The mailbuild email subscription joomla module 

Mailbuild is a white label email solution that gives complete overall control to the user.  It has been built for designers, therefore if you are a Joomla site designer and build sites for your clients then this may be an option you want to offer to your clients. 

Essentially it will allow your clients to host a email solution directly on their domain www.mail.clientsite.com. Once you have designed a template from the selection of available templates that MailBuild offers they can add content using the editor which has offers live preview allowing them to see the results as they build the email.  The client is able to add their contact details for sender and recieve, the bottom line is that mailbuild as a service provider is complete masked.

Also within the solution you will be provide with statistical reports that monitors the email campaign.  Clients can see which recipients opened the emails, which ones are clicking the links and those that unsubscribe are available in easy to read snapshots.

For a service user perspective you can also generate income if you should choose.  One thing to remember is that the fundamental difference between using a service like mailbuild and one install into your own system is reliability as a host.  If you are using the server that your host provides this is a strain on resources and reliability fluctuates.  I used moslistmessenger for another site that had over 8000 subscribers and the host was having difficulty delivering. To have a solution that is robust and reliable their is a cost attached, but as a service provider mailbuild provides the opportunity to have additional income stream.  There is a standard pricing plan as option one and revenue generator as option 2.  Option 2 allows you to add additional 'mark up' to the charges assigned by mailbuild.  Each campaign costs $5 and a 1cent cost per recipients, you can add any costs on top of that and you will be paid via paypal minus the base costs that mailbuild subtracts.

The Joomla mailbuild module is built by Van Eldijk Studio's and is very simple.  it works off the mailbuild API and provides the subscription box that collates the name and Email addresses and the solution will perform all the necessary functions and details will be available in the client area.

As mentioned if you are a site builder then this may work favourably for your clients especially if they have marketing understanding, it may not be something to offer to a small site that will have small number of subscribers or a site that is not necessarily a business model i.e. it generates revenue.  But with sites that have a specific business model and the website and emails will be a medium to create loyalty and generate revenue then I certainly recommend that you look it this white label service further.

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Currently I am looking into PPC (Pay Per Click) and how to monetise on affiliate marketing, truth be told I am looking at also developing an 'Affiliate Marketing Solution' that will be a Joomla install with all the bells and whistle to having a successful affiliate products review site.

An important factor I read over at PPcClassroom 2.0 is the important of conversion tracking and how critical it is to the success of affiliate marketing.  Conversion tracking is when you track the keywords that lead to a specific page on a site, however in PPcClassroom 2.0 it specifically mentions to track keywords that actually convert to a sale.  The obvious reason for this is that the keywords that convert to a sale is the only thing that really matters, all other keywords are in effect redundant.

I noticed over at the virtuemart forum that virtuemart users are frustrated by virtuemart and the Google Conversion Tracking solution, Google Conversion tracking is a solution that ties neatly with Google adwords and will provide the results as to which campaign or more specific, keywords are performing. 

The solution thus so far provided is to insert the code provided by Google Conversion tracking to the:

checkout.thankyou.tpl.php

This is the Thanks for ordering template.  You would place the code after:

<?php echo $VM_LANG->_('PHPSHOP_EMAIL_SENDTO') .": 

 

<strong>". $user->user_email . '</strong>'; ?><br />
</p>

(code shortened not to break blog post)

However if you actually allow affiliates to market you products you want to be able to also allow them to add the Google Conversion Tracking to that page also.  If it is a successful site with many affiliates then this can add a lot of code to the page.  A suggested solution would be a plugin that adds a list of affiliates in the backend of Joomla alongside the tracking ID and auto inserts the tracking code to that page for them.  Why offer this?  Well if an affiliate is able to succeed in identifying the exact keywords that convert then there is a likelihood that they will promote your porduct more.

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Did you notice the new logo change?

Guess what I just noticed it now!  Basically we received emails after submitting loginbox and digg motivator over at extensions.joomla.org about infringement of copyright, here is part of that email.

".....When evaluating your listing, we have determined that either your thumbnail image and website contain a use of the Joomla logo that violates this policy.

The logo is disorted and don't follow the brand manual. If you want to use the Joomla logo together with your brand name, you need to search permission (see link to form here below)...."

Obviously we do not want violate any policies and Anton went about changing the logo, I must admit I love it!  I just think it is so cool, well I used the term 'sick' (british Slang for awesome) and Anton was reiterating whether I had just said 'sick' I said yes but its a good thing.  

I do have one descrepancy, why was it flagged up now? wowjoomla has submitted to joomla.org before and not got a red flag.  Its puzzled me, but I will give Joomla the benefit of the doubt and just lay it down to more thorough inspection then before. 

So what do you think of the new logo?

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