Packt Joomla Cash Money Making Weapons For Your Joomla Website Oct 2007 ISBN 1847191401 pdf
Joomla! Cash
Money-making weapons for your Joomla! website
Brandon Dawson Tom Canavan BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAIJoomla! Cash
Copyright © 2007 Packt Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, co-author, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book. Special thanks to Tom Canavan for giving permission to use portions of his book—"Dodging the Bullets— A Disaster Preparation Guide for Joomla! based Websites ". Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. First published: October 2007 Production Reference: 1191007 Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.
ISBN 978-1-847191-40-3
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Damian Carvill ( damiancarvill@hotmail.com )
Credits
AuthorBrandon Dawson Co-Author
Tom Canavan Reviewers
Tom Canavan Niko Kotiniemi Senior Acquisition Editor
David Barnes Development Editor
Mithil Kulkarni Technical Editor
Akshara Aware Editorial Manager
Dipali Chittar Project Manager
Abhijeet Deobhakta Project Coordinator
Sagara Naik Indexer
Hemangini Bari Proofreader
Chris Smith Production Coordinator
Manjiri Nadkarni Shantanu Zagade Cover Designer
Shantanu Zagade About the Author Brandon Dawson is a 29 year old website developer from Lancaster, Ohio in
the United States. He has completed Joomla! projects for clients ranging from major corporate clients, such as Apple Incorporated, to small local businesses. He
www.athenainternet.com maintains a business website at .
He enjoys building websites, hiking, cycling, and spending time with his fiancée and their son, Augdin. He is also a huge movie buff and spent his college years operating a small local movie theatre. He frequents the Joomla support forums, and maintains his personal websites at
www.joomlawarrior.com www.brandondawson.org and .
About the Co-author Tom Canavan
has practically grown up with the Computer industry. He started his career out of college doing component-level repair of barcode readers. From there he moved into a computer systems maintenance position supporting proprietary minis, mainframes, PCs, and networks with a major defense firm.
Later he moved to AST Research and then to Dell Computer Corporation where he worked as a Sr. Systems Consultant working with Fortune-500 customers. He has over twenty-three years of work experience on all facets of computing, networking, and customer problem solving.
He has a degree in Robotics and Numerical control from Grayson County College. He is the co-host of a successful Podcast about Joomla! known as JoomlaJabber.com.
He is the author of "Dodging the Bullets—a disaster preparation guide for ".
Joomla! based websites
About the Reviewers Tom Canavan has practically grown up with the Computer industry. He started
his career out of college doing component-level repair of barcode readers. From there he moved into a computer systems maintenance position supporting proprietary minis, mainframes, PCs, and networks with a major defense firm. Later he moved to AST Research and then to Dell Computer Corporation where he worked as a Sr. Systems Consultant working with Fortune-500 customers. He has over twenty-three years of work experience on all facets of computing, networking, and customer problem solving.
He has a degree in Robotics and Numerical control from Grayson County College. He is the co-host of a successful Podcast about Joomla! known as JoomlaJabber.com.
He is the author of "Dodging the Bullets—a disaster preparation guide for ".
Joomla! based websites
Niko Kotiniemi has a background service sector, Union and Unemployment Fund
related work as well as the travel sector. In 2004 he turned his lifelong computer hobby to into a living, starting with custom web projects and open-source CMS systems. Since the very beginning of his computer related professional career he has worked with Mambo and later with Joomla. In 2006, at the age of 30 he decided to obtain the academic qualifications and entered the Software Engineering studies at the Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, Information Technology department.
During the course of his studies he is constantly working on different web-projects to both finance his studies as well as out of professional interest. Most of his free time is spent with his family as well as in studying new trends and technologies and ways in which they can be integrated to real-life situations such as those faced by private entrepreneurs and small companies. Currently his main technological interests lie in Joomla, wiki’s, all of the Google labs products, Ajax, Gadgets/Widgets, databases and specialized websites for niche groups.
http://www.kotiniemi.fi
You can reach him through his personal website or through e-mail: niko@kotiniemi.fi .
