Web Site Staging
From Trunkmonkey Racing
Contents |
Overview
Once Trunkmonkey Racing starts running stage rallies our spending will increase dramatically. We need a source of funds be it from sponsorship, Web site advertising, or sales. In essence, we will become a business and need to approach Trunkmonkey Racing as such. The more professional our appearance the greater our chances of acquiring more sources of funds.
The Trunkmonkey Racing Web site has been in various stages of limbo for the past few years. I settled on Mambo for ease of use, updates, and administration but the overall feel of the site is very cold and awkward. The content could also use a major overhaul. I'm also waiting for the next release of Gallery 2 before we expand the photo gallery and include all recent photos—preferably integrated into Mambo as opposed to a separate standalone page.
In addition to Trunkmonkey Racing, AdvertiseOnThisCar.com, Trunkmonkey.com and Clutchdrop.com should be tightly integrated with Trunkmonkey Racing. As much as I'd like to run three separate domains for PageRank purposes it has become quite difficult to maintain those three separate domains with three separate databases and Mambo installations. Mambo does support segmenting a site into separate templates but as far as I know does not yet support multisites (separate domains giving the feel of separate Web sites but using a single Mambo installation and database).
Merging all three sites would drastically reduce our PageRank and be confusing to readers who don't know the difference between Trunkmonkey Racing, Trunkmonkey.com, and Clutchdrop.com.
TrunkmonkeyRacing.com
The home of the Trunkmonkey Racing race team. All team- and rally-related information will be presented here.
Trunkmonkey.com
The home of the Trunkmonkey, its history, and various Trunkmonkey fan resources. 95% of our cold traffic will be intercepted through this site due to the Trunk Monkey commercials. We need to redirect as much of this traffic as possible to the team Web site while maintaining the Trunkmonkey history.
Clutchdrop.com
The official New England Subaru Impreza Club Web site. A simple gateway to the NESIC Forum, SubaruMeet.com, and ExeterSubaruMeet.com Web sites. All NESIC promotional items, decals, etc. point to this site as an easy-to-remember URL.
AdvertiseOnThisCar.com
A simple easy-to-remember URL and portal to redirect prospective sponsors to our sponsorship packages. Site has been modified to meta refresh to the Trunkmonkey Racing sponsorship page.
Seamless integration
All Web sites affiliated with Trunkmonkey Racing will have a consistent template and Site Menu that allows for jumping seamlessly between Web sites. The templates should all use the exact same core layout and CSS but colors, integrated images, and content will change to make it obvious that the user has jumped from one site to another.
If separate Mambo installations are maintained those configurations must be kept in-sync to guarantee a consistent browsing experience.
Sponsor and vendor integration
In addition to a dedicated sponsors page all Trunkmonkey Racing Web sites should maintain a consistent Sponsors menu for all sponsors as well as banner rotation for primary sponsors.
