Web site development, hosting and
maintenance
This free service provides web sites for
organisations that :-
- have charitable purposes
- use the English language
- are willing to actively publicise a web
site of their own
Please note that we only host and maintain
the web sites that we have developed from the
text and graphic images provided by charities and
voluntary organisations.
We agree to
- Develop your web site.
- Host your web site with an address of the
form "www.freetocharities.org.uk/yourname", but
if preferred you can purchase your own domain
name to forward to this address.
- Provide monthly maintenance of your web
site. You e-mail requests for changes to the
existing pages or the addition of new pages to
your web site.
- Provide a count of the number of visitors
to your web site each month which you can view
by visiting your web site.
Your organisation agrees to
- Provide text and graphics for the pages
of your web site
Prepare the text using Microsoft Word, Windows
Wordpad or just plain text (txt) disc files,
which ever is easiest for you. Your graphic
images can be included with the text or sent as
separate files. We can accept graphic files in
most formats, but jpg or gif files are usually
the quickest for you to send. If you want to
have many graphic images, then we recommend
that you use a free service (see below) to
create a photo album and then include a link to
your photo album on your web site.
When you have developed all of the content for
your web site, please send it to us as e-mail
attachment file(s) or a zip archive.
- Publicise your web site
Publicising your web site effectively is
essential in order to attract visitors. Without
visitors there is no reason to have a web site.
It is a condition that you publicise your web
site in order that we continue to host and
maintain it. Visit your web site at least once
each month to check how many visitors your web
site is getting.
To publicise your web site you will need to
:-
- include your web site address on your
letter headings, notices, advertisements, and
at the bottom of all of your e-mails.
- notify your users, members, volunteers and
sponsors of your web site and provide
information and news about the activities and
progress of your organisation, possibly with an
events page and a newsletter.
- notify sympathetic organisations of your
web site and request that they include a link
to your web site on their web site. Search
engines such as www.google.com can
be useful to help find well rated sympathetic
organisations that may be willing to include a
link to your web site on their web site. Just
search google for 'freetocharities.org.uk' and
you will come up with many organisations that
already include links to web sites that we have
developed.
Information you need to know -
-
What web site content should we
provide?
We recommend that you give information for
web pages about -
- your organisation - objectives and
people
- the activities and services
offered
- volunteer and financial support
sought
- a programme of events and meetings
- and a newsletter if applicable.
Be specific and brief, providing all of the
important information needed by your
visitors.
A few good quality photos (not scanned, and
without date and time stamps) should be be
used within the text to illustrate the text
of your web site. For free standing pictures
set up a photo album using Flickr (Yahoo)
which can contain as many photos (with
captions) as you want. We can then link your
photo album so that visitors to your web site
can access all of your photos.
- What formats are acceptable?
Text should be in text (.txt), rich text format
(.rtf) or Microsoft Word (.doc) format.
Pictures are best in .jpg format, but many
other formats can be accepted. Pictures can be
included in a Microsoft Word document.
We are not able to accept other format types
such as Microsoft Publisher or Power Point,
videos or sound.
- Can we have our own domain name?
You may purchase a domain name from any domain
name reseller. There are many domain name
resellers (search - www.google.com -
for "domain names") and make sure that you
purchase a domain name that can forward to
"http://www.freetocharities.org.uk/yourname/index.php".
Domain names from - www.lowcostnames.co.uk
- are suitable (but do not purchase web
hosting).
-
What facilities can we have?
The following free facilities can be set up
by yourself and can be incorporated into your
web site :-
Photo albums by Flickr (Yahoo) -
set up as many photos (with captions) as you
want
Discussion forum - create your own discussion
forum at Invisionfree
Online credit/debit card donations -
- set up your
Charity Choice account (free to UK
registered charities)
- set up your Paypal account
(available in many countries)
We also provide simple online forms, see for
example the application form at the bottom of
this page.
Please note that we do not provide
- animation or sound
- archives or reference information that
can be obtained by links from your web site
to pages elsewhere on the internet
- e-commerce (selling from your web
site)
- commercial advertising from your web
site
- How long will it take before our web
site will be available?
Your web site will usually be available within
a week of receipt of your information.
Procedure for updating your web
site
- We will accept only one e-mail during any
calendar month, in which you may request an
update to your web site.
- If you want new pages then give the titles
of the new pages and make sure they do not
repeat any information that is already
contained in the existing pages of your web
site.
- If you want to update existing pages of
your web site, then give the page titles that
you want to update, and where the changed or
inserted sentences or paragraphs should be
put.
- Editing instruction should be coloured
(red) or in italics so they cannot be confused
with text to be inserted.
Applying for a free web site
If your organisation's management committee would
like to use our service, and agrees to actively
publicise the web site, then please complete the
application form and click the send button.
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