Sun, 10 Aug 2008

Reworking a Web Site

Reworking a website is an interesting undertaking. I am currently doing so with the Sacred Heart site where I act as the volunteer webmaster. I have changed the look-and-feel, but have also been working on the content and ability to maintain the site. That means, I'm looking at content and the technology which drives the site. (I really need to do that here, especially to clean up and compact the content, but, that's another blog.) When you rework a site, you need to consider a number of things.

The first thing to consider is the purpose of the site. For some sites, like commercial sites, that's relatively easy. For other sites like a personal site, it can be more difficult, due to the lack of focus or broader focus of those types of sites. So how do you start?

I think, you look at your audience. After all, a web site is a place where you want to show visitors something. What are they looking for? Look at your audience -- customers, parishioners, family, the general community -- and determine what they are looking for. Match this with what you are offering -- a product, service, idea, concept, schedule -- and determine how you are going to present it.

Now comes the interesting part that many people seem to forget when they design a site. How are you going to maintain it? Presumably, your site will not be completelly static over its life. It will change. New events will be added, products will be modified, services will be enhanced, thoughts will evolve.

The Internet is an immediate medium. People who visit web sites want up-to-date information, thoughts, products. You need to be able to modify your site at the speed at which the Internet operates -- and you'd be surprised at just how fast that really is. When something happens, people expect to be able to go on line within minutes and see information about it. If you don't have that information or they can't find it, they will go elsewhere to find it.

If you have a staff of hundreds to maintain your site, then you're probably OK. But the majority of us don't have that type of staff. Even at companies which support commercial web sites, it is often difficult to get information to the site in a timely manner. Consider this when you design your site.

I am working with a volunteer organization (a church and school). Even though there are some paid staff, the majority of the work is done by volunteers. Getting information from them to put on the site is a major problem. I have designed the new site to allow them to update the pages themselves -- or at least to make life easier on me to maintain then information that they do send me.

More later, as I work through the site redesign and start to work on this personal site.

posted 08:36 [/WebSite] permanent link

Sat, 26 Jul 2008

Focus . . .

. . . I lack it. It's probably the reason that I don't get much done on the web page and why I don't participate in a number of discussion areas to get my views know. It's evident in the blogs I have posted today. They range all over the place! I have been this way most of my life. I think that just too many things interest me and I go from thing to thing without maintaining my focus on any one things for very long. The website is all over the place also. I don't seem to finish anything in particular and this makes the site a hodgepodge of miscellaneous thoughts. The whole things is sort of a gimodudah.

posted 08:06 [/WebSite] permanent link

Sun, 27 Apr 2008

Lack of Time?

I just revised one of my web pages and got to thinking about the lack of focus for the website and my efforts in general. My first thought was that this is due to a lack of time. But, upon reflection, I got to thinking that might not be the answer. Hey! I had time to reflect . . . hmmm . . . is lack of time really the answer? Maybe it isn't really lack of time. Maybe it's last of focus. Maybe I am just not interested enough in any one subject to take the time to really devote effort to expanding it over the long haul? I seem to get started on something, work on it for a period of time, and then drop it. I am constantly rewording parts of the website in which I state something like, "watch for developments as I work on . . . ". I never seem to actually develop anything, at least not to the extent I intended when I told visitors to " . . . check back for further developments."

The most disconcerting thing is that I often drop the entire project all together. That is, not only don't I keep up the efforts of documenting it on line. I actually don't continue the project as I thought I might when I first considered it. There are also lots of parts of the site which are partially developed. I get to a particular point and tend to loose interest.

No, loose interest probably isn't the actual problem. I'm still often interested in the subject. It's just that I tend to get interested in something else more! I think that there may be just too much input. Too many demands on the old gray matter (and possibly too few brain cells left as I get older to process all that input).

Maybe some of the problem is discipline. I lack the discipline to follow through on something that is not of immediate interest or which takes longer than one or two sessions to resolve?

Do I seem to be rambling? Does it seem that I won't reach any conclusion on this article. Does it seem like I'll just trail off . . .

posted 17:15 [/WebSite] permanent link

Sat, 08 Mar 2008

Sign Up to View . . . Wrong!

I just visited a blog site which directed me to facebook. It appears that you have to sign up for facebook in order to view the material. My response to this is wrong! Why do I have to give my e-mail and create an account just to view someone else's content?

If you want me to see something, place it somewhere that I don't have to sign-up to see it, period!

posted 19:57 [/WebSite] permanent link

OOPS!

I use a blog software that works from files on disk. I just missynced the site and got some old files resent. This caused the dates of the files to reset and moved them up in the queue. I don't want to erase them as they are interesting posts, so I'll leave them in place.

The software is easy to use, but I guess I just have to be a bit more careful!

posted 19:55 [/WebSite] permanent link

Tue, 22 Jan 2008

The Unexpected Click . . .

I don't like to click on a link, image, whatever and have something unexpected happen. I just clicked on an image in a news article and was asked to create a flickr account. Not only that, it knew my Yahoo account. (I understand how this works because I understand cookies and I know that flickr is a Yahoo company, but I don't like it!) I didn't want to create a flickr account or any other account for that matter. I wanted to view the promised pictures from the news article.

Guess what . . . I immediately clicked the clost button on my browser window. I guess that they got the display credits for whatever ads were on the page, but they didn't get me to look at them and they definitely didn't get me to click on anything or go any further.

With all the bad things that can happen on the web, do not surprise me. Don't ask me to sign up for anything or give you any information beyond something that you explained in the source that I clicked. Definitely, don't display any personal information or ask me to give you a password or other login information if I'm not expecting it.

So, there it is. If you expect me to sign up for something, let me know before I click the link.

posted 16:53 [/WebSite] permanent link

Tue, 25 Sep 2007

More on Ads . . .

You know I have ads on the site. You can see them on just about every page. As I'm working on the site, I sometimes click on the ads just to see where they go. And usually, they go to other sites with ads on them -- lots of ads on them. These appear to be just sites designed to display ads to gain income. If they can get you to click on their ad on another site, you will display their ads -- generating income. No benefit what so ever.

I use Google ads and I'm always facinated by what it chooses to display. Sometimes it seems that they just randomly pick an ad to display. For example, right now, the blog page displays an add for African-American singles. Being an old white guy, I really haven't written anything about the African-American singles scene. (Of course, while this blog is on the site, I imagine I'll get more ads for you know what.You see, I don't want to actually mention it so that the software that generates the ads won't see the words and generate more ads . . . well you get the idea.)

posted 20:30 [/WebSite] permanent link

Sun, 28 Jan 2007

Ad Generating Sites

I recently spent some time on a search site looking for some specific software. I wasn't sure just how to describe it so I tried any number of terms and combinations of terms to get the answer I wanted. It is amazing the number of sites I found which seemed to exist only for the purpose of displaying ads! There are a large number of sites which appear to have content, only to turn out to be sites set up to display lists of links to other sites which, in turn lead to lists of other sites, which . . . well you get the idea. It makes finding real information frustrating.

Add to this sites which want to sell you something -- anything -- and appear to be sites which take your terms and try to show you stuff that you might buy -- and you get real frustration. It seems that actualy content on the web is scarce. Makes you think that there must be a better way.

posted 20:34 [/WebSite] permanent link