As always, if you have any questions, please leave a comment!When most people use the phrase ‘web technologies’, they are talking about the three technologies at the center of how the internet looks and works.  These technologies are:

HTML – HTML stands for HyperTextMarkupLanguage.  HTML’s primary purpose is physical layout – it is for placing elements on a page and providing basic interactivity.

CSS – CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets.  CSS is about presentation – it is how things look and how text/images are formatted and presented.

JavaScript – Javascript is mainly used to make web sites interactive.

These three technologies work together to make most web sites look and behave the way that they do.   If you ever want to learn more about web technologies, I strongly encourage you to check out Opera’s wonderful Web Standards Curriculum.  The Web Standards
Curriculum starts slow – it covers design/usability considerations, moves into HTML, then through CSS and JavaScript.  I highly recommend it as it is a great learning tool.

My last article was an introduction for non-profits that are thinking about building a web site – it talked about some of the things non-profits can gain from going online and about some of the tactics a non-profit can use to achieve those goals. Then, it delved into a discussion on why planning is very important.  This article is going to continue that theme with a more in depth discussion of planning.

Here is the first step in building a web site.  Answer these questions:

1. Do you have enough money to hire someone to develop the site or will this be ‘do it yourself’?
2. What is your budget for the site (including hosting)?
3. Why do you want to build a web site?
4. What do you hope to gain from your web site?
5. How many people do you want to visit your web site in a month?
6. What do you want on your web site?  Do you want a blog?  A static information page?  A forum where your users can talk?  An events calendar?
7. How will you keep the content in #5 fresh enough to meet the performance goals in #4?

These questions are important because they will help you focus on your goals for your site and how you will design the content to achieve those goals.  It also gets you thinking about some of the specific tactics you will adopt to put that content online.

Once you have an idea where you are going (and how you will get there), it is time to focus upon how people will find your site.  Does your non-profit have a recognizable brand name that people will search for?  Or, do you want people to find your site by searching for an issue you are involved in?

These questions are important because they will get you thinking about your ‘domain’ name.  What is a domain name?  Consider our site – our domain name is reginastreets.ca.  We chose that one because it is the name of our non-profit magazine.  That magazine will be our primary way of promoting this site (and this site exists to promote the magazine, but that is a different story).  Since our site and magazine are so closely linked, we felt it was important to make our domain the name of our site.

Now, let’s say that our name wasn’t such a big part of our strategy.  Let’s say that we wanted to inform people about a particular cause.  If that were the case, it would make much more sense to find a domain that was related to that particular cause.  For example, if we were focused upon protecting widgets, a good domain name might be protectwidgets.com, or preserve-widgets.ca.

This article has accomplished a few things.  You know what you want to call your site and you have a good idea of what you want to put on your site.  You have also written down some numbers that will be very important later on.  First, you wrote down your total budget.  And second, you wrote down how many visitors you want to get in a month.

Why Should Non-Profit Organizations Go Online?

• Exposure
• Community Building
• Control
• Permanence

More on Your Internet Strategy:

Exposure – Exposure is all about increasing awareness – it is about grabbing people who have never heard of you, attracting them to your web site and teaching them all about your organization.  There are billions of potential supporters, partners and/or volunteers out there – they just have to get to know you, your cause and your organization.
Community Building – Exposure is about bringing new people into your organization – community building is about serving the people you already have.  A web site is a great way to communicate with your supporters, partners and volunteers.  It can also be a great way to develop relationships, brainstorm, share ideas and plan events.
Control – Control can best be summed up with an acronym – ABR – Always Be Relevant.  A web site is a great way to be able to change your message to suit the times.  And, it can be a great way to comment upon news/events that affect you and your organization.
Permanence – Sometimes, when you start a non-profit, your ‘business address’ is also your home.  A web site adds a sense of professionalism, a virtual location and a feeling that your entity is permanent.

Depending upon how much time you have and your organization’s goals, you may choose to focus upon one or two, or you may choose to devote equal time and effort to all four of those main areas.  To make planning a little bit easier, I have made a list of some tactics that are associated with each of the above strategies….

Each Strategy Has Associated Tactics.  Here are Some:

Exposure – search optimization/marketing
Community Building – social optimization
Control – pick the right content management system
Permanence – pick the right web host/domain name

Sounds confusing, doesn’t it?  Don’t worry, I’m going to explain each of those over the rest of this series.  My goal in writing that was to give you a framework to study what follows.

You have to know where you are going if you have any hope of getting there.

This means that you must plan, plan and plan some more.  Devote time to thinking about why you are going online and what you wish to accomplish when you are online.  You also have to think about how you are going to reach those goals and what specific tactics you are going to employ.

Building a Web Site is Like Going on Vacation (and if you think it is just as fun, you need help):

Part of going on vacation is figuring out where you are going and how you are getting there.  Building a web site is no different.  Best of luck…