| Right out of the box Joomla is a very powerful | | | | Seminar Booking |
| application for websites. The potential it has is | | | | This is an extension that allows for easy seminar |
| amazing. You can have as many or as few pages as | | | | event registration. Your clients can confirm or even |
| you want for your website. This can be great for | | | | cancel their attendance simply and easily. It accepts |
| those website owners that have a lot to say. Adding | | | | payments through PayPal. There are also many other |
| more pages doesn't bloat the code or the site. | | | | scheduling or event registration options. |
| Joomla was created to handle a lot of pages. | | | | Social Profiles |
| Joomla was also created to have organization on | | | | The basis for a community networking site. User |
| your site so you aren't having a hard time trying to | | | | profiles that can be enhanced in a variety of ways, |
| figure out where all your pages are. You can | | | | including personal guestbooks, personal photo |
| categorize them anyway that you want. If part of | | | | galleries, personal RSS feeds, and much more. |
| your website is about services you offer you can | | | | Forum |
| categorize them, if part of your site is specific | | | | This is a great add-on so that can provide the central |
| information to your industry it can be categorized as | | | | communication area for either social sites, or for |
| well. This also works well for your visitors because | | | | business support forums. It offers moderation, |
| you can link to individual sections and categories and | | | | membership set up and much more. FAR simpler to |
| let them choose what they want to look at without | | | | use than PHPBB, and shares the template with your |
| cluttering the site with different menus. | | | | Joomla site, so setup is much easier and less costly. |
| Once you get into adding things the potential | | | | Gallery |
| expands even more. The need to pay for extra | | | | Galleries come in many flavors. They may be |
| services becomes almost non-existent. There may be | | | | photo-community oriented, where users can submit |
| some extensions that do require payment but the | | | | photos and create new galleries, or they may be |
| majority of them are open source. The problems | | | | portfolio styled, where you are creating a gallery |
| with linking the applications together, additional logins, | | | | presentation. They come in both a grid style layout, |
| and templates, are simplified because the extensions | | | | or a slideshow style, and in varying ranges of |
| are specific to Joomla. You can access them all just | | | | complexity and flexibility. If you need a gallery, |
| by logging in to the backend of the site and they use | | | | chances are, Joomla has one available that will do |
| the same template that is used for your website so | | | | what you need. |
| no need to create another template that matches | | | | Directory |
| your marketing message. | | | | More than a link directory. Joomla directories can |
| Newsletter Manager | | | | manage just about anything, and can be used to |
| We are all familiar with the different newsletter | | | | catalog almost any kind of listing. Whether you need |
| managers such as constant contact, icontact, | | | | weblinks, course catalogs, resource listings, software |
| aweber, etc. All of these cost something plus you | | | | libraries, or anything else, a directory is a flexible |
| have to link it into your website. With Acajoom, | | | | structure to add to a site to get just the right |
| (newsletter manager for Joomla) you don't have to | | | | structure. With customizable forms for entering data, |
| worry about extra fees or problems linking it to your | | | | and many ways to extend the function, a directory |
| website. The application is open source so there is no | | | | can be much more than a list of links. |
| fee associated with it. You have the ability to have | | | | Article Submissions |
| multiple lists. It even gives your subscribers the ability | | | | Right out of the box, Joomla handles the process for |
| to easily select which one of your newsletters they | | | | both user article submissions, and an approval |
| want to subscribe to. | | | | process (so nothing goes live until you say it can). |
| Shopping Cart | | | | This functionality can be enhanced in a number of |
| One of Joomla extensions is a shopping cart that is | | | | directions, to give better control over the submission |
| also free for use. You can provide discounts, keep | | | | or approval process. It can even be integrated with |
| track of inventory, accept payments through PayPal, | | | | social networking profiles. |
| and through other payment processors. All extremely | | | | This is just a sample listing of what can be added to |
| simple to use, and setup fees are reasonable - there | | | | Joomla and what Joomla can do. As I've stated many |
| is no cost for the cart itself. | | | | times, the possibilities are endless. |