Catholic Techno Geek

A non-profit can develop and have a website that fits within a small budget. All one needs is a web hosting service, WordPress, a computer, some time, and someone with some computer knowledge (usually found at your local high school or nearby college if you feel you lack the skills).

The first step in developing a website, contrary to some, is not finding  a geek or a web hosting service but deciding what you want your accomplish with your website. Or in other words, what is your goal?

From this goal, everything else must flow. Everything you do with your website must add to that goal. If it doesn’t help you with this goal, it shouldn’t be an element in your design.

For example, my goal is have a ministry website for the people over 65 year in age. I have gotten to the point where I am ready to design the website and I am beginning to think about the theme to use for the website. (I will talk about more about themes latter. Just know that they help determine what your website will look like.)   In my search, I find theme like the “Gothic” theme below .

Gothic Theme by Simple Themes (Click for larger image)

Realizing that some of the people in my target audience may be experiencing vision problems,  I want is make sure the site is very easy to read. The Goth theme’s  layout is clean making it easy to read.

But do the other elements work for the 65 plus target audience? These elements are designed to give the website appeal to fans of goth, and most likely would not appeal to my target audience. The goth theme could also take away some of my creditability as a church ministry.

Since there are design elements that distract from my goal, it would be wise for me to not chose this theme for my website. However, I might want to look for another theme that is similar in design.

Your goal should do more than just specify your target audience aka the group of people you want to attract to your site. It should also specify the purpose of your site.  This provides you with another litmus test when you consider not only the design of your website, but also the contents of your website.

Continuing the 65 plus website , I might have my purpose for my website to be an opportunity for people in this demographic to have a site where they have a way of socially networking with one another. Obviously in my design I need something in my website that will allow people to do this such as BuddyPress. (More on BuddyPress later).

Once you have gotten your goal developed, the next step is to find a hosting site which I will talk about in my next posting.