The New Denver DataMan Website

I am starting to work on the new Denver DataMan website that will be done by the end of the summer if not sooner and it is helping me refine my process that I do with my client in helping them develop their websites.

When a client comes to me they have an idea what they want from a website. They say things like I want it to look good and be found on Google or maybe they say it they want it to have a blog. I am not much different, I know I want it to look nice, be easy to navigate, have lots of valuable content, be found on search engines and many more nebulous things. Now, I have to take these goals and make a plan for how execute the new site.

Some the key areas that will be tackled in the new Denver DataMan website will be:

• Better design with more graphics
• Better navigation
• Integrated Blog
• Better event registration
• Integration with social networks

Making these goals a reality takes working out the organization of content and then developing a design that matches the navigation. A website is the place that your brand can be most clearly expressed; It is also the place where you have the ability to best share your organizations story. The navigation of your website should move your visitors through the narrative of your brand.

Better navigation will also make it easier for visitors to find the content that is on the your site that right now goes unused or underused. Moving the DDM blog on to the main website rather than hosting in on this Google Blog Spot will help provide more content for Google to index.

Having better event registration will make the site more valuable as a business tool but also be easier for my clients to register for events.

With the site upgrade DDM will be on the new version of the content management tool (Drupal) that we use for websites and there are many more tools for integrating with social networks for us to use. Being more connected with social networks makes it more likely that visitors will share the site with others.

Developing a new website is not easy for reasons far beyond the technical challenges of moving content, users, design, etc. It is hard because if you don’t take the opportunity to make sure you are telling your story better then you are wasting your time.

Using Your Website to Define Yourself as an Expert Part 1 of 5

Websites have been popular for some time now. In the past, look wasn’t so polished or or you would be forced to spend millions of dollars to play with big boys. Now the tools of big business are available to everyone and more people know how to access the web and expect me from it. Shifting trends in the cost of having a website and in the use of web sites make them an ideal tool to define yourself as an expert.

There are two nearly universal things that a business/nonprofit website needs to do. The first is share promotional information about your organization and the second is to give potential clients the ability to act on that information. Now, you can do this in more than one way.

One way: Write about your project with self praise and bombastic rhetoric. This is the same way that TV commercials discuss being the BEST. This may work if you want to sell Orange Juice. This is not necessarily going to convince someone that you are the best at a specialized task.

Another way: Provide sales information but also provide value added information about your products, services, organization that give someone a way to see that you are an expert. Look at my site for an example: I have sales information on the site, but I also provide value added content like the Articles Section, FAQs and the Glossary.

The first thing to establish about your site is that adding value is not free consulting. A glossary-even a great one- does not replace the need for a computer trainer. But, if you like the definitions I write in my glossary, hopefully you will see me as a more of expert than you might have before.

Building a site that facilities meaningful content takes thought and preparation. First, you need to make sure you have content worth reading. There is nothing worse than underdeveloped content because this will make people think you are just full of hot air, not an expert. Second, you need do your best to make a clear line between value added content and content that is there to sell. The value added content is a much softer sell and people who want to learn more before they buy can do so. Third, make sure the ability to take a next step is easy to find,/ If a viewer cannot figure out how to contact you, then the viewer won’t even think you are an expert.

The content that you put up should be meet the needs of your clients and should match their needs and ability levels. It is also important to make sure that your content is well written and you probably should work with an editor to check this. Well written content will be found on the Internet because more and more search engines are finding relevancy by quality and readability.

As we continue this series, we will talk about technologies that will draw people to your site so they find your content.

Stay tuned next week for Part 2 – Blogging. If you want to be notified of the release of that article, consider adding an RSS feed of this site.