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Link Anchors
37
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Table of Contents
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Table of Contents [ ]
Table of Contents
Chapter 7: Disaster Recovery
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Table of Contents
Chapter 8: Small Change
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Preface
So you want to be an entrepreneur? Or maybe you already are one. Maybe you want to earn some extra cash, but don't have the time to setup an eBay® store. Whatever the case is, this book is for you. As a young man, I always dreamed of running my own business and being in control of my business destiny. Well, that dream is not only possible, but with the Internet, it is very easy and lucrative. Planning to run your own business, brick and mortar or Internet based, isn't easy, and sometimes not fun. However, one thing that I have learnt in life is that the more you know a subject, such as Internet-based businesses, the easier it can be. The team of volunteer programmers who bring you Joomla! have given you a tool that, when properly applied, will yield great fortunes! Or at least yield a nice return.
Remember the effort you put into this will determine the benefits you receive. If you aren't ready, then read the book, play around with the software, set it aside and come back in a few weeks. Read it again, and continue. However, if you are ready to jump whole heartedly into your own Joomla! cash stream, use this book as a guide, but keep studying. Read the forums at Joomla.org, read other online business books; study and examine successful sites, don't steal but visualize and make your own, and improve your site. Make no mistake; this is a full-time effort, which you should not take lightly. Take it on as if your doctor has asked you to. In other words, take all the medicines, eat right, get plenty of sleep, exercise, and you will feel better. This book, will serve the same. Visualize your business, write your marketing plan, learn good layout and optimization techniques, prepare for disaster, market your skills, and learn how to take in money and pay out commissions.
Without further ado, let's join the business already in progress on the Internet.
Preface What This Book Covers
Chapter 1 talks about the hype versus reality aspect of the Internet and clears away
the "if I build it, they will come" myth. Also, it tells you that a Joomla! warrior should be disciplined and should learn all the skills to be successful. It explains the four P's required for efficient marketing: Product, Place, Promotion, and People.
Chapter 2 teaches you how to evaluate, adapt, improvise, and overcome obstacles that keep you from achieving digital battlefield victory.
covers the basics of SEO or search engine optimization, links and tags, RSS
Chapter 3 feeds, newsletters, and multimedia marketing.
explains how to obtain critical data for your website as a basis for action.
Chapter 4 You will learn about traffic/log analysis.
Chapter 5 will help you understand how to make your site visually appealing so as to
generate traffic and revenue. Chapter 6 will provide you with tips for generating revenues for your Joomla! site. Chapter 7 will provide you with a brief tutorial on disaster preparation for your cash-generating site. Chapter 8 explains a few more cash-generating weapons: marketing your Joomla! skills and offering commercial templates. Who This Book is For is For For This book is suitable for business people with a medium level of technical skillwho need a good primer on how to implement a cash-generating website. Those unfamiliar with Joomla! would benefit from reading Building Websites with
Joomla! 1.5 Beta 1 .
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning. There are two styles for code. Code words in text are shown as follows: "We can
include
include other contexts through the use of the directive."
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Preface
A block of code will be set as follows:
<?php if (file_exists($mosConfig_absolute_path."/components/ com_joomlastats/joomlastats.inc.php"));
New terms
and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: "clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen".
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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Customer Support
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Preface Errata
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our contents, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in text or code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing this you can save other readers from frustration, and help to improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.
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[ ] Welcome Warriors!
Do you have a product or service you wish to sell on the Internet? Do you possess
specialized knowledge that has value? Do you design or implement websites? Do you
want to make money? Chances are good that you fall into one of these categories. I assume that you've selected this book because you have a vision and you realize you've selected this book because you have a vision and you realize that your vision is one that's been held by countless people since time immemorial, or at the very least, since 1995. You may wish to have a site that will promote your
www.carolsfavorite.com
unique recipes, something like , and depend on small amounts of revenue from Google Adsense ads. Perhaps your vision is to get the terrific after-market product ideas for automobiles from your mind to the Internet. You would need to accept credit cards online, be search-engine friendly, and have a shopping cart. Perhaps you fall somewhere in between. In any case, you share the vision of countless entrepreneurs, which is to make money! If, on the other hand, you've selected this book because it has a misspelled, westernized, Swahili word in it's title, then let this paragraph serve as notice that this book has nothing to do with the sub-Saharan Bantu languages, and that the author, editors, and publisher of this book have no need to correct the spelling for that entire language family. Joomla! is Bantoid (Swahili) for is Bantoid (Swahili) for All together now, and as we'll see throughout this book, the terrific developer community surrounding Joomla! Joomla!, the Content Content Management System or CMS, has provided an arsenal of components and extensions for people with vision to turn their ideas into reality.
