The document discusses best practices for using Joomla to build and manage websites, emphasizing when to use Joomla versus other platforms like WordPress and Drupal. Key points include understanding website goals, simplifying site design, optimizing for SEO, and utilizing social media effectively. It also highlights the importance of converting traffic and maintaining visitor loyalty through community engagement and value offerings.

1. (Nidan) Black Belt Joomla (now with added social) Barrie North Joomla Day New England, June 2th, 2011

2. The Usual Bit www.joomlashack.com (3 million) (2005) www.compassdesigns.net (2005) www.joomlabook.com (3 rd Ed) (2007) www.simplweb.com (CMS SaaS) (2008)

3. Nidan Blackbelt? 1 st Dan = Shodan 2 nd Dan = Nidan 3 rd Dan = Sandan Black belt = beginner!

4. Leveraging Joomla Joomla is a great hammer, but every website is not a nail!

5. So When Should I Use Joomla? Joomla? Wordpress? Drupal? When should I use Joomla? When you are a content publisher (and you ARE) When you want your site to grow (and you DO) When you want an affordable solution (Don't we all?) You want to immerse in your Social Media Network (and you DO) When should I NOT use Joomla? - When you need complex custom features (you DON'T [use Drupal] ) - When all you need is a blog (you DON'T [use Wordpress] )

6. Why Do You Want a Website? Black Belt Move #1 “ What is the GOAL of your website?” To get sales referrals? To keep a community informed? To establish an offline brand to the web?

7. Using Joomla Wisely Black Belt Move #2 “ Don't make your site too complicated” There are so many bells and whistles for Joomla, its easy to have a site that's bloated.

8. Barrie's Golden Rules Black Belt Move #3 “ I have two golden rules...” 1 . 80% of what you want will take 20% of the effort 2. You don't know what your visitors want 2a. Nor does your boss/client 2b. No, you can't have that shade of blue

9. OK, SO Now What? The Pachinko Machine (Godin) The balls are visitors Traffic comes in the top Conversions at the bottom

10. You Sure About that Barrie? Jakob Nielsen B = V x C x L Where B = amount of “business” done by the site V = unique visitors coming to the site C = conversion rate L = loyalty rate

11. Getting Social The Facebook Effect http://www.simplweb.com/blog/235-making-social-media-work Google is still the #1 way that people will find your content, but word of mouth is becoming more powerful.

12. Social Networking != Buttons “ The reality is unless you are already a leader in you're niche (in which case you don't need the traffic) you are very unlikely to ever get dugg, stumbled upon or, er, delici-cized(?).” http://www.compassdesigns.net/joomla-blog/why-50-social-bookmarking-icons-is-50-too-many “ According to Digg itself, 94% of Digg users are male. 88% of Digg users are in the 18-39 year age range, and 52% of them are "IT professionals, developers, or engineers." http://www.compassdesigns.net/joomla-blog/why-digg-is-useless Black Belt Move #4 Social Networking = CONTENT (more on this later)

13. Stage 1 – Getting Traffic Getting raw traffic to your website Traditionally called SEO Other options, e.g. PPC

14. SEO is not SEF

15. Shodan Black Belt SEO Keyword Use in Title Tag (4.9) Global Link Popularity of Site (4.5) Anchor Text of Inbound Link (4.4) Link Popularity within the Site's Internal Link Structure (4.1) Age of Site (4) Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site (3.9) Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community (3.9) Keyword Use in Body Text (3.9) Global Link Popularity of Linking Site (3.7) Topical Relationship of Linking Page (3.6) Source:http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

16. Joomla “Automates” SEO Black Belt Move #5 “ Turn on SEF, craft article titles, use linking modules”

17. Google Will Find You

18. SEO is About Content Get the on-page stuff right - that's easy Target the right keywords - again, easy Earn large numbers of links from diverse, high quality sources with descriptive anchor text - that's crazy hard (see next slide) If you can't create compelling content you will struggle to get traffic!

19. Google vs Facebook The way people find information is in transition

20. Steps to Social Networking Know your tribe (it's not using Twitter Unfollow) Know where they live (Social Media Outposts) Build a content driven CMS website (the J thing) Make sure your site is Social Media Enabled (see next slide) Don't be a jerk (have a conversation) Black Belt Move #6 Successful businesses have honest conversations about their products and services to people that are interested.

21. Being Social Media Enabled Your site needs to connect with your Social Media Outposts. Your site needs to push and pull key content to and from your Social Media Outposts.

22. Don't Bother With the Buttons

23. So... No buttons then? Recent site launch example...

24. Stage 2 – Converting the Traffic All the traffic in the world won't help if you can't CONVERT. With Joomla, you can easily make mistakes that will reduce your conversion....

25. Ooooooooookkkkk! Black Belt Move #7 “ Use very big banana's” Seth Godin likens visitors to monkeys looking for a banana. Your goal is your banana. Make it big and obvious

26. A Home Page Banana

27. A Content Banana

28. Bananas and Extension Devs Sometimes extension developers don't think in terms of goals and conversion. (can the contact us form please have a unique URL please!) Black Belt Move #8 “ Use template and component overrides to customize output” Joomla has a feature to override output. Templates can do this. SOME extensions can, check with the developer. Its called the “view” part of the Model/View/Controller.

29. There is No Place Like Home Website home pages are the most expensive real estate in the world Black Belt Move #9 “ Take control of your homepage” Don't use the built-in 'Frontpage' component Use an uncategorized article and then use Google Web Optimizer

30. Google Web Optimizer Can give surprising results www.compassdesigns.net/tutorials/17-joomla-tutorials/294-how-to-use-google-web-optimizer-in-joomla.html

31. Improve the Joomla Registration Black Belt Move #10 “ Use template overrides to improve conversion on registration” Big glowing buttons Customize your language files (On site AND the emails) Get your emails delivered (From Address) Template the registration form Add a privacy policy link Words on the submit button

32. Landing Pages You MUST use landing pages simplweb.com/teaching-sells simplweb.com/schools simplweb.com/expo Make a Joomla category and use a hidden menu (easy to remember URL’s) Check out unbounced.com

33. Remember your Goal? Black Belt Move #11 “ You mean your not using Google Goals (analytics)?” Of course you are using Google Analytics, but you should also use the “goals” feature and Joomla URL's Start URL = /component/user/?task=register End URL = /index.php?option=com_user&task=activate&activation=

34. Baby Steps I changed the default title of “Login” to “Register and Login for Free Downloads”

35. Stage 3 – Visitor Loyalty Why should visitors come back?

36. Sticky Joomla Communities Black Belt Move #12 “ Social networking is good, but communities are better!” Extensions that extend social network - Comments (Disqus) - Forums - Jomsocial - Community Builder - Anahita (new) ALL sites can become communities

37. Using Email Black Belt Move #12 “ Offer something of value in return for an email” Use a sign up form Add value Get people coming back Measurable and predictable Even schools can use email to provide paperless news to parents!

38. Let's Review! Three Phases of Pachinko

39. This Ain't Field of Dreams “ It's the content stupid” simplweb.com/7-days-to-a-successful-business-website

40. Stump the Chump You got questions? We got answers... (maybe)