I just read a book called The DragonFly Effect (@DFlyEffect), written by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith and they had some really solid tips on using social media to drive social change. It was named for the only insect that is able to move in any direction when its four wings are working in concert. I never thought of it that way, but I like it. In the book, they reveal how four key actions come together to produce colossal results.

“By learning how to effectively Focus, Grab Attention, Engage, and Take Action, everyday people can produce extraordinary results” – whether they are trying to provide clean water, find an organ donor, or change a kid’s behavior through fun. Read more »

Fundraising is the lifeblood of nonprofits; finding a diverse mix of government, foundation, corporate and individual giving to support the mission of your organization is the key to a financially stable agency. Your website is in a prime position to offer folks the opportunity to give to an organization that aligns with their values.

Most of the nonprofits out there are doing great work, so what makes you stand out from the crowd? Positioning yourself with an intuitive, easy-to-use format lends credibility to your organization and educates the visitor. Your website lets them to learn more about you, assess your legitimacy and review your financial solvency. Designing nonprofit websites with fundraising as a focus gives visitors an opportunity to support your good work. Read more »

Designing websites for over 10 years, I’m still amazed at the number of businesses that invest in their website and leave no budget for marketing the site. The site itself is only a TOOL to showcase your product or service. The plan should fit into your overall marketing plan (which fits into your business plan). Even if you don’t have all that, you can start marketing your site with this blog post.

The good news is search engines are so powerful, once you take the steps to Make Your Site Search Engine Friendly, you’ve made some smart decisions that will pay off for years to come. Some of these suggestions will be structural and won’t involve an ongoing time commitment, while others will involve a more dedicated approach. In any event, marketing always takes both consistency and evaluation to be effective.

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Building on my previous post Five Tips for Making Your Website More Searchable, here are some more ways to adjust or build your site to increase your ranking on Google, Yahoo and, well actually all the search engines. There are differences in the ways various search engines work, but they all perform three basic tasks:

• They search the Internet ­– or select pieces of the Internet – based on important words.
• They keep an index of the words they find, and where they find them.
• They allow users to look for words or combinations of words found in that index.

In order for search engines to index the words they find, they need to be able to access all the information on the website. Here are some ways to make your site search engine friendly. Read more »

I’ve been designing websites for many years, and one of the most interesting and thoughtful books I ever read was “Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” by Steve Krug. The main message of the book was to encourage designers to create easy to use, intuitive sites. At the beginning of the Internet revolution (and even still now), many sites were created by people who had technical knowledge of html, but not a lick of design sense. Ugh.

Whenever I go to a site where I can’t find what I’m looking for very quickly, it’s a frustrating experience. I always remind myself to simplify, simplify, simplify when organizing information. If it’s a site where you can find everything easily, the user has a more productive; less frustrating experience and the business or organization gets their information out quickly and easily. I’m MUCH more likely to return to a site for information once I’ve had a positive experience than hit the search engine again to find similar information and avoid the nightmare site I got it from the last time.

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