Millennial Web Content Management

Paytrust Bill Payment Service Revisited

In 2004 I reviewed Paytrust when it came out with its new website design. Now I take another look in my 2007 Paytrust Review.

I still use Paytrust and think highly of it. I just think that Paytrust's new owner, Intuit can do even greater things with the service. We'll see. Intuit contacted me last week.

Tom

CDC's New Website- tons of info but very cluttered

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched their new website. It has some great features, but you'll be overwhelmed by a torrent of information and won't be able to find them. Our advice...... get those features front and center and please drop the CDC.gov Tour, it is terrible.

Who cares what web users want, what they do is what matters

Today I read in Government Computer News that government agencies were using Google's site maps to attract more web users to their websites. Great idea. Now if they would only abandon trying to psychoanlayze their web users, we'd all be a lot better off.

The real reason I am writing this post is to point out a very simple strategy that web content managers can take. It's simply to focus on web user behavior and not dwell on why people behave the way they do.

One Page Marketing Plan for Web Content Managers

Information technology shops are notorious for developing web applications and declaring victory with the release of the new software. They seldom market the software or service, but just assume that people will hear about it somehow. What a louzy assumption! Now web content managers have to put on their marketing cap, especially at government agencies and non-profits.

Web Accessibility Myths and Nightmares

We try to dispell certain myths about Web Accessibility and provide some great resources. Both government and private websites should pay attention to these. Those who don't may run the risk of a lawsuit from external web users and your own employees.

Why Some Government Websites Still Suck

On March 15th, I was trying to locate some information on the State Department's passort website for my 18 year old nephew. After going through multiple walls of words I finally located the form and clicked on it. I was taken to a page that listed several dozens forms in small type. I got really angry and swore "This really sucks". Apparently someone at State heard me because their passport webpages are totally reorganized. Thank God for that.

However, not all is forgiven

Writing Content vs Search Engine Optimization

The goal of every company or government web content manager is to bring more visitors to his/her site. If that's the case, then why are many of us devoting more money, time and people to optimizing web pages for search engines instead of developing content for real people?

Alright NewsGator, take us to our news feeds or else

NewsGator is our favorite RSS feed reader. However, we think the NewsGator website's usability has suffered lately. It's just not as easy to log into your account and get right to your feeds. In fact, the NewsGator website commits a major web usability mistake by making us "Think!" We tell you why and what NewsGator should do about it.

Why the workforce isn't blogging?

Email is a disaster when it comes to managing content and comments on work-related projects. Internal blogs are a cheap and effective way to cut down on finding information and allows workers more time to analyze it. So why aren't more workers usings blogs?

RSS on government websites- a business case

RRS or Really Simple Syndication is a great way for government websites to get important news, events and decision to busy web users. However, if you operate a government website, you'll still have to convince management of its benefits. We provide a sample business case that was used at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission aka FERC(http://www.ferc.gov/) to get you started.