Packt joomla cash money making weapons for your joomla website oct 2007 ISBN 1847191401 pdf

Chapter 5 will help you understand how to make your site visually appealing so as to generate traffic and revenue.. In this book you will learn valuable, time-tested skills to earn sear

Joomla! 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

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 maintains a business website at www.athenainternet.com

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 and www.brandondawson.org

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

You can reach him through his personal website http://www.kotiniemi.fi or

Table of Contents

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 21

Determining Link Relevancy 38 Don't Go There–Links to be Avoided at All Costs 38 Competitive Analysis 39

Copying htaccess.txt to htaccess 40

Tip for Using OpenSEF 44 Using the Sitemap Feature 44 Configuring OpenSEF's Sitemap 45 Generating the Sitemap 46 Submitting the Sitemap 47

FijiWebDesign's TagBot 48

Case Study on Linkbait—Oxfam.org.uk–"Bit Unfair" 51

Permission Marketing 54

Signing up with Banner Affiliates 88 Becoming Your Own Ad Broker 89

Uploading a New Banner 90

Ready, Aim, FIRE! 100

Amazon Product Feed Bridge 101 Using the Omakase Module 102

You Have to be Prepared 142 What is Risk Tolerance? 142 Factors to be Considered for Disaster Preparation 143 Basic Steps to Take when an Outage Occurs 144

Using htaccess to Protect Your Site 145

Permissions and Your Site 146

Purpose of Media Contact 151

How I approached It 154

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

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

Chapter 3 covers the basics of SEO or search engine optimization, links and tags, RSS

feeds, newsletters, and multimedia marketing

Chapter 4 explains how to obtain critical data for your website as a basis for action

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 skill who 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 other contexts through the use of the include directive."

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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You can contact us at questions@packtpub.com if you are having a problem with some aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it

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 realizeyou'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 unique recipes, something like www.carolsfavorite.com, 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 ContentContent

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

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 generated cash site up and happy

soon-to-be-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 rightplace, at the right time, with the right, at the right time, with the righttime, with the right, with the right idea, and most importantly, the right venture capitalists., and most importantly, the right venture capitalists.venture capitalists

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 thatspending 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 developingpreparation 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 byare and what we do, who should be rewarded by and what we do, who should be rewarded bydo, who should be rewarded by, who should be rewarded bywho should be rewarded byshould be rewarded by visiting us and howhow.

Here's a brief overview of the four P's:

As an example, the popular retro-culture site �-Entertainment (�-Entertainment ( (entertainment.com) quite successfully manages to retread old content by providing

http://www.x-a nosthttp://www.x-algic, retro spin on culturhttp://www.x-al icons of the 1980s http://www.x-and 1990s In contrhttp://www.x-ast to this, http://www.x-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 sellsecondary products are the products we actually sell are the products we actually sellsell 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 physicalare 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 answeringtrue 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 weplace, 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

Having the Internet as our place confers certain advantages and disadvantages Takeplace confers certain advantages and disadvantages Takeconfers certain advantages and disadvantages Take

a brief look at our primary assets and liabilities on the topic of place:

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

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

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 beingreceived, 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.

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 bevision 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

•

•

•

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 serviceWhat 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 notnot

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 doesWhy 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

•

•

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 specificevaluate 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 ourcapitalize those trends and other operating conditions We will overcome our those trends and other operating conditions We will overcome ourovercome 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

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 ifThis 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 beIn 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 siteSearch engine optimization, is the tool you will use to prepare your site

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

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 asAlso 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

Analyze the link popularity and referrers for your competitors, so that

you may know who they are aligned with and how these alignments would

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 projectFeaturing user contributions and highlighting individual users

Highlighting user's websites and sharing traffic

The Warrior's Tactics

Now that we've established the broad brushstrokes of our master strategy, it is time to move on to the tactical realization of our strategy, identify our individual weapons, and put them to use

