It is important to start out your Joomla website on a solid foundation. Like the concrete foundation of a building you need more than just concrete. You need some rebar in the concrete to build a strong foundation. This means starting out in the Sections area of your Joomla administration panel. Use the sample data and simply change it to suit your content.

Once you have your sections in order, move to categories. Decide on some categories to get started and relate them to the sections. Again you can edit the sample data that was loaded in during installation of Joomla. Now that you have an idea of your basic layout of content, take a look at your template.

View your template from the back office area by using the " View inline with positions" and see where your template will accept module positions. They all vary a little. Newer templates normally have many positions available. You will need to have a good understanding of your positions.

You most likely will need to refer to this view often as your site grows. As your site builds more content certain modules become more relevant. For example, a module showing 5 of your latest news topics will not be useful until you have content items for the module to pick up and show. Custom modules are common with Joomla, but I would suggest you get to know your built in Joomla or stock modules first. There are many modules built into Joomla. Get a feel for what they do, it is part of building a solid foundation.

Know as much as possible about Joomla as it is, 'out of the box '. Joomla is an advanced content management system. It is important to use the Sections, Categories and then add your content or articles to the correct category. This way Joomla will look after it and display it in many different ways often using modules. Learn the basics first and then get into custom modules as needed. I would suggest you do not want to start making modules until you fully understand the positions they can be used in.

You may have many uses for a module like, the " HTML Module " which is an extension but, it does not come with Joomla ' out of the box '. This type of module was made for things like Google Adsense code or any type of affiliate code that normally links away from your site. This is a must have type of module for easily adding HTML into your Joomla site. These suggestions are suited to someone who is just getting started with a new Joomla website. There will be something new to learn everyday with Joomla. It has hundreds of features.

The administration area can be overwhelming but it can make sense if you start out getting your - Sections - in order, then your - Categories - , and then add some - Content - (Articles) that are assigned to a category. Joomla will help you once you try adding your content item, or lets call it an article, it will force you to pick a Section and a Category for your Article (content) before you can save your new article.

Build a solid foundation from the ground up and the rest will wrap around your content. See your content first and then decide what modules are going to work for you. The ' Sections ' module is useful once you have Sections in place. The Sections module will make sure visitors can navigate your site even in the early stages of building your content. Remember you can easily unpublish any Section, Category or Content (article) simply by clicking the red X. You can easily add it back in by clicking it again to a green check mark.

Your template will play a key role in not only how your site looks but how you can layout modules. You should have a good idea of what type of website you are building, before you buy a quality template. The advanced templates that I use have numerous custom features. They require some learning before you can understand all the functions they can add to your content presentation. After your unique content is up, your template becomes the second most important part of your website. It separates your site from thousands of other sites. Start out on a solid foundation and you will see the power of Joomla very quickly. Heading straight for the custom features and adding in two many extensions, may lead to confusion.

Article by Daryl Baratta of Baratta Design
a licensed Rocketthemes (Year 2009) Template Club Developer
(Can legally supply you with a high-tech template with your Joomla project)

Copyright Notice: Article should not be copied without the author's name and link back in place.Thank you! This article is now fairly old but the idea behind it has not changed. Plan ahead with Joomla and gives yourself time to figure out a good section and category struture. It's now July 8-2009 and Joomla is only getting better by the day but it's still not easy!