WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are three of the most popular free content management systems on the Internet, but they also generate numerous debates about which one is better.

Let’s take a brief look at each one and offer positives and negatives from the experience of a webmaster who has built sites on all three systems.

WordPress

Positives:WordPress was created with blogging in mind and is ideally suited for small Web sites that require limited features and capabilities. It is easy to install and set up, there are many free templates available for people who don’t have strong design skills, and plugins are readily available at the core site of WordPress.org.

Negatives: The software is designed mainly for blogging, which leads to limited functionality. A site that grows beyond something small in nature will soon find that the limitations may make using it easy and simple, but those same limitations inhibit the ability to add extensive functionality.

WordPress is recommended for anyone with light technical skills who is launching a site on their first CMS.

Joomla

Positives: Joomla is justifiably popular because of its simple and visual interface — one of the same favorite traits of WordPress. The core site at Joomla.org has an extensive list of plugins, and the forums are populated with users who seem quite willing to help out newcomers. One template can be used to display every page on the site, which makes templating a simple task.

Negatives:The plugins don’t always install correctly, and security concerns seem common. Like the limited functionality of WordPress, the limited templating system of Joomla is a challenge as well.

Joomla is recommended for anyone with moderate technical skills and some experience in managing Web sites.

Drupal

Positives:Of the three major systems, Drupal is the most technically advanced and well-regarded for its efficient design. Plugins integrate efficiently with a high success rate. The core site has an extensive list of available plugins.

Negatives: The Drupal interface is not intuitive and requires extensive usage to understand the complete set of site features and functions. Although free templates are available, any changes require a more advanced knowledge of PHP than Wordpress or Joomla. In addition, the user forums at Drupal.org are not as responsive as the forums for WordPress or Joomla.

Drupal is recommended for anyone with advanced technical skills.

If you have never built a website before, one of the quickest and easiest ways to get your first domain live and operational in only minutes is to install WordPress on your website.

WordPress is a blogging platform that allows you to have a pre-built website for free that will allow you to focus on the more important items like content, and if you desire it, sales and profits.

WordPress Benefits

In more than a decade online, I have literally built dozens of websites, many from the ground up… But since I discovered the ease of use and powerful flexibility of the WordPress platform, I am building most of my newest websites under this Content Management System (CMS).

The reasons I prefer the WordPress blogging platform are many, but I will sum it up with the following five key benefits:

1. Quick and Easy Installation - If you have a web hosting company that runs cPanelX as your webmasters’ control panel (many of the more popular web hosting companies do), then you will find an option in your control panel called, “Fantastico De Luxe”. When you click on the Fantastico icon, you will be taken to a page where you can add a multitude of free applications to your website, by following some simple instructions. Just click on the WordPress link to install WordPress on your website. The software will ask you some basic general information, then do the full install of one of the most recent WordPress builds into your website.

2. Website Themes - Few webmasters want to use the generic WordPress Theme that ships with WordPress. The default WP Theme is plain Jane, and to my taste, perfectly drab. There are many people who design custom WordPress Themes that you can easily upload to your domain, to change the appearance and feel of your WordPress website. Some of the WP Themes are paid versions, but most of them are free. There are more than one thousand themes loaded directly into the WordPress website ( http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ ), from which you can choose, although you are not limited to just the themes loaded into the WordPress website.

3. Website Functionality - Just like with the WordPress Themes, if there is a specific functionality you want your blog to perform, there are programmers out there who have made WordPress Plugins that will do for you those things you would like to do. There are nearly 8,000 WordPress Plugins on the WordPress.org website ( http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ ), and thousands more that are not in the WordPress database. If you find a Plugin you want, just download, unzip, and upload it to the appropriate Plugin directory on your blog. After you have uploaded the Plugin, simply go to the Admin area of your Blog to activate the software.

4. Open Source - WordPress has been built in PHP, and its source code is visible to everyone who wants to look at it. On top of that, WordPress has included comprehensive documentation and a range of functions to help programmers work within the WordPress Codex ( http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page ). Anyone with a minimal knowledge of PHP can program WordPress Themes and Plugins, without too much effort.

