Graphic Design and Hosting Selection - Joomla Install Step By Step Instructions - Step 1

I've been using Joomla over the past half a year now.  The application works very well for professional website design projects.  The Joomla application itself is free under the GPL license.  I enjoy using Joomla because it allows me to focus on my clients and building great websites instead of having to program functionality that has been built many time before.  

In this series of articles, I will go through the steps that I use to build a Joomla content managed website.  I have been using Joomla almost exclusively for the past six months and have setup approximately 15 websites (not all launched yet).    I will be going through the process that I use to setup a website.  

First step, is to have a graphic designer design a great look for your website.  Alternatively, you can select a template from one of several websites.  Monster Templates has many great templates built specifically for Joomla.  RocketTheme has also been a great source for finding a good template to for the website.  While we prefer to also have a graphic designer create a custom built design, sometimes that just isn't in the budget.  Purchasing a template will also free you from programming the CSS and html template files.

Once you've performed this, you'll need to select a hosting provider.  I have had experience hosting websites at the company I worked for, using a local vendor and using a national vendor.  My best experience has been with the national vendors.  While the tech support can be a little lacking sometimes, they have invested enough time in the server setups that little needs to be asked of them.  Some of the hosts that I have experience with are InMotion Hosting, Host Monster, and Host Gator.  For email, I use Google Apps.  It is currently free and provides excellent SPAM protection free of charge.

I would also recommend that if you are also purchasing a domain, do not purchase the domain through your host.  Use a domain registrar like GoDaddy (make sure they have free DNS management).  This makes it much easier to move the website if your host selected isn't satisfactory.  I have some horror stories where a client's website had to go down for 5 days while the domain was transferred away from the current host.  If the domain registrar was elsewhere, this would have been avoided.

After the above steps have completed, you will be able to actually create your Joomla install, install some components and modules, and begin actually creating content.  I will cover how to accomplish these steps in the installment of this series.