Finding a Webmaster

Rick Borstein, FAAS Webmaster

A top-notch Webmaster has a combination of skills. This person ideally is technically savvy, knows HTML and perhaps even has programming skill. A good Webmaster keeps up with the trends in the industry, has up-to-date equipment, high-speed internet access and an artistic flair. A proven record of accomplishment building web sites would be great.

Bad news—you probably won’t find this person! However, in most of the clubs I’ve visited there is a computer-savvy person or two and often someone who works in the high tech industry. Can you identify someone like this in your club? They might make a good Webmaster.
A choice that can work out well is to bring on somebody who may not know a lot, but is eager to learn about the web. Your club web site may be the perfect project for someone who is trying to get started.

You need to “sell” one of your members on taking on the job. Flattery and appealing to the good of the club are a good way to start. Your club web site is important! You will want to select someone who is reliable and will take on the job for at least two years.

I do not recommend that you ask for volunteers at a meeting. Very few folks will raise their hand without knowing about the commitment. Instead, mention that the board has decided to make the web a priority and that members interested in helping out should talk with you one on one.

Your Own Domain

I cannot underestimate the importance of having your own domain. Only about half of the FAAS member clubs do. It’s a problem.

Your domain is who you are on the web.

It’s tempting to go with a free hosting service (see table below).

However, choosing this option will yield a domain name that nobody can remember such as http://www.angelfire.com/pets/fish/yourclub.html.

That URL is not conducive to sharing with a potential new member you meet at a pet store or in an elevator conversation at work. Heck, it will fill up an entire business card. It’s too long, too hard to remember and definitely not effective.

Your domain name is the key to your club’s web marketing efforts. A short, clear, easy to remember domain name will attract new members and draw people to your events.

An excellent example of a domain name is apple.com. The .com suffix is the most common and even web neophytes know how to enter it in their browser. You can also use suffixes such as .net, .org, .tv and .info. FAAS was late to the web so we had to settle for the .info suffix. Still, it’s better to be faas.info than federationofamericanaquariumsocities.com. Who’s going to remember that?

To find out if a domain name is taken, go to networksolutions.com. Virtually every hosting company also offers access to the whois database, which maintains all the various domain names. You can type in your name ideas and find out if the domain is available.

Where to host? What can you afford?

You have a variety of choices for hosting your club web site. Prices range from free to fifty dollars or more a month. Here are some of your choices:

Type of Hosting	Example and Cost	Description
Free Services	Freeservers.com, Geocities, Tripod, Angelfire and many others. Free limited web site serving.	Unfortunately, you get what you pay for with most of these free services. These services blanket your site visitors with pop-up ads and your web pages with intrusive banners, which turn off potential site visitors. Loading times can be poor and these sites receive a lower rank on the major search engines. Bandwidth (the total number of pages served for free) can be very limiting. With a free service, you don’t get your own domain name. The URL for your site will be something like http://www.angelfire.com/pets/fish/yourclub.html. This long address is hard to remember for your intended audience. The free services usually offer decent on-line page building tools, but may limit you from doing any creative design. Still, if this is all you can afford, it is better than nothing.
Co-hosting	Park your site at another site.	One of your members may have their own domain. You can serve your pages from their site, probably for free. The URL will still be long, something like www.membersite.com/yourclub.htm, but you won’t be subject to pop-ups and ads. One disadvantage is that you are dependent on the reliability of your hosting member to pay and probably maintain the site.
Domain Forwarding	Network Solutions. About $35–$50 per year.	If you want your own domain, e.g. www.yourclub.com, but can’t afford to pay monthly hosting, this may be an option for you. When a potential site visitor types in your URL, it will take them to the free or co-hosted location where your pages are located.
Basic Web Hosting	Earthlink, and many others. $7 to $25 per month.	This option is probably the best choice for most clubs. By paying a bit more, you get access to many services your club can use. Lots of bandwidth, your own domain name, one to perhaps unlimited email accounts, form to email scripts, and more. In this group you will find a wide array of pricing that is bewildering. Some $7 per month offers appear to be as good as the $25 per month offers. However, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Most cheap hosting companies have slow servers, place ads on your site and have poor customer service. FAAS is hosted by 1and1.com which offers a number of inexpensive packages starting at $5 per month.
Advanced Web Hosting	Various $40–90 per month	The largest clubs may want to explore hosting services that offer advanced features such as rich media support for streaming Real, QuickTime or Windows Media content, shopping carts, and complete scripting support and list serve support. In particular, if you will develop a dynamically driven web site, you may need to look for a more expensive service. I’ll be explaining some of these advanced features in future articles.

Do the right thing on the web

In the web world, content is king. If your club web site is poorly organized and contains little useful information, your site visitors will assume your club is poorly organized and offers little.
An interesting corollary is that if your web site is great, it will greatly enhance the reputation of even the smallest aquarium club.

At the minimum, your club web site should be kept up to date with fresh information. I’ve visited many web sites where the front page of the site asks you attend last month’s meeting. That’s just not professional!

Your web site will never be finished… wrap your head around that!

It will change, sometimes daily, as you add new information, delete stale content, and reorganize. Your club board and committee members need to “push” information to your webmaster on a regular basis. If possible, your webmaster should be on your board and attend board meetings.

A good web site is “sticky”. There’s information on the site that makes visitors want to explore further; the site has value to them month after month.

The organization of your club’s site needs reflect the goals of your club. If you have decided that your web site’s primary goal is to drive visitors to your revenue-generating auctions, then you need to feature auctions and auction notification on your web site.