7 Steps For Building Successful Joomla Web Site

Step One: Defining your business goals.

The first step in this process is to clearly understand what the goals are for investing your time and money into this project. What quantifiable results do you want to achieve with this initiative and who else will be involved in the process of achieving these goals. Very much like starting any new business you want a clear understanding of your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).

Step Two: Defining your Project Plan.

Once you have a clear idea where you are going you need to develop a strategic plan for getting there. Project plans need to consider where you want to go both short term and long term with this project. It needs to have a focused and phased approach that takes into consideration your available time and resources over time to sustain this project. It needs a timeline and content acquisition checklists that will help you stay on target and on focus with your priorities.

Step Three: Defining the Look and Feel.

The first actual development tasks with your Joomla Project are to define your Joomla Website design and choose your template or process of implementing one. There are three key parts of a template you need to consider:

1. Graphical design elements: Colors and style
2. Layout options: Wireframes or in Joomla terms Module Positions
3. Features and Functionality: Standards compliance, special modules and capabilities.
It is important to realize that the Joomla template is a foundation for which you will build your site and you need to consider this decision carefully. However, you can easily change templates in the future with often little effort.

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