Magento extensions are elemental in boosting the performance of your Magento websites. Magento Developers across the globe come up with innumerable useful extensions every day. While some of those become popular with timely promotions, many of those fail to see the light of the day due to lack of proper marketplace. While it is important to create a buzz in the market about your product, it is also equally important to market your extension through a proper channel.

Undoubtedly, MagentoConnect is the best ever marketplace that Magento extensions could ever be featured in. Still, due to some limitations and restrictions, Magento development companies prefer creating their own stores to sell their extensions. For entrepreneurs or freelancing Magento developers, it might get tough to find the best alternatives for MagentoConnect. So here, we have picked up some of the leading marketplaces that can be best used to market Magento extensions.

• Binpress:

Binpress is an amazing viable alternative for MagentoConnect for obvious reasons. It features high-quality extensions after assessing its quality and usability. BinPress lists only genuine products after verifying the authenticity of the developers’ information. The products are reviewed for their quality through a rigorous passing and failing schedule. They also include publisher profile along with the product that is helpful for laying a good impression for the publisher in Magento community.

• Softprodigy:

This is another leading web-store for Magento extensions that features more than 250 high-quality extensions. The extensions come with detailed product information and its usefulness. This exclusive ecommerce extension store caters to all types of requirements of businesses. This is a great place for Magento developers to promote their extensions. Softprodigy also provides extensive technical support to the clients at no extra cost that attracts more customers for it thereby increasing the popularity of listed products.

• Xtendify:

Xtendify is a trending marketplace to buy or sell Magento extensions or plugins. Along with Magento extensions, the online store of Xtendify also features several other ecommerce themes and plugins. It lists all the premium Magento support extensions along with some free plugins and templates for its customers. This new website is gaining momentum now and developers have a fair chance of capitalizing on this opportunity by listing their products in here and mark their presence in the Magento community.

• Cmsmart:

If you have been looking for a perfect online marketplace that will do justice to your extensions by providing the right platform and support, then Cmsmart is just for you. One of the biggest stores for Magento and Virtuemart extensions, Cmsmart boasts of an excellent marketplace forum that lets the developer connect with many leading professionals across the globe and expand their visibility in the community. The marketplace blogs of Cmsmart are also quite helpful for they provide updated information about the latest news, trends, and events about the ecommerce solutions.

• CodeCanyon:

A discussion on ecommerce extensions marketplace is never complete without the mention of CodeCanyon. Since the inception of this store, it has constantly been stood as the prime choice of ecommerce development companies to market their plugins and themes. CodeCanyon has numerous buying/selling options in extensions and plugins department for Magento and other platforms as well. The products also highlight the developer’s information that helps you grab some eyeballs for your profile.

• MageGiant:

MageGiant is a popular name in the buying/selling scenario of Magento extensions. The online store at MageGiant adorns various premium Magento extensions along with some free featured plugins. The quality of extensions that MageGiant sells is tested and assured for better usability. It includes detailed product information and lifetime support that helps the store to experience a large number of daily visitors. This store can, therefore, give you better visibility in the Magento community.

• Ecomextension:

Ecomextension is a renowned ecommerce solution provider that can be an ideal place for marketing your Magento extensions. This online extension store is powered by IT consulting firm Brainvire. This online extension mega-store helps the vendors expand their customer base and maximize audience for their business. Magento developers can also get new prospective customers for their products through this online market.

Despite rising new ecommerce marketplaces, MagentoConnect has remained the most sought after platform to promote Magento extensions. While only one or two of the above stores feature Magento extensions exclusively, most of them list multi-vendor products compatible with different ecommerce platforms. However, these new marketplaces are trending because of the huge number of visitors they get who are interested in Magento extensions. So it is wise and a dire need of the hour for Magento developers to look beyond MagentoConnect to promote their extensions.

Small or big, your business is going to yield good returns through Custom eCommerce Solutions. Custom eCommerce Solutions consists of attracting new customers, delivering a satisfactory shopping experience, offering you the tools to manage efficiently.

