Well its a learning experience ... it gets easier

Will be installing a shop module shortly on one of the CMSMadeSimple sites I'm doing (freebie site unfortunately so could be a week+ before I get around to doing that)

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Forbairt Media | Web Design & Development Galway / Dublin, Ireland - coming soon ... ( vague but descriptive isn't it )
Recent Work: Safari Club African Safari Holidays - Malawi Safaris
Other Stuff: FluffyLinkulator Rapid Inclusion Service Tools

Hi There,

Personally I find Joomla the best CMS. If you have not used it before it will take you some time to get to grips with it. Nevertheless it is very powerfull and there are a great selection of comonents and modules you can install.

One of the longest tasks is customising stuff and you might even have to go into code in some cases and delete or add some lines. It depends on how custom you want the installation.

Its pretty easy to get started just have a clean public html folder, download the installation and upload it to the folder. Once its downloaded just enter the web address and you will start the installation. Make sure you have a free MYSQL data base on your server before you start. It does all the data base work for you so this is good. In some cases however you might have to set up the data base prior to installing.

Check out my site its powered by Joomla. If you need any advise give me a shout.

Regards

James

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CompanyHotSeat.com - The Free Irish Business Directory http://www.companyhotseat.com/

I'm going to disagree with the consensus here and say that I think you could use something as simple as Wordpress to achieve what you are after.

I don't know how good CMSmadesimple is, I just know I haven't used it and it doesn't fit with the requirements of my websites.

Reasons to use Wordpress.

1.) You can install a gallery plugin which is perfect for showcasing bikes.
2.) Wordpress interface is extremely user centric (no Joomla mumbo jumbo lingo).
3.) Wordpress is easier to template than Joomla (personal opinion).
4.) Wordpress is easy to upgrade - unlike Joomla.

Of course if you are willing to buy a commercial CMS I could suggest a much better solution(s).

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Adwords Qualified Individual | Search Engine Marketing Consultant | Web Analytics (Google) Expert | Web Designer (XHTML / CSS)

Datsun 240z 260z Club of Australia
Classic Japanese Cars

open source CMS + pay for hosting + learning curve time = X

commercial product = (CMS - learning curve) + hosting = Y

if X > Y then buy the commercial product!

it will save you loads of time and time = money

For example:
Build a Website - Create a Blog - Squarespace
- the basic package is 8 USD; includes the hosting, the CMS, all the goodies- and that's alot cheaper than many hosting packages.

Look at the demo:
Build a Website - Create a Blog - Squarespace

From a developers and users view you will still have to learn both X and Y's capabilities and how to use them = time.

With X there is likely to be an OPEN forum with thousands of users all supporting one another and providing additional services. = Big X+

Where as Y is as it comes - but full stop!..oh and it just cost you money

While that product (nice sales pitch) initially looks nice, the devil is in the detail.. I was just looking for the forum where its users where talking more.....but didn't find it ;(

In my opinion you need to try at least 2-3 of them on a test basis to form an opinion of the strenghts and weaknesses of the others. I use both Joomla,Drupal and Wordpress for different reasons for different people and to be honest I choose each of them to learn about them first and then to implement them in anger. Most of them will do 80-90% of what you need in a site with either the basic package, a free add-on or some code tweaking (different leels for each.

I agree that the advantage of the free over the paid is the user community as most times when I had a question the answer was already out there. I suggest you put one or more of them up on a test bed and look at what you want to achieve and see how far it gets you without having to read beyond he basic user docs (which all of the the above have - Joomla being probably the weakest IMHO). Look at XAAMP for test bed setup.

Best of luck

Kieran

You can try Acuity CMS it's vextremely easy to use and easy to deploy content management system with good features.

Given the demo doesn't even had pretty URLs I'd be steering clear