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If you do not speak up loudly about what you believe, do not complain when you are not heard over those who do. - Alain
So Why Am I Reading This?
If you want to have an effective web page, that is the first question you need to answer for anyone who accesses it. Let them know what it is about, immediately. Let them know what they are going to get out of reading it.You know what you want to say. You know how important it is. You know what you want to accomplish, and how vitally necessary it is.
But most of the people reading your webpage for the first time don't. You have to grab them and convince them. You have to interest them, give them a reason for hearing you out, and make it easy for them to follow you.
Some Opening Do's and Don'ts
Be easy to access.
- Don't add so many singing and dancing icons to your page that it takes three minutes to download. Very few people are going to wait that long unless they already know you and love you.
- If you are going to use frames, have a noframes alternative for those who can't or won't access frames.
- If you are going to use JavaScript's, have an alternative way to present and collect your information, for those who can't or won't use JavaScript.
- If you are going to use graphics, have alternative text tags for those who can't or won't load graphics.
- Take a look at your page in several different browsers, at least Netscape, IE and Lynx, and preferably both older and advanced versions of each. If you don't have access to all of those, have friends who do review the page for you.
Describe your purpose immediately.
- Do not yield to the temptation to make your first page a colorful field of graphics with a label that says "click here to enter". Why should I? Most people who are looking for activist pages are looking for content, information, meaningful text -- and if they don't see it immediately, they will surf on.
- It is good organization to have your opening page be a menu list of your subpages -- but don't stop there! Add a description at the top of what your site is about, and include a line or two on each link of what that area is about.
- Having your description and using key words descriptive of your content in the top few paragraphs of your page will also give you better standing in the search engines, as will informative link labels.
Think out your design ahead of time. Be easy to navigate.
- Sites that "grow like topsy" begin to resemble the Minotaur's Maze very quickly. Sites that are thought out ahead of time and grow according to a planned pattern look professional, more credible and more impressive. It's also easier to find what you are looking for and get back to "go".
Think from your reader's viewpoint
As in all writing, first you say what you want to say -- and then you edit it so that it gets across most effectively to the reader.Once you have written out what you want to present on your web site, step back and look at it from the viewpoint of a casual browser coming across the site for the first time.
"Now, why do I want to know your opinions on the solution to homelessness?"
Possible Persuaders
I'm right. This is the most popular viewpoint on the part of activists. Most of your readers, however, will need convincing, and rolling your truth up into a baseball bat to beat them about the head and shoulders with it is even less effective on the Web than it is elsewhere -- it is far too easy for your audience to surf elsewhere. Some ways to add credibility Introduce yourself. Who is this person who is talking? What does she know about what she's saying and how does she know it? Either describe yourself and your background up front, or provide some way for your readers to check you out. Point to your successes. If you or your group has accomplished positive things, list them up front. Cite your sources. This is one of the major advantages of hyper-text, the basic foundation of the World Wide Web -- use it. Link to the places where you get your information. Give your readers the tools to check out your source materials for themselves. You are practicing empowerment, promoting your sources, and adding to your credibility.This is important! Yeah. So? According to Jo Lynn Rochelle, next page over, the biography of her kittycat is important too. Why is it important to me? It'll be good for you. That's what my Mom said when she came after me with the castor oil -- also when she came after me with the paddle. We are all understandably suspicious when people assure us that this will be good for our souls, or any other aspect of us. If you want your reader to believe that viewing your website will be good for them, take the time to give some convincing reasons.Tell Me What To Do
The most effective action you are going to get out of your readers is something that you describe specifically, that they can do immediately. Make it as easy as possible for them: if you want them to call their Congresscritter, link up with a database that will find their elected representative by zip code and provide the contact info for them. If you want them to email the Secretary of State, provide an email link with a subject line tag so they can send it now.Perhaps what you really want your reader to do is to donate $10,000, plant 15 trees, or sail a tugboat into the path of an oiltanker. It wouldn't hurt to give them some other options, too. Once a person has done anything, they are more likely to do it again. Once you get someone to make an investment of time and energy, no matter how small, in your cause, they are likely to follow it up with more. So don't pass up getting your readers to do something small. Not all of us jumped into full 24-hour a day activism immediately.
Think carefully about what you are asking people to do. The Internet is seductive. Stirring up a storm of 50,000 emails may look like creating an effect. But is it? What if all of the emails are going from one True Believer to another?
