KEYBOARDCHAT.COM
The Internet Magazine For Organ-Keyboard Enthusiasts
Information and guidance on getting a site set up on the internet
Helpful Notes from two Webmasters - based on their experiences.

Is your club web enabled?
by John Jackaman

Promote your club every minute of every hour of every day.

The World Wide Web, or in other words the Internet, is the cheapest form of advertising there is, in fact it can be free.
The fact that you are reading this is proof that you or someone you may know has access to the Internet. Just about everyone in the UK has access to the Internet or knows someone who has. Most libraries now have computers set aside for people to use for accessing the Internet. Its use is growing day by day.
One of the largest groups of people using the Internet are the over fifties, called silver surfers, these are the prime target audience for clubs mainly because keyboard playing has become a popular hobby for this age group

The Basildon Keyboard Club has had a web site for a number of years; it has proved having a web site brings in new people and gets your club noticed in the community.
The club now has three separate areas on the web:-

1.   TheBKC. The original club web site with nearly a hundred pages of concert information, details on clubs in the Basildon area and a diary of events.

2.   Organfax. The club also has a page on Organfax, this is the largest site of its type, it gets thousands of visitors each year, many from the Basildon area. This page also links to our main site.

3.   Beehive.This is Essex. The "Beehive This is" project is an excellent way to promote your club for free. Again the pages have a link back to our main web site.

Each of the above has advantages and disadvantages. Read on to know more about each one.


1.   TheBKC site took a bit of effort in finding out about web sites, how they work, how to make them and put them on the Internet. The site is in a free area, the service provider I use does not charge for allowing me to put the site on the Internet.
You need some software to make a site or a knowledge of the language used on the internet. However, if you use, say Microsoft Word, it is a lot simpler than you might think.

Cardif Organ and Keyboard Society have generated a simple but effective site using Microsoft word.
The later versions of this very popular word processing program has an option to save a page as a web file. You create what you want as if you were going to print it and instead of printing save as a web page.
You then upload the page to your web site.

Chelmsford Organ and Keyboard Club used Adobe GoLive 4 to create their site.
Edinburgh Organ Club created their site using Microsoft FrontPage Express 2.0.
Both of the above clubs have used special software for making web pages. This gives more control over what the page looks like while keeping making the pages simple.
I use software called Coffee Cup, the advantages are I have complete control over what the site looks like and how it works.

You will need some software to upload your site from your computer to the Internet, you can get the basic software you need for free from one of the many Internet magazines. Or you can download a free version.

Getting visitors. TheBKC site is just one web site in the many millions of sites on the Internet, most people use search engines to find site with information they are looking for. Getting registered with search engines is not easy and is too complex a subject for this page. There are other ways of attracting visitors.
Make sure Margaret, the webmaster at Organfax, knows you have a site, she will then include a link from her site to yours.
Use local internet 'What's on' pages, usually local newspapers and radio stations run these, link back to your site.
Print the web address. Good old text on paper, print your web address on everything, membership cards, letter headings, news letters. Include it in advertisements, in fact put it everywhere.
Register with both the Organfax web ring and the Organ web ring, these are special web links linking sites together so visitors can go from site to site easily.
Get linked, make sure other organ sites know of your existence, link to them and get them to link back to you - this is known as reciprocal linking. The easiest way of doing this is to take part in the organ web link project,
e-mail me for details.


2.   Organfax. This is the easiest page to set up, you send details of your club to Margaret at Organfax and for a very small fee you get a first class page on the Organfax web site.
The only disadvantage is that you have to contact them to do updates. However, they do give a good service as one would expect from fellow organ enthusists. Included on most of their society websites is a diary of events for the current year with links to the relevant concert artistes.
Getting Visitors. Organfax is well up the rankings in search engines and your page would be included with the Organfax site.
Print the web address when ever you can, thus spreading the word.
Anyone visiting the Organfax site will find your page very easily.
Use local internet 'What's on' pages, usually local newspapers and radio stations run these, link back to your site.
Margaret presents her own comments at the foot of the page.