Successful Joomla! warriors will rely on a shrewd mix of tactics, techniques towards the competition in their pursuit of the website's strategic plan These tactics

incorporate a thorough understanding of the terrain of our chosen niche, coupled with a full understanding of the tools and practices appropriate to all situations In the following sections, we'll look at each of these objectives in greater detail

Objective 1—Direct Revenue Generation

As a Joomla! warrior, the sole purpose of your site is to generate revenue or "cash" This cash you generate should represent profit In other words, after all expenses both hard and soft are accounted for, all you should be left is profit

Hard expenses include advertising, affiliate marketing payouts, cost of goods (COG� which is what it costs you to purchase raw product or material and turn it into product, and then sell it

Soft expenses, often overlooked, are things like time, hosting costs, minor expenses for office supplies or for security certificates All these have monetary value and should be accounted for in the profit scenario

Let's review ad-based revenue generation in general by considering the Google AdSense model

According to Wikipedia AdSense is:

… an ad serving program run by Google Website owners can enroll in this program

to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on their sites These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand- impressions basis Google is also currently beta-testing a cost-per-action based service Google utilizes its search technology to serve ads based on website content, the user's geographical location, and other factors Those wanting to advertise with Google's targeted ad system may sign up through AdWords AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on

a website because the ads are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the ads is often relevant to the website.

The Adwords charge is measured in either cost per thousand impressionscost per thousand impressions (1

impression = 1 person looking at the ad) or cost per click The cost per click can getcost per click The cost per click can get The cost per click can get very pricey and should be chosen against an appropriate budget

As a Joomla! warrior you can place the "AdSense code" on their website, using tools such as mod_html, allowing you to receive ads related to your site's content

When a visitor clicks the ad, you get a small portion of the revenue (CPC) If

the ad is in "rotation" and is based on CPM, you will receive a small portion of that revenue as well You can learn more about Google's AdSense by visiting

http://www.google.com/adsense

Affiliate Marketing

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, the online bookstore, is one of the early pioneers

of the affiliate marketing program In fact, he launched one of the earliest affiliate marketing programs way back in July 1996 after having a conversation with a woman

at a cocktail party Since then many sites offer an affiliate marketing program

This affiliate marketing program is typically a passive sales force on the Internet Someone will �sign up on your site� and request to be an affiliate After they meet all the requirements set out by the site, they receive some code-scripts to place on their site Visitors click-through and visit your site, either purchasing or moving along Either way, they leave a digital footprint, a mile wide and two miles deep The Joomla! warrior, will follow these tracks in search of their target If for example

a visitor clicks through and buys, one of the more popular methods is to pay a small percentage of the profit Typically this is accumulated until a certain dollar value is attained at which payout will occur

This can be a powerful weapon for you for many reasons The first of these is free advertising and the second is to improve the search engine rankings Many search

engines give importance to the number of inbound links coming to your site, in

other words, how many places you are listed on other sites It is an indication of the popularity of your site and can help you gain higher rankings

Goods, Goods, Goods

Other means of direct revenue generation are sales of physical products, such as apparel, fishing gear, books, or practically anything else These typically require shipping, which offers another indirect method of revenue by adding markup to the shipping and handling

Instant branded merchandise such as e-books, software downloads, and more provide a Joomla! warrior's site with impulse purchases and of course high profit

Information is Power

In his groundbreaking book, Membership site bible, Perry Lawrence describes in

detail how and why you should offer a subscription service and how to convert it to cash One item a Joomla! warrior should be versed is turning knowledge into cash Various tactical methods exist such as:

Exclusive multimedia content by subscription only, which can include training, special messages, or more

News or information that is highly valuable and that consumers will pay for

•

•

Do not ignore these niche areas as you certainly are a specialist in your hobby or area

of expertise Turning this hobby into dollars is easy and profitable

Objective 2—Traffic Generation

Generating traffic discussions often revolve around the idea of creating a complex and expensive "ad campaign", which usually delivers less than stellar results

Ad campaigns are great for maintaining brand awareness, but difficult if you are unknown