Time has become the rarest commodity in this technology oriented era. Naturally, shopping has taken a back seat. But technology has come to rescue shopping as well. You can shop sitting at home maintaining your privacy; and if you are a business owner, custom eCommerce solutions will help you catering to your needs. Custom eCommerce solutions are intended for both business owners and customers.

Sometimes you feel hampered because your standard plug-in applications will not suffice your needs. At the same time custom ecommerce solutions can be tailor made based on your exact needs. Web companies will first understand and work on your designs and development, integration and implementation.

This ecommerce shopping cart platform supports you with its features to boost your online retail business. The best part of this is, you do not need any in house technical support. Everything is managed by feature rich online store, which is customized according to the needs of customers. From the most modern pricing schemes to versatile catalogs to intelligent sales data analysis, Power shop helps you survive the tough competition. An eCommerce solution is based on rich experience in design and development and also implementation.

Web development agencies have created wonderful ecommerce solutions. eCommerce means everything, related to shopping is done online. You can even shop sitting at home in privacy. eCommerce has been growing helping its customers to the fullest. It is convenient, quick and choice is in your hand. It is just like manual shopping but the difference is you save time, energy, and commuting. In this technology era, everyone is so busy that it becomes difficult to go for manual shopping! eCommerce is a solution for all these hassles. Customers are given access to product / service section completely.

Most of the businesses have turned online, so also service providers. It means eCommerce has been clicking more than their expectations. There are multiple agencies cropped up offering ecommerce solutions as a package deal. eCommerce sets its own target whether it is product selling or client service. For any business you should have an individualistic approach in eCommerce. Here custom ecommerce solutions play a greater and important role.

eCommerce shopping cart solution is the most favorite of all. Shopping cart can be used for multiple purposes on ecommerce platform. Payment procedure has been managed by shopping cart so meticulously, since it is a major part of eCommerce. These features of shopping cart make it the hottest on e-platform. Here are examples where custom eCommerce solutions have larger roles. These are the areas custom eCommerce solutions helps us.

* Ecommerce Trading Exchanges.
* Electronic Market-places and Online Shopping Malls.
* Supply Chain Management.
* Inventory & Product Catalog Management System.
* Order Entry & Fulfillment Systems.
* Real-time payment processing.
* Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System.

ECommerce is booming with high potential in marketing. It is a powerful package for easy ordering, security of data and payment, with quick and profitable delivery. Custom eCommerce Solution is in practice since 1996.

With the widespread availability of extensions for Joomla, one can get confused on which ones are the best. From components, modules, plugins and templates, extensions for anything and everything that you want or need have been developed. This makes the capabilities of the initial Joomla core software program absolutely endless.

Which extensions are the best? Well, with so many available, it is hard to try each and every one; however, here is a list of the most popular based upon the number of downloads and their abilities.

1. JomSocial. This is a group of components that will extend your Joomla software and allow you to build your own personal networking website. With features like, private messaging and the friend / buddy system, you can see why this is at the top of the list for the best Joomla extensions available on the web today.

2. Slide Show Pro Module. Are you looking for that perfect extension that will allow you to develop a slide show on your website? Well, here it is. Native to v. 1.5 this program supports three different languages.

3. Jom Tube Video Gallery. This extension will allow you to transform your website into the video gallery of your dreams. Like Youtube? Well, Jom Tube will allow you to create a similar website. What could be more fun?

4. Nice talk. This extension will allow you to keep connected with your visitors by offering a chat system. You do not have to worry about those difficult forums that can get off topic. Nice talk will allow you to have a nice, simple chat with your visitors.

5. WordPress Integration for Joomla 1.5. Yes, that's right. Now you can have the best blogging software and the best content management system available on the web, together. Nothing could be better.

6. iJoomla Search and Archive. This program will allow you to offer your visitors a search and retrieval system, which can prove to be very beneficial for them.

