Steve’s Blog

Open Question: Major Companies Using Joomla

Quizilla.com Traffic

Do you know of any major companies using Joomla?

I’ve decided to set the bar high by looking for sites that do over half-a-million uniques per month or belong to a truly substantial company. A good rule of thumb is “do they have a Wikipedia entry?”

Here’s what I’ve found so far:

Feel free to post more sites in the comments and I’ll add to this list whenever we find a new one.

Read MoreOpen Question: Major Companies Using Joomla

Need Security for your Joomla Site?

JoomlaRescue.comI’ve never made a recommendation for anyone else’s services on this blog, but I’m going to break that habit today.

A Joomla Security Expert

Its easy to find templates, extensions and web-designers but in some other areas high-quality people are in short supply. One of those is security. Few people have the server knowledge and Joomla know-how to effectively protect a Joomla site.

JoomlaRescue.comIf you have been hacked or need a security audit to pre-empt problems in the future … we recommend Tom Canvan from JoomlaRescue.com. He doesn’t know I’m writing this blog post, but he deserves it. Here’s why …

  • We’ve sent him a good number of customers and they’ve all been delighted by his work.
  • Tom provides great service – he’s highly professional, friendly and responsive.
  • He’s written "Dodging the Bullets", the only book available about security for Joomla sites.
  • He’s been in the business for over 20 years.

Continue reading “Need Security for your Joomla Site?”

Read MoreNeed Security for your Joomla Site?

WordPress Training Courses

Wordpress classroom training

Open Source Training is a partner company of Alledia.com and a major provider of WordPress training classes.

With over a dozen teachers across the United States, Canada and Britain, we have classes running almost every week. Students get six months of support after each class.

We hold WordPress beginner, intermediate and theming classes.

Upcoming WordPress Training Classes

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Details of Our WordPress Training Classes

How long are the classes?

7 hours. We start at 9 am and finish at 4 pm. We provide lunch for students and regular breaks.

What do I need to bring?

Nothing. We provide computers, all training materials and lunch.

Do I need to know anything about WordPress?

Not for the beginner classes. We train many students who have never heard of WordPress before coming to class. We will take you through everything you need to learn to get up and running with WordPress. For the more advanced classes such as template, coding, SEO and intermediate, please see the “Pre-requisites” box on each page.

How many students are in the classes?

16 is the maximum. We aim to keep our classes as small, intimate and friendly as possible.

How many teachers are in the classes?

Whenever possible, we have two teachers. One runs the class and the other circulates to help students with individual questions.

How much are the classes?

$299. Whether it is a beginner class in New York or a template class in Los Angeles, that price is always the same.

Will you cancel on me?

No. We guarantee that our classes will run if you sign up. We have never canceled on a student. We don’t want to say we never will cancel on a student, because sickness, plane crashes, earthquakes etc (touch wood) might intervene one day, but we hope our record speaks for itself. If a student signs up, we will do all that is humanly possible to be there.

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Drupal Training Courses

drupal classroom training

Open Source Training is a partner company of Alledia.com and a major provider of Drupal training classes.

With over a dozen teachers across the United States, Canada and Britain, we have classes running almost every week. Students get six months of support after each class.

We hold Drupal beginner, intermediate and theming classes.

Upcoming Drupal Training Classes

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Details of Our Drupal Training Classes

How long are the classes?

7 hours. We start at 9 am and finish at 4 pm. We provide lunch for students and regular breaks.

What do I need to bring?

Nothing. We provide computers, all training materials and lunch.

Do I need to know anything about Drupal?

Not for the beginner classes. We train many students who have never heard of Drupal before coming to class. We will take you through everything you need to learn to get up and running with Drupal. For the more advanced classes such as template, coding, SEO and intermediate, please see the “Pre-requisites” box on each page.

How many students are in the classes?

16 is the maximum. We aim to keep our classes as small, intimate and friendly as possible.

How many teachers are in the classes?

Whenever possible, we have two teachers. One runs the class and the other circulates to help students with individual questions.

How much are the classes?

$299. Whether it is a beginner class in New York or a template class in Los Angeles, that price is always the same.

Will you cancel on me?

