BGT ideas wanted - some to share

[BTPS]

Businesses Growing Together neds help if it's going to stay alive.

Any and all ideas are considered, so please post it here or pm me or email me

I would like to start with this idea -

On the home page Feature a store every two weeks or so --
The Featured Store would get a small image on the home page along with an article about that store
The first paragraph or so would show on the home page continuing on a Featured Store page where the Featured Store would appear with a couple more images and links of course.

First person to submit an Article about their store and a couple images gets the honor of being number the first one.

[BTPS]

Idea #2
BGT stores in the News
This page would be links to articles written about a store and or it's owner.
Submit your links and I will get them on as soon as I can.

[BTPS]

Idea #3
This I will need help with - my knowledge is too limited

A YouTube video

[shelz013]

Those are GREAT!

How about posting random craigslist ads.
Spamming, I mean posting it on everyone's other forum's (ya'll know you go other places  ) ei: this is a great place with trusted sellers that will give you the service you deserve.

I haven't looked at BGT lately, are the shops categorized? If not, that would be a good thing.. so, If say I'm looking for tableware, I can just go to the category and choose the store. If it's already like that awesome.. that way I don't have to search posts so much.

Does BGT have a blog?
It's on facebook, but how about myspace?
I'd be willing to help maintain if needed.

[BTPS]

PartsAndThings recently set up a squidoo lense for BGT
FancyFlapper has the webring going

Currently there is not a facebook or myspace if you want to create them that would be great.

Steve and I tried to do a store directory for BGT but it was too complicated when folks attempted to add their category and stores.  So it's not hooked up.

There is no blog on BGT as I don't have the time to keep up with my own let alone another one.

[shelz013]

squido,  I get that one confused with facebook Sure, I can work on those..  Besides I think my "biz" will be in hiatus, until after we move.. so, I've got lots o' time.
Is every one on Smorgasblog on BGT, or vise versa? Maybe we could connect the 2?

[BTPS]

Is every one on Smorgasblog on BGT, or vise versa? Maybe we could connect the 2?

nope they are not connected.  No those on Smorgasblog are not all members of BGT.

[BTPS]

We could have a links page to blogs - a short description telling the purpose of the blog and the link to it for all BGT members

[PNT]

I'm going to say this and it is not to hurt anyone's feelings, this is just an observatsion of someone that is fairly new to BGT. In my opinion that the BGT website needs a whole make over or at the very least it needs to be consistant. I saw the anouncement about a new site but I see one page with the building on it as the logo and go to another page and there is a blue banner across with the name and some other things in it. Which ever is the correct one should be the same through out the site.

The menu should be consistant through out to make it easy for the user to navagate. The one site that I take care of and designed I use php to make it easy to keep things consistant that way you can update say a menu in a file called menu.php and then include it on all the other pages and the menus will all be the same and updating or changing them is easy. It's takes a little bit to learn php and you can do some neat stuff with it but in my case most of the code on the pages is just plain html.

I do like BT's ideas and agree that something needs to be done.

About Squidoo I started a Squidoo Group besides the lens and at this time I am not sure about the group, seems for the most part that everyone that wants to join is not a member of BGT and I don't think that any of the ones that I contacted about joining did so. I guess they can't read as it says that the group is for members only. Anyway my point is that maybe we should put the Squidoo group on hold for a while until BGT gets going again.

[BTPS]

PNT -- so you know
the look of  http://businessesgrowingtogether.com/
is a new page

This is still an old page
http://businessesgrowingtogether.com/Pages/about_us.html


I will be the first to admit my knowledge is limited and my time is limited.
I try to rely on other members to do things which sometimes works and other times don't.
I can't allow anyone to do anything that I won't be able to understand because when they decide they don't have tiem anymore I am the one that has to figure out how to change, add etc
I know HTML and that's about it.
I don't know anything about .php
The side navagation is set up to go with the section which you are currently in otherwise before too long the side navigation would be 3 feet long.


