Here are my tips and ideas about the website and about developing eco-tourism. Because I lost the Wiki Jennifer made for me, it just dissapeard, I am posting it here, you can read it in the attached file. Please read it and make a lot of comments and add new/better/more ideas!

Warm regards, Lotte

website Nepal.doc

Hi Lotte-

If you click on the task below this one-I added WIKI at the end of it, it's all still there. There does seem to be some sort of problem with it though so I will mention that in the website development section. Your work is still all showing though so none of it was lost.

I'm confused about the reply to wiki feature so I'll try to get some more info on how that works too, because it looks like to add information to the wiki you have to always click edit.

Jennifer

To make a website an effective marketing tool the most important thing to have in mind, whatever you are doing, is the user / visitor. Who are they? What do they want? What do they like?

Once you have a clear idea who you are writing for then it is much easier to provide them with information they want (and therefore produce the effect you want).

Lotte has good feedback in her document.

I especially agree that the navigation needs to be made more simple. Either have a menu at the top, or a menu on one side but not both. Something that helps keep things looking tidy is to have sub menus that only appear when you click or mouse-over the bigger category.

I think one of the most important things is to simplify the layout. Right now there's a lot of things on the page and it ends up looking messy and being quite confusing. Something that would be a good idea for the neighbours to do is to look at other web sites that have similar goals to Sankhuwasabha.com and see what layouts feel like they work.

A couple of sites I like:

http://www.aboututila.com/index.html - it's a webpage about a small Caribbean island that gives a lot of useful information to tourists and makes me want to go.

http://www.utilawatersports.com/Activitiesinutila.htm - a dive shop in the same island, included mostly as an example of how to use sub menus (although personally I prefer clicking to bring up a sub menu to mouse over) but also because I think it's an exciting webpage (at least for divers who are its target audience).

Hope that helps.

Richard

Oh yeah, one last thing - something that will help both the users and your google rank is a site map - google used to have a very easy way of making one (I think they still do but I've forgotten what it is called) but I really have to get to bed unfortunately.

Dear Neighbors.
Thanks for your very good suggestions.
Now I am reading the suggestions and the websites.

Thank you.
Tejanath
Khandbari
Sankhuwasabha.

Hi everybody,
Nice to know you find my tips useful. Jennifer made a Wiki for me, you can add ideas or give feedback on my ideas here. You can find it at the tab; project room, it's under the heading step 3.
Warm Regards, Lotte

Just another tip on the wiki...in the right hand column you'll find a "reply to wiki" link. From what I've been told, this is where you can add to the wiki, although I'm not sure how well it will work because when I tried it, I didn't see the existing wiki?? Anyway, I guess we'll just need to play around with it and hopefully we'll figure it out.

Your wiki impaired facilitator :)

Jennifer

Dear Tejanath, Jennifer and al the other neighbours,
I was thinking about how to develop the website. I have an idea, and I need your opinions about it.
At this moment there are two internet spots where there is information about tourism/SESF. There is SESF weblog and a more general website. Point is that the website needs more development and the weblog is outdated. My plan is as follows. I can help develop a new website with using a free website builder www.weebly.com. We can keep the webadress http://www.sankhuwasabha.com/ and use information on the website which we have now. And we also need to write other/more content. We can use this website for tourist information and can make a tab for SESF. Why I think it's better to use this system is because it's relatively simple. It will be easier to develop the site and maintain it. It's also possible to change the site contents via the internet. This way we can work at the website form different places. It's not stationed in Nepal but on the internet and excessible from everywhere around the globe. Because it's not so difficult to learn how to maintain the site, it can be possible to teach Tejanath how to do this. Then the community can maintian the website on her own in the future and it's not necessary to travel to Kathmande when the site needs changes . We can also create an other website (also on weebly) or blog (worldpress) for more information about SESF. We can make a link on the tourist site to the SESF site and the other way around.

Just let me know what you think about this idea, is it an option or do you think it's better to try to develop the existing website further in Kathmandu?