3.   Beehive project. A simple way to have your own pages on the Internet.
You sign onto the page for your area, follow the on screen instructions and within an hour you can have a web site giving details of you club on the Internet.
It is free, you have control over what is included and can update it as frequently as you like.
There are limits to how much information you can put on your site and you need access to the Internet.
You do not need any special software or knowledge, once signed on you just fill in boxes and the site does the rest.
To find your local Beehive site log onto Google, in the search box type beehive, then your county, example Beehive Essex, make sure you tick the Pages from the UK box or you will get results from all over the world.

Getting visitors. These pages are area specific, they are linked to local newspapers and council information sites. Anyone in your area looking for information from these sites will be diverted to the Beehive project. You are more likely to pick up a casual browser from this site, it is specific to your area and you can specify what heading you want your club associated with. You can be listed under clubs or music, you could be under both.
Use local internet 'What's on' pages, usually local newspapers and radio stations run these, link back to your site.
Print it. Make sure everyone knows about your site.
You can also take part in the organ web link project. e-mail
As the Beehive project is so big it gets listed in search engines, because it is so big your site may only get listed several pages down the list.
You cannot link to the two organ web rings.

As I mentioned above - three types of web site, each has advantages and disadvantages. At Basildon we use all three.
We need to promote our clubs outside the organ and keyboard fraternity. The three UK organ publications, Organ and Keyboard Cavalcade, Organ1st and Keyboard Player are not sold in the shops, hence only people already involved in the organ and keyboard scene know of their existence. Advertising in local papers is expensive if you go outside the 'What's on' section.
The Internet allows us to reach a new potential audience at a low cost, or even for free.
Give it a try.
ORGANFAX
by Margaret Falkner

We asked Mararet to give some advantages and disadvantages of having a web site made by ORGANfax - here are her comments:-

Advantages -
  • A page in Organfax is in the centre of the largest and most well known site in the UK for organs and keyboards, having constant visitors - at present 2500 pages being accessed every day so it is very likely they will be found simply by people browsing and not necessarily even looking for them. Numbers prove an Organfax club page gets more visits.
  • The page will be found by search engines because Organfax itself comes up in the top 3 or 4 sites for organs and keyboards, and in addition we've set it up that every individual page is spidered regularly by the search engines. To this end, each page has its own correct meta tags, etc. for search engine purposes.
  • Every time a club is mentioned anywhere on the site (in the monthly concert lists, a player's concert list or in the news, special events, etc.) it is hyperlinked to their page - this doesn't happen anywhere else.
  • The club's URL (Internet address) gives a clear indication of what and where they are, eg. organfax/clubs/crawley clearly indicates it is 'organ' then that it is a club and then the area covered, whereas some of the independent clubs often have a totally insignificant or meaningless address.
  • Designed with experience and optimised for speed of loading, etc. Basically all the work is done for the society.


    • Disadvantages -
  • Depends upon Organfax for updating the page, but usually this is done within a couple of days - sometimes the same day.
  • Organfax does not usually stretch to several pages like some independent sites do - Basildon and Llanelli are a prime examples of large and very good sites made by their webmasters. Some clubs put their newsletter on their own web page in addition to the posted copy.
  • Organfax don't provide anything like individual guest books.
  • Organfax is not completely free. The nominal design and annual charge has no profit making element - it goes towards expenses.   However, to end on a positive note it is considered that benefits are considerably greater than the very modest charge. Proof of success is the number of societies who have become part of Organfax.


    • Summary by KeyboardChat.Com
    We think that the best option is to have at least two web sites, one made by the society as outlined by John Jackaman and the other made by ORGANfax. A third community based web site would be an added bonus. John clearly agrees on this as he has stated above. The sites can be linked together by reciprocal links. The more reciprocal links a site has the more it will be noticed by search engines. Several societies already work this way (Basildon and Llanelli included) as you will see from our main news page.
    We really think it is most important to have ORGANfax as the nucleus where all sites are mentioned, no matter where they were made. There is strength in numbers and at the end of the day it should be remembered that, just like organ societies, ORGANfax is run by enthusiasts for enthusiasts - just like KeyboardChat.Com

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