Purpose of this Seminar	The Internet and the World Wide Web are drastically changing the way people can communicate with one another.  JCNA clubs that have an effective web site are able to reach and inform more people than ever over traditional means.  This discussion is an easy to understand tutorial on what is required to create a useful Jaguar Club Web Site. Topics: What is a Web Site? How can a Web Site Benefit Our Club? How To Create Your Club Web Site Five Key Elements of Your Club Web Site Keeping Your Site Current - How to easily keep your site current, up to date, and informative What is a Web Site? A web site, also called a home page is a video brochure that can be viewed by anyone in the world that has access to the Internet.  It is available for viewing 24 hours a day.  Unlike a paper brochure, it can be updated and changed as often as needed. How can a Web Site Benefit Our Club? The more easily people can learn about your club, its activities, members, events, and meetings, the more likely you are to both attract new members and retain existing members.  People can "seek" information about Jaguar Clubs on the Internet and "find" information about your club.
Content is much more important than appearance.             Also don't beat yourself up that your page does not look as good as Jaguar Cars Home page.  Corporate web sites have hundreds of thousands of dollars in graphics and programming in them.	How To Create Your Club Web Site There are many detailed steps in creating a web site.  An on-line resource describing this can be found on the JCNA web site at: http://www.jcna.com/library/webmasters/ The #1 priority in creating your web site is that this step is not technical.  It is the content of what you will put on the site.  Follow the guidelines at the link above to develop the "flow" of your on-line brochure (i.e. your web site). The #2 rule is do not embark on the "coding" (i.e. the underlying HTML that makes a web site appear visually pleasing on the screen) unless you: Are willing to learn HTML Are "computer savvy" Are very patient Committed to the time involved, both learning, creating and updating the site Don't expect perfection Just as a 100 point Concours Jaguar can not be created by an inexperienced amateur, a "beautiful" web site can not be created by "paint-by-number" software such as Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe, or others!!!  In other words, don't expect Connally Leather seat covers from a J.C. Whitney Catalog--it just isn't going to happen. You must first get your content together, and even the artistic feel of how you want to "paint and upholster" the car, and then consider hiring a web site designer to "build" the web site for you.
	Five Key Elements of Your Club Web Site Why People Need to Join Your Club (Mission Statement) Schedule of Next and Upcoming Meetings (Events Calendar) Club Application Form (How to Join) Club Officer Contact Numbers, Addresses, and Email A Reason for People to Come Back to Your Site (Content)
	Keeping Your Site Current - Planning Non-Technical A web site is never effective over the long run unless it is updated frequently.  An analogy is maintaining your Jaguar.  If the tires are bald, the seats cracked and faded, and the paint dull, it will not warrant a look at the car show.  Even if it was a 100-point car at some time in the past, it is not today.  It needs a renovation and some TLC. Web sites don't deteriorate like a car ages, but they can and do get stale.  It is vital to give a reason for your club members, potential members and visitors to keep coming back to your site because: It shows the Club is Worth Joining People Can Look Forward to and Plan For Activities Members can keep in touch with others and get to know other people in the club when not at meetings A source of Jaguar Information (stories, tech tips, jokes, parts/cars "For Sale", etc.) Potential New Club Revenue $ource in Advertising DO STRATEGIES: Develop one or more web site templates so that all the basic coding is "done" and you can "fill in the blanks" with new content Revolving Content: Put Club Newsletter on-line Put pictures of members and cars on the site Read in simple "text files" using "Server Side Includes" to overwrite existing page information that needs to be updated frequently (see below). Good "link flow", ability to return to Home Page at all times Add a little bit at a time to your site (i.e. mature and grow over time) AVOID STRATEGIES: Clashing, complex (multiple) color scheme Light Characters on Dark Backgrounds Overly large picture (i.e. JPG or GIF) files-->50K per picture and/or >100K per page Multiple blinking or animated graphics. Trying to do too much at once UNDER CONSTRUCTION pages!
The file name for all SSI web pages must have a ".shtml" extension.  Check with your web hosting company for tech support of SSI.	Keeping Your Site Current & Organized - Technical A Server Side Include (SSI) is a capability of UNIX based web servers to execute any command or commands that your site is authorized to execute on a web server. The SSI HTML Tag for including a text file into a document is: <!--#include file="../files/club_budget_report.txt" --> The file " current_club_budget_report.txt" can be created with a PC editor (Notepad on PC, SimpleText on Macintosh) or created with a Word Processing program.  If done in a WP application, the file MUST be saved as a plain "text" file and must have an extension of ".txt" after the file name. If the <PRE> tag is used before and after the SSI, it will display the text file exactly as formatted.  This means all indentations, tabs, columns lining up correctly, etc. will be displayed "as-is".  No special HTML coding needs to be applied or written to the content: (other HTML code goes before here..) <PRE> <!--#include file="../files/club_budget_report.txt" --> </PRE> (more HTML code goes below here..) The use of an "updates" sub directory is very important for two reasons.  First, it keeps all the frequently modified files all in one "folder".  Second, using easy to identify file names makes it easy to update the right file (instead of page1.txt).  Third, security can be set up such that certain club members can only "upload" (i.e. FTP) files to that one directory, thereby protecting the rest of the web site from accidental overwriting or deletion.  Additionally, it would also be possible to set up different users in a club to only have the ability to update one or more files only. File Organization Do: Put files in easy to understand directories (images, snapshots, audio, updates, etc.) Use easy to know file names (e.g. application_form.html) Don't: Put all files in one directory (folder) Name files "page1.html", "image1.jpg" etc. !!

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About the author - Wayne Estrada is President of the Virginia Jaguar Club and President and founder of HostYou.com, a national Internet web site company. Wayne is a former AT&T software engineer and also teaches UNIX, Java, HTML, and CGI scripting to major U.S. corporations.