creating your own section website

May 2, 2009 Jeff Gamber, St Louis Section

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Section Websites 101

How to create and manage your own.


We will cover the basics of creating and managing a Section Website based upon lessons learned during the process of recreating the St Louis Section website. This presentation was developed with the intent of teaching attendees to create a data-driven website and learn from our mistakes.


Defining your Dream for Your Section website.

What is the end goal for your website?

The St. Louis Section’s end goals were (and still are) defined as:– To serve our membership with the most up to date information

and services we can provide them.– To have the best Section website within ISA.

Lofty?...


Defining your Dream for the Site.

Maybe.

Without goals, there is nothing to measure progress against.

– As result of setting goals for our site, we have experienced a marked growth in monthly meeting attendance, steady growth, and offer services that are important to our membership.

– Having goals also helps determine whether or not you act on potential changes. They quite simply have to meet the criteria of your goals.



• How do you plan to reach your end goal?

– Who will help plan it?– Who will create it?– What will your domain be called?– Is that domain available for purchase?– Who will host it?– Who will manage content for it?– Who will maintain it?– Has there been a budget set aside for Website

development?



Setting End Goals

I knew from the start that the goal would be to make the St. Louis site the best. When St. Louis recreated its site, we asked ourselves what we had to do to meet our end goal.

The answer...

RESEARCH!



Setting End Goals: Research

If we were to become the best Section Site in ISA, we first had to find out what other Sections were doing, good or bad.

In the end, this exercise helped define both the structure and content of our site. It provided information on how Sections used their Sites, ideas for improvement, and helped prime the creative pump for new concepts.



Setting End Goals: Research

– Organize your thoughts by committing your ideas to paper.– Reference where you got your ideas, who you saw that did

what you want to do well. Why recreate the wheel if you don’t have to.

– Call the Webmaster for the site that best represents the concept you want to emulate. Their help might just save you substantial effort and time.


Creating your site.

The first task at hand will be to obtain a Domain Name.

Some good online sites to acquire a Domain Name are:

http://www.godaddy.com

http://www.domainbank.com

http://www.directnic.com

Or…

From the company you will choose to Host your Website.


Creating your site.

Choosing a Domain Name.

– The choice of a Domain Name is essential. The Domain Name of a site should be its most important keyword (the thing that search engines search by.

– Your Domain Name should be Keyword Rich, Descriptive, and Helpful.

– Don’t make it too long, or complicated.


Creating your site.

Choosing a Domain Name.

– Be wise about what your Domain Name states.– DO NOT buy a Domain Name too similar to another website.– Protect your Domain Name.

• Your Section Domain Name will have an .org extension.

• Always buy the .com, .net. .biz extensions as well.

• Keep an eye on DNS restrictions as well (Can someone access your site if they do not type the www. In front of your Domain Name?).


Creating your site.

– IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that wherever you choose to create an account and purchase your domain name, make sure you do so in your section's name, and not an individual's name. You also want to keep this information in a place that will be available to the future leadership of your section. Since we are all volunteers, it's easy to misplace this information. You need to make a point to make it available to members as the baton gets handed from person to person.

– DON’T BE AN IDIOT!!!


Creating your site.

Getting a Host Account.

– This will be the place you will get your domain if you don't already have it, and Host your website.

– There are thousands of Website Hosts to choose. Feel free to do a little research on your own, but based upon ours, I am going to narrow it down to 2 hosts:

1. Godaddy.com - For a building a Simple Informational Website with SiteBuilder AND Data-Driven Websites – in this instance Joomla 1.5.

2. Siteground.com - For a building a Simple Informational Website with SiteBuilder AND Data-Driven Websites – in this instance Joomla 1.5


Some of you may be asking, "What is Joomla?" Joomla is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It's used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable.“

Essentially, Joomla is data-driven. It relies on a host's MySQL database to store and retrieve information. Open Source means that developers all over the world have had a hand in developing this incredible web application.

Content Management means that the site has a backend and a frontend. The frontend of course is what visitors see through their Browsers. The backend is the administrative area of the site. The main file coding that Joomla uses is PHP.

This web application is available FREE. Joomla developers all over the world have also developed Extensions in the form of Components, Plugins, Modules, and Templates which are also available - Free. A very small percentage are not free, but usually priced under $50, and well worth it for the powerful capability of that particular "add on."


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Site Maintenance

– Lets face it…Stuff Happens!– Your fault, Someone Else’s fault, Nobody’s fault. If something

happens, can you fix it? If you can…Great! If not, you will need somebody who can!

– During our short existence on the Web, our well-meaning webmaster (who shall remain nameless to protect the ‘Innocent’) has inadvertently changed behind the scenes code…

– Software has had glitches that had to be debugged…– and…The unthinkable…– We were HACKED by someone that had nothing better to do

with their time than to make our lives and our member’s experiences with our site miserable.

