Need recommendation - Joomla or ?

[nathaliev]

Hi everyone,

Up until now, all my sites have been quite basic, non-dynamic, and built with either FrontPage or more recently with Dreamweaver.

Now that I'm learning about how to properly optimize sites for search engines, and learning how my site should be dynamic, perhaps have RSS feeds, blogs, etc.. I'm trying to figure out what direction to go in terms of what to use to build my next site.

I set up sites to promote my affiliate programs and/or adsense if that helps you answer my question.

I don't know PHP, mySQL or anything advanced like that. But I can follow instructions quite well. My hosting is on a Linux server, and they have Fantastico.

I installed and had a look at Drupal, didn't understand it's interface AT ALL (categories, etc.)

I also tried installing Joomla, looks better, but still I'm not sure what that will do for me. I see it has a lot of plugins available, does it make it easy to set up a dynamic site with blogs, RSS feeds? Will these pages be SEO-friendly?



Or should I continue to use Dreamweaver and manually add dynamic content somehow (insert code for RSS feeds or something)


Hope my question makes sense. Any advice would be much appreciated.


Thanks
Nathalie

[thorfjalar]

I was in a similar postion a few weeks ago, I was going to use Joomla but then I learned it has problems with keeping urls static, very bad for SEO.

I decided finally to go with Drupal, it comes recomended by programmers on account of its clean code. But you are right that it is hard to understand at first, however after buying and studying the book: Drupal : creating blogs, forums, portals, and community websites by David Mercer, I started to understand in a couple of day´s. It´s potential is enormous and it has a very active community behind it.
Forget about categories to begin with, it is somewhat advanced. Mostly you use modules, themes and then the create content under administer.

Use google search, >"keyword" site:drupal.org< and you´ll find all the info you need.

[2flems]

As a useful first step, you might want to try a Wordpress install first. It's a great way to start understanding a basic MySQL/PHP setup in addition to CSS.
The interface is also easier and while it's not as feature-rich as a Joomla or Drupal, it will help you to understand how things work as a step up from your FrontPage and Dreamweaver experiences.

In addition, if you're considering adding RSS feeds to a site, you'll want to use php feeds as a more SEO friendly option rather than using javascript. Now you're starting to get into some more fun stuff!

[nathaliev]

Thanks for the advice so far, things are starting to become clearer.


2flems, regarding your reply, is your suggestion to set up wordpress as the actual web site? (ie - the home page is the wordpress site)

And if so, do you know if Adsense and PHP feeds can be integrated with WordPress?


Thank you so much!

[2flems]

nathaliev, whether or not you want to use wordpress as the site is up to you but it can certainly be done. http://www.techcrunch.com/ is an example of one that is very popular.

Wordpress also offers adsense plugins and tutorials for implementing them throughout the site.

There will be a learning curve but I think you will find it easier than both Joomla and Drupal and should provide a nice stepping stone to understanding those CMS programs.