CHAPTER 1

Introduction:
Looking Back
Looking Ahead

CHAPTER 19

After the Election

Appendix

Top Ten Web Blunders

Glossary

Index

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Winning Campaigns Online: Strategies for Campaigns & Causes SECOND EDITION by Emilienne M. Ireland, Phil T. Nash   $24.95 PLUS SHIPPING  Discount Info Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours   Average customer review:

 
You want to get a campaign website and raise funds online, but you don't have a lot of time to learn all the details. How should you proceed? Here is what you need to know to get started:

 
The domain is the name of your website. For instance, a candidate might reserve a domain such as johnsmith.com or janedoe2002.org. To reserve a particular domain name for the exclusive use of your campaign, you must register it. It costs only $35 or less to register a domain name for one year, and registration is renewable.

The domain name you choose can have a significant impact on the success of your online fundraising effort. Keep in mind that in federal and statewide campaigns, an average of one in every hundred visitors makes a donation, and the donations average over $100. Simple math shows that if 1,000 people try to visit your website, but half of them type in the wrong URL because your domain name is confusing, hard to spell, or hard to remember, you can assume you lost about $500 in donations. If that happens every week, you have a serious motivation to choose a better domain name.

The most important advice about registering your domain name is: do it early. Too many candidates put off this routine task, only to find out later that a "cybersquatter" has taken possession of the candidate's name, and wants to sell it to the campaign—or to the opposition—at a high price.

To register your domain name, visit the website of ICANN (www.icann.org), the government agency that supervises the companies that register domains. If you choose a domain name that includes the year designation, such as johnsmith2002.com, you will not be able to use that domain in future campaigns, although you may still prefer that domain for the 2002 campaign.

When choosing a domain, follow these simple guidelines to substantially increase the number of visitors to your campaign website:

3

Avoid using initials

You should use the version of your name that is simplest and most easy to remember. In most cases, that means use your first name, your last name, or both names, but not some more complicated and confusing combination of names and initials. For instance, let's look at the options if your name happens to be Michael John Smith:        Good Choices            Not as Good          michaelsmith.com      mikesmith.com      smith.com   michaeljsmith.com      msmith.com mjsmith.com mikejsmith.com mjohnsmith.com   Exception: If you are widely known by a name that includes initials, or leaving out your initial might be confusing, go ahead and use the initials. For example, if former president Franklin Roosevelt were campaigning today, www.fdr.com would be a good choice for his website domain name. This exception also applies to George W. Bush, who chose the domain georgewbush.com. That domain makes sense for him because he consistently uses his middle initial, and the "W" also helps to prevent his name from being confused with that of another well-known George Bush.

	Domain name	Guideline ignored	Score
	algore2000.com		100%
	billbradley.com		100%
	forbes2000.com		100%
	georgewbush.com	(3) a	100%
	mccain2000.com		100%
	keyes2000.org	7	86%
	lamaralexander.com	1	86%
	orrinhatch.org	7	86%
	votenader.com	5	86%
	quayle.org	7	86%
	edole2000.org	3, 7	72%
	smithforpresident.org	1, 7	72%
	bauer2k.com	4, 5, 6	57%
	gopatgo2000.org	5, 6, 7	57%
	larouchecampaign.org b	1, 2, 5, 7	43%
	k2k.org c	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7	14%
a.	George Bush qualifies for an exception to Guideline 3, because his middle initial helps voters to recognize his name. The initial also prevents him from being confused with another well-known George Bush. Unfortunately, Bush did not take the next logical step and reserve the other name that so many voters associate with him: G.W. Bush. Because of this oversight, anti-Bush forces bought the domain name gwbush.com, and used it aggressively to embarrass Bush throughout his campaign. See Chapter 17 for more.
b.	Lyndon LaRouche apparently has become more Web-savvy in recent months. His new URL, larouchein2004.com, violates only three of the guidelines (1,2,and 5), boosting his URL effectiveness score to 57%.
c.	This URL was used by presidential candidate John Kasich, but you wouldn't know by looking at it.

