Web Technology and Design SIG

May Meeting - Tuesday, May 22

Last month we discussed the Drupal content management system and the various types of websites that use this platform. Hopefully, some of you visited Opensource CMS and played around with the back end.

While it is possible to set up a Drupal site on your testing server, not everyone wants the hassle of setting up a testing server. This means you need to install Apache, PHP, and mySQL. Invariably, your operating system will need tweaking making this a mission.

This is when a web service develped by Acquia, Drupal Gardens, is fabulous. It allows you to create a Drupal website on their servers, free for 6 months. This should give you enough time to learn the ins and outs of Drupal. They do offer web hosting at reasonable costs if you want to keep your masterpiece up and running.

I set up our WebTechSig test Drupal site that we will use for the next six months as a platform for us to learn more about Drupal. You may decide to set up one for yourself so you can learn at your own pace. 

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design Co-SIG Leader

March Meeting - Tuesday, March 27

At our March meeting we will discuss the Drupal content management system (CMS) which is an open-source program written in PHP.  According to Wikipedia, 1.5% of all worldwide websites, ranging from blogs to corporate, political, and government sites including, whitehouse.gov, use it as a back-end system.

Basic features include user account registration and maintenance, menu management, RSS-feeds, page layout customization, and system administration. There are more than 9,800 free community-contributed add-ons available to customize the Drupal CMS. Although it offers a sophisticated programming interface for developers, no programming skills are required for basic website installation and administration.

So whether you are looking to develop a simple brochure website or launch a large site with user-generated content, the Drupal CMS may be worth considering.

I look forward to seeing you all Tuesday as we discuss the basic set up and some of the standard features.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design Co-SIG Leader

June Meeting - Tuesday, June 28

June is election time for HAL-PC. The general election is June 18th, during the annual meeting. Following the election, there is a celebration in honor of HAL-PC’s 30th birthday. Let’s party! Please attend and bring a snack.

At our monthly SIG meeting, we will continue to address marketing your web site. Our focus will be on keywords and how they relate to search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC).

Effective SEO efforts and PPC campaigns take time to develop. Like many things related to a website, it is a never ending effort. PPC campaigns can be very expensive and not just a drop in the bucket. You need to develop a long-term strategy and monitor your results to make sure you get your money’s worth.

Keywords are critical to SEO and PPC. SEO is a necessity but a PPC campaign is optional. Is it something that would be effective for your website marketing efforts? Join us and find out more.

I look forward to seeing you all Tuesday.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

May Meeting - Tuesday, May 24

This month at the HALPC Web Design SIG meeting from 7:00 pm –8:30 pm, we will continue to address marketing your web site. This time we will discuss developing a Pay Per Click (PPC) program.

While no one disputes the relevancy of ranking high in organic listings, it can take awhile to get there and lots of effort to remain there. If you have the budget, a PPC campaign can get traffic to your site much quicker.

However, it is not just a simple task of choosing a few key words and forgetting about it. While you may already have a running list of key words which you developed for your organic SEO efforts, you now have to decide if those key words are within your budget. And if indeed those keywords result in conversions, not just lots of traffic.

It takes a good deal of time to develop an effective PPC campaign. You need to develop a strategy and monitor your results.  Join us and find out more about PPC and if it is something that you want to add to your website marketing arsenal.

I look forward to seeing you all Tuesday.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

March Meeting - Tuesday, March 22

During the upcoming HALPC Web Design SIG meeting, we will address marketing your web site and search engine optimization (SEO) from 7:00 pm –8:30 pm.

You built your web site but will they come? The hide and seek game now begins. Landing at the top spot of a search engine’s search results can help you generate more business. There are millions of people online in the US alone, and 76% of them use search engines on a regular business. That’s why the practice of improving a web sites standing on the most popular search engines is a critical element of many marketing plans these days. An understanding of what search engines are looking for and how they look for it will help get you in front of their eyes.

Find out what search engine optimization is all about. Learn practical tips and techniques that you can immediately implement to optimize your web site and boost your search ratings.

I look forward to seeing you all Tuesday.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

February Meeting - Tuesday, February 22

This month we will talk about Contribute. This was once a Macromedia product and now is in CS5 version since Adobe took it over. It is basically a web management tool that allows you to make and publish updates to your website via a simple WYSIWYG editor.

The goal of Contribute is to increase web publishing productivity by making it easier for non-technical users to maintain their website. It is not designed for developing a full website; that is what Dreamweaver is for. However, webmasters can develop the site using their favorite HTML editor,  then “lock” critical bits of code only giving the owner access to “safe” editable areas.

Contribute is designed to work hand-in-hand with Dreamweaver. It is designed to help you work on a website without needing to know all the complex features of Dreamweaver. However, it is supposed to work as a companion to any website regardless of how the site was developed.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

January Meeting - Tuesday, January 25

The Web Design Special Interest Group has returned! Since this is our first meeting of the year after a long hiatus, the atmosphere will be more of an open forum. During the past couple of months, I received a few questions about Word Press, read an interesting article about HTML 5.0 and we can continue our discussion of web analytics. Otherwise, we will touch on any topic that you want to address.

As a special note, The SW Drupal Summit is this January 27-28 at the Magnolia Hotel in downtown Houston. Drupal is a modular, open source content management system used for simple blogs to large and complex corporate web sites. This event is a great opportunity to learn from top web technology experts from around the country. The group organizing this event has gathered experts in design, development, business and systems who have been in high-profile web projects like whitehouse.gov, grammy.com, and others. Kyle Rankin, author of the Ubuntu Server Book, will also be there.

As HALPC members, you can register using the discount code HALPCDRUPAL to get $50 off, and register for $65.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

Meetings canceled until January 2011

Please note the SIG is on hiatus until next year.

At our next meeting, hopefully in January, we will continue our discussion on web analytics.

In the next couple of days I will post more about the specifics of our next discussion.

It is unfortunate that I have had to put the SIG on hold and was really hoping that things would settle down by now. However that is not the case. If any of you have any specific questions please send them to me. I will do my best to respond and look forward to be meeting with you each month again soon.

I hope all of you had a nice holiday season.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

June Meeting - Tuesday, June 22

This month the Web Design Special Interest Group will continue our discussion of web analytics by focusing on clickstream analysis and metrics.

We will start with the building blocks of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). There are eight critical web metrics that deserve your attention. However, there are some recommended methodologies that are not worth your time.

Get better at diagnosing the causes of poor web performance and learn how to develop strategically aligned tactics that have a positive impact on your website and your web metrics.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader