The Joomla Chick

WARNING!!  PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CHECK YOUR JOOMLA GLOBAL CONFIGURATION SETTINGS AFTER UPGRADING!

I have been using Joomla 1.5 for a while now and absolutely love it.  It wasn’t until I was adding a site to a Facebook group and saw the Joomla description that I realised something wasn’t quite right.  I knew that I had put my proper description and keywords into my global configuration when setting up the site and yet they weren’t there.

What had happened is that I was in Fantastico in my site and upgraded my Joomla installation to the latest version.  Even although I know I should check the settings, I didn’t.  What a mistake!  What happens when you upgrade is that it puts the global configurations back to default and you need to put everything back in as it was.  Therefore I would advise you before upgrading your Joomla website to copy all your keywords and description from global configuration so that you can paste them back in after you’ve completed the upgrade.  The upgrade itself is very simple to do, one click and you are done!

Another thing is that if you have search engine friendly (sef) urls on, through the Joomla core extensions, then they will default back into not working.  It’s extremely important to change these back asap as the search engines will start sending your visitors to 404 error pages as the search engine friendly (sef) settings have been turned off.

The good news is that you can carry out the upgrade and resetting of the global configuration in less than 5 minutes so don’t let my warnings put you off upgrading!  Upgrading is a necessary part of using Joomla as the majority of the upgrades are security upgrades, making your site more secure, and we love that!

Many Joomla users create their websites and don’t upgrade their sites as they are using their sites just to promote their business and don’t update their information.  This is such a waste of such a wonderful content management system and they are losing out on web traffic visitors and increased profits.  If this is you, and you are not alone, then please consider upgrading and using Joomla as it can be used.

I have always known that having a blog was an essential part of having an online business and have struggled for a while to find the right blogging solution for my Joomla sites.  I did install a Joomla blogging extension and start using that, however I then found out it had serious security issues and uninstalled it.  Don’t get me wrong, there ARE Joomla blogging extentions and they are probably great but I knew what WordPress could do and wanted something equally as good.  There is also a Joomla extension where you can integrate Joomla into Wordpress for $59.99 per year but I guess I just wanted WordPress to work like WordPress and have it’s full functionality.

Drum roll please …….

So I installed WordPress and linked all the menu’s to match the Joomla menus and my Joomla blog entry to WordPress, did some creative Photoshop editing, clever css amendments and hey presto, a site I am very, very pleased with.  All I need now is to continue to write a blog post every few days at the very least and watch my rankings go up.  Well that’s the theory anyway.

My motto is, and always will be, if in doubt – cheat!

The Joomla Chick is my baby.  It’s something that was born out of my frustrations at finding straightforward instruction on how to use Joomla to build a fantastic site.  I’d bought videos in the past, however they were very basic and didn’t teach me anything that I hadn’t already picked up before.  Joomla really is an amazing content management system and once you get the hang of it, it’s really simple to use.  So yes, I will be cheating a bit with my blog being WordPress, however WordPress is the King of blogging platforms and as The Joomla Chick also teaches about internet marketing, we have to use the best tools available.  Joomla will, I am sure, come up with fantastic, integrated blogging extensions but for now I am happy with doing my blog using WordPress.

If you don’t have many technical skills to edit a WordPress template to link with your Joomla site, then you can either use a Joomla blogging extension or hire me to integrate it for you.  Do whichever way you are happiest with.  Personally I love this way, as I get to test out both Joomla and WordPress with my Google Analytics data to see how each platform performs.

I just love the fact that I get paid to play with Joomla and WordPress, as well as testing different internet marketing theories and practises and watch my bank balance increase.  Anyone can do it, but it does take time, patience and perseverence.

If I can help you in anyway with your Joomla site or learning about Joomla then please feel free to contact me using my contact form.  I will reply, unless of course you are spamming me!