free and low cost web tools
DESCRIPTION
Looking for free and low cost tools to extend your website and score some quick wins? From surveys to tools to create online demos, this presentation provides 20 resources that might be just what you're looking for.TRANSCRIPT
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
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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
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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
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Ok, enough with the notes already…Let’s get to the tools!
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Forms: Google Docs Web Forms
http://docs.google.com/ 9
Google Docs Web Forms: The Process
http://docs.google.com/ 10
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” copyto the socialNetworking/BookmarkingSite of their choice.
http://www.addthis.com
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Add This Widget: The Process
Copy the 4 lines of code and paste between <body> and </body> tags.
http://www.addthis.com
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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/
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Blogs: Movable Type
http://www.movabletype.org/ 21
Blogs: WordPress
http://wordpress.org/ 22
Blogs: WordPress
http://wordpress.org/
23
MicroBlog: Twitter BadgesTwitter 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
Photos: Flickr BadgesFlickr accounts:
Engage members & visitors by allowingthem to uploadtheir photos
Provide fresh site content
Help staff captureevents 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
Audio and Podcasts: Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Use a basicmicrophone
Record your tracks
Edit as needed
Export as MP3
Upload to a web host/server
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Video: YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/
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Video: YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/
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Screen Captures and Demos: Jing
http://www.jingproject.com/
Create demosor FAQs for visitorsand staff.
Limit is up to 5 minutes per video
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Jing: The ProcessDownload & 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 increasesvisibility via searches on SlideShare.net
Share and embed links letscontent go viral
http://www.slideshare,net 34
SlideShare: The Process
Copy embed code and pasteinto HTML file
http://www.slideshare,net
Upload PPT file
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SlideShare: Stats and Options
Presentation packLets all slides from a conference show together
Stats
http://www.slideshare,net
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Maps: Google Maps
Help members find your eventsor chapters or components using Industry standard mapping technology
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl 37
Google Maps: The Process
Help members find your eventsor chapters using Industry standard mapping technology
Locate the map you want to add to your site in Google Maps
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
38
Translation: Google Translator
Provides systembased 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
http://www.meebo.com/rooms
Host a real time chat around a conference
Answer member questions
41
Meebo: The Process
http://www.meebo.com/rooms 42
RSS Analytics: FeedBurner
Where do you get the feeds?
Most blogging tools havebuilt in feeds (e.g. Moveable Type, WordPress)
Many CMS tools havebuilt in feeds(e.g. Drupal, Joomla)
http://www.feedburner.com 43
FeedBurner RSS: The ProcessPaste 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 captureof the site you wish to test.
Choose from up to 3 possible tests
http://www.fivesecondtest.com
Classic test: participant gets image for 5 seconds and then is asked…
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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 viewExport to CSV
Paid reports in development
http://www.fivesecondtest.com52
Contact information:
Connecting Great Ideas and Great People
Peter HutchinsVice President of Knowledge Initiatives Phone: 202-326-9540E-mail: [email protected]: www.asaecenter.org
Amy HissrichDirector, Knowledge Initiatives Phone: 202-326-9532E-mail: [email protected]: www.asaecenter.org