iJoomla.com, one of the leading Joomla software companies, has announced the release of iJoomla SideBars. iJoomla SideBars let Joomla users add a wide variety of SideBars to the articles on their Joomla sites.

iJoomla SideBars makes it easy to add banners, Google Adsense ads, Joomla modules, polls, article teasers and more to any article on a Joomla site, and provides flexible controls for customizing the design of the SideBars using iJoomla's "Advanced Style Control System."

According to Merav Knafo, founder of iJoomla, "We introduced the idea of SideBars in our successful iJoomla Magazine component, and we got a lot of requests from users who wanted to use SideBars, but didn't need the Magazine component. So we designed a new stand-alone SideBar component that provides even more power and flexibility than the SideBar feature in iJoomla Magazine."

iJoomla SideBars provides seven different types of SideBars to cover just about any scenario. SideBars have been a popular tool in the layout of print publishers for a long time, and now this same capability is easy to bring to any Joomla site.

iJoomla SideBars feature an Advanced Style Control System that makes it easy to design SideBars without needing to deal with CSS stylesheets. And users get full control over where on the site they can use SideBars, because iJoomla SideBars are not tied to particular articles. In addition the iJoomla SideBar component allows SideBars to be placed anywhere on a page, lets more than one SideBar appear on a page, and lets the same SideBar be used on many different pages.

The seven types of SideBars included in the iJoomla SideBar component are:

Banner SideBar -   Place advertising banners directly on article pages, without having to depend on the placement and positioning of separate modules. Just create a Banner SideBar and add it to an article, anywhere you like. Control whether it is aligned to the right or left margin of the article, and add borders to set the Banner SideBar apart from the article and make the SideBar more attractive. [example]

RSS SideBar - Provides an easy and attractive way to add RSS feeds to a site. Simply add an RSS SideBar to an article and present fresh content on the article page automatically. Just choose any RSS feed, choose the formatting options you'd like for the SideBar, and the SideBar will display a steady flow of news and information with no additional effort.  [example]

Module SideBar - For users who want to place modules inside an article, Joomla's way of doing it is not very pretty and not very flexible. But now users can dress up modules and format them any way they want to, thanks to the Module SideBar feature of iJooma SideBars. The possibilities are almost endless - for instance, a Module SideBar could include the latest forum posts, display an image gallery, or even play a video. [example]

Poll SideBar - Poll SideBars make it easy to post polls on individual article pages - and display the results. This is great for creating a poll that asks a specific question that is directly related to the article itself. [example]

Latest Articles SideBar - Point visitors towards new articles on a site by adding Latest Article SideBars that contain the title and intro text of the newest content items. Choose the categories to use for getting the articles from, the number of items to show in the SideBar, and whether to display the title, the intro text, or both... and much more. [example]

Teaser SideBar - A great way to get readers to stay on a site longer is to add teasers to other articles they might be interested in. Visitors will begin reading, become curious and click the "Read more" link to continue. Teaser SideBars make it easy, just select the article to use for the teaser, select the formatting options for the SideBar, and place the SideBar anywhere in an article. [ example]

Custom SideBar - Custom SideBars are a great way to highlight any message inside an article --  the place where readers are already looking. For example, Custom SideBars can be used to add some additional information related to the article, promote a product that has a tie-in to the article, announce an event, or even use it to post readers' comments about the article. [example]   

Google Ad Sense SideBar (using custom SideBars type) - placing Google AdSense ads in articles is a great way to generate revenue using ads that match the content in the articles. Place any of the Google AdSense banners or text ads in an AdSense SideBar, and then blend the SideBars into articles which will help improve click-through rates compared to AdSense ads that are not part of articles. [example]
 
The iJoomla SideBars component is available now at iJoomla.com for $49.95. The price includes free product upgrades for life, free support, and 20% off when you buy additional licenses.