Managing your website: primary concerns
Here are some things to think about when managing your website. Many people make continual changes to their sites and this theme will help you develop your site. The days when a site launched and then stayed pretty much the same with occasional updates are over. Most likely you develop your site in response to users’ needs but this can present new problems for organisations, particularly where volunteers manage the site.
Your primary concern is good content and this post will review options for the content you might produce. The next post will be about important secondary issues.
What You Sell
Your aim is to produce content that builds trust, demonstrates command of your subject and furthers your organisation’s purpose. Your organisation will be offering at least one of the following:
- Services – activity tailored to your client’s needs. This might be something to do with information, such as consultancy or training, or it might be a physical service such as hairdressing, car mechanics, etc.
- Products – usually mass-produced and appeal to a range of customers. If you sell things, products are easier than services because once created, it is easy to reproduce the product and deliver it to customers. Customers can download information products or receive physical products through the post. It is possible to sell local products through a shop with online promotion. Don’t forget, if you give it away, it is still a product!
- Causes – this is where you seek support from your site visitors for a campaign. The support might be through signing petitions or writing letters, or it might be a request for donations. Some campaigns involve visible protest, eg flash mobs.
How You Sell It
The good news is things have become much easier in recent years. Media you would never have dreamed of using, even a couple of years ago are within reach. So, here is a list of media you might use:
- Web pages have many functions. They can be particularly helpful for those who want to advertise a service and use their site as an online brochure. This works where the site content does not need to be updated often . I don’t necessarily recommend this approach but it seems to work for some organisations and free-lancers.
- Blogs are a good way to publicise just about anything. A steady and consistent blog can prove your knowledge and understanding of your subject area, draw search engines to your site and publicise developments online and off. They are also a good way to organise information such as directories of local organisations or events.
- Downloadable papers and ebooks are also effective, especially where people use the material on your site. For example, an instruction manual in .pdf format may be more helpful than simply putting the content on pages, because it is easier to print and pass between devices.
- Images are always helpful and with a digital camera or mobile phone, you can capture images very easily. You can also have great fun mucking about with images on Photoshop.
- Audio files that can be downloaded to listening devices are extremely popular. So too are audio CDs. The reason is people like to listen to things whilst in their car or out jogging.
- Videos are extremely popular. They are much easier to produce than they used to be. Perfectionists may balk at using their mobile phone to film a short video but so long as you get the lighting about right and eliminate background noise, you can produce something good enough. Of course better quality videos are better but you have to start somewhere and the opportunity may be lost if you have to go home and fetch a better camera!
These are your basic building blocks. The ways in which you combine and build one upon the other can transform your website.
What do you think? Have I missed anything important? Have you any examples of great content at minimal costs?