[SEDS Alumni Board] seds.org Clarity

[Frank Taylor]

Hi Ryan,

     I concur that adding new content on a regular basis will be very
helpful.  Especially because I believe the site should be adapted
to draw more attention from the general public to the benefit of
SEDS in two ways:  1) to draw more students in to become chapter
members or to start new chapters; and 2) to help generate funds
for National SEDS by generating enough traffic that advertising
revenue can be derived from the site.  Actually, the site already
generates enough traffic to earn at least several hundred dollars
a month if set up properly.

     I recommend the web site developers should coordinate with chapter
newsletters and adopt interesting content from chapter newsletters
on  a regular basis in a section on the home page.  A blurb with
a link to the real article (either at the chapter's newsletter
web site if they have  one, or a separate newsletter-article
archive web page on the site. In fact, it could be done as a blog with
RSS excerpts appearing on the home pages.  A blog would have other
benefits from a traffic generating perspective.

     Speaking of blogs, a blog format for messages from the SEDS
executive highlighting what's going on with the organization and
chapters would be a suitable, and more modern, way of keeping the
chapters and members informed.

     To help increase traffic, I think it would be useful if chapters
got together and helped develop some space related content that
might be of general public interest.  The Nine Planets content
was SEDS member-developed and still generates a great deal of
traffic.  Similar basic space-related content could be developed
and hosted on the SEDS site to generate traffic (which could also
include some tasteful ads).  The resulting ad revenue could be
used to pay for server hosting, and help fund national projects.
It is my belief that properly set up, the site could generate
a substantial percentage of the SEDS national budget.

Frank Taylor


Ryan McLinko wrote:
> 
> I am attempting to increase the clarity/effectiveness of seds.org so 
> that it may more easily convey the many things that SEDS-USA is doing.
> 
> Some potentially interesting opportunities, such as a potential 
> co-sponsorship of a conference, have been missed because of this.
> 
> There are several problems and I would like advice on how to fix:
> 1.) the front page looks relatively static
> 2.) the front page doesn't effectively portray the many projects we are 
> involved in
> 3.) the front page doesn't effectively capture people who may 
> potentially want to start a chapter
> 
> If you have some advice on how to approach these things (or can think of 
> any other problems), then please let me know.  Thanks for your help.
>