 
The days of amateur websites in political campaigns are numbered. While some amateur sites are better than others, few federal and statewide candidates in Campaign 2000 relied on volunteers to create their websites, as many had done in earlier campaigns.

Most candidates would not allow a campaign TV ad to be written and produced by a campaign volunteer with no professional TV production experience. Yet some candidates allow friends, family members, and volunteers to put up campaign websites that send a stark message to voters: "This candidate sure doesn't know much about the Internet." Amateur sites generally give the impression that your campaign is, well, amateurish.

An attractive and easy-to-navigate layout and design, together with well-written text, professional graphics, and pages that load quickly into the visitor's browser, send voters the message that the candidate is effective and electable.

Many campaign sites in 1999 were no more than brochures in the sky, often limited to a head shot of the candidate, an address or two, and a few issues pages. Amazingly, many sites did not even provide forms to sign up potential volunteers, or a secure page to accept contributions. In October 1999, the authors published a Survey of Senate Campaign Websites showing that most did not meet even these two basic criteria for effective online campaigning.

A Fall 2000 article in Harvard Political Review quoted similar findings by Michael Cornfield, Research Director of George Washington University's Democracy Online Project: "Less than 50 percent of political candidates have even put together a web site and only a quarter of those candidates are bothering to raise money online."

You wouldn't want potential volunteers to come to your campaign headquarters and find a boarded-up office with no one on premises to greet them. If your website is put together by an amateur who has little knowledge of Internet campaigning, your online visitors may get an equally negative impression of your campaign.
 
 

 
In the bricks-and-mortar world, it is not enough to have your campaign address printed on flyers. You actually have to rent some physical office space, so that when the public goes to the address printed on your flyers, they'll find your campaign office there.

Likewise, on the Internet you need a hosting service to serve as the place where your site's code is stored. When visitors type your Web address in their browsers, they connect to your website host's server (computer), which "serves" up your Web page to the visitor's browser so that it can be viewed. Site hosting suitable for campaign websites typically costs you $25 to $180 per month, depending on the level of service you choose. Plan on spending more ($125 per month or more) if you want streaming audio or video on your site. And talk with your Internet strategist or Web developer before choosing a hosting company, because the level of service varies widely.

How your website performs under the stress of heavy traffic depends on a combination of factors, but your website hosting arrangement is the most important. Most presidential campaigns in 2000 had difficulty keeping their sites available to the public during certain peak traffic periods.

According to a Forrester Research brief, Bill Bradley's site was overloaded with traffic within 20 minutes of his candidacy announcement, and remained down for several days. During the final six months of the campaign, "Georgewbush.com's average uptime [was] only nine days, compared with averages that hover around 60 days for competing candidate's sites." ¹

The brief cited algore2000.com, operated by Ben Green, as the "exception to this Internet amateur hour." Green's tips for keeping the Gore site running reliably despite heavy traffic included: software tools to allow non-technical staffers to update certain pages on the site from their PCs, outsourcing content distribution (hiring companies that store video files and other content on specialized servers and can deliver it quickly and reliably to your site's visitors), and having backup plans for worst-case projections.
 
 

 
In the bricks-and-mortar world, after you rent office space, one of the first things you do is set up phone service, so that people can dial in and dial out on the telephone. In Internet terms, you need to get a dial-up account from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) so that your campaign staff can access the Internet and so that others can send messages to your staff via the Internet.

The dial-up account is separate from the website hosting. Website hosting puts your website on the Internet so that everyone who has Internet access can access your site. But if you want to visit your own website (or get email and other data via the Internet), you must get your own personal dial-up account to connect you with the Internet. Again, talk with your Web developer before choosing an ISP, because reliability and quality of service vary widely.

Which ISP should you choose? Some commercial outfits give you free email accounts in return for learning about your browsing habits and having the right to send you commercial announcements. If you have the budget, you may prefer to spend the $20 per month to have ISP accounts for the key personnel in the campaign.

