Some of you that have a lot of posts, or that have been coming to this site for awhile, like: Patrick, Tony, Joe, Marty.... I need your help with this, please respond.

 

A Question more for those of you that have good websites, or good & bad experiences in developing or changing your websites.  Ours is very basic and really lacking.  We're going to look at a complete overhaul and redesign.  I'm asking for two things here:

(1) websites you like that you can refer us to and explain what's good about it (or them if you have several good sites you like).  Please give examples or website addresses to look at.

 

(2) some do's and dont's in new development or redesign.

 

I usually like to benchmark and look at other successful things.  OK, and steal other good ideas.  But, our site is really lacking.  Like many of us, I think we do many things well, but one of the things we don't do well is our website.  We use a basic microsoft frontpage program. 

 

I've learned it's OK to dream big.  We can look at other big theatres or venues or performing arts centers sites.  Maybe not all of that pertains to us, but we can scale it down and try to use or replicate what works for us.  I've seen some with video from youtube which are really cool.  And I've seen some that have way too much content and are way too wordy.(like it's their personal file for everything).

 

Thanks much,

John

Check out our website http://www.murphysblackbartplayers.com/ - www.murphysblackbartplayers.com

We actually use Yahoo! Site Builder.  For someone like me who is html illiterate, this software is great.   Everything is basically point and click.   Another thing I like about Site Builder is that it is only 11.99 a month.  Which is great for us cost wise. 

 

One thing to do is make sure everything is easy and clear to get to.

One compliment I have gotten over and over again, is that it is easy to navigate our site.

 

As Trutter said, consistency is always good.  Have all the pages have basically the same color scheme and layout.  This makes building new pages easy and then it all looks like one site.

 

People also like to have pictures of past productions, posters, and other historical items.  I design the posters for our shows, and I always try to find posters done by other theaters, for ideas.  I also always love to have pictures so everyone involved in the production can be highlited.

 

So anyway, feel free to check out our site, and here are a few others in our area that I like.

 

http://srt.derekmaxson.com/index.html - http://srt.derekmaxson.com/index.html

http://www.stage3.org/ - http://www.stage3.org/

http://www.murphyscreektheatre.org/ - http://www.murphyscreektheatre.org/

 

Hope this helps.

 

We ended up hiring someone (very reasonably priced) to revamp our website.  Before that it was very very plain jane. 

 

I first did a google search with the simple term:  community theatre.  After looking at several websites...I think I looked over every hit on the first 5 pages of search results...I made a wish list of the information that would be beneficial to have on our new site.

 

I took the wish list and created an outline from it for what would be associated with what page.  I gave all of that info to the web designer and continued compiling all of the information.  Some was gleened from things like our letter to patrons, news articles about us, our historical information, etc.  The resources are endless.

 

The web designer was great to work with.  I talked with him on the phone a couple of times, so he could get an idea of what style we were looking for.  We really wanted something classy and eye catching.  Someone else on our board wanted a red curtain, etc.  Most of the communications took place via email, such as sending the info to him that I complied.  I did all of the writing.  He did all of the design and layout.  It really was a lot of work, but worth every bit.

 

We now have an email address so people can contact us, which is something we never had before.  Over the past few months, we have had contacts from 3 folks who moved to the area and want to get involved on stage.  We have had contacts from a couple of people who want to get involved technically as well.  We were most recently contacted by a large corporation in the area who wants to add our shows to their company newsletter.  This is great news, because it was someone we had that type of relationship with before and lost touch with them.

 

We have a forum on our website to allow easier communication of rehearsal schedules, audition announcements, and general discussion.

 

Like trutter, I would like to add more photos to our website, but finding the time is difficult.  For now, we have moved on to revamping other areas of our operation.  And we have yet to clean up from our major flood in January (come on warm weather).  Love the idea of a presidents blog, but I'm not exactly sure what RSS is and how it works???

 

Right now we are also looking at adding an email form of a newsletter that can be sent out 4x per year.  We definately do not have enough year round involvement from the community, except during whichever production they may be involved in.

 

If you would like to check out our website, it is:  http://www.vermillionplayers.com - www.vermillionplayers.com

 

Two of the websites I found most helpful, as far as what type of information we should have on our website were:  http://www.hct.org - www.hct.org and http://www.communityplayers.org - www.communityplayers.org

 

Best of Luck and let us know how yours turns out.

  http://www.fortfindlayplayhouse.org - http://www.fortfindlayplayhouse.org

We lucked out with the design.  One of our young actors was taking a web design course in high school and needed a project.  We had a one page site prior to this that was updated maybe once every 2 years with just the address and phone numbers.  I think our young friend did a nice job for us.  We are looking at adding an archive section for photos at some near point in the future.  This should be easy as we just had the last 40 years of slides transferred over to CDs.

 

If you decide to do what I did and archive all the shows and put bios of all the players, be prepared for a lot of work.   I put in around 40-60 hours per show just on the nuts and bolts kind of stuff.  Happily, I'm "retiring" as my ct's webmaster after this season and won't have to mess with it anymore. .  It is going to be hard to pass my baby off to someone else though.

 

http://www.haddonfieldplayers.com/ - http://www.haddonfieldplayers.com/

 

I also did a show/actor database on my site that is fully searchable. I am considering turing this into an application that other groups could use on thier own sites.

 

Dan

Check it out at http://www.stageref.com/submission/producer.aspx - http://www.stageref.com/submission/producer.aspx and please do let us know what you think.

 

PS. At least one person here mentioned Yahoo! site builder which I've also heard great things about.

Thanks again!