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So, When Do I Start Making Money from my Website: ADDING PROGRAMMING FEATURES TO A STATIC WEBSITE
By Nora McDougall-Collins
NNFP Director of Web Services
Following the idea that you need a realistic timeline for building your site before you can make a profit, today we will discuss the time and work it takes for the second model, a: "Very small, static, informational site with some programming (feedback form, newsletter signup, calendar, etc) to market a brick and mortar business."
Whenever you add programming to your site, you add a new convenience to your viewer (if it works well, and they use it) and you add a new level of complexity to your work. In the long run, well chosen programming will increase the profitability of your web site by 1) giving the viewer a reason to stick around, 2) by reducing some manual tasks, such as building a new web page for events for each month of the year! However, the process of chosing, setting up and maintaining the software needs to be added to your time budget.
The first thing you need to do before chosing a specific software package for your web site, is to decide and document what it should do - in detail! Let's take an online calendar as an example.
The Benefits of an online Calendar
- They don't have to call you to find out the particulars of an event.
- You can update the information in minutes through an online form that takes care of formatting and linking the event.
- The event can be picked up by Google and other web sites, and, thereby, reach people you don't even know about.
- People know where to go to find information, when they can't remember,without having to find "that piece of paper" where they wrote it down.
- Fewer people will take your phone time aksing about the event!
- People looking for one event can see other events you have.
Step 1: What do you want the software to do anyway?
- Should the software show a calendar page, a calendar with just days, a list of events, or both.
- How many months should people be able to see at one time, or how should they go from month to month?
- What should your staff have to do to enter a new event, change an event or delete an event?
- A calendar is a relatively small piece of software. For something bigger, such as an ecommerce solution, you should work on a software plan, which is much more detailed.
ACTION: Usually, when we use software on a web site, we really don't think about how it's working. Take a closer look at existing calendars. Search for online calendars in your area. What features do you like and dislike about the way each calendar works. WRITE THESE DOWN!
Step 2: Search for software that matches your list.
- Do a search for online calendar software. Your search will lead you to both sites that list software for download and sites that use the software.
- On the sites that list the software, see if they have a demo of how their software works. If they don't have a demo, go somewhere else.
- On the sites that use the software, if you find two or three you really like, call them and see if they really like it too! Sometimes there is really nice software that is so badly supported by the software company, it is a real chore for staff to use.
- Some of the pages you find may list comments and reviews of the software. These will give you an idea of other people's experiences with the software in question. Nora's reviews.
Step 3: What technologies are available on your web host for your software?
- You can by-pass the server technology issue by using an online service, like the Google calendar. That means that all the programming you use is actually on a Google server - not yours. Often, you can actually make it look like the calendar is on your site, but the information is coming from another server. The downside is that you don't necessarily get the search engine credit for the calendar!
- If you choose to install programming on your own web server, you will need to get a list of the programming language, the version, and other server requirements, such as whether it needs to have a database set up too. Then you need to contact your web host and find out whether they have those services available.
CASE STUDIES:
1. This Ning site has great programming! There are so many cool features for everyone to use, including this blog! But the domain nnfp.org doesn't benefit at all from the traffic for their web site stats because it's hosted on Ning.com!
2. I have a client, which has software on their site to add articles through an online form. In other words, the staff person just copies and pastes the article into a form and doesn't have to create a link a new web page - the programming takes care of all of that. However, the form system is very clunky to use, and the programming is a mish-mash of stuff.
The software company said that they have this great new upgrade that will solve all the clunkiness. It appeared that the programming language and version matches what the web host has; so, I installed it, only to find out that I hadn't checked the version numbers quite carefully enough. The web hosts version was just before the one needed for the software! The result: no upgrade!
Note that it takes longer to make a profit off this model. In fact, it's not even as simple as installing the software and raking in the $$$!
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