An Exceptional Developer Club: Member Spotlight and more

Spotlight

Announcing Developer Club Member Spotlight- an exclusive page for our Developer Club members to showcase their best work

Joomla web developers and designers: what do you need from us to be successful in 2009?

When we launched the Joomlashack Developers Club in late 2007, we thought coupling unlimited use of all our templates with special recognition in our forum would offer you good value at $499.

After listening to you, we dropped the price even lower, to $399. We thought that was great value.

But 2009 is not 2008, or 2007. To help you be competive in a terrible economy, you need more from us.

Our Developer Club has to be better than good, and better than great.

Read more: An Exceptional Developer Club: Member Spotlight and more

Joomlashack Template Showcase- let your best sites shine

Does your Joomla site look gorgeous? Is it sporting one of our many commercial or free templates? Want to show it off?

Announcing the new Joomlashack Showcase, where our customers and our templates shine! We want to show the world how great (and unique!) our templates can look in the hands of our best customers.

Think you have a site that deserves to be showcased? Submit your site today!

AND don't forget to also submit your best sites to the Joomla.org Community Showcase as well.

Come on in and show off a little!

Joomlashack forum turns three- Celebrate with rewards

Announcing our new Community Forum Rewards Program, where our top forum participants are rewarded for their engagement!

Forum RewardsHappy Birthday, Joomlashack Forum!

In the busy winter we forgot to mark a milestone for Joomlashack, the three year anniversary of our massive community forum.

It's become a top destination on the web for getting help with Joomla, discussing tips and tricks, finding helpful free components and resources, and getting customization support for all Joomlashack's commercial and free templates.

Membership is totally free and open to all, and our team of staff and volunteers try to answer every question about Joomla, templates, SEO, and anything else you need to know to run a successful Joomla-powered website. It's one of the ways we try to give back to the Joomlaverse, and encourage the open source spirit that makes Joomla possible.

Read more: Joomlashack forum turns three- Celebrate with rewards

Joomla Community Showcase on Joomla.org

Want to show off your awesome Joomla-powered website to the largest Joomla audience on the web? Hurry over to the Joomla Project and register your site with the new Community Showcase on www.joomla.org

From the official announcement:

Read more: Joomla Community Showcase on Joomla.org

5 Tips to Promoting Your Content

Recently I wrote an article that proved to be immensely popular. I then thought it would be good to reach out to a favorite Joomla! blog of mine: Compass Designs. Here is a companion piece to my original post on promoting your Joomla content, Five (more) tips to promoting your content.

Read more: 5 Tips to Promoting Your Content

Ultimate Top 10 Joomla Extensions

The Ultimate Top 10 Joomla Extensions have been REVEALED and voting closed. See the results!

When we speak at events, or do Joomla training, one of the questions we get asked again and again is:

"What are your favorite Joomla extensions?"

There have been lots of people that have tried to answer this question, and its a hard one. One thing that I think makes it hard is the question isn't "what is the best extension?" That sort of question is really focusing on a particular scenario. The questioner perhaps means something like "what is the best comment extension?" The Joomla extension directory has lots of good information about this sort of question at the following pages:

I think what people are really asking are "what are the best extensions that you find yourself using again and again on many sites?"

OK, so lets try and answer that question!

Read more: Ultimate Top 10 Joomla Extensions

Joomlaworks K2 Video Review

One of the more exciting new releases for Joomla 1.5 recently has been K2 from Joomlaworks.

K2 is a content construction component, which lets you create custom content types (items) for your Joomla! website. With K2, build all sorts of different types of page: news, blogs, product catalogs, work portfolio, knowledge base, download/document manager, directory listing, event listing etc.

I thought I wold take k2 for a spin in a "raw" video review. I installed K2 and put it through its paces without ever having used it before. Raw look, no reading documentation, just install it and play!

Read more: Joomlaworks K2 Video Review

Chicago CMS Expo wrapup

Just got back from a great two days at the 2009 Chicago CMS Expo, the 3rd CMS Expo in the US since inception in 2007. It was great to see dev's from Drupal and Plone rubbing shoulders with the Joomla regulars. As were the previous two , the event was another successful, well orchestrated event. We even had Joomla and Drupal songs!

There seemed to be interest in my session on Socializing Your Joomla Site and I was able to give away some pre-release copies of the Joomla! 1.5: A User's Guide (2nd Edition) and Fundamentals of Joomla! (Video Training).

Of particular note was the one of the key notes by Wilco Jansen, the Joomla Development Coordinator and an OSM board member talked about the importance of engaging the community. He also answered questions about 1.6 on the experts panel, and talked a little about the GPL in his SDRnews interview.

You can also check out the CMS Expo 2009 Wrapup from John and Linda Coonen, also on SDRnews.

Read more: Chicago CMS Expo wrapup

Announcing Joomla Trainings in the US and UK Summer 2009

Joomla TrainingNeed Joomla training in 2009? Live in the U.S. or U.K.? You're in business!

Announcing the most complete tour of Joomla trainings ever- 25 sessions in 21 cities all spring and summer.

There are six sessions in New England with Joomlashack's own Barrie North (ok, five in New England and one in New York state), and a whopping 19 sessions all over the rest of the U.S. with our friends at JoomlaTraining.com

Most of the sessions are for beginners and intermediates, but there are some more advanced classes as well, in Joomla Template design and Joomla coding.

We're stoked for Joomlashack's master handyman and Joomla evangelist TJ Baker to teach two of the trainings in California, one in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco.

Need Joomla Training? Get going this spring and summer! More dates will be added, to keep coming back. It's a great time to invest in yourself and your Joomla skills.

Joomla Day Las Vegas, Success!

JDay Las Vegas Over the past weekend I had the privilege of attending the Las Vegas Joomla! Day and the previous day's Joomla training.

Attendees were treated to an "un-conference" facilitated by the great Allen 'Gunner' Gunn, including sessions from a packed house of knowledgeable Joomla individuals. From Joomla Core Team members, Working Group members and professionals who work with Joomla on a daily basis, the talent gathered in the room was immense.

For those who've never had the chance to attend a Joomla! Day, I highly recommend looking for one near you. The events are a great opportunity to gather and learn, to share input, and to give back to the project.

Major props go to Toni Marie who organized the event, and all who attended and helped to make the event such a great success.

I can't wait to attend another!

Read More about Joomla Day Las Vegas.

View Photos of the event here.