Free and Low Cost Web Tools

Effective Ways to Maximize Your Website with Minimal Time and Resources (Quick Wins for your website) January 28, 2009 Connecting Great Ideas and Great People

Agenda  Goals and Strategic Direction  Measuring Success  Tools  Visibility  Content  Community  When to Build it and when to Borrow it 1

Goals: A hammer is just a hammer  Web tools, free or otherwise, should have Concrete goals and objectives  Measures for success  A direct tie to your web/organizational strategy  Appropriate exit strategies  Once you have a clear vision for what business need you’re trying to solve, the next step is to determine if you can use a readily-available tool or if you need to custom develop. We have some pros and cons of readily available tools to help you make your decision! 2

Pros of external tools  Many are low cost or free  Tools often have a low implementation barrier—quick to market  Road tested tools can have planned upgrades extending functionality  Many provide overall solid quality 3

Cons of external tools  Service may go down  Typically are difficult to integrate with AMS  Service may be discontinued permanently or changed without your knowledge or control  Some services use the data from your tools or become ad-sponsored 4

Is an external tool right for you?  What is the risk if the service is discontinued?  Does the tool need to integrate with your AMS?  If the service decided to charge, would you be willing to budget for it?  Who owns the data and is that a good fit for your organization? 5

A basic web technology note, or, how technical do I have to be to make these tools work?  Most of these tools require access to the HTML (or PHP, CFM, etc) file to add code into the <body></body> or <head></head> of a page  How will you know?  Ask your web team or site host 6

Another note on the tools in this presentation  The tools selected integrate directly into an association’s website. Several of these are also stand along applications, but our focus is on how these tools can extend the value of your website to your members and visitors 7

Ok, enough with the notes already… Let’s get to the tools! 8

Forms: Google Docs Web Forms http://docs.google.com/ 9

Google Docs Web Forms: The Process 10 http://docs.google.com/

Polling: Polldaddy http://polldaddy.com/ 11

Polling: The Process http://polldaddy.com/ 12

Polling: Polldaddy http://polldaddy.com/ 13

Visibility: Add This Widget  Social Bookmarking for your site Let’s visitors “add this” copy to the social Networking/ Bookmarking Site of their choice. http://www.addthis.com 14

Add This Widget: The Process Copy the 4 lines of code and paste between <body> and </body> tags. http://www.addthis.com 15

Add This Widget: Reporting Reports tell you:  Overall usage Popular Bookmarking tools Popular content http://www.addthis.com 16

Search: Google Search http://www.google.com/sitesearch/ 17

Google Search: The Process & Pricing http://www.google.com/sitesearch/ 18

Blogs: Movable Type http://www.movabletype.org/ 19

Blogs: The Process http://www.movabletype.org/ 20

Blogs: Movable Type http://www.movabletype.org/ 21

Blogs: WordPress http://wordpress.org/ 22

Blogs: WordPress http://wordpress.org/ 23

MicroBlog: Twitter Badges Twitter accounts: Let visitors subscribe to real time updates via Twitter Provide fresh site content Can use account or # to pull in updates http://twitter.com/badges 24

Twitter Badges: The Process http://twitter.com/badges 25

Photos: Flickr Badges Flickr accounts: Engage members & visitors by allowing them to upload their photos Provide fresh site content Help staff capture events and more Tip: Before you start, determine if outside image hosting fits within your asset management plans 26

Flickr Badges: The Process http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne 27

Flickr: Stats http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne 28

Audio and Podcasts: Audacity Use a basic microphone Record your tracks Edit as needed Export as MP3 Upload to a web host/server http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ 29

Video: YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ 30

Video: YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ 31

Screen Captures and Demos: Jing Create demos or FAQs for visitors and staff. Limit is up to 5 minutes per video http://www.jingproject.com/ 32

Jing: The Process Download & install software; click capture Set capture window Select screen cap or video http://www.jingproject.com/ 33

PowerPoint: SlideShare Hosts and converts presentation slides Provides interactive content and increases visibility via searches on SlideShare.net Share and embed links lets content go viral http://www.slideshare,net 34

SlideShare: The Process Upload PPT file Copy embed code and paste into HTML file http://www.slideshare,net 35

SlideShare: Stats and Options Stats Presentation pack Lets all slides from a conference show together http://www.slideshare,net 36

Maps: Google Maps Help members find your events or chapters or components using Industry standard mapping technology http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl 37

Google Maps: The Process Locate the map you want to add to your site in Google Maps Help members find your events or chapters using Industry standard mapping technology http://maps.google.com/ma ps?hl=en&tab=wl 38

Translation: Google Translator Provides system based translations. Pros and cons of system translation: http://www.asaecenter.org/wiki/index.cfm?Page= Automatic%20Language%20Translation 39

Google Translator: The Process http://translate.google.com/translate_tools 40

Chat: Meebo Host a real time chat around a conference Answer member questions http://www.meebo.com/rooms 41

Meebo: The Process http://www.meebo.com/rooms 42

RSS Analytics: FeedBurner Where do you get the feeds?  Most blogging tools have built in feeds (e.g. Moveable Type, WordPress)  Many CMS tools have built in feeds (e.g. Drupal, Joomla) http://www.feedburner.com 43

FeedBurner RSS: The Process Paste URL of the RSS Feed Get stats (below) Get the ability to create a quick Spring Widget http://www.feedburner.com 44

FeedBurner RSS: Tracking Provides a trend overview and helps you see what content subscribers are clicking on… http://www.feedburner.com 45

FeedBurner RSS: SpringWidgets http://www.springwidgets.com 46

Link Checking: Xenu Link Checker Spiders your site and finds your broken links home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html 47

Analytics: Google Analytics Provides overall trends, traffic sources, goal funnels, and content drill downs http://www.google.com/analytics 48

Google Analytics: The Process http://www.google.com/analytics 49

Usability: Five Second Test Upload a screen capture of the site you wish to test. Choose from up to 3 possible tests Classic test: participant gets image for 5 seconds and then is asked… http://www.fivesecondtest.com 50

Five Second Test: The Process …which 5 things they remember about the site http://www.fivesecondtest.com 51

Five Second Test: Results Basic results: List view Export to CSV Paid reports in development http://www.fivesecondtest.com 52

Contact information: Peter Hutchins Vice President of Knowledge Initiatives Phone: 202-326-9540 E-mail: phutchins@asaecenter.org Websites: www.asaecenter.org Amy Hissrich Director, Knowledge Initiatives Phone: 202-326-9532 E-mail: ahissrich@asaecenter.org Websites: www.asaecenter.org Connecting Great Ideas and Great People

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Free and Low Cost Web Tools

by Amy Hissrich

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