Educate Search around the web;
find other church/school web sites
that offer similar services. It's
also helpful to educate yourself
with 'web' terms like: url, html,
browser, roll-over (mouse-over)
images, host, server, search engine,
keywords, meta tags, hits and unique
users.
Domain name Find an available
domain name that you can
personalize, such as, yourname.org.
Choose a name that flows easy and
doesn't need a lot of explaining.
A two-year contract is recommended
because prices are dropping.
If you obtain your domain
registration from a hosting company
that provides it free or at low cost
it might not be easily transferred
when or if the company goes out of
business, provides poor service or
is taken over. A domain name
registration purchased through a
reputable registrar is easy to
manage when you change hosting
companies.
Look
and feel of site Determine
what kind of feel you want your site
to have. Do you want a look that's
classy, high tech, simple? Explore
the web, see what other people are
doing. This will help you determine
what you like and what you don't.
Content Decide how big you
want your site to be and what you
want on it. A good web designer will
consult with you about the internet
and what's best for your site, but
he/she can't tell you about your
organization's mission and goals.
So, working closely with designer,
don't be afraid to get involved so
that your new site represents your
desires. Deciding on your content up
front is important to getting you to
your final goal, a fully functional
complete web site, in a timely
fashion.
Hosting Finally, you need to
decide who you want to host your web
site. Do you want a local company or
are you comfortable using a company
in another part of the world.
Reliability Sometimes
organizations
sign up for bargain hosting, trying
to save money. In some cases,
signing up for bargain hosting gets
you unreliable service meaning your
site is unreliable or frequently
inaccessible. If people can't access your site,
why have it?
Support Does your potential
host offer an elusive (800) number
that no one answers? Look for either
or both of these:
a physical person you can email and
get timely response from.
a browser based interface that
easily allows you to make account or
email changes.
Cost
The price to host a basic web site has
come down in the last few years -
$10.00 a month is too much.
Storage You need ample space
to store your web site and allow
people to access it.
Email Make sure you have
included email addresses with your
domain attached to them like, you@yourdomain.org.
Most companies include at least
five free email addresses with your
hosting plan.
Undercroft Network can help you on
any of the above areas. Please feel free
to contact us at
webservant@undercroft.net.
Both have advantages and
disadvantages. Email aliasing is
"forwarding" mail that was sent to an
alias email address and is automatically
forwarded to another email address or
email account. You may have an existing
email account, such as
myaccount@hotmail.com. You can set
up one or more aliases for your website,
anynameyouchoose@yourdomain.org,
which forwards all incoming mail to your
current email address of
myaccount@hotmail.com. This way, you
can have multiple email addresses and
only have to check one email account.
The biggest disadvantage of an alias is
that you might not understand the
sender's intent unless their subject and
message are specific.
An email pop account is a
mailbox. It is something like a
"snail-mail" post office box. All mail
sent to the address of this "virtual
P.O. Box" is collected and sits in the
pop account - or virtual mailbox - until
you come to "collect" it by connecting
to your account and downloading your
mail. You will have to configure your
mail client to check each pop account
separately.
If you would like to forward mail
from a new address at your domain, e.g.,
anynameyouchoose@yourdomain.com, you
need to add an email alias. You would
add a pop account to separate your email
accounts or if another person needed
a separate address and mailbox
at your domain.
For instructions on setting up your
email client, such as Outlook or
Netscape Mail, refer to the information
supplied in your Undercroft Network
setup email and instructions for your
software.
Register your domain
For Maintained web sites, you can do this through a domain
registrar or Undercroft Network
can do it for you through
DNS Central. If you
do it you will need to provide
username and password to
Undercroft Network so that we
can point it to our servers.
Develop the message For
Maintained web sites, write and edit content for each page in
plain text (no formatting). The best way to
do this is in Notepad or a similar text
editor. Avoid word processors unless you can
save in plain text. Do not indent. Place a
blank line between paragraphs and after
titles. Don’t leave space for graphics. When you have a page written
go to
Maintained Web Site
Application,
read the directions and fill in the form by
pasting the text or by typing. Don’t wait until your text is perfect
as it can be changed easily by updating it
on the Update page. Your new security key
was sent with your introductory email. This and other
information collected about your computer
prevents unauthorized web site changes.
Next step For Maintained
web sites, when your message is written and sent, your
structure will be updated and placed on an
unpublicized web site for your approval. It
will look barren and crude but the structure
will be obvious. Only after you
approve the structure can we consider graphic
presentation. For the most graphic
flexibility, keep page names as short as
possible so all letters can fit on
navigation bars.
Several free web templates
are available from various sources. If none of them are suitable, many are
available for purchase (~$10.00 - ~$100.00).
Maintenance
For Maintained web sites, maintaining your site is done by going to the
Site Update page and
adding a page or article, or updating an
existing page or article.
Graphics For
Maintained web sites, most pictures attached to an email sent to
webservant@undercroft.net can be published if
you own them and you have model releases for
anything recognizable.
To avoid possible legal
problems a posted common-sense privacy
policy which can be amended to consider
your concerns is recommended. Consult
with an attorney if you have questions. It
might include:
Donor identity is not given to the
recipient of services without donor
permission.
Private client information, including
that found on computer drives is not
given to other clients.
Last names of minors are omitted from
web pages unless approved by parent or
legal guardian. For schools, this
approval, or not, is usually expressed
during school registration process.
Home phone numbers are not placed on
church and school web sites without
permission.
Photographs of identifiable minors do
not appear on church and school web
sites without permission from parent or
legal guardian.
