It’s tough enough to be a first-time candidate. Throw online campaigning and the whole computer thing into the mix, and it can be overwhelming. A lot of potential clients who contact us are really just nervous about starting a campaign website. Where to turn? Who can build it? Will it do what I need it to do? There are a lot of options out there, and trying to figure it all out can be paralyzing.
A lot of web firms are trying to break into the political sphere these days. Many of them bank on candidate’s fears (or ignorance) to get their business. These are the top concerns we hear from candidates who are new to the whole web/social media thing. If you are looking into your campaign’s online options, perhaps some of these fears may apply to you.
The fear of building a campaign website
A lot calls we get from potential clients are less about answering questions about our product and more about letting them know that, yes, we can get you up and running quickly and easily. Candidates don’t need to be sold on the idea of a campaign website anymore. They just know that they need one.
No matter what content management system (CMS) you use, there is a learning curve. Even though a basic installation of WordPress takes less than ten minutes for a decent web designer to set up, a person with limited computer experience is probably going to be overwhelmed by a website builder.
Add some plug-ins and customization, and it gets even more complicated and time-consuming.
And security? You better know how to keep your site secure. The only thing worse than an insecure WordPress site is fixing one after a hack!
We’ve worked to make our Online Candidate website system as streamlined as possible. Rather than burying the options and configuration across multiple tabs and pages, we centralized everything in one place (the Site Setup page). Pages can be named, tagged and edited all in one page. Forms, calendars or event lists can be easily added to any page.
The edit-save-generate functionality makes updates easy. It takes a few minutes to get familiar with our CMS, but we’re confident that our system is the easiest and fastest way to build a political campaign website.
The fear of making site updates
If you have a ‘static’ site that cannot be edited without an offline editor, then you are at the mercy of your web designer. That usually means that every time you need a change to the site, you are going to be charged. And don’t count on a fast turnaround time. The modern campaign moves too quickly for a one-to-two day turnaround for site updates.
Bad things happen when the web designer disappears and the campaign is unable to update the site or, worse, the domain name expires and website goes down – permanently. We’ve had candidates call us a few days before their election so they can get something up for the remainder of the campaign. Sometimes we are able to point the old domain name to their new website, but if the webmaster registered the domain in their own name, we have a problem.
Tip: Make sure your domain name is registered in your name. When we register domain names for campaigns, we always make sure the client is the registrant and owner of the domain.
You should be in control of your own website. Even if you do not do the updates, you should still have access to the site if you need it.
The fear of lack of support
Because a lot of our clients are not computer-savvy, a major concern is how they can get help if they are stuck. Most web firms either do not provide training (because they do the updates) or they will charge you for a run-though of making changes on the CMS. If you use a service, your support will usually be via email.
We’ve tried to make the Online Candidate system easy to use. On every page of our site administration is a help button that links to a relevant article with instructions in our extensive online knowledge base. If you still need help, you can send us a support ticket – or call us if you are in a bind!
There are also the articles on this site and even more resources and tools on OnlineCandidateResources.com.
First time running for office? Have questions about starting a website for your campaign? Call Carol at 845-926-3400.
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