While almost everyone has heard of minisites by now if you know anything about internet marketing, very few people have considered using an open source and free CMS or content managment system, like Mambo or Joomla, which is based on Mambo code, to produce minisites.
What are the advantages of using a CMS like Joomla to rapidly make and deploy minisites on the internet?
1. Joomla is easy to use and you can use thousands of free CSS based templates that support the latest standards and have a site up in hours, not days.
2. Joomla support easy wysiwyg or what you see is what you get visual editors that allow you to set up and add content to a site as easily as using a word processor on your desktop computer. What this means is that your site supports the latest web 2.0 standards and can grow in content easily and quickly without redeveloping your website from scratch.
3. Joomla has thousands of extensions and you can easily produce websites that rival sites costing tens of thousands of dollars for nothing. You can easily add membership sites, photo galleries, streaming video, audio, chat, and forums as well as rich blogs. In short, everything to make your site “sticky” and keep bringing back those visitors over and over again.
4. Joomla makes changing the look of your site a snap, since you can change your template and quickly change the look and feel of your website in just minutes, allowing you to freshen up your site every once in a while.
5. Joomla is continuously updated and is now releasing a beta version called 1.5. Most people are still working on 1.03 or so, but it is nice to know that future upgrades are available.
6. Joomla is well supported by many Hosting services now, and is able to be installed by Fantastico scripts with just one click. There is a user manual and several video packages that show you how to make templates and set up membership sites for profit.
7. Joomla and most of it’s extensions or add ons are free and open source so it is cheap to get a very professional web presence on the internet.
For all the advantages, it will take a few weeks to get used to the new methodology of using a CMS to manage and deploy your websites unless you are used to making websites from your browser. Once you get the hang of it however, you never want to go back to the slow laborious system of desktop website creation and uploading.
I recommend you go to one of the sites called Joomlatutorials.com and go through the tutorials right after installing Joomla and before you do any work on your own site. Basically, you start with a template that you get for free at the largest free site template repository called www.joomla24.com. They have over 1,500 free templates you can start with. Alternatively, you can go with one of the many commercial template companies that offer a variety of paid templates that you can modify and make into your site.
Once you select the template, you must change the permissions on your template and media areas of your template section in Joomla under your public html directory so that you can make changes to the appropriate template and files.
You do this either within joomla or most often, from cpanel using your file manager functions and set the file permissions to 777 for the folders and 666 for files.
You must get a log in from your hosting company after installation so that you can go into the administrators section that you manage and build the site from and make changes and add content to the site.
After you log in, you go to the templates section in the site manager and click on new.
Then you have a dialog that prompts you to browse your computer and select the site template that have presented in ZIP format and upload the template on your site. After a few minutes if it is successful, and she tells you, yes, and then click Next. Then your website template will work with the other standard templates is listed. Click the radio button to select the template that you installed the default template.
Then click on the radio to select the default template, and then click HTML in the HTML template to edit for the page. They are for the control of images on the page. They usually start with the word
You must be sure the graphic is slightly smaller than the size, so that the header graphic or logo is displayed without messed up the format of the template or page. You need to upload using an FTP program like Transmit or Filezilla the image file that you want to use for your logo or header image. Once you have the Joomla folder into the public html folder, you must click on it to find the template folder. Inside that there is a picture folder. You need to upload your chosen image into that folder. There should be. Jpg or. Gif file in the same format as that used in the template, if possible. Once the image appears in the file, the next task is to upload the HTML code into the HTML file, modify and replace with the name of the image. Then drag when you show your www.sitename / joomla your front page of your graphic logo or header file.
Next, you must click the buttons on the front page, you do not need to unpublish. They enter the Main Menu and unpublish section is anything but the Home button. You must go to Joomla Extensions page and go to section menu and a menu extension, which you will find pictures and other files to your menus. Then the appropriate file extension will be ready when it's time for your menu link, which is the last step in setting up your website.
One thing you can do now is figure out what extensions or extras you will need on your website. You can just have a straight minisite but you will do better in the search engines and in the eyes of your visitors if you have a theme based content site and not just a sales page. If you add a chat client, a forum, and a blog to your site then you will find that your visitors become involved with the site and keep returning. The more they are on your site, the greater the chance they will buy what you have to offer, be it an affiliate offer, an ebook, or a membership.
Check each section of the extensions. Especially the graphics section where all the banner advertising extensions are. You can monetize the site with banners and/or text ads that will bring additional money onto the site. It is true that if you use adsense on your site, your site will show up in the search engines sooner. There are several adsense modules. You will need to add docman or Remository if you will be setting up files for download on your site. Community builder or AEC will serve you well if you are setting up a membership site. You will need One of the wsiwyg content editors in the content and news section so that you can edit your pages easily and quickly. You must set up your wysiwyg editor as your default editor for Joomla. Then when you go to add content, you can easily and quickly edit your pages. You should go to the Blog section and add X-Blogg for editing your blog offline and download one of the blog programs for easily setting up and running a blog from your site. You will need to add one of the payment processors and/or a shopping cart for your site if you will be selling products from your site. Once you have added all the extensions, be it a component, module, or mambot you are ready to go to the next step.
Next, you will begin the sections you need in your site. Then you'll categories to add the sections until you have split your website into an organized unit. Then you will edit the first page with the content editor and the WYSIWYG editor have made the default content editor. You add images, and add items, so that everything is done to your satisfaction. Use surveys, banners, and the Adsense or other text ads for your affiliate programs on the front page on a rotating banner ad or rotating schedule. So you can track where most of your sales are coming from. Keep adding articles and other sections of your page until it is finished. Do not forget to add, sales pages for each product or affiliate opportunities you promote. Then paste
Once that is all set up check all your images and your spelling for all your articles. Check your links and make sure that everything is in order. Make sure your shopping Cart is working properly by adding a sample products and ordering them. Make sure that any forms are working properly to add your visitors to your opt in list.
Add your newsletter buttons and set up your mailings. Set up your autoresponders for any orders or requests for you newsletters. I suggest you set up your newsletters in an archive section on your site so that people can download them from the site in case their email Spam filter eats your newsletter.
Once everything looks good publish your pages.
Congratulations, your site is now live. Write in your area of expertise, two articles a day, you will have circulated the Internet in 1001 all income you have the time to make money articles. You only need to submit an article directory and add a signature file that you mentioned your experience and the main site. As I said, if hundreds of websites to do so you will soon see a flood of traffic to your website, and follow the money! Joomla holiday greetings!
