After months of writing, design and coding, you finally have a new Web site. You heave a sigh of relief, thinking, “Thank heaven that’s done.”

But in reality, your work is just beginning. Because now that you have a Web site worth visiting, you have to keep it fresh and accurate. That means adding new information almost constantly.

Unfortunately, updating your site can be a time consuming job. And it’s often a job that isn’t assigned to anyone in particular. So it gets neglected. And your once wonderful Web site quickly loses its edge.

POV has watched too many good sites go stale. So we sought out a cure. And we’ve found two easy-to-use applications that can take the dread out of site updates.

The first is a content publisher, an ideal tool for refreshing a site with new press releases or announcements. You just log in, paste in the text of your latest press release, and you’re done. Not only does your new release get posted to the site, but all of your old releases are automatically archived on your news page.

The second tool is a content manager. It’s the Excedrin for the nasty headaches caused by big Web sites that carry the same information in multiple places. Ordinarily, updating one piece of information might take hours of hunting down every occurrence, then recoding each one with the new text or images.

The content manager plugs the time drain. It stores all of your information – text and graphics – in a database. Your Web site pulls the information from the database into its pages as needed. So when it’s time to update information, you just make one change in the database. And that guarantees that the information is up-to-date everywhere it appears on the site.

These tools can save you countless hours, and you may be able to get them for less money than you think. If you’d like to know how to keep your Web site fresh and accurate (while also keeping your sanity), e-mail Bob Kadrie.


Inside Scoop sidebar: Think About somebody else

Two things we love at POV: compliments on what we’re doing well and smart ideas for doing even better.

Our friend Damon Borozny of Solarcom Holdings gave us both. Damon recently e-mailed us to say how much he enjoys Think About It. But why, he challenged us, wasn’t there an easy way to send Think About It to a friend?

Damon, we’re glad you asked. Starting with this issue, we’ve made it easier to share Think About It. Just go to the main Think About It page [www.pointofvision.com/think] and click on “Share Think About It.” You’ll be able to send a quick e-mail to a friend, pointing him or her to the Think About It site. They can read current and past issues and, if they wish, subscribe.

We’re also rewarding Damon with a couple of boxes of our yummy Mind Mix for his suggestion.

Do you have an idea for improving Think About It – or anything else about POV? E-mail Michael Baxter and earn your own box of crunchy, satisfying Mind Mix.