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Why Joomla!?
One of the first questions we often get when talking to potential clients is “Why Joomla?”
In modern web development a content management system of some sort is essential. Web design firms take different approaches to this reality - some build their own, others use commercial solutions, and others utilize open-source software.
When we first went into this web design business, building static HTML sites worked for a while. However, we soon realized our clients needed a way to update their sites themselves, and for most people using Dreamweaver or editing HTML wasn’t practical. So we looked at our options for content management systems. For us, building our own wasn’t practical, we didn’t have the time or resources, and soon realized there was no reason, since many solid solutions already existed. We also focused on open-source software since many of clients are nonprofit and appreciate being as cost effective as possible.
After evaluating many of the open source we settled on Joomla! which at the time was a relatively new CMS. What we found:
- Although Joomla! was a new project, it was a fork of Mambo, which was a stable and mature CMS.
- Joomla! seemed to have a engaged and active developer community. Over the years this proved to be true, as Joomla has continued to make vast improvements. With the release of Joomla 1.7 this year, Joomla took another giant leap in quality.
- Joomla had a good balance of ease of use and flexibility. Some CMSs are much simpler and streamlined, however at the price of being rigid in their structure and setup.
- Many extensions were already available. Over the years the extensions and add-ons available for Joomla have increased in quality immensely - there are now excellent extensions for calendars, e-commerce, galleries, multimedia, online donations and much more. These add-ons create features and functionality on a website that only a few years ago would have been cost-prohibitive.
Five years later, we are very pleased with our choice. We now have over 120 clients using Joomla and managing their websites, some on a daily basis. We are able to offer robust and feature rich websites for clients on a budget that otherwise wouldn’t allow it. Joomla has become a leader in Open Source software, and is used by millions of people throughout the world. This large community of users insures a bright future for Joomla
A Primer on Buying Local
Our friends at Local First Utah have developed a short video about how important it is to the ecomomic impact on communities to support local businesses.
Got Content?
Several times a week, we talk to clients about how to prepare and think about written content on the web. As a writer, I have created pieces for a variety of situations from grant applications to personal essays. I've discovered that writing for the web is its own animal.
I tell my clients:
- People scan.
- They don't read.
- News cycles are short.
- Tweets teach us to say what we mean in 140 characters.
- You may not even be reading this as you scan this page for something you're really interested in.
You get the idea. Writing for the web takes some strategy about how words become visual cues. These ideas are presented succinctly by Pamela Wilson at Copyblogger with her entry, "8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content."
My advice?
- Read the article.
- Acquire a new style of writing.
Outcome?
You will be more successful at communicating with People Who Scan (which is most of us these days on the web).
Social Media and Social Revolution
Reading in the New Yorker recently, I read an article by Malcolm Gladwell, Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted, which explained an interesting contrast between social networking and effective social activism. As Gladwell explains, while social networking creates loose networks that do not demand high levels of commitment, social activism that leads to social change requires tight networks that demand high levels of commitment. He uses the Montgomery Bus Boycott as an example of what would probably NOT be accomplished in the day and age of activism via social networking.
As we all continue to want to harness the power of social media, it's an interesting idea to consider to manage our expectations about what Facebook and Twitter can and cannot do for our causes.
Email Marketing: What to Avoid
We get asked a lot of questions about email marketing these days. Everyone wants to know first, "should I do email marketing?" The answer for most of our clients is "Yes." If you want an opportunity to "push" things to people rather than passively wait for them to visit your website, the answer is always YES. How to do that and what messages to send to people are sometimes a longer conversation.
Whatever you do, remember you main objective is to drive people back to your website, so you need to peak their interest and then redirect them back to take advantage of the features of your website (whether that is being able to take keep up on the latest through your blog or your easy-to-make-a-donation donation form or the opportunity to sign up for classes.
Sometimes cost will keep people away (though nonprofits have a few free and/or low cost options -- though often you get what you pay for in terms of interface, time spent, and service). We have a system that we have chosen to use for our clients that costs a little, but has great features with reporting, subscriber management, and template management (and you can always contact us if you are interested).
But you're really reading this because you want to know what mistakes to avoid in this world of internet marketing, and I recently read an article that sums up our position on this issue pretty well. The points are mainly this:
- Use a good service and don't spam people (it's the law)
- Know who you're sending to
- Don't overdo the images
- Be sure to provide "unsubscribe" option (it's the law)
- Do it the right way to avoid ending up in junk folders.
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