So you want to build a Joomla (or any kind of CMS)  website and for that you deserve a lot of credit. Why? Well as you probably know, CMS sites are basically user friendly making them quick and easy to update, and they happen to be great for SEO, though you will have to pay attention to some common sense guidelines. So Bravo - go for it. There is one rather significant caveat that you should be aware of though. At the basic level, these types of CMS frameworks are easy to work with and they do put an incredible amount of power into your less than webmaster hands, but venture beyond basic and it's a whole different story. I'm not trying to scare anyone, only trying to forewarn those who may be bold enough to want to do it all themselves. (Which these days includes many of us.)

Let's face it. You only get really good at the things you take the time to learn and there is a great deal of learning to be done with any beyond the basics CMS site. If you were to graph this, you would have a very shallow, gradual line going slowly upwards, then all of a sudden spiking skyward when you crossed the frontier into unknown territory. Not saying you can't do it - you CAN! I'm only raising the issue because like me, you'll have to decide if your time is worth it. Let me offer an example.

When I was growing up, I was fortunate to have a father who could do virtually anything that needed to be done in the trades, like woodworking, plumbing, framing, roofing, pouring concrete, laying brick and so on. Of course, since he was a Master electrician, I was able to learn about that too along with all those other things. Was he great at all those things? No, but he was pretty darn good and as a result, I learned a lot of skills I would not have otherwise. To this day, I struggle with making the call between hiring a pro or doing it myself. How much time am I willing to spend doing things that fall outside my chosen profession? Like you we all have to decide and more and more I've come to the conclusion that it's not worth my time, especially if I have a design project to work on.

So, if you decide to put up your own CMS website, I wish you well and commend your willingness to DIY, but if you find that you're spending way more time than you thought you would, it may be time to call a pro and if you do, I hope you'll consider calling me. I'm available, willing and easy to work with and waiting for your call. ;-) By the way, my name's David and here's a link to my site.

People are always wondering which kind of site is best suited to meet their needs and of course the answer to that question is "it depends." For a more thorough discussion of that, see my article titled "CMS, When to Use".

Top 3 Reasons to Use a Static Site

First - you have a small site, not a lot of pages, and you don't anticipate the need to change it frequently. It might be a "portfolio" or "brochure" kind of site, where the purpose is to share some information that isn't going to change often. Many of these kinds of sites emphasize style and appearance and don't have an SEO (search engine optimization) focus.

Second - you don't have a lot of time to make changes, so having a CMS (content management system) style of site would just be a waste of time. This is a very realistic understanding of what's involved in having a CMS site, in other words, CMS sites should be updated regularly in order to take full advantage of their capabilities. They can be very useful for SEO, but if you don't have the time to post, you simply won't get the benefit being able to update your own site.

Third - realizing that SEO is still important to those who have static sites (and you don't want to miss out on that, after all, why have a site if no one comes to visit), you have handled that need by using a blog site like Blogger and you drive traffic to your site by linking to it in your posts. Well done!

Another solution that I've offered to some in this situation is to have the static site, but incorporate a dynamic blog within the static site, using WordPress in most cases. This also works well.

There you have it. My 3 Top Reasons to Use a Static Website and of course, if you'd like help with that please feel free to contact me at David and Company.

Quite a few years ago I interviewed for a job in Tech Support with QuarkXPress, which I was later offered, during which I learned a very interesting thing. It seems the number one reason for a tech support call at that time was because "it won't print". Most of these calls were about being able to print to a desktop printer and so the problem was almost always related to some kind of system problem, like a missing or unselected printer driver. Determining what the problem may be would have been facilitated by having a checklist of necessary steps and possible errors. I say "would have been" because I didn't take the job and so can't speak with authority about how they actually approached this problem.

In the years since, I have worked as a graphic designer and have found that having a "must do" checklist related to printing has been a useful tool. One that I'd like to share with you here. (The following list is geared towards professional printing only, not a simple topic, but I'll attempt to keep it brief.)

Say what? Do you know the difference between these types of monitors? I didn't, until I had to buy a new display recently as my Apple Cinema Display is failing. Yes, that means that I'm on a Mac, but this may be relevant to PC users as well. As I understand it, Apple has been using a technology for a number of years in their displays called IPS, which stands for In-plane switching. This increases viewing angle and color fidelity. When I recently needed to buy a new display, members of my Mac User Group (Comug) advised that replacing it with an IPS type monitor would be important, especially since I am a graphic designer and accurate color is important to designers. Never-the-less, since I was also considering the purchase of a new computer in the near future, I thought I might be able to get away with an inexpensive display, a version known as a TN type (twisted nematic). To my chagrin, they were right. I did in fact purchase a TN type and found that the color rendering was not going to work for me at all. Specifically, I had a document that I was working on that had a solid colored background, but when viewed on the new display, it looked like a gradation. There was no position that I could put the monitor or my head in that would make that color look like a solid. I was disappointed to say the least.

I then searched for an IPS type monitor and found one from LG that was only slightly more expensive. I have to admit that I was aware of this IPS display before purchasing the other monitor and might have chosen it, however the store I went to, to see it in action, had all their displays turned off due to some technical problem they were having, so I couldn't view them. When I went to another store that did have working monitors, though not an IPS type, I just bought it, as it seemed to work just fine. Live and learn, as they say.

Now, a week later, I'm very happy with the new display (IPS) and would hope that you might gain some insight into displays from my experience, should you find yourself in my situation.

Remember when upgrading to OS X Lion, besides needing to have a minimum of a Core 2 Duo processor you'll also have to check to see if your software will run on the new OS. I found a great list of compatible software at the following link. Check it out!

http://bit.ly/reWu8m