Joomla is one of the most popular Content Management Systems. These systems, often called CMS, help you create a website from scratch, and organize its work without involving specialists. Joomla CMS has many important features that make it one of the leaders in the market. For instance, convenient admin interface helps you add and reorganize content with only a couple of clicks.

Try Joomla for E-Commerce

The studies show that ever more users choose Joomla for eCommerce. Indeed, creating an online shop on it is a good way to start your business. Also, this doesn’t require really much resources. Joomla has many options that will help you create an efficient eCommerce project. However, if you choose this platform, your main tool on the way to successful online business is the special VirtueMart extension.

With VirtueMart your project will turn into real pleasure. Once you install the plugin, you will be able to create and markup all website pages, add your goods, prices, comparison tools, promo banners, etc. All-in-all, VirtueMart extension has any instrument you may need for an online shop. Try it to make sure!

How to Make a Joomla E-Commerce Site?

So, how can you create an eCommerce website powered by Joomla? There are several key steps you need to make for this. Here we’ve prepared the list of 5 stages of creating an eCommerce website with Joomla and VirtueMart:

1. Download Joomla software

For this, go to their official page, and choose the package you need. We suggest you to try the latest version, which is, for the time being, Joomla! 3.0.1. Thereafter, upload the .zip file you’ve just got to your hosting. For this go to cPanel, and use its File Manager to upload the software package. Finally, use the same cPanel File Manager to unpack the archive under public_html.

2. Create a new database

This is required to store all information about your future website. To create a database, go to cPanel home page again, and find the MySQL Database Wizard. In it you’ll have to create a new database and a user to admin it. This is quite easy — just follow the wizard’s instructions, and remember the username and password you choose

3. Install Joomla!

Now it’s quite easy. Just type the address of your website in the browser, and you’ll be suggested to install Joomla software. Follow the tips, and configure Joomla. A couple of moments, and voilá! After several minutes you already have your own site! Ain’t it magic?

4. Choose a template

Now you can choose design for your website. For this you’ll need to login to admin page at www.yourdomain.com/administrator. As soon as it’s done, go to Extensions > Extension Manager. Then, upload and install the template you have chosen previously. And don’t forget that you can easily find interesting and free eCommerce templates for Joomla.

5. Install VirtueMart

Now you can finally install the extension that will add all necessary eCommerce functions to your website. You can install VirtueMart using the same Extensions Manager. Thereafter, start configuring your website. And this is where sky is the limit. Use your imagination, add the tools you need, build and design pages, add more extensions, and start it!

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So, as you see, you don’t need to be a superman to start an eCommerce project. However, this is only the beginning. Developing your online business and competing with other eCommerce projects is much harder. So, get ready to fight for your place under the Sun. And may the Force be with your eCommerce website!

Are you a blogger? Then, you obviously want your blog to be more popular. Nowadays using social networks to promote your blog is a real must. Especially if you create some unique content for a narrow target group. The advantages of Social Media Management (or just SMM) are evident. You get new customers, your blog is recognized better, and, finally, you can use social media to contact your readers better.

Best SMM Tips for Your Blog

So, what’s the the most important thing about SMM? First of all, you have to use it wisely. Don’t just post some news or other info — ask your readers about different things. This will help you understand what requires special attention in your blog. Also, using social networks is good for chatting. It’s extremely important for a blogger to be closer to the readers, and social media is a great tool for it.

Another important thing that you’ll need at your blog are social sharing buttons. They are, actually, a auto-promotion tool. You install them once, and they work for your blog again and again. These social buttons let the readers share your posts on a social network page. This works perfect for promotion, especially if you have really interesting and unique content.

All about Social Sharing Buttons for WordPress

If you have a blog powered by WordPress platform, here we have a plenty of good news for you! This CMS allows to install and use a lot of social network tools including sharing buttons. Moreover, you can add special widgets that will broadcast your social media posts to your blog. Long story short, WordPress is a bottomless well of social media opportunities.

So, how can you add social sharing buttons to your WordPress blog? There are several ways to do it, but we’ll offer you the easiest one. You can opt for special plugins that help you manage this issue very fast. These plugins are easy to install, and allow to add links to the most popular social networks. For instance, you can try Social Share Buttons, Slick Social Share Buttons, or some other WordPress plugins.

Most plugins of this kind are free and easy to use. You will only have to choose the buttons you need, and their allocation near every blog post. It’ll be specially nice if you’ll choose a plugin that has share counters. That will both motivate users to share your posts, and help you understand, what topics are more interesting for your readers.

More Ideas for Successful SMM

Well, the situation with social media buttons is quite clear. You add them, and they just work. However, what can you do to make Facebook&Co work even better? First of all, create your official pages at the most popular social platforms. We advise you to start with Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Also, if your blog topic is related to business or employment, try LinkedIn.

Is that not enough for you? Well, there are more interesting tools. For instance, sidebar social media widgets. They are installed as regular plugins, and help you make more use of blog sidebars. These widgets show your latest social media activity. With these plugins, you can attract people not only to read your blog, but also get extra info from your social network accounts.

Nowadays you have a lot of opportunities to create a great web page. However, one of the cheapest and easiest of them is using a CMS. CMSs or Content Management Systems, are special software installed to your web server to provide fast and easy creation and management of a website. These platforms are easy to operate and help to create your own site from nothing.

