CMS Market Blog - CMS News & Information

Joomla 1.6 Feature Overview

2009-12-08T17:40:13Z

Joomla 1.6 is still a few months away, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be preparing now. If you're life revolves around your Joomla site, you should definitely check out our "Setup A Live Joomla! 1.6 Site" article so that you can get in and play around with the new system while it's still evolving.

CMS Market In The Community

2009-11-03T19:31:38Z

Open Source Software thrives on community involvement. To make sure our favorite software continues to thrive and to set a good example for others, we are always trying to be more involved. While time is limited and we are only human, we do as much as possible. If you are involved in the community and have more suggestions than those below or need help getting momentum behind a great idea, contact us and we'll see what we can do.

Author Commission Increased To 80%

2009-10-27T16:05:03Z

After almost a year since our launch, and with more than 50 unique extensions for distribution on CMS Market, we decided to revisit our current commission to create an even better program for our authors. The result of this investigation led us to update the author commission for any products sold through CMS Market to 80%. While we notified our authors of the change in early September, it's time to let the rest of the world know. Of course, listing your extension which is hosted on your own site will always remain free - we currently have almost 500 products listed through CMS Market in this manner.

How to Find Free Extensions

2009-09-23T15:59:01Z

We received an email last week that simply said, "How can I find free extensions for Joomla?". Well, we looked at that email, then at our site, and dug in. We had filters for narrowing down your search based on components, modules, templates, license, and more, but no way to filter listings based on whether they are free or not. That changed today. Next time you're browsing the extension directory, use the filter drop-down and you'll see the new column for "Price". Right now, we only have the option for "Free", which will filter out any for-pay extensions. If more price-filtering options would be helpful (<$50, <$100, etc), let us know. We want to make finding your next Joomla or Drupal extension simple, regardless of what you're willing to spend.

Also, if you're ever in a rush, we've setup a special shortlink using UShorten so you can get to the directory with the free filter already turned on: http://cmsmarket.com/free

UShorten Released - Automatic Short URL's Come to Joomla

2009-09-18T15:55:32Z

UShorten, the automatic shortlink generator for Joomla!, has now been released. Originally created for use on CMS Market, it's being released as a free, GPL extension for anyone in the Joomla! community. Now you can have a shortlink/short URL generated for every page on your site. Or just create the custom ones for the pages you care about. It's up to you. Easy to use, but with plenty of customization and tweaking options to suit any site's needs.

More details can be found at the UShorten product page or in the original "Promote your Brand (Using Twitter)" announcement blog post. The support forums have a user guide and other information for support. Enjoy!

Promote Your Brand (Using Twitter)

2009-09-03T06:00:00Z

Promotion takes a ton of work. Obvious? Yes. But when people think of promotion, they often aren't thinking about branding, cross-promotion, and general 'community respect' that should come from a good promotional campaign.

It's all too often that you'll see people tooting their horn about one product, when they're missing the opportunity to mention all of theirs or to increase awareness of their overall brand. I've recently become a Twitter convert and man the helm of both the @cmsmarket and @covertapps usernames. What converted me, and what have I learned in just over a month of Twitting? A lot, and I'm going to share it with you now.

A Glimpse at Joomla 1.6

2009-08-04T15:03:38Z

We were out to lunch with some fellow Joomla developers last week and the topic of Joomla 1.6 came up. I typically don't rush out and get something the second it comes out and hardly ever look at anything before it's released, but some of the things people were talking about did make me curious. However, Joomla 1.6 has a lot riding on it's shoulders and it's always interesting to know what's on the way. Therefore, I decided to go have a look. This is mainly a picture tour and first glimpse for those of you unaware of the upcoming changes.

More information on the underlying architechtural changes can be found in the "Lifting the Lid on Joomla 1.6" presentation. Please note that the release schedule for Joomla 1.6 is still very in flux, and as of now, this is the most up-to-date information on it's timeline.

FREE Joomla Extension Development

2009-07-20T18:20:51Z

Do you have a good idea for a Joomla extension? Is there a module, plugin, or component that you have always wanted but have never been able to find? We want to help you out...for FREE!

In August, we are going to dedicate a developer to creating your extension ideas. While we won't be able to build everything in just one month, we are hoping to stir up interest and get other developers involved. If it works out, we will be able to dedicate more developers to this cause going forward.

To submit your idea, just post on the Extension Suggestions forum at CMS Market. If you know exactly what you are looking for, be as descriptive as possible. If you aren't totally sure what it is you want, feel free to post a new topic and we'll try to work it out with you.

We also want to invite other Joomla extension developers to join in the effort. Subscribe to the CMS Market forums and watch for new extension requests. If you see any that you would like to work on, respond on the forum thread and let everyone know.

We can't wait to hear from you!

FREE custom Joomla extensions...help us spread the word!!

Product Widget Update - Affiliate Program Support

2009-07-01T19:11:16Z

There's a new version of the CMS Market Product Widget available now. The new version has some great enhancements and is available immediately.

First off, the template and stylesheet have been unified to make modifications to match your site even easier. Additionally, the back-end parameters have been reduced and simplified to ease setup.

For the big news, the Widget now supports our new free Affiliate Program. Simply type your affiliate ID into the back-end parameters, and all links to CMS Market will automatically be updated. Any purchases made from CMS Market through your referrals will earn you 50% of the CMS Market sales commission.