Since no one wanted to participate in the flyer program I need to remove that section
that means updating alot of page again. 

I am look for ideas as to what will get sellers involved with BGT. 

[donnacrafts]

We can still continue the flyer as it was before, I am still more than willing to do it each month.

If you want to change the layout not a problem. Want to do a feature store on the front page not a problem. The flyer program to me was a great program and wonderful advertising for everyone involved, it would be a shame for it to go by the wayside.

[shelz013]

yes! We need the flyer program.. I just haven't got it together enough to do it yet

[BTPS]

We can still continue the flyer as it was before, I am still more than willing to do it each month.

If you want to change the layout not a problem. Want to do a feature store on the front page not a problem. The flyer program to me was a great program and wonderful advertising for everyone involved, it would be a shame for it to go by the wayside.

The only problem is I am not sure how many of the stores participating were actually doing their part.  Which is why I thought if they had to pay $5 to participate they would at least include a link in their emails.  Apparently it wasn't worth the $5 to anyone.  One person paid then requested a refund.

[kolstromkreations]

I'm going to say this and it is not to hurt anyone's feelings, this is just an observatsion of someone that is fairly new to BGT. In my opinion that the BGT website needs a whole make over or at the very least it needs to be consistant.

At some hazard, agreeing with PNT.  Maybe consider a CMS (content management system) to power the site.  Y'all know I'm using Joomla, and it works for me, though I'm certainly no expert at it, and my site needs a ton of work.  One biggy is that the superadmin can give members certain priveleges.  Using Access Control Levels allows other folks to contribute in varying ways, and work as a team. Volunteering here, if I can help in any way.

[shelz013]

I was gonna pay the $5... I'm just not ready yet

[Sade]

The problem here is simply that BT can't keep up with the entire site and keeping it fresh, and then lack of membership interest and participation, but members don't want to pay for a site that doesn't seem to be growing. At this point it's just another link exchange to most of them, in my opinion.

BT cannot do it all herself. A few members have their own areas they are maintaining, but other than that, there's no participation.

So for every good idea, there would need to be a volunteer to make that idea happen.

Maybe consider a CMS (content management system) to power the site.  Y'all know I'm using Joomla, and it works for me, though I'm certainly no expert at it, and my site needs a ton of work.  One biggy is that the superadmin can give members certain priveleges.  Using Access Control Levels allows other folks to contribute in varying ways, and work as a team. Volunteering here, if I can help in any way.

and here's a volunteer. 

[PNT]

At some hazard, agreeing with PNT.  Maybe consider a CMS (content management system) to power the site.  Y'all know I'm using Joomla, and it works for me, though I'm certainly no expert at it, and my site needs a ton of work.  One biggy is that the superadmin can give members certain priveleges.  Using Access Control Levels allows other folks to contribute in varying ways, and work as a team. Volunteering here, if I can help in any way.

I have a site using Joomla and I like it. Takes a little getting use to but I didn't think the learning curve wasn't that bad. It does require that you have a mysql database and php to run. The nice thing about it is you can have people register and them give them access that the general public doesn't have. There's a ton of addons for it, some free and some at a cost. If that is the way it was decided to go I would be willing to help too. The problem is that BT doesn't know Joomla and is so busy doesn't have time to learn it. Plus for reason stated above doesn't want to release control to someone else. I can see that point too.

I to like the flyer idea, that is one of the things that attracted me to the group. I can't think of a way to check and see if the participating members are doing their part, guess it would just have to be run on the honor system with or without the $5 fee.

Seems that there are only 4 or 5 people that are really participating, just look at how active this forum is.

BT when working on the site do you do it with an html editor or with a WYSIWYG editor. I use to do WYSIWYG but switched to plain html sometime back. I found that for stuff that is on a few pages it pretty simple to get the 1st page working and looking right then you just copy/paste to the other ones.