This book will give you the tools and describe the techniques to get your site online; however, the rest is up to you; just as Rome was not built in a day, neither is a popular website born overnight. We'll concentrate on techniques for building a steady, reliable, and money-making website that could provide you the freedom to see your vision turn to reality and reward you with real dollars. The effectiveness of
Welcome Warriors!
your site is determined by numerous factors—one of them being the functionality of your site. Joomla! is built to accept add-on software known as accept add-on software known as extensions. These extensions delivered both commercially and under the GNU/GPL licenses offer a wealth of power that will make an average site a good one.
While reading this book, you will get the opportunity to closely examine real-world examples. By reading about others' experiences you will see how websites are used to make cash. Joomla! is a perfect platform to begin your training as a Joomla! cash warrior.
Business is a War—You Must be Prepared to be a Warrior!
To be a warrior, you must learn a warrior's winning tools and techniques. In this book you will learn valuable, time-tested skills to earn search engine ranking, turn affiliate website clicks into cash, and track the movement of visitors. One of the greatest Internet warriors is Bob Parsons of GoDaddy.com, the website host and registrar. He has 16 rules of success, and he swears by them. Rule no. 9 is:
measure everything of significance. By learning about tools you will be able to gauge
the progress. Lastly, this book will help you to learn how to keep your soon-to-be- generated cash site up and happy.
Hype versus Reality—the Internet
We've all experienced the hype-versus-reality aspect of the Internet; you labor on your website, crossing every virtual T, and dotting every digital I, in the pursuit of providing a rewarding experience to your visitors and getting your intended message across.
You launch your website securely making sure that Google, Yahoo, and the others will bring multitudes of visitors your way, quickly and painlessly. Soon, you'll be on the Internet A-list. However, you wait and nothing happens. nothing happens. happens.
What went Wrong?
Nothing. You, like countless others believed the "If I build it, they will come" myth of the Internet. This insidious myth has been circulating since the days of digital yore, spread by the lucky few who were at the right place, at the right time, with the right place, at the right time, with the right , at the right time, with the right time, with the right , with the right idea, and most importantly, the right venture capitalists. , and most importantly, the right venture capitalists. venture capitalists..
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Chapter 1 Today one of the myths is that search engine submission and indexing is the only
step needed to build a successful web presence. Yet this represents but one of the weapons in our arsenal. There are many others and as with the ancient �ushid�� �ushid�� code, (�ushid�� means �way of the warrior��, mastery of one principle does not make �ushid�� means �way of the warrior��, mastery of one principle does not make means "way of the warrior"), mastery of one principle does not make a person master of the entire discipline. Just like the Bushido of the Samurai of ancient Japan, the code means a code of conduct. You being a Joomla! warrior must be disciplined in several different skills and conduct, to be successful.
Presumably, this book's readership does not reside on the Forbes Magazine list of the world's wealthiest people, so we will assume that we do not have a billion- dollar, near-limitless, pre-dotcom-bust budget, cheerfully funded by breathless, money-showering venture capitalists, who also want to be "in" on the "next big thing".
Instead, we will accept that we must learn and use excellent strategies and tactics to take our ideas and bring them to the rich, spending masses. We will accept that spending masses. We will accept that masses. We will accept that we must choose our battlefield carefully, with weapons and tactics suitable to our terrain. �y doing so, we will stand out in the crowded digital battlefield and will arise victorious.
The Way of the Warrior
The Way of the Joomla! Warrior encompasses all the techniques of successful website production, and recognizes that what works in one situation may not be suitable in another. It further recognizes that what has worked before may or may not necessarily work again. Finally, it recognizes that hard work, virtue, and persistence are the cornerstones of any successful endeavor, digital or otherwise.
