Nonprofit Expressions

Chat rooms seem designed for teenagers and stay-at-home moms. For today’s website owner live chat technology can make a huge difference, but not through a chat room…

When someone even says the word “chat” images of AOL and Yahoo go through many people’s minds. But these free-for-all chat venues are a disappearing thing. Internet predators, virtual worlds and spammers have made sure of that. Today’s chatters go online to places like second life or onto the xbox live for live voice chat. Historically, adding a chat room to most websites is simply a loosing proposition because a chat room requires people to constantly be in the online “room.”

Chat can still be a vital component for your website. First, we must re-consider what we should expect from chat, and what it can offer us.

We must think of chat as another mechanism for communication with website visitors, and as a method of creating personalized interaction with the website. We are currently running live chat on three websites. Two of our own, and one of our clients.

The first consideration is commitment. Yes - you must be committed to being available online for chat on a regular basis. This doesn’t have to be as tough as one might think. You should erase images of being barraged with chat requests every 3 seconds, it’s just not going to happen. On occasion however you will have the opportunity to chat with one of your website visitors in real time, one-on-one.

This personal interaction is priceless. To date, I have only chatted with a few of our website visitors. After only the first time I knew this was a feature I should keep on my website forever.

In the process of having live chat (good live chat anyways) you will also have the opportunity to see who is coming onto your website, when, and from where. This is not just analytics mind you. This is real time data you receive every time a page with a “live chat” button is viewed.

When a visitor enters my website - if I am online - I can see their city of origin, what page they are looking at, and even send them a live invitation to join me for a conversation.

Another crucial element to live chat is the trust factor. When people visit a website and they see an active “chat with the website owner” button they are gaining yet another piece of trust for the website and its contents. It is the same principle as posting an 800 number and an email address all over a website to gain the visitor’s trust.

I have become such a live chat junkie that I added a link to my email signature. Now anyone with an email from me has an opportunity to chat with me!

If you do not have live chat on your website yet, you should consider it.

Click on this link and you can chat live with me right now, and if I am not online you can leave me a message. I will call you back ASAP!

Every once in a while in the course of designing websites - a designer will have altruistic motives, defined vision, and a great direction when he or she conceptualizes a website that is yet to be developed.

These moments of clarity are when designing actually becomes not a a job, but a cause. This is when work gets to be fun.

The hardest moments are when these website designs start so well, and end so… well… bad.

Last year when designing Revive-NewOrleans.org our team started out with some fantastic ideas. Working on a project that we all felt would be “more meaningful than the average project” it is easy to get inspired. Our client is actually doing stunning work in the area and changing peoples lives. We as artists like the idea of contributing to this with design and development work.

The project started well, in fact the printed materials and advertising we worked on for the project was literally tear jerking. The website also started with a rush of inspiration. As time wore on… and as the days passed while the project came closer to completion something strange happened.

Even though every piece of the project seemed right, every design concept seemed brilliant, the finished project was just not as moving as I had hoped.

Don’t get me wrong - the finished product was an attractive website. But there is a difference between an attractive website and something that says “YES YES THAT WAS WHAT I WANTED TO EXPRESS!!!”

I came to the realization that I was not satisfied with the finished product. In fact, because it did not meet my expectations I began to like it less and less, until I didn’t even like the website at all.

This often happens to designers and developers. The more you look at a design, or an image the less you are going to like it. In fact in design school they teach you to go with your first impressions and let it go after that. Like any art, too much examination will lead an artist to hate their own work.

This was not the case with this project. I did like the design when it launched, it was a nice looking website.

The problem is my expectations were: “this has to be the best design I create for the entire year” and it just didn’t happen.

So this is a great time in design (occasionally time permitting) to re-design or re-engineer the project. It was time to make some alterations, and some content changes, and so in my free-time I decided to bring the project back on track.

I began with some simple ideas, some advise from the organizations director, and now roughly 10 hours later… I have something that I believe says, “Yes, I am an important organization doing important work in a devastated part of the world, but there is hope!”

So today in the spirit of the beginning of the year I introduce a new face to an existing project:

Revive-NewOrleans.org

About Website Report Cards: Our report cards are for website owners who want to improve their sites. We look at websites and formulate our report cards by evaluating four main criteria: first impressions, usability, search engine optimization and technical standards.

Website: CrossroadsChristianRehab.com

1. First Impressions
Immediately after coming to this site I know that the site host and builder is Godaddy. Having experience with Godaddy ourselves, we know that by purchasing your domain name with them that you get free hosting as well. The site is obviously built with a website-tonight, what you see is what you get type of editor.

This is what we like to call an “online business card.”

While there is nothing wrong with having a website hosted by Godaddy, these types of websites do not get found by search engines and therefore only get site traffic through word of mouth communication and other forms of print advertising.