No. We guarantee that our classes will run if you sign up. We have never canceled on a student. We don’t want to say we never will cancel on a student, because sickness, plane crashes, earthquakes etc (touch wood) might intervene one day, but we hope our record speaks for itself. If a student signs up, we will do all that is humanly possible to be there.

Read MoreDrupal Training Courses

Joomla Training Courses

When Apple, Sun and IBM need to learn Joomla,
here’s what they do …

Every day, people are building great websites with Joomla.
Joomla Training OnlineWith Open Source Training, they have access to online classes and support from the best teachers in the Joomla world.

Our professional teachers have created videos and tutorials for you that walk you step-by-step through everything you’ll need to build wonderful Joomla websites. These are the same lessons we use to help clients like Apple, Sun, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and NASA.

Learn Joomla Or Your Money Back …

We’re so confident that you can learn Joomla with our classes and with our help that we’ll refund your money at any point during your membership.

Our Students Love the Training

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Open Source Training are the teachers trusted to train many of the world’s most famous companies …

Hewlett Packard and Joomla Apple and Joomla
Sun and Joomla NASA and Joomla
Verizon Wireless and Joomla World Bank and Joomla
IBM and Joomla United Way and Joomla

If you’re not able to build a high-quality Joomla website, we’ll give you a 100%, unconditional refund.

Why Learn Joomla From These Expert Teachers?

  • You’ll be able to learn at your own pace, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • You need no Joomla or web-design knowledge.
  • You’ll get rapid Joomla answers from teachers who have taught 1000s of students.
  • You’ll have fun! The videos are entertaining and make your Joomla experience enjoyable.
  • You get two professional Joomla templates, Bolt and Breeze, worth $120.
  • You’ll learn from comprehensive and organized classes, not random tutorials.
  • You’ll save dozens of frustrating hours digging around the web for answers.
  • You won’t waste thousand of dollars on webdesigners. You can build Joomla websites.

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Your Joomla Teachers

We have more than a dozen teachers across North America and the United Kingdom. Two are particularly heavily involved with the online Joomla classes. They’ll be the people presenting the material and helping you out most often in the support forum:

Rod Martin

Rod Martin

Rod is the owner of NavigateTomorrow, a web design firm that started in Canada and moved to the U.S. a few years ago. He has been training people how to do “things” for over 20 years and brings great Joomla! experience to the table. Rod specializes in the small business and non-profit sectors, so he understands the needs of beginner and intermediate Joomla! users. Rod has been a teacher for many years in the public-education and corporate sectors. He currently teaches university classes in the evening. His engaging training style will help you remember the training content and help you apply the lessons learned to building your Joomla sites.

Steve Burge

Steve Burge

Steve is the founder of Open Source Training. Originally from Portsmouth in the U.K., he lives in Atlanta in the U.S.A.. He was a professional teacher in England, Japan, Australia and the United States before moving into web design. In 2005, he founded Alledia.com which grew into a leading provider of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services for Joomla. He wrote the best-selling Joomla SEO Book, created highly-optimized templates and wrote a blog which has grown into perhaps the most popular in the Joomla world. Steve is an active member of the CMS community. He is an Editor at the Joomla Extensions Directory and now runs the Atlanta Joomla User Group which has grown to two monthly meetings and several hundred members.

We Answer Dozens of Joomla Questions for Our Students

How do I install Joomla on my P.C.?

Answer: We gave the student a video tutorial, provided key download links and added a step-by-step tutorial with screenshots.

How can I change the logo on my Joomla template?

Answer: We walked her through the tools she’d need, showed her exactly how to locate and replace the old image with her company’s logo and gave her the confidence to edit other parts of her site in the same way.

How do I set up Search Engine Friendly URLs in Joomla?

Answer: We provide a detailed, step-by-step tutorial just for this user and even logged on to their site to help fix some difficult problems.

What is the best website to find Joomla templates?

Answer: We created a list of over a dozen different websites offering both free and commercial templates, breaking down the pros and cons of each site.

What should I do to play videos from my Joomla site?

Answer: We gave her the choice of several good options, helped her download and install the best and walked her through each step. When one video wouldn’t play, we logged in to the site and fixed the problem with minutes of being asked.

