Articles
Does "Fair Use" Allow Nonprofits To Reproduce News Articles on Their Websites?
The Answer May Surprise You!
Share Your Work. Keep Your Rights: Why You Should Be Publishing Your Content With Creative Commons Licenses
Why Groundwire publishes content under a Creative Commons license, and why we think you should too.
Domain Name Registration Recommendations
Our recommendations for domain name and DNS hosting providers that will save you money and make sure you have maximum flexibility for the future.
Sending Large Files Via Email? Use Amazon S3 Instead!
How to use Amazon's simple, powerful, cheap "S3" online storage system to send files that are too big to email.
Content Migration Tips
A primary task facing an organization moving into a new Content Management System is the transfer of content from a pre-existing sources into the CMS. Here is some advice about how to approach this process.
Writing Online: Best Practices
Guidelines, tips, and hints for writing more effective web content. This is a wide-ranging article, but we hope it will help whether you are writing for a web page, email newsletter, action alert or anything else that will primarily be read online.
Online Communications Job Responsibilities
Groundwire recommends you consider the following roles and responsibilities when considering how you are going to successfully use your online communications tools.
Alternatives to Adobe
Open-source, free and low-cost alternatives to widely-used Adobe software products, which have become increasingly difficult to get donated.
Tips for Facilitating an Environmental Email List
Tips for moderating environmental email discussion lists, including the "soft" skills of email list moderation, including encouraging relevant discussion, curtailing excess wordiness, and evening out the flow of discussion. Technical issues involved in email list facilitation.
Search Engine Optimization Strategies
Search engine optimization tips for nonprofit websites
PowerPoint Best Practices
Tips and tricks for more effective online presentations
Seattle Meeting Spaces
A list of spaces suitable for nonprofit board meetings, community events, etc.
Sites for quality low-cost images
A picture is worth a thousand words and thanks to many low cost and free photo websites building a library may cost you only pennies. Here are some great websites to scour if you can’t seem to find that iconic flower-growing-out-of-your-hand image you need for your website.
The Ladder of Engagement & Salesforce
How we are using Salesforce databases to model "Ladder of Engagement" organizing strategies.
Keeping Your Website Effort Focused on the Big Picture
Key questions to ask yourself over and over as you plan, deploy, and maintain and utilize your organizational website:
Writing Email Newsletters: Best Practices
You might think that creating content for an email newsletter is just like writing for your print newsletter. The reality is that these two forms of media are vastly different. Read this article for advice on how to write effective email newsletters.
Using Google Analytics to Monitor Email Newsletter Traffic
How to use Google Analytics with your Vertical Response account to track reader engagement with your email newsletters and alerts.
Action Alerts: Best Practices
Writing an effective action alert means staying focused on specific actions you want your supporters to take. This article talks about best practices for writing an action alert.
Recommended Online Video Hosting Services
Want to put streaming video on your website? The easiest way is usually to use a video hosting service to handle the dirty work for you. Here are some recommended free and low-cost providers.
Tips for Using Visual Editors
Here are some easy, but powerfully useful tricks when using visual editors on the web
Creating Pages Effectively for Browser Compatibility
Different browsers display webpages slightly differently from one another. There isn't one standard for HTML that all browsers conform to, so part of good web design and writing for the web involves checking your work in more than one browser.
Preparing Images for the Web
Important things to know about preparing images that can improve the performance of your website.
Introducing Google Analytics
Learn the basics of Google Analytics, including definition of terms, simple data analysis tips, and where to find more information.
Organizing Your Filesystem
Some tips for how to keep your Plone website's filesystem organized and free of unused or out-of-date items.
A Case Study of Drip Campaigns
Drip campaigns are an automated series of emails, allowing for automatic opt-in based on triggers, and do not require any ongoing maintenance once launched. This is the story of how Groundwire is using this concept to power our web support email series.
Introduction to Data
Introduction to data management, databases and database lingo for startup and volunteer grass-roots environmental organizers and others with little to no database experience.
Earth Justice Values Map OR and WA all segments
Earth Justice Social Capital Project all segments in OR and WA.
How to Generate Website Traffic
Information about how to generate web traffic and get more people to visit your website.
Recent Articles
Articles sorted by publishing date
Useful Keyboard Shortcuts
There's a world of functionality just underneath your fingers. Think undo, copy, cut, and paste. Know the moves to put you in command of your content!
Troubleshooting Plone Pages: Using HTML
This article describes how to use the HTML view in Plone to help you troubleshoot your page layouts.
Room Full of Views: Understanding the Display Menu
Plone folders and other content types can present different 'views' of the content they contain or aggregate. Read this article to learn more about using the Display menu in Plone.
Plone 3 Quick Start Tutorial
Here are the tasks you need to learn first in order to be effective in Plone
How to Move Existing Content into Plone
Learn the various ways of moving content from your old website or documents into Plone. You'll learn how to move images, content from Word documents, and more!
PloneFormGen
Documentation for Plone Form Gen
Pigeonhole Users Guide: Plone 3
The ins and outs of using Pigeonhole for Plone 3
Pigeonhole Users Guide: Plone 2
Learn how to use Pigeonhole, a Plone product developed by Groundwire to enable audience and/or program oriented content and navigation
How to Copy Content from Microsoft Word into Plone
There are a few things to know about copying and pasting content from Word into Plone to get the best results.
Using Flickr Slideshows in Plone
Flickr is a great tool for organizing and managing your photos. Learn how to insert a Flickr slideshow into your Plone site.
How to Embed Videos in Plone
Want a video on your website? Read this how-to and learn the basics of embedding video.
How to Migrate an Email Template
For migrating an email template from WhatCounts to Vertical Response.
Diving into the Twittersphere
Getting started with Twitter.
Welcome to The Facebook Era
Overview of the social networking site Facebook.
Your Blog Is Your Friend
Tips on organizational blogging
Facebook Ads: A Social Change Experiment
We’re experimenting with Facebook Ads and sharing what we’ve learned.
Google Analytics Basic Worksheet
Download this worksheet to help you get started tracking and understanding your web analytics.
Signup for our Newsletter
