Asni: Multimedia Art & Design
Online Promotion for Everyone!
WHEN: 12 April – 17 May 2011. Six evening sessions, Tuesday nights from 7.30 – 8.30 pm
WHERE: Featherston Community Centre, 14 Wakefield St, Featherston
COST: $ 15 per individual class, or $ 72 for all six sessions ($ 12 per class). Sessions need to be booked and paid for in advance. Please contact me for payment details.
WHO: Featherston resident Astrid Nielsch has designed and built websites since 2002, and has been involved in online communities since before there was Facebook. In 2002 she set up her own website www.asni.net, which now contributes a substantial portion of her income through online sales.
Realizing that the internet had moved on from the days when one could create a successful site in a text editor, Astrid completed the Diploma of Multimedia at Natcoll Wellington in 2008. The following year, she was awarded and Enterprise Allowance Grant to set up her own business, Asni: Multimedia Art & Design – specializing in web design and consulting for small businesses, artists, independent professionals and non-profit organizations.
When she is not designing and programming websites, Astrid paints, and occasionally writes music. Her "Fantastic Journeys" exhibition at Thistle Hall in Wellington last year attracted a goodly number of visitors, and some press attention. Currently, she is working on an illustration project involving a collection 20th century fairy tales.
WHY: Astrid is passionate about sharing her experience in online promotion, and extensive knowledge of web technologies. She is keen to demystify the technical lingo and empower others to make informed choices.
Course outline
12 April 2011: Planning your website — When planning an online presence, ask yourself: who are my visitors, and what do I want them to do? We will draw up a site map and think about how visitors should navigate through a website. We will also discuss alternative options, such as using a blog, Facebook page, or other online service as your main web presence.
19 April 2011: Internet: how does it work — This session will explain some of the basic technologies used on the web. We will look at some samples of static and dynamic websites built with HTML & CSS, PHP, and Flash. This knowledge will be very helpful when communicating with your web designer. We will also look at security considerations, and what to watch out for when choosing a web hosting service.
26 April 2011: How to be found — SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is only one way to promote your site. Understanding the logic of search engines and optimizing your web presence so it comes up on top in search results is important., but we will also look at other ways to drive traffic to your site: the use of social media, email, offline promotion, and paid advertising such as Google Adwords.
3 May 2011: Content management — There is nothing worse than a website which is hopelessly out of date. This session will introduce ways to keep your site fresh, and interact with your visitors: Content Management Systems which enable advanced interaction, as well as more low key options such as regular news updates and blogs, RSS feeds, and feedback forms.
10 May 2011: Selling things online — E–commerce presents the chance to sell your products to a potentially worldwide market, quite literally from your bedroom. This session will look into some of the available options for trading on the internet: auction sites (Trademe, Ebay), online marketplaces dedicated to a particular kind of goods (e.g. Etsy), using Paypal to process payments, or setting up your very own online shop.
17 May 2011: Getting fancy: Multimedia on the internet — With the increased availability of fast broadband internet connections, videos, podcasts, and other multimedia content on the internet continues to be on the rise. Youtube, anyone? This session will take a look into the future, and introduce some creative options to share your content, which are available even on a modest budget.
