I've put together a selection of commonly needed code snippets that I found are useful to have around.  Many can be found at:

http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/introduction/cheat-sheet/

http://www.weblicating.com/c5/cheat-sheet/

http://wiki.razrlight.com/concrete5_cheatsheet

I'm putting this together with the ones I use most often, as a point of reference for myself and for others.

Most of the code is borrowed from the above sites, or from various docs / forum posts on http://concrete5.org

The client came to me wanting to get a boost to his traffic by optmizing his website.

Overview:

We analyzed his traffic through Google Analytics and Webmaster tools.  We also used an SEO web positioning report to determine how he ranked prior to our optimization.

I've spent over a year working with Concrete5, but until recently, I haven't done anything more than the basic website.
From Joomla to Drupal to even Wordpress, I never found the basic site so quick to develop than with Concrete5.

This blog post is something I've wanted to put together for a while.  I tried to compare Concrete5 with Drupal in a previous post, but I wanted to include Joomla and Wordpress and make the comparison a little more detailed and organized.  I'll start by taking a developer's prospective, a developer prospective, then a client prospective.  

Please comment on what you think can be added, especially as versions and features change.

The versions I will be comparing:

Concrete5 5.4.2.1 (The most recent as of the writing of this article)
Drupal 6.22 (Ver 7.8 is the lastest, however I've not used it as much as 6)
Joomla! 1.5 (1.7 is currently available, however the site I've done most work on is still on 1.5)
Wordpress 3.2.1 (The most recent as of the writing of this article)

Concrete5's standard installation pretty much covers me with all the basic functionality I need to create a website without any major modifications.  This is in contrast to Drupal 6.  I have not used Drupal 7 enough to expand on the changes they have made, but from what I could tell, there were still some "standard" features not available at install.

That doesn't mean there aren't a few things I do to every install to make it ready for build-out.  This Blog post will be a living post, updated as I find new things to include as I dig deaper into the system and as I have more projects based on the CMS.

Preparation:

Template Areas: Each area on your template is divided among "areas" where you can add different blocks.  These block can be anything from navigation to YouTube videos.

Page Types: There is a default page type, which your pages will automatically default to... I suggest having the following types (yours will vary depending on the type of sub-pages you plan)

1. Home Page
2. Full Page
3. Left Sidebar or Right Sidebar

1. What does Concrete5 need to run?
2. What hosting company did I end up using?
3. Installing software!!!  it's not point and click, but close!
4. Final thoughts - how's the speed?

What does Concrete5 need to run?

• Apache
• MySQL
• PHP ***
• GD (2)
• Curl

Note - I'm sure there is a more exhaustive list, and I'll do my best to update this to be more accurate, but you should see the basic requirements when doing the first install.

• What's easier about either?
• What's different about building for them?
• How could you help someone else with the learning curve?
• How would you compare the core feature set?

I’ve been in web development for nearly 10 years. In the last 2 years, I’ve started to work within open source content management systems. In the past, I had created my own CMS, more as a learning tool than anything, but soon realized the inherent drawbacks to having to custom created CMS for each client.

*** Update 10/2011 ***

As I wrote this post over a year ago, and my experience with Concrete5 (as well as its maturity) have grown, I've found that some of the information is out of date or incorrect.

I've started a new blog post where I am trying to side by side the pros and cons a little more intuitively and efficiently.  

See the Concrete5 vs Joomla! vs Wordpress vs Drupal.

I remember the feeling of accomplishment as I would finish my work, walk outside and see the sun rise.

That was pretty much college.  Long nights of studying or editing.  

First Post.