Using Joomla as a WordPress Style Blog – Pro’s and Con’s

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Mark

The other day, I decided to add a Blog feature to my Joomla website. I have some web designer friends that think you can do ANYTHING with Joomla. While can do a lot, I’m finding that there are limits. Warning: these ‘limits’ may just be my own personality flaws?

My goal was to add a Travel Tips Blog to my Australian Accommodation and Travel website. The main goal of this website is to offer easy to navigation of Travel and Accommodation information about Australia. Sort of a hierarchical layout > Country > State > Town > Business Listings.

Joomla, with an extension called JZine, has made that pretty easy, but I found it did not suite my goal of discussing travel tips, events, shows, news, etc. I use WordPress a lot, and Word Press would be great for Travel Tips, but then WordPress is not as easy as Joomla for managing the business listings. Of course, I want both.

Joomla Does Have A Blog-like Solution

Changing the Item Type to Blog for Menus in JoomlaUsing the ‘Joomla can do anything mindset‘; I quickly discovered there are some features in native Joomla that will make it like a Blog. When you set up a new Menu, you have choices for Changing the Menu Item Type.

There were 3 options for Articles:

  • Category Blog Layout
  • Front Page Blog Layout
  • Section Blog Layout

I decided to use the ‘Section’ option because it would allow me to have Blog Posts that could be divided into posts sub-categories. Then, I needed to create a new Section and Categories for each State.

Joomla Menu Settings that control Blog LayoutOnce I had the Sections and Categories set up, I went back to the Menu and selected the Section in Parameters (Basic). Here you can also set attributes that control how posts display. For example, I wanted to display 4 posts and then go to a new page. You also need to question whether you want to display all the Titles and whether you want them to be clickable links.

Once the structure was set up, then all I needed to do to make a new post to my Australian Travel Tips Blog was to write a new Article and assign it to the correct Section and Category. Then, it automatically inserts into the Blog.

In the end, my Joomla website looked like a Blog and I kinda got what I wanted….

Joomla is Not WordPress

Okay, while it looks like a Blog, it is still lacking something. The other reason I wanted to have a Blog was the fact that WordPress is so good at SEO. You can add a new Post on WordPress and it will be indexed by Google in a few minutes. The same is not true for Articles made in Joomla.

There are options to add Joomla Extensions like WordPress for Joomla! by corePHP. I tried that once and had some bad experiences where it stopped working. While it worked, you could go to Components and open something that looked just like the WordPress Dashboard. corePHP looked and acted a lot like WordPress, but I never got to use it fully as the client was not very interested in making posts.

So, this time around, I was faced with trying WordPress for Joomla again but decided not to pay the $69 because I wasn’t so happy the first time. There are other Joomla Extensions that also claim WordPress features, but in the end I think they are just focus on layout where as WordPress is all about SEO and comment management, pings and track-backs.

In the end, I’m not 100% happy with results, but I need the Joomla functions and I already had 100′s of pages created so switching was out of the question. If anyone has better ideas, I would be happy to hear them. Certainly Joomla changes quickly and there are so many Joomla Extensions that one day something will be available that does everything.

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Adding a FaceBook Like Box and Wall Stream to an Accommodation Website

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Mark

We’re setting up a new website for Swansea Motor Inn in Tasmania. We’ve built this accommodation website using WordPress on a template made with Artisteer.

Accommodation in Swansea TasmaniaSwansea is a popular destination and this accommodation has some really attractive features such as it’s location on the beach and proximity to some really great natural areas. FaceBook will be easy to manage because they can make casual posts about seeing dolphins from the window, bush walking in the area, fishing and whale watching and what’s happening with local events.

Swansea Motor Inn has been able to hit the mark of 25 FaceBook Likes pretty quickly, which will help them to create short urls and improve their marketing. Adding the Like Box stream means that people on the website will see new content and may with one click get posts from Swansea Motor Inn added to their FaceBook wall. They can also easily remove it if they like.

Face Book Like Box as a WordPress Widget

From your FaceBook Page, you’ll see links to promote your page (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box/). Essentially, you copy the url from your FaceBook Fan Page into the box for Face Book Page URL, and then tick the box for what you want to display. You’ll get 2 snippets of code that you can use. Both seem to work, but I prefer XFBML to the IFRAME version. Once you’ve got this code, go to your WordPress Dashboard and go to Widgets. Select a ‘Text’ widget and drag it to your sidebar. Then, paste the Face Book code and save. If you want to adjust the width or height of the Like Box, I recommend you change it in the code as it is really obvious.

Is FaceBook a Real Marketing Tool for Accommodation?