It couldn't be simpler to promote your favorite extensions, and make some money in the process!

Introducing the Affiliate Program

2009-06-24T20:36:38Z

We've just implemented an affiliate program where you can earn 50% of the CMS Market sales commission from users you refer to CMS Market. All you need to do is refer users to our site, and you'll earn a commission for any purchases they make.

It's extremely easy to sign up and we're updating the CMS Market Product Widget and other tools to accept an affiliate ID and insert it into your site in a snap. There's also some other great tools in the pipeline that will help you spread the word about your favorite products, and get a return in the process.

For a longer FAQ or to signup, go to our affiliate area.

Quick FAQ:

How much do you earn if you refer someone?

50% of the CMS Market sales commission after payment gateway fees (PayPal) have been deducted. CMS Market works by letting developers post their products for sale, and CMS Market takes a portion of each sale. As an affiliate, you will earn 50% of the CMS Market commission from each sale you refer.

How do you refer users?

Simply link to any of our pages using your affiliate ID and we take care of the rest. For 15 days after your referral, you get credit for any purchases from that user.

An example affiliate link to the home page would look like: http://www.cmsmarket.com/?a_aid=your_id

What kind of links can I use?

Text or banner links are availble to use. Additionally, you can use the CMS Market Product Widget to link to your favorite product or categories. The widget has a parameter to enter your affiliate ID, and all links to CMS Market will automatically be updated. It couldn't be simpler.

Do I only get a commission for products I link to or own?

No. If you link to any page on the site (product, forums, home page, etc), and a user purchases any extension that suits their needs, you earn a commission.

If I sell my product on CMS Market, does this affect my author commission?

Not at all. The Affiliate program is separate from the author program, and combined, allow you to earn up to 80% of your sale price. If you want to help promote us and your products, we want to reward you for that!

For comments or other questions, hit up our forums!

CMS Market Interview at CMS Expo

2009-05-04T13:57:57Z

Check out Kyle's interview from this year's CMS Expo:

In Kyle's interview, he discusses CMS Market's unique offering - one unified directory for all Content Management System, where developers can list their extensions, modules, plugins, components, templates, themes, etc. These free listings are a perfect way to get your hard work in front of people that may not normally traverse the official Joomla!, Drupal, or WordPress directories. CMS Market is also unique in that developers can sell their digital goods if they don't already do so on their own site. Many developers develop extensions for clients that are extremely useful, but they aren't interested in running an online store or club. Those devs can quickly add their extension to CMS Market and either give them away are make an extra buck.

The CMS Market vision is to provide one unified marketplace where you can drink your coffee in the morning while checking out the latest digital goods from any CMS, all in one place. For many devs and clients, the CMS doesn't matter as much as the solution. CMS Market will make these peoples' lives easier.

Blogs are back!

2009-04-09T16:22:33Z

We did away with our blog a while back in lieu of Twitter, but decided that both are still relevant and necessary. We're still going to (very) actively use Twitter of course, and you can read our updates from this site. We strongly encourage everyone to follow us on Twitter, as we'll give updates on the latest CMS Market happenings and the latest products our Authors are submitting. We've also added an Authors Twitter page where we'll display tweets from all our Authors (who use Twitter).

RSS Feeds added to the market

2009-01-14T02:15:42Z

We've added some very helpful RSS feeds today! When browsing on any page in our directory, you'll now find an RSS icon next to New Products and Recently Updated. These feeds are an extremely easy way to keep up on the most recent activity on CMS Market.

If you're not using an RSS Reader, such as Google Reader, you should really look into it. Readers are an easy way to watch for the latest from all your favorite sites, all in one convenient location.

Here's the links to those 2 feeds:

No longer requiring affiliate links to use external download url

2008-12-30T19:40:27Z

We're listening to our users and have removed the requirement to give an affiliate url to insert a link for visitors to buy and item on external sites. We've realized that it's much more important to have a complete marketplace/directory that's easy to use with as few limitations as possible. Now there's nothing standing in the way of Authors adding all their extensions and templates with links to download and/or purchase on their own sites! Don't forget that you can also host your files on The Market and sell them here as well!

Joomla Extensions Directory JED Changes

2008-12-29T00:25:29Z

In a recent post(s) to the community, the Joomla! team announced that the Joomla Extensions Directory (JED) will first phase out Joomla 1.0 extensions by June 2009, then remove extensions that are not GNU GPL in July 2009. I first want to say that we (partially) understand both of these moves. Joomla! users really need to migrate to Joomla! 1.5 as the core team will end support of Joomla! 1.0 in July of 2009 and a fire needs to be lit. It's also great that commercial extensions will still be allowed on the JED, but kinda limits the options of its community by removing non-GPL extensions.

Regardless of all this, CMS Market is all about choices and you're welcome to list your extensions and templates here! We want our users to be able to compare extensions and templates for any CMS, regardless of license, price, or anything else. In the end, the whole point of all this (from our perspective) is the ultimate solution that is delivered. Open Source CMS's can give you a great jumpstart and have really changed the landscape of websites. In the end though, the core development team can't handle everything, and 3rd party developers (commercial or free) are key and really define the community of a CMS.