If your hosting service provides free "alias" email addresses, your Web developer can set them up for you. An alias is an alternate email address that forwards mail to your main email address. For example, people could send email to an offical campaign address such as mikem@janedoe2002.com or press@janedoe2002.com, and you would receive it at your personal email address (such as mike974@aol.com).
 
 

 
Your campaign loses credibility when the public finds out that your online contributions page fails to provide basic e-commerce security protection. When donors are ready to give you a contribution, you owe it to them to provide a donation mechanism that is safe, secure, and easy to use.

In 1999, several congressional campaigns found themselves featured in a newspaper article on candidates who had non-secure, unencrypted pages that put their contributors at risk for credit card or check fraud. Don't let it happen to you.

When a site is properly set up to allow secure financial transactions, credit card and online check data are sent to the campaign's contribution-collecting computer via a link that is much harder to hack (intercept and decode) than ordinary email transmission. Secure transactions are an essential feature of any online fundraising system that meets even minimal professional standards. See Chapter 10 for more on how to choose an online fundraising solution.
 
 

 
Your online campaign strategy is just an extension of your regular campaign strategy. The message on your website should be part of your overall campaign message, but written in the brief, interconnected style seen on the Web. Your webmaster should have a definite role in the campaign hierarchy, with direct access to the communications director or campaign manager, depending on the size of your campaign.

Your website should be updated frequently to reflect what is going on in your campaign. When you send out a press release, be sure to post it on your site at the same time. Likewise, the campaign messages in your television ads, your direct mail, and your radio spots all should be reflected on your website.

Some people have strange apprehensions about using the Internet. Some candidates actually say they are afraid to have a campaign website, because their opponents "might use it against me." Presumably, these candidates are not afraid of being seen on TV or heard on the radio. By the same token, no one should be afraid to use the Internet as a campaign tool.

Your website should contain all the material that you release to the public via other media, and your highest-level campaign staff should review everything that gets posted to your site, just as they would review a proposed press release or TV ad.
 
 

 
In Campaign 2000, some campaign managers were reluctant to launch a website early in the campaign. They felt nervous about presenting even a basic message on the Internet prior to carefully analyzing all their poll data, producing the direct mail pieces and television spots, and so on. In fact, some campaigns delayed launching their websites until just a few months before Election Day.

By contrast, most of the largest and best-financed campaigns in 2000 launched their websites soon after they announced their bids for office, and thereby seized a competitive advantage by collecting precious email addresses, volunteer data, and donations online throughout the many months of the long campaign.

Some candidates who initially expressed a dismissive attitude toward Internet campaigning changed their minds during the campaign. For instance, in the early stages of Campaign 2000, the New York Times reported that Bush strategists viewed the Internet as having "little potential to influence the outcome of an election," and quoted Bush spokesman David Beckwith as saying, "I'm a little nonplussed by a couple of our competitors who think they're going to win by manipulating the Internet." ²

However, by the end of the campaign, Bush strategists had revised their views. Mark McKinnon, who directed Bush's campaign media strategy, told reporters that the Web can "absolutely" help Bush, but that using the Internet to build Bush's base of support and rally his followers would "have to be done outside the White House." ³

As a result, George Bush's campaign website was not shut down when his campaign ended. Instead, it was simply renamed the "Bush-Cheney Transition Site," and continued to operate as an organizing and fundraising tool, collecting email addresses and donations from supporters nationwide. Despite his campaign's earlier view of the Internet as having "little potential" as a political tool, by Inauguration Day 2001, Bush had become the first sitting president to operate a personal political website on an ongoing basis.

Whether you get online early in the campaign or late, remember that your website should be treated as an evolving entity and regularly updated if it is to generate return traffic.
 
 

 
The days are gone when a candidate can get a write-up in the local newspaper merely by virtue of launching a campaign website. Nevertheless, there are many ways you can increase your site's visibility in the traditional media. Take out ads in the newspapers and on television and radio. Use a mailing list and mail the URL on a postcard to potential voters. Send out press releases, and give interviews to the local press—preferably online.

