Presentation given at the 2009 Anchorage Joint District Leadership Conference, variation also presented at the 2010 Fall Leaders Meeting in Houston

1. Section Websites 101
How to create and manage your own.
Standards
Certification
Education & Training
Publishing
Conferences & Exhibits May 2, 2009
Jeff Gamber, St Louis Section

2. Section Websites 101
We will cover the basics of creating and managing a
Section Website based upon lessons learned during the
process of recreating the St Louis Section website. This
presentation was developed with the intent of teaching
attendees to create a data-driven website and learn from
our mistakes.

3. Section Websites 101
Defining your Dream for Your Section website.
What is the end goal for your website?
The St. Louis Section’s end goals were (and still are)
defined as:
– To serve our membership with the most up to date information
and services we can provide them.
– To have the best Section website within ISA.
Lofty?...

4. Section Websites 101
Defining your Dream for the Site.
Maybe.
Without goals, there is nothing to measure progress against.
– As result of setting goals for our site, we have experienced a
marked growth in monthly meeting attendance, steady growth,
and offer services that are important to our membership.
– Having goals also helps determine whether or not you act on
potential changes. They quite simply have to meet the criteria
of your goals.

5. Section Websites 101
Defining your Dream for the Site.
• How do you plan to reach your end goal?
– Who will help plan it?
– Who will create it?
– What will your domain be called?
– Is that domain available for purchase?
– Who will host it?
– Who will manage content for it?
– Who will maintain it?
– Has there been a budget set aside for Website
development?

6. Section Websites 101
Defining your Dream for the Site.
Setting End Goals
I knew from the start that the goal would be to make the
St. Louis site the best. When St. Louis recreated its site, we
asked ourselves what we had to do to meet our end goal.
The answer...
RESEARCH!

7. Section Websites 101
Defining your Dream for the Site.
Setting End Goals: Research
If we were to become the best Section Site in ISA, we first
had to find out what other Sections were doing, good or
bad.
In the end, this exercise helped define both the structure
and content of our site. It provided information on how
Sections used their Sites, ideas for improvement, and
helped prime the creative pump for new concepts.

8. Section Websites 101
Defining your Dream for the Site.
Setting End Goals: Research
– Organize your thoughts by committing your ideas to paper.
– Reference where you got your ideas, who you saw that did
what you want to do well. Why recreate the wheel if you
don’t have to.
– Call the Webmaster for the site that best represents the
concept you want to emulate. Their help might just save
you substantial effort and time.

9. Section Websites 101
Creating your site.
The first task at hand will be to obtain a Domain Name.
Some good online sites to acquire a Domain Name are:
http://www.godaddy.com
http://www.domainbank.com
http://www.directnic.com
Or…
From the company you will choose to Host your Website.

10. Section Websites 101
Creating your site.
Choosing a Domain Name.
– The choice of a Domain Name is essential. The Domain
Name of a site should be its most important keyword (the
thing that search engines search by.
– Your Domain Name should be Keyword Rich, Descriptive,
and Helpful.
– Don’t make it too long, or complicated.

11. Section Websites 101
Creating your site.
Choosing a Domain Name.
– Be wise about what your Domain Name states.
– DO NOT buy a Domain Name too similar to another website.
– Protect your Domain Name.
• Your Section Domain Name will have an .org extension.
• Always buy the .com, .net. .biz extensions as well.
• Keep an eye on DNS restrictions as well (Can someone access
your site if they do not type the www. In front of your Domain
Name?).

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Creating your site.
– IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that wherever you choose to create
an account and purchase your domain name, make sure
you do so in your section's name, and not an individual's
name. You also want to keep this information in a place
that will be available to the future leadership of your
section. Since we are all volunteers, it's easy to misplace
this information. You need to make a point to make it
available to members as the baton gets handed from
person to person.
– DON’T BE AN IDIOT!!!

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Creating your site.
Getting a Host Account.
– This will be the place you will get your domain if you don't
already have it, and Host your website.
– There are thousands of Website Hosts to choose. Feel free
to do a little research on your own, but based upon ours, I
am going to narrow it down to 2 hosts:
1. Godaddy.com - For a building a Simple Informational Website
with SiteBuilder AND Data-Driven Websites – in this instance
Joomla 1.5.
2. Siteground.com - For a building a Simple Informational
Website with SiteBuilder AND Data-Driven Websites – in this
instance Joomla 1.5

18. Section Websites 101

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Some of you may be asking, "What is Joomla?" Joomla is one of the
most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the
planet. It's used all over the world for everything from simple
websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla is easy to install,
simple to manage, and reliable.“
Essentially, Joomla is data-driven. It relies on a host's MySQL
database to store and retrieve information. Open Source means that
developers all over the world have had a hand in developing this
incredible web application.
Content Management means that the site has a backend and a
frontend. The frontend of course is what visitors see through their
Browsers. The backend is the administrative area of the site. The
main file coding that Joomla uses is PHP.
This web application is available FREE. Joomla developers all over
the world have also developed Extensions in the form of
Components, Plugins, Modules, and Templates which are also
available - Free. A very small percentage are not free, but usually
priced under $50, and well worth it for the powerful capability of that
particular "add on."

