[il-talk] helping the NFBI reach a web page milestone

[Bill Reif]

Hello Colleagues,

I hope that all of us, in addition to sharing information available through 
our participation on il-talk, periodically visit our affiliate home page at
www.nfbofillinois.org.  It is a good place not only to learn about the 
latest happenings and announcements regarding the affiliate, but also to
review some of the resources such as our convention resolutions, chapter 
constitutions, and even blindness-related resources in Illinois outside the
Federation.  In the past three years, more people have learned about the 
NFBI through our web site than have discovered us in the phone book.  People
learn about us in the course of searching for more general information about
blindness-related information in Illinois.  Our page this year had over
24,300 hits, only 700 from an important milestone of $25,000!!

It turns out that internet search engines such as Google first list those 
web pages that are most often visited.  Since we already know what a good
resource the NFBI can be for a person needing blindness information, it
follows that anything we can do to increase the odds of people learning
about us is a good thing, including efforts to reach the goal of 25,000
hits.  Toward that end, many of us have made the National Federation of the
Blind of Illinois our home page, assuring that every time we open our web
browser, we increase the odds that others searching for blindness
information are directed here.

The process of changing one's home page is relatively simple in either
Internet Explorer or Firefox.  In Internet Explorer, one can change one's
home page by going to the Tools Menu (accessible through the keyboard by
using alt-t) and choosing Internet Options.  You should land in an edit box
in which you can type the address of a home page, which should be
http://www.nfbofillinois.org.  In Internet Explorer Version 7, it is
possible to have more than one tab open, each of which can have its own home
page.  For purposes of increasing the hit count, it doesn't matter whether
our page is on the first line or a subsequent line.  The process is more 
complicated for those using the Firefox web browser.  Choosing the options 
tab does not necessarily default to the Main tab, where one sets one's home 
page.  Further: I don't know the process, if any, by which one can set home 
pages for multiple tabs.

If anyone wishes to change their home page and needs to be walked through 
the process, please feel free to email or call me.

Together, we can reach the goal of 25,000 hits, thus increasing the 
probability that people will be directed to our great web site.

Cordially,
Bill Reif
Email: billreif at ameritech.net
Phone: (217) 522-9139