Website: Square One Skate Shop Site Project Update 1

I built the news section for the Square One Skate Shop site using the Word Press blog engine and integrated it with the flat html site. I'm still debating on whether or not to use it as a content management system for the entire site. That will depend on how well it integrates with the e-commerce package we utilize and a few test runs on how user friendly it turns out to be for non-technical users. Right now I am looking at the store template, Quick Shopping Cart that comes with Godaddy's web host package. It's a fairly no frills package but I think with a little dressing up it could look solid.

Another great addition I picked up for syndicating the RSS news feed to the other pages on the site is a php script from Feedforall.com. It was relatively painless to set up and gave me a few options for adding the news feed updates to a small section of every page on the website. It can also be used on other sites if given permission to syndicate content.

Next I set up a Facebook page and posted the new site and some content on the existing Ghive and Myspace
accounts. The Facebook account is great because there are a number of RSS reader mini applications you can install on the page that pull the updates to the page itself and will also push them out to the home page of anyone that is a registered fan. I'm still working on a way to syndicate content to other sites like Ghive, Myspace, Zoominfo etc that do not offer an RSS reader program and have restrictions on the types of html and scripts that you are allowed to use on your page.

So far this project is going great. Once the site is fully operational with the news, gallery, and e-commerce portions I will post a comprehensive overview of all the tools and technology that I've leveraged. There are a lot of resources out there that enable building professional, functional websites without having to break the bank if you have a little bit of tech knowledge, a desire to learn, and a strong initiative.