7. Tweet this autofooter plugin. This allows visitors to send this via their twitter account to their friends, and with the success of the Twitter site, it could prove to drive high traffic to your site.

8. Acujoom Pro. Are you looking for a solution for newsletters? Well, this is the perfect software for you. Create and manage subscriber lists, develop professional newsletters and automatically send them 1

9. VirtueMart. This software will allow you to turn your normal Joomla website into an eCommerce site that is definitely there to rule.

This is just a small list of the best Joomla extensions that are available. Within this list, look how much you could extend your core Joomla software. Just remember, that if you install too many extensions without developing the core components first, that you could slow your website down. Make sure to extend the core program before adding modules, plugins and more. In the end, you will be thankful that you did. There's nothing worse than visiting a slow website. Extend your websites capabilities and have fun!

With the rapid advancement in technology and the increasing number of online businesses, many companies are shifting towards software development services- PHP web development and designing among the most common services. Almost every industry is looking for software development services that meet their business needs through online accessibility to information; hence, improving communication and flow of information.

PHP is one of the most popular open source, web programming languages used to develop robust websites and applications. It is the most commonly used scripting language to build dynamic web pages, and specially aids in making custom applications as per the business requirements.

PHP software development services provide compatibility with multiple platforms, handles complex tasks more efficiently, and gives support for different databases. According to a study, 75% of web servers deploy PHP as the server-side web development language. Some of the unique features and reasons of choosing PHP over other platforms or languages are:

1. Open Source

PHP is an open source programming language which implies that it can be downloaded, used and shared for free. There is no expense required to use PHP for web application development.

2. Rich support for Open Source platform

Developers and end users can use a number of open source PHP web applications for no cost. A number of open source tools and Content Management System ( CMS) can be integrated with PHP to create more improved applications. Some of these applications are:

– Vtiger (CRM)

– WordPress, Joomla, Mambo, Drupal (CMS/Blog sites)

– Phorum, PHPBB Forum ( Forums)

– Magento, Virtuemart, OsCommerce, Zen Cart and others.

3. Ease of Use

PHP comes with ease of learning, usage and deployment.

4. Portability

PHP can be executed on either of the servers: Windows or Linux. However, Linux based servers are more cost-effective than Windows due to no licensing fees.

5. Security

PHP offers high security and helps avoid virus attacks and malware.

6. Efficient Development

PHP software development service involves a quick, cost-effective development process within the turnaround time.

7. Effective Frameworks

Other than providing zero cost open source applications, PHP offers a number of frameworks for Custom Web Application development. Such frameworks help organizations create large-scale applications quickly while maintaining high standards of quality and efficiency. Some of the renowned PHP frameworks are Symfony, Zend, Codeigniter and Zend.

8. Powerful built-in functions

PHP has a complete set of built-in functions to perform a number of web tasks. It helps in building strong business website, CRM solutions, shopping cart design, community forums, e-commerce applications and database driven websites.

9. PHP VS JAVA

Compared to JAVA, PHP is much easier to learn. Java requires huge experience in application development because of the complexity of the language. Also, PHP is independent of the server.

10. PHP Editor

PHP Editor is used by developers to manage a particular code of any software application. In PHP software development services, PHP Editor is used for improved management, review and modification of scripts in PHP applications. These editors are compatible with different operating systems and this capability is found as an in-built feature in the Editor’s design.

As a software engineer, Deliver high quality software development services and enterprise software products for business efficiency. Focus on the emerging technologies that could perform better than the existing tools and languages.

Now-a-days dynamic and interactive web pages are mostly created in PHP. Of all the programmers hired today from offshore countries, PHP developers and programmers are hired the most. There are many reasons for the fact that PHP developers are in huge demand in global software development.

PHP is the best choice for executing many programming functions such as Array, String, Date, Directory, Error handling, Filesystem, Filter, FTP, HTTP, LibXML, Mail functions, Math functions, Misc functions, MySQL, SimpleXML functions, XML Parser and Zip functions. Thus PHP supports more than 700 functions which eventually reduces the complexities while programming.

