We all know that volunteering is a challenging decision and time consuming. In the case of Joomla, it can also be very difficult for no tech people and for non native English speakers.
But because Joomla is a benevolent community, nobody will blame you if you don’t or can't volunteer for the project for any reason (timing, language, family, work, etc.). On a personal side, I completely understand as I'm not a developer and I'm also very busy (family, clients, associative engagement, etc.) and days are only 24 hours long.
But if you want to help Joomla despite these obstacles, I may have an easy solution for you. Let me explain why, where and how you can volunteer for Joomla efficiently but without losing your sleep, job, friends and family.
Content is king
Yes Bill, content is king and that's exactly what this article is about: producing content about Joomla.
Content is articles, blog posts, tutorials, videos, podcasts, infographics, etc. In short, I would say that content is everything you can add in an article in Joomla.
Producing and sharing content is probably the easiest and the fastest way to contribute to Joomla if you are not a developer.
Who can produce content about Joomla?
No matter if you're a developer, site builder, volunteer, evangelist, every member of this lovely community could (and should) produce content about Joomla.
And because there are so many topics to cover with your personal opinion - Joomla 5 is a good one, for example -, no one should face the white page trauma!
Why is it important to publish fresh content about Joomla?
- because you'll demonstrate your expertise on Joomla. No need to share technical secrets about site building here but only tips, tricks, and advice to the public. Bonus: publishing tutorials, blog posts, videos, etc. could help leads to find you on Internet.
- because some of these contents might be useful for some (new) Joomla users. Your knowledge about Joomla is more valuable than you imagine for users and for newcomers. Everything you've learnt about Joomla since years could be and should be shared so the next generation of Joomla users have also access to the same knowledges as you.
- because if we don't produce and share these contents, who will? Sharing is caring and that's exactly the point here. A decade ago, people learned Joomla thanks to forums. Nowadays, forums are still online but people learn through social media, blogs and videos. Because we have all these knowledge about Joomla, we must adapt our way to share them to the new web usages.
- because search engines need to be constantly fed with new contents. And yes, it's also very important to permanently feed these monsters with fresh contents about Joomla. And no matter where the kind of content and where they are published, the more we'll publish contents about Joomla and more Joomla will be present in the search engine pages results.
How to produce fresh contents related to Joomla?
Here are some easy ideas to start your journey as content creator for Joomla.
- videos, podcasts and graphics are very powerful. If you can create nice infographics, informative podcasts, or valuable videos about Joomla, all these materials will be very helpful for many people.
- create articles with your own opinion. There are already tons of articles about Joomla online but none with your point of view. If you're not an English native, why not translate some interesting content in your language? Just think of a quote and link back to the original author in your article.
- write for the Joomla users, not for search engines. Keep in mind that the search engines will only highlight content in the SERPs if it's relevant for the user's queries. This isn't Google who makes a content successful but the human readers because it's interesting and valuable for them.
- 1,000 words minimum for an article in any language you want. Short contents are acceptable for tutorials but if you write articles, blog posts, case studies, etc. mind the length. Don’t forget if you create fresh content about Joomla in your language, your national community will thank you more than you imagine.
Where to publish your fresh contents about Joomla?
- here on the JCM, Baby! The Community Magazine is The-Place-To-Publish for every Joomler and you should seriously consider writing at least one article here. I've published around 40 articles with always excellent feedbacks from readers (and also got some leads).
- on your website / blog! Publishing anything interesting about Joomla (once a month) on your site or your blog will be a precious asset for your visibility and Joomla's. But publishing more is also acceptable, of course. On Templatejoomla, we plan to publish 2 fresh articles related to templates per week. This is 8 to 10 new articles per month about Joomla. If you need help to organize your content creation workflow, feel free to contact me.
- but also anywhere else where topics related to design, dev, CMS, Web, SEO, security, freelancing, etc. are accepted. The Web is wide and some sites are more valuable than others. List those you love / you read the most and submit your contents there to spread the Joomla love beyond our community.
...and of course, don’t forget to share your contents as widely as possible on social media!
Wrapping Up
To conclude, I would also paraphrase another famous guy here: “Ask not what Joomla can do for you, ask what you can do for Joomla.”
If you decide to volunteer for Joomla without volunteering for Joomla, here are my best advices:
- do what you can because any new content about Joomla is always better than none.
- do it with your personality, with your words, your sensibility, and without pressure.
- keep in mind that nobody will judge your content but Joomla will thank you, for sure!
- don’t hesitate to ask for help if you need some, there’s always someone ready to assist.
Can’t wait to read, watch, and listen to your content about Joomla!