mojoPortal Tips: Review of Web Invoice Pro Plugin for mojoPortal

Last Updated on Monday, 7 May 2012 04:27 Written by Carole Bennett Wednesday, 16 May 2012 12:00

mojoPortal is an amazingly robust and easy-to-use content management system (CMS); the features built into the default system for free are quite powerful, and meet the needs of most users. However, some power users need more robust capabilities, expecially in a commercial context – and that’s where the premium plugins offered by Joe Audette for mojoPortal come into play. Today we’ll discuss the Web Invoice Pro plugin, and how it can help out your business clients.

What Web Invoice Pro Does For You

Simply put, the Web Invoice Pro plugin-in allows a site user with the proper permissions to send an invoice from the mojoPortal installation to any client with an e-mail address, and receive payment for the invoice through your mojoPortal-based website.  If you leverage a requirement users to register with the site before having access to this feature, you’ll provide them with the benefit of being able to see a history of their invoices and payments under their user profile, as well as being able to pull up payment history reports – a huge boon for small business operators.

Installation – Simple, As Always

mojoPortal Tips: Creating a Custom Newsletter Template

Last Updated on Monday, 7 May 2012 04:27 Written by Carole Bennett Saturday, 12 May 2012 12:00

So – you’ve got your mojoPortal website set up, you’ve been creating great content on your blog, people like what you’ve got to say, and once you set up your newsletter subscription, you’ve got people who’ve signed up to receive your newsletter. Now it’s time to get on the ball and get your newsletter template created, and send out that newsletter!

In mojoPortal Tips: Sending Newsletters to Your Subscribers, Part 1 and Part 2, we covered how to send out a newsletter to your subscribers. Before you do that, you’ll need to create a template that’s optimized for your needs.

mojoPortal comes with two default templates; “business1″ and “template1″. You can either start with these, or use your own. TemplatesBox provides a great selection of free newsletter templates, in a wide variety of styles and colors to work with your branding and site design.

mojoPortal Tips: Review of the Site Membership Pro Plugin for mojoPortal, Part 2

Last Updated on Monday, 7 May 2012 04:27 Written by Carole Bennett Wednesday, 9 May 2012 12:00

In Part 1, we covered how to install and set up an instance of the Site Membership Pro plugin. Now we’ll cover how to enable the e-commerce capabilities, and review the user experience side of how the plugin works.

First of all, you’ll need to determine which of the following you’ll want to use for your website payment processor:

• Authorize.net
• PayPal Website Payments Pro
• PayPal Standard
• Google Checkout

Do keep under consideration that you’ll want to leverage SSL for Authorize.net or PayPal Website Payments Pro; for an overview of how SSL works with mojoPortal, read the article “Use SSL” on the mojoPortal site.

Once you’ve chosen and implemented your payment processor of choice, using the instructions at the links above, it’s time to review the end user part of the process.

mojoPortal Tips: Review of the Site Membership Pro Plugin for mojoPortal, Part 1

Last Updated on Thursday, 3 May 2012 07:37 Written by Carole Bennett Friday, 4 May 2012 12:00

Today we’ll cover the new Site Membership Pro plugin for mojoPortal. The plugin comes to us as a premium add-on from Joe Audette, chief architect and creator of the original mojoPortal project. As usual, Joe’s done a great job; we’ll cover the basic workflow, and my observations about the use of the product.

I’ve been waiting for quite some time for this plugin to be released; one of my clients has a premium training course that they would like to allow users to subscribe to on an annual basis, and this product fits the bill perfectly.

We’d already created a role for the premium training users, and configured access to the premium content to be limited to that role and the Administrator role via mojoPortal’s built-in access controls. Previously, the client had to add the subscriber to this role manually, after signing them up over the phone. Tracking subscription expiration was completely manual and hit-or-miss; with the new Site Membership Pro plugin, this is no longer an issue.

mojoPortal Tips: Migrating a Site to Arvixe VPS, Wrap-Up

Last Updated on Sunday, 29 April 2012 02:34 Written by Carole Bennett Monday, 30 April 2012 12:00

Well, it’s been an interesting experience to transfer our client sites from our previous hosting service to the new Arvixe VPS. Overall, I’ve been very pleased with the transition, but there are a few “gotchas” that you’ll appreciate being able to handle in advance, so that it’s a non-issue for you and your business.

One of the first “gotcha” moments occurred after I switched over my first client site to the new VPS. When you create your domain and website, you can also create mail accounts for that server. However, the domain pointer directing your user to the webmail (i.e. ‘mail.yourclientdomain.com’) isn’t automatically generated. In order to correct this, I had to log into the VPS via Remote Desktop Connection, and add a domain pointer manually to the mail server. In order to do this:

mojoPortal Tips: Migrating a Site to Arvixe VPS, Part 4

Last Updated on Sunday, 29 April 2012 02:34 Written by Carole Bennett Thursday, 5 April 2012 12:00

In Part 3, we covered how to transfer your MSSQL database for mojoPortal, as well as your mojoPortal web files. We’re in the home stretch now, so we’ll go find that “instant alias”, and make sure we’re ready to “flip the switch” over to the new server.

1. Log back into your admin panel, and navigate back to the client site we’ve been working on.

mojoPortal Tips: Migrating a Site to Arvixe VPS, Part 3

Last Updated on Sunday, 29 April 2012 02:34 Written by Carole Bennett Wednesday, 4 April 2012 12:00

In Part 2, we covered configuration of your Arvixe VPS, and how to create a client website. We’ll pick up from there and cover locating your “Instant Alias”, and how to transfer your MSSQL database for mojoPortal, as well as your mojoPortal web files.

Log into your VPS control panel – click on the “All Customers” link, and click through to the client you set up previously.

Website Configuration

mojoPortal Tips: Migrating a Site to Arvixe VPS, Part 2

Last Updated on Sunday, 29 April 2012 02:34 Written by Carole Bennett Tuesday, 3 April 2012 12:00

In Part 1, we went over the benefits of getting an Arvixe VPS, how to get one ordered, and some tips for improved branding. Here, we’ll go over the steps to configure your VPS, and create your client space.

Once you’ve received your e-mail confirming that your VPS has been provisioned, and confirmed that your branded name servers have registered, it’s time to log into your VPS, and get everything configured.

Your VPS Configuration:

mojoPortal Tips: Migrating a Site to Arvixe VPS, Part 1

Last Updated on Sunday, 29 April 2012 02:34 Written by Carole Bennett Monday, 2 April 2012 12:00

I’ve used shared hosting for years; first for my own site, then for my customers. Recently, I finally decided it was time to upgrade to a VPS (Virtual Private Server), in order to better meet the needs of my clients and my growing business. After much research and deliberation, I decided to move my hosting services to an Arvixe VPSClass-ASP.

There were a few factors that led to my choice of Arvixe as my new hosting provider; among them:

• Whenever I’ve had a question about any aspect of Arvixe hosting, I’ve always been able to reach a live support person, no matter what the time of day or night. That is a huge bonus to me, as my hours, and those of my clients, can vary broadly.

mojoPortal Tips: Sending Newsletters to Your Subscribers, Part 2

Last Updated on Monday, 9 April 2012 05:03 Written by Carole Bennett Tuesday, 27 March 2012 12:00

In Part 1, we left off with creating a newsletter instance, and adding the Newsletter Subscription feature to your website. We will pick up from there, with the assumption that you already have some subscribers, because you have introduced it with a compelling description and made it easy for them to subscribe.

1.  Log into your mojoPortal instance as an administrator
2. Click “Administration” on the grey admin bar at the bottom of your screen
3.  Click the “Newsletter Administration” link