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Site Maintenance
– Lets face it…Stuff Happens!
– Your fault, Someone Else’s fault, Nobody’s fault. If something
happens, can you fix it? If you can…Great! If not, you will need
somebody who can!
– During our short existence on the Web, our well-meaning
webmaster (who shall remain nameless to protect the ‘Innocent’)
has inadvertently changed behind the scenes code…
– Software has had glitches that had to be debugged…
– and…The unthinkable…
– We were HACKED by someone that had nothing better to do
with their time than to make our lives and our member’s
experiences with our site miserable.
– All of these events were beyond our ability to repair.

66. Section Websites 101
Site Maintenance
Who will maintain your site?
 Mistakes need to be corrected occasionally, even with the most
experienced webmaster. Eventually something will stump them.
 Software needs to be purchased, installed, and periodically updated.
 Templates need to be implemented.
 Components and Modules need to be installed.
 Custom Graphics must be created (Unless you are a Photoshop
whiz)…I am not!
 New technology needs to be explained for novices.
 Domains need to be re-registered.

67. Section Websites 101
Site Maintenance
Who will maintain your site?
 Hosting needs to be paid for.
 Third Party software (i.e. PayPal and the like) need to be integrated.
 Security Patches need to be implemented.
 The site will require occasional optimization to keep it running
smoothly.
 Site will need to be optimized for search engines to ensure that you
see maximum traffic on your site.

68. Section Websites 101
Site Maintenance
Budget for what you want to do!
– Budgeting for web development is imperative if you want to create a website.
Regardless of what avenue you take to develop yours, costs will be incurred.
If you allocate money for Advertising and Marketing, consider using a portion
of that money for early development. If designed properly, your site can and
should pay for itself down the road.
– The St. Louis Section has taken the approach that our website has the
potential to become our Section’s biggest advertising, marketing, and
membership tool all wrapped into one.
– Having said that, we budgeted conservatively to get it off the ground and
running. We decided that our website would have to “season” a while with
our members and sponsors, before it would become the powerful marketing
tool that we thought that it could be.
– We chose an excellent local Web Design Firm to help us navigate the
turbulent waters of the Web and minimize our mistakes.

69. Section Websites 101
Site Maintenance
– Our Web design Firm has been retained to manage the support and
technical details of our site, while the volunteer base of our Section
manages the content in the site, keeping it fresh and current. We
have several more large tasks to accomplish before we get the site
to what we initially dreamed it would become.
– Our Section membership dynamically participates in the directions
we take on our site by offering their opinions in polls and by offering
suggestions for services they would like to see. The site after all is
intended to serve their needs, so who better to help determine what
those needs are!

70. Section Websites 101
The St. Louis Site in a nutshell…
To date our site includes:
 A public and members-only interface. While the members-only portion is
limited now, we intend to add many features that are available only to
our members as a perk to membership in our Section. In the near future,
we plan to include a reference materials resource as a member-only
feature. Reference Materials will be provided by members for other
members in a searchable, downloadable format.
 A secure means to contact the Board with suggestions and questions
and disseminate information to board members for upcoming board
meetings.
 Membership Information including access WITHIN our site to online registration
from the Society site.
 Access to current Section and Society news. We will soon have RSS feeds
available to our members.

71. Section Websites 101
More morsels from the nutshell…
 A program guide where members can propose topics for upcoming
meetings as well as a compendium of past program information
including presentation materials for download.
 A list of current and past Section newsletters for download. PDH
recipients are identified in each edition.
 A photo gallery for events and teaching through photos.
 A Meetings & Events page for expanded information regarding
upcoming events.
 An Employment section where members can view current job openings
and post resumes for corporations to view, as well as a place for
corporations to post openings and view potential employee resumes.
 A Section President’s Blog.

72. Section Websites 101
More morsels from the nutshell…
 An Events Calendar and On-line Event Registration Module allowing our
membership to pay for events by Credit Card, PayPal, or elect to pay at
the door and simply RSVP. This component will be expanded this year
to include our Golf Tournament and will in the future permit payment for
Directory Sponsorships, Meeting Sponsorships and Web Sponsorships.
 We also have plans for a searchable Directory that will not only assist
our membership, but also drive business to our vendors and sponsors
from any out of town corporations performing automation work in our
region.
 Plans also include the listing of scholarships available to students
through the section as well as a means to apply for them on-line.

73. Section Websites 101
Recommended List of Resources
Domain search and purchase.
http://www.godaddy.com (recommended)
http://www.directnic.com
http://www.domainbank.com
Hosting
http://www.siteground.com (Recommended as they specialize in hosting Joomla sites)
http://www.godaddy.com
Content Management
http://www.joomla.com (Recommended)
Siteground’s Sitebuilder Demo
http://serv01.clev5.com/zeni/verify_login/env=prd/user_name=demoacco/password=none/
user_type=demo/forcelogin=demonv=prd/user_name=demoacco/password=none/user_
type=demo/forcelogin=demo
Siteground’s Sitebuilder Demo
http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/zen-tutorial/index.htm

74. Section Websites 101
Recommended List of Resources
Joomla Templates
http://www.joomlashack.com (Recommended)(Simple, Search Engine Optimized)
http://www.templatemonster.com
http://www.rocketthemes.com
Modules and Components
http://www.joomlashack.com (Recommended)
Online Payment
http://www.paypal.com (Recommended)
Web Design Firm
http://www.karadesigngroup.com (Recommended)(St Louis Site Manager)