The Perfect Site Guide by Lisa Irby is highly recommended reading for every individual that wants a presence on the internet. Lisa has graciously allowed us to offer this valuable resource for free download.
A club or organization is a group of people with similar interests or a common goal working together. Too often, however, that initial feeling of energetic enthusiasm for the work of your club slowly degenerates into a source of burn-out, annoyances, and endless mounds of paperwork and bureaucracy. Eventually you start to lose that enthusiasm and dread any phone call or email from the organization.nnI find that people often call me with meeting reminders, tasks, forms to complete, questions about procedures and policies on a piecemeal basis. This means that I am writing all these things down on various slips of paper, in the margins of my club handbook and on the backs of business cards, only to go to the meeting and discover that I have forgotten something, someone else never got a copy of the minutes, etc. etc. etc.nnI believe that every club and every chapter of a local organization or association needs an online presence...a website or blog or social networking community to make it all fun again. Here are ten reasons your club should have a website that users actually use.n
Whatever the size of your organization, club or association, I can help you create a viable, attractive and useful web presence. Contact me for a consultation now.
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Even though I had a sneaking suspicion that lots of small businesses, particularly localized businesses have no web presences of any kind, this article confirms what I had thought. Most small businesses do not have a web site! This is remarkable, in that any business needs to market itself. Word of mouth is all well and good, if you can get it. However, most of us use word of mouth to complain about a business rather than praise it. When we are looking for services or products, most of us (baby boomer generation and younger) go first to the internet to research it. Your business needs to be there for us to find. This is one of the most effective means of marketing your business there is, and one of the most cost-effective. Whatever you're selling, you need to market on the internet. I'll help you. Just contact me to set up an appointment to talk. You simply can't afford to be in business without a web site!
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Should you build a blog or a website? Arsha Jones of brandbuildsell.com has written a very interesting response to this question that comes up time and time again from small business owners, individuals and clubs. I almost always recommend a blog, for ease of update for people to maintain on their own, and because frequently updated content is more interesting for us readers and the Search Engines. It is also pretty difficult to mess up a blog's coding by accident.
Arsha Jones gives us advice here: Blog vs. Website.
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I admit it. I hate paying retail for anything. I am always looking for the deal. However, when it comes to getting the right tools to do your work, and getting the right tools to promote your business, sometimes you have to pay for it.
Just the other day, I offered to redesign a young woman's web site. She is a new business owner here in Wilmington. Evidently she does good work, and her beauty salon is very lovely. She wants to give a luxurious, elegant experience to her customers.
However, her web site does not reflect that desire. It is a free site created with the DIY site maker they offer. The problem is, it looks as if it were put together by someone with no aesthetic sense whatsoever, and obviously no idea about accessibility. It is, in fact a detriment to her business. But she declined my offer because, I feel, she did not want to pay the money.
Going the free route, trying to do something yourself that you are not capable of doing, end the long run is going to affect her bottom line. Her web presence is going to be a detriment rather than a boon to her marketing effort. She would actually do better to not have a web site at all.
I was willing to barter the work...a haircut for a redesign, perhaps. But all she saw was the dollar signs. Don't make that mistake with your business. Go ahead and spend the money to promote and grow your business. These are probably the most effective dollars you will ever spend.
Seth Godin lays it out. Pay for stuff!
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Privacy Policy
Your privacy is critically important to us. Celynoir.com has a few fundamental principles:
* We don't ask you for personal information unless we truly need it.
* We don't share your personal information with anyone except to comply with the law, develop our products, or protect our rights.
* We don't store personal information on our servers unless required for the on-going operation of one of our services.
* On our web site, we aim to make it as simple as possible for you to control what's visible to the public, seen by search engines, kept private, and permanently deleted.
Below is our privacy policy which incorporates these goals:
Creative Commons License (Note, we've decided to make this privacy policy available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license, which means you're more than welcome to steal it and repurpose it for your own use, just make sure to replace references to us with ones to you.)
Website Visitors
Like most website operators, Celynoir.com collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Celynoir.com's purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how Celynoir.com's visitors use its website. From time to time, Celynoir.com may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.
Celynoir.com also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Celynoir.com does not use such information to identify its visitors, however, and does not disclose such information, other than under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information, as described below.
Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information
Certain visitors to Celynoir.com 's websites choose to interact with Celynoir.com in ways that require Celynoir.com to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that Celynoir.com gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who desire to have us contact them to provide a username and email address. Those who engage in transactions with Celynoir.com - by purchasing services or making donations, for example - are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal and financial information required to process those transactions. In each case, Celynoir.com collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor's interaction with Celynoir.com . Celynoir.com does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.
Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information
Celynoir.com discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on Celynoir.com's behalf or to provide services available at Celynoir.com's websites, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your home country; by using Celynoir.com's web development services, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. Celynoir.com will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone. Other than to its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations, as described above, Celynoir.com discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only when required to do so by law, or when Celynoir.com believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Celynoir.com, third parties or the public at large. If you are a registered user of a Celynoir.com website and have supplied your email address, Celynoir.com may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what's going on with Celynoir.com . We primarily use our blogs to communicate this type of information, so we expect to keep this type of email to a minimum. If you send us a request (for example via a support email or via one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users. Celynoir.com takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration or destruction of potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information.