PHP also supports multiple databases like Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server and MS Access. As it is a open source, web development in PHP does not involve much cost.

PHP websites are easy to customize and programmers can manipulate it to their way. There are many groups and forums that discuss common and strange errors while doing web development.

Popular CMS such as WordPress, JOOMLA/Virtuemart, Drupal are developed in PHP. Though Java and dot-net oriented websites provide much security and better resolution, PHP is preferred as most of the websites that are live today are not much security concerned.

There are so many in-built PHP scripts and applications available today. Clients prefer their dynamic websites to be built in PHP. Many websites which are developed in ASP are switched over to PHP as it is much faster than asp.

There are so many tutorials available in internet offering a pool of data to learn it quickly. There’s no question, PHP programmers have good scope and future in web development.

When it comes to PHP open source ecommerce solutions, there are plenty of options to choose from such as Magento, osCommerce, OpenCart, Spree Commerce, PrestaShop, VirtueMart, Ubercart and CubeCart, amongst many more. Each has been designed with a different user in mind with different needs. However for most developers, Magento is their first choice because of its rich features and its ability to use key marketing promotional tools.

Magento is a key player in the competitive world of e-commerce platforms. One of the main reasons for this is because it is an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) friendly ecommerce solution which has the flexibility to design and develop optimised ecommerce websites. Here a few reasons why Magento is the best SEO friendly ecommerce solution:

Category Optimization

Magento allows you to add the category name to a path for a products URL. The most important fields to consider when doing this are:

Meta Description: A well written SEO friendly description should be used here because it will show in result listings of search engines.

Page Title: Keep this blank to use the category name including parent’s categories.

URL Key: This should be kept short with the key words in the URL.

These options can make a big difference to a SEO strategy. Details such as Name, Description, Page Title and Meta data can be specified for each store view, which is particularly useful for multi-language stores.

Product Optimization

In Magento, products can be optimised the same way as category optimization. The Meta Information can be set for the “Default Values” and for each “Store View”. When dealing with images, a good file name can create additional interest and improve SEO rankings. The images of product information can be labelled and can be used for the image’s alt and title tags.

CMS Pages

Magento is a very flexible and powerful CMS. It can control each aspect of every page easily. The page title, Meta keywords and the Meta description can be set for every individual page.

If a specific description isn’t given to each page in the CMS, the search engines will pick any string from the content automatically.

Canonical URLs

Canonical URLs are a big help for search engines to understand duplicate pages and can suggest the preferred URL for each web page, using the new canonical URL tag. To give a canonical URL to web pages, install the Canonical URL’s for Magento module.

XML Sitemaps

XML Sitemaps are Google sitemaps for providing information to search engines that shows where web content is. An XML sitemap never helps to rank well, but it is always useful to get indexed webpages faster in search engines. An XML sitemap can be created by going to Catalogue then Google Sitemap then Add Sitemap, choose a filename, path and store view, and then finally press “Save & Generate”.

It is essential to offer a flexible and SEO friendly ecommerce solution for any online business; this is why Magento is the best option for web site development.

So you want to start an online business and wonder what to do. Well there are two options one get a professional company to build your store for you and spend a lot of your hard earned cash or build it yourself.

These days building a website is not so difficult, there are many community programs and tools out there which make the job easy and best of all they are free of charge. So first thing first lets make a check list of what you need, then I will explain each of the items on the check list.

1. Domain name: the name of the website in the navigation bar www. your keywords here.com
2. Hosting Space: the place where all the information on your site is stored.
3. The actual website: the codes, text, pictures that make up your site.
4. A payment Gateway: ways to accept online payments like PayPal or credit card
5. Time:)

Now before I get to analyzing each of the points above, here is something important to keep in mind. The Domain name of your site plays a major role in Search Engine Optimization. This is something I didn’t know when I build my first site which lead to bad Google ranking thus little sales. You have to make sure your domain name contains keywords that represent your products best. I highly recommend seeking the advice of an SEO Specialist before you choose your domain name.

