Shameless GKPE Promotion Web Site - Planning thread

OK here we go, first thanks tim for the great idea

So we are going to look into a website about GKPE that points here.

This raises a number of high level questions:
- How do we pay for it?
- What is the site name?
- What do we put on the site?
- How do we host it?
- Who keeps it up to date?
- Do we need a logo?

Some thoughts to get the ball rolling (in Petes brain dump order )
- As Tony pointed out we could have email addresses with the domain name, this would require some more complex hosting though, not just a simple piggy back on someone’s server
- We could have member profiles which would be optional, the member provides the info, could do links to personal and professional sites etc...
- A blurb about POTN in general (aside from GKPE)
- There would be links to the main relevant threads on POTN
- In respect to POTN we will not be running any forum type services on the site
- A blurb about GKPE and what we do
- The events calendar
- A resources/links page, favourite local suppliers etc, Photoshop actions, links to guides

I think the key is not to make it too much work, or it will not be kept up to date, where possible it may be best to leverage POTN threads.

Also who is happy to put into the costs of such a site? If we do a good job, someone (one of our local suppliers) might pay for a banner ad or something that will pay for the running

Prehaps approach AC for some sponsorship to help with costs?

I would happily put in $20-30 a year to help with a site that would have on it a blurb about GKPE, some photos from each outing, and member profiles with links to personal websites, and back to POTN.
Don't need a GKPE email address though.

What is the aim of the web site?

Are we wanting to become a more formal group / club.
Are we wanting to create a bigger group?

I happy with Moppies $20-30 a year. Call it $25 a year per member

It should be called GKPE, yes we need a logo. Each finincial member should have a page. Blurb about themselves but a common theme/design

Auckland camera, Canon, Apix etc. I assume there will be no chat/forums on it.
Do we want a tutorial pages How to's etc Places to go and see in Auckland/Welly etc

I don't know if it is a good idea to formalise it too much, once we have memberships etc, we will need to formalise it, and that will mean all the cr*p that goes with running a club.

I think promotion is to get a larger group to form a local community of Canon enthusiasts. No meetings as such, just the regular scheduled events plus anything else that just crops up, it is working well now, lets not try and fix what isn't broken.

I like the idea of ‘members’ (lets call them that for now) who financially contribute having their profile up on the site, allow them to do a blurb on their photographic business if you have one

Not sure about membership fees as such, should be a donation, even if it is fixed, there are two issues with financials, the first, who carries the shortfall, and secondly what happens with any excess, back accounts require the who thing to be formalised.

A number of us here do run our own businesses, it would be easy to incorporate into one of those (GST advantages too), but does carry the risk of visibility to the greater group.

I really don’t want this to get too complex if we can help it.

Hosting costs would start at $50ish a year and go up from there depending in services, domain rego is $25-50 a year, and all goes up from there depending on what we do.

I like this idea. You could say that it's a formal start to a online photography club for new zealanders, with ties to POTN.

But in saying that I don't wont another forum to go to, as I would more than likey stay here.

I think the idea behind the web site is a common place we can bring in new people. There are a few of us here that have our own web site and again we can have it listed here. That enables us to create a blurb about ourselfs and what we like to shoot.

I am happy with $25 per year. We could create a logo but it's not really needed unless we get bigger.

I know basic html stuff, but anything that means live updates or database access etc I don't know how to do. I can just do static web pages. is that all we need to do? I think any think that requires this kinda of work should be here on POTN.

personaly I think this should be as simple as possible. This will keep down the cost and the work that will go in to maintaning the page. I see this is one of the biggest problems. if we have access to a server then if someone decieds to do a tutorial or another page they can add it themselfs. The problem with this is keeping the pages looking the same etc.

but I think it doable

My idea was much simpler. Everyone interested contributes a few dollars for domain registration, we have a one page website with a short blurb, an events calendar (small table on the main page), and links to threads on POTN. That someone can do in a half hour, whereas a bigger idea will take a while to get off the ground. It can always be evolved later.

It really won't make much difference to me, it's mostly an Auckland based thing for now. I'm not sure i'd put up a link between my business and my POTN profile, because i'm quite, erm, outspoken on here, which isn't the professional image I want!

So it would only take 3 or 4 of us to put in a small amount to get it up and running?
Im happy with that.

Joint bank accounts are easy to open, prehaps have one where you (being we know your pretty trust worthy) and say, John (who I also think is pretty damn trust worthy) and Joseph (see where Im going with this) have a joint account for excess funds to go into, to pay for futrue hosting, site upgrades etc.
If the amount of funds goto say, over $100 we simply reduce, or drop the next years donation.

Then we just have a big informal club where we all trust each other.
I would be a member of a formal GKPE club, but Im not a big fan of them, to much work, and once you formalise a power structure people want in, which leads to internal politics, and before you know none of us are talking to each other anymore.

Moppie wrote in post #2073242
Then we just have a big informal club where we all trust each other. I would be a member of a formal GKPE club, but Im not a big fan of them, to much work, and once you formalise a power structure people want in, which leads to internal politics, and before you know none of us are talking to each other anymore.

I would have to argrea with this idea. just a big informal club with a few trust people to look after our money I think we should keep it simple, which means less work for everyone.

It looks like tim is our webmaster

Moppie wrote in post #2073242
I would be a member of a formal GKPE club, but Im not a big fan of them, to much work, and once you formalise a power structure people want in, which leads to internal politics, and before you know none of us are talking to each other anymore.

Yep formal clubs with presidents etc attract the wrong kind of people, the ones who are interested in establishing their own little empires etc, and forget what the club was there for in the first place. Lets avoid this at all costs for now, if we have to re can re-address it at a later stage.

I think tim has a point about simplifying things too, lets get a basic one pager off the ground and then develop it further.

As for bank accounts, can you open a joint one with out a formal club? That with several peoples names in and say double signatories would probably work. We just post our costs as we go, and people can elect to adjust their donations to reflect that.

tim wrote in post #2073241
I'm not sure i'd put up a link between my business and my POTN profile, because i'm quite, erm, outspoken on here, which isn't the professional image I want!

No, but you could have a professional Tim ..... Personal profile on the GKPE site, with a link to your bussiness website as well. Anything to generate more marketing

FlyingPete wrote in post #2073279
As for bank accounts, can you open a joint one with out a formal club? That with several peoples names in and say double signatories would probably work. We just post our costs as we go, and people can elect to adjust their donations to reflect that.

I opened a Joint account with Amanda, with out any questions as to what our relationship was.

We can just say you and Joesph are Brothers, and John is your "room mate"

Joint accouts for flats are also quite common, I don't think there will be any trouble with setting one up in all 3 names.

Bank account is fairly easy, works the same as a social club setup, just spoke to ASB about it.

I would like to see a basic front page first before we do any $$$ stuff though.

tim wrote in post #2073241
I'm not sure i'd put up a link between my business and my POTN profile, because i'm quite, erm, outspoken on here, which isn't the professional image I want!

LOL so people have to pay for you to be nice

So back to the real question what is the main goal of having a website?

weka2000 wrote in post #2073387
So back to the real question what is the main goal of having a website?

Recruitment.

At the moment we give tell people to go to POTN (giving them a large URL) and tell them to search for GKPE, they then hit several threads, any luck its the rambling thread, they are then introduced to GKPE by our general ramble and banter not really finding out too much about us, may not get the point and move on.

On the other hand if we give them out much shorter URL, it will have some info about us, what we get up to and some links to relevant threads and also a blurb about POTN in general and how to join up, much more user friendly, much more likely to snag some more members

Later on we can add cool stuff like profiles and the events calendar.