Managing a Website

I do have two websites - with WordPress and am lucky that my son knows more about using WordPress for websites than I do.  I can update, post, edit, write, etc, but when they go bell-up, I am  at a loss.

Recently the only one of my websites that is "live" had a problem.  My home page was blank and it didn't matter what I did it remained blank.  My son was busy and suggested I go onto WordPress forums to see if there were any suggestions.  Seems I am not the only one who faced the "white page of death" - weird name, but that is what I have been told it is called. I tried all suggestions to no avail.

So, frustrated, I could do nothing.  One day my son phoned - he had time to look at it!  Hooray!

It didn't take long and I received a message from him.  All was well again.  And still is. The website is here.  It doesn't do much but I do blog there too - but as I am hoping to have one or two books published shortly, it is imporant to me.

My other website is "resting."

Meanwhile at the Caboolture Historical Village we have had challenges with our website.  Updates were challenging as there was an outside person who had the task, and often they were not done when we wanted.  So a decision was made to re create the website, edit out the many errors or information needing an update and so it was that eventually we found someone to do it.  It is a lot of work and like many not for profits who rely on volunteers to do the work, update etc. it has been a huge task and very challenging.

But changing hosts, and updating email addresses didn't work easily.  In fact our emails are still intermittent.  Some days, some hours, we can operate, but mostly it doesn't work and we have had a couple of  "specialists" trying to determine the problem.

What a pain!!!

My phone has run hot, so has the manager and the website guy all week.  As I write this I am not aware if it has been resolved.

It is something that not-for profits have to deal with as many rely on their websites for bookings, information etc.  Often though there are challenges - small budget, limited persons with skills, etc etc.

Not -for-profit  organisations and small businesses often find managing their websites difficult - time and lack of skilled personnel are big issues, and often they are competing with large well funded organisations.

I am just hoping that one day next week I will be celebrating that it has all come together.  So time consuming!

Just a Tip - keep good records of user names, passwords and log in details.  With many hosting/domain name sites they want the name of a person, but that presents challenges when  volunteers or different people deal with the situation.  Just keep good records and remember to update them frequently and even every 3 - 6 months review the information you have.

Another Tip - check that your data is correct.  Just check your pages every couple of months and make sure the material doesn't look "old".

Read my other blog here.

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