We need some good articles even if we just took some of the good ideas that are in the different forums. I'm not that good at writing articles. Every once in a while I get a whem and come up with a good one. I was on a roll when I wrote the intro for the ecrater squidoo lens.

So anyway I will to help to try and revive the BGT group, just let me know what I can do to help!

[BTPS]

Plus for reason stated above doesn't want to release control to someone else. I can see that point too.

The site is hosted on my hosting space.  I have given several people access to the BGT part of the site.  One person tried to help build a directory but then turned it over to me, some test were done and it was really too difficult for folks to add themself to the directory.  so it just sits there
The other person never logged in.

IF joomla is something that can be loaded to the site - I use godaddy hosting
and someone else will set it all up
and tell me what I need to know to keep it updated and stuff
I am all for it.

BT when working on the site do you do it with an html editor

I write all the HTML coding manually.  THat's how I learned and that's all I know.  I do not have any WYSIWYG editors or dreamweaver or anythign else - I manually type out everything.

I found that for stuff that is on a few pages it pretty simple to get the 1st page working and looking right then you just copy/paste to the other ones.

That's what I do.  I have learned a HTML code that portions that are on every page can be put on one page and then pulled into the other pages.  I tried it once on one of my sites and it worked.  But I don't have BGT coded that way.

[PNT]

The site is hosted on my hosting space.  I have given several people access to the BGT part of the site.  One person tried to help build a directory but then turned it over to me, some test were done and it was really too difficult for folks to add themself to the directory.  so it just sits there
The other person never logged in.

IF joomla is something that can be loaded to the site - I use godaddy hosting
and someone else will set it all up
and tell me what I need to know to keep it updated and stuff
I am all for it.

Is the site being hosted on a Linux server or Windows?
Joomla only runs on a Linux server
The server would also need PHP and MYSQL
I can send you a file to run from your server to get all the details as to versions etc.
What I can do if you want is setup a sample site on my site then give you access to the admin section and you can look at it and see what you think. Adding the content is the easy after it's setup.
If you like the idea we can persue it and if not that's fine too.

I write all the HTML coding manually.  THat's how I learned and that's all I know.  I do not have any WYSIWYG editors or dreamweaver or anythign else - I manually type out everything.
That's what I do.  I have learned a HTML code that portions that are on every page can be put on one page and then pulled into the other pages.  I tried it once on one of my sites and it worked.  But I don't have BGT coded that way.

Have you looked into uing CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) basicly you do all the formating in the style sheet and it's then consistant across the site. It's really powerful when you learn how to use it.

[BTPS]

Is the site being hosted on a Linux server or Windows?

Linux

The server would also need PHP and MYSQL

That's part of godaddy hosting I beleive.

What I can do if you want is setup a sample site on my site then give you access to the admin section and you can look at it and see what you think. Adding the content is the easy after it's setup.
If you like the idea we can persue it and if not that's fine too.

That sounds doable to me.

Have you looked into uing CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) basicly you do all the formating in the style sheet and it's then consistant across the site. It's really powerful when you learn how to use it.

Other then seeing CSS mentioned now and then I know nothing at all about it.  BUT If it's not too time consuming I am willing to learn if someone is willing to teach me

[kolstromkreations]

@ PNT
Can you point me to your Joomla site, please? 

[kolstromkreations]

Here's choices to consider on godaddy:
DotNetNuke   Drupal   Joomla   Mambo   Moodle   Nucleus   PostNuke   Xoops
https://hostingconnection.godaddy.com/AllApplications.aspx?id=8

Here's a Joomla insallation right out of the box.  Haven't done a thing to it.
http://infiverse.com/joomla

[PNT]

Linux
That's part of godaddy hosting I beleive.
That sounds doable to me.
Other then seeing CSS mentioned now and then I know nothing at all about it.  BUT If it's not too time consuming I am willing to learn if someone is willing to teach me

Okay I'll start working on something.

My Joomla site is at http://www.partsanthings.com

[kolstromkreations]

Very Nice!!