Joomla and Wordpress satisfy any project that I ever want to tackle…

Yes, Wordpress is a blogging platform… but it’s versatile enough to use for regular ‘ol websites too. It’s basic, but knowing what your goals are for the site up front, it might be the right option.

See as an example: www.ezy-websites.com

And for the All-Inc Members reading this, you’ll know I use Wordpress to deliver all the content and products.. In fact, you’ll notice I gave it a face lift last night with a new, fresh theme (the last one I had to put to sleep.. it was wasting my time;)

Check it out here:

All-Inclusive Membership Area (All-Inc Members Only)

So it’s versatile.. but is it all you need? And is it right for every site? Answer is simple: No.

That’s where Joomla picks up for me.

Some of you have already seen what I did over the weekend.. I finally developed MattLevenhagen.com..

It uses Joomla. In fact, I go into detail exactly how I accomplished setting it up in under 30 minutes in this thread:

What Do You All Think of that Joomla Install? (Members Only Link)

It’s not only amazing, but super scalable. Support is unmatchable. Huge community; huge documentation.

And there are tons of tutorials out there… tons of templates to help you build an outstanding site.

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Why am I telling you this today?

Well, Ezy isn’t just about building a site in a snap, but about focusing on solutions that can be used for a variety of uses — and that can be free.

I have thought about including an HTML site builder as a service at Ezy.. maybe I will someday. It’s not hard to build, but..

Is it necessary? And is it possible that Tomorrow is here today. Do we really need anything besides what Wordpress can do and Joomla?

Why wouldn’t you want an easy interface to add and modify content? Why wouldn’t you not want to forget FTPing all together? Why wouldn’t you want an easy way to update an entire website with ease..

And the other 100+ benefits that comes with a Content Management System.

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Is there a bigger learning curve that just working with regular ‘ol templates?

Maybe.. maybe not. Actually I think Joomla’s new interace in 1.5 is much cleaner and it’s pretty easy to get around. You’ll note that I’ve been using Joomla for the CBS membership for almost 3 years… I’ve loved it and after the learning curve and I had it set up, it’s been a cinch!

So what’s the hardest part? Getting it set up right?

So if setting something up is the hardest part, but if you live through it, content management becomes a 100 Times easier… what’s the problem?

What if it took you 5 times as long to learn how to use Joomla than just building a regular ‘ol HTML/CSS static site.. (that’s debatable.. actually I think it would take about 10 times less time to learn Joomla than to work with regular templates and code in HTML/CSS)..

But what if it not only saved you time adding content and managing it for years, but also allowed you to manage the success of your site.. in other words, you won’t grow out of it and you’ll never have to worry about your content becoming unmanagable..

The time it saves there and in other areas I believe can eclipse any downside of the learning curve and the time it takes to get the hang of it.

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Where’s your time better spent?

Just think on that… are you wasting your time with scripts and solutions that might be out of date in 6 months? Or the support and development may or may not be there in a year or 3?

I’m more comfortable sticking with software that is well established and there’s no question the development team will still be there for years to come.. and that not only gives me a dynamic platform, but the piece of mind that I won’t ever have to worry about outgrowing my solution.

Boy… Almost sounds like I’m selling something that’s free today? But I’m a big supporter of open-source… doesn’t cost you a dime unless you purchase themes or mods etc… (if they ask for donations, don’t hesitate!)

Hope you found this enlightening!

-Matt Levenhagen

-Matt Levenhagen