Lesley Jones
Otherwise know as Zooey
What with losing Bailey ferret and Purdy cat in the space of ten days, I threw myself into building another web site for my photographs. That's done, apart from adding the remaining images. Now I mentioned that we're adopting a badly abused kitten from Romania and he is due to arrive in a couple of weeks. I believe the lady behind the rescue is doing a wonderful job and I wanted to help in some way. The only thing I could offer (which I have done for other charities) is to build and run her web site.
The one she set up is here World Aimal Friends and while it isn't astoundingly beautiful, it does work. People can donate, buy to give and sponsor - although the sponsored bits seems to be spread around the site and they operate in slightly different ways.
My attempt after about three days is here Home Page (I've had to use my own images for now). The Adopt Me page works as I wanted and I've created virtual galleries based on the image tags. Where possible I will try and get the stories to put in the description and at the bottom I will have a bit about using the Contact button to make an enquiry. All is good so far.
Now this software has a shopping cart which I intended to use for the Sponsor Me, but there are a few problems. The first is that the box to contain the cart is around 650-700 pixels high. It can't be changed and it pushes the scrolling thumbnails off the bottom. Not good. The next problem is that it really has been designed to sell images. Even getting rid of every field possible, I'm still left with sponsoring a .jpg dog in sepia and a size of 8x10. I think I need another way.
It's like opening a can of worms though. On her current site the sponsored cats have a banner over the image, which is fine, but you can only sponsor for one month unless you complete a form (standing order I would imagine). Now people who sponsor want to see the results, so a banner is a good idea until you start putting them on and taking them off again. I guess the banners already on the site are quite old and people may get the impression the rescue has more support than it really does. Just read some of their stories - these people are working under the most awful conditions. So how can I make this work to show the animals for sponsoring, showing a named animal when they give money and provide them with that warm feeling that something on the site has changed as a result? I've seen a coloured bar on my old forum to show monthly donations. I was thinking this would be good, if in fact, it hasn't been faked. If you work out £10 per month per cat you could set a target for each rescue, but I have no idea what is possible. There are also so many rescues (shelters) that I need to group them under one link. I was thinking of having a couple of sentences about each one with show/hide text to reveal the entire story. I think if I don't do that, it's going to get out of hand.
I don't want to build a "prettier" site if I take away some of the existing function. Any advice gratefully received
The one she set up is here World Aimal Friends and while it isn't astoundingly beautiful, it does work. People can donate, buy to give and sponsor - although the sponsored bits seems to be spread around the site and they operate in slightly different ways.
My attempt after about three days is here Home Page (I've had to use my own images for now). The Adopt Me page works as I wanted and I've created virtual galleries based on the image tags. Where possible I will try and get the stories to put in the description and at the bottom I will have a bit about using the Contact button to make an enquiry. All is good so far.
Now this software has a shopping cart which I intended to use for the Sponsor Me, but there are a few problems. The first is that the box to contain the cart is around 650-700 pixels high. It can't be changed and it pushes the scrolling thumbnails off the bottom. Not good. The next problem is that it really has been designed to sell images. Even getting rid of every field possible, I'm still left with sponsoring a .jpg dog in sepia and a size of 8x10. I think I need another way.
It's like opening a can of worms though. On her current site the sponsored cats have a banner over the image, which is fine, but you can only sponsor for one month unless you complete a form (standing order I would imagine). Now people who sponsor want to see the results, so a banner is a good idea until you start putting them on and taking them off again. I guess the banners already on the site are quite old and people may get the impression the rescue has more support than it really does. Just read some of their stories - these people are working under the most awful conditions. So how can I make this work to show the animals for sponsoring, showing a named animal when they give money and provide them with that warm feeling that something on the site has changed as a result? I've seen a coloured bar on my old forum to show monthly donations. I was thinking this would be good, if in fact, it hasn't been faked. If you work out £10 per month per cat you could set a target for each rescue, but I have no idea what is possible. There are also so many rescues (shelters) that I need to group them under one link. I was thinking of having a couple of sentences about each one with show/hide text to reveal the entire story. I think if I don't do that, it's going to get out of hand.
I don't want to build a "prettier" site if I take away some of the existing function. Any advice gratefully received
