21 July 2011 ~ 20 Comments

Administrating the Public Facility Website

A website should serve its customers, educate the public, and form a basis by which clients can decide whether or not to use the services provided. The website for a public facility such structures as a college, university, hospital, government building, or large shopping mall or a business plaza or public bureau block can diffuse frustration and allow the public to navigate their business smoothly. Domainers can spot the opportunity to mount a website such as this when a company fails to do so.

owlgraduateA survey of a company website from internal and external sources can yield surprising results. Factors for consideration should ease of use, correctness of information, updated technology, language, terms and standards, grammar, bilingual options, and feedback or contact opportunities for customers who need help getting to the next step. This information can be amassed by careful research when a domainer obtains a hot domain name property, preferable a short name with direct search engine keyword value that can quickly gain optimized traffic.

The company website for a corporate entity should not necessarily be the public-facing website. The corporate internal site and the company network should not have the same functionality and thus will not serve the public. If administration officials and staff choose to believe their website has a functionality for the existing user base, the existence of a better site made by a outsider can come as a rude awakening. It can also be an embarrassment for management.

Websites that follow a model of corporate jargon company philosophy, and frank inefficacy beg to redone by a domainer or webmaster who can deliver real utility to researcher and site visitors. The architecture of a site should hold enough virtuosity that no copycat will take the time and trouble to reap marginal advantages. But a weak company website begs to exploited by domainers and webmasters capable of making a superior site.

Administrators should capture the opportunity to own their own online presence instead of underdelivering on their website enough to beg an improved site from a non-stakeholder. If the staff do not have the skills to construct a professional looking website, outsourcing should take place. A consultant should be brought in if there is any doubt holes in the current website leave room for an outside to reap a benefit from the company’s own facility and services.

Architecture of a facility website should include a perspective of the physical layout that allows visitors to navigate the premises as well as convey a sense of the organization as a whole. The system map should naturally progress to questions a newcomer would have about how the location or campus interacts with visitors. The TLD .org can be used to promote a information feel for site visitors, although an official disclaimer should be placed somewhere on the site.

The public institution website can also furnish background data on staff and allow outside agencies to research data objects in the proper manner. These can be helpful to print out, or give or send to someone else who may find them of use. Companies who overlook this basic functionality of web publishing are letting their slip show. Every type of public facility should form a committee of persons who can give feedback about the condition of the current website and how it meets the needs of visitors and customers.

What a customer based website should do is allow potential customers and clientele to understand what using your business will entail what it will be like, and what path they should navigate to get the services and products they need. It is a pain point of management if an outsider can deliver this better than the host company.

In every case, people who experience the premises as a daily job or familiar place may not be best suited to understand how the physical layout looks to a stranger.
Customers, visitor, members, or clients need to have an idea of what they are going to be doing. This includes where to go, where to ask questions, where to park, and where to get related services.

Transportation and communication are two elements which can be smoothed over by providing needed information, such as distance from freeway offramps and proximity to bus line stops nearby. other unique data points will present themselves as the site project unfolds.

If a location or campus processes require detailed explanation, directions, coaching, or expansion, this should be done in a bulletin point list, slide show, or even an audio stream which mobile visitors and website readers alike can experience.
An Adobe PDF document ,in an easy to print format, encapsulating the necessary information, makes an excellent addition to any facility or campus website, or a website that aids newcomers and first time visitors to use the physical location the website refers to.

In the year 2011, people are used to referencing the internet before making the trip to any physical campus or premises. They want to know what they will need, what documentation to bring, and what telephone numbers to have or other paperwork/and or materials. A roadmap of how to get to the correct department of office is helpful, especially in a large building. Site administrator, both of physical locations, institutions, and public facilities can grasp the website as a information tool for the next generation.

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03 July 2011 ~ 0 Comments

Don’t Launch Until ….

Ever see a website that has more finish than the product? Ever wish the people that built the website had had a hand in the manufacture of the sale item? This kind of mismatch still has no name, but corporate/product dis-synergy might be a way to express the situation. Webmasters and domainers now engineer entire sites for which there may or may not be concrete services behind it. A brick and mortar store is no longer required for commerce.

Webmasters have cut corners as long as the history of the Internet has been around. This was initially assumed to be the growing pain of new information technology. The beehive of change was at work. Mistakes could be forgiven. But today companies can be their own agencies. With the new media available online, navigating the gray flannel jungle is no longer an issue. Researching the customer means researching what the customer wants.

The Web is now  decade or so old and everyone remembers the first phase of growing pains of almost all the big websites. in fact many brands have repapered over their awkward growth stages with shinier logos, better websites, and more feature-rich platforms at the IP address of note. Selling the product is the effect behind the cause. Everything else is so much hand-waving that real buyers will see past when their checkbooks are open.

If companies  have a poorly received campaign, they can erase it instantly. This can be done overnight online these days. But the carefully created website with an end sum gain in unit sales must utilize top methods for product featuring without causing a letdown when the humble product enters the frame.

In “Lover Come Back”, the brand is product named VIP in search of an three dimensional realization. But sales of virtual wares is completely possible online. The trick is making sure customers get what they want. That’s a tough sell when the product is so intangible.

Today, the Internet is the incubator of change. Colors and light are in the hands of the web architecture artist,and webmasters can revolutionize their look with a minimum of real consumer waste and with an eye to cost. But care should be taken not to overshadow the product and its attributes. Pointing up the products strengths is what websites are for, ideally. But many websites devolve into overlay artistic statements, ad blitzes, or powerhouses of overdesigned text.

In 1961, there was a movie starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson about rival advertising executives that compete to land the big new account with a big firm. They compete to launch a huge new product with a stellar advertising campaign, complete with Times Square billboards and marquee treatment. This is the era of “Mad Men” and how Madison Avenue defined consumerism and the products people buy.

In the film, the actual product does not exist. The competing pair dream up an entire ad campaign to catch the eye of the potential consumer, building to a frenzied fever pitch. At some point the game ends and business intrudes. Then they realize they don’t have to have a great product they just need to produce something to sell. this ends up being candy mints laced with alcohol that make the customers, very very very happy indeed.

How things have changed. Today the company has to produce not only a finite product, but have specifications, tests, consumer panels, reaction reviews, test groups and response surveys. And that’s just in the beta testing phase. The instant gratification of buying a product online is the result of a groomed navigation path webmasters have in mind. Overstepping the product promotion plan is an error that leaves customers wondering what they bought.

Therefore when purchasing web hosting, look for the value adding features like email account setup, blog broadcasts, HTML friendly design with updates that save time executing automatically online. Look at the timeline for a Facebook and Twitter account, and make sure the cart does not come before the horse. Follow the sales cycle through to its logical conclusion without mixing up the marketing pieces up too much.The proof should be in the profit statement.

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04 March 2010 ~ 0 Comments

Domain Frontiers

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Many new domainers coming into the market scoff at the mile high tombstones of the big domain sales. But one reason domainers watch the auctions is to see what kinds of money are flowing to what types of domain projects. The corporate money is what every domainer dreams of. And it still flows to certain names optimized for key domain name markets.

The announcement of the auction at Sedo of a name sale for six figures doesn’t happen every day. But Metal.com sold for $165,000. That’s big money for the long domain investor. Sedo continues to vend big money name sales worldwide. And trading up continues to be the smart advice to long term industry domain name professionals. Because the right name will find its corporate home.

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