We Have a New Site Design

Time to stir up the water and get a new blog design. Our previous design was very minimalist. We've decided too minimalist. We want you to be able to see the range of topics we care about, the various projects we are managing, and have room for things like Twitter and Comments too! Please tell us what you think. We splurged and bought this theme from a top Wordpress designer, Brian Gardner. (Internet oddball perhaps, but I like paying for quality services.)

One of the coolest things about blog software is how the design elements and the content are separated, kind of like how editorial and advertising once used to be. In theory, it's possible to swap out a new "theme" on the Wordpress blog, and the database of posts and comments simply gets wrapped in a new look.

In reality of course, it's not that easy because inevitably we want to tweak a little here, change a color there, add a widget, hide a widget, and make all new graphics too! It's so emblematic of the state of the web these days. On the one hand the glass is half-full: so many things are free and creativity abounds. OTOH, the glass is half-empty: it takes hours and hours to find stuff and make it work the way we want it to, a full spectrum of brain matter is useful when managing the wide and deep terrain that covers coding, design, and ultimately writing a coherent message!

I interviewed a marketing exec from IBM back in 2002. He said they had already survived 11 iterations of their web site over the past 6-7 years! Meanwhile, many small businesses are content to have one iteration every 10 or 11 years! (OK - so maybe I exagerrate a little.) Here's a list of things to think about to see if it is time to redo your website.

We want some of our clients to update their sites; "unfortunately," we built them with the most modern tools available at the time, so the sites are surviving, if not thriving. If it's not broken, don't fix it makes sense. But then there is the question: what opportunities are being missed that can only be gained with new technology?

One last thought. I used "we" a lot in this post. Really, it is Shane who gets the big kudos as he researched the WP themes, did all the extra programming, and even added some upgrades to the templates that he is sending back to Brian, the original developer. Mahalo nui Shane. You are no ka oi!

How much should you budget for monthly website expenses?

Now that most businesses and organizations have a web site, they are used to the line item in the budget for initial development. And for many, getting a site up and running is such a grueling task that they are ready to sit and rest on their laurels for a while after launch! We completely understand; we wish we could take a vacation for a few days after each site launch too.

But really, after launch is when the fun begins. Ideally, your web site has been built so you can play with it as often as you like, and as easily as filling out a web-based form. You are now set free to talk to your customers, to tell the world all about how special you are and why your products and services are the better choice.

As you use your site more, you will run into wanting to do things that you don't how to do or that you don't know if your site can do for you.

1. Training
   • Getting your content to look and speak well is an art that goes far beyond just typing into a form. Photos and graphics for example add tremendous value to a web page, IF they are sized and processed for the web and you know how to add title tags, alignment, and can get the text to wrap around them correctly.
   • Using blog software is easy if you want to do the basics. But once you want to do power blogging, you'll want to know about ping servers, trackbacks, blogrolls, how to find A-list blogs, and so much more.
   • Strategy makes a huge difference too. Using the software to accomplish a marketing or communication goal is not obvious because most people don't have the web in their DNA. It's much more than just remembering to add your web address on all your printed material. It's remembering to blog after you've been invited somewhere and sharing your experience and a public mahalo while linking out to others you met. It's called link love and it's one of the web's power currencies right now.
2. Feature Upgrades
   • Just like anything else you own, if you use it even a little, you are going to want to trick it out. Maybe you want to add an extension or plug-in or social networking application that adds power to your site.
   • Maybe you want to dress it up with a more sophisticated design or add some audio or video.
   • Maybe your competitors started selling directly online, and now you want some e-commerce features.
   • And just like your house or your boat, there is virtually no end to upgrades and widgets you can install to make your site perform better for you.
3. The Unexpected
   • It could be anything right? That's why it is unexpected. Life happens.
   • Even the most user-friendly sites still have a few things that are deep in the code and are better left to your developer to handle for you, like periodic software upgrades.

So bottom line, what should you budget for this ongoing support and maintenance? I think a good rule of thumb is at least 15-25% of initial site development costs to be budgeted over the following 12 months. The less you spend initially, the higher the percentage on average to dedicate to upgrades and support.

It's just no fun (and poor business planning) to build yourself a nice new site and not be able to add a new "work station" or some "grounds maintenance" when the situation arises. More and more, the company web site is becoming its most important communication, sales, and even operations tool. So budget accordingly to keep it humming along nicely.

P.S. To my blogging students: I could have written this post in about half the time if I did not include all the links. But it would have less impact and would have been less useful to you readers who want more resources on these topics. In the process, I actually came across some new interesting blog posts! Just right-click on each link to open it in a new window so you can continue reading here. And I could have saved another 10 minutes by not looking for the confused puppy pic. But how much were you drawn in by that one photo??

Site ReLaunch: Coffee Kids

Coffee Kids has been our client for almost a decade. As a nonprofit, they help coffee-growing families learn new skills and develop sustainable lifestyles, as the coffee industry suffers from a glut of over-production that keeps income low to the first line of coffee workers - those who cultivate and pick the beans. It's not an easy story to tell when you and I are used to paying four bucks for a grandé latté. They depend on their web site as the key communication tool.

Their site has been due for an upgrade for years, but time and money constraints have meant the web site has been on the back burner. Years ago we set them up to collect online payments and also use Contribute software to edit their pages. It was a good tool at that time, but had out-grown its usefulness. It had many limitations and required a software license on each computer that was being used to make updates, not to mention training.

Their new site uses Expression Engine software, which is our favorite enterprise content management system. It is highly flexible from a programmers point of view, very easy to work in from an editor's point of view (right in the browser - no extra software required), and very easy to control multi-user access from an administrator's point of view. With just 1.5 hours of training, the staff was busy adding new Businesses to their searchable database, uploading photos, and blogging in both English and Spanish! Click on the thumbnail graphics to see full size screenshots, then follow the numbers for a detailed analysis below.

Home Page Before	Home Page After

A Few Home Page Highlights
1 Toolbar	Old site: no search. New site: full search plus CSS tools to easily let the user change font size. Donate and Contact are easily found on every single page.
2 High Impact Headline	Old Site: lots going on, no real focal point, a lot of reading required to get your attention. New Site: Wow - color, font size, and brevity all work to stop the visitor and create an emotional connection via a powerful statement of fact.
3 Time-sensitive Call to Action	Via a PHP script, we pull the date in (like a lot of sites do) but we integrate it into the message of the page. It is then immediately followed by three strong actions. Surely one of them will speak to you! This is an editable area, so the client can include as many as they want at any given time. A special link style was created to give this call to action even more prominence and draw users into the site. We are especially proud of the features added to their Business Members database, and pages that encourage people to visit their donors, tell a friend about the local businesses, and support special programs offered by donors. By helping Coffee Kids help their donors, the web site strengthens the donor partnerships.
4 Use Flickr to Manage Photos	Why build a private cumbersome photo gallery when they can join the Flickr community? One of the original (and still one of the best) social applications, it allows for easy upload of pictures, tagging of pictures, creating and belonging to groups, and a little script here automatically feeds in new pictures to the home page. Not only does it help Coffee Kids easily manage their many compelling pictures, it helps them network with others over at Flickr, finding new supporters.
5 Embedded Video Message	Coffee Kids wants to explore using video - which is very hot right now. Because video is much harder to create, we decided to try placing a short intro message on the home page as a way to start. However, this high impact placement can be converted later to a video blog post if desired. We like to build the bones first and then let the site's function and content grow organically over time.
6 A Blog	It's my opinion that you just aren't serious about communicating with your audience if you don't have a blog. Like many companies (and non-profits especially) they had concerns. "We've never done this." "What if people leave bad comments?" "It takes too much time." But luckily and ideally, they now have a staff member, Kyle Freund, who is leading the challenge to provide support and coaching inside the organization. Coffee Kids is also rare in having a multilingual blog—perfect because so much of their work takes place in Central and South America. We've also coded simple buttons in the admin so editors can easily add accented Spanish characters without learning the code.

Donate Page Before	Donate Page After

Making Donations Count
1 Easy to Sort Donor Groups	Old site: one long cumbersome donation page. New site: separate pages for individuals and businesses, because Coffee Kids really has unique messages and requests for each group. The generic donation information is clearly displayed on a separate page, easily accessible to both groups.
2 Custom PayPal Programming	Old Site - default PayPal button functionality. New Site - custom programming for a cleaner, more flexible user interface. We also added the option for gift donations, thereby removing yet one more barrier to give. By continuing to use PayPal, Coffee Kids can leverage the very low transaction fees and very wide user base without incurring custom shopping cart software expense.
3 Colorful clear graphics	The entire look of the site is more modern, easy to navigate, and user-friendly. The submit buttons include help messaging to make the donation process even easier.
4 Multiple Donation Choices	The new configuration allows for different amounts for individuals and business, and allows each group to make a one-time or recurring donation. The layout clearly sorts the two, instead of having them all lumped together as on the old site. This allows for a simple, deliberative process for their donors which means fewer clean ups by office staff for mistaken donations.
5 Interactive Donate button	Every inside page of the site has this bold Donate button, that rolls over to red and answers the "Want to Donate?" question with, "Your gift really helps." A smart strategy and simple programming makes for a high impact conversation with site visitors.

With all this lean CSS design, re-thinking of the content strategy to use social apps wherever possible, and the inclusion of a blog, search engines love this site! And the possibilities for expanding further into social media and community building are amazing.

SmallBiz America Relaunched

We love it when clients come to us thirsty for making the web work for them. David Wolf clearly has an appetite that puts him way out in front! A successful entrepreneur across industries as diverse as music and bagels, he came to us to help him develop a new business strategy. The result is SmallbizAmerica.com.

Phase One includes a full blog software-based site with separate RSS feeds for David's podcast, The Smallbiz Brain as well as for his text blog. He manages all of his content from a web-based admin. (Duh, need I say that? All of the sites we have built since 2000 have had this feature.) Throughout the course of development we all did a lot of research on numerous platforms, recording tools, and hosting options enabling David to really zero in on just what he wanted to do and how he could do that most efficiently. (Click on the thumbnail graphic to follow through on the numbered items.)

1. Blog software provides so many benefits! Newest articles are always on top, featured on the home page. Visitors can leave comments and be part of the discussion. Articles can be filed in multiple categories. Search engines love blogs.
2. David can select Featured Articles from his content to be highlighted on the home page, with a simple checkbox feature in his admin. They show up regardless of the date originally posted. He can strategize whom to put there, based on various business factors.
3. We have an embedded audio player for first time visitors to get a quick intro via audio while they are perusing the many possibilities on the home page.
4. The Tool Bar gives quick links to david's "evergreen content" (the about us stuff that doesn' change often) as well as the site wide search engine, and the user tools for getting on the email list or subscribing to David's site content. The tool bar is on every page of the site.
5. There is a graphic link to David's Live365 internet radio station providing a 24/7 stream of audio content, some of which is also broadcast on select AM radio stations across the US.
6. David can add new Categories and external links (Blogroll) easily from the site admin. Linking to others is good netiquette and helps your visitors find even more useful information.

Phase Two will be launching shortly, as he brings on additional experts ("RSP's") who will have their own radio show podcast channel and mini-site within Smallbiz America. Plus many more features that will make his site the place to hang out for tips on running a successful small business. Please check it out and leave David a comment that you were there!

How to Create a Website Using iWeb

This past weekend I created a 4-page web site for my Mom (83) to feature an art show she had recently. It was a fairly simple process, but then again, I am a web developer by trade! More than once I've discovered that things are easy...if you know what you are doing. If you don't? Well then, all bets are off.

Part way through the process I discovered a 25-page iWeb instruction manual (PDF) from Apple inside my Application Support folder. (Computer > Users > roxanne (my user) > Library > Application Support > iWeb. I've uploaded here for your convenience.)

It's very helpful, but being a trainer myself and having seen people resist tech support's most common recommendation, RTFM I decided to add a little to the planning process.

1. There are many themes you can choose from for your web site.
   • The theme is the overall look and feel of the site - the background graphics, the colors, the fonts, and so forth.
   • As you click on a theme, to the right you will see the different templates that come bundled with that theme.
2. Templates define the layout of each individual page.
   • The templates come with columns and added bits of content to show you the layout.
   • The templates come with "dummy" text. All you have to do is retype in the boxes with your content.
   • You can move the boxes around and you can add more or less content than the dummy text. And you can use the templates for different types of content, but it's easiest to just start with the basics.
   • Try to think of your content as generic stuff: it is mostly text? Use the "About Me" template. Is it mostly pictures or graphics? Use the Photo template. Do you want to add a podcast or audio file? Then use the Podcast template.
3. iWeb will automatically create the site navigation for you as you add new pages, by clicking the plus sign at the bottom of the left column.
   • Then choose the template you want to use for your new page.
   • You can change the name of your pages (e.g. from "About Me" to "Mission Statement").
   • You can also change the order of them, just by dragging them up or down in the left hand list.
4. Some of the templates actually have secondary templates included.
   • For example, if you add a "blog" it will automatically create the main page of your blog, an individual post, and an archives page, which lists all of your previous posts.
   • Likewise, if you create a "gallery" it will create the main page for all of your thumbnails and it will create the individual detail page for each photo as well as the slideshow option. The basic gallery page shows 3 images. All you have to do is create an album in your iPhoto, select all, then drag them right on top of the "dummy" images and voila! You have a gallery page.
5. You can work on your site (and SAVE OFTEN) without publishing it.
   • So take your time and get it the way you want.
   • You can also edit it again and again once it has been published.
6. Build your basic site first, then begin exploring how to add more functionality.
   • Your can let visitors leave comments on any page.
   • You can add an "email me" button anywhere on any page.

Was this helpful? Let me know and I will do more iWeb tutorials. I am thinking about doing a screen cast movie to accompany this post as well.