Identifying Your Purpose before using joomla

One of the most important groundwork items you can do before you get started creating your Web site is to identify the purpose. Why do you need a Web site, what do you want it to say to people, and do you want people to take action based on what you are  communicating to them? Answering these questions can be tedious and frustrating, and sometimes the answers can be irritatingly elusive. The good news is that this step will help you avoid stuffing your Web site with items and functionality you don’t need, making it easier to maintain and retain focus. Joomla! on this point is an excellent choice as a framework to base your Web site on, because of the flexibility it offers. At any time you can reevaluate your needs and extend Joomla! to meet any functionality you may want to offer your Web site visitors in the future.

Here are questions to ask yourself and then answer as specifically as possible.

1.     Why do I need a Web site?

2.      What do I want to offer to visitors of my site?

3.      What information do I want from them?

4.        What actions am I expecting visitors to take while on my Web site?

5.     What actions am I expecting visitors to take after they leave my Web site?

6.     What kind of communication path do I want to use?

– A one-way communication directed outward from me to visitors?

– A two-way communication between myself and visitors?

– A collaborative communication environment where visitors communicate not

only to me through my Web site but also with each other?

As you refine your answers to these questions, you can begin to list the functionality you will need for your Web site. This step is vitally important to help you choose appropriate extensions for your site that work well together. It can also help you avoid using too many extensions or having unused extensions installed on your site.

Tip

One of the main ways people expose their sites to security vulnerabilities is to keep unused and/or out-of-date extensions installed on their Web sites. If you aren’t using an extension, uninstall it, and check to make sure that all files and folders for the extension have been removed. Keep your extensions up to date. This is the time to pick your extensions wisely. Make sure extensions you have picked have an active developer or development team. Other helpful things to look for that make an extension stand out are a user forum, available documentation, and responsive communication availability with the developer or development team.