Andwa Consulting's Online Event Calendar User Guide

Introduction

Use this information to manage Partner and Sponsor data, including the Banner Ads that appear on the top-right corner of your web site.

This area of the web site is not heavily used and has not been developed and polished to the extent that other areas of the site have. Therefore, you'll have to learn some idiosyncracies and follow the "rules" carefully... the web site won't help you out as much as it does in other areas.

To use this area of the web site it is important to understand the relationship between "partners", "sponsors" and "banner ads". The most visible item on your site is probably the banner ads which are the clickable ads that appear on the top-right corner of each web page. "Partners" and "Sponsors" are the exact same thing - the terms are used interchangeably on this web site. They refer to an entity, external to your organization, that you wish to recognize, thank, or advertise in some capacity. Banner ads always belong to a partner... you can't have a banner ad on the site that is not associated with a partner. The partner must be set up first and then you can set up one or more banner ads for the partner.

External entities which are set up as your "partners" will appear on the "Partners and Sponsors" page which is accessible from your left navigation. They also are included in the "blurb" which is suggested for a newsletter footer when your communication officer uses the web site to send out a newsletter. It is possible to have a "partner" that appears on your "Partners and Sponsors" page that does not have any banner ads, and it is possible to have a partner that has a banner ad but that does not appear on the "Partners and Sponsors" page.

Partner records and Banner Ad records have start and end dates. They will appear on your web site during the time of their start and end dates and then they will no longer appear (although the data will still be there).

To have your partner appear on the "Partners and Sponsors" page without having a banner ad, simply set up the partner record and don't bother setting up a Banner Ad. Simple. To have a Banner Ad for the partner without having them appear on the "Partners and Sponsors" page, set up the partner record but give it an expiry date which is in the past. Set the banner ad up with the appropriate date range for the banner ad. The banner ad will appear on the site even though its associated partner record is technically expired.

Partner Data Set-Up

Prior to adding a Banner Ad, you will need to have a Partner record set up. Click on "Partner List" on the left nav under "Officer/Administration" to get started. If you haven't set up a Partner record before, you will see a fairly blank page with just "Add New Partner" link at the top. If you already have Partner records in your database, you will see the complete list of Partner records, plus the "Add New Partner" link at the top.

To add a new Partner, click the "Add New Partner" link. To edit an existing Partner, click on the partner name in the list.

Enter the following information:

1. Partner Name: The name of the company/entity as it should appear on your Partners page.
2. Contact Name: The name of the contact person - for internal use only.
3. Contact Phone: The phone number of the contact person - for internal use only.
4. Contact Email: The email address of the contact person - for internal use only.
5. Username (if applicable): If the contact person also happens to be a member of your club, you can select them here.
6. Additional Contact Info: Any additional information for this contact - for internal use only. (optional)
7. Partner Page Bio: The bio/blurb about this partner as it should appear on your Partners page.
8. URL for External Links: The destination web site for the company/entity that people will be directed to if they click on the Partner on your Partners page. **NOTE that it MUST start with "http://"
9. Logo Filename: The file name of the logo graphic for this partner which you (or your webmaster) have uploaded to the server (/image/partner folder). This can be the same file as the graphic you'll use for their banner ad - simply enter the filename of that graphic file here. If you don't have that yet you can come back and enter the filename of one of the partner's banner ad files after you've uploaded one. (I told you this part of the web site isn't as polished as other areas... this is one of the "problem" areas).
10. Agreement Start: The date that the company/entity should begin to appear on your Partners page.
11. Agreement End: The date that the company/entity should stop appearing on your Partners page. If you don't want the partner to appear on the Partners page, you can set this to a past date.

Check that the partner was set up properly by going to your Partners page and finding them in the list. Confirm that their name, bio and logo show up properly and that clicking on the link takes you to their web site.

A partner/sponsor may purchase one or more banner ad spot in the rotation.

To add a banner ad to a partner/sponsor, click the "Banners" link (which you'll see on the far-right of the partner record) for the partner/sponsor in the Partner List.