Managing your Non-Profit's website
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17-Aug-2014Category
Technology
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A presentation given at the Making Links 2008 conference in Melboure. It's an update of the talk I gave at Connecting Up, Brisbane in May 2008.
Transcript of Managing your Non-Profit's website
- managing your non-profit organisations website Jason King www.kingjason.co.uk Making Links Conference, Melbourne 2008
- be your organisations web champion every non-profit website needs one
- heres a non-profit website that badly needs a champion
- you are the admin take control of your own website
- Manage your own web content with Joomla! WordPress Drupal Plone or many, many other CMS !
- secure your domain name now before someone else does
- and dont forget to renew it!
- When their poems disappeared
- to be replaced by something weird,
- belatedly the Poetry Society knew
- that they had forgotten to renew
- their Internet domain;
- and Viagra ads were not quite germane for their new schools poetry campaign.
- how do other non-profits use the web? start here: www.squidoo.com/org20
- think beyond your website use social networking to reach people
- plan your sites structure sketch a site map
- keep your planning lo-tech post-it notes dont crash
- Needlepoint is a valid web planning tool
- Wireframes help you visualise your site layout. They are done before any graphic design. You can create them easily in PowerPoint
- involve staff, trustees, volunteers and clients in planning your site but limit decision-making to a few people (web champion, committee)
- write a brief (and try to keep it brief)
- always have a brief, even for a small project
- refer to it at crucial stages
- concisely detail the functionality you need
- insist that code meets W3C & WAI standards
- include background information, timescales & expectations
- include a basic site map
- ideally, get a techie to help you write it
- the brief specified a brochure-style website
- Someone suggested adding a blog and forums
- whats essential to this web project? what can wait? What wont work?
- whats essential to this web project? web 2.0 blog forums ajax maps video plugins kitchen sink FAQs online services widgets feed corporate hymn api what can wait? What wont work?
- Avoid scope creep by getting work signed off at crucial stages
- who should build your website?
- your trustees nephew whos doing web design as a school project? maybe not
- the chap who did a great job installing your network? but who knows little about web design
- would a volunteer be suitable for a small project? absolutely, provided they are an experienced web developer
- could you design the website yourself? yes, provided you have the skills, but what if you leave the organisation?
- should you commission a web developer? how will you find them? how much should you expect to pay?
- insist on standards-compliant code
- A charitys website was designed using outdated practices: font tags, frames and a table-based layout and style attributes in the html throughout many dozens of pages. Next year, when their corporate identity changed, they had to redesign the entire website. On a better-designed website they could have simply amended the CSS and changed a few images.
- Involve staff and clients in testing
- test your website for errors
- HTML: validator.w3.org
- CSS: jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator
- Broken links: validator.w3.org/checklink
- Colour contrast: www.snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html
- guess how many HTML errors?
- Four Surprised there are so few errors? Valid HTML is only one aspect of accessibility
- Just in case you get run over by a Melbourne tram tomorrow
- compile a tech folder for your website
- what should you record?
- domain control panel login
- domain renewal date (put in your diary!)
- web hosting control panel login
- FTP details
- CMS logins
- third-party website logins (Google Analytics etc)
- contract and support details
- do you backup your website?
- Whilst uploading new documents to an educational charitys website, Dreamweaver glitched and deleted both the local and remote copies of the site files.
- A volunteer designed an Internet radio stations website. After a petty disagreement the volunteer deleted the entire website.
- Get a Google Grant
- Free online advertising for your non-profit using Google AdWords. Apply now because you can wait up to six months!
- analyse your web stats to help improve your website Notice the sudden rise in visits? That was the result of a Google Grant
- managing your non-profit organisations website Jason King Making Links Conference, Melbourne 2008 Presentation is available to watch again at www.kingjason.co.uk. Planning your Non-Profit Websites Development
- Thanks
- to the following Flickr.com users whose use of a Creative Commons license meant I could re-use their photos in this presentation: dannyman, Marco Wessel, Daryl Mitchell, aynne, activeside, daveknapik, iamilk, Sam Knox, vidnar, ardenstreet, maadmob, pingmag, sita puddin pie
- and to Vincent Flanders for bringing the glaucoma website to my attention.