Quick questions Daniel Nordahl

Hi Daniel, tell us about yourself and your business

Hello! I was born and raised in Västeras, therefore, an inveterate Västerås. I have always had a keen interest in computers, internet, entrepreneurship and marketing. 2003 I started a shop that sold consumer electronics and that's when I came in contact with Mambo, OsCommerceoch other CMS / guide. 2005 I began studying business administration with emphasis on law and marketing at Mälardalen University. I then started my company (now Mediastrategi Sweden AB) to earn a little extra on the side of the studies. At first it was with most assignments in online marketing such as search engine optimization and search engine marketing. After a while I also got asked for making websites. It was then, that I again began to look at the various CMS and settled for Joomla because of the ease of use for end users.

Today, we are still developing 99% of our sites in Joomla, it happens that we use other CMS but Joomla is still the favorite. In addition to web development work, Media Strategy work with design, web strategy, search engine marketing (search engine optimization and sponsored links) and web analytics. The goal is to offer our customers a complete solution from design to finished production and marketing. We are growing all the time so it is really fun right now.

You've just got your first extension published on JED - how was it to develop an extension for Joomla?

It was really fun to see the interest around Shadow Media, the first week we had over 500 downloads. In this case (with the extension Shadow Media) it was in fact no major problems. It all began with one of our customers (VSK Bandy) wanted a solution tailored to display advertising to its visitors. Instead of making a "takeover" or use ex index.html to "force" visitors to see ads, we chose to use a lightboxsolution where they could set how often the visitors would be forced to see advertising. By parameters, they can now set how often it will turn up.

Shortly after we presented the solution, other businesses got in touch. It turned out that the interest for such a solution was great. That's when we decided to release it on JED. The only thing we had to do was, clean up the code a bit and write documentation. We also did a small film to show the actual installation process.

Thanks to our talented programmers, it was actually never any major problems with making the solution. Sure, we had a few small bugs that needed to be adjusted, but nothing serious.

Why did you choose to work with Joomla?

It was for our customers' sake. We wanted that they could update the websites we delivered and Drupal with others was simply too difficult to manage our time. Moreover, there was (and is) the amounts of extensions to download and adapt for their own or customers' needs, which means a lower development cost and thus a lower cost to the customer.

Today, Drupal has improved itself, but personally I still do not like Drupal, it does not feel logical. Wordpress has come and is very popular and easy to work with. It happens that we work with these CMS also but as I said, Joomla is still the favorite. Joomla is easy to work with both designers may, programmers och retail. Moreover, the Joomla Community is great, we have a good and active forum, there are many who are involved and helps to keep Joomla ahead. If you got problems, someone quickly guides you.

Will we see any more extensions from you?

Yes, absolutely. We are working on Shadow Media for Joomla 1.6 and 1.7 and we hope to introduce them soon. Then we have some other extensions coming up, but it remains to be seen if placed on the JED. In most cases, is when we see an interest in a particular solution, and as more and more people are asking it, we will post it on JED. But it is sure will be more extensions from the Mediastrategi.

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