One year anniversary

It’s that time of the year again. The end of the year is coming closer, and people find plenty of reasons to celebrate. But did you know that, at Joomla & More, we’ve got an extra reason to celebrate? On the 24th of December, we will be celebrating the first anniversary of Joomla & More.

When I look back, it’s amazing to see that the blog has become such a success. Ever since random rants about IT issues were replaced with constructive solutions for (mostly Joomla!) problems, this blog has been booming. We can’t thank you enough for the support you’ve been showing us! And, of course, it’s good to know that we’ve been a resource for so many people, looking for a way to solve a problem. When I rebranded the blog to “Joomla & More”, there was a good reason for that. Statistics showed that, after I started adding Joomla! articles, visitor stats had been booming. But there were still some ‘other’ articles that were frequently read. And there you have it: people come to us to read about Joomla! and more.

Stats

For your entertainment / information and for the sake of self-promotion I’m going to share some interesting statistics of the last year with you.  Let’s start with the top 10 of most read articles, shall we?

As you can seen 7 out of 10 articles offer a solution for a (very) specific Joomla! problem – and the article on how to add additional fields to the Joomla! registration form is immensely popular.  Two other articles that are doing well, are articles on how to solve a specific problem with a Windows Server.  These ‘stats’ don’t surprise me, as they reflect the ‘idea’ behind Joomla! and More beautifully:  When possible, we want to offer specific solutions for specific problems.  You can see the top 10 below.

1) How to: Add fields to the Joomla
registration form
4,446
2) Jfolder::Create: Could not create directory
[Joomla]
1,456
3) jfolder:: create path not in open_basedir
paths
1,157
4) How-to: Disabling Windows Firewall using
Group Policy in Windows 2008
1,058
5) How-to: Set rights for /var/www when using
Apache under Ubuntu
852
6) Menu problems when using Joomfish and K2 637
7) Jerror unable to load database driver 589
8) How to create a Joomla Intranet site? 582
9) How to: Allow users to start / stop (server)
services
576
10) How-to: Copy a Joomla module 531

When I look at the articles read, there’s a very positive trend.  I’ve added the numbers of articles read and split them in four quarters.  This learns me that, when I compare the ‘Articles Read’ from Q4 (Oktober – December)  with Q1 (January – March) there’s been a  300% increase.  Pretty impressive stuff!

enough with the stats!

Okay, okay.  No more stats.  How about ‘lessons learned’?  You’d expect a blog to be one-way traffic.  I post something, you read it and learn from it.  Me? Well, I already knew what you just learned, obviously, as I wrote a post about it!  But last year, I also learned quite a lot through this blog.

It all started when Brian Teeman replied to a post about back-ups; telling me “I obviously hadn’t done any research on the topic.”  I had to admit that he was right, and boy, did I learn my lesson.  Not only did I find out about a great back-up tool, I also started to follow Mr. Teeman on Twitter (@brianteeman, if you’re interested) .  This introduced me to an entire world of Joomla ‘specialists’ of which I didn’t know it existed.  Once I arrived at that point, I pretty much never stopped learning.

So, what does the future of Joomla & More bring?  Allow me to interview myself.

1)  Will you migrate Joomla & More to a Joomla! site?

No, I won’t.  While that sounds like a great idea, it wouldn’t be practical because of  the implications that brings along.  While that might sound cheap, I want Joomla & More to be as cost-effective as possible.  Keeping this WordPress.com with a custom domain name is the most cost-effective way of running this site.

2) Will you expanding Joomla & More?

In a way, yes.  There are plans for a Dutch version of Joomla & More.  There’s also plans to build an “add-on” website, Codename “The Joomlaverse” that would complement Joomla & More – without necessarily replacing it.

3) All you do is blog.  Why don’t you contribute to Joomla! instead?

First of all, I’m not a developer.  So, I’m pretty sure that the lead developers are pleased with me NOT contributing any code!  And second of all, it’s debatable wether I’m not contributing.  Looking at all the Joomla! articles that have been read, I think I’ve been contributing in my own way.

4) What cool stuff can we expect for 2011?

You mean, other than the wedding of Kate and William?  Or the release of Joomla 1.6? (I’m kidding about one of those, guess which one).  I honestly don’t know.  My main goal is to publish useful posts on Joomla & More.

5) I can haz gifts?

Sure, why not!  I’ve got a coupon for a $10  discount on Hostgator hosting for you.  Simply enter the following coupon code:  joomlamore2010


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