Joomla (a fork of Mambo) makes a great CMS for a business or corporate site, and I recommend it to all my customers when they set up a new website, as the learning curve is short, and there are hundreds of free add-ons.
Not only that, but if your web host uses fantastico, it (joomla) is probably available as a one-click install. (I use a hosting company called site5.com and really like them).
However, from the perspective of building an affiliate site, it may not be the best solution. Here is why I think so:
1. There are hundreds of free templates available for Joomla (the best source I've found is at templates.joomlaya.com) most of them are quite "busy" and could be a visual distraction from the actual content of your site. The solution, would be to build your own simplified template, but this may defeat the original purpose of using a CMS (saving time & money).
2. Due to the nature of the way the Joomla/Mambo CMS system is set up, individual articles are 3 clicks or more from the home page when using the menu system.
BUT, you might say... they (the articles) would be directly linked to by the PPC ad or the SERP.
3. Well, that brings up the SEO functionality of Joomla/Mambo. It requires either a free add-on (that is a roundabout solution), or a core hack (a bit cleaner, but more trouble) to make Joomla SEO compliant. Out of the box, it uses long, ungainly URL's. While this isn't an insurmountable problem, it just adds to the list of tasks you have to accomplish.
On the Plus side, however (regarding Joomla and SEO), you can configure the system not to add global Meta information, and instead add it per article. Don't worry about the Meta keywords tag (as none of the 'big 3' use it anymore), but focus on the Meta description tag, as that is typically the blurb seen after the link in a Search Engine Results Page.
Have you considered using WordPress? I've used it with great success to build my first two sites. Then I went out and bought Dreamweaver and I regret it already.
With Wordpress I can nail up sites that are SEO and web standards compliant. Plus, there are a lot of free plugins that can add features in an instant. It's even helped me learn a little PHP. I like it so much I'm thinking of starting a site about using Wordpress for affiliate marketing.
i use wordpress (v 1.5) on my site right now and love it. for SEO, you're going to need to tweak a little on wordpress but aside from that, it's great.
I stumbled across Teli Adlim's eBook about optimizing Wordpress for niche marketing. It also gives you access to a template that is optimized for SEO. I then have taken that template and customized it so that I can use it over and over again.
Teli's product is called Optiniche and the web site is at: http://www.optiniche.com (not an aff link).
She also has a blog that has some very good tips as well. She also comes out with other products for Wordpress every so often such as a data feed import.
I have had a play with cms before but still find I prefer to make a site myself as much as possible. often you can find most of the scripting that you need and with a little reworking can make most things you want happen quite nicely. The main dislike I have for most cms systems is the work you end up having to do to make them SEO friendly. most times they are full of scripts in the head content of the pages and arnt that easy to tidy up. I have been using dreamweaver for making site for a number of year and have to say i am not that impressed with the new versions. I think these days its got to messy and clumsy to use and has a lot of disadvantages. I will be looking to use a much more simple layout tool for my sites in the future. The other reson for my decision to go this way is becuase unless you have a local testing server you end up having to upload to your webhost to get an idea of your layout when you have removed all of the code from the head of the page. Its reelly good anyway to be able to see what others have to say about CMS and other web design programs. :wink:
Submitted by e-strategist on Tue, 06/20/2006 - 08:39.
I think the key factor is what exactly would you like to do. What kind of a website would you like to build?
If it's a dynamic driven multi page (I mean over 100) then a CMS is a must. Because you can focus on content creation, graphic design etc. You dont have to fight with links and content pages.
But if you want to build a one page sales site then I highly recommend Dreamweaver and Fireworks to create one to 5 page minisites.
The pain with CMS is greater then Dreamweaver to build small websites.
I have been installing and using all kinds of free CMS and they work very good if you are building large sites. However, in many cases I don´t need that much functionality, just a basic SEO optimized site. I needed a system to handle many sites without the need of databases and to upload CMS systems and so on. This took me too much time to administrate.. The solution was to make a system that could be installed once and deliver sites effectice and very SEO friendly... The system i not a template design system(templates can be found anywhere), but a site generator for content (not an article system for adsense).
The system delivers optimized HTML files, when set up right.
Well...
The system is now in Beta version and I anyone has time to test it a little bit it would be nice. :)
To create an acount for testing, please use this URL: http://seopublish.essence.no/login.asp
(Please note that it is in beta, do not make a real site. These might be deleted. FTP transfer function is under development)
If you like the system, please let me know...
Regards,
Øystein in Norway
(Sorry if my english is a little bad ) 8)
Joomla (a fork of Mambo) makes a great CMS for a business or corporate site, and I recommend it to all my customers when they set up a new website, as the learning curve is short, and there are hundreds of free add-ons.