So lets get started, where do I get a domain name? There are many domain registrars that offer domain names and good prices, for example Godaddy.com, netfirms.com and planetdomain.com to name just a few. Personally I have been using godaddy so far who have a pretty fast an professional service. Once you have purchased your domain you must point it to your Hosting Space. This is done by editing the A record or CNAME in the setting of your domain. Most large registrars will help you point your domain and it is usually even faster and easier if your get both domain and hosting space from the same company.

No that you have your domain name, it is time to choose a hosting company there are hundreds if not thousands of Hosting companies. Here are the important thinks to keep in mind before choosing a hosting company.

• Where is the server located? If you host a website that is targeting audience in Cyprus for example and you pick a host in America. Then chances are you will have a slow Ping and the shopping experience on your site will be slow and shoppers like fast sites.
• What kind of support and guarantees come with the server? Is there a guaranteed up time? Is there a 24hour support? What does support include? Some of the Host Provides will pre-install the CMS (Content Managment System) for you.
• And finally what is the cost per month. Some hosting companies offer shared hosting which is basically one physical server split in to many virtual servers with individual control. This solution is usually cheap and good for starting your first website.
• Which operating system is used by the hosting company? Personally I recommend Linux, it is very fast and reliable and I have had great experience with it so far.

So now you have your domain and hosting space, it is time to pick the CMS or Content Management System.

What is a CMS? A CMS is one of the most important parts of your online store. The Content Management system has to sides, the front end and backend also called Extranet. The frontend is what the customer sees while the backend is where you enter your products, check your sales and add content to your site. Personally I have tried Joomla with the Virtuemart Plug-in and Magento. And here is some information about both.

Joomla is one of the largest community supported CMS around. It has hundreds of free modules and components as well as thousands of forums on the internet. Joomla has a component called Virtuemart which is also an open source community program. It is simple to install and has a lot of additional Plug-ins as well as a large community for support. Joomla and Virtuemart both run on very simple servers and don’t have many special needs. I have used this solution for my first web-shop (which I still run today).

Magento is aE-commerce solution it is build and designed to sell, while Joomla can be used to build non Ecommerce websites Magento is strictly business. One of my favorite parts of Magento is that it is all Integrated, here are some of the features that are already in the package of version 1.4.1.1 which I am currently using.

• PayPal Website Payment Standards integrated
• Canonical URL’s for SEO
• Google Sitemap (SEO)
• Reports
• Wishlist
• Compare products
• Google Analytics ECommerce Integration
• Easy Backup
• Import and Export Via XML or CSV

There are many more options that come in the Magento Package that must be installed separately in Virtuemart. But its not all sweetness with Magento, the down side is that it is more demanding then Joomla and virtuemart which means you will need a dedicated or Virtual dedicated server. Most shared hosting will not be sufficient to run a Magento store. Which means it will be more expensive to run, a shared host could cost as little as 4-5 Euro’s a month while a virtual dedicate server will start around 20-30 Euros a month and a dedicated server at 150 to 250 Euro’s. I have been using virtual dedicated servers which has been working great on all my stores. I even added 3-4 more websites on the same server without any significant speed issues.

So now that we have almost everything done we need to enter our products, sell them and receive payments. There are various ways of accepting payments depending on your region and country. If you are in the UK or US for example PayPal offers a full integration accepting PayPal Payments and Credit Card Payments without the customer needing a PayPal accounts. If you are not in the UK or USA then there are other options like Moneybookers which has a module for Magento is easy to set-up. Its important that you can accept payments otherwise how are you going to sell? Some delivery companies will do cash on delivery for you but that would be for a more localised sale.

I do recommend that you get an SEO expert to help you with optimization and and that will give you important tips BEFORE you start building your site.

So now that you have the guidelines do some more research and conquer the online world of ecommerce.