Introduction to WordPress and Joomla

I have been meaning to cover this topic for a while since I have been using both and believe both systems have some great things to offer. If you are unfamiliar with wordpress and joomla (or other Content Management Systems – CMS) and are running a website then it is really something you should look into. WordPress is a blogging software tool and like Joomla is open-source which means it is free and developed by many people around the world. It allows you to configure and set up all of the blog and then just post to the blog without any real knowledge of coding etc. Joomla is a tad more diverse and as such a little bit more complicated. It allows the incorporation of many aspects of a website into one system: for example my own Joomla site has articles, a gallery, forum, rss feed, shopping and more. For the purposes of this post I will be drawing from my own experiences of using both systems.

The Drawbacks

Usually I would start with the upsides of a particular system but in relation to these two pieces of software I will start with the negatives. This is because both Joomla and WordPress have very different negative aspects and if you are familiar with my site (kjwriteleft.com) you will perhaps of noticed I use both which sort of cancels out both systems negative aspects. While wordpress is very simple to use once it is setup the options for configuration are limited. If you have seen most blogs (including this one) you will see that the usual layout is posts running down with a menu etc on either the right or left hand side. This makes having more diverse content around your posts difficult. Even though you can overcome this with coding etc I am aiming this article at people who do not necessarily want to go through hundreds of lines of php code or html.

Joomla overcomes the drawbacks of wordpress by being perhaps overly configurable. You can pretty much put whatever you want anywhere on the site. This brings me to its biggest negative point for a beginner or amateur webmaster: it can at time have too many options. This also brings up the point of server usage, load speeds and of course the inevitable bugs that come with such a large system from time to time. No, I am not saying Joomla is loaded with errors and bugs, but if you do something wrong when changing around your joomla site the system will punish you for it and at times you could even “break” your entire site with an incorrect configuration.

The Upsides:

As I have previously said I use both systems side by side. Obviously wordpress for my blog and Joomla for my main site. This allows me to also take advantage of the key differences between the two systems which is content. WordPress is fantastic for quick content, making it simple to get stuff online while Joomla is a longer term prospect that allows you to organise a great deal of information relatively easily. For a beginner I would always recommend WordPress but for someone who has plodded along at web development I would always say Joomla. For people who just want an online presence and to post things every so often then wordpress is easiest. For those who want a little bit more power then Joomla is probably the best answer. I would compare the two between a normal sedan or family car for wordpress, and a similar car for joomla but with a V8 engine shoved under the bonnet.

Content Management Systems for Artists

As a writer and artist myself I have previously tried HTML as a way to build a site. This is both time consuming and usually not so great visually. Ever since I started web design work I have looked for something that would take away the time needed for web design so I could concentrate on what I actually do: poetry and photography. As an artist you want something akin to dropping off art works to a real life gallery. You may prepare the works, but the gallery displays them for you. This is where wordpress and joomla come into their own. Once set up you can add your new and old creations to the sites with the click of a few buttons. I use Joomla for displaying my own writing and art and I use the blog more for updates and discussion on these works. There are numerous addons for both systems that make an artists life easier. The good thing about both is that you can concentrate on content instead of site management. I recommend you take a look at at both systems and consider using them or one of the similar systems as a way to free up your creative time. For examples of both please check out both my sites below:

kjwriteleft.com – Using Joomla! content management system

KJ Takes a Blog – using WordPress blogging software

I hope this has been a useful discussion and I hope to see more and more creative people taking advantage of the wonderful work that opensource programmers do!

-KJ (editor of kjwriteleft.com)

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