The warrior must use guerrilla tactics to achieve his or her aim In that arsenal you will find that saying the right things, being in the right place at the right time, and complying with the search engines' rules of order are some of the most powerful tactics a warrior can employ Let's dive into them and learn more about each

Keyword-Rich Copywriting

Keywords are somewhat like categories in which there are mini-categories For

instance, you would not look for a specific automobile part for your classic 1964 Ford Mustang by typing "car parts" in the Google search engine Rather you would type

in specifically �tie-rods 1964 ford mustang� This gives the search engine a way to determine the target site If your site sold car parts, but only had a sparse mention of

tie-rods and does not state that they are for a 1964 mustang, your site might show up

in the search results but not likely at the top When you craft your keywords, think very hard about what you would search for to find your website This is what likely will be searched for by others to find you Keywords should be scattered throughout

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a procedure to prepare your site, its content, your Meta data and Meta tags,

your images, and more The better your site is optimized for the various search

engines, the more likely it is that your site will attain high rankings One excellent resource for learning about SEO is at: http://www.searchenginehelp.com

Sitemap Submission

Quite simply, a sitemap submission is an �M� (extended mark-up language� file that describes where everything is located on your site The search engines send out spiders that follow and verify the �ML document and return their results to the search engine One of the best tools for Joomla! is OpenSEF and it is discussed further later in the book

RSS Syndication or Really Simple Syndication

Turning again to Wikipedia we learn the definition of RSS:

RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts An RSS document, which is called a "feed", "web feed",

or "channel", contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually.

This very popular tool offers the Joomla! warrior a clever method to keep their clients and prospective clients informed using a "push-pull" methodology Where current levels of spam are nearly crippling to email systems and have certainly rendered email marketing a mediocre effort RSS shines bright However with RSS,

the consumer of the information determines if they wish to receive it After that you

are given a direct conversation with them For instance, if you publish a monthly news article on dogs and specifically dog shows, then those who have subscribedsubscribed

via RSS, using an RSS reader, will receive the updated copy of My Dog Show Monthly News as soon as you post it Then you need not worry about email and spam filters

and whether they checked the site for an update This is a powerful weapon in the marketing efforts of a Joomla! warrior

Another way to take advantage of RSS feeds is through news aggregation sites and blogs Spend time and become a contributor to blogsites that relate to your product Provide news articles to news outlets, and as they push out your news, others will learn of you

Free! Free! Free!

Other items to generate traffic and sales are to give away something It may be just

a coffee cup, but it's amazing how much someone will give up in terms of personal information to win something If you can tie up with another site, such as holding

a contest to win a prize or promote an online club, it is a great method to draw in visitors, and thus dollars

Objective 3—Visitor and Traffic Analysis

Recall that the third objective involves analyzing your visitors As you are likely aware of, walking across the digital landscape that is the Internet, you leave a swath

of information a kilometre wide and a kilometre deep! It is that information that we will analyze

Our first stop is to learn what our log files say Every website host has statistical data about visitors, which they collect and often store in the root directory This information can be very powerful and should be used extensively to promote your site.

Some of the items we can expect to get are:

Which pages get the most and the least traffic on your site

What is the URL of the site that referred a visitor to you (known as

the "Referrer")

If there is a popular browser for your audience The log files will tell you what browser and OS that are being used by the client and other information.The log reveals if a search engine has visited and if so which one

What part of the world a visitor came from

What is their IP address

If they searched for you, what keyword or phrase they used

While this information is abundant, it is often not easily readable without the addition

of a "stat package" of which several are available on the Joomla! extensions site

Other important data points to be considered are:

Clickmaps: Also called as "heat maps", these are a visual track of where theAlso called as "heat maps", these are a visual track of where the visitors clicked Typically a clickmap will show you more intensive hot-spots indicating several clicks It's a great tool to show you where to move the content that may be of value, but is ignored

Survey says!:: User surveys are tricky, but can provide some great analysis Keep in mind that unless users are rewarded somehow, they probably won't take your survey and if so the data may be 'iffy' at best For a great book on

surveys, I recommend—How customers think: Essential Insights into the mind

of the market, by Gerald Zaltman This book will show you how to conduct a

successful survey Once you conduct a survey be sure to carefully consider the data and if appropriate, then by all means use it to improve

Product sales versus advertising/promotion:: This is a key metric in

determining if a promotion has increased traffic, increased sales or the

inverse is true Has it hurt sales? This is a powerful and easy-to-measure

metric to gauge visitor activity

Objective 4—Behavior and Conversion Analysis

Our fourth objective is one of calculated action based on careful measurement In other words, we want to convert the window shoppers into buyers There are several ways to do that and some of the most important points are covered here

Prioritize your content's presentation based on user popularity Using the

concepts presented in objective 4, we see that by watching our log files, using heat maps, and so forth, we can determine what items are the hot favorites

By capitalizing on those and linking to other pages in your site, you can catch

a few more set of eyes

Determine what features, components, and articles are used: Focusing on the

things that matter the most will make you successful in family, personal, and business life and on the web! Spend time to review what items are not being time to review what items are not being used, viewed, or otherwise may be a detriment Remove them, hide them or recycle them into something else Don't make it difficult to use or view your site Doing so will chase people away

Refine your copy in under-utilized areas: Is your copy as stale as a bachelor's

refrigerator? Take time to review it and see if it makes sense Numerous examples of poorly written copy are seen on websites This simply tells the visitor that you don't care about them It says, I'm not smart enough to run a spell check Sure very few of us are well known authors, but there are some basic things you can do to improve; here are some tips:

Ask people who know nothing about your copy to read it, and

see if they understand it

Buy a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style to check if you have

written properly

Get a thesaurus

Alter the color scheme, or add additional navigational options: Do your

colors scream or make people scream! How does it appear to your visitors? Sure there are culture issues to consider, but unless you are targeting a specific ethnicity, that's a secondary concern Primary concern is no plaid with stripes! No yellows with a color that clashes, unless that is the aim of your site Visit the Pantone® color site and learn about what colors mean What feelings they invoke in the visitors But what if your colors are perfect but the navigation is lacking? Your visitors will not stay around Have someone you trust drive through your site while you watch over their

shoulder to see how they get from point a to point b Take notice of it and if necessary repeat it with a few other friends The information you will gain from this exercise will be very helpful

Streamline the e-commerce checkout processes: Here's a test Go through

your own e-commerce process as a customer Buy something with your credit card, *THINK* how is this working? Is it easy? Could I shave steps off? Should the customers enter their information twice? If so why? The most powerful tool in your arsenal is the question "why" Why am I doing this? You might answer and say, "My shopping cart makes me to do it I have no choice" Bunk! You have a choice There are thousands of shopping carts, many, many good ones! Find one that makes it easiest for your customers toyour customers to customers to give you their money Here are a few tips to help you with this process:Remove any unnecessary steps; again change shopping carts if

need arises

Put your shopping cart in test mode and run a few test orders with

friends Seek their feed back Watch how they go through it

Use the power of post-purchase survey Be thick skinned about it

Read reviews of shopping carts

Spend time at your local grocery store and see how theythey

streamline the check-out process See if there is anything you

can learn

Adding compelling high profit, value-add items: These are

better known as impulse items The Add-on sale Are you doing

add-ons? Are you offering say, a high-margin car charger with

the purchase of an electronic device you are selling? If you offer

services, have you offered an additional perk at check-out time?

