I decided to create a new website based on Joomla! tools to get it as automated and "self-conscious" as it was possible without spending any money on it. Was it possible? Yes, it was. But it wasn't quick and easy. You can create almost everything pretty fast, but you need to spend some money. But you can get all of this also for free, just do your homework and make some researching.
To get it easier for you and pay some credit to all great coders out there I'm posting a complete list of tools I used to get this site working.
Joomla template:
www.joomlashine.com - it's a base for the whole website. Great, complex and flexible template which is even more impressive in PRO version. The one I'm using is called Tendo.
Images presentation
www.hotjoomlatemplates.com - you will find here the best galleries, carousels and image sliders for Joomla, absolutely for free and without any ads. This is the place, where I found my BBC-style gallery with big image, thumbnails slider and slide-show effect. I highly recommend this! And there's a great help service forum with people who are willing to help you with any problems you may have. I'm using 2 of their products: HOT joomla gallery and HOT Image Slider.
www.kubik-rubik.de - SIGE (or Simple Image Gallery) is another great tool right from Germany. It allows you to add images with a lightbox, lytebox or shadowbox display effect right in to your articles. You only have to specify folder with your images. It's that simple :) I'm using self-modified version of shadowbox from SIGE on my website.
Social tools like sharing, Tweets, Facebook likes etc.
www.addthis.com - AddThis is incredibly useful! I spend most of my time looking after some complex social sharing solution. This is the best you can get for free!
Comments system
www.disqus.com - Disqus is another example of complex, simple and extremely useful tool for social aspect of website, which is commenting. And it gives you great control over it.
Subscription
www.joobi.co - I'm not very happy with jNews for Joomla because of its simplicity, but it will do for now. It allows you to create subscription form, some mailing list with or without verification and easy mail sending with your custom mail design.
Coding
www.blackdale.com - without this I wouldn't be able to easily add custom code in to the Head section - which means no javascripts and so on.
www.graphicaholic.com - I haven't used it yet, but it's a great tool for sliding tabs which you can stick to the edge of a screen
www.mobilejoomla.com - Mobile Joomla is great tool for creating alternative version of your website for mobile devices. It can be installed and run in 5 minutes. If you want to personalize and customize it then, of course, you have to spend a lot more time. But for simple use it's just perfect.
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2011