As the MD of a company I would like to know which one should I buy for our website please?
Our website is based on Joomla 2.5.6 (or whichever is the latest one as on today)
I would like to increase our web presence and social media interaction and so looking for suitable modules or plugins or extensions etc to be installed on our website.
But your website is a bit confusing - there are multiple packages and apart from differences in the 'features', I am unable to see how they are different from one another - in particular this distinction between modules and plugins is particularly confusing.

Are there any advantages or disadvantages between plugin and module?
Which is better for us? How do we decide? Forunately prices seem to be same for both - but still not clear which should I buy?

Then there are different types -

Easy Like and Share,
Social Bookmarking Genius
Social Bookmarking Popup

and the list goes on and on.

The Demo link on your website does not show me anything that is useful in deciding which.

Now whether anything is bought at all does depend on the speedy response to this forum message.
Quick response, quick purchase and slow response no purchase at all.

I shall wait till 6th Jule 2012 which is tomorrow (we are from UK and we follow British Summer Time which is +1hr of GMT)

It would help if an email is sent - don't know if any of you can.

Thanks

You have asked many questions that I would be happy to answer for you. The primary difference between the plugins and the modules is how the buttons will be displayed and where. The module version allows you to display the buttons in any module position. There are two different plugins in the package: a content plugin and a system plugin. The system plugin allows you to display the buttons along the side of your screen or alongside your content area. The content plugin allows you to display the buttons within your content such as an article or virtuemart, or K2. So it really depends quite a bit on how your site is laid out and what you wish your guests to be able to share.

The primary differences between the three main type of extensions that are available breaks down this way:

Easy Like and Share - This plugin or module is designed to allow your guests the ability to either 'Like' content they find appealing on your site using 'Facebook' or 'Google Plus' or 'Linkedin' it also provides the ability to share content using services such as 'Twitter', 'Digg', 'Pinit', etc.. (The purpose being to hopefully generate more exposure for your website)

Social Bookmarking Genius - This plugin and module allows the members or guests on your site to share any content they find interesting that you have published on your website to 60 different bookmarking sites. (Again this is used to generate more exposure for your website and generate more traffic as well)

Social Media Presence - This module and plugin is used to provide links to your profile pages on up to 117 different social media sites. This allows your members and guests convenient links to follow you or your site.

Bryan


If you have more questions please feel free to ask. I could also take a look at your site and give you some recommendations if you like.

Thank you for the response.

Don't you think creating an extensive comparison table and displaying it on your website would help a lot of visitors to your site make a quick and informed decision?

I took the time to register and with some more effort put in a question to the forum. Don't you think that there may be many who just visit your site, get confused with too many packages with no quick and easy way to determine which one is right for them and consequently go away?

There is another feedback I would like to give - your website seems a bit slow to me.

The background wallpaper seems to download or refresh first and then the actual content appears slowly - gets annoying if I am just browsing through various pages of your website but every page this repeats. Something to do with caching done by your webserver?

You are welcome to look at our website - I am sure there are lots of things that need improving. The URL is www.wake-technology.com

So the major difference between Plugin and Module is that Plugin does not have a specific fixed position on the webpage that gets displayed whereas a Module has to be assigned a fixed specific position on the webpage.

Next question is (can't remember if this is addressed in any FAQ anywhere on your website) - can the plugins be used so that links are shown on one side of the page in a more or less floating way so that even when rest of the page needs scrolling up and down, these icons remain visible on the side and can be used at any time? Looks like that is what the social media icons shown on left hand side of your website are - is that correct?

Thank you for your feedback. I actually have to agree with you on your assessment about not stating more simply and clearly the differences between the extensions we offer. I plan to make providing a clear and simple description and explanation of our extensions a priority going forward as you are not the first to make such an observation.

In regard to your other observation about the site loading slowly; this is another issue that I am aware of and have plans to correct. The primary reason the site is loading as slowly as it is currently is because of the number of scripts that are being loaded due to all of the share buttons I have displayed on the site. The fix: I am creating a separate demo site where I can showcase the extensions without detrimentally effecting the speed of this extension site.

Again, I appreciate your feedback and hope you will have some positive response to the changes that will be implemented over the next week or so.

Thanks,

Bryan

Yes,

A module (normally) has a fixed location on the page, and the plugin can vary its display location depending upon what is displayed on each page. And yes included within the plugin package there are actually two types of plugins, one for displaying your share buttons within articles etc.. and another for displaying buttons (like you describe) in a floating position along the side of the page. There are also situations where you may wish to use both plugins. Display share buttons along the side of the page (in this situation only the page itself can be shared - not a specific article) and then also buttons within the content of the page because you may have multiple articles displayed on the current page and wish to allow sharing the individual articles as well.

Also the system plugin (the one that displays buttons floating on the page) will display on EVERY page of your site. If you wish to display buttons that float along side of the page but need to have the ability to pick and choose certain pages upon which you wish to display the floating buttons then you can actually use the MODULE to achieve this result.

Bryan