Today, there are over 500,000 people on FaceBook and more than 48% of Australians are using it regularly. So, getting a business started on FaceBook seems like an obvious thing to do. Clearly using FaceBook is different than set up a website and forgetting about it. Not everyone feels able to manage an ongoing and ‘interesting’ dialog. But, posting to FaceBook is pretty easy. You can post photos, statements and links to things you find interesting.

I recommend you set a reminder and 1 or 2 times a week add something… anything. Once you get started and see what people respond to you may be surprised.

Setting Yourself as a Local Business on FaceBook

Don’t assume the only Likes and traffic to your FaceBook Page will come from your website. You can set your business as a Local Business meaning it has a marker on the map. So, when people search on FaceBook for your area you will show up. You may also find that links to iPhones and Smart Phones will soon have a Check in App that promotes locality based businesses to FaceBook users.

I don’t think there is any advantage to wait – get a FaceBook Page for your business now. Even if it is dormant, I think it is better to have one started and see what happens with it than to wait. FaceBook promotes your business for FREE. Why not do it?

You hear so much about Face Book – both over promising and under promising. I suggest you just try it. It’s not that hard and really…. there is no single solution. What works for you may not work for others.

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Using Gowalla check in service to Market Accommodation in Australia

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Mark

Well, the market for Check in Apps is still open with Gowalla and Foursquare leading the charge. Certainly, Google and FaceBook have eyes on this genre of social media and one of them may well become the dominant player. For the moment, it makes sense to use them all. If nothing else, you may get inbound links and validation of your business that improves your ranking in Google Places.

Briefly, a Check in App is a way for people with smart phones, or iPhones, to register their physical presence at a business or point of interest. The reasoning behind doing it varies from just being silly to getting ideas about where to go and what to do when in strange locations. By looking to see where your friends check in, or seeing a general trend of check ins – you may be able to see that some businesses are more popular than others. You may also see reviews that would help you pick a business. And, some proactive businesses may have incentives that would encourage you to cross the street and try their business.

Getting Started with Gowalla

Gowalla.comFoursquare allows you to set up a business listing, but Gowalla requires the initial listing be created by ‘someone’ visiting the business and establishing a first check-in. I know because I asked and got the following reply.

Hi Mark,
All spots are created by users out and about on their favorite smartphone. While standing at the location that you would like to add, open Gowalla on your phone and go to the Spots tab. Click the “+” sign to add the Spot. Fill out the name of the location, a description, and choose from the category list to help people know what kind of spot it is. After finishing that, click “create spot.” Then, make sure that you check-in and go online and claim your Spot.

To claim your spot, make sure you are logged in on www.gowalla.com Find your Spot by clicking on the Spots tab at the top and searching for it. On the right hand side of the screen underneath the map, there will be a “claim my Spot” button. Follow the instructions there and you should be good to go. After you have claimed your spot, make sure you let others know about it, and add a custom welcome message or tell people about a discount they get for checking in. And, if you’re feeling especially fun, have our creative team design your Spot its own custom Gowalla Passport Stamp.

Thanks!

Andrew Waldrup
Gowalla - Culture Evangelist
Austin, Texas

Based on that, it makes sense for all business owners to get someone (perhaps themselves) with a smart phone to check in to Gowalla at their business.  That initiates the listing, from which point the business owner can take ownership and start optimizing their listing.

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Travel Victoria is a Great Marketing Website for Accommodations in Victoria

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Mark

We’ve been building websites for motels and B&B’s all over Australia. Finding websites that give you a good inbound link is critical to getting ranking with Google. There are a lot of websites where you can buy listings with links, but many are a waste of time.

Here is an example of a listing that has just been set up for Central Motel in Port Fairy > http://www.travelvictoria.com.au/portfairy/centralmotel/ You’ll see the page also offers a link to Central Motel’s Online Booking system and best of all Travel Victoria doesn’t charge any commissions for bookings.

Where to Get High Value Inbound Links for Australian Accommodation

Great website for listing Motels and B&B's in Victoria One website we’ve found to be really good in TravelVictoria.com Unfortunately, they only cover the state of Victoria because the referrals and bookings we see from this website are outstanding. Best of all, they only charge $69 per year for a listing. From what we’ve seen most accommodations will get that back in the first month.

Would look forward to hearing form others about websites here in Australia that have good value.

 

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Trying out BlogSpot to see if it Works

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Mark

Came across BlogCatalog today. It’s a sort of social media website for blog writers… I think. I’m still new. Anyway, adding your blog to the catalog gives you a lot of exposure and naturally – a valued inbound link.

BlogCatalog looks a lot like a Stumbleupon. A place where you could get lost for hours – perhaps even days – just looking at blogs. Popularity ratings will help the good blogs rise to the top.

It will be interesting to see what happens. I’ll keep you posted.

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