Building a Website

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Websites can be an excellent way to reach a wide audience quickly. They have the potential to provide much needed quality information about conditions to individuals who are researching them independently. In a lot of cases, they can be a first or early source of information on genetic disorders. A well-designed website that gets a lot of traffic can be an enormous asset. There are no hard and fast standards as far as content. However, Genetic Alliance's Access to Credible Genetics Resources program has toolkits addressing this, and many universities also have suggestions and scales to rate resources.

[edit] Making a Website

Many organizations are finding designers to build intricate sites for them, in order to provide sophisticated services like message boards and databases of resources for disorders. Hiring a web designer to do freelance work is a reasonable option for advocacy organizations, especially if there is not enough work or monetary resources to support a full time employee. In order to circumvent this problem, it might be possible for multiple orgs to hire a professional and give them work on a contractual basis so they would have a full workload. It would be also a great introduction for them into the non-profit sector. Another option is to ask volunteers to build and maintain the website. This could work for specific sites and orgs, but volunteers usually work on a very flexible schedules, and may not be able to respond to immediate website needs. Consistency is the important thing. It is extremely beneficial if the website is constructed with solid code and updates are made regularly.

Many web designers have websites, like this:
http://www.yourgraphicsguy.com
http://www.webtrix.com (Good for hosting and designing complex features like shopping carts, and you can do maintenance yourself.)
http://www.kineticsolutionsservices.com/
http://www.novelprojects.com/

[edit] Factors to Consider

  • The complexity of the site design
  • Resources available to the organization for site design
  • The cost of professional site help
  • The potential of the site for growth and change (especially complicated additions like message boards and shopping carts)
  • Location! Prices for web design services tend to vary; they are generally higher near large cities.
  • Some designers pay per page, and often prices vary based on the amount of coding that needs to be done.


It's worth shopping around based on your organization's needs!

[edit] Internal Links

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