Mind Your P's
As any first-year marketing student will quickly recite, the foundational basis of marketing revolves around four P's: product, place, price, and promotion. Our first weapon to achieve the four P's is preparation. So we begin by developing preparation. So we begin by developing . So we begin by developing a comprehensive idea of what we are and what we do, who should be rewarded by are and what we do, who should be rewarded by and what we do, who should be rewarded by do, who should be rewarded by , who should be rewarded by who should be rewarded by should be rewarded by visiting us and how how. Here's a brief overview of the four P's:
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Welcome Warriors! Product
Our website's prime product is usually the content and information, which we use to prime product is usually the content and information, which we use to is usually the content and information, which we use to draw our visitors in. We will typically want this content to be fresh and topical, but we can also get away by offering stale, over-exposed information, if we offer a new twist or interpretation by providing fresh, contrasting, analysis or extension of an otherwise tired topic.
http://www.x-
As an example, the popular retro-culture site �-Entertainment ( �-Entertainment ( (
entertainment.com ) quite successfully manages to retread old content by providing
a nostalgic, retro spin on cultural icons of the 1980s and 1990s. In contrast to this, are the political commentary sites, many of which manage to not only provide a primary product of fresh analysis and commentary on current events, but also physical secondary products related to the current socio-political zeitgeist.
Our secondary products are the products we actually sell secondary products are the products we actually sell are the products we actually sell sell. These could be our own products, ranging from exclusive, subscriber-only content that extends, or is related to our free content, to branded merchandise or actual consumer products. In this case, we must not only provide the content, but also a compelling presentation with plenty of reasons to scratch the itch and buy the product. In an e-commerce storefront, our prime products are the ones we intend to sell, and our secondary products are free value-adds, often free user's guides, user forums, or FAQs; this requires that we plan the design of the site's layout appropriately. The astute reader will realize that what we're really discussing here is how to
commoditize our visitors : are they consumers of information, or consumers of physical are they consumers of information, or consumers of physical
products? Will they generate revenue for us by simply visiting the site, or help spread the word? Or, is their main contribution to our bottom line to be found in products they buy? Proper consideration of the true nature of our product is imperative for answering true nature of our product is imperative for answering is imperative for answering the question of how our product will be presented in our website's design.
Place
Our place, obviously, is the Internet, and, specifically, our Joomla! site. If we place, obviously, is the Internet, and, specifically, our Joomla! site. If we , obviously, is the Internet, and, specifically, our Joomla! site. If we consider our website as we would a store front, then certain operational concerns become evident. We want our place to be attractive, something that draws the visitor's eye right away. We want a clear, uncluttered presentation of information; particularly, we want the information that drives buying decisions to be readily apparent, and attractively presented.
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Chapter 1 Having the Internet as our place confers certain advantages and disadvantages. Take place confers certain advantages and disadvantages. Take confers certain advantages and disadvantages. Take
a brief look at our primary assets and liabilities on the topic of place:
Some Advantages A website is a lower-cost medium in terms of cost-per-customer than other mediums.
Our Joomla! site is available 24/7/365 to visitors the world over. The Internet permits more than merely the old-school, two-way interactivity of a typical physical retailer. For example, allowing visitors to rate or review content or products allows for a collaborative, multi-dimensional presentation of what is most relevant to our consumers.
Some Disadvantages
Websites lose direct control over their interaction with customers, instead relying on a passive, customer-driven experience wherein the consumer has the final say over how the information presented is interpreted and acted upon. Dissatisfied customers often have no direct, person-to-person capacity to resolve their disputes and obtain satisfaction from an initial unsatisfying experience.
Remember, your competition is only a click away. Websites have little-to-no control over the fulfilment process, which is to say, what happens with a customer's product after the checkout process is completed, and the product shipped. Unsatisfactory product-return arrangements from Internet retailers are commonly a major cause of dissent against e-commerce in general. Make sure you consider your customers' experience in the design and operation of the site. Make returns easy. Make sure your HELP number or HELP e-mail address is clearly labeled. Your visitors are not someone simply "passing by" like cars on a freeway.
