This is the fourth article in the series on building out domains. The other three can be read at.....
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

So what's happened now at Downwind.com.au? Since the "Avatar Awards" I've now rolled out something that I've been working on for quite some time.....an aviation shopping mall.

Here's a few of the restrictions I placed on building the mall:
1. I didn't want to deal with products - stock takes can be a real pain!
2. I wanted to empower other aviation businesses to sell their products (ie. have a shopping mall).
3. I wanted to have quality products for sale so that members were happy.
4. Flexible billing system so that I could adapt my business model on the fly.

I spent a couple of months researching the best plug-in for Joomla that seemed to cover all of the bases and found the most incredible application I've ever seen. It's "Mighty Commerce" and you can read up on it at mightyextensions.com.

When you first read about Mighty Commerce it comes across as one of the most confusing applications that you could possibly find but after spending a little bit of effort you suddenly realise that it's not confusing but powerful and flexible.

Mighty Commerce is not just a shopping cart system but a database management system that gives you the ability to build a shopping cart, content management system, community (like facebook) or even a forum. It's fantastic!

I worked with the excellent Mighty development and support team (they are based in Kyrgzstan) and after a couple of weeks of part-time work I had my shopping mall. Since then I've approached a number of businesses that jumped at the opportunity to add their products for sale. It was a pretty simple sales approach. I have traffic and shopping system, they have products for sale - it works for them and for me.

I've elected to charge $25 per month for access to the system plus 3% of the retail sale value....you guessed it the system is flexible enough to do this and a whole lot more. As more products are loaded by "Sellers" into the system it will become an incredibly valuable resource for members.

I'm also selling Downwind polo shirts and plan on using the system to sell tickets to an event I'm running at a simulator center. It's now much easier to think up ideas that can be sold....such as aviation screen savers (yes it can do downloadable products as well).

Right at this moment we have several hundred products up for sale and the number is growing. The challenge is to now market those products to members and let them know that they are for sale in the Downwind Aviation Shop. Nothing like a newsletter and a front page article to get things moving along!

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Michael, thanks for the 5 part series....
written by Ed - Michigan, May 25, 2010

I had my first site built, www.MedicalMile.com with the Joomla platform and as you say there are many many templates and plugin components. We use some of the same components you do. I like some of the ways you increased revenue. We had a Blood Drive and will do it annually, the Day before Thanksgiving. We are building a directory of health issues known as Disease-O-Pedia, (yep we own the dot com). And we are building it on the Sigsiu component also as well as our Doctor/Medical services directory.

Thanks for teaching me stuff. I sure have lots to learn.

thanks Ed - Michigan

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written by pharzone, May 26, 2010

interested article..
make me thing twice now

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written by Chirag, June 13, 2010

Mighty Commerce is not just a shopping cart system but a database management system that gives you the ability to build a shopping cart, content management system, community (like facebook) or even a forum

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written by winpromote, June 17, 2010

Really very good idear which provide new look to Website.

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written by Chirag, June 20, 2010

I spent a couple of months researching the best plug-in for Joomla that seemed to cover all of the bases and found the most incredible application I've ever seen.

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Thank you
written by Paolo, August 14, 2010

Thanks for the "how to build a domain out" articles, very informative, I hope there will be more! Keep up the good work :-)

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