Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on converting one of my sites (the one Google doesn’t like), from a hand coded site to a Joomla site.

The other day as I was browsing the internet (when I was supposed to be working) I came across Joomla. I don’t know what rock I’ve been hiding under, but Joomla is like WordPress on steroids. It’s a free open source content management system.

Nothing to Lose

As I’ve mentioned before, my Tidbits & Stuff site is my online playground. It allows me to learn, make mistakes, earn a few bucks, make mistakes, play around, make mistakes and find out what works and what does not. Did I mention make mistakes?

It taught me that having duplicate content isn’t really so bad because I’ve made a lot of money off of the duplicate content. It also taught me that duplicate content isn’t so good because Google doesn’t seem to like sites that use too much of it. So, if my site is already in the Google crapper, what do I have to lose if I decide to try something new?

Hand Coding vs. Professional Coding

The interent is a moving target. Back when I originally coded the site, I coded it according to the rules and recommendations of the day. As the rules changed, I didn’t change the site accordingly. It was too big and cumbersome to go through all 300 plus pages to make the necessary changes. I found a few short cuts, but no short cut was short enough to recode the entire site.

Enter Joomla

Joomla, the wonderful open source tool, does all of the heavy lifting for me. Like WordPress, the programmers are always tweaking and improving the code to keep up with the latest developments on the web. Whether its security issues, SEO improvements or faster load time, the experts are doing what experts do. Therefore, I can do what I like to do, write, play around with graphics and figure out how to make money.

What I’ve Learned So Far

Large sites use content management systems. Suite, eHow, Bukisa, HubPages, and so on all use some type of content management system to manage their content. It’s the only way they can accept new writers, share revenue and keep track of what’s going on. Joomla has all the capabilities to run a large content site, manage multiple authors, share revenue and such. The possibilities are endless (check out a few sites that use Joomla).

The Joomla Transition

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been transitioning my site from the hand coded individual page website to a Joomla content management site. Changing the look of the site is as simple as downloading a new template (I’m still searching for one that’s right). Finding, modifying and deleting content is easily managed via the Administrative back end. Being able to upload new content using an interface similar to Suite’s  makes it much easier for me to add new content to the site. Who knows, maybe with new content Google might like me again.

Time Will Tell

Besides the ease of article management, maybe with professional coding my site might begin to see the light of day in when it comes to search engine rankings. Who knows? Only time will tell.

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