– All of these events were beyond our ability to repair.


Site Maintenance

Who will maintain your site?

Mistakes need to be corrected occasionally, even with the most experienced webmaster. Eventually something will stump them.

Software needs to be purchased, installed, and periodically updated.Templates need to be implemented.Components and Modules need to be installed.Custom Graphics must be created (Unless you are a Photoshop

whiz)…I am not!New technology needs to be explained for novices.Domains need to be re-registered.


Site Maintenance

Who will maintain your site?

Hosting needs to be paid for.Third Party software (i.e. PayPal and the like) need to be integrated.Security Patches need to be implemented.The site will require occasional optimization to keep it running

smoothly.Site will need to be optimized for search engines to ensure that you

see maximum traffic on your site.


Site Maintenance

Budget for what you want to do!

– Budgeting for web development is imperative if you want to create a website. Regardless of what avenue you take to develop yours, costs will be incurred. If you allocate money for Advertising and Marketing, consider using a portion of that money for early development. If designed properly, your site can and should pay for itself down the road.

– The St. Louis Section has taken the approach that our website has the potential to become our Section’s biggest advertising, marketing, and membership tool all wrapped into one.

– Having said that, we budgeted conservatively to get it off the ground and running. We decided that our website would have to “season” a while with our members and sponsors, before it would become the powerful marketing tool that we thought that it could be.

– We chose an excellent local Web Design Firm to help us navigate the turbulent waters of the Web and minimize our mistakes.


Site Maintenance

– Our Web design Firm has been retained to manage the support and technical details of our site, while the volunteer base of our Section manages the content in the site, keeping it fresh and current. We have several more large tasks to accomplish before we get the site to what we initially dreamed it would become.

– Our Section membership dynamically participates in the directions we take on our site by offering their opinions in polls and by offering suggestions for services they would like to see. The site after all is intended to serve their needs, so who better to help determine what those needs are!


The St. Louis Site in a nutshell…

To date our site includes: A public and members-only interface. While the members-only portion is

limited now, we intend to add many features that are available only to our members as a perk to membership in our Section. In the near future, we plan to include a reference materials resource as a member-only feature. Reference Materials will be provided by members for other members in a searchable, downloadable format.

A secure means to contact the Board with suggestions and questions and disseminate information to board members for upcoming board meetings.

Membership Information including access WITHIN our site to online registration from the Society site.

Access to current Section and Society news. We will soon have RSS feeds available to our members.


More morsels from the nutshell…

A program guide where members can propose topics for upcoming meetings as well as a compendium of past program information including presentation materials for download.

A list of current and past Section newsletters for download. PDH recipients are identified in each edition.

A photo gallery for events and teaching through photos. A Meetings & Events page for expanded information regarding

upcoming events. An Employment section where members can view current job openings

and post resumes for corporations to view, as well as a place for corporations to post openings and view potential employee resumes.

A Section President’s Blog.


More morsels from the nutshell…

An Events Calendar and On-line Event Registration Module allowing our membership to pay for events by Credit Card, PayPal, or elect to pay at the door and simply RSVP. This component will be expanded this year to include our Golf Tournament and will in the future permit payment for Directory Sponsorships, Meeting Sponsorships and Web Sponsorships.

We also have plans for a searchable Directory that will not only assist our membership, but also drive business to our vendors and sponsors from any out of town corporations performing automation work in our region.

Plans also include the listing of scholarships available to students through the section as well as a means to apply for them on-line.


Recommended List of Resources

Domain search and purchase.

http://www.godaddy.com (recommended)http://www.directnic.comhttp://www.domainbank.com

Hostinghttp://www.siteground.com (Recommended as they specialize in hosting Joomla sites)http://www.godaddy.com

Content Managementhttp://www.joomla.com (Recommended)

Siteground’s Sitebuilder Demohttp://serv01.clev5.com/zeni/verify_login/env=prd/user_name=demoacco/

password=none/user_type=demo/forcelogin=demonv=prd/user_name=demoacco/password=none/user_type=demo/forcelogin=demo

Siteground’s Sitebuilder Demohttp://www.siteground.com/tutorials/zen-tutorial/index.htm


Recommended List of Resources

Joomla Templateshttp://www.joomlashack.com (Recommended)(Simple, Search Engine Optimized)http://www.templatemonster.comhttp://www.rocketthemes.com

Modules and Componentshttp://www.joomlashack.com (Recommended)

Online Paymenthttp://www.paypal.com (Recommended)

Web Design Firmhttp://www.karadesigngroup.com (Recommended)(St Louis Site Manager)

creating your own section website

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