Crawl onto the Web

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal, Nov 5, 2008

A web site is never finished.

So we decided to do something about it.

A few years ago, we noticed more of our computer students wanted to build their own web sites to sell products or services online.

So Club Ed came up with a whole new level of training. We called it Web Site Development & Design. We made it intensive and expensive. And it has been so successful that in a few years we have trained dozens of individuals.

Christie Kitchens, who has more than 30 years experience in graphic design, web development, and software instruction, developed and teaches the course.

She realized as early as the 1980s that business marketing was moving from "cut and paste" to "point and click."

"Having a business that is not on the web, is a little like having no phone," she said. "You need 'click and order' instead of 'brick and mortar.'"

A lot of businesses agreed. Club Ed has trained dozens of individuals and organizations, selling everything from knives to landscaping to land to furniture to jewelry. Clients have come from England and Canada. One Alaskan takes a refresher every year during his "Winter Texan" phase.

Kitchens' approach is two-fold. First, she helps students set up and design an initial web presence. This includes securing a domain name and establishing a hosting site. She also helps develop the "look" of the web page - a graphic presentation that is attractive and effective.

The key to the class success however, is that during the course of training, the client learns the basic skills needed to maintain the web site on their own - the student is able to add and change photos and text as needed. This saves money and gives the client more control of their web presence.

"She makes you take the mouse and do it," said one client. "So I feel it is mine, rather than something she did for me while I watched."

Even as the economy surges and ebbs, the web will continue to grow as a way for businesses and organizations to push their products out into the marketplace. It is fast, easy, efficient, effective, and cost-effective.

And it is working.

"When they post that first page and see it up in the browser they are so excited," Kitchens said. "They all go, man this is awesome!' They did something and got it on the web. That is a 'eureka' moment."

Oh. I was kidding about the "expensive" part. The cost is actually less than many firms charge just to design your web site.

As one student said, "We thought it was worth the investment to buy the software and learn to use it, as opposed to paying someone to do site for us. We are always going to be changing the site as we add inventory and change seasons. We wanted to do that ourselves."

I told you a web site is never finished!

XXX

The Web Site Development class is set up according to the student's schedule. To learn more about this and hundreds of other lifelong learning classes, call 830-895-4386, or visit www.clubed.net.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.