eCommSports Kit Curriculum Guide

Step 5 Site Setup Tutorial

How to Use the eCommSports Site Setup Wizard

Prior to deciding which pages you would like to include on your Web site, you are required to name your Web site, choose the URL your visitors will use to access the site, and select a display template and color scheme. To accomplish this task, use the Site Setup Wizard.

Step 1 - Activate the Site Setup Wizard

Once you are logged in and viewing the “My Wizards & Reports” page, click the icon labeled “Site Setup Wizard” (pictured above). It is located in the Teacher Tools section. Once the Wizard loads, click the “Users” link in the function area. Your display should look like the following illustration.

Step 2 - Create a Title and Mascot for Your Web Site

Your class has several options for naming your site. You can use the Web Site Title field for the name of your school and the Mascot field for the name of the team you are featuring at the site. You can also use variations of the two. Here are a couple of example combinations for the Notre Dame University Football Team:

It is also possible to upload an image to this area of the Web site, allowing your class to design a graphical Web site Title to replace the title text. Visit the Lincoln High School Demo Web site for an example of what a graphical title area looks like. (See: Help (?) on the "Template, Colors & Fonts" page of the Site Setup Wizard)

Once you’ve decided what the Title and Mascot of your Web site will be, enter them in the Site Setup Wizard.

To enter the title of your Web site, enter it into the Web Site Title field and click the Update button at the bottom of the Wizard to apply the change.

To enter the Mascot of your Web site, enter it into the Mascot field and click the Update button at the bottom of the Wizard to apply the change.

Step 3 - Complete Your Site’s URL

By default, your Web site is initially created so that it can only be accessed using a URL that begins with www.eCommSports.com/ and ends with a unique four-digit number. This step of the Site Setup Wizard permits you to change that four-digit ending of your URL to whatever you choose. You will need to determine what URL address ending you would like your visitors to use to access your Web site. This is accomplished by selecting the ending portion of the eCommSports.com domain and entering it into the Web Site URL field. You should try to think of one or two words (no spaces) with an ending that ties into your Web site’s theme and is easy to remember. For example:

Web Site URL: NotreDameFootball

Using this example would set the URL used to access your Web site to
http://www.eCommSports.com/NotreDameFootball

To change the URL ending for your Web site, enter the ending into the Web Site URL field and click the Update button at the bottom of the Wizard to apply the change.

Step 4 - Select Your Web Site’s Colors & Fonts

This is the area of the Site Setup Wizard that controls the colors and style of typeface (font) you will use for your eCommSports Web site. The helpful “glyph” positioned in the bottom right corner of this Wizard represents your Web site. It will instantly show you a convenient, though not very detailed, rendition of the results of your color and typestyle selections.

You have a wide variety of color choices for your eCommSports Web site. The colors you select could include the official colors of your school or sports team, or the closest match in the available color palette.

You have a selection of four different typestyles (fonts) to choose from. The four styles were selected because they are widely used at Web sites.

It is important to note that you can change the colors and font selections at your eCommSports Web site at any time during the life of your site without impacting the content of the site.

Choosing Fonts

The “Base Font” is an important selection because it is the typestyle that will be used for the text of all the articles and profiles appearing at your Web site. To select the base font, click on the arrows positioned at the right of the base font menu. You can see what your base font selections look like by viewing them in the phrase “Base Font” in the glyph for your site.

The “Title Font” is the typestyle the main title of your site. To select the title font for your site, click on the arrows positioned at the right of the title font pull-down menu. You also have the option to make the font you select for your site title appear in bold and italic style formats. You can select either format for your title font by simply checking the “Make Title Bold” or “Make Title Italic” options that appear right beneath the title font pull-down menu.

You have the same typestyle and format options for your site’s “Mascot Font”. The Mascot font and format selection process works exactly the same way as the “Title Font” selection process described above.

Choosing Colors

All color selections for your eCommSports Web site are made from a palette of 228 colors. You have the ability to assign colors to the Header, Menu, and Banner background areas of your Web site and to the fonts used for your Site Title, Site Mascot, Menu Link, Menu Hover, Link, and Link Hover text. Consult your site glyph to view the results of all of these color selections as you make them.