These can dramatically increase your profit by recognizing the

human behavior of buying impulse items

Create a sense of urgency in the customer's mind to adopt or

purchase the product rather than delaying decision You will

recognize this tactic in the form of a "limited time" offer One way

to direct the behavior in the direction you want is to put a

time-limit on it For instance, maybe a pop-up that says, buy in the

next 20 minutes and get 10% off! This has the benefit of creating a

bit of stress in the consumer's mind that they will wish to relieve

by purchasing the product

Objective 5—Competitive Analysis

"Know Thy Enemy"

One of the tenets of the book The Art of War by Sun Tzu is to "know your enemy, is to "know your enemy, know yourself." The underlying thinking here is that you must know yourself

very well and your enemy better than yourself This enables you to think with the enemy's mind Think what you would do if you were them

Analyze your competitors' strengths and weakness—conducing SWOT analysis

This strategic exercise is conducted by winning companies large and small

Conversely, it is not practiced as often or as much in losing or declining companies.Why conduct a SWOT? This should be your first question Why are we doing it? AskAsk yourself, if the objective is attainable, does it serve the purpose of your company? If

you can answer these questions, then you can move onto the question of Strength:

What are your strengths? What will this strength provide you? How will this help your competition?

Strengths are the attributes of the organization that help in achieving the objective.Once you have this knowledge, take a strong and honest look at your processes and

yourself, your staff, your products, in essence everything Look for Weaknesses

Do not sugar-coat them, review them for what the are Do not put yourself under condemnation; rather, look at it as a way to turn them into strengths

Weaknesses are the attributes of the organization that are harmful to achieving the objective

As you move through your planning, you will find Opportunities external to you

These may be in the form of a unique product you offer It may be a unique service you offer Whatever it is, an opportunity is something to be exploited Note these in your planning and note how they can help you achieve victory over your competitor Remember, they may have the same opportunity as you

Opportunities are external conditions that are helpful in achieving the objective

Threats are something against which we must defend A threat may be a supply-are something against which we must defend A threat may be a chain interruption, such as not being able to ship or receive product Weather may

supply-be a threat A threat may supply-be competitor who is about to leapfrog you Whatever they are you must identify them and mitigate them by planning for them Later

in this book, we will examine disaster preparation, which by its nature deals one hundred percent with threats to your organization You must determine the best defence against threats

Threats are external conditions that are harmful to achieving the objective.

Identify under-served niches, topics, and products In many cases, a product that In many cases, a product that fills this need is worth any price you name Your product or service can be obtained practically anywhere; its value is driven solely by price The value of the productsolely by price The value of the product would be determined by need if the product or service is available only at a few places In such a case one could charge a heavy premium

Analyze the relative search-engine position of competitors to determine how to gain ground on them Let's imagine you sell widgets and your closest competitor isLet's imagine you sell widgets and your closest competitor is widgetworldwebsite.com Further imagine that they have a fairly high ranking and show up in the first search page for �widgets� Your widget site shows up on page seven Who do you think the clients will pick? Surely not you, unless they are explicitly looking for you By examining your competitor rankings, you can move your site up through various means Ask yourself, why do they rank sowhy do they rank so they rank so high? Possible answers could be that they have better search engines optimization,

or perhaps they have been on the Internet longer Other possibilities could be that they might have purchased AdWords® from Google, which helped their rankings,

or maybe several sites link to them Examine the reasons and change your

site accordingly

Analyze the link popularity and referrers for your competitors so that you know who they are associated with and how these would benefit you In other words, who doIn other words, who do they know that you should know? Are you in the same industry? Would link referrals from those high-traffic sites help you? Maybe, maybe not However, if your competitor

is gaining benefit from it, the chances are good you will as well

Tailor content, products, and offers to address the competitor's weaknesses Do youDo you have a better mousetrap? If so exploit it! If you don't, get one! After 9-11, a productbetter mousetrap? If so exploit it! If you don't, get one! After 9-11, a product came in the market, known as AccessWallet™ which was marketed as a travel wallet, designed to accommodate both the air traveler and the security personnel It was not

just a "travel-wallet"; it had a purpose as well In fact Entrepreneur magazine (April

2004) said it was a must have Why is this important? The product was tailored to an industry and a customer's need The competition, while they competed on quality of leather, price, or availability were selling commodities The AccessWallet™ gave the buyer an advantage as they moved through the air-security process This enabled the inventor to offer a product, in a commoditized product space, that could command a premium price Your site should look for similar advantages