StackIdeas

We are excited to announce EasyBlog Community is now available!

Prior to this, EasyBlog was supposed to be named with a 'Professional' word in it and from today onwards, that word will be there - EasyBlog Professional. Both versions are the same except for Community comes with only 3 templates (from 11 templates) and a 'Powered by StackIdeas' link back at the bottom portion of the blog layout.

The reason for making this version available is because we want to encourage more users aware of the goodness of blogging, especially websites that run on the Joomla! platform. We want more people to start blogging and that means having the component easily adopted by experienced or novice users. EasyBlog Community has a price tag easy enough on anyone's pocket to start blogging right away at $45 a copy.

You will also be offered professional technical support from us and regular component updates on every 2-3 months cycle. Plus, an auto-subscription of our regular newsletter for the latest from our stables on products and news too.

This is an important launch and we are glad to share it with you with a little discount on both EasyBlog versions.

For EasyBlog Community, we are offering a 10%-off at $40.50. Use this coupon code to redeem : easycom10

For EasyBlog Professional, a huge 25% discount is given and you only have to pay $44.25 using this code : easypro25

We wish that blogging in Joomla! will not be burdensome from today onwards. We at StackIdeas hope EasyBlog could also make your like easy!

You can start using the coupon codes now to redeem the discount. Oh, this offer starts today until January 23rd, 2011 only.

Firstly, we'd like to wish you all Happy New Year 2011! It may be a little too late to wish but our heart says better late than never.

It's a brand new year and what better way to start it with fresh ideas and new approaches. We wouldn't want to call it resolution because it sounds stressful. A little bit of stress is OK but too much of it will restrict creative juices from flowing. So, yeah, in this blog post, we'd like to make a few announcements of what's coming your way, both for the company and our products.

Let me start with the StackIdeas team. Looking at the number of EasyBlog users going up month-by-month, we cant help but to grow as well. It's not easy dealing with growing number of paid subscribers with the small team we have so in the next month or so, we will be welcoming new mates in the team. They will be in charged of both development and designs so do expect more products coming in, with a little more better eye candy in them!

There will be a couple more new products we're aspiring to release this year. One of them will be a social topic sharing component and the other will also be a social-based component, potentially adding more value to your website

Our pioneer product, SectionEx will still be available for subscription. We will still maintain updates on it but it will not be as regular as EasyBlog. More time will be spent on developing new products. You know you want new stuff so we're focusing more on that. However, if you still haven't got SectionEx, check out what it does for your Joomla! site HERE.

As for our blogging component EasyBlog, it will have more features in store. Hold your horses now because we will be releasing the details soon, but not today. :)

This May 2011, EasyBlog will turn 1 and to celebrate it's first anniversary, we will be offering a special rate to all our paid users when they renew their subscription. It will be at a very awesome price but we're keeping it till a month before the anniversary to announce the actual price.

Wishing you all good in health and best of wealth this 2011!

You realized lately we've been releasing minor updates for EasyBlog. Yeah, this is also a minor but essential update before you embark on your year end holidays.

Only two fixes in this version and they are needed because while we are in the midst of getting the codes ready for Joomla! 1.6 compatibility, some codes slipped through our hands, in version 1.2.132.

To be exact, the error causes user profiles to be saved in an invalid Joomla! group ID when users save their profile in EasyBlog. After logout, the user cannot login again due to the wrong group ID.

We could not thank a particular customer enough for reporting this bug and we have already got it working smoothly back again.

However, there are 2 ways to solve this at your end - 1. Self or 2. Email support. Kindly refer to our FORUM for steps to fix it. Or, if this doesn't help, please email to support@stackideas.com so that we can assist you, soonest possible.

Head on to our Downloads page to get the fix, or click on the Download button below for instant access.

Yeah, we released version 1.2.130 last week and here's another version at 1.2.132.

It includes many template and layout fixes. Like we always do, improvements appear as they come and we are committed to give you the best with the latest, robust and useful Joomla! components.

If you haven't download the latest latest version, do head on to our Downloads page to do so. You have to be a paid customer to get the component.

In a business set up like us, making a profit is the ultimate goal at the end of the day. But in a business that revolves around Joomla!, we felt there is a sense of social responsibility in us. And because Joomla! is free to use, we believe anything free is useful to the budget conscious user.

A talented Joomla! user may not go far in his/her business if costs of running it is too high. Besides manpower, tools of the trade are the next most important asset to grow. Any great talents would go to waste if costs are a deterrent to a business with high growth potential. Any startup would agree with me here, wont you?

We at StackIdeas are aware of this and we got our minds together to release a Community version of EasyBlog! The EasyBlog Community component will differ slightly from the current version.

Click HERE to view the comparison between EasyBlog Pro and EasyBlog Community.

Besides this, the price has also been revised to reflect affordability. Don't worry, you still get the same amount of dedicated attention from us when you subscribe to our professional support.

Watch out for the announcement on this blog and our Twitter on January 15th, 2011!

The latest build for EasyBlog is now released with version 1.2.130

It's the start of the holiday seasons and we'd like to give a final push to wrap up 2010 with a feature-packed EasyBlog release. Besides the usual code tweaks, we are also proud to mention some major new features in this version of EasyBlog.

Blogging does not necessarily need to be at your Joomla! website now because the new build enables you to blog remotely with the new XML-RPC support. To accomplish this, a new plugin is available to download and you can start blogging, remotely.

