ago but will also use wordpress for the blog that I am going to add to my xsite pro site.
Thanks for communicating to your subscribers wholeheartedly. Keep it up!
I totally agree with everything you’ve said…I am now in the process of doing the change over…
Gill
The easiest and best way to design a websitee and manage content that I know of for a beautiful site, far easier than Dreamweaver, CSS, Joomla, Wordpress, etc. (unless you are talking abut the most basic blog) is a software app called NetObjects Fusion. Once you learn how to use it, and the basics are pretty easy, you can design a real website, not just a blog, and maintain it easily – and they have dozens and dozens of templates, many free with the application. It is essentially an object oriented database of your content that generates the HTML when you publish your site to your server. Has a few idiosyncrasies and bud, but gives me much more control with a fraction of the learning curve. You should check it out. I prefer to have a real website with its own unique look and feel rather than the canned look you get with all blogs and joomla – which to me all look pretty much alike, i.e., canned.
(BTW, if you go to my site please note I am in the process of working on a major revision, so even though the site was originally done in Netobjects, I’ve been patching it with band-aids for the last few months while the revision ion Netobjects is underway. I think it still looks OK for something I do myself in my spare time, but it does need some work.)
- RawFoodGuy
http://www.RawFoodLife.com
Lots of great ideas from everybody! Thanks for your comments and making this Do What You Love community grow. By the way if you’d like to add a little avatar picture to your comments, you may do so by signing up at: http://en.gravatar.com/site/signup/
The email address you use will show your avatar picture on every blog where you use it !
Will there be a way for past Make a Living… students to get that extra webinar about blog set-up?
It took me a while to get to reading this
Holidays, eh?
Hi Amanda!
Yes, of course, past students will be able to join for free. It’s very exciting! I’m working on it as we speak. At the end of the webinar, I PROMISE your website will be up and running!
Sure if you want just a simple website and only need a few things and don’t need to organize very much WordPress is great. BUT is you want to build an online content EMPIRE with literally thousands (probably now over 4,500) of FREE add ons (extensions), then (comparatively, as an example, an analogy) Joomla is like the ultimate Super Mall of options and Wordpress small shop with a few items. Sure it may take a few more hours of learn Joomla or you could be smart (and frugal with your time) and just hire an expert to quickly train you (lucky me I happen to marry one). The things we have and can do (we are only ~25% done) with our website http://www.VeganExcellence.com blows every Wordpress website I have ever seen away. I could list out all the options we have available but I will let you sell yourself! This is only one of numerous organized locations you can get FREE Joomla extensions (aka “add-ons”, “plug-ins”, “modules”, “components”) All depends on how much you want to offer, how much you want to expand.
I summary… and in alignment with your theme on this website… I prefer the “FREEDOM” to “do what I love” from the almost limitless possibilities of Joomla!
Oops I forgot the main Joomla Extensions website link!
My above post should have read:
This is only one of numerous organized locations you can get FREE Joomla extensions (aka “add-ons”, “plug-ins”, “modules”, “components”) http://extensions.joomla.org