This was an original post that I wrote in response to a Shopify form question about their online store. The questions was around a online discount watch store that was struggling to get better conversions and sales through the website. It was making money but the user was struggling to convert. Overall their products were the cheapest online in their region but still couldn't convert the traffic. Here were some of the suggestions I came up with to help with those conversions and sales process in general.

Making sure that your PHP version is up to date and not running a legacy version that is no longer supported is important on many levels. 

Having an up to date PHP version allows you to take advantage of speed optimisation, security improvements and new features that come with later versions.

By default, most SiteGround servers come with the last version of PHP 5.3.x which is 5.3.29 and on a lot of Joomla websites this should be upgraded further to the latest PHP 5.5.x.

It's a quick and easy change in the .htaccess file that you can find our your SiteGround server or SiteGround cPanel account.

Trying to navigate and use a website without looking at it sounds like a drunk challenge that you might do at a party or something you'd do to win a bet, but for many users of the Internet, this is their reality with not being able to visually see the screen they're in front of or only partially seeing what there is.

So here is a challenge for you, test your website and see what the experience is like for a person that would be using assistive technology to navigate and consume your content and see just how well it is designed and created to help users navigate and use your website.

It's been a few months since the last report and there isn't too much to fill in other than the core business, PB Web Development, has seen some substantial growth and workload over the past few months which has been quite exciting.

Martina's business, I Am Infusion, has seen a little bit of extra growth as well since doing the last Sydney Tea Festival in August but we're a little off topic. I just wanted to let you all know why the podcast hasn't had as much attention.

I hope to get back on track with regular podcasts and blog posts over the month of October.

If you're interested in following the growth and direction of the podcast just follow the tag, Joomla Beat Update.

In 2016, Martina and I will be travelling throughout South East Asia working on our businesses as well as visiting various Joomla User Groups, training locals in how to use Joomla and of course, enjoying all the food and sights.

This post details the planning details, bookmarks to all the VISA we need to apply for to travel to the various countries and anything else that we need in regards to planning our trip overseas for several months.

We hope that this post will help anyone else planning to come to any of these countries from Australia for business/pleasure and extended stays.

Online e-commerce is huge, you can't deny that fact. In Australia where I live, the old traditional stores are suffering from online trading because of e-commerce sites. Those that have not gone online yet to sell their products are just going to fall behind.

This guide is an overview of a few popular e-commerce shopping carts for Joomla! that I have pulled apart and created basic online stores for.

In the process there is also a certain selection criteria that has been set out in order to determine which cart is best for what situations and hopefully inform you in regards to which one to use and when.

In Jan 2013 I started the Joomla Beat Podcast as a way to engage with the Joomla Community at large and to also generate another stream of income for myself and the business.

For quite a long time when running the podcast and blog, I didn't want to crowd it with advertising and sponsorship.

That was well over 27 months ago now and I think it is time to grow the platform and network a little more.

I personally want to provide more content, more media and of course more podcasts and that all takes time. Time I mostly spend in our core business, PB Web Development, where Martina and I work with our team of developers and designers to build some great Joomla! websites and solutions!

Now I've decided to turn Joomla Beat into more of a revenue generating platform but of course not losing its focus on providing good, useful/helpful content that is educational and entertaining.

These article entries are not only what I want to share with the Joomla Beat and Joomla community at large but also a way for myself to keep record of the journey the podcast travels along.

So now I'd like to report on growth, reach and income for the podcast and blog. If anyone is interested in following the journey and future growth of Joomla Beat, just follow the tag, Joomla Beat Update.

This is the ultimate guide to the popular content construction kit for Joomla! called Seblod.

If you have ever wanted to learn how to take Joomla! to the next level, extend its core functionality and publishing systems, or give Joomla! features that you can find in Drupal, then this is the perfect guide for you.

The Seblod team have teamed up with Joomla Beat to present to you a four part step by step guide on how to get started with Seblod and build your first application.

JoomlaBlogger is a blog all about, you guessed it, Joomla! It has been around for quite a long time now with blog posts dating back to the Joomla 1.5 era circa 2008.

Kristoffer Sandven, the author and person behind JoomlaBlogger, is a professional search engine optimisation expert and Joomla! consultant from Oslo, Norway. He helps clients build traffic to their websites and converts that traffic into visitors and revenue.

Joomla! is great out of the box and as a website building tool and content publishing tool, Joomla! is very powerful. Where it really shines and comes into the limelight is the extensions that can take your website from being simple to something quite dynamic and powerful. 

When building and managing websites there are a few extensions that just make life that much easier and this is our ultimate list of top extensions that you should consider having on every website that you build presented in alphabetical order.