Price
The old maxim There is no such thing as a free lunch, provides a good basis for our brief discussion of price. price.. If our prime product is free information, then the user often provides restitution for the value our content provides by considering or acting upon our advertising. If our prime products are physical inventories, users often make their decisions based on either the cost, or the features or benefits. In that sense, then, we would want to pitch our free informational resources on a product as a value-add to the product itself, thus benefiting us both with the price and flexibility.
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Welcome Warriors!
Running an e-commerce site, armed with the right components, can enhance your sales. Consider for instance, how your e-commerce site could offer high profit, high impulse products at checkout time to enhance your loss-leader product. An example is a car-charger for your mobile phone, which, offered attractively and at the right
strategic time , would clearly increase your bottom line. In the retail world this is would clearly increase your bottom line. In the retail world this is
done all the time in the form of "end-caps" and checkout kiosks offering gum, candy, batteries, glass cleaner and all sorts of items that have very high margin.
Promotion
Promotion is the subset of marketing where a website can really shine, but also the is the subset of marketing where a website can really shine, but also the area in which some of the old mythologies of the Internet can really interfere with proper implementation of a promotional strategy. On one hand, a properly designed Joomla! website can make promotion a breeze by offering the capacity to promote based on word-of-mouth, referrals, optimized search-engine indexing, banner advertising, RSS feeds, email blasts, document downloads, forums, and more.
On the other hand, one problem intrinsic to any website is the problem of cutting through the Internet's natural noise level, and providing our consumers a quick, concise way to drill into our content and obtain their desired benefits. The "build it, they will come" problem we've already considered is part and parcel of promotion. Visitors will come, once it's built, but they must know its there.
Having a promotional plan and executing it is another weapon in your arsenal of success. Heed the words of advertising genius, David Ogilvy, I do not regard
advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information . Promotion is
your advertisement.The Forgotten P—People
Many aspiring webmasters tend to forget that their visitors are not numbers, but living, breathing people, whose individual needs must be addressed. We should have a clear understanding of our intended audience and design our site accordingly. For example, if our site is targeted towards senior citizens, then we could make certain changes, to make their reading easier, as many older users keep their desktop settings at lower resolutions for increased readability.We could increase the font size, We could increase the font size, increase the font size, consider a fixed-width and a smaller layout.
If the targeted audience is highly technically-literate, then we could overload the visitor with information, as long as that information is well-organized and logically presented. If, on the other hand, our audience is new to computers, a simpler, more intuitive design and layout should be pursued.
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Chapter 1 Analyzing user behavior and psychology is crucial for successful designing. Studies
have proven that different genders, age groups, and economic segments respond differently to different color schemes and layouts. More importantly, analysis of a visitors' behavior while visiting your website can reveal trends and patterns that can alter your perception of how your website's information is being received, as opposed to how that information is actually being received, as opposed to how that information is actually being as opposed to how that information is actually being presented. We'll discuss tracking visitors to the site later in the book. . We'll discuss tracking visitors to the site later in the book.
Summary
Just as there are a myriad of options when building a website, there are a myriad of options for defining and refining our marketing concepts and how they relate to our overall plans for our Joomla! website. This book will dive into these topics as well as look at the commercially available and GNU/GPL freely available extensions to make your site shine. If you're ready, warrior, strap on your armor, grab your weapons and let's join the battle…already in progress.
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Creating a Marketing Plan
We will cover the following topics in this chapter:
- Why have marketing plans?
- Creating marketing plans
- Objectives for attaining a revenue-generating Joomla! site
Why have Marketing Plans?
This is a question that many business people struggle with. You would not build a house without first checking your finance, finding land, and getting a blueprint for the house. The purpose of the blueprint is to tell the building crew how to build it and what it should look like. It includes a plan for all the necessary items such as plumbing, floors, electrical wiring, roof, and more. Without the blueprint you wouldn't be able to describe your house.
Marketing plans are just like that, they describe your offerings, detail your plans for the features, functions, and benefits of your website. In short, without one you would not be able to accurately identify and sell your products at the highest profit margin. As a Joomla! warrior, you may want to go to battle with your marketing plan.
