Jonathan is a Strategist, Entrepreneur, Coach, Adviser & Stay At Home Dad with a passion for helping people build organizations as a Coach, Adviser, Mentor, or Partner, and learning about success. Actively seeks opportunities to travel, sail, shoot pictures, play music & games, create art & run Obstacle Courses.
We ended up with a wonderful domain name – ANSP.com , and have the general idea for a show (see below), but we are not entirely sure what to name it. We have the AN part (Ally Nation), but thinking on the SP.
In the end, the decision was made to just do a few examples of what we are expecting, put it out there & see what others think the S & P should stand for.
General Idea: a regular short show that is a thought or something deep for leaders on a verity of topics.
We have helped groups, organizations, and businesses set up simple websites that have what we refer to as a FCG or DCG.
Here are the simple steps to make an image show up in the DCG/FCG.
Step 1. Make a post
The first step is simply making a post. Here is an example we will be using the rest of the time: Step 2. Get into the Editor
With this site, if you are logged in you can simply click the edit button near the title.
This should bring up something like this:
We will mess with three items
1. Add an Image – where we find the URL to the image
2. Dynamic Content Gallery Metabox – where we need to paste the URL to the image in
3. Categories – you must make sure the proper category is selected, in this case it is FCG
Step 3. Go Find the URL
First thing is to click the “Add an Image” (#1) button. This should bring up a box, either upload the image, or find it in either the Gallery (if it is already in the post) or Media Library. In this case it is in the Gallery.
We want the box that reads “Link URL” to display the proper URL to the image.
To make this happen, we click the “File URL” button.
This will cause the box to be filled with the URL to the file. Like this:
Step 4. Copy & Paste
Simply copy and paste that URL into the Box (#2) … notice how the URL’s are the same in the next image: NOTE: don’t click the “Save all changes” button, it is not needed, just click the [X] in the upper right.
Step 5. Check the Categories
The FCG or DCG will have a category that it pulls from. That means that the post MUST be put in that category for it to work.
It is important to have a website that fits the needs, plans, and tendencies of you or your organization. Getting started with a website can be tough, reworking or restarting a website can be tougher. I have thought about starting websites for many years, and here is some of the advice I give clients today.
We are going though this same process with AllyNation.com
When thinking about a website, most people start off thinking about the pretty pictures or layout. A smaller percent start thinking about programs or code.
The better focus is the content & content generation.
Content is why you go to a website, and why you go back.
The core goal of any website is to either:
draw people in – build a fanbase
or
direct people to a place or action
A key to achieving either goal is to have fresh relevant content that is presented in a way that the audience wants it.
When working with a client or student, that is the basis of what I am thinking about:
– what content will be generated on a regular basis (production)
– how do we best present this content to the audience (organization)
There is one issue that has come up many times:
We don’t know what we will generate.
Another potential issue with established websites is:
Our generation does not fit a current website very well.
Here is a plan that will help you determine what content will be generated.
Best Website for You
This process can be used by any company, organization, or site; starting out or established:
1. set up a blog style page. This could be either the main page of the website, or a subpage.
2. post – post like your site was 100% complete with the best website you could have. As if everything on the site was done; Magazine or Newspaper style front page, all the subpages.
Do this for 1 to 6 months.
Key with #2 – make sure you tag each post. Use lots of tags, but the most important tags are the potential categories or overall themes of the site.
3. after enough posts, take the tags and see what the common themes were. If you are using a WordPress based site, this is very easy to do visually with the tag cloud.
4. start designing your site – this could be yourself, or you could find a professional who grasps that websites are tools and that content & communication with audience is the key.
After # months
At this point, you have some answers. You know how hard & how easy specific types of content are to generate.
You have an audience that you can get feedback from:
What are their likes? What do they want more of? Why do they come to your site?
The site should be designed with a balance of:
What content will be generated on a regular basis (and how best to display it) ?
and
What does our audience(s) desire ?
This is what JonathanNation.com looked like as this article was posted.
The time it takes a developer to produce a final site could be hours, if you choose a core theme, like what StudioPress Premier Themes, or a long time – all depending on how much custom graphics and the abilities of the developer or development team.
One More Thing
This process can work for established websites too.
I found that the design for my personal site, Â JonathanNation.com, was not fitting the content I produced, and was more of a distraction for myself then a great way to take what I did and spread the word.
I am now starting this process, with this very post.
We are also going though this same process here on AllyNation.com.
One of the things we discourage is the over use of “free” services out there.
Gmail is great, but why promote Gmail.com as opposed to Your Domain Name . com ?
Same goes with URL Shortners.
We have set up aly.me as our official URL Shortner for Ally Nation.
Basically, when you see a URL with aly.me/ you know that we set the link up, and we are putting out stamp of “we are sending you somewhere that we trust.”
We put our brand on the line each time we create & send out a link from aly.me … so, you should feel a little more comfortable clicking on them.
