Owning and operating a web site (Toolbox Lecture 4)

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

October 19, 2009 [2252 views]

Video from Jonathan Briggs on Vimeo.

Most of you have now launched own site (in the past couple of activities). This lecture will consider what a site is for and what you will need to think about when planning it's future.

Reasons for having a site

1. Communicating with customers, staff or other stakeholders
2. Demonstrating your expertise – technical, service, product, leisure, education
3. Collecting together information and links about a subject - signposting
4. Generating revenue – direct or indirect sales
5. Experimenting with modern technology
6. Documenting a project or event
7. Allowing your opinions to be heard
8. Joining in a distributed conversation with others
9. Making contact with people with similar interests

Take a look at 20 reasons to have a website

Features of good sites

1. You really get to know the person/company behind the site
2. The site is appealing, attractive and well laid out
3. It is easy to find the latest information
4. The site provides useful information or links
5. The site has strong opinions and allows you to get engaged
6. The site acts as a signpost to other useful information

Take a look at web pages that suck

Technology involved

1. Web server connected 24/7 to the Internet
2. Control panel software for manipulating the server and its contents
3. File transfer software for moving images and other files to the server
4. Content management or publishing software for managing the site
5. Server side scripts for adding dynamic functionality to the site
6. Client side scripts for adding interactivity to the site
7. Analytics software to help understand your visitors
8. eCommerce software to allow trading online

Designing a site

1. Think about the purpose
2. Research your ‘competitors’ or look for inspiration
3. Plan the information architecture
4. Think about the “visitor journeys”
5. Decide on the name of the site and its web address/domain name
6. Think about a colour scheme
7. Think about the other sites that you want to link to

Site content

1. About me/us
2. Contact details
3. Core (home) page
4. Blog, news or diary
5. My favourites
6. A gallery of images (or products)
7. Links to interesting things
8. Archive of previous material

Process of building

1. Sketch out your basic structure on paper
2. Choose your tools
3. Install your software
4. Select a template or apply your design
5. Upload images and rich media files
6. Customise your templates
7. Write sample content
8. Check your language and spelling
9. Use content management software to create pages and add content
10. Add imagery and rich media

Running the site from day to day

1. Set out a publication schedule (write every week)
2. Create new content piece
3. Monitor comments
4. Answer emails generated by the site
5. Watch out for interesting things to write about
6. Add links to other interesting sites
7. Generate links into your site

Suitable content

1. Things I have done – my life in episodes
2. My opinions about things in the news – reactions to technology or music releases
3. Update on a process or event – preparing for and running the marathon
4. Focus on content that encourages discussion or comment – why I love/hate Apple?
5. Content worth linking to (for reputation) – “10 things to do in Guildford”
6. Interesting images and rich media – my trip to Pakistan

What should you blog about?

Problems that you may encounter

1. Comment spam – watch out for robots that will add comments
2. Copyright issues – think carefully before you use
3. Finding any audience – need to think about reputation
4. Keeping consistency – need a template based system
5. Moderation – making sure that comments are appropriate
6. Finding things to write – find a clear purpose for the site

How does this compare with professional web design?

So how do you experiment with a web site?

1. Buy some server space
2. Link to your own domain name
3. Build a blog site using a powerful publishing system such as WordPress
4. Experiment with look and feel through templates
5. Publish regularly
6. Build an audience

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