Joomla! - let's start some discussion.

Dean,

Is the Joomla group still active?  I've been a Joomla fanatic for about 2 years so would love to compare notes.  

I agree about  Joomlashack templates as well as Rocket Theme. There are so many...free and low cost.

Have you converted to 1.5? For now, I've made a decision to hold off but I'm anxious to talk to others for their insights. 

I've not converted to 1.5 yet. While I'm anxious to do so, I admit that I am perfectly comfortable with the latest version.  

I checked out your great site.  I especially like the market statistics section. It reminded me of a key ingredient of one of my first sites, that included market stats for over 400 subdivisions.  We are awaiting the stats from the client now in order to update with 2007's stats. The site is AcadianaNeighborhoods.com.

If you have time, I'd love your feedback on some other Joomla sites I've built:    

SWLAShowcase.com  (great read from the front page on this top producer's internet strategy)

ReddProperties.com

BeaumontCorporateHousing.com (This is not a real estate site, but I liked the template..it's a RocketTheme) 

1000Michael.com is an entire website dedicated to one house complete with community and region information. If you know anyone moving this way...

HoboHotelforCats.com is for a non-profit I'm involved with..a no-kill shelter for cats and kittens.  Talk about fun and rewarding! 

My own (deprived) site, mkh.com was my very first Joomla experience. JoomlArt  template. 

We built and manage our local association site, SWLAR.com. The ability to search for an agent/firm option is being released 4/1.  Our part is done, we're just giving the agents time to update their profiles and upload photos.  (note, the navigation icons at the top are temporary, pending completion of a new logo).

Would love and appreciate feedback. 

I'm absolutely thrilled to find this group. I'm relatively new to Joomla - got sucked into helping my brother with his class reunion website back in February 2008. One thing led to another and now I'm running 2 real estate sites with Joomla...so far I've managed to blow my sites up a few times, but I'm learning at a fast pace and love the freedom of developing the sites myself, not to mention all the money it saves me :)

Susan

Susan, I just realized that I wasnt' logged in when I submitted my comments.

Hi Mary Kay,

I was hoping I'd hear from you! It seems you have a lot of experience with Joomla. I'm loving every minute of it. But I have to confess, I am nowhere near your league...I am still learning how to change appearances etc. so please don't be too tough on me.

My first site, which I began in August 2008 is www.lakemohawksales.com. For starters, not sure I'm thrilled with the template, seems very dark and am looking for something else. Using EZ Realty which I love, but it doesn't love Rocket Theme templates - they tend to conflict with each other.

My second site is www.spartahomesales.com - I had it with Top Producer for several years and when the market tanked I decided I might as well learn how to develop the site myself with Joomla and save myself some money. So I transitioned that site over in November 2008.

What I'm trying to achieve is a community site as well, so that people searching for info about these areas will come to us/me first. Are you familiar with Connecting Neighbors? About 1 1/2 years I contracted for 2 sites with them, kind of like being "the neighborhood expert". I liked the idea of having other info besides real estate to keep people coming back, but each site cost $500 a piece to set up, and another $59.95/month, EACH. It got to be more than I could handle financially, even before the market really started to turn.

So, that's my story. I have a list a mile long of things "still in the works" for both sites, but would love to get your feedback.

Susan

Susan,

Based on my cursory glance at both sites....and I wish I had more time to explore as both sites looks well worth exploring.... you are doing GREAT!!!!  Terrific application.

You are using the  same calendar and forum component that I used for our board of REALTORS site, neighborhood site, and several non-profits. 

Your use of the various module positions is terrific, and you overall application, especially for the neighborhood template is to die for. 

Your site is well organized and has "clean lines" with great content and features.

Totally agree with you re the community sites. While they have their place, I did a signficant investigation a while back and came up withe the same conclusion.  I suspect that if I could find my old spreadsheet comparing the various features, you'd be right there with them.  I recognize the amount of work that went into both sites. Now that you have "cracked the code" you know that there are practically no limits.

My suggestions are minor, with the most significant one to replace the image in the header  of LakeMohawkSales with something local.

On my new sites, I've migrated to 1.5.  I didn't take the time to check the version on yours. If you have not, you will LOVE the enhancements. 

Congratulations! 

I'm pretty sure this was my first 1.5 site....CastleRE.com. It is one of the few non-RocketTheme templates I've used.

For certain,  TonyCornner.com and the BarbeProperty.com (live, but a work in progress) were built using 1.5.

MK-

Thank you so much...yes, changing the logo on the one site is absolutely on my list, along with many other things.

Running Joomla 1.59 - after my brothers class site got hacked by not updating quickly enough, I learned my lesson - all mine started at 1.5...

When I have more time I'm going to go back and look at all your sites - I love getting ideas and seeing the creativity of others.

Susan

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