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An Overview of Our Joomla Beginner Class

Introduction

  • Session 1: Introduction to the Course
  • Session 2: How to get the most out of the Course
  • Session 3: What is Joomla / What is a Content Management System?
  • Session 4: Resources you’ll need for the course
  • Session 5: DON’T skip this video!

The Basics

  • Session 6: One Click Installs
  • Session 7: Installing Joomla to work on your Mac
  • Session 8: Installing Joomla to work on your PC
  • Session 9: Navigating the Joomla Interface

The Site Menu

  • Session 10: The Menu
  • Session 11: User Manager
  • Session 12: Global Configuration
  • Session 13: Changing the “Site Offline” Logo
  • Session 14: Site Activities

The “Menus” Menu

  • Session 15: Menu Manager
  • Session 16: Linking to a Article
  • Session 17: Linking to a Blog
  • Session 18: Site Activities

The Articles Menu

  • Session 19: The Joomla Workflow
  • Session 20: Article Management
  • Bonus Session: Installing JCE
  • Session 21: Global Parameters
  • Session 22: Creating an Article
  • Session 23: Inserting and Formatting Text
  • Session 24: Inserting and Formatting Images and Multimedia
  • Session 25: Advanced Parameters
  • Session 26: Site Activities
  • Session 27: Helpful Extensions for Article Management

Extensions

  • Session 28: Overview and Definitions
  • Session 29: Finding the Right Extensions
  • Session 30: Site Activities

Components Menu

  • Session 31: Banners
  • Session 32: Contacts
  • Session 33: Newsfeeds
  • Session 34: Polls
  • Session 35: Search
  • Session 36: Weblinks

The Extensions Menu

  • Session 37: Extensions Manager
  • Session 38: The Module Manager
  • Session 39: Built-in Modules
  • Session 40: Adding a New Module
  • Session 41: Site Activities

Plugins

  • Session 42: Introduction / Overview

Templates

  • Session 43: What is a Template?
  • Session 44: Installing Templates
  • Session 45: Modifying Your Template
  • Session 46: Site Activities

The Tools Menu

  • Session 47: Tools

Joomla Security

  • Session 48: Keeping Your Site Secure

Wrap Up

  • Session 49: Site Activities
  • Session 50: Wrap Up

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An Overview of Our Joomla Template Class

Introduction

  • Introduction to the course
  • Resources you’ll need on your Mac
  • Resources you’ll need on your PC
  • Artisteer
  • Template Clubs

Section 2: Five Building Blocks

  • Building Block 1 – Table of Contents – templateDetails.xml
  • Building Block 2 – Template Framework – index.php
  • Building Block 3 – Template Style – /css/
  • Building Block 4 – Template Images – /images/
  • Building Block 5 – Template Security – index.html

Section 3: Putting it Together

  • Brief CSS tutorial
  • Step 1 – Setting up the template files
  • Step 2 – index.php
  • Step 3 – Finishing the CSS and index.php
  • Step 4a – Some Styling Tips & Tricks
  • Step 4b – Conditional Statements
  • Step 5 – templateDetails.xml

Section 4:  From Photoshop to Joomla

  • Slicing/Exporting the Background
  • Slicking/Exporting Elements
  • Final Site and CSS

Section 5:  Advanced Template Design Principles

  • Module Styles
  • Advanced Joomla CSS
  • Template Parameters
  • Template Overrides

Section 6: Red Tie Template

  • Introduction
  • Setting Up The Files
  • Header & Logo
  • More about the Header
  • The Menus
  • Main Content
  • Footer & Cleanup

An Overview of Our Joomla SEO Class

Introduction

  • Session 1: Welcome to the Joomla Search Engine Optimization Class

Setting Up Your Joomla Site

  • Session 2: Delete the Sample Content 
  • Session 3: Redirect non-WWW to WWW 

Metadata

  • Session 4: Understanding Metadata
  • Session 5: Creating Metadata
  • Session 6: Metadata and Joomla
  • Session 7: Automatic Metadata
  • Session 8: Understanding the Alias

RSS Feeds

  • Session 9: Understanding RSS Feeds
  • Session 10: Creating a Joomla RSS Feed

Sitemaps

  • Session 11: Understanding Sitemaps
  • Session 12: Creating a Joomla Sitemap
  • Session 14: Site Activities

