I am a reformed web-designer ; ) and by far, Joomla is the best FREE content management system. The only bummer is that the application has been upgraded to the new release 1.5 and the community is a little slow getting out new components and plugins for the 1.5 version. In addition, I've run into bugs with 1.5 plugins because they are so new. However, within the next few years the application and plugins should see numerous improvements.

I've heard some frustration about the learning curve for the application structure, but if you can find someone to teach you - you're in! With Joomla, building a website will literally be next to nothing. You just have to find a web hosting company that supports Joomla and pay your hosting fee - and you can build it yourself!

The best hosting company for Joomla is GoDaddy.com - I host all of my sites with them. Reliable servers, configured correctly for Joomla and great prices!

Off the top of my head I know of a few hosting companies to stay away from - aplus.net and globat.com. Like I said, I'm a former web designer and these two hosting companies are awful! Don't use them....

Happy Web Designing!