Questions that would immediately go through my mind as a web surfer or future donor are, “How much does this site matter to the organization? Is this nonprofit just getting started, or are have they been around for a while? Is this a professional organization?” It really comes down to trust. A website is one meter in which people can evaluate - for themselves - how much an organization is worth.

As a web design and PR company we would ask, “How is this website - if at all - meeting your brick and mortar goals?” If the answer is that its not, then it can become worse than a waste of money… it can be a hindrance to future donors or partners.

Pleasing to the eye: C

Proximity: B

Alignment: Irrelevant

Repetition: Irrelevant

Contrast: C

Reflection of branding and purpose: D

GRADE: C
——————————————————-

2. Usability
The usability is extremely simple. The main menu stays consistent and is conventional with modern website formats. Every page is functional, some which are more appealing than others, but has no broken links or missing information.

This simplicity is one huge benefit of having a “what you see is what you get” editor for your website when your funds are low. One deterrent, however, is the constant Godaddy ad on the top of the page. While this may irritate users, it also creates a way for them to leave your site. Once clicking on the ads, the browser automatically takes you away from the site and to the Godaddy landing page.

While the purpose of the site is clearly explained in the first paragraph of the homepage, a better place for this to appear is right underneath the name of Crossroads. You may want to replace the quote underneath the name with a quick mission or vision statement.

Another problem the site probably has encountered is its inability to collect consumer data. When you don’t know who is looking at your site or offer a method to collect such data, you lose many potential donors and what we like to call “warm leads.” Although you offer a clear way to contact Crossroads, this confines the user to sending an email or making a phone call rather than submitting their information.

User’s ability to understand, comprehend and interact with the website: A

User’s frustration or anxiety associated with the website: C

User’s ability to find the site’s main purpose upon first glance: C

Consistent Navigation: A +

Easy Navigation: A +

Navigation visibility: A +

Website accomplishes functional goals: C

Use of applications: C

Newsletter Signup: F

GRADE: C

——————————————————-

3. Search Engine Optimization
The site only has two pages indexed in google. The pages are constructed well with lots of text, which will actually help search engine results. The site however has no valuable links pointing toward it, this is hindering search engine traffic. Since half of the information on the page is Godaddy adds, which also hurts search ranking.

A couple quick things that would help search ranking for this site are a blog to post new content on a regular basis, and keyword research. The site has no page rank information which shows its lack of incoming links. This site could be fixed for search engines rather easily.

Title tags: C (they exist but without researched keywords)

Meta tags: C (they exist but with single word keyword phrases)

Clean URLs: A

Semantic information design: A

Descriptive anchor tags: C

Google’s Page Rank: F

GRADE: C

——————————————————-

4. Technical Standards
The first thing I noticed is that the code is not hand written because the only comments are program generated. The site uses a table based layout, which is an old way of laying out pages, and not preferred. Other than this the site does not use any current web technologies.

Doc type declaration: A

HTML or XHTML standards compliant: F (the site has over 20 validation errors. Thats one error every two lines of code)

CSS standards compliant: A

Accessibility standards compliant: A

Well formed code: D

GRADE: C

——————————————————-
FINAL GRADE: Room for a Re-Design
For a free report card on your website, please contact info@nonprofit-expressions.com

Ten questions to ask your website designer before you sign a contract! These questions should help your organization better assess your web designer’s experience, professionalism, and expertise.

1. Are you familiar with web standards?
This question is very important to ask because the web publishing industry is moving in this direction. If you find a designer who is unaware of web standards - or feels they are unimportant - the designer is likely to be an amature.

The correct response should be something along the lines of: “Yes, I code valid XHTML and CSS.” They might also ask you if you are talking about accessibility. If they can code pages that are accessible it shows their understanding of the web standards movement.

2. Do you charge all or part of your fees before the project is finished?
This is essential for you to know. The reality is that most web agencies and freelancers will charge part of the project as a retainer fee before the project even gets started. This is because a lot of work goes into the project before the first image is created in photoshop or a single line of code is written. You can think of this like the retainer you pay a lawyer to look into your case.

It is not professional however to charge 100% of the project costs upfront. The better agencies and designers are likely to charge two or three equal amounts as the project progresses, the last payment landing just after the project finish. Never the less, it is always good to know what a designer’s terms are before you get to involved in the project. (NOTE: a good designer will not likely know what he is going to charge until he or she fully understands your project, so you should give the designer as much information as possible before you ask this question).

3. Do you have another client who would would be willing to talk to me?
A good agency or freelancer should have more than one client who is pleased with their work. They should offer up an email address, or telephone number with the name of a person you can contact who will give them a good reference. This is key, because people in business are bound to get in disagreements and make someone angry. However, if they are a professional this should not be the majority of their clients. A designer who cannot offer you a good reference is someone you should steer clear of.