Use WordPress for Your Website

One of the most popular CMSs is WordPress. Though it was originally created as a blog platform, today it’s changed a lot. Now you can create almost any type of website using WordPress: eCommerce, photo gallery, blog, news portal, etc. The convenience and popularity of this platform are well reasoned by its user-friendly interface and lots of functions.

If you want to use WordPress with your website, it won’t require much efforts. You just need to install special software on your budget web hosting, and choose a good theme. Then, everything depends only on your fantasy. So, don’t hesitate, and try to create your own website using WordPress CMS!

Best WordPress Websites List

Do you want some examples of successful web projects powered by WordPress? Specially for you we have selected several extremely interesting websites that work with this platform. So, meet them:

• http://business.blogs.cnn.com/. Probably, everyone have heard about CNN. Well, their nice business blog also uses WordPress. Isn’t it a proof that WordPress is really good and reliable?
• http://ebayinkblog.com/. A beautiful blog about eBay and its innovations. A good example of how a featured blog should look like.
• http://www.creativedepart.com/. This great art blog shows you, how creative some WordPress themes can be. Great design of this site also helps users to percept content better.
• http://www.jefffinley.org/. A good example of a portfolio website powered by WordPress. It uses many important instruments showing the multifunctional possibilities of WordPress.



• http://www.egyptsharmtrips.com/. Have you ever traveled to Egypt? If no, maybe you could try the services of this amazing website. It looks stylish and functional, a good example of WordPress usage, indeed.
• http://www.colazionedamichy.it/. A fantastic example of uniting different website functions. This is a portfolio, blog and gallery website — all in one, and with smart design.
• http://www.altimea.com/. Creative studios also use WordPress. Here is a really good example from France. Fantastic design, animations and set of functions.
• http://typographica.org/. A nice blog and review website about typography. Stylish design is united with nice animations and great unique content. A really good WordPress website.
• http://www.archer-group.com/. This is a topnotch website of an analytics and design agency. It uses a lot of WordPress features — both common and uncommon.
• http://www.creativespaces.net.au/. WordPress powers a lot of useful websites. This one helps artists and designers, so the unity of creative design and good functions makes this site really successful.

How to Improve Your WordPress Website?

So, now you’ve seen our examples of great WordPress websites. Probably, you’ve noticed all of them are very different. They have different functions, target groups, designs. So, perhaps, our best advice for you is “Try to make your site as unique as possible”. Thanks God, WordPress lets you do it really well.

Order an exciting WordPress theme, or create your own one. Make your website interactive and informative. Don’t overload your users with content — give it in portions. These are several points that were followed by the web designers that created the sites from our list. To sum it all up, be creative, and people will strive for you and your project!

Good Web Hosting Packages

The market of IT has been developing at crazy speed over last several years. Now you can find a lot of cheap and attractive hosting offers, so it’s getting even harder to choose the best option. Three most popular types of web hosting you can find on the web are Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. Let’s take a closer look at Dedicated offers that give you top-class solutions for managing your web project.

Don’t you still know what is Dedicated Hosting? No problem! This is an option, which lets you get a whole server for rent. This means you will be able to control everything controllable. Apart from great server management opportunities, you’ll also get a lot of disk space, incredible channel capacity and many other interesting features!

On average dedicated servers cost more than VPS or Shared Hosting packages. However, the amount and quality of services you get for this price can’t be compared to those of Shared and VPS options. If you browse the web, you will find a lot of Dedicated Server offers, and many of them are really cheap, so with Dedicated Hosting you can save money as well. Are you already excited? No wonder!

Dedicated Server Types

There are many ways to classify Dedicated Servers. Different options fit different requirements better or worse, so this info is very important. First of all, you’ll have to decide, which operational system will be better for your project. The most common offers you’ll find in the market are Linux and Windows. Any choice will determine many aspects of your future project, so be careful with this option.

Another important choice you’ll have to make is about database type. If you are planning to purchase a Dedicated Server, you project is already quite big, or you’re planning to make it big in the nearest future. Serious projects have to deal with databases for the site to function faster and more efficiently. So, the most common types of databases are MySQL and MS SQL for Linux and Windows, respectively.

Next step is choosing the type of your Dedicated Hosting management. Different web host companies offer you Managed and Unmanaged Dedicated Servers. The former let you delegate technical management of the server to hosting provider’s experts. The latter will give you the power to make fine adjustments that help your web site work the fastest possible. The choice is yours!

How to Choose Dedicated Hosting?

When you have defined the most important options you want to see in your dedicated server, start looking for offers. For instance, you can make a list of companies that offer packages of your type. With this list you can choose the best option depending on what you need. For instance, if you need a budget offer, choose the cheapest packages, look for info about reliability of respective companies, check discounts, and voila! You get the best offer!

Cheap Dedicated Servers – Is It Safe?

Many people always get suspicious when they see an extremely cheap offer. Well, with Dedicated Servers two options are possible. You can find cheap dedicated hosting powered by old servers, or provided by a company with bad reputation. However, you can also come across promotional offers of new companies that provide good hosting, and just try to attract more attention to their new brand.

The best way to check if a certain cheap Dedicated Server is really worth purchasing, is to browse the web. On specialized budget web hosting sites or forums you can find a lot of info and reviews of different hosting providers. Just read this info, and make your choice! This will take some time, but as a result you’ll get the best offer meeting all your requirements. Ain’t is amazing?