Instead of sharing your blog posts in Twitter and Google Buzz, EasyBlog is now built with the popular pinging tool, Ping-o-Matic. Every blog that you post will be automatically pinged to search engines across the globe. We are more than convinced that the more exposure your blog has, the more traffic it brings to your blog!

For team blogging, EasyBlog is enhanced with better support for teamblog avatar and increased security settings -- better privacy controls for site administrators.

Head on to our Downloads page to get the latest build of EasyBlog.

In just short 7 months, EasyBlog has received numerous positive reviews about how easy and fast it is to start a blog in Joomla!. Many developers and users found out that EasyBlog offered the right kind of features for both advanced bloggers and the novice ones. We're not blowing our own horn, we invite you to read our reviews in the Joomla! Extensions Directory.

This Thanksgiving, we would like to give thanks to all the wonderful words that came in. We'd like to thank all of you who showed support in the things we do, the Joomla! extensions we create.

To show our appreciation, we are giving away $20 discount when you subscribe to our EasyBlog 12-months technical support. Instead of paying the full $59, you only need to pay $39 for a year's worth of professional support and software updates.

Please use this coupon code to redeem the $20 discount: easythanks

The discount is valid for one week only, starting today till Wednesday, December 1st, 2010.

Get EasyBlog now for only $39 at our online store.
Use coupon code: easythanks

Here's wishing you Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at StackIdeas!

Blogs are like the diary of the future. An electronic log of the important things you want to treasure and yet desire to show the world. It is a recollection of your personal history that is accessible anytime, anywhere you want.

A blog surpasses the benefits of having a new page for a business website. You engage people with blogs because it portrays the human side of online technologies.

Here are the 5 other main reasons to start a blog:

1. Passion - Blog about the things you enjoy doing that you could go on doing without getting bored. When you find excitement in the activities you do, blog about it. Start writing about your hobbies and with your blog, you can help others who may have the same hobby as you. Once you get the hang of it, your blog could turn your hobby into a money making machine!

2. Self expression - Everyone loves a little attention and to feel wanted. The blog is the right avenue toward expressions yourself to the world. However, do not be sad if no one is there to listen to you. Just blog away and pour your feelings out. Who knows, someone from the other side of the world with a kind heart has got the ears that listen.

3. Make more friends - Blogging itself naturally creates more friends and more and more visitors to your blog start to comment on it. You will make lots of friends whom have common interests are you, lives nearby and hence, have a meet up with these new people. However, to make friends, be a friend by responding to your visitors' comments in your blog.

4. Builds business - If you have a business website, starting a blog helps to promote your products and services. The sky is the limit when your business has a blog because you never know your next biggest customer may be reading is from the other side of the world, and potentially give you the sales that you have been looking for.

5. Skills - Blogging is similar to journalism. With journalism, the world is in your hands and with it, you can write about anything that interests you. The more blog you post, the better you are, hence, the more readers you will attract. Blogging regularly makes perfect and it brings in more traffic to your site too.

When you are ready to start a blog, why not get it from the experts?

Joomla! is a great Content Management System for building powerful websites for both business and personal use. With the many extensions, plugins and addons available in the Joomla! Extensions Directory (JED) we are spoilt for choice when it comes to selecting the RIGHT application to work the way we want it in our website. However, nothing is perfect and thanks to the world of Open Source, developers and experienced users of Joomla! can easily tweak the codes and it's done!

Customers today are tech-savvy and they rely on the World Wide Web to get information and what better way to engage them by giving the kind of information they want via a blog. A blog provides a platform for the informer to push information to the uninformed be it a new product launch, a new member in the family, a n resolved issue or even announcing a special promotion.

If you already have a Joomla! website and decided to take the plunge into the blogosphere, we highly recommend EasyBlog. Because setting up a blog sounds like rocket science but fret not because EasyBlog will make it all as simple as a few clicks of the mouse.

Requirements

Your website should be running on the latest Joomla! version, at least PHP 4.3.2 and the latest MySQL database version. Layout wise, please make sure your website supports at least 700 pixels of width for EasyBlog to look and function well in your website. Once you fulfill the above criterias, you are a step nearer to create your Joomla! blog.

Download EasyBlog

We can assure you of the latest features and constant bug fixes are done in EasyBlog. Professional technical service and direct access to our technical team are also available from as low as $4.99 per month. And for the money you invest, you are ensured of the latest software version and  24/7 e-mail assistance if you are stuck.

Click HERE to download EasyBlog. You will be downloading a zipped file - just leave it the way it is and don't unzip it.

Installation

Like installing any other Joomla! extensions, you have to login to your Adminstrator panel and click on Extentions > Install/Uninstall.

Once you are in, click on the Browse button to search for EasyBlog installer files. The files come zipped when you download from our website and should have the filename i.e. com_easyblog_versionX.X.XX.zip.

If you don't have this file, click HERE to download (subscription to our support is required) Click on Upload File & Install button to install the software.

You will receive a notification that EasyBlog is successfully installed.

That's not all, you will have to tweak some settings in the backend before posting your first blog.

Please stay tuned to this blog for another post on the kind of settings you need to do to start blogging in your Joomla! website.

Whether you are an individual who is passionate in a hobby or a business seeking to connect with your stakeholders, blogging is one of the ideal communications and online marketing tool around. With all that is said about blogs and if you haven’t already got one, why should you?