Which Website application to choose?

CodeChick · 11-02-2007, 05:43 AM

I am wanting to put up a new website but struggling to know which application to go with. I've read about them but with all the promos promising great things am getting confused with all the choice !

Aware of Joomla and Drupal which do seem good. Like them but concerned about the level of expertise you may need. Ones that say they are easier for newbies are Website Baker and CMS Made Simple but I do not know of anyone using these and wonder how good they are?

I already have a blogger account and have also looked into Wordpress. I think I would like a site rather than another blog.

Essentially information, advice, review type site with affiliate links and in the future selling my own e books. So nothing too ambitious but ability to grow would be good.

I am absolutely willing to learn but am a novice. Currently don't have a huge amount of money to spend on it but would consider set up costs/support as necessary. I do want to be able to understand my own site though so I can run it.

I know there is a huge amount of expertise on this forum and I would really appreciate advice, experiences, suggestions from you guys on good possible applications to consider

Dan Williamson · 11-02-2007, 05:51 AM

I can say that I used Joomla a while ago for my friends website and I had no expertise in any website application software such as these but I figured it out in half-hour and even learnt to modify quite a bit of the code to make it perform how I needed it to.

My friend who has no expertise in any web programming of any type, even HTML said that the learning curve was a few hours.

**StarLab** · 11-02-2007, 06:36 AM

Most CMS's drop in quite easily. Both Joomla and Drupal fall into this category.

Once installed you can either buy or download free templates. They are easily installed without any programming knowledge.

I am more familiar with Joomla than I am with Drupal. Joomla is pretty much open-ended as far as expandability goes. Need an online shop? Just plug it in. There are hundreds of modules and components out there to do just about anything you want.

Don't rule out Mambo either.

I'm sure others my come along behind me talking about other CMS options.

TheFriend · 11-02-2007, 06:49 AM

Joomla, Drupal and mambo are all very popular

personally i recommend you study a serverside language like php and create your own cms :p

Dan Williamson · 11-02-2007, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheFriend

Joomla, Drupal and mambo are all very popular

personally i recommend you study a serverside language like php and create your own cms :p

That would be the best solution over the long time but if you haven't studied a language and a database for maximum security then the learning curve is rather tediously long.

Print · 11-03-2007, 06:51 AM

Drupal or custom CMS for me.

CodeChick · 11-04-2007, 07:20 AM

Hi guys!

Thank you Dan, Starlab,The Friend and Print for your replies. I appreciate you taking the time to help me with this.

That gives me some confidence - I feel happier about looking further into Joomla,Drupal and I should consider Mambo too.

Friend its a good suggestion I think I should look into learning php and I will see what learning tutorials etc there are...It may be a longer term aim for me though.

Was there anything that made you go with one particular application rather than
another , or is it just personal preference?

Dan Williamson · 11-04-2007, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CodeChick

Hi guys!

Thank you Dan, Starlab,The Friend and Print for your replies. I appreciate you taking the time to help me with this.

That gives me some confidence - I feel happier about looking further into Joomla,Drupal and I should consider Mambo too.

Friend its a good suggestion I think I should look into learning php and I will see what learning tutorials etc there are...It may be a longer term aim for me though.

Was there anything that made you go with one particular application rather than
another , or is it just personal preference?

I would say I went with Joomla generally because I had seen it in action a few times and I had worked on one of those sites doing Database Design and I had chance to look at the functionality and I enjoyed using it without the bloat of having to learn everything about everything.

sticky · 11-04-2007, 04:23 PM

Drupal and Joomla are both very nice. But i would also reccomend php-fusion, my roommate used it for a personal site of his and it works great. He pretty much knew nothing about websites and learned in about 1-2 days. check out his site ickeris.com, he did everything himself. not too bad for a beginner.

scottdizzle · 11-06-2007, 12:55 PM

I've always been a big fan of Cutenews and now Cutenews.ru (a more powerful version) both designed to let you create the layout of your site first, then drop your news into your site instead of the other way around. This makes your sites look much more unique in the end.. plus less expensive to get up and running.

My opinion is that these are both the most flexible and easiest CMS choices to get the most results out of your website.. but many people disagree with me so I say.. to each their own.. although I really dislike Joomla, Drupal, and Wordpress after comparing each to Cutenews.ru

bbrock32 · 11-07-2007, 06:27 AM

Joomla has worked good for me.

CodeChick · 11-10-2007, 05:34 AM

Thank you all so much for these helpful comments. Its really good to know there are people willing to share experiences.

I m looking into all your recommendations and then its decision time!

spacefem · 11-10-2007, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Williamson

That would be the best solution over the long time but if you haven't studied a language and a database for maximum security then the learning curve is rather tediously long.

agreed. I've made my own php sites from scratch, and security is very very tricky. currently I'm running phpbb with a bunch of hacks on the side, so they handle the session management, I've written in different things (like my front page portal) to get what I need.