May VW News

In This Issue:
1. Rethinking Crime and Punishment www.rethinking.org.nz New Website Evaluation
2. Our FREE two page website evaluation categories
3. Value Websites' Project Brief Survey
4. Our Affiliate Programme - we pay you
5. Tip of the Month - What is PrtScn?

1. Rethinking Crime & Punishment www.rethinking.org.nz Website Evaluation

A major task for Value Websites during this month was to evaluate the newly launched Rethinking Blog. This Blog, associated newsletter and other features, works in concert with the Rethinking website which has been adapted to work in harmony with the Blog. The development project which was undertaken by Doughty Consulting and overseen by Prison Fellowship New Zealand was partially funded by the Dept. of Internal Affairs Community Grants Fund. A condition of "sign off" was that the work be independently assessed against the funding application conditions and good web design standards. A major part of the review was to assess the functionality and compliance of the newsletter creation and delivery system including registered subscriber responses. Impressively, the opening rate for each edition of the newsletter is around 20% . This is very high indicating that the subscriber base is a highly motivated group interested in the issues of crime and punishment being discussed in it and the associated websites and pages.

Website evaluations are requested and undertaken for a number of reasons. At Value Websites we have developed, see below, an evaluation brief which can be used to assess how an existing website could be improved or re-developed against marketing objectives. It might be that a fuller website (e)valuation, including historical financial performance, could be the basis for a website or web-based business sale. Or, as in Rethinking's case, a requirement to justify web development expenditure of public money.

2. Our FREE Two Page Website Evaluation

Value Websites regularly receives enquiries asking us for comment about what we think of the enquirer's web presence. The introduction to our Website Evaluations summarises our objectives in providing them:

This brief website evaluation examines your website as objectively as we can. We have considered your site from 11 perspectives. On the basis of what we have observed we offer 5-7 recommendations for improvement. It might be that you will decide to incorporate some or all of these in an edit of your existing website. Alternatively, you may consider that it is time to develop a new website.

This evaluation is provided gratis and there is no requirement that Value Websites will be engaged to do any more work for you, beyond the compiling of this report. You are free to use this report as you will. We trust that it will be in some small way a catalyst for improving the quality and effectiveness of your web presence.

Evaluation Categories are: Design, Menu/s, Imagery, Text, Copywriting, Credibility, Products/Services, Conversion Pathway/s, Usability, Speed Test/s, Search Engine Optimisation.

The  report concludes with 5-7 Recommendations which will improve the (marketing) performance of your website and/or serve as a basis for beginning a website redevelopment process.

Why not request one of our FREE evaluations for your website?

3. Value Websites' Project Brief Survey

This new service for registered members of Value Websites is located under the "Websites" menu link. Our project brief is designed to assist you and us to think through the first stages of a website (re)development. The brief surveys a potential VW client in an effort to help establish base website development objectives. It is a necessary step to help us answer the inevitably asked question, "How much will it cost me to (re)develop my website?" The information collected helps us to formulate a realistic quotation by allowing us to quantify the amount of work and the software that may be required in a particular website development. Usually our response upon receiving a completed Project Brief is to ask some more questions to help us clarify client expectations and to provide a fully-formed quotation.

To access the project brief you will need to have logged in to Value Websites, before clicking on: www.valuewebsites.co.nz/Project-Brief

4. Our Affiliate Programme - We Pay You

Value Websites' affiliate programme has been developed to allow registered members to benefit from referring people who purchase our products and services. The intro to the programme webpage summarises the programme:

Website members can benefit financially from their promotion of our products and services.

It's easy to do and you can earn $5 for each person who signs up for membership of Value Websites using your affiliate url.

In addition, 5% (excl. GST) of your membership signup's payments to us during the first six months of their membership will be paid to you.

N.B. New members must signup themselves using your affiliate link - you cannot do it for them!

We provide text and banner ads for you to use on your website, in emails or otherwise to promote our products and services. Remember: NO SPAM please!

Take a look and feel free to comment, suggest, ask if you think there is an issue we have not made clear or could be improved. You'll find our affilaite programme details at: www.valuewebsites.co.nz/Affiliate-Programme

5. Tip of the Month - What is PrtScn?

You likely have a 'PrtScn' key on your computer's keyboard, but have you used it and what does it do? 'PrtScn' is shorthand for 'Print Screen'. In other words, when you press it, an image of your computer screen is created and placed on your "clipboard". This image can then be used 'as is' or manipulated for a variety of purposes. Perhaps a technician or help desk needs to know exactly what you are seeing, or you want to show a friend or workmate something. I often PrtScn to inlude an Adwords statistics image with an invoice for my management of a client's Adwords account - the Google stats provided serve as evidence that the Adwords clicks are real.

Often before  pressing 'PrtScn' I get rid of the various toolbars at the top of the screen by clicking on View >> Full Screen to provide a larger view of the page. I'll also often use 'Picture Manager' or other image editing software to 'crop', 'resize', 'sharpen', 'email' or otherwise manipulate or use 'PrtScn' images.

Thanks for viewing and reading this page. I trust that there's been something here of value for you.

Kind regards,

Terry Alve
Manager
Value Websites