5. Self-Updating - In recent versions, WordPress has included a feature that will notify you if upgrades are available for the basic WordPress operating system or your chosen WP Plugins. When upgrades become available, you will be notified, and often you only need to click a link to automatically install the upgrades and updates.

I have a friend who is a PHP coder by trade. I try not to mention WordPress in his presence, because every time I do so, I get an ear-full of “WordPress Sucks…”

To be honest with you, I still like WordPress… I like it, because it is easy to install and maintain, and I can improve it easily by using templates and plugins.

I am a coder, but life is too short to spend all of my time coding new websites… I am happy to spend my time creating content that will lead to sales… So for me, WordPress is good, and I am happy to put it on as many websites as I need to do…

Websites are a critical component for any business striving to succeed in today’s competitive landscape. But just having a website is not enough, you need invest knowledge and expertise into the site design for the most efficient and effective online presence possible. Every website has the potential to reach its target audience and maximize its return on investment, but not all websites succeed. It is the sites that are consistently using professional Drupal website design components to exude credibility and trust that experience true online success.

The first component to a Drupal website design is the look and feel, or presentation, of the site. It is the visitor’s first impression of your site, brand, and company as a whole. Professional illustrations, graphic design and photography always enhances a site’s look and feel, but not at the expense of the other components. Visual elements should always act as an appropriate enhancement of written content and functionality. You don’t want to be too flashy or techno-savvy because it may look too expensive (or hokey) for the company’s budget. Drupal website design consistency is also essential in providing the user with confidence and freedom to find information on your site.

In recent years, website usability has become increasingly important for delivering a quality user experience. Website usability is the ease at which a visitor can use the site. It starts with good site architecture, or structure, for quick navigation and links to easily accessible content. It should also be a priority to stay current with the latest web and accessibility standards, such as XHTML, JavaScript, or PHP and use them to your advantage.

Effective content writing is one of the most important aspects of the overall website design. Your company’s call to action, value proposition, and product or service should be the all-star of the homepage. The written content needs to be compelling, informative, and relevant to your target audience. Most visitors will only scan content, rather than read as meticulously as you do, so extra attention must be invested to optimize its scan-ability.

Your website can be the epitome of design, but it won’t be appreciated if no one sees it. A website will fail if it doesn’t have quality traffic. Quality traffic comes from three different sources. People who come directly in their browser, through a search engine, or a link from a different website. Search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing will drive traffic to your website through careful planning and execution of internet marketing and correct coding.

The most important goal of a Drupal website design is to create results for your business. For most companies, this means generating leads and prospects and converting them into sales and clients. If your site’s presentation, usability and content are professional and you are getting quality traffic, you stand a great chance of winning business and increasing your overall conversion rates.

Being found on the internet is a difficult, but rewarding achievement. Once traffic is flowing onto your site, it is critical that a credibility and trust awaits the visitor via presentation, usability, SEO, and quality content. Only then can you ensure quality targeted traffic and increased, consistent conversions. However, not all businesses have the internal capacity or resources to invest in these design components.

If you’re anything like me, when I first set up my blog about a year ago, I had NO CLUE where to start.  Should I use Blogger, Blog spot, Wordpress, or any of the 100’s of other blog platforms that are out there?

I assumed a blog was just a blog.  Boy, did I learn otherwise!

After a lot of research, recommendations, and help from others (that’s the “Network” part of network marketing) I realized that I better go with installing Wordpress for my blog.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with WordPress, it’s a blog platform that gives you a pre-built blog site for free.  But if you REALLY want to boost up your blog marketing - you really need to get a self-hosted Wordpress blog and your own personal domain.  And I’m going to go into more details why here in the list.

As any smart marketer realizes - leave the hard stuff to the professionals.  So that is why I outsourced my blog set-up (which included the graphics, RSS feeds, theme, and connection to all of my social networking sites) to THE professional blog set-up guru I know

I also self-hosted my site - and again, to another professional who knows a ton more information about self-hosting and is THE ONLY person I would trust with hosting my blog

If you stop by their sites, tell them I sent you!

