www.doesyourfarmneeditsownwebsite.com
The Basics of Creating a Farm Website
by Barbara Berst Adams
June 2004, Acres U.S.A.

   A recent USDA report on direct farm marketing notes that Internet use has risen rapidly and continues to grow. More and more farmers are utilizing this marketing tool, including Michael and Nancy Phillips, owners of Heartsong Farm in Groveton, New Hampshire.
   Michael Phillips says that their website, at <www.herbsandapples.com>, “integrates so many of the things that we do for our farm living.” They have seen real benefits from this new promotional tool. Michaeil explains, “Our medicinal herb pricelist goes out in a springtime mailing to regular customers, but everything else — from medicinal products to classes on the farm to our books — finds new customers from the Internet.”
   As the telephone and television eventually became household items, computers are becoming less expensive and more of a mainstream source of information, shopping and communication. For those new to the world of website creation, design and maintenance, here are a few highlights.
   Some people get web “site” and web “page” confused. Think of a site as an online magazine or catalog, with several pages to turn to. A web page is just that, a single page online, either on its own with no more pages to turn to, or as a page within the larger website. A farm’s website may, for example, have five pages. The first would be the “home page,” which acts as a kind of introductory page, or perhaps something like a magazine or catalog cover. Other pages may include “our products,” “ordering online,” “farm hours and driving directions” or “history and photos of our farm.”
   One of the greatest marketing tools sustainable farmers have is their direct contact with their customers. Direct contact allows the customers to see sustainable farming practices firsthand, and to see the farmer as a real human with children to raise, bills to pay, and innovative knowledge to share. A website can cover many of these bases.
   “We’ve put special emphasis on providing cutting-edge articles on organic apple growing and ‘All Things Herbal,’” Michael said. “These draw people to the site, plus they really widen search engine responses and mutual links on other sites.”
   The “search engine” might be compared to the Yellow Pages, an electronic listing of all sites on the Internet under certain categories. The computer user types in, say, the category of “organic apples,” and the search engine begins to look for all websites that contain those words, then displays them, allowing the computer user to choose from among the listings under that category. Hopefully, if you sell organic apples, yours will be among the listings it finds and presents.
   Just as one can go directly to a business in the telephone book if they know the business name, your potential customers can also go directly to your website if they know its name. To get a name — <www.yourfarm.com> — you first register the it for a small fee, which is called “domain registration.” Before you register, you will be offered a free service to search the World Wide Web to make sure your chosen name is not already taken. If <www.mountainflowers.com> is already registered, they’ll let you know whether <www.mountainflowers.net> or <www.mountainflowers.org> or other variables are still available. If all variations are already taken, you need to be creative in coming up with an alternative name that’s easy for your customers to remember and to associate with your farm/operation.
   Once you’ve chosen and registered a name, you then choose a “hosting service.” This is an online parallel to the farmers’ market. The farmers’ market hosts growers in a central location where many people know to come. The hosting service hosts the website on the World Wide Web, where millions can find the farm’s site. Just as you can’t usually back up to any farmers’ market you come across and sell from your pickup without first registering and paying a market fee, your website host will usually charge a monthly fee to keep your site up and available to the world.
   Once your site’s name has been registered and a hosting service secured, designing the site usually comes next, although it could also precede the other stages. Design is similar to the step you take when designing your farm’s catalog, brochures, business cards or roadside stand signs. Where will the title go? What will the background color be? Just as there is an art to pasting up brochures to make them ready for the printing press, there is an art to making websites ready to be published online. Webmasters are available for this, and barters and trades have sometimes been swapped between these service providers and the farm, trading produce for several hours a month of web design and maintenance.
   “A good website really needs to have offerings much like a magazine,” said Michael. “You want people to flip through the pages, find all sorts of intriguing cul-de-sacs, and then hopefully support the “advertisers” by ordering some of the farm’s products. We’re just now working with our Web wonder woman (Heartsong Farm’s webmaster), Sienna Potts, to make online ordering available with credit cards. While I’m aware this isn’t going to make us rich overnight, it’s a key step to making our website economically viable.”
   Once the website has been designed, it is ready to be uploaded. As your pasted-up brochure is ready to be taken to the printers, the computer-filed web design from the webmaster’s computer is now ready to be uploaded to the hosting service, where it can then be accessed by anyone’s computer, anywhere in the world. Following this step, the webmaster can continue to keep the site updated and help get it listed on the various search engines. Also, if orders are going to be taken and filled online, computer services will be needed on an ongoing basis.
   In designing the website, you’ll need to know whether you plan to offer farm information only, or if you’ll be selling products online. An information-only site might include farm tour dates, hours and months when the roadside stand operates, approximate dates that specific crops can be expected, recipes, farm classes, a farm newsletter, special sustainable farming techniques used, and as mentioned above, photos and history of the farm. Ronniger’s Potato Farm <www.ronnigers.com>, for example, describes the rich soil and some of the operation’s growing methods on its site.
   Your site can also be used to sell products, whether that means actually shipping products out, or taking subscription orders for community supported agriculture shares or prepaid registrations for farm tours. The website really opens the possibilities for selling nonperishable value-added products such as honey, jams, jellies, wines, vinegars and crafted items. Valley View Blueberries <valleyviewblueberries.com> sells preserves and gift packages online, as well as information such as facts on blueberries, event dates, and an easy way for their customers to contact them via e-mail.
   “Be creative!” Michael advised. “Your farm and the produce and animals you raise are things to celebrate. Good energy can come across on a well-designed and earth-loving web site. One important part of this is building an e-mail list so you can continue to let potential customers know of new ways to appreciate what you have available on your farm. Stay away from the humdrum, be informative, and make everything you do into a class act.”
   Most of us who utilize e-mail are aware of electronic advertising. Those annoying advertisements that show up in our e-mail boxes that have come to be called spam. When collecting e-mail addresses to send your own promotional material to, make sure your site has an option for site visitors to choose that your information be sent. Often, visitors to your site simply fill out a little box with their e-mail address asking that your information be sent. This way, they have chosen to receive the material, rather than ending up on your mailing list only because they sent an inquiry to you, and then were added to your list unknowingly.
   Many people begin their website creation by simply viewing other sites they like, gathering layout ideas, and then making a list of products and information they want to present. Occasionally, extension services offer publications and classes for those interested in website creation and marketing.
   
    Barbara Berst Adams’ Micro Eco-Farming: Prospering from Backyard to Small Acreage in Partnership with the Earth is available from the Acres U.S.A. bookstore.