Joomla is a content management tool favored by many due to its ease of use. With the release of Joomla 1.5, content management has even become easier. The Jooma 1.5 comes with many features that make website creation a cool breeze for both beginners and professionals.

Before you can start using Joomla, you will have to first install it on your server. Your server is nothing than where you host your files. So for example, if you have a website called www.youneedwebtraffic.blogspot.com, then your server will be found at www.youneedwebtraffic.blogspot.com/cpanel. This will be your usual login. It is on the server that you have your files. If you are logging in through ftp, your server will be your website address. You only need a username and password to enter into your  server and these are provided by the web hosting company the day you created your hosting account.

If you are using the fantastico module that comes with the cpanel management system offered by many hosts, then you simply log into your cpanel account, go to fantastico, click the Joomla link and follow the set up. The Joomla link will then one your free scripts provided by the web host company. Clicking the Joomla link will activate a wizard which you can follow by clicking Next and Next to get to the final page where you will have your Joomla CMS installed. Very easy.

If your web host does not provide that, then you will have to manually install the CMS.

In this tutorial, we assume that your web host does not offer Joomla under fantastico but has a cpanel.

Before you start the installation process, ensure that your web host provides these requirements

• PHP 4.4.3  or above
• SQL 3.23.x or above
• Apache 1.13.19 or above

Once you are set with this, go to www.joomla.org and get the set up file.

 Log in into your cpanel account and then upload the zipped file to your root folder. After that unzip it by clicking on the folder and then clicking extract from the cpanel tool bar. You will see all the files extracted or unzipped to your web host account.

Now open your web browser and then go to http://yoursite.com/joomla_folder if everything is OK. Click Next at the top right. If you see anything in red, the there is an error. Correct it or contact your host. You will then be taken to the configuration mode. In this mode, you will begin setting up your Joomla site. You will choose the language, and configure the database. Set the database to “localhost” meaning the database will be created from and will reside on this server. Type in database name, a password and username and then go to the next stage.

Next put in your admin password, your email address, path of the Joomla files (usually public_html/joomla) and your site URL.

Next, give your site a name and put in the super administration information. Write down the username and password that will be displayed.

You are now finished and can start administering your site with content. You can click View Site to see the site you have so far created or click Administration to begin creating Categories,Sections and Items.

We also offer some advice on blogs using Joomla as well as wordpress , recommend some essential wordpress plugins, and last but not least, offer advice organising Joomla content and moving your Joomla site to a new server.