It's been way too long since I've posted, but that's because I'm spending many hours each day writing a book. Joomla! Start to Finish: How to Plan, Execute, and Maintain Your Web Site is due to be published in January next year by Wrox Press.

Writing a book has definitely been the most challenging project I've had for quite a while. Knowing something and teaching it are always two separate things. You have to know what you're talking about at a very deep level to really teach it well.

I've also been learning a ton about Joomla, not to mention noticing a bunch of little usability problems that I'd overlooked for years. Why, for example, is there an option to "show hits" in the menu item for a Category Blog when there's no place that hits ever actually show in that layout? Why is it called Published in the Article Manager, but Enabled in the Module Manager?

Great news for Joomla developers! Elance, a site putting clients in touch with freelancers, says that the 8th most popular freelance skill out there is Joomla. PHP came in at #1, MySQL at #4, and WordPress and #10.

I can certainly confirm this based on how many calls for help we've gotten lately here at 4Web. We're taking projects with a September start right now -- in this economy!

 

The Marlboro College Graduate Center in Brattleboro, Vermont, just released its Open Source Web Development certificate in a wholly online format.

If you've been working with Joomla, but you want to know a lot more about it, this is the certificate program for you.  The certificate introduces students to Joomla, as well as planning a website, understanding the code that runs it, and developing and executing an online marketing plan.

The certificate consists of 12 credits:

Try the One Week Spruce Up Plan

There is nothing worse than knowing that your website is getting stale and not knowing how to give it new life. It is time to freshen up your content already! You don't always need to throw out the baby with the bathwater, but you can take a few minutes each day to get the job done.

Baby steps.... It's all about baby steps because tackling the whole site can be overwhelming. So take things one at a time.  Every day- gather your team for 15 minutes, decide what is new or old, assign each task to someone and hold him or her accountable for getting the info to you by the end of the day.  

Joomla 1.6 alpha is ready to download.  Please remember it's NOT for production sites!!! And yes, there are a TON of bugs and problems and issues. That's why it's called an alpha.

Like it? Hate it? Have comments on it? Be sure you get involved with the Joomla Project, either on the Bug Squad or helping out in the forums. There's plenty of work to go around for everyone.

Also, remember there is a tech requirement of PHP 5.2+ and MySQL 5.0.4+ in order to run Joomla 1.6. Talk to your web host to make sure these are available to you.  If you're running WAMP or XAMPP on your local machine, make sure you're running the most recent version, which will support these requirements.

My Lynda.com blog post is up, all about Joomla 1.6 alpha and what's coming next in the Joomla world.

You've got your first Joomla site running! It's fabulous! It's amazing! And now how do we start taking it to the next level?

Just like you should never wear white shoes after Labor Day, and visible panty lines are never cool, there are a few fashion NOs that you should stay away from doing on your Joomla site.

1. Why does it need to say "Main Menu"?

So you've built a site or two or five in Joomla 1.5.

Maybe you have a background in HTML/CSS, or maybe you've been learning it, but you don't necessarily have a background in PHP/MySQL.

You're interested in taking your Joomla site to the next level. You think you could be doing more with your Joomla sites than you are already.

I think this video says it all.

Get your scope clear at the beginning, get clear on how many hours it will take, and don't be afraid to walk away from a client who pulls this nonsense!

Originally seen at CMS Watch.

... but I am all excited about this past week on Joomla.org.

First, Amy Stephen wrote a very nice article about me, in response to my post about those who can't do, teach. I was really surprised but am really grateful to Amy for the nice article.

Then, Neri Valentin-Macias wrote a terrific article about the Lynda.com movies that Joe LeBlanc and I created. Thank you, Neri! I am so glad this information is on the Joomla site, as these are really hot Joomla training topics.