- conwy-wales.com – a template site to raise money for Rotary clubs
As with the other Rotary template sites I’ve done, the aim is that anyone with sufficient interest and enthusiasm can construct a site – all the technical work is done already (they just add text and pictures).
I have developed another template site that some clubs may be interested in.
It is a fund-raising site and I anticipate it should raise several thousand pounds for a club each year, in addition to raising the profile of the club within your local business community. It’s designed so that the ‘non-tecchie’ Rotarian can maintain things easily – text and photo’s are uploaded and everything appears ‘in the right place’.
It’s all done online and each club would have its own independent site, database and domain name. A club would also need to set up PayPal and/or Google Checkout account. Money is paid direct to the club’s account – I don’t have any involvement in it.
A club would have its own domain name (NOT a ‘Rotary’ domain name – this isn’t a club site) to reflect the catchment area of the site. It would also have its own database and site – all of which are independent of other sites using the template. There would be no ftp access to the site or database – everything would be done online. Copyright remains with 121 Technology Ltd.
Holiday accommodation, food and drink establishments and retail/other services are catered for within the template. Please see www.conwy-wales.com as an example.
What’s in it for advertisers?
- Cost – I was thinking of £20 for a listing, but a club can set its own rate.
- Helps the business owners website by providing a link back to their own site
- Statistics about visits & referrals to their own website included
- Advertises the business to the local & global community
- ‘feel good factor’ – with sufficient info on the site, the business owner would know that their money was going to a good cause. They may be proud to display that they are supporters of XYZ Rotary Club.
- As the site becomes more popular, it is even better value for advertisers as search engine rankings improve the site’s ‘importance’. A search for ‘Conwy’ returns this site in 2nd or 3rd place
What’s in it for the Rotary Club?
- Income for good causes.
- Raises the profile of the club.
- Creates a database of business contacts within the community – the advertisers might be occasionally contacted with information about club activities/requests for help.
- All club members can be involved in promoting it and providing copy/photographs
- Maybe get some more members?
- Shows we’re a progressive organisation embracing new technologies and new ways of raising funds.
Work involved;
- A club would need to have or set up a PayPal or Google Checkout account, and all payments go direct to the club.
- One or two ‘administrators’ from the club. They would need to collect photos and text to populate the database – though other club members could help in providing this.
- The menus are automatically populated, dependent upon the content added; for example, you can add as any ‘towns’ as you wish, but they only appear on the menu when you make it ‘active’. Similarly, you can add ‘villages’ and choose the nearest town
- advertisers get a month to construct their site, after which payment is required. The administrator would receive notification of this payment and need to update the record accordingly. I imagine that once the site is established, this is the only ‘work’ involved!
Whilst I would think that this is primarily for tourism related businesses, there is scope for anyone to advertise. Local clubs and societies can also enter details on the site – I’d suggest at no cost.
As I already do a significant amount of Rotary website work (the RIBI template and our own www.rotary-site.org scheme for Foundation) I can’t continue to provide all these things without earning anything! I would be making an annual charge of £400 inc vat to cover the hosting and domain costs – but this should easily be recouped through advertisers.
rotary-ribi.org
rotary-site.org