Creating a Marketing Plan
The marketing plan is easy to put together; however, the difficulty comes in knowing what questions to ask, where to find the answers, and factors that constitute a strategy or a tactic. However, let's establish a simple way to remember this. You have a vision of what the end result of your site would be. This can be vision of what the end result of your site would be. This can be of what the end result of your site would be. This can be considered as your goal. For example, you say that you want to earn $25,000 in the first year of operation.
Creating a Marketing Plan This is a simple goal that requires a good strategy supported by tactical objectives.
As we move into the objectives, you will see how they complement each other, yet change forms, all for the purpose of achieving the goal of $25,000. An excellent tool to help craft a marketing plan is Marketing Plan Pro from Palo Alto software (see (see http://www.paloalto.com/ps/mp for more information). This package helps you craft your message and plan by asking you the hard questions. However, for us fellow warriors, let's examine some of the elements that go into a good marketing plan and how to craft them.
Elements of Your Marketing Plan
Your battle plan, i.e. your marketing plan, should at least contain the following elements:
- A solid description of the buyer or the end user of your product or service
- What segments of the market will you compete in for your product Each product or service should have a clearly defined statement that discusses your unique value proposition. In other words, why are you different and not not a commodity. Never compete solely on price. You will lose. Compete on value, by defining your value strategy as opposed to your competitors. If I were the buyer, and were comparing your product, against the competitor's product, I would likely buy the competitor's product even though it may be more expensive, if you have not communicated strategically with me throughout the experience. Communications—What advertising should you do? What will it cost? What is your budget? What will it say to the reader or target? Develop an advertising plan within your marketing plan. In your plan, describe your business—what is it? Why is it?—Ask yourself, why does Why is it?—Ask yourself, why does my business exist? A powerful warrior will answer these questions with ease. Know your enemy, know yourself, and you will be victorious in all the battles. As you can see a marketing plan is a complex document. It should change as your
terrain changes. Should you run into a river (metaphorically speaking) what in your plan guides you around it, or through it? A river may be a rushing torrent, such as a competitor, offering the same products at a lower cost. Be prepared to address these things in your marketing plan.
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Chapter 2 The Warrior's Strategic Objectives In our marketing plan, we have milestones or objectives. These are built to gauge how
we perform to reach our goal. For example, the overall goal of this book is to teach you, the reader, how to use Joomla! to develop a site and sell or provide content, products, or services to make money. With that, there are specific objectives, such as traffic generation, that must be planned. Once we plan for these, we need a way to measure and adapt to the changes. The remainder of this chapter covers these objectives in detail. Take the time to absorb these key concepts as they will prove to fill your quiver with arrows to fire at your target.
Evaluate, Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome
We begin crafting our battle plan by considering our strategic objectives. Once we have determined our overall objectives, we can evaluate and select the specific evaluate and select the specific and select the specific tactics necessary to achieve each objective, adapt to emerging trends, improvise, adapt to emerging trends, improvise, to emerging trends, improvise, improvise, and capitalize those trends and other operating conditions. We will overcome our capitalize those trends and other operating conditions. We will overcome our those trends and other operating conditions. We will overcome our overcome our our competition by virtue of our enlightened warrior's understanding of the battlefield in question.
Objective 1—Direct Revenue Generation
Our direct revenue generators are the primary means of beginning a revenue stream for our Joomla! site. They provide cash directly—by means of some activity by the visitors, who visit the website, which might range from simply visiting the page to a deeper participation like the visitor taking some kind of action like completing a survey, getting a quote for a product, or even outright buying the product. Here are our weapons for direct revenue generation:
- CPM advertising: CPM costs are priced per thousand. The M in the acronym is the Roman numeral for one thousand. Advertisers pay for each thousand impressions the ad receives.
- CPC advertising: Advertisers pay every time a user clicks on their listing and is redirected to their website.
- CPA advertising: The advertiser pays only for the number of users who complete a transaction, such as a purchase or sign-up. Affiliate programs: This model allows you to promote your website on
- This model allows you to promote your website on other websites. They in turn will receive payment for click-through, click-per-action, or other means.
- Sale of physical products.
