Backing up your site is usually a pain in the neck because most users hate messing around with MySQL databases. This is the case for me too, so I go for a better option instead - automate the back-up as much as you can through scripts or, in Joomla's case, with extensions.

I'll be reviewing the following backup extensions for Joomla:

• Joomla SQL Dumper
• Jombackup

Although Joomla's built in contact forms might be enough for most users there are some that need a more customized solution. perForms, a custom forms component, comes to our rescue!

First you'll have to download the component and then install it (in case you are not familiar with the procedure, read the tutorial on installing Joomla extensions).

In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to create simple presentation site with a few presentation pages, a blog and a contact form. First of all you'll have to install Joomla and then follow the outlined steps.

I won't use any third party modules as this is a simple site and our objective is achievable with what Joomla offers.

Joomla programmers have done a smart thing and included an installer for the various themes, components, modules and mambots. This will make Joomla customization easier (at least at first).

Installing Joomla is just as simple as installing Drupal or Wordpress, but it's still nice to have some images to help out a new webmaster. For this tutorial you should download the latest stable Joomla; for this tutorial I am using Joomla 1.0.12 but webmasters interested in the 1.0.x versions shouldn't worry as the diferences between the installers are small.