WSI Buzz – News & Information on Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing and More

Today I am going to explain the functions of the Bookings Module, and the best way to go about using this. As the title of the module states, this can be used to create bookings for various events and functions. You have the ability to set a specific capacity for each event, and have the booking become hidden once it has become full. The booking module starts off with a default form that will be attached to any Booking that you create. This can be modified going forwards to suit your personalized needs, or if you need different form information for separate bookings you can create an individual form to attach to just one or more bookings.

The original booking form can be found within the webforms section of the website, can be modified there just like any other form you have added to your site. Like-wise if you are planning on using different sign-up forms for different bookings you can create the form here.

Now, if you are indeed using a different webform for your different bookings there is a bit of further customization that needs to be done to the layout. You will need to go into the booking module’s advanced layout section, and select the “Detail View”. Here is where you will find the default form already integrated. You can simply delete this form from the layout. Now you can place the form you have created into the details section of your booking.

When you are adding bookings to a webpage you will be provided with 2 different options in terms of displaying the list of your bookings. You will have the option to enter in all, one, or a set category of bookings on a webpage. This will display all the bookings in a list format with their title, and descriptions, as well as any other fields you choose to add in the “List View” of the advanced layout. The bookings will display in descending order according to the date the events will be hosted on.
The second option for display is to insert all of the booking, or just a specific category of bookings in a calendar view. This will give you a pre-formatted calendar that will show only the title of the booking on the date is set to be hosted on. The colors of the calendar and text can be formatted through CSS to suit your unique style.

There is one main drawback to using this module, and that is its inability to setup a re-occurring event. Any event that will be hosted on a monthly basis will have to be setup every single month.

The announcements module, within eFusion, is essentially a news manager. There are several ways to utilize the announcements module. You can create a News page and display all of the announcements you have created, you can display a set number of your latest announcements on a home page, or interior template, assign  announcements to specific categories, and display them on separate pages, or display just a single announcement on any given page.

Creating an announcement is very similar to creating a webpage, and uses the same WYSIWYG editor that the web pages do. You are able to assign specific templates to each individual announcement, and like any web page you have the ability to add tables, images, links, and of course, plain text, which can have various CSS elements attach to it. Using the advanced layout feature, the entire layout of every announcement can be changed as well. The default layout is very basic, and will show the subject title, the release date, and the main body content. Below all of this there is, by default, a comments form included for visitors to rate your news piece. Any comment needs to be approved by an admin before it will show up on the news item. This comment section can also be removed completely.  There are also several other placeholder tags that can be added into this layout to display other helpful pieces of information, such as: a list of categories the item has been classified in, the expiry date, if one has been set, the last time the news was updated, an add to favourites link, a tell a friend link, and a few others.

After completing the initial setup, and creation of all the announcements they must be placed on a page, or on a template. Within the announcements module there will be a button that says add this to a web page. Upon clicking this button a list of all current web pages will be available. Clicking the page the announcements will go on will bring you into another editors with a button on the top-left of the editor that reads 1 click insert. Clicking this will provide a dropdown of a few different ways to insert the module. You can insert an individual announcement, all announcements, latest announcements, or announcements within a certain category. In order to add an announcements to a template you must go into the template itself, and use the add modules to this template option, which essentially works the same way as adding the module to a web page. In addition to adding the news items to a page, or template, if you have an RSS feed you can also add individual news items into the RSS feed.

Once the announcement has been added to the website you can come back into the item and you will  be able to view a small report on the amount of views any one particular item has

eFusion offers a wide variety of integrated modules, included in the technology to make building your website faster, and easier. You are able to setup, and utilize these modules with little, to no programming experience.

The first module I will explain is the Ad Rotators. This is a simple module, which allows you to create groups of images, banners, or ads which will randomly appear on a specific page each time that page is loaded up. these rotating groups can range from simple images. to HTML, to more advanced flash applications. Inserting a group of rotating images is, obviously, the easiest. All you need to do is create the Rotator by selecting this module, and providing a name. You will then be shown a screen asking you to label the image, the images source URL, and any potential click-through URL you wish to attach to the image. In order to determine the source URL of the image, there is a handy browse button that will bring you into the file manager, where you can select any picture you have previously uploaded to your project. You can add as many images as you wish to the ad rotator group.

Adding a flash application is very similar to adding an image. You will see the same screen, but instead of image you will select Flash from the Item Type dropdown list. Like adding an image you can then determine the source URL by browsing for the flash file uploaded to your project. You can again add as many flash items as you wish to your rotation.

Adding a rotating HTML section differs only slightly. Once you select HTML from your Item Type dropdown list you will be provided with a box to enter in the HMTL code instead of searching for the source URL of the item. Using the rotating HTML is particularly useful if you wish to display a graphic banner ad with links to more than one section of your website.

Once you have created your Ad Rotator group you can preview it, and then proceed to add it to a webpage. There will be a button the right-hand side Action Box that says Add Ad Rotator to a web page. Clicking this will show you a list of your various web pages, and then you can choose which one, and where on that page you would like it to display. You also have the ability to add this module onto a template by going into your template, and selecting Add Modules to this template. All you have to do then is select the module, in the case the ad rotator, and add it where you like.

You do not necessarily have to add a click-through link to any of your rotating items, but should you choose to do so, you can come back to the group, and view the performance of the ads you created. You can view the performance based on a set time period of your choosing, be it just for one day, a week, a month, or a year. The performance report will include the Total Impressions, Total Click Throughs, and Click Through Rate.

eFusion is a user friendly all in one website development platform that offers a number of  easy to use modules, eCommerce, email marketing, hosting, webmail system, built-in analytics and integrated CRM. Setting up a website within the eFusion platform is quick and simple to do. Aside from starting a website form scratch, you have the ability to choose from several pre-designed template layouts for almost any type of website. eFusion also offers the ability to import a current website, outside of the platform, into the system for easier management, and added functionality.

Some of the basic modules included in eFusion are the Ad Rotator, Bookings, FAQ Manager, Literature Module, Photo Gallery, Site Search, Site Map, Web Forms, and Announcements, which functions as a news manager. For more advanced users they also offer a Web Apps module that allows for you to create your own custom applications, which are integrated directly into the system. Aside from these basic modules there is also the added bonus of fully a integrated Blog, Dynamic Menus, and Forums. All of these modules are fully customizable.

Also included within the system is an eCommerce section. With this shopping cart you can several product catalogs, and products with ease. Payment gateways for your shopping cart are included in the eCommerce section, as well as shipping options, gift vouchers for your online store, and the system support multiple currencies. All of your online sales will be tracked with eFusion’s built-in reporting system.

The Email Marketing part of eFusion, used in conjunction with the Web Forms, lets you capture visitor emails, and add them into various email lists for future use in your email marketing campaigns. Much like setting up a website there are several pre-defined email templates you can use to make your monthly newsletters stand out. Or you can upload your own email templates to the system, and use those instead.

On top of all of these great features eFusion has a fully integrated CRM,  so you can easily manage your customer database categorizing your database any way you want, and their built-in analytics make keeping track of all the traffic coming to your website simple as can be.

Stay tuned for future installments of this blog where I will begin to further break down all of the various elements of the eFusion platform, and offer in-depth explanations of all the modules, and the best practices for their use.