ASC14 – Science Communication On The Internet: A Beginner’s Guide #M6

Alex Jurkiewicz (@jurkiewicz) spoke to delegates about practical advice about setting up and maintaining a presence on the internet without a specialist IT professional.

m6

Example

Bluebottle Research – bluebottleresearch.com – a small research lab that Alex used as an example for setting up a presence on the internet.

What do you need?

  • Domain name: $15/yr
  • Website: FREE – $100/yr
  • Social Media: Twitter, youtube, facebook, instagram…
  • Email: FREE – $50/user

Domain names need to be short, simple and memorable. Names can be purchased through a variety of registrars – all provide the same service but vary in price.

When setting up a domain name, nameservers must be set. In this case, Alex is using wordpress nameservers, as he is setting up a wordpress website.

WordPress.com is great for setting up a beautiful website if you’re not particularly web-savvy.

WordPress

  • Many themes available for free or a one-off fee under $100
  • Themes can be changed easily – choose one that is suitable for your needs I.e. Magazine style, blog, displaying photos etc
  • “Widgets’ can be added to a wordpress site to add dynamic content such as a Twitter feed. More info here http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/

Email Configuration

  • Email addresses can be created in wordpress under the My Domains menu.
  • If you need more than 5 email addresses, Google Apps for Business provides a comprehensive email system for $50/user/yr.

Youtube

  • Create a YouTube channel to upload videos relevant to your organisation

Analytics

  • This is essential for monitoring visitors to your website – where they’re coming from, what they’re looking at.
  • Available freely in wordpress.
  • A more comprehensive version is offered for free through Google Analytics.

Questions

Q. Vimeo or YouTube? A. Either one is fine, though YouTube is more popular.

Q. How do you manage comments on blog posts? A. Settings can be changed to allow comments to be approved before appearing on the website. This can be changed under wordpress settings.

Storify

Leave a Reply