4. How often do you visit search engine optimization blogs and podcasts?
When it came to writing this question it took some planning. This is because every web designer in the world will say they are aware of search engines and that your site will rank well if you go with them. This is usually a flat out lie. The truth is that if a designer or developer does not frequently update their search information they are not savvy on what will work on the search engines this month or even this week. I once watched an organization spend upwards of 100k on a website that was built in such a way the search engines didn’t even list its pages. The developers of course said “we are going to build your website to work well in the search engines.” A good designer that is aware of search engine strategy will know what current standards are out there in the SEO community, and will know how capable he is at getting you ranked in the top search results. For instance in my company I am quite savvy when it comes to search engines, but even I will bring in another expert who does nothing but search engines if I feel the project needs it.

If the designer responds to this question with never, or sometimes, or changes the subject, you should immediately know to drop them and keep on searching for an honest one. The answer they should give would be “every week” or “I have my own search expert I deal with” or “I am not a search expert but I am very up to date on search strategies and can connect you with an expert as a part of the process.”

5. Will I be able to edit any of the content myself?
The answer in today’s world should always be “yes.” In fact, if you cannot update any of the content, or the designer cannot make that an easy thing for you to do, move on and find another designer.Solutions for this might include: “Yes with a content management system,” “Yes with dynamic forms,” or “Yes with a Adobe Contribute solution.”

6. How often do you use HTML tables to layout pages?
This question will help you know how up-to-date your designer/developer is. The answer should always be “Never.” Or something like: “Five years ago I did all the time, but today I use CSS for layout.”

The web underwent a major change in the way pages are created. Average people may not have noticed, but every web designer worth a penny knows that CSS is for layout and style, and XHTML is for describing content in a semantic way.

7. Do you use pre-purchased templates?
Now this is not always a bad thing. For a project that needs to be finished yesterday a template you purchase from a site like templatemonster is not a bad idea. However, when the agency or freelancer answers yes to this question, you should in turn ask: “Do you re-code the templates from scratch?” Because the code those templates deliver is often very, very, very bad. No designer worth paying should use one without some adjustments if not a complete re-creation of the design with all new code. You might as well design it yourself!

8. Do you use a shared hosting account, a Virtual Private Server, or a Dedicated Server to host websites?
This should tell you about the professionalism of the designer or developer. Many good designers use virtual private servers, many have their own that they re-sell. This is acceptable for small business and average church websites. At some point in the career of the designer the upgrade to a dedicated hosting platform should be made. This is not a make or break question because they may ask you what your preference is. But I will say that a dedicated server allows the development of applications in the back end much easier, and is usually the sign of a pro.

9. How long have you been in the business of building websites?
Now this seems like a no-brainer, and for the most part it is. Someone who has been in the industry for a long time is going to deliver a better product (one would hope) than someone who is just out of design school with no practical experience. Keep in mind that age doesn’t always mean more experience or expertise.

10. How can I advertise my website to make it a success when it launches?
Many designers fresh out of design school can create fresh appealing looks for a website, and many talented high school students can create very complex applications, but it takes experience to understand how the marketing and advertising will make a website actually work as a business.

Make sure no matter how they answer this question, that you are satisfied with the answer… which actually goes for all of the questions.

Your money may be spent better with someone you trust that can communicate value to you.

Good luck, and happy building!

Here is a simple definition of web 2.0 that I found surfing the blogosphere earlier today:

Defining Web 2.0 at three different levels

The mass hysteria of blogging has left many of us asking “what am I supposed to do with this thing”? Blogs are a new concept in society, but with thousands of them popping up daily learning how to use them has become considered almost a requirement for today’s website owners.

One way to improve the quality and interactivity of your blog is to add widgets. If you don’t know what a widget is you are bound to hear the term sooner or later. If you have ever really dug into the settings in your wordpress, typepad, or movable type installation you have seen at least something about them.

Think of widgets like blog gadgets, or mini applications that tie into all kinds of websites. Facebook.com for instance is full of widgets. If you have a blockbuster.com account it will tell your facebook widget what movies you want to rent and then show them to all your facebook.com friends (scary, I know!). There is even a facebook widget to take a small picture of your website and put it on your facebook page to show it off to your friends.

Widgets connect a website service to another location.

The newest widget I decided to add to this blog is BlogRush. Blog Rush is a website that offers a service to help drive traffic to your blog. You put the sleek little widget on your blog and it shows headlines from blogs with similar content to your visitors. Meanwhile the same thing is happening all over the web and your blog is getting shown all over the blogosphere.

Where to find Widgets?
You can find them all over, but a great place to look is on the website for your blogging engine. The wordpress plugin directory, or the movable type plugins are a great place to start.

In the next post we will discuss adding extras to your blog, plugins, plugins…. plugins.