Here are my Top 5 Reasons to Use Wordpress for your blog:

1. Google Loves Wordpress - If you’re using a blog for your marketing strategies, you’re probably interested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - at least a little bit.  If you’re into SEO, then you want and need Google giving your site “some love.”  Now, I could go on and on and on and on and ON about SEO, but the idea is that you want Google ranking your site higher than your competition for any given keyword.  Well, for whatever reason, Google loves Wordpress.  Period.  Game, set, match!  You need a Wordpress blog if you are in SEO strategies.

Yes, you can use other blog sites and still get good ranking, but you typically have to work harder to get the same amount of “love” from Google as your competition.  If you already have a different blog and are so far into it that it would hurt you more than help you, just stick with it and MAKE IT WORK.  But AT LEAST have it self-hosted - which leads me into my next point.

2. Self hosted - I have this in my top 5 reasons, well, for a good reason.  (Oh man I’m witty!)  You can use the free version of wordpress and have no problems and make that work for you just fine.  But you could run into a few problems, the biggest of which is that your blog could be here one day, and gone the next.  If you have a self hosted Wordpress blog, no one can touch it.  It’s yours.  Yes, you’re paying a small monthly hosting fee (usually around .00 or less) but it’s WELL worth its value considering the thought that you might lose your blog otherwise.

3. Wordpress Design Themes - Now , do you want the generic WordPress Theme that comes with WordPress, or a custom designed one that is specific only to you?  The default Wordpress theme is perfect if you’re just setting up a blog to have a blog.  BUT, since you’re in this industry to make money and brand you, I suggest a designed custom theme. There are tons of people who design custom WordPress Themes that you can easily upload to your domain, to change the appearance and feel of your WordPress website. Some of the WP Themes are paid versions, but most of them are free.

There are more than 1000 themes loaded directly into the WordPress theme website, from which you can choose, although you are not limited to just the themes loaded into the WordPress website.  Since I outsourced the design and feel of my blog, my designer and I talked bakc and forth for a week or so to grind out the details of what I wanted.  The theme I chose is very SEO friendly (”Monezine” theme), but there are many other to choose from such as “Flexibility” or “Thesis”

4. Plug-ins - This is my favorite.  Plugins are what soups-up your blog and converts it from a 1992 Ford Taurus, into a 2010 Chevy Camaro.  The right plug-in can save you time, make you money, and make your job a WHOLE lot easier.  In fact, I think I’ll make my next post on specific plug-ins just so you can see some of the money making ones you NEED to have on your blog (So make sure to Sign-up to get my blog updates via e-mail so you can get the next one).

Just like with the WordPress Themes, if there is a specific function you want your blog to perform, there are programmers out there who have created WordPress Plugins that will make your job A LOT easier. There are 1000’s of WordPress Plugins on the WordPress.org website (wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ ), which are free and an ever growing amount that are not in the WordPress database.  You just have to go looking for them.

When you find a Plugin you want, just click “Install” on that specific plugin page, and it will automatically download, unzip, and upload it to the right Plugin directory on your blog. After it finished its upload, simply go to the backoffice area of your blog to “activate” the plugin.

5.  Wordpress functionality - Now, I don’t want to lose you here on this one, so I’ll keep it simple.  Wordpress is an HTML based blog platform.  The reason I love that is that it allows you to do SOOOOOOO much more to your blog.  Whan you’re creating a post - you have the ability to add videos, pics, graphics, links, and audio all in HTML format.  The cool thing is, when you create posts, you can create them in a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) design - meaning that what you see on the screen is what your readers will see.  Or you can do HTML formating - all with a click of the mouse and flip-flop back and forth.

To Double check and see what your content will look like, you can “Preview” it and see it in real time on your designed blog to double check and make sure it looks the way you want it to.

