Saturday, February 7, 2009

Advice, Please

If you take care of your group's/guild's website, can you give me some pointers? I'm trying to develop a website/blog for my group, Marlborough Weavers. (I just set it up yesterday so no content there, and without pics, it's a little drab looking...)

Instead of giving up all National Guild-related activities, and Marlborough Weavers is a granddaughter of that organization, I decided to give back to the good women who have been my friends, mentors and co-conspirators since 2001. It's the least I can do considering I don't bake but I eat their goodies, and I don't host meetings but visit their homes!

Anyhoo, here's the thing. This is not going to be a website to inform its members and act as a bulletin board. Rather, it's going to be, in the first instance, a platform to showcase their work to people outside the group, including weavers from around the world and the many friends and family of members who live overseas.

In the second instance, I'd like it to introduce our activities, classes, exhibitions, and other outrageous shananagans these respectable ladies get up to. Through it, if we get visitors or even new members, wonderful!!

In the third, but not insignificant, instance, I want new weavers to have a platform to show what they've achieved and be proud of their achievement.

And like any other blog, I'd like it to promote communication, and if we get an occasional compliment, great. Constructive criticism would be just as welcome.

In all likelihood it won't be a whiz-bang web site in terms of hits, but I'd like it to sizzle and simmer quitely in the background for a long time to come. So... steady posting is what comes to mind first.

I aim to be only the keeper of the blog, and contents should trickle in from other members, although when we have exhibitions and classes I can attend, I'll definitely do my bit to contribute.

So, with target viewers/readers as broad as these, what are the things to be mindful of? Are there pitfalls? Or if you came to see a weaving group website/blog that showcase works, what would you like to see/read?

We're a casual lot, so I think it'll have a laid-back, friendly look, rather than a polished, professional front, though some of the weaving, I can assure you right now, are not to be taken lightly. I'm also mindful of such basic matters as easy of reading and font type/size and colors.

Any thought will be greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch.

4 comments:

  1. Welcome home.
    Have you discovered the Handweavers, Spinners and Dyers Guild of Western Australian, Inc at www.weaversguild.wordpress.com facilitated by Shirley Treasure.
    Glad to hear you are still supporting your friends, mentors, tutors.

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  2. Yes, I think what we're going for is the gallery section of a guild website. I don't expect the majority of our members to check the site at any regular intervals - or any at all for some. So it's more towards outside the group.

    And that kind of makes it easy because I won't be worried about outside vs inside.

    Ta, D. Now that you have a profile, perhaps you should start blogging, too?

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  3. I actually dont know how that happened. Maybe ... soon!

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  4. Oh, D, that is pretty funny. I can only live and hope, then. Or you can join Marlborough Weavers and get access to a regular showcase venue. Hee hee.

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