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Creating a Marketing Plan
- Sale of instant, branded merchandise.
- Exclusive multimedia content—subscription access to video, podcasts, etc. subscription access to video, podcasts, etc.
- Exclusive editorial content (subscription access to content).
- Newsletter marketing.
- Donations: This is not a high yield method for revenue, but can work if This is not a high yield method for revenue, but can work if prompted properly.
Objective 2—Traffic Generation
Generally speaking, more traffic equals more business, equals more money. More More importantly, increasing traffic is the most important aspect for converting your Joomla! website from a minor hobby to a major asset for your future. Here are our weapons for traffic generation:
- Well-tuned, keyword-rich copy writing: In a nutshell there are rules to be In a nutshell there are rules to be followed to get search engines' attention. This area is one of the most critical areas around.
- SEO: Search engine optimization, is the tool you will use to prepare your site Search engine optimization, is the tool you will use to prepare your site to move up in rankings.
- Getting your site reviewed or featured in other media, such as newspapers and television.
- Sitemap submissions: This provides a "roadmap" for search engines to : This provides a "roadmap" for search engines to catalogue and document your particular website in their indexes. RSS: RSS is an �M�-based vocabulary that specifies a means of describing RSS is an �M�-based vocabulary that specifies a means of describing
- news or other web content that is available for "feeding" (distribution or syndication) from an online publisher to web users.
- Website invitation and referral mechanisms.
- Cross-promotion with other websites.
- Use of news-aggregation sites and blog sites.
- Giving away valuable, free stuff.
- Running contests.
- Starting an online club.
- Starting an event or trend.
- Newsletters.
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[ ] Objective 3—Visitor and Traffic Analysis
Within a few months of your website's launch, new trends and traffic patterns will emerge. The wise webmaster uses this intelligence in the metrics through careful analysis to adapt to the changes and improvise. Through this the webmaster can make changes and updates to the site as needed to improve the traffic and increase the revenue. The following could be used:
Website log analysis Clickmaps User surveys Product sales versus advertising or promotion
Objective 4—Behavior or Conversion Analysis
After careful analysis of our logs, the webmaster, becoming the Joomla! warrior, can begin to tailor the site to meet the visitors' needs with greater accuracy; turning an eye toward converting the visitors into buyers or consumers of the product or service. The following could be used:
Prioritizing your content's presentation based on user popularity Determining what features, components, and articles are used Altering the color scheme, or adding additional navigational options Streamlining the e-commerce checkout processes Adding compelling high profit, value-add items Creating a sense of urgency in the customer's mind to adopt or purchase the product rather than delaying the decision
Objective 5—Competitive Analysis—"Know Thy —Competitive Analysis—"Know Thy Competitive Analysis—"Know Thy Enemy"
Arming yourself with knowledge is one of the keys to victory. Gather as much information as possible about your competitors and use this knowledge to improve your site's offering and your interaction with the customers.
Analyze your competitor's strengths and weaknesses: Also known as Also known as SWOT analysis. Identify under-served niches, topics, and products. Analyze the relative search engine positioning of the competitor, to determine how to gain ground on them.
Creating a Marketing Plan
- Analyze the link popularity and referrers for your competitors, so that you may know who they are aligned with and how these alignments would benefit you.
- Tailor content, products, and offers to address the weaknesses in the competitor.
Objective 6—Bringing it All back Home—"Winning Hearts and Minds"
The most successful websites encourage user loyalty by recognizing the user's contribution to the website's overall success. This recognition has the ancillary benefit of introducing the �rising tide� factor to �lift all boats�, that is, it encourages other users to play a more active role in the site. For e-commerce sites, recognizing and rewarding ongoing loyalty can serve as a powerful inducement for users remaining loyal in their buying decisions. Finally, donating some of your site's revenue to charity increases your popularity as a good citizen of the Internet. We can win hearts and minds by:
- Returning value to your visitors (running a points program for free product)
- Donating some earnings to charity, or donating time by being a supporting member of a technical forum for your favorite open-source software project
- Featuring user contributions and highlighting individual users
Highlighting user's websites and sharing traffic
- The Warrior's Tactics