At the same time, make sure that you are registered with commercial search engines, as well as the national, state, and county websites for your party. Check with the local League of Women Voters and other non-partisan groups to see if you and your new website are listed. Send emails to political directory sites such as www.politics1.com, www.vote-smart.org, and www.dnet.org and ask that your new site be included (and while you are there, be sure to check out the websites of your opponents).

A good Web development firm can register your site with Internet search engines. You might want to consider paying for a firm to re-submit your site to the major search engines on a quarterly basis so that the way you are listed reflects the current status of your website and campaign.
 
 

 
Announce your new online presence through an email update to your friends, family, and supporters. Then have supporters send friend-to-a-friend emails that develop a buzz about your campaign.

The best way to get "viral marketing" (it spreads like a virus) going is to include a feature on your website that allows visitors to the site to send emails directly from the site to their friends. A good Web developer can design the script to be customizable, allowing the visitor to personalize the message sent to friends, who in turn can recommend the site to others. After several email addresses are entered and a customized message has been written, simply click on the Send button. The website software automatically sends the emails directly to the friends.

Make sure that every email sent by your campaign has a tag line on the bottom that announces your campaign's name and URL (website address). For example, the online "signature" below your name in every email might look like this:

        Tom Smith
        Campaign Manager
        Committee to Elect Jane Jones
        123 Any Street
        Yourtown, CA 99999
        (999) 999-9998 voice
        (999) 999-9999 fax
        tomsmith@janejones2004.com
        www.janejones2004.com
 
 

 
If you don't promote your URL (Web address), don't expect to receive any traffic to your site. It's not enough to put up a website and hope people will find out about it one way or another. If you want to use the Internet effectively, you must creatively and aggressively publicize your URL every chance you get. If this sounds like work, it is. Even on the Internet, there are no free lunches.

Get your URL engraved on an ordinary office-style name plate in large block letters. Whenever you speak in front of cameras, make sure the name plate is attached to the front of the podium, and remember to mention your URL at the end of every speech or interview, especially when you're speaking on radio or TV.

Another winner is to create a big banner with your campaign's URL. Position it behind the podium so that it is visible from most camera angles. As long as a photographer is capturing your speech for the daily paper, why not get a free ad that directs readers to your website? Ideally, potential voters that you reach in any medium should be told exactly how to get to your website. Your Web address tells your supporters and other interested people where they can find you, and where they can go to support your campaign.

Keep in mind that well-designed sites in federal and statewide races generally receive contributions from about one percent of visitors. And the average contribution online, as opposed to averages for direct mail or special events fundraising, is often $100 per donation. The math is simple. If you have a good site and a viable campaign, you want more people to visit your site. The more people who visit your site, the more money your campaign will raise—with no additional effort or expense!

If you are determined to promote your site, you will find opportunities everywhere. For example, you might not expect to see a website URL featured in the running footer of a paperback book. However, the book you are holding in your hands uses this technique. As a result, our company's URL is repeated nearly 200 times in the book, at the bottom of almost every other page (where the user doesn't have to read it unless they choose to do so). Naturally, our URL is also prominently featured on the front and back covers of the book, on the title and copyright pages, and in every ad for the book.

Never be passive or embarrassed about publicizing your URL. Certainly you should be embarrassed if you have a bad website that is disorganized, out-of-date, or provides no useful information to your visitors. But if you've put in the effort to produce an excellent site that is well worth visiting, promote it actively. With a little creativity, you can ensure that a wide audience receives your invitation to visit you online.

References to Offline Sources

1.	"Al Gore wins the Internet Availability Contest," by Carl D. Howe. The Forrester Brief, November 9, 2000.
2.	"Bush Shows How Not to Handle the Internet, Experts Say," by Rebecca Fairley Raney. The New York Times, November 8, 1999.
3.	"'W' is for Web," by Robert Bryce. Interactive Week, December 26, 2000.

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