Robert,
I think we have two different POV. You as the Search Co are looking at different things than me as the digital media exec (oh oh, clash of the industry titans!)

SEO is so important to the non-profit or smaller budgeted operation because it is easy and relatively cheap.

Your POV of the "steam train" example is exactly what it should be for a search industry person. Mine reflects the competitive nature from the marketing side.

Too often generic terms like "steam train" are far overlooked for their value to reach new people. New people = potential riders. More important then keybword phrases that are more geographically specific like "steam train in New York"? Probably not, but still worth shooting for.

Rob

One solution is to use a hosting service with blogging and message board tools included so they all sit under your domain. If everthing is at one URL you will reap the benefits.

I would keep the eBay for two reasons... First, ecommerc can be a resources drag if done on your own and more importantly, it is good marketing to have your brand on eBay. Many big brands do the same thing.

Just remember to have a "store" link maintained on your site that points to eBay so that your users can find your store.

Rob

How does web 2.0 tie into on line fund raising? I read stories of political campaigns raising incredible amounts of money in a short period of time. How is this accomplished?

I'm guesing its more than adding a Paypal button.

Interesting you mention this. After one year of trying to maintain traditional HTML web pages, I was ready to pull my hair out. The larger scope of a blog's purpose is to be a content management system (CMS). Our web hosting provider offered blog software for use, so I decided to try it. Updating the information on our web page is SO MUCH EASIER NOW.

True, we use our "blog" on a more restricted level... we don't allow any type of commenting on the information that is posted. But all of our projects are there, and managed in some type of order. In fact, we're getting so many projects in our list, that I need to make some changes in the user interface...

People may subscribe to auto-notification of new updates too. This makes it handy to let regulars know something new is up.

It automatically generates RSS and Atom feeds. If you bookmark our page with a LiveBookmark (Firefox), clicking on the bookmark will show you the 5 most recent posts.

The system also tracks statistics... web page hits, which post/project is most popular, what page referred them. (BTW, RyPN is our #1 referring web site that isn't a search engine...)

It's also interesting to see where we've been mentioned on other blogs, websites, etc.

This thread from about a month ago inspired us to start a blog of our own to document our preservation activities. I decided to use Google's blogspot as a platform. (I'm not associated with Google, etc.) The site is called "Hicks Car Works" and is at hickscarworks.blogspot.com. See what you think.

Our experience with blogspot has been mostly very postive. First of all, it's free, and the user interfaces are generally very easy to use. We haven't tried to do anything too outlandish. I wish expandable post summaries were easier to implement, but otherwise I'd recommend this platform to anyone who wants to have their own forum. We can post pictures and text quickly and easily. What's not to like?

Feel free to use the comments feature to leave feedback. Thanks!

Randall (and Frank) Hicks

By the way I noticed another public Wiki site. http://www.wetpaint.com/ It gives you much more control over who can see and edit your Wiki. That aside, I still like http://www.wikia.com/ better.

Congrats Randall!

Aside from Blogspot, the other option is put the blog on your own website.

On one hand, if your blog is on your own website, search engines do a better job of tying your blog to your organization.

On the other hand, if you want to allow comments on your own site, you must administer all the user signups of everyone who wants to leave a comment. Like RyPN, you will fend off many "spammers who sign up" -- allowing anonymous comments is out of the question! Worse, your site becomes "yet another signup" people must do, and people are sick of that. It's not so bad when it's a major site like Blogspot though.

I continue to find it rather dismaying that there is a vibrant world of non-profits that have make up their own industry, and railway preservation seems almost completely outside of this sphere. That said, I have been rooting about on the interwebs and have come across some things related to this currently moribund Web 2.0 topic.

The first is eCRM, which stands for Electronic Constituent Resource Management. There are a number of companies that offer to manage your organization's contact list. This obviously includes the membership roster, but also would include lapsed members, and folks that volunteer to receive information by email. These companies provide web-based database management and tools for reaching those on the list including electronic news updates, and fundraising solicitations. I was wondering if anyone out there had experience with any of these systems? They tend to tout their larger client organizations, and I was curious if their products (and prices) scaled down well for smaller, local non-profits such as railway museums.

The other topic I wanted to ask about is "self-publishing online stores" such as Cafepress and Zazzle. These businesses allow you to sell custom-branded merchandise directly to online consumers. Because they rely upon on-demand printing, there are no startup costs and no minimum orders. As a result, the profits on the sales are also smaller than if you were to have the stuff printed and sold through your own store, but on the other hand, there is very little involved once the design work is complete and the online store is set up. So, again, anyone in RYPN-land have experiences with these outfits? Has it been worthwhile? Any problems?

Thanks