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If you're a graphic designer and haven't heard of Joomla, you can dramatically increase your web design power and possibilities of employment by learning it. Joomla is a free, open-source, Content Management System (CMS). Joomla lets someone design, develop, and deploy a complete web site without programming a single line of HTML. Better still, you can maintain a Joomla site through the web-based Administrator interface from anywhere.
Joomla is far more than a blog application like Word Press. The Joomla CMS provides complete control of the web site presentation and content. Additionally, there are literally dozens of plug-ins that allow Joomla to do everything from message boards to auctions to picture galleries to eCommerce shopping carts.
What does Joomla mean to a Graphic Designer or Web Designer?
There are three primary ways a designer can benefit from learning Joomla:
- Full site control -- Since Joomla setup and administration is so easy that you don't need to rely on a web developer to create custom ASP or PHP code to create a dynamic web site. That means that you, the designer, can have complete control of the web site and never have to wait for any implementation or changes to the site.
- Greater employment opportunities -- Over 2.5 million people have downloaded Joomla and there are over 40,000 registered Joomla developers. If you search the web, you'll find that literally thousands of web sites use the technology. By understanding Joomla, you can have access to the broad and deep Joomla job market that is growing.
- Template sales -- One industry that is exploding in the Joomla world is commercial template sales. Since Joomla installation is so easy, many web masters (often with minimal design skills) have created sites that now need professional looking templates to make them shine. Popular in the commercial template market is the subscription model where the customer buys monthly access to all templates on the commercial site. That means that new templates are always needed to keep existing customers and you can supply that demand!Â
How do I get Joomla and get started?
Go to the Joomla web site at:
Download the latest version of Joomla and install it on an Apache or Microsoft IIS web server. If you don't have a web server, you can download the Joomla Standalone Server (JSAS) here:
