Tending Technology

1. Tending Technology Simon Huntley Lead Developer, Small Farm Central

2. Introduction • Who am I? • Small Farm Central introduction • Who are you?

3. Reasons to have a website • Professionalism • New customers • Increased connection with existing customers • Prospective employees/interns • Creative expression and show your uniqueness • Sales • Create an alternate, predictable income stream • Unique connections • Maui macadamia nut farm • Communication efficiency

4. 9 Steps to a web presence • Develop a strategy • Choose a web address • Get hosted • Developing and updating • Navigation • Adding photos • What do visitors want? • Sell • Keep it fresh

5. 1a. Develop a strategy • “Personas” • Define desired outcome for each “primary persona” • Local vs. national • Define expectations & success • Updates • Models • Who is doing it right? • Plan for five years down the road

6. 1b. Consider a dynamic strategy • Plan for future customer expectations • Be on the cutting edge • Does not necessarily require more money or knowledge – just know the tools • Create conversation and community • Leading to even more direct sales and committed customers • Be unique and exceptional

7. 2. Choose an address • Kinds of addresses • Domain: http://www.yourfarm.com • Subdomain: http://yourfarm.somecompany.com • Subdirectory: http://www.somecompany.com/yourfarm • Is yours available? • http://whois.net • http://godaddy.com • Dot-com or Dot-other • Costs

8. 3. Get hosted • Try • Bluehost.com • Uplinkearth.com • Godaddy.com • Small Farm Central • Consider email addresses • Costs

9. 4. Developing and updating • On your own.. • Dreamweaver • Pro and con • Cost: $300 • Any text editor if you are willing to learn HTML/CSS • http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/ • Or with help.. • Online “content management system” • Search “CMS” • Mac.com Homepage • Yahoo! small business • Small Farm Central

10. 5. Navigation • Stick to one style • Keep organized • Dreamweaver templates • Watch customers or a family member use your site

11. 6a. Adding photos • Creates an instant connection between farmer and eater • Choose a camera • Inexpensive is o.k. for the web • External hosting options • Flickr • Snapfish • Picasa

12. 6b. Use Flickr for photos • Use existing Yahoo ID or createhttp://www.flickr.com

13. 6c. Resizing • Resizing photos for the web • Detail vs. speed • 640 by 480 pixels is enough • Consider dial-up connections especially for rural customers • Optimize photos that will be load often • Picasa

14. 7a. What do visitors want? • Basic page elements • “About” • “Contact Us” page • Farming philosophy • Photo gallery • Staff bios • Updated news/blog section • Recipes • Currently available products • FAQ

15. 7b. Beyond the basics • Be different: allow feedback and connection • Forum • Comments • User generated content such as recipes • Customer profiles • Be creative!

16. 8. Sell • Single items: • Google checkout • PayPal • Shopping cart • Yahoo Small Business • $40/month + 1.5% of sales • Etsy • 20 cents to list an item, 3.5% of sales • Local Harvest • 10% of sales • Small Farm Central

17. 9. Keep it fresh • Make a schedule and keep to it • Set a reminder • Make it easy! • Take photos every week • Delegate the task • Include dates of last update

18. A guerilla marketing idea • Start with a good base site coupled with ecommerce • Send product samples to food bloggers • Include recipes, information about the farm, and an offer to guest post • Be different, get written about, and let the sales come in

19. Testing • Always test in major design changes in multiple browsers • IE 6 • IE 7 • Firefox • Maybe: Opera,Safari • Remember that each browser / operating system combination will render differently

20. Getting right with Google • Submit your site:http://www.google.com/addurl/ • No direct control over what Google lists in search results • The key: get other sites to link to your site

21. Getting listed • Related farming organizations will list your farm and link to your website • List with: • LocalHarvest • New Farm Locater • Regional or niche organizations • Each link helps with Google ranking and gains human visitors!

22. Statistics • Google analytics:

23. Email lists • Emails are a central part of modern communication • Average American checks email 5x a day • Drive traffic and sales to your website • Collecting email addresses • Legally • Successfully • Farmer’s markets • On website • Be consistent • Weekly with product lists • Monthly with regular updates

24. Software for email lists • Constant contact • $15/month for up to 500 addresses • Zoodoka • Free blog digests • PHPList • Ask your host • Small Farm Central • Mail merge with Microsoft Word and Excel

25. Blogging 1/2 • Defining blogs • Try different terms if you are uncomfortable with “blogs” • Reverse chronologically listed posts • Often takes comments and tries to stimulate conversation • Define blog for yourself! • Advantages • Consistently posted content keeps visitors coming back • Creative outlet • Frame the conversation • Rancho Gordo vs. Slow Foods • Personalizes the business • Long term goals: books and other opportunities • Try to integrate into main site

26. Blogging 2/2 • Consistency • Tiny farm blog • If you are going to do it, do it right • Photo for each entry • Can be very short and to the point • Just explain one challenge of the day or week • Great examples • Tiny farm blog: http://www.tinyfarmblog.com • Rancho Gordo: http://www.ranchogordo.typepad.com • Ladybug Letter: http://www.ladybugletter.com/

27. Blogger • http://smallfarmcentral.blogspot.com

28. RSS feeds • What is RSS? • The future of web browsing • See Google Reader • Comes with most blogging software (including Small Farm Central) • Feed Burner to track subscriptions • Daily digest emails

29. Add a map to your website

30. Showing up.. The best thing Seth Godin did for his web marketing in 2007: “I showed up. Underrated, but important.”

31. Comments or questions • ..your turn • or let’s see your site…