The Wizard’s color-selection process works the same way for each of the above eCommSports Web site areas and fonts. To select or change the color of any of these components, click on the underlined component name. The palette of 228 colors will appear in a separate window. You can select one of the palette’s 228 color options by clicking on it. You’ll see the site component on the glyph change to the color you specified. An alpha-numeric identifier for the color you’ve selected will, at the same time, appear in that component’s text window. Due to its limited size, it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between two shades of the same color using the color selection palette. This is why the alpha-numeric codes are especially useful when trying to make sure you’ve selected matching colors for two different areas of your site.

After you’ve completed all of the font and color selections, click the Update button at the bottom of the Wizard to apply the changes.

Step 5 - Enable/Disable Your eCommSports Web Site and Selected Site Features

This is the area of the Site Setup Wizard that permits you to enable (activate) or disable (deactivate) your entire eCommSports Web site or certain eCommSports site features. The advantage of using this Wizard feature to disable your site is that it permits you to quickly take the entire site off the Internet without changing or losing any of the site’s existing content or site features. If you use this tool to disable your Web site, a “Down for Maintenance” page will appear when a visitor tries to access it.

If the Enable Web Site checkbox has a checkmark in it, the site is currently enabled. If the checkbox is empty, your site is currently disabled. To change the current status from one to the other, click on the checkbox.

This same tool is used to enable or disable four eCommSports Web site-based features. If you do not enable these features, links directing site visitors to them will not appear at your live site, making them inaccessible. Each feature can be enabled or disabled by clicking on the checkbox alongside its name. Here’s a description of each of the four features:

Mailing Lists

The Mailing Lists area of the site permits site visitors to join your team’s Fan Club by entering their name and email address. If you use this feature of the site, you must be sure to provide a description of what membership in the Fan Club entails. For example, if you intend to send emails to all Fan Club members, make sure you indicate what the subjects of these messages will be and how often you intend to distribute them, right at your Fan Club registration page.

Site Poll

This is a great feature for any sports team Web site. It gives visitors to your site the opportunity to provide input on questions, issues, and preferences relating to the team. Visitors who participate in site polls are inclined to visit the site again in the future to see what percentage of the team’s fans agree or disagree with their responses to the poll.

Fan Messages

Another great feature for a sports team Web site. Using the Web Messages feature makes it possible for the team’s fans to enter personalized messages during their site visits. These messages are not posted at the site until an appropriate person from your school’s in-class Company reviews and approves them for appropriateness.

Trivia Contest

Sports is one of the most popular categories of trivia. By asking site visitors trivia questions about your site’s featured team you are accomplishing two important sports marketing objectives. By asking questions about the team, its players, and its history and then revealing the answers, you’re making fans more knowledgeable about the team and more interested in what the team does. By getting site visitors to interact with the site by submitting answers to your trivia questions, you’re getting them to provide contact information you can use in the future.

Note: After you’ve made any changes to the enable/disable settings at this step of the Site Setup Wizard, don’t forget to click the Update button at the bottom of the Wizard to apply the change.

Step 6 - Enter Your Class E-mail Address

A valid class e-mail address is required in order to properly run an eCommSports Web site. Various features and tools of eCommSports use this address to deliver important notices or messages to your class. This address is also used for contacts between your site visitors and your class. It is recommended that someone’s personal email address not be used as your site’s official email address.

If you are unsure where to obtain an email address for your class, here are some suggestions:

• Ask your school’s systems administrator or computer support department to create an email address for your class.

• Create an email address using a free email service such as HotMail.com, Yahoo! Mail, or Google Gmail.

Once you’ve entered or edited the official site email address, click the Update button at the bottom of the Wizard to apply the change.

Step 7 - Provide Contact Information

Keeping your contact information up-to-date helps Genium Group, Inc., publisher of the eCommSports Web site, provide a superior level of technical support.

Simply provide the information requested in each field of the contact information form. Use the “Contact Instructions” field for specific contact information or instructions, such as days and times you are generally unavailable or your preferred method of contact should Genium need to get in touch with you.

Letting us know your class size, computer platform, and which Web browser your class is using to access eCommSports.com helps us to more efficiently diagnose browser or platform specific technical support issues.

Genium Group and Business Education Publishers guarantee that the information provided in this step of the Site Setup Wizard will be kept confidential and not shared, rented, or sold to any third party organization or individual.

Once you’ve completed this form, click the Update button at the bottom of the Wizard to apply the change.