For 2010 a new set of golf group website tools

We have added integration with some of Google's free tools to enable your golf group to enhance your websites. Golf groups using either Website Builder or Website Designer (which are part of our Par, Birdie and Eagle packages) can take advantage of these. The tools for which you will have instructions include Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Groups, Google Picasa, Blogger and YouTube. See below for details. See how your group can take advantage of these with Website Builder or Website Designer.

Add an interactive calendar to your website

Our League Manager software produces a schedule of your events, but sometimes there are other calendar related nuggets of information that you might like to put on your website for your golf group. A slick way to do that is to use Google Calendar, a free tool offered by Google. With Google Calendar the visitor to your website can click through the months of the calendar and on a specific date to view event information. This type of interactive calendar offers more than a static calendar created using a table or in Excel. Members can also "subscribe" to the calendar and access it with their mobile devices. Read more...

Enhance your website photo sharing

Picasa is another Google tool which has two parts. One part is a free program you load onto your computer that lets you organize, touch up and do other tasks with your photos. Picasa Web Album, also free, allows you to share those photos in various ways on the website you create using Website Builder from our Eagle Package. You can share a single photo, a photo "album" or a slide show of a photo album. What's great is that if you update a web album, your web page automatically displays the updated version of your web album or slide show. Take a peek...

Create web pages a different (easier?) way and share duties...

What if you could create your web pages in a word processor environment? Some folks prefer that to creating pages using a website creation tool. MS Word unfortunately adds extraneous code that sometimes creates more problems for you. An alternative is Google Docs, another free tool. Google Docs has a word processor, spreadsheet (like Excel) and presentation manager (like PowerPoint). The beauty of these tools is not only may you prefer working in them, but it makes different kinds of collaboration on your website possible. You may want some help from another member or members of your group but not want to give access to Website Builder. You can give them editing access to a Google Docs page which can then be published to your website. You could have different pages on your website updated by different folks so that it spreads the work load and promotes camaraderie. Every time they update the Google Docs page, it updates on your website automatically. The presentation manager will even do a slide show of text and/or images. Explore this idea...

Add a newsletter or new communication tool

One of the challenges of running a golf group, course or tournament is communicating effectively with members and participants. The fact that you have a website is a great start. A website, though, requires that your member visit it for updated information. What if you could easily put information on your website as well as in your members' hands via email. Google Groups may be your answer. Another free offering from Google, Groups provides an attractive and easy way to actively put information in your members' inboxes when you want them to have it. It also provides a way for members to provide input and have a group conversation. Check it out...

Blog away...

GolfSoftware.com started the Short Game blog. It is another way that we hope to communicate to our customers entertaining as well as informative golf-related content. We thought some of our golf groups may want to add a blog to their Website Builder package. You can do so now with Google's free Blogger. A blog will give you another communication tool, different from the Google Groups. One may fit your needs better than the other. Find out about using a blog...

Add your own videos or ones produced by others

You may remember an introduction to videos we had in our Summer Golf Bytes newsletter. We have made adding video easier than ever in early 2010. Whether it's video from your last event or golf tips videos, it's now simple to share that with your golf group on your website. YouTube, another free Google service for which we've added integration, makes this easy for anyone. See how your golf group can add video...

Three new menu features in Website Builder

Take advantage of three new menu features available now in our Eagle Package's Website Builder tool. The left-side navigation menu will have a variable width to accommodate different user needs. Category labels will help you organize the links on the menu. The labels are non-linking text to help your website visitors with a clearer menu structure. The third new feature will be the ability to collapse sub-categories, so less vertical room is taken up in your menu. Take a look.