TDG BlogStream

Joomla - 30 Million Strong and Growing

When you do one thing day in and day out (building kick ass websites, in my case) you can sometimes loose some perspective. Of course when that perspective involves the Internet it’s pretty easy to lose. 

In April, the folks at Joomla (IMHO the worlds best website platform and the software we use at TDG) laid down some statistics that stopped me in my tracks. Joomla runs 2.7% of ALL WEBSITES ON THE INTERNET. That translates into over 1.6 million websites worldwide. The software has been downloaded 30 million times. 9,500 extension or plugins have been written for Joomla to give it added super powers. Not bad for a software project that’s less than 7 years old and has a name that’s hard to spell.

Why?

Without getting too nerdy, Joomla allows a web geek like me to build any kind of website I can think of. It’s the “Swiss Army Knife” of content management system websites. Flexible, powerful and easy to use. That’s why 99.9% of all websites TDG builds now are built using Joomla. 

Another key factor in Joomla’s growth is that a significant number of government agencies are turning to Joomla for their websites, blogs and intranets. The new Joomla 2.5 allows us to affordably build out large, content driven websites without killing their budgets. 

With Joomla running 2.7% of the Internet with everything from small personal blogs to uber-large enterprise websites, here are some companies and organizations that rely on Joomla. 

• Citibank
• eBay
• General Electric 
• Harvard University
• Ikea
• McDonald’s
• Sony
• MTV
• Mexico City
• Government of Greece
• Barnes & Noble
• U.K. Ministry of Defense
• High Court of Australia
• Pizza Hut
• United Nations
• European Union
• Holiday Inn
• Kelloggs
• Linux.com
• Orange
• Jaguar

- Jack

What the ‘L’? It’s a very important letter

There’s an old saying — OK, I just made it up — Anything that is printed can be misprinted. One letter in a word can change its meaning. And there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s not funny … when it’s your mistake. Case in point: this printed piece from the University of Texas School of Public Affairs — not Pubic Affairs.

(Source: prdaily.com)

It Pays to Do Photo Research

Lazy graphic designers and cheap clients, beware: copyright infringement isn’t the worst thing that can happen when you source photos from the internet. An article on the BBC website this morning illustrates that the consequences can be much worse in some cases - for example, when you use a photo from one of the most well-known child disappearance cases in recent history. Oops. Paying for real stock photo research and usage can be a pain, but a cease-and-desist letter definitely isn’t the worst possible outcome.

Does Your Klout Score Matter?

In general, I think people pay a bit too much attention to Klout scores. They’re a useful metric, but they’re certainly not a window into anyone’s soul. Still, people in the marketing universe are more commonly using them as a hiring tool, and companies are starting to use them as a way to evaluate their customers. According to an article in Wired, if you have a high Klout score, you might just get an unexpected hotel room upgrade or extra online shopping discounts.

I’ve got an itch for ‘The Pitch’

OK, I’ve never been a real fan of reality television. I’ve always been convinced that there is very little reality in reality TV. But last night I saw AMC’s “The Pitch,” and I have to admit I was fascinated.

I’ve done a few pitches with the TDG team. You work out your ideas, go in, make your case, go back to the office and wait for the phone to ring. Sometimes you win; sometimes not. It always reminds me of closing arguments in a jury trial. 

However, in a jury trial both attorneys get to hear each other’s closing. That doesn’t happen in advertising. I have this nagging desire to see what the OTHER guys are pitching. I want to compare our ideas with theirs. See what works and what doesn’t work.

That’s what I like about “The Pitch.” You get to see how both agencies build their ideas into campaigns, create their visuals, etc. How they present it all to the client.

On the AMC website, there’s this whole chat network debates the merits of both agencies. … I might have to drop a line or two next time I see the show.

(Source: amctv.com)

“Driving It Is Better Than Your Last 4 Romantic Encounters”

Spotted over on Regretsy, what may be the best used car ad ever posted on Craigslist:

There’s been a lot of hyperbole in ads lately - particularly ads targeted to men (*cough*Old Spice*cough) - but this ad seems to pull it off without seeming derivative or tired. In fact, it’s a great example of how awesome an ad can be when the seller isn’t afraid to take some risks. I hope this guy is a copywriter somewhere.

Marketers + Mathematicians = Your Secrets

Marketers call it “predictive analytics.” Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov called it “psychohistory” and wrote his Foundation series around the idea. The end result is pretty much the same: using historical statistics, psychology and mathematical algorithms, it’s possible to predict a person’s behavior and life events.

Take, for instance, the marketers at Target who were able to predict a teenage girl’s pregnancy before her father. Not surprisingly, the Target marketing team wasn’t happy that particular story made it into the New York Times.

PBS, NFL, DIY Viewers Most Likely to Buy

Want people most likely to buy your product? Try ads on the NFL and DIY Networks. PBS Kids Sprout wouldn’t hurt you, either. A story over on Media Daily News reports that a new study from Beta Research ranks cable networks according to which viewers are “most likely to buy products advertised.” Other networks that do well include Food Network, Disney XD and Nick Jr. I don’t know about you, but I detect some young mommies in that audience profile…

Rub-a-dub-dub, come sit in my tub

I’ve always been a bit bothered by the ads for Cialis, the erectile disfunction drug. You know the ads I’m talking about: a man and a woman sit lovingly in outdoor bathtubs as they watch the sun set over a sweeping view of the ocean.

I understand that they must soft-sell sex for prime-time TV and major market publications. Obviously, they can’t do a traditional product demonstration. I get all that.

But if Cialis is all it’s cracked up to be, wouldn’t they be in the same tub?

-Dan

Sundance Visitor’s Guide is going to be nice

Service my account, baby

Dear  Laura,                                                                   

If this email is not suitable for you and inappropriate, please delete you. Thank you for not pressing spam.

I get a lot of solicitations in my inbox - mainly from people who are trying to sell me recruiting services, IT services, mailing lists, and seminars. So many seminars. But I’ve never before been asked to delete myself. Intrigued, I continued reading. The email was from a “full service digital agency with expertise knowledge.”

There followed the usual list of services they wanted to sell me, written in occasionally awkward English. But the real gems showed up in the list of what their Basic Package included:

1.       Logo designing until you get satisfied.
2.       Layout designing until you get satisfied.

… [other, less interesting services] …

Time Required : 7 business days.
Initial Payment : 50%
Final Payment : After your satisfaction

Expecting websites that would really, er… knock my socks off, I went to visit their portfolio. Alas - it appears the product does not quite live up to the hype. (That may be just as well. If I’d gotten what the email seemed to be implying, I suspect I’d be in violation of TDG’s “appropriate computer use” policies…)

And while this is clearly a language issue and not a typo issue, we’ll go ahead and file the moral of this story away under “Why it never hurts to have a second pair of eyes read emails before you send them out to millions of people.”

-LAURA