Two contrasting examples of Internet activism:
 Censure & Move On! may not have managed to get the Impeachment hearings shut down, but they are credited with influencing the 1998 elections and are expected to have an influence on the elections in 2000. |
A chain letter about the plight of women in Afghanistan showed up on every activist list I am a member of, and several non-activist lists. Only three times did anyone speak up about the limited effectiveness of chain letters in such situations, or pass on the report that the well-intentioned originator of this letter had been swamped with email far beyond her expectations, and her university had canceled her email account. |
| What are some of the differences between the two campaigns? |
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| MoveOn channeled email directly from concerned citizens to their elected representatives. |
The Taliban petition had several layers of intermediaries built in; even if an entire paid staff had been available to collect and compile the email petitions and send them on, the results would be less effective than direct contact from constituents. |
| MoveOn created a website where information was posted and activities took place; email broadcasts were limited to an announcement of the website URL to audiences expected to be sympathetic; they also got media coverage, as their influence grew. |
A lengthy email, like the Taliban petition, is 1) less likely to be thoroughly read; 2) more likely to draw "spam" complaints; 3) looks less professional than a well-organized website; 4) is highly unlikely to draw media coverage. |
| MoveOn collected names and contact information of sympathizers, and was able to organize follow-up activities. |
This is impossible to do in an email circulating petition. |
Did the Taliban petition accomplish anything at all? It did make it obvious that a lot of good people cared passionately about the plight of women in Afghanistan. But it also pointed up the lesson of activism that caring passionately is not enough. Passion must be expressed in effective action if the world is going to change for the better. Listen directly to the women of Afghanistan.
Some effective ways to use your energy:
Think about it. The next time someone talks about an issue that gets you passionate -- spend some of that energy thinking of what you can do that will result in a real change. Set concrete goals. Don't measure your success in terms of Meetings Held, Flyers Circulated or Emails Sent. Measure in terms of People Fed, People Housed, People Released from Prison -- or Trees Planted -- or New Jobs for Old Executives -- some actual change in human lives. Set up a webpage where browsers can link to databases for the contact information on their elected representatives -- city, county, state and federal -- and on the media. Set up a webpage on a local issue, with contact information for: local media City Council Members Mayor any other officials involved Set up a webpage about the perils of chain letters and virus alert hoaxes. Post the URL whenever someone on one of your mailing lists posts a chain letter or a virus alert hoax. Providing a guide to information sites is one of the valuable new service industries on the internet. Set up a link list of valuable information sources and action groups. Do something face-to-face. The best use of the Internet is to contact and organize people to take action in The Material World.What else can you think of to do?
Why Re-Invent the Wheel?
You are not the only one working for a better world, and we can do a lot more together than any of us can do separately. Before you knock yourself out describing the consensus process, for example, why not do a search for other sites that have already covered it? Then link to them, add something that they don't cover, and ask them to link back to you.Before starting a new webring, newsgroup, web forum or mailing list, take a look at what exists now and see if there is one that you can join and help build up. There are over 6 billion people in the world and they can't all be on one mailing list, so if there is already one listserv discussing recycling and you want to start another go right ahead. But do network.
Give something back
You are asking for something from your readers: their time and attention, their understanding and agreement, perhaps some action or contribution.Give something back to them. Perhaps the content of your page is its own gift: food and shelter resources, solutions to common problems, or other useful information. But there are many extra gifts you can offer easily: search tools, link information, recommendations of free webpage and email providers.
Give them a chance to talk, too. Grassroots activism, after all, is about individual empowerment. Provide as many ways for your readers to give you their own feedback as possible: a guestbook, an email link, a link to a newsgroup, a webpage forum.
If you really hate popup's ...
The thing is, no matter how non-commercial you may be, if you are using free web resources -- like webpage space -- the servers providing them exist on advertising income. It's only fair to let them advertise.Some providers, however, are using marketing methods that some of us consider ineffective because so many people send us email saying "I'M NEVER COMING BACK TO YOUR SITE AGAIN BECAUSE OF THOSE $%#@! POPUP WINDOWS!" Geocities and many others provide an option of a "banner" ad display bar on the page, *or* a popup window. Others give you no choice -- you will pay for your site, or you will have a popup window.
Some of us have developed workarounds. On Tripod, I insert the following into my HEAD section:
You can use the same script on any other server beside Tripod. You need to study the server's original popup script to learn the name of the popup window and the URL of the script file that controls it, then substitute these in the window.open parameters.
I also include a link to the Tripod front page and a clickable option to view their popup by choice -- it really is an excellent navigational aid, and as soon as they fix the problems that plague 60% of the browsers visiting my sites, I won't need this workaround.
There used to be an "I Hate Geopops" page on XOOM for more info, but it's gone. The "I Hate Geopops" site offered a few other workarounds, but the above script is the only one that I have found to work. It does work -- the popup window will flash on for a few seconds, but it will then disappear.
That "I Hate Geopops" page went into more detail on the disadvantages of popup's; also on the basic argument that yes, service providers need to advertise, those of us who use free services are in favor of their making lots of money on advertising so that we can go on using their free services -- but we want the advertising to be effective. When I have people emailing me "I'm never coming back to your site again because of those popup's!" I suspect the technique is not effective.
But I do urge you, if you bypass popup's on your website, to provide another way (that fits into your own site design) to plug your server and help them out. This is going to benefit you in the long run.
Escaping Popup's as a Viewer
From the other side of the screen, there is a way to avoid the popup's on any site. See here.
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