Hi Lotte-

Ideally, I think it is best to keep the Sankhuwasabha website completely separate from the work of the Sankhuwasabha Education Scholarship Foundation. The Google blog was created early on and needs to be updated. Tejanath tried to learn how to use/update the blog account, but had some trouble doing so. For SESF, we are talking about putting up a more static page via Word Press as one possibility, but I agree that weebly, or some of the other free sites might also be an option.

Before we do anything, I really need to touch base with Tejanath. I've not been able to speak to him since he returned from Kathmandu. I sent him an email earlier today and asked him to come talk to me. This is one of the things that I want to talk about.

We need to have him try it out and see if he can access it easily. I would also highly recommend that Alyssa try it and see if she also finds it easy to use. Outside of these last few things that are posted, we've basically accomplished the original goals this village. I'd like to get these last few things finalized, make some final recommendations for Tejanath and Alyssa and then begin focusing 100% on the tourism project.

I'll let you know as soon as I talk to him.

Jennifer

Hi everyone-

I spoke with Tejanath earlier this morning. He told me that there had been some changes made to the www.sankhuwasabha.com website that he has been working to develop. He's added quite a bit more content. Tejanath said that there is still additional information to be posted to the site by the end of the week, but he will be doing a presentation soon to some VIP's in the Sankhuwasabha district to present the website.

I asked how we could help him-he asked for assistance with identifying needed edits to the written content. We talked about removing anything that was not working at this time and fixing some of the broken picture links.

Please feel free to use the wiki to list out needed edits and help him fill in missing information. Some of what is missing is specific to the Sankhuwasabha Education Scholarship Foundation which is the focus of the Khandbari village here at Nabuur, so I will be posting there as well requesting assistance with editing that information.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jennifer

Dear neighbouirs

It is my pleasure to inform you that our website www.sankhuwasabha.com has recently published completelt. Now it is time to edit it.

In order to facilitate the editing I will put the pages in the www.sankhuwasabha.blogspot.com . I will also let you know my user name and password. My E-mail address.

My email address for the blogsite is

tejanath2006@yahoo.com
Pass word : sesf2345

Then I hope you will edit it and suggest me.
Then I will transfer it to www.sankhuwasabha.com site. And also put furter page in the free blogsite for the editing.

Here in Khandbari the blogsite is fast to load. I have found it is easy to edit itand add any news.

Tejanath Pokharel

Khandbari
Sankhuwasabha

Tejanath-

The link you posted for the blogspot site leads to a page that says it has been removed. I put up a wiki page here on Nabuur right under this task in order to list out edits so that everyone can see what has already been recommended and work is not duplicated.

I would also caution you about posting your passwords so freely. Remember this website is viewable to anyone in the world that wants to look at it. While I would hope that no one maliciously accesses your account information, unfortunately not everyone can be trusted, and not everyone who views this page is a member of Nabuur. I would recommend editing your post and removing the account information.

Jennifer

Dear Jennifer
Thanks for your suggestions.
The website is www.visitsankhuwasabha.blogspot.com

Tejanath

Tejanath,
I have taken you at your word and as a native English speaker have done gentle edit on your blog; I hope I have not changed any meanings.
Please let me know what you think; I am happy to do more in quiet moments,
Best wishes,
William

Hi Tejanath, today o took a lok at all the posts on the blog site you sent to us. I used your Login details to make some edits. I think I edited almost every single post. The main changes I made were to make it easier for the traveller/trekker/visitor to get a feel for what they might see there. I haven't added any content of course- just reworded your descriptions so that it was a bit easier to read.

Jus one thing that needs your attention: Under the section Kinathanka- there is a sentence which describes the old trading centre. You say it is 18 Centuty BC. I think you might simply mean 18th Century - NOT BC. You should remove the BC if it is incorrect.

Hope that this has been helpful- and that I did it correctly on the blog site!
Carolyn

Dear William

Thanks for your help.
It is my first attempt with a little knowledge and by following the feedback of the NABUUR Volunteers.

I would like to share you about how to design the information about the places for the tourists in the website.

I would be very grateful if could spare your valuable time to make a framework so that I could follow you.

I will have to add more information in the pages.