Appearance and results are like the alternative beats of the same heart in a website. Even if a few beats are missing or irregular, the heart requires the checkup and treatment. Similarly, an incomplete website that has the gaping holes in presentation will not impress the viewer. The confidence of your client-in-the making depletes. One begins the next search to achieve one’s objective. In the process, you have lost two individuals- a client and an advertiser of the goodwill of your company.

The use of Drupal software is your best bet. You will present the design of a stunning website and that is made available to the client at a competitive cost. Once it is presented to the client, one need not call on you repeatedly for attending to the after-sale problems. Your client will have the facilities to revise/modify the website look and content with out calling for external assistance of any expert. Drupal, it can be said confidently, is the dream website of every Organization, to present to the client with the best in the field.

Just as one muffled drum spoils the entire symphony of the orchestra, one ill-designed insertion, may go to vitiate the entire beauty of the website. In the era of the internet, the client looks forward to nothing but perfection. You always wish to look different from your competitors. Begin the process with your website. Will this click lead to the right choice and an enduring business relationship?

Your choice is Drupal and you have made the right choice. You know something about it, but something is not everything. Before coming to the conclusion, you need to know what precisely you look forward to in a Custom Drupal Software. After going through the website of the company, now you are with active interaction with the company and interview them to take the final decision. What precise issues that you need to address to them?

1. Brand: A web designing company needs to have the total concept of your Organization. The cost of advertising campaigns for your products is reduced much, once the brand name becomes popular and remains implanted in the heart and minds of the customers. The objective of the custom website design is to build up your brand image.

2. Navigation: As for the facility of navigation, one can not compromise. Complicated and cumbersome navigation system is an irritant, involves wastage of time and leads to tension. None will be happy to peruse the contents of the site that is hard to navigate.

3. Load time: You are not the conductor of the truck who needs to wait and watch until the loading of the goods in the truck is completed. You are a busy businessman and every minute counts because that is part of your precious, productive business time. Even if the visitor has the high speed Internet Connection, the same is not for the purpose of viewing recurring flash animations. One sees enough of such gimmicks on the television screens. Your client does not have the ambition to take Doctorate, studying your website only. He has other priorities in life. Simplicity needs to be the prime objective of your website.

4. Search Engine Optimization: The website needs to pay special attention to HTML codes of the site on the tags, so that this facility is easily available.

5. E-commerce: If you propose to have an e-commerce site, see that payment processing systems and shopping cart are properly integrated till the checkout process and they function smoothly.

One of the most beneficial SEO executions for your Drupal website is building quality backlinks. The idea behind building backlinks as part of the page rank algorithm is that if a page has great content, people will start linking to it. The more quality backlinks a page has, the better. But you shouldn’t rely too heavily on the fact that the content is good and quality people will automatically link to you. It is true that if the quality of content is great, so will the backlinks, but what you get without any effort will be considerably less than what you need to successfully increase your rankings. Finding quality back links can take a lot of effort, but if you use an advanced search operator, it will deliver consistently over time.

Research Prospects

The first step you have to do is research what backlinks you want to create and find the proper prospective websites. A great Google search command to build link prospects is the “Allinurl” command. Let’s say you want to find a Drupal website on that does web design.

Just type: “allinurl: Drupal design” in Google without the quotes to find sites with “Drupal” and “design” in the URL. Don’t forget that there are other important related keywords or variations that can prove to be valuable to your specific link building campaign.

Advanced Research

If you are looking to receive links back through commenting on other sites with the ability for visitors to leave comments without using “rel=nofollow” then you can get creative. Drupal is one of the content management systems that do not include the rel=nofollow. So, using the same basic keywords or related phrases, you can locate some great sites that you can potentially get comment links.

Type in “allinurl:q=node design”. This search command looks for Drupal’s standard non search engine friendly URL format condition with the keyword “design” also in the URL.

Drupal sites with keyword phrase “Drupal design” with comments turned on and that allow HTML <a> links to be added are almost always followed:

“&btnG=Search”>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=”drupal+design”+”Allowed+HTML+tags:+“&btnG=Search

Want to get more specific and search for the keyword in the title? Try the “intitle:” search operator.