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Terms of Service:
The following terms and conditions govern all use of the Celynoir.com website and all content, services and products available at or through the Website. The Website is owned and operated by Laura L. Allen (Celynoir.com). The Website is offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, Celynoir.com's Privacy Policy) and procedures that may be published from time to time on this Site by Celynoir.com (collectively, the "Agreement").
Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using the Website. By accessing or using any part of the web site, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access the Website or use any services. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by Celynoir.com, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms. The Website is available only to individuals who are at least 13 years old.
1. Responsibility of Contributors. If you comment on a blog, post material to the Website, post links on the Website, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of the Website (any such material, "Content"), You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, or computer software. By making Content available, you represent and warrant that:
* the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;
* if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the Content, including but not limited to any software, or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content;
* you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms;
* the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;
* the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
* the Content is not libelous or defamatory (more info on what that means), does not contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;
* your blog posting is not getting advertised via unwanted electronic messages such as spam links on newsgroups, email lists, other blogs and web sites, and similar unsolicited promotional methods;
* your blog posting is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person or company. For example, your blog's URL or name is not the name of a person other than yourself or company other than your own; and
* you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by The Wilmington, NC Chapter of The Links, Inc. or otherwise.
2. By submitting Content to Celynoir.com for inclusion on the Website, you grant Celynoir.com a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your blog posting. If you delete Content, Celynoir.com will use reasonable efforts to remove it from the Website, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable.
3. Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, Celynoir.com has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Celynoir.com's sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in Celynoir.com's reasonable opinion, violates any Celynoir.com policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the Website to any individual or entity for any reason, in TCelynoir.com's sole discretion.
4. Responsibility of Website Visitors. Celynoir.com has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to the Website, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material's content, use or effects. By operating the Website, Celynoir.com does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The Website may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Website may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. Celynoir.com disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the Website, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.
5. Content Posted on Other Websites. We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and web pages to which Celynoir.com links, and that link to Celynoir.com. Celynoir.com does not have any control over those third party websites and web pages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a third party website or web page, The Celynoir.com does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or web page. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. Celynoir.com disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of third party websites and webpages.
6. Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy. As Celynoir.com asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material located on or linked to by Celynoir.com violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify Celynoir.com in accordance with The Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") Policy. Celynoir.com will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. In the case of a visitor who may infringe or repeatedly infringes the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Celynoir.com or others, Celynoir.com may, in its discretion, terminate or deny access to and use of the Website.
7. Intellectual Property. This Agreement does not transfer from Celynoir.com to you any Celynoir.com. or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with Celynoir.com. Celynoir.com, WordPress, WordPress.com, the WordPress.com logo and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with Celynoir.com or the Website are trademarks or registered trademarks of Celynoir.com or Celynoir.com's licensors and partners. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Website may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of the Website grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any Celynoir.com or third-party trademarks.
8. Changes. Celynoir.com reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this Agreement. It is your responsibility to check this Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued use of or access to the Website following the posting of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes. Celynoir.com may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the Website. Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
9. Termination. Celynoir.com may terminate your access to all or any part of the Website at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement , you may simply discontinue using the Website. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.
10. Disclaimer of Warranties. The Website is provided "as is". Celynoir.com and its partners, suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither Celynoir.com nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that the Website will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. If you're actually reading this, here's a treat. You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, the Website at your own discretion and risk.
11. Limitation of Liability. In no event will Celynoir.com or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement or substitute products or services; or (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data. Celynoir.com shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.
12. General Representation and Warranty. You represent and warrant that (i) your use of the Website will be in strict accordance with Celynoir.com Privacy Policy, with this Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of the Website will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.
13. Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Celynoir.com, its partners, contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys' fees, arising out of your use of the Website, including but not limited to out of your violation this Agreement.
14. Miscellaneous. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between Celynoir.com and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive ofCelynoir.com, or by the posting by TCelynoir.com of a revised version. Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement, any access to or use of the Website will be governed by the laws of the state of North Carolina, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located in New Hanover County, North Carolina.
(Note, we've decided to make the above Terms of Service available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license, which means you're more than welcome to steal it and repurpose it for your own use, just make sure to replace references to us with ones to you.)
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You know what bugs me? I'll tell you what bugs me! It bugs me to find a cool, promising new restaurant in Wilmington, but not be able to find out any information about them, because they don't have a web site. It also bugs me to hear about a promising new business...my favorites are gift shops...and not be able to find out where they are! Or what they have to sell! Because they don't have a web site!
I know that due to printing schedules, new businesses may not be able to get a yellow pages listing right away, but you can certainly get a web site right away! In fact, that should be one of the first things you do when starting up! You get a business license, some business cards, and also a web page. It does not have to be a multi-page, complex extravaganza with flashing lights, bells and whistles. You can (and probably should) keep it simple at first. Even a one-page web site can showcase your business to potential customers. And it would give you something to market in your local community. I like this one: dulcimer.codylindley.com
And this one: Keegan Jones
So, no matter what you're selling, the first thing you should do is get your web site out there in front of your potential customers so they can find you! I will help you. Contact me, tell me what you have in mind, and we will get you started!
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