Steve’s Blog

November 13, 2007

JoomlaBamboo and Mootools in Joomla

Back at the beginning of 2007, Johan Janssens announced that Joomla 1.5 will include a Mootools script library. Mootools is a Javascript framework that is lightweight enough to be used for lots of clean, quick Flash-style effects.

A lot of people are starting to take advantage of Mootools, not only in 1.5 but also in 1.0. Anthony Olsen from Joomla Bamboo is foremost among the. He has just redesigned and relaunched joomlabamboo.com so it seems a good time to point out some of the great work he’s doing.

Continue reading “JoomlaBamboo and Mootools in Joomla”

November 12, 2007

Joomla Extensions Clubs

Below is a list of the best Joomla extension providers. Some sell individual extensions and some offer them to people who subscribe for several months.

Extension Club	Logo	Extensions	Price
Joomlart		PHPList Bridge JA Iconmenu JA Module Collapse JA News JA Showcase	6 Months – $50 12 Months – $70
Ninjoomla		25 Current Extensions 23 Community Builder Templates	3 Months – $30 12 Months – $60 12 Months Developer – $100
Rocketwerx		Coming Soon	Coming soon

November 12, 2007

How to Solve Common SEO Problems with JReviews, Fireboard and MosTree

I’ve talked before about how having less pages indexed is often better and after doing SEO audits on several sites last week I was reminded of how important this was. Sites with only 200 or 300 genuine pages of content had over 1000 pages indexed in Google.

Lots of Joomla components produce 100s and sometimes 1000s of unnecessary extra URLs that are then indexed by Google. A simple example is Mostree which is a very robust component but because it was built in pre-Ajax days, it creates separate 4 extra pages for each listing: recommend, rate, review and report listing.

In this post we’re using JReviews, Fireboard and MosTree as examples. You can cut-and-paste the rules from this post into your robots.txt file. However, please read the "important notes" section first.

Continue reading “How to Solve Common SEO Problems with JReviews, Fireboard and MosTree”

November 8, 2007

Video Explaining How To Write Joomla Page Titles

Part two of my video blog posts about creating HTML page titles in Joomla. This is partly inspired by Barrie from Joomlashack who pointed me to a great post by Copyblogger.
Continue reading “Video Explaining How To Write Joomla Page Titles”

November 6, 2007

My First Attempt at a Video Blog

This is my first attempt to create a video tutorial in Joomla.

Its an answer to a question we get a lot … "Whats the difference between a page title and an HTML title?"

It also seems a good place to start because modifying page titles on clients’ sites has produced better results than anything else we do. Adding SEF URLs, generating more links and improving site structure are all less effective than page title improvements.

Above all, I’m interested to see what you think. Are video blogs worth the effort?

Continue reading “My First Attempt at a Video Blog”

November 6, 2007

5 Great Google Analytics Tips

As a follow-up from my last post which pointed about Brian Clark’s quote about reading more books, I’d love to highlight a great eBook I read over the weekend.

At the last JoomlaSouthEast meeting, Brent from 3by400 showed me a great Google Analytics book called simply “Google Analytics Short Cut“. Wow, does it pack a lot of useful information into a $10 PDF.

The book certainly isn’t an introduction to GA. Its pretty technical at times and won’t help beginners, but for people already familiar with GA its full of great information. I’ve reproduced some of the best tips here.

Continue reading “5 Great Google Analytics Tips”

November 4, 2007

Joomla Tutorials

November 4, 2007

Great quote from Brian Clark of Copyblogger

Great quote from Brian Clark of Copyblogger fame about how to become an expert:

"I was chatting with a friend about this topic recently, and we both came up with same initial answer about becoming an expert—read books … most people don’t read and many of those who do swamp themselves with RSS news feeds instead of the foundational knowledge contained in books."

RSS Feeds are like the news … interesting for keeping up with current events but completely lacking when it comes to building knowledge of value. I can honestly say I learnt more about Google Analytics from reading one $10 book over the weekend than from months of analytics blogs. More about that tomorrow … 😉

November 2, 2007

Custom Work

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November 1, 2007

Joomla Templates

Below is a list of the best Joomla template providers. Some sell individual templates and some offer templates to people who subscribe for several months.

How to read the chart:

3 / 6 / 12 Months: Regular user subscription normally requiring you to keep a link back to the designer’s website
12 Months Developer: Subscription for developers and website builders who want to use the templates on clients’ sites.

Template Club	Logo	Type	Price	User Reviews
CMS Lounge		Single Purchase	$19 to $49 per template	Click to read
Design for Joomla		Subscription	3 Months – $10 6 Months – $15 12 Months – $20	Click to read
Joomlart		Subscription	6 Months – $59 12 Months – $70 12 Months Developer – $499	Click to read
Joomla Bamboo		Subscription	6 Months – $50 12 Months – $70 12 Months Developer – $295	Click to read
Joomla Capital		Single Purchase	AUD$39 per template	Click to read
JoomlaShack		Single Purchase	$39.95 per template $89.90 per unbranded template	Click to read
Pixels Paradise		Single Purchase	€25 per template €50 for 3 templates	Click to read
Rocket Theme		Subscription	3 Months – $50 12 Months – $70 12 Months Developer – $250	Click to read
Shape 5		Subscription	6 Months – $45, 12 Months – $65 12 Months Developer – $225	Click to read
Template Plazza		Subscription	6 Months – $35 12 Months – $60 12 Months Developer – $185	Click to read
Themes Club		Subscription	6 Months – $50 12 Months – $75 12 Months Developer – $200	Click to read

Extension Club

Logo

Extensions

Price