Webpage

[RedHeep]

I've got a couple of options here. I need to know what everyone thinks.

I can build the website. I need to know where to load it to, what you want in it and how to integrate ticket sales and online registration into it so that it interfaces with the appropriate club paypal accounts.

I can source it out. All the same things, but with someone who understands how to manipulate code and provide a theme/graphic that's more professional. I don't know what it would cost, but it might be worth it to alleviate the load on us and have someone drum it up. Once it's designed, it belongs to us and we can do whatever we want with the pages later.

What pages do you want? Off the top of my head, you need a homepage, sponsorship page, photo gallery, maps/trail information, registration, giveawayxj tickets and a contact page.

My wife has cousins in advertising and web design. She put the feeler out today to see if we can get a hook up. We need to establish what we want and then I can build it. I need jeff to chime in to tell me what I need to do to format it and get it loaded into the domain.

 

[Goatman]

Josh, I keep hoping we can dig up the past pages and just update them, or at least use them for a template. We've had all this stuff before, and I know it's out there somewhere. I think it's best to keep it pretty simple, something like a general info page, a registration page, and a give-a-way XJ page.

 

[lobsterdmb]

I have a giveaway xj page up and running already.... www.giveawayxj.com, so just link to that

 

[Goatman]

That should work.

Thinking about it, a photo gallery would be a real nice thing to have.

 

[RedHeep]

The attraction to vendors and participants hinges on whether the site looks like an amateur did it or a professional.

I'm an amateur. I don't have the graphi design experience but I know people who do.

I also think we should wrap the raffle jeep into it so we're not linking all over the net.

In the end, if we establish a quality website now, there's no reason why we can't encompass the rest of our events into it and make it a viable asset to the club. We need to be able to pitch more than an outdated forum to our potential sponsors.

 

[XJEEPER]

I've attended this event for the past several years http://www.winterontherocks.com/?page_id=210# where they cater to approx 230 rigs for a 2 day event. Utah 4x4 Club is the sponsor and I've reached out to the President for more info on who designed their website. It appears to be a site that could be modified to support multiple events in the future.

The format appears to flow well and provide the neccessary info and could incorporate vendor sponsors and Raffle Jeep info as well as the Registrations and Trail info.

Thoughts?

 

[Goatman]

I'm thinking we should look into somehow using the store setup for payment of reg fees and shirt orders, and XJ tickets. I'm not a web guy at all, but it seems working with the payment ability we already have with the store and then coordinating that with the web pages for tickets and event registration is what we need. We're dependent on the few who know how to do that. Getting a web page set up is one thing, coordinating the links for payment and hitting a button to mail in a registration form will require a knowledgeable person to have access to our forum and or store web code and access keys.

 

[RedHeep]

That's why I want to avoid the store altogether. It's set up and running and adding the event to it is going to require work on everyone's part who deals with it.

The MWC used a third party to run their registration and it worked out well. I can create the forms through google docs and imbed it into the website as long as I have dedicated Paypal addresses for the fees. I want to stay away from integrating our existing payment options so that we don't have to undo what we did later on.

To be honest, I would love a total redo of the website, the forum and the store. But that's a discussion for another forum.

 

[Goatman]

OK, it's simple to get different Paypal accounts, I think Johnny already did it with the giveaway XJ and I bet we already have it for event registration. As far as having a professional develop the webpage Letterman has volunteered to build a page for us, and he's a graphic designer by trade, he would just need the payment info and link info.

 

[RedHeep]

OK, it's simple to get different Paypal accounts, I think Johnny already did it with the giveaway XJ and I bet we already have it for event registration. As far as having a professional develop the webpage Letterman has volunteered to build a page for us, and he's a graphic designer by trade, he would just need the payment info and link info.

Sounds good. I'm out. Do what you want.

 

[GSequoia]

FYI I just set a store up for SoCal using the same system we use at national. One of the reasons I did this is so that I know that cart system.

I'm confident we can set up product to handle all product and registration using ZenCart. I would recommend we huddle and figure out all of the various details and add-ons, etc. We should also include a BLM fees option. We may be able to get a lot of the costs covered up-front this way.

If we start the discussion soon I can test it in the SoCal Store before taking it to the main store. As part of this I'd expect we overhaul the main store too. I will volunteer to run the digital side of the store but Rick will still have to do the shipments, etc. I know he doesn't know how to use it.

If ou want to see what the SoCal store looks like go to www.naxja-socal.org/store

 

[macgyvr]

The tickets for the giveawayXJ are being shipped to CAL as we speak.

mac 'needs to be in the page design somewhere' gyvr

 

[lobsterdmb]

Once cal gets the tickets and we are ready for sales to start, let me know and I can set up a paypal button to buy tickets on the www.giveawayxj.com webpage.

 

[macgyvr]

Where are we on the webpage? Pre-registration?

mac 'this forum needs to start getting active' gyvr

 

[macgyvr]

We need a webpage and registration page?

mac 'update?' gyvr

 

[XJensen]

We need a webpage and registration page?

mac 'update?' gyvr

What are we going to preregister for? Trials, dinner?

I thought we were not going to do this due to no shows.

 

[GSequoia]

If we're going to sell dinner Mac we can use the store (and provide a link on the webpage to it). We could conceivably do it for trail registrations but I'd personally prefer that gets handled on site in Utah. Mainly because I bet they would fill up fast and we'd get people discouraged and not come thinking they wouldn't have anything to do, the event would come around and half those rusn are suddenly empty.

I can fix the store up and make it work. I don't want to be the guy shipping out product/taking money but I can make it functional. I have experience with ZenCart, I use it for the SoCal store I built.

No reason to re-invent a purchase system when we already have one.


Edit: As Friday dinner boss I am a fan of pre-selling dinner tickets with no refund. This will help give us a more accurate count (as well as soften the initial cost blow). If we over-purchase we can donate the rest to a food bank.

 

[macgyvr]

I was really posting to get Goatman to comment on what is going on. I talked to him on the phone the other night...

I'm not planning this, he is. I'm only looking to see some progress.

He is looking for someone to take under his wings (or armpit) to help so that in 5 years they can plan it.

You are correct that we will only do trail sign up on site.

But registrations, tshirts, dinner, etc needs to be preregistered.

The store paypal is taking all the giveawayxj ticket presales so we may want to be careful how we are sending money to it. The membership one is already too busy to have anything added to it.

mac 'paging the goatman, paging the goatman' gyvr

 

[Goatman]

I found this: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=959348&highlight=25th

That leads to this: http://eventreg.naxja.org/

but I don't see where a link was used to e-mail the form. We can revise the form, though I don't know how to access the form to edit it, or get it posted to be used. I'm assuming using some kind of store setup would be best.