Preface

Setting up a basic Joomla! web site is a relatively simple process, and there have been many articles and books outlining the process. However, the next step proves difficult, and often expensive for most people, but it is the most important one. That is customizing the site to bring their vision fully to life. Understanding how and why to make these customizations, is essential to having a successful, professional site, but there has been very little written about how to take this step.

This book will help you to take your web site to this next step, guiding you through how to customize different parts and aspects of your site, allowing you to separate your site from the crowd of other Joomla! sites without having to pay an arm and a leg hiring developers to do it for you. It will also show you how to turn your site into a profitable business via these customizations.

You will be taken beyond the basics of Joomla!, and given an insight into the techniques and tools used by the professionals to rapidly develop unique, custom sites. This will enable you to develop your own professional-quality Joomla! site without assistance, saving you time and money. You will learn how modules, plugins, components, and templates are constructed, and how to make changes to them, giving you the confidence to make more elaborate changes to your site. On top of this will be a look at common problems Joomla! site developers face and how best to deal with them.

You will also learn techniques for building a business with Joomla!, as we step through building a subscription-based web business. Then we will look at marketing and monetizing this business fully to maximize our return.