AbundanceTips.com - rt_versatility
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- Lenny Marut
- Newbie
- Posts: 7
- Thanks: 0
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This is my first Joomla website. I used RocketTheme because they are the best and have the best support.
I've always wanted to create this type of site and finally did a pretty neat static one with server side Php scripts to pull in 6 different blogger blogs which held my data. It worked great for a while but had it's limitations.
I needed to move to a CMS and I felt that Joomla was the one based on its features, solid foundation and very large user base. Lots of trial and error and lots of time to learn and get my site where it is now. Still working on molding it into a more user friendly layout. My sites been up since Dec. 25th and I have been live on Joomla for about a month+ now.
I just switched hosts last weekend from a 1&1 shared account to a Westhost.com VPS. WOW is all I can say. My website is like lightning, its practically instant now with more extensions and more data than ever! I often see refresh load times of less than a second on my fasterfox page load timer. Average load times across my pages that I see are almost always under 1.5 secs via broadband! I pay less for my VPS than my old shared acct. now! I pick whats loaded on the server, I have all the latest server side software running. PHP5+, SQL5+, eaccelerator server sidePHP caching( faster than APC in tests), statistics etc. They have easy install templates that install in seconds. Setup and transfer was super easy. VPS is really cool. Sorry for all the extra talk but this has been a major change for me from ok speed to wicked fast! Working in the backend of Joomla is near instant too!
Site: http://www.AbundanceTips.com
Additional Extensions:
JA Submit
Jom Comment
APF (Amazon Product feed)
mod_vivi_code
mod_rt_login
Xtypo mambot
Joomla FCK editor mambot
and probably a couple others
Custom Development:
I have carefully edited the code in many php xml and html files. Jom comment, RT css files, RSS feed, and others. I make original backups and make notes of my changes in the files. I high recommend using PSPAD ( www.PSPAD.com ) It's a free text/code editor that's simple awesome! No overstatement. It has built in FTP that you seemlessly edit and save to and loaded with tons of useful features. Download it!
Other Features:
I am using Feedburner.com for my RSS feeds and Daily emails. FB sends & automatically manages my email subscriptions and sends out a nicely formated email of all the changes from the last email based on the RSS feed. It's really neat and easy to implement. The best of all its free and they do not send any spam out to the subscribers! They also advertise my feed in various directories which brings my site more hits. I edited the code of my Joomla RSS feed and had it push some of the HTML formatting in the feed. The feed and email look great, pictures show and hyperlinks work correctly.
I have Joomla caching enabled and with eaccelerator doing the server-side php caching.
I have Ircmaxell's Page Cache component installed but have it disabled right now. It really speeded things up on my shared host but only marginal if any on the new VPS. I think the eaccelerator cache is doing all the work now. Ircmaxell's Page Cache is really a cool little powerful component a definitely a bang for the buck on a site without server side caching. One benefit of the eaccelerator caching is that I have 3 rotating components: banner image, Quote and affiliate links that rotate on every page load. Normally extra overhead but no problem with eaccelerator. They still rotate with EA and not with Ircmaxell's Page Cache. My solution is just to set the page cache TTL lower in Ircmaxell's Page Cache. I will definitely keep working with it.
Any specific areas of my site that I'd like feedback on, if any: I would be honored if people would look and my site and tell me what they think. If they see an issue, please let me know! Anything suggestions for improvements that would make the site better would also be greatly appreciated.
Additional Comments:
I have learned a wealth of knowledge while exploring and creating with Joomla. But am only just starting out in this area of CMS web design. Please let me know if I could help you in any way! If you you have questions about my Joomla setup or Westhost VPS account feel free to contact me. Also tell your friends about my site if you find it useful. If you want your site added to my web links section just email me the site / description.
I am committed to making AbundanceTips.com great!
Sincerely,
Lenny Marut
P.S
If you decide to use WestHost.com as a host for VPS. Please use my Westhost affiliate link to sign-up : http://affiliates.westhost.com/z/13/CD988/
Every $ counts to pay for my site's expense's & for more marketing to help promote it. Thank you! - Last Edit: 18 years 1 week ago by .