Search-Engine Friendly URLs

  • Session 13: Why Use Search Engine Friendly URLs
  • Session 14: Understanding Default Joomla URLs
  • Session 15: Joomla 1.5 Search Engine Friendly URLs
  • Session 16: Choosing a Joomla URL Extension

Analytics

  • Session 17: Installing Google Analytics
  • Session 18: Do Not Use Joomla Analytics Extensions
  • Session 19: Google Analytics Goals
  • Session 20: Tracking Joomla Searches

Duplicate Content

  • Session 21: Understanding Duplicate Content
  • Session 22: Less is More
  • Session 23: Removing Unwanted Pages
  • Session 24: Other Sites Duplicating Your Content

Internal Linking

  • Session 25: Understanding Internal Linking
  • Session 26: Use More Modules
  • Session 27: Understanding Pagination
  • Session 28: Understanding Breadcrumbs

Site Speed

  • Session 29: Understanding Your Site Speed
  • Session 30: Easy Joomla Speed Improvements

Migrating To or From Joomla

  • Session 31: Understanding Site Migrations
  • Session 32: Migrating Joomla 1.0 to 1.5

Domain Names

  • Session 33: Choosing a Domain Name
  • Session 34: Country Code Domain Names

International Sites

  • Session 35: International Sites
  • Session 36: Automatic Translation Tools

Social Networking

  • Session 37: When to Use Social Networking
  • Session 38: Indexing User Profile Pages

External Links

  • Session 39: Joomla and Google News
  • Session 40: Understanding Reciprocal Links
  • Session 41: Understanding Web 2.0 Links

Site Content

  • Session 42: Understanding Site Content
  • Session 43: Creating Targeted Pages
  • Session 44: Understanding Site Architecture
  • Session 45: Main Menu Links

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Read MoreJoomla Training Courses

SEO Checklists

Joomla SEO ChecklistsThese checklists are designed to help you complete common tasks with your website. You have the right to rebrand these with your own logo and reuse them with clients.

Choosing SEO Extensions

Launching a New Site

Updating an Existing Site

Getting Started with SEO on Your Site

Giving Your Site a Full SEO Audit

Local Search Optimization with Joomla

Blogging with Joomla

ECommerce with Joomla (focusing on Virtuemart)

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Read MoreSEO Checklists

Open Question: Do You Have a Joomla Site with Great Rankings?

Number One RankingsEarlier this week I posted my talk about Joomla SEO from the JoomlaExpo in Chicago. The penultimate slide was a list of sites that ranked #1 on Google and some people responding with details of their own success with Joomla.

I’m going to be giving variations of this presentation a few more times in months to come and so I thought I’d give you an opportunity to boast:

Do you have a Joomla site with great rankings? 

Feel free to post as many or as few details about the site as you wish. I’ll include the best ones in the presentation.

Read MoreOpen Question: Do You Have a Joomla Site with Great Rankings?

Joomla SEO Presentation from JoomlaExpo

Joomla ExpoThis is my presentation on Joomla SEO from JoomlaExpo.

Increasingly we’re going to be recommending two SEO solutions for both Joomla 1.0 and Joomla 1.5 … sh404SEF and the SEF Patch. I’m in the process of rewriting the SEO Book to make those our clear recommendations for most 1.0 and 1.5 sites, but this is the first time I’ve explained that publicly.

Continue reading “Joomla SEO Presentation from JoomlaExpo”

Read MoreJoomla SEO Presentation from JoomlaExpo

JoomlaExpo Was a Huge Success

Joomla ExpoI arrived back from Chicago just before midnight yesterday and I’m still buzzing today.

The JoomlaExpo was a huge success. I’ve a whole bunch of stuff to organize and post over the coming week from Powerpoints, handouts, Expo recaps and news of the big Joomla project that was announced with the City of Chicago.

There were over 280 people at the Expo including some from Malaysia, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, England, Scotland and many other places. The whole event was pulled together by excellent organization from the JoomlaChicago members.

Click here and also here to see photos of the event. More to come later in the week when I’ve had more sleep. If  you haven’t done so already, I’d definitely recommend attending a Joomla event near you. Next up is Vancouver.

Read MoreJoomlaExpo Was a Huge Success