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Making the most of your website

By Per Fischer, CRNS Web & Communications Manager

In 2007, where this presentation was written for a conference workshop, there should be no reason why any organisation engaging with the public should not have their own website. A website is amazing value for money in terms of both cost and audience coverage. There are, however, also cons of having an online presence, which need to be considered as well.

Pros

  • Cheap way of publishing globally
  • “Unlimited” and dynamic information storage
  • Interactive – visitors can respond directly
  • Measurable – traffic to and from website can be monitored
  • Always online and available – web is 24/7 medium
  • Possible integration of images, sound, video etc.

Cons

  • Expensive if outsourced to web company
  • Key audience may not be web users
  • Data security
  • Potentially time consuming

Website use

Information - Fundraising - Raising awareness - Education - Publication - Feedback and support - Selling

Conclusion from “Are We Wasting the Web?” report

University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute analysed how the community sector is using the internet, and how it can benefit from web technologies.

The report’s conclusion that certain web resources, particularly websites and emails can provide great benefits from community organisations.

  • Quick and easy access to local and national information
  • Compliments other communcation channels
  • Opportunities for interaction and networking
  • Building online (‘virtual’) communities
  • Variety of interaction
  • Creative presentation possible
  • Monitoring: what’s popular and what’s not

Recommendations

Share ideas and experiences via internet resources in addition to more traditional channels.

Subscribe to newsletters, join email groups and online forums and participate.

Link to other organisations and make them link to you.

Regularly assess if your website content is useful to your target users.

Keep in mind what web users hate

Web users have a short attention span. Some of their pet hates are:
Good looks but impractical to use.
Intro Flash animations – skip intro button most used button on the web.
Any barrier that keeps you from the site’s actual content.
Invasive advertising
Links that don’t show what they are linking to.
Icons and banners – they draw the attention from what’s important.
Too much copy. A screen reads 25% slower than paper copy.

How to get started and/or develop your existing site

Static or regularly updated site?

The five questions

  • What am I going to do with this?
  • Who am I doing this for?
  • What kinds of information will I be posting?
  • Why am I doing this?
  • How often am I going to be posting and adding information?

The CRNS 'Stepping Stone Website'

As a new service beginning from the financial year 2007/08, the CRNS is putting together an offer for a starter website package for members without a current website. The site will be linked directly from a chosen domain name as a "normal" site, but will be hosted on CRNS' website server.

For an annual fee, the CRNS will arrange everything if necessary, from registering a domain name to setting up the site template and uploading the chosen copy, plus offering regularly quarterly updates of the information on the site.

List of resources

Domain names: 123-reg.co.uk (£2.59 a year for co.uk or org.uk, £8.99 for .com)

Web hosting: web-mania.com (UK based, £24.99/year + VAT, reliable and cheap)

Content Management Systems: A content management system, or CMS, is a web application designed to make it easy for non-technical users to add, edit and manage a website.

Sitellite (free and commercial version, the CRNS system)

Wordpress (free, for blog-style sites, user friendly)

Other resources

Google Analytics - monitor your website traffic for free
tinyurl.com - online service to make long internet addresses short
webpagesthatsuck.com - learn from bad websites

Tips

  • Get a website that you can update yourself
  • Browse your competion's websites and borrow ideas
  • Don't be scared by technical jargon or aspects
  • Test your site and ask for feedback - revise accordingly
  • Promote your site where possible