Building Your Community Center’s Website
July 12, 2021 Community Projects 0
So you have a community center and need a website. What do you do to get started? Well that is an easy question to answer. There are many sites that offer free websites such as Tumblr. But what you really need is to invest in a domain name form any reputable domain name company online and set up a self-hosted WordPress site. This can be done by yourself or you can hire someone, but seeing as how you’re a non-profit it would be easier to do it yourself and cost a lot less.
- Domain names
Domain names generally run anywhere from .99 to 12.95 for the first year depending on who you purchase form and who is running a special, but remember when the renewal comes around that low cost name could cost you 30-40 dollars for one year renewal so be careful who you use. Domain names is the web address that you type in to direct you to your page. So it’s very important to pick something that reflects your community centers message.
- WordPress platform
WordPress is the platform that houses your files and where you login to handle your cpanel and dashboard. This is where you will set up your design and write your articles pertaining to the community centers activities. This can be done with a little CSS coding or you can install a standard free theme and tweak it to how you like it. The CSS coding will need to be done by and expert but the free theme can be done by yourself. It’s a simple download and pick colors, sidebars, footers, and buttons. You will need a header and that can be created through picmonkey.com with a few simple clicks.
- Buttons
Buttons are an essential part of blogging or business pages. You will need to go to CSS3 button generator in order to learn how to make buttons for your side bar. Buttons make everything so streamlined and professional looking. You will also need a button for your page to direct people from other sites to your site. This is called advertising.
- Design and theme
Once you have set up your page theme and design you will need to start adding an about us page, a contact page, and some basic information about the community center. This requires a competent writer to put into words the great work your community center does for the community. You can also do a schedule of events and price listing for any fee based services.
- Writing
Making pages at the top near the header will help you to organize everything into separate areas of the blog. Such as a page about activities for children and adults, or fee services offered, the gym page, or computer lab page, and local events. These are all things that will help the community to keep up to date on activities and functions at the community center.
- Advertising
By offering advertising on the community centers page for local businesses you can earn a profit off of the advertising to put back into the community center. This is one way to help your non-profit afford the bills that come along with running a business and a web page.