What Would You Like Changed/Added on the LL Website?

You pages should be sized for a 1024 screen, your main page is a bit wide and you ahve to scroll (at least on my system)....

Or if you are using tables, set them up for 100% screen size, they will auto resize based on the users screen.

Technically you shouldn't be using tables except for table data.

For anyone wanting a Web site for their company, organization, club realize that the Web as a medium for conveying information is ever evolving and changing. The current most functional Web sites use content management systems (CMS) to created Web pages on the fly. One open source product using CMS is Joomla! An outstanding example using Joomla! is the world famous nursery in Beltsvile, MD.
See: <http://behnkes.com/website/>
Take a look and imagine the features that can be used for your business.

Joomla is good. But, yes, CMS type sites are easy to use and update for people that don't know much about the HTML, etc...

Yanche wrote:For anyone wanting a Web site for their company, organization, club realize that the Web as a medium for conveying information is ever evolving and changing. The current most functional Web sites use content management systems (CMS) to created Web pages on the fly. One open source product using CMS is Joomla! An outstanding example using Joomla! is the world famous nursery in Beltsvile, MD.
See: <http://behnkes.com/website/>
Take a look and imagine the features that can be used for your business.

That is a nice website .

It's still not a pop it up type deal. You still need to learn the CMS and most important you need to maintain the backend. The software is going to have exploits, they will have releases to address any exploits. If you don't patch it you'll leave your site open to hackers. As far as building a site the issues start to arise with customization. Understanding HTML, CSS and even PHP goes a long way. You also need to make backups of the database and files. None of these things are hard to do but they need to be done. While on the topic when some host tells you they make X backups do not trust them, make your own.

Some other things to keep in mind, is Joomla going to be around in 10 years? Probably, it's quite popular but if the project fades so does the security updates and any future releases. If the project dies you're going to need some serious professional help if you want to convert what you have to something else. For a small site this might not be that important but for very large sites it can be a serious issue.

Here's one of the other problems. Joomla integrates phpBB into their CMS as a forum. Suppose either the Joomla or phpBB project stops? Now you have an issue because you have to separate the forum from the Joomla software or vice versa.

I'm not knocking it but be aware there is many things down the road to think of. If you want to try it out download and install XAMPP and you can install Joomla on a local machine.

I was not trying to suggest any particular CMS system, just that using the Web as a business medium has evolved greatly from just static Web pages. There are several solutions, some open source projects like Joomla!, some full up industrial strength paid software or grown your own. What solution is right for you depends. What's important is would having a site like http://behnkes.com/website/ increase or improve your business enough to justify the cost, no matter what solution you choose.

I'm creating a Web site for my Lions Club that will use Joomla! Ideally Richard will be able to host it, under his free to non-profits offer.

Yanche wrote: Ideally Richard will be able to host it, under his free to non-profits offer.

That's only for forum services here, I only offer that to entice more members. It cost me too much to offer free domain hosting but I can certainly offer a fair price.

Richard S. wrote:

Yanche wrote: Ideally Richard will be able to host it, under his free to non-profits offer.

That's only for forum services here, I only offer that to entice more members. It cost me too much to offer free domain hosting but I can certainly offer a fair price.

We have our own server and domain . I just need to figure it out one of these yrs . Dave

Your on a shared server which is fine for a site like yours because you won't need a lot of horsepower. Should be paying no more than about $10 per month.

wlape3 wrote:Around 7% of the male population is color blind to some extent. Red/Green color blindness is most common. Something to think about when designing a website that may have a lot of male visitors.

I suffer from this. I can not see shades of green/red in certain conditions.

I agree with Yanche and Trader.

The Behnkes site is very good and useful as a reference to what a site can and should be.

In my opinion, none of the manufacturers have a "perfect" website. But, do not underestimate the buying power generated by urban survivalists and rural off-the-grid types looking to emulate Les Stroud or Ed Begley Jr. who spend hours searching the internet for alternative energy sources.

Your website is the "modern-day" salesman and here is an informative site run by the North Carolina State University: http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html

Here is another website (similar to nepa) about appliance and hvac repair that only a few short years ago was nearly non-existent and is now very user-friendly and has grown quite large: http://appliantology.org/

I myself am a salesman in the wholesale construction trade. My customers have told me that "its the face they see most often that gets the sale."

Cross-linking your website with nepa or Facebook or appliantology for example; are great ways to make yourself more accessible and spread the word about your product.

Mark

I just Googled the Internet for the Anthraking and few LL dealers have updated their websites as of yet.

But, this guy has!

http://coal.woodfordbros.com/?page_id=19

Manuals with information! New owners need to know how to assemble the burner, how and where the fire brick goes, and all the basics that those familiar with coal burners take for granted.

We have not quite figured out how to limit online sales to only those folks too far from a dealer. The bottom line is that we don't want to cut our dealers out of their fair share of sales, after all they are at the front line for keeping our customers satisfied.

Take the orders using forms + php,asp whatever mid tier app lang your using pump them into rdbms (sql).
Create a sso openid system for retailers where they can log in see their open orders. You can assign them from the db based on location, round robin, inventory, schedule, many possibilities. Provide customer with feedback from dealer,retailer notes.
Control the routing and monitor service sla and you will control quality and customer service.


yanche hit it on the head, in our group i do most of the architecture, programming, database but all the design, human factors is done by my partner.