Dances with horses is an experiment in Search Engine Optimisation, Google Adwords Pay Per Click advertising, Clickbank affiliate marketing, Amazon affiliate marketing and dropshipping, Spreadshirt affiliate marketing and dropshipping.

I picked a product that interested me and I thought had value, from the books of Clickbank, then created a pitch page for it in very simple HTML. I then created a Google Adwords campaign and bid on a keyword list that I grew and tailored over time, having also created a range of text and graphical adverts. I was then able to monitor traffic to the site via sitemeter, affiliate sales via Clickbank and search engine traffic and sales conversions via Google Adwords tools and feed back all this data into the campaign to optimize my advertising spend to affiliate commission ratio.

It has been a very interesting project and has taught me the fine art of PPC affiliate marketing. I ran a similar and very successful campaign for Zen Chi machines and health and juicing products, although that project is now at an end. (The Google Adwords campaign is paused but available should anyone be interested in re-directing the traffic to their site instead.)

I have found that campaigns of this nature can be engineered to yield twice as much in commission than is spent on advertising.

The Book

The Fabulous Girls Guide to Quitting Smoking is a multi-channel publishing initiative. I wrote the book, and used Lulu as a fulfillment house and print on demand paper publisher. However, the spirit of the Fabulous Girls Guide to Quitting Smoking goes way beyond a paper product and we are now in a publishing environment where paper is just one of many channels, and not necessarily the most effective, profitable, productive or appropriate channel.

The Community

I created a "Fabulous Girls Quitting Smoking" Ning community, harnessing the Ning community technology and opportunity for cross-fertilisation with other Ning communities.

The Mobile App

I then created an Ovi App, which feeds the latest activity on the Fabulous Girls Quitting Smoking community site, via RSS, to an Ovi mobile phone application - available via the Ovi store and on Nokia mobile phones. I was surprised and pleased to see that I made rapid sales, which far outsold the paper copies of the book thus far.

The Website

I have put up a place-holder Joomla website which will eventually act as the hub of the multi-channel Fabulous wheel.

It has been a very interesting project and one that is continuing and developing. It will serve as a model for other projects, initiatives and businesses.

Agrumi Garden centre wanted a new and contemporary look for their Joomla and Virtuemart online Garden centre website, as well as a major system upgrade from old versions of both Joomla and Virtuemart.

I created a clone of the old site, then upgraded first the Virtuemart and then the Joomla, before redesigning the front end of the site.  I created new Product parameters which I connected to an Amazon-style product filter component called Cherry Picker, which was particularly useful for a shopping site of this nature, with so many thousands of products to choose from. I also added an A-Z product picker and a colour picker.

Tiptoe Chickens wanted an eCommerce site to sell specially selected chicken accessories to home keepers of chickens. Tiptoe Chickens is a New Forest cottage industry company and wanted a website design that reflected the feel of the New Forest and the chicken-keeping lifestyle. I created this site, using Joomla for the content management system and Virtuemart for the shopping cart, ordering, payment and inventory system.

I love chickens and really enjoyed making this site!

CMS web site + embedded video

http://staffycampaign.org.uk – The Staffy Campaign is a non-profit site aiming to raise awareness of the plight of Staffordshire Bull Terrier dogs in the UK.

I developed this site in Joomla. It has a modern, fresh design that attractively presents news information to the public, whilst maintaining a professional look that is being taken seriously by politicians and journalists.

CMS web site + online shop, embedded video, community and forums

http://www.ycourse.com – I created this site, using Joomla. It is a full content management system web site with a shopping cart system (Virtuemart) and embedded video. There are also community features and discussion forums (not yet made public).

CMS web site + embedded video, flipping books & slideshow news

Faith + Football – This site is still under development and may be viewed at the temporary URL: http://194.154.164.100/~ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Faith + Football is a charity that brings professional footballers together with young people to share Christianity and encourage personal development. They wanted a website that was young and funky, easy to use by a youth market, yet had a robust content management system that would enable them to constantly add new items..

I developed this site in Joomla, with 3 different templates which each used transparency layers to good effect. The template designs pushed the usual design limits of Joomla and is a good example of how far Joomla can be pushed artistically.

The site includes flipping books modules and a slideshow news module.

CMS web site + embedded video

http://bereavementrescue.org.uk/ - Bereavement Rescue is a website for an organisation that helps bereaved people by sharing the evidence for life after death I.e. Near Death Experience research.

I created this site in Joomla. It combines the Joomla content management system for easy and frequent updates, with an uplifting design intended to soothe visitors who are likely to be in bereavement. There are many music and documentary videos embedded in the site.

CMS web site + Prayer group module

http://newforestprayergroup.org.uk – New Forest Prayer Group is an online prayer group that combines a powerful Content Management System with a prayer centre/chain that enables the public to submit prayer requests which are then approved by a moderator and emailed out to subscribers to the prayer chain.

CMS web site

Schoolwise needed a smart looking website to showcase their School Admin Software product. The site has an automated slideshow that complements the various modules of the software and sections of the site

You can visit the site at: http://schooladminsoftware.co.uk

CMS web site

Shari the Horse Whisperer wanted a professional-looking website that could be easily updated and added to. We built her a Joomla CMS site, with an interactive slideshow module at the top of the site template which showed a demonstration of her working with her black arab stallio, Whitetail. The site also has affiliate marketing built in.

You can visit the site at: http://dances-with-horses.net

html brochure site

"Blessings and Baptisms" was commissioned by the Anglican Independent Communion to advertise the pastoral services of the priests within that church.

The design objective was to create a striking but tasteful looking site that is easy to navigate.

You can visit the site at: http://blessingsandbaptisms.co.uk

CMS + property management module

This year, we redeveloped the RescuePet database website system. Originally created in Omnis, this time we developed using the Joomla content management system and the HotProperty module for Joomla. We modified the HotProperty module so that it managed a database of pets in rescue shelters rather than properties managed by estate agents.

You can visit the site at: http://rescuepet.org

CMS + Property Database Module

When the National Park Authority published it's plan for the New Forest, there was public uproar. New Forest Web donated our professional services and provided a website for the protest group, Forest Uprising.

Forest Uprising needed a site that was visually striking, could support a lot of information, withstand high use and would be easy to update and add to by a group of users, with varying degrees of computer confidence.

New Forest Web built a Joomla-based Content Management System, with a strong green template. The site content is easily maintained by the Forest Uprising team.

You can visit the site at: http://forestuprising.org.uk

CMS + Property Database Module

PropertyNewForest is a website for advertising and finding Property of all types for sale or rent in the New Forest.

New Forest Web built this system using Joomla as the main content management system, with an additional database module to manage the Property database.

The site went live in August 2008 and is ready for use. It is entirely free to use to advertise property whilst in it's first few months of launch.

You can visit the site at: http://propertynewforest.com

CMS site

Anglican Independent Communion Church wanted a website with a modern yet spiritual design, with a Content Management System that would enable the content of the site to be added and edited by a range of users.

New Forest Web built this system using Joomla as the content management system.

Similar sites could be created for any business or charitable group! Contact us for details and a quote.

You can visit the site at: http://ukaic.org.uk

CMS + Shop + Commission Junction catalog

Hardware-Arena is a shopping directory that brings together the hottest deals in hardware for computer, gaming (PlayStation, X-Box, Wii etc) as well as digital photography, USB and remote control devices.

New Forest Web built this system using Joomla as the main content management system, with Virtuemart as the shopping cart/directory and CJ Catalog Builder as the seemless link with Commission Junction. Thus the site advertises a large catalog of products for sale by other retailers and makes it's money by acting as an associate marketer, via Commission Junction.

Similar sites could be created to target any market! Contact us for details and a quote. This system is effectively a money tree! Just plant by launching the site, water with regular additions to the product catalog and watch the commission revenue blossom!

You can visit the site at: http://hardware-arena.com

CMS site

Tolworth Girls School and Centre for Continuing Education contracted with New Forest Web to produce a website capable of delivering a range of content and media to present the work and activities of their school. They needed to be able to upload content such as pictures, vidoes, sound files, text, files and manage the site themselves. The users that would do this included office staff, IT staff, teachers and pupils.

Using Plone, New Forest Web was able to deliver a website controlled by a Content Management System, along with on and off-site training and support for a range of staff and potential content managers. The site has been embraced well and is already show casing pupil's work in a ground breaking way that is catching the attention of other schools and colleges.

You can visit the site at: http://www.tolgirls-tcce.kingston.sch.uk

Brochure site

New Forest Web created a website for Victor Chetcuti, with downloadable music clips from his two albums. Victor wanted a site where people could hear his music, buy his albums, learn a little about him and get in touch for live bookings - wherever he tours in the world. This site is an example of clean, functional but aesthetically pleasing design that conveys the spirit of the site owner and his product.

You can visit the site at: http://www.victorstunes.com/

Brochure site

New Forest Web created a brochure web site for Widden Close Quarter Horses. Widden Close Quarter Horses is set in the beautiful New Forest on the south coast of England. Owned by Christina Cassady, Widden Quarter Horses breeds and sells quality quarter horses.

You can visit the site at: http://artificia.co.uk/archive/widdenclose/

Brochure site + Forums

New Forest Web launched a fan site they designed to promote the PS2/Playstation game, Hardware : Online Arena. The site presents screenshots from the game, reviews, links and information about broadband gaming for PS2 as well as a discussion forum.

Internet database system

New Forest Web are the creators and developers of the RescuePet Internet Database system.

RescuePet is a non-profit organisation, that provides a central system where UK rescue shelters can enter details of animals in need of good homes. The public can then visit the site and search the database for the animal that best suits them.

Operational costs are raised through corporate sponsorship and affiliate marketing, however, the RescuePet Internet database is a free service for both shelters and public visitors. The RescuePet system consists of two interfaces, one for the rescue shelters to use to upload details and photos of animals in their care and one for the public to use to search that database.

You can visit the RescuePet website now at: http://www.rescuepet.org