“&btnG=Search”>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=intitle:drupal+design+”Allowed+HTML+tags:+“&btnG=Search

If, for some unknown reason, you want to go the broad route not specify the CMS platform and just search for sites allowing the <a> HTML tag, which usually specifies a followed link and brings up endless results:

“&btnG=Search”>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=”Allowed+HTML+tags:+<a>”&btnG=Search

Building up quality backlinks for your site doesn’t have to complicated process, but it does take time and effort. If you want the benefit of quality backlinks, but don’t have the time, you should find a reputable SEO company that can do it for you the right way. Volacci is a leader in Drupal SEO providing service such as Search Engine Optimization, PPC management and Consultation. Volacci offers a guarantee: You’ll earn enough additional profits to pay for our services or we’ll work for free until you do.

Important features:

Collaborative content creation: It has features to create a book for collaborative content creation. A book has many numbered pages in serial order. Similar is the case with the computer book. It has sections, chapters, subsections, bibliography and so forth. Such books can be used as a manual or a resource guide to give answers to questions and queries. The advantage for the users is that it can write content, reviews, edit and add to the pages. You can work alone or as a part of the group.

This advanced system has links to next or previous pages. You are able to set up a menu. Move around in the book through a navigation block. See the menu first and browse the pages as per your requirements. Through the menu page, you are able to add links to your other books. At the bottom of the page you find the print links to obtain the result of printer friendly display of the pages.

Modules:

Build, enhance and extend the core functionality of Drupal development through modules. They are plug-in devices. Modules are contributed by the website community. You have varied modules, such as e-commerce, evaluation or rating, commerce, advertising, file management, filters or editors and so forth.

Online Help:

Drupal renders online help to the Drupal development community. Some of them are slides, videos, tutorials and how-to, self-help articles. The guide pages include essential topics like updating modules, themes and take care of other projects.

Open Source:

Drupal is open source in the real sense of the term. As per the terms of the GNU (General Pubic License) majority of the software are by nature restrictive, and the user is not given the freedom to modify it. You can not share it either. Under this type of license, you have total freedom even to change the software. You can distribute the copies free of charge or even make a commercial sale of the same. You can change the software and use it in parts along with any software program. What more customization environment a user may require? The individual preferences are given due regard as you can personalize both its content and presentation.

Users and access and management settings:

The exercise of real freedom is provided in the system. No elaborate permission formats for each user are necessary. The module permits the users to register, log in or log out. The created content can be associated with it. Users use own names and set up ‘my account page.’ Cookies without personal information are provided and they are the tools to retrieve information stored in one’s server. Many other functions like Creating Polls, Templating, Threaded comments and discussions and Blogger API support are provided in Drupal.

When it comes to developing the modern commerce solutions in coherence with the newest technologies and ever-evolving retail world – Magneto application development perceptibly comes forth as the foremost choice. It works as an effective platform and allows the users to set up a quick and feasible online retail store. Over the years, magneto has been deeply scrutinized and thoroughly mastered by the experts, who can easily merge this superb platform with other shipping modules and offer the great and long-lasting solutions to companies. As per your needs, you can also get the customized Magneto solutions. Though there are other platforms available in the market, when it comes to reliability and feasibility – no one can match up with the efficiency of this compatible platform.

Actually, it is an e-commerce portal development service, which has been constantly improved with the help of the latest tools and technology to stay ahead on course and meet up the modern e-commerce challenges. Magneto programming is the foundation of this platform, which is considered as the most user-friendly platform and offer diverse yet effective solutions.  With the help of Magneto, you can easily set up an online retail store within a stipulated time period. In fact, developers can further customize this platform, as per your demands and requirements. Throughout the world, Magneto has become synonym with online retail solutions. It has been regularly upgraded with the help of the new features and web tools.

Over the years, Magneto web development has evolved a lot and become the fasted growing open source e commerce platform. Now that more and more users rely upon the Internet to buy all sorts of products, Magneto has been making lives of lot many people around comfortable in one way or another. It comes with a secure coding platform, offers multi-store functionality with space for unlimited products and services to be listed.