Not only that, but if your web host uses fantastico, it (joomla) is probably available as a one-click install. (I use a hosting company called site5.com and really like them).
However, from the perspective of building an affiliate site, it may not be the best solution. Here is why I think so:
1. There are hundreds of free templates available for Joomla (the best source I've found is at templates.joomlaya.com) most of them are quite "busy" and could be a visual distraction from the actual content of your site. The solution, would be to build your own simplified template, but this may defeat the original purpose of using a CMS (saving time & money).
2. Due to the nature of the way the Joomla/Mambo CMS system is set up, individual articles are 3 clicks or more from the home page when using the menu system.
BUT, you might say... they (the articles) would be directly linked to by the PPC ad or the SERP.
3. Well, that brings up the SEO functionality of Joomla/Mambo. It requires either a free add-on (that is a roundabout solution), or a core hack (a bit cleaner, but more trouble) to make Joomla SEO compliant. Out of the box, it uses long, ungainly URL's. While this isn't an insurmountable problem, it just adds to the list of tasks you have to accomplish.
On the Plus side, however (regarding Joomla and SEO), you can configure the system not to add global Meta information, and instead add it per article. Don't worry about the Meta keywords tag (as none of the 'big 3' use it anymore), but focus on the Meta description tag, as that is typically the blurb seen after the link in a Search Engine Results Page.
Just my $2.00 (what can I say... inflation)
Ron Jones
Have you considered using WordPress? I've used it with great success to build my first two sites. Then I went out and bought Dreamweaver and I regret it already.
With Wordpress I can nail up sites that are SEO and web standards compliant. Plus, there are a lot of free plugins that can add features in an instant. It's even helped me learn a little PHP. I like it so much I'm thinking of starting a site about using Wordpress for affiliate marketing.
i use wordpress (v 1.5) on my site right now and love it. for SEO, you're going to need to tweak a little on wordpress but aside from that, it's great.
Can you recommend any Wordpress templates that come stock without all of the extra links to distract from the sales funnel?
Every time I've installed it, It's taken me several hours to clean it up and make it not look so busy. And that's just for a plain vanilla website.
I like clean, uncluttered interfaces without ads distractions and flashy things.
Ron Jones
I stumbled across Teli Adlim's eBook about optimizing Wordpress for niche marketing. It also gives you access to a template that is optimized for SEO. I then have taken that template and customized it so that I can use it over and over again.
Teli's product is called Optiniche and the web site is at: http://www.optiniche.com (not an aff link).
She also has a blog that has some very good tips as well. She also comes out with other products for Wordpress every so often such as a data feed import.
-Michael
I have had a play with cms before but still find I prefer to make a site myself as much as possible. often you can find most of the scripting that you need and with a little reworking can make most things you want happen quite nicely. The main dislike I have for most cms systems is the work you end up having to do to make them SEO friendly. most times they are full of scripts in the head content of the pages and arnt that easy to tidy up. I have been using dreamweaver for making site for a number of year and have to say i am not that impressed with the new versions. I think these days its got to messy and clumsy to use and has a lot of disadvantages. I will be looking to use a much more simple layout tool for my sites in the future. The other reson for my decision to go this way is becuase unless you have a local testing server you end up having to upload to your webhost to get an idea of your layout when you have removed all of the code from the head of the page. Its reelly good anyway to be able to see what others have to say about CMS and other web design programs. :wink:
I think the key factor is what exactly would you like to do. What kind of a website would you like to build?
If it's a dynamic driven multi page (I mean over 100) then a CMS is a must. Because you can focus on content creation, graphic design etc. You dont have to fight with links and content pages.
But if you want to build a one page sales site then I highly recommend Dreamweaver and Fireworks to create one to 5 page minisites.
The pain with CMS is greater then Dreamweaver to build small websites.
Sinc.
E-Strategist
Hi there
I have been installing and using all kinds of free CMS and they work very good if you are building large sites. However, in many cases I don´t need that much functionality, just a basic SEO optimized site. I needed a system to handle many sites without the need of databases and to upload CMS systems and so on. This took me too much time to administrate.. The solution was to make a system that could be installed once and deliver sites effectice and very SEO friendly... The system i not a template design system(templates can be found anywhere), but a site generator for content (not an article system for adsense).
The system delivers optimized HTML files, when set up right.
Well...
The system is now in Beta version and I anyone has time to test it a little bit it would be nice. :)
To create an acount for testing, please use this URL:
http://seopublish.essence.no/login.asp
(Please note that it is in beta, do not make a real site. These might be deleted. FTP transfer function is under development)
If you like the system, please let me know...
Regards,
Øystein in Norway
(Sorry if my english is a little bad ) 8)