When people at YWAM Phoenix Metro contacted us about their nonprofit website redesign, we were excited to work with them. Their excitement for what they do was contagious. YWAM Phoenix is a local nonprofit organization, and they work with students to prepare them for short and long term missions.
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt
May_and_June_2007_039.jpg via MorgueFile.com
With the latest WordPress (3.4), you are able to quickly and easily make style changes to your WordPress website or blog. This works for wordpress.com blogs or wordpress.org (self-hosted) websites.
If you don’t see these options in your theme, you can use the default Twenty Ten or Twenty Eleven themes. This post uses Twenty Ten, but Twenty Eleven is also responsive for mobile devices, and so is probably a better choice.
Simpl says, “The easy way to build a website.” It’s free for your website design, and free to host for two weeks (currently free for two months), and it really is the easiest website design tool I’ve ever seen. It’s only available for iPads running iOS 5.0 and up though.
Here’s how to get started with Simpl.
Download the Simpl App from the App Store in your iPad. You can also click on the App Store icon and search for “Simpl.” To get started, click the gear in the upper left hand corner, if you are not already on the Settings screen. Then add some information about your website. There is even space to add a description and keywords for SEO.
Simpl Settings Screen
Google Places for Business
Using Google Places is a great way for a small business to get online and listed in local search. You can provide information about your business — what you do, your location, a link to your website, contact information, hours of operation, photos, videos, and also promotions for your business. But what do you you do if you work from home? You probably don’t want your home address listed in a local search. Google doesn’t want you to use a PO Box location for your Places page either.
Google has a solution for work-at-home businesses though. When you create your Google Places listing, you enter your home address, but there is a check box to hide your actual street address in the search listings, and you can specify a service area instead. See the FAQ at Google Places for Business.
An Educational Group Website
This WordPress website theme is for an educational group. It has a members-only area for some of their pages and their monthly newsletter. The site also has a contact form, a styled photo album gallery, and a login form that redirects to the members-only pages. Their monthly newsletter has eight sections, but is easy for them to update. They also use a group mailing list to communicate information.
A portfolio page was added. This one is a simple brochure site with a page slider. View the live site for the full effect. View the rest of the additions on the portfolio page.
Several people asked this week how to market a business or charity (or even yourself), if you have no money for advertising and marketing. The short answer is if you don’t have money, you will need to spend time. You will need to take time to build relationships and network and time to follow leads. Ideally you will want to maintain a relationship with acquaintances, clients, and potential clients long term. Social media like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can help with this.
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It always seemed like it would be interesting to serve a gif image to Internet Explorer 6 and a png to other browsers, instead of using a CSS behavior file (like IE PNG Fix or SuperSleight). So now that IE 6 is nearly gone, here’s how.
Some info on two interesting Grant Award programs for nonprofits came through this week – the 2011 Heart and Soul Grant Award Program and Google Grants for Nonprofits. If you know of any others, please share them in the comments.
