[How Did I Begin With Joomla] Episode 1 - A story from Mathew Tamin

Dear Joomler friends, this is the brand new series from JoomlaShine.

It has been 10 years with Joomla since the first day it released. For sure, Joomla has become one of the most important CMS platforms out there. So, all of us has our different story of the very first days meeting Joomla then choosing it. To memorize the long 10-year journey together, we want to bring back the memory and spread the inspiration further among Joomlers with this new series: “How did I begin with Joomla”.

Each month, we will feature a short interview with one Joomla developer. In each interview, we’ll share with you about stories of how developers in Joomla community started dating with Joomla. Hope that everyone including non-Joomlers can learn better the power of Joomla and get motivated to contribute more for it.

In this first episode, let’s start with a humble sharing from Mathew Tamin – owner of learnjoomlafast.com.

When did you start your journey with Joomla?

I first heard about Joomla in 2007 when I started a web hosting company. I was creating websites with Adobe's Dreamweaver and SiteBuilder. But I realized that using Dreamweaver was time consuming and using a SiteBuilder didn't give me the control nor tools I needed to create a professional site.

My first experience with Joomla was confusing because I had no clue how to use Joomla. It sounded exactly like what I needed but was confused. Remember that this was back in 2007 and Joomla was still in its infancy. They didn't have as many tutorials back then as they do today.

Why you choose Joomla to stick with?

I choose to stick with Joomla because:

• It's a powerful CMS for creating basic or complex websites without being a professional coder. It's very easy to learn with the right teacher.
• The developer community creates amazing extensions and support
• It allows anyone to launch a solid website without breaking their banks

Joomla have been a great tool because it allowed me to work from home, spend time with my family while creating professional websites for businesses from all over the world. I can create a full functioning and professional websites with Joomla in a matter of hours and not days.

I was inspired by Joomla and I want to help as many non-coders and beginners learn how to build a brand using Joomla as possible.

Please tell us some troubles you got when you first built your website and how you passed them?

When I first created my LearnJoomlaFast.com, I overdid it; and by that I mean, instead of keeping it simple and clean, I used a ton of extensions that I didn't need but thought it was cool to have. This made my site very slow and confusing because people didn't know if it was a learning site or a social network. I eventually decided to use the K.I.S.S (kiss it simple silly) principle by only using extensions that are needed.

Do you have any connection to other Joomlers?

I wasn't as connected with the Joomla community until about two years ago when I started to teach Joomla on Udemy, creating hundreds of tutorials on Youtube and connecting with other Joomlers.

I also joined my local Joomla meetup group and was privileged to be one of the mentors for their Joomla boot camp held in New York City. I haven't yet been to a JoomlaDay but would love to attend one soon. I've heard so many great things about it and I look forward to meeting other Joomlers and sharing learning from each other.

What is your plan in next years?

My plan for 2016 is to:

• Continue to create high quality video tutorials for Joomla aimed at beginners and non-coders
• Attend a JoomlaDay
• Help as many entrepreneurs as I can to learn how to build a professional website and business with Joomla
• Get more involved with the Joomla project

I'll stick with Joomla for as long as it's available!

Thank you so much for this interview, Mathew!

Do you want to share your own story?

Above is the story of Mathew Tamin. Did it remind you of your journey with Joomla? Feel free to contact us to share your story. Or if you have any question that you want to ask other Joomla developers about their experience with Joomla, please leave comment. Please keep in touch, and wait for the next episode in the next month.