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Non Profit Organization Resources
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Nonprofit Organzations: Build Your own Website
7 Action Steps for a
Successful Nonprofit Website. |
 1. Planning. a nonporfit website should include basic informatioon about your organization. Start by compliing this infomation: Mission of organization;
Goal of Web Site ( you may want to set up a small committee to develop this and to "approve" website content.); Main Activities; Organization Contact Info; and History. Each of these items should be one or more webpages onyour webiste. For a search engine to consider a web page important enough to include it must have at least 250 words. It is best not to exceed 850 words or 100 links on a web page.
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2. Choosing a Domain Name- Naming Your Website
A good domain name can help ensure that your web site gets the attention it deserves. Here are some issues to consider when selecting a domain name.
How likely is it that the name will be properly spelled immediately after being heard.
Does it end with a common extension-- .com - .net- .org ? How many words are in the domain name? Fewer is better, easier to remember and type into a browser. Is the name descriptive? Does is suggest obvious site content (e.g. NewsOnline.com).Avoid abbreviations unless they are widely known and used. Avoid names like eName.com or BizOnline.com. Click here to search for availalbe domain names.
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3. Web Hosting-
Infrastructure
Select a a web host. A web host is the company which provides a server where you store you website. when the name ( domain name) of your website is typed into abrowser or a link is click on your webpage is called ( serverd up) from this server to the Internet. thangs you need to know to choose a web hosting company include: Disk Space? (the average is about 250 Megabytes; Bandwidth (the average is 1 Gigabyte). Do you want to store data from your website onthe server, for example, yare you going to set up a sytem for people to become members, upload articles, particpate in polls? If yes be sure to get a web host package wich includes MYsql databases. Web hosting can be shared, several website all with the same IP address(IP addresses are the number address). Dedicated sseversmena that you do not shre withother IP's, this is best because serch engines take stes with dedicated IP addresses mre seriouly but it is more expensive. Are you going to send out emails to your members, readers or visitors if yoes you might want to make sure that your web host has capacity for mailing lists.
Web Hosting
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4. Web
Design
Web design which is
easy to navigate is very important for a successful
nonprofit website. Online nonprofit organizations need to provide
clients with good content, interesting
presentation, and fast load time. But most of all
it, must be easy to maintain.
Use Website
Templatesto build a website, quickly and easily. You will need a softweare program which allows you to custominze the web pages. You can use a simple HTML editor or Instant Website software( recoommended for newbies), or Mocrosoft FrontPage if appearance is not that important. if youhave some website design experience, for great appearance and ease of use a What You See is What you Get software like Nvu. To add the ability to sign up members, have member upload picture, files, submit webiste, etc.. .
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5.
In order to have a
successful nonprofit website people have to know your
website exists and be able to easily find it. Most
potential donors, and clients use search engines
to find informations and services on the Internet. Find
out how to get listed on Search engines .
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6. Accepting donations and selling online- Ecommerce Issue
Paypal Merchant Account is the easiest, mos secure and least expensive way to handle ecommerce onthe web
PayPal Merchant Account lets you accept all major forms of payment-- credit cards and checks. Get features comparable to merchant accounts and gateways – at a lower cost. Accept credit cards, bank transfers, debit cards, and more.
Paypla offer sepcil buttons for donations. Clients can shop on your website and pay on PayPal.
This is an easy, quick way to start accepting credit cards online.
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7. Statistics and
Tracking
Knowing how website visitors
are being referred to your site and how many visit enables
you to target your marketing plan. Learn how many
potential customer, clients, visitors it takes to
obtain a donation or sell a book or...... Most web host accounts come iwth a statitics package. Nonprofit organization Website Statistics and
Tracking
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