Magento is also search engine friendly coding architecture platform. To know more about this superb platform or make use of the latest code release, you can take help of several active Magento forums and list of professionals working for the betterment of this technology.

If you want to have your own Magneto platform to help you sell your products and services in a rewarding way, then it is better to contact the leading Magneto development firms. The professionals can guide you better and help you avail the various benefits that one associates with Magento.

The internet is certainly one of the most phenomenal inventions of our times. It has changed the pace of the human life. Everyone is going gaga over this technology that is continually upgrading itself into a better tool. In the recent years, Drupal has emerged as exceptionally brilliant system that has changed the face of technology in the modern times. It is an open source content management system framework which is written in PHP. And for all those who are not acquainted with PHP, it is a language that comes without any licensing free. PHP is used by the software professionals all across the world. Given the fact that Drupal is an open source software that can be easily used by the technical programmers, it is also be modified in accordance to the specific programming requirement. This has made drupal application development much popular than the other similar softwares.

Did you know that all of the social media networking websites (facebook, twitter, myspace, orkut), blogs, and discussion forums are made possible by drupal. It should get the credit of changing the cyberworld into a highly interactive platform and bringing the world closer to each other. This all has been made possible by the Drupal experts who are technically brilliant in modifying this software and developing the new avatar of internet as a highly interactive medium of communication. The professional engineers who specialise in the drupal web development are quite into demand these days. Since it’s a highly specialised kind of software, it is suggested that you should opt for the most qualified service provider who has a relevant experience in developing drupal software. You can go for a total package of drupal development as it will be easier as well as cost effective option than hiring individual services for each task.

There are many agencies that deal with drupal services and are eager to assist you in your specific project requirement. An expert provider will be able to understand the specific requirement of your business and help you design a website which is effective, interactive and user friendly. With drupal, you will surely be able to get an edge over other competitors.

You pay hundred dollars and wait endlessly for your website to get updated. What are you up to? Drupal is the answer for you. Drupal is an open source CMS, which is used to create websites, blogs, social networking sites and so on. In fact, there is virtually no limit to what you can be using Drupal for, and it’s free. Some of the feature, which Drupal tends to share with us are—

1) Built-in User Registration: Certainly one of Drupal’s most powerful feature is that it may possibly register customers. One can easily e-mail all registered users, so maintaining teams of people using your website is very much simple.

2) Control Over the look: The template option gives you a control over the look of the website. The templates are made from standard HTML and PHP coding which saves your time to get a hang over the template language.

3) Versatile: There are thousands of modules or small mini-elements available. These are created by individual programmers and software companies, which work inside its framework to avail your website with n number of features ranging from social networking sites to e-commerce and many more.

4) Easy to Handle: With Drupal, one can easily edit web site content material, upload images and create new pages, all without the need to know HTML. Drupal has many modules for handling news articles, and can actually robotically publish content inside the websites.

5) Keep track of  your Page: Drupal’s Version Control feature equips you with the facility to keep track of your website by providing a detailed page regarding the content updates, modifications done along with the date and time. This also leads you to a detailed track record of the changes so that you can roll back the content to an earlier version.

6) Online Administration: A reliable online help system built into the core text renders you help regarding your queries, and try and avoid all the problems you encounter in the other open source CMS.

7) Collaborative Book:  This unique feature enables to create ‘book’ in a hierarchy which contains titles, content, sub sections providing the registered and the authorised users to create, write or edit the content.

Polling- the Need of the Hour: The users are now, with the help of Drupal, able to create polls with the assistance of the poll module. Where polling is seen as the latest trend amongst youngsters, and a powerful medium to communicate, Drupal automatically tallies the number of votes and the module will also allow users to see results.

Drupal has emerged in the previous few years as one the most liked open-source content management system applications being used. Drupal uses PHP and MySQL or PostgreSQL and is extremely versatile. It is more than simply widespread— and claims to making it better and better as a volunteer community.