“I need a website!”

This is frequently the first thing a client says to us after “Hello.”  (Sometimes before.)  In today’s market, a business without a website almost may as well not exist.  After all, if Google hasn’t ever heard of you, then how many other people really have either?

Establishing a presence on the internet with an attractive, professional website creates credibility, and most importantly makes your company information accessible to potential customers when they want it, 24 hours a day.

Your website functions as the hub of your marketing campaign, using all other methods of advertising to drive traffic toward it.  From print media to social media, AdWords to the spoken word, all of your promotional materials should contain a link to your website, allowing you to provide detailed, in-depth information on demand, to a worldwide audience.

Yes, but what do you really need?

Each website has a unique purpose, its own goals, and a different audience.  Third Estate Design provides custom website solutions, tailored to our clients’ individual needs.  From simple, one or two-page placeholder sites, to fully-implemented e-commerce solutions, we work with each client to create a custom solution based on your ideas, vision, and requirements.

While completely custom, from-the-ground-up website builds are always available, we’ve found that the majority of clients have an average set of requirements, and also a strong need to work within a budget.  The number one requirement for most website projects is that the site is easy for the client to use and update themselves, preventing the need for potentially costly site updates by the developer.  For this reason, Third Estate Design builds all our basic websites on Joomla, an open-source Content Management System (CMS).

Why Open-Source?

There are a huge variety of methods that can be used to create a website.  Many site builders provided by web hosts are free, but very limited in their capabilities.  These, and many other platforms are proprietary, meaning they are privately owned and not open to modification.  In the worst cases, proprietary website platforms can be very costly, requiring monthly fees for usage, and costing more and more money for each additional feature.

Open-Source Software consists of programs whose licenses give users the freedom to run the program for any purpose, to study and modify the program, and to redistribute copies of either the original or modified program (without having to pay royalties to previous developers).

The software is free, and most importantly, by allowing anyone to work on and develop for the platform, it is ensured that if there is a need for a feature not yet implemented, the worldwide community can work together to develop components that solve these needs.

Why Joomla?

Joomla is a free, award-winning CMS platform - the world’s most popular open source CMS - which allows users to easily publish their content on the world wide web and intranets.

With 2.7 percent of the Web running on Joomla, the software is used by individuals, small & medium-sized businesses, and large organizations worldwide to easily create & build a variety of websites & web-enabled applications.  Its efficient control of users, links, content and files makes it possible for anyone with basic computer skills to manage their own content and update and edit their website with ease.

As an open-source project, individuals and teams can contribute their skills to its development as well as its supporting systems.  While the Joomla platform itself is packed with features, its greatest quality is that it is extremely extensible. There are developers constantly creating components, plugins, and other extensions to satisfy every need imaginable, from photo galleries to maps and directions, shopping carts, and much more.  Because of its extensible structure, there is almost nothing that Joomla can’t do.

Learn More: http://www.joomla.org/about-joomla.html