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- Piet Nutbey
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 659
- Thanks: 17
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Hi,
Your first Joomla site looks awesome!
A remark about the menu though. Not any mistakes or something, but more a personal taste. If you look at the orginal Versatility Source graphic files, I would say the menu looks a bit more velvet and has more depth. The menu to me now appears as sort of "stuck on". The active menu arrow is not really fitting. That arrow needs to be the same colour as your background to fit nicely.
But as you have made menu and background almost the same dark colour, you probably had to. But it doesn't appear graphically pleasant to me. I would choose to make a menu colour that would give more contrast with the header. Saying this, I would absolutely take a look at the menu bar of the latest RocketTheme template: http://www.rockettheme.com/Templates/Available_Templates/ColorMatic_-_Apr_07_Joomla_Templates/ maybe parts of this might come in handy in checking out your current menu.
Once again, it is absolutely subjective comment I give, personal taste and nothing else, I hope you can use my comment.
Keep up the good work!
Best regards,
Piet Nutbey
The Netherlands - Best regards,
Piet Nutbey
Joomla Video Tutorials: www.joomtorial.com
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- Lenny Marut
- Newbie
- Posts: 7
- Thanks: 0
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Thanks for your replay Piet. It's really great that you took the time to write you reply and critique my website. I definitely see what you are saying. I did modify the original rt_vesatility template to get the menu with my color scheme. Due to the black menu and the black header / logo area I choose those colors to contrast. I was working off my old static site color scheme. I need to start thinking more out of the box with colors.
The site look feels like a good start for me but I always felt it wasn't quite right yet. The new colormatic theme has been very appealing to me. I downloaded it and loaded on my test copy of AbundanceTips.com but haven't had to time to start working on designing a new theme for my site. I want to make my site more user friend and more web 2.0 like. I like the rich black and gold look but don't want a black site. I just feel the word Abundance as the color gold. Just a personal preference.
I have a multiple mindmapper documents with everything that needs to be done to the site. I chip away/ update/change them daily. It's a full time task. But it's my passion and it will be the site I envision. It will take some time and lots of molding. My CSS/coding skills get better each time I dive into the templates. I learn more and more every day!
I will contact you when I update my site.
I checked out your www.widgetworld.nl website. Really neat. You have a great collection widgets for the Mac. I see that you are using SMF for your forum. How do you like it? It looks like its integrating pretty well. Also what you you using for your "Submit Widget" form?
Thank you again!
Lenny
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- Piet Nutbey
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 659
- Thanks: 17
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Hi Lenny,
I checked out your www.widgetworld.nl website. Really neat. You have a great collection widgets for the Mac. I see that you are using SMF for your forum. How do you like it? It looks like its integrating pretty well. Also what you you using for your "Submit Widget" form?
Thank you for the kind words. About SMF, I think it has THE best integration into Joomla. As we speak I am in development of a University website. I also used the SMF-Joomla bridge by JoomlaShack. Integration with Joomla but also very disticnt settings for if you might use Community builder. Though in this university website I even will use an extended profiler mod for SMF to be used as THE User profile for the complete Joomla site. Community Builder is nice, but SMF profile is somehow better integrated I think. That website is here (still developing): http://prri.webprohost.nl
As for the 'Submit Widget'. I used Fascile Forms. For now (that I know of) that has the possibility of Security Images. I have tried I think 99% of all Joomla form components out there. Fascile Form is not the one I like the most, but can do what I need. 2nd for forms would be (and definitely the most versatile) ChronoForms ( http://www.chronoengine.com/ ). I have done some amazing things with ChronoForms for a client that has some contract with a 3rd party 'prospect -service' called SalesForce. Try and type Joomla and SalesForce integration minto Google. No one has done it. Some are busy with it, but will ask major bucks. ChronoForms did the job for the client. 3rd in forms, an oldie, even so old it is not available anymore, is AKOforms. I once bought it. Still use it. Maybe some 'Googling' might help you out.
P.S. Would love to hear from you when you have updated your website!
Best regards,
Piet Nutbey
The Netherlands - Best regards,
Piet Nutbey
Joomla Video Tutorials: www.joomtorial.com
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