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Tech Tips is an e-newsletter published periodically by the NFRW Website Assistance Coordinator

Don't be left behind because your club or federation does not have a web site!   March 2007 Dear NFRW Board of Directors and Republican Friends This is the first edition of Tech Tips which is being compiled in an effort to assist Republican Women Clubs and State Federations who may be looking for advice concerning the building and maintaining of Republican women websites, e-mail and e-newsletters. Since these are the most frequently used communication tools today, we felt it might be worthwhile to compile and publish these help tips from time to time. In 2006 the spring issue of the Republican Woman Magazine contained part of our first article on "Why Build Websites for Republican Women Federations and Clubs? Is it Really worth the effort?" This article was a chronicle of one person's journey into the world of website building and design. In case you missed it, click here to read the complete version on line.                 Below are some recent articles by members relating their experiences in this area of Republican web site building.  If you would like to share your experiences for future editions of Tech Tips, please e-mail to Bettye Chambers, NFRW Website Assistance Coordinator at bcnole@bellsouth.net.   4Building Republican Websites -- Experiences from members In last year's article we asked to hear from those of you involved in the building of federation and club web sites since we learn from the experiences of others. A few people have responded, and today we are sending you the account of § Stephanie Roesner, Virginia Federation of Republican Women Webmaster        Click here to read her very helpful article.   § Virginia Langen -- Diamondhead, MS - Webmaster for  www.gc-republican-women.org      Mississippi Gulf Coast Republican Women      Click here to read her interesting story   4Additions to our list of web designers Last year you were invited to send us the names and contact information from people who have experience in Republican web design and who wish to be included  in our resource list of web designers, builders and hosting companies.  Click here to view our updated list. . . If you would like to be added to this list, send a brief resume, Republican references and contact information to bcnole@bellsouth.net   E-Mail Tip of the Day         Political  Blogs 4 Cleaning up Those Messy E-Mails       Before Forwarding Download: The Cleaner  - a really neat program that does the job in a hurry! This free utility for cleaning up your e-mail is extremely popular. You know the drill. You get an e-mail from someone and it's full of carets (>>>), badly formatted, and basically a mess.  If an e-mail is worthy of forwarding, it is our duty to clean it up and make it look neat before forwarding. Just copy and paste that badly formatted text into this utility, click the smiley face, and it will remove all those carets and attempt to rebuild the paragraphs (it really does an amazing job). Again, this is 100% free and seems to work under all versions of Windows. It's about a half meg in size, so it will download quickly (dial up modems should have it in less than 5 minutes). Go to the following web page and download this free software. www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/315   Visit www.worldstart.com for some very useful tips on Computers, Software, Hardware, the Internet and E-mail.  I have subscribed to their free e-newsletters for years and find them very helpful. PLEASE  clean off all of those exposed e-mail addresses before forwarding. When sending to your e-mail list, you should use the BCC (blind carbon copy) feature in your Outlook Express and other e-mail software.  Learn more about this www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/418 Before forwarding those alarming e-mails which say "Pleeeease forward" check them out at www.snopes.com or other Urban Legend and Hoax sites.                                     The political blog website is here to stay and has become very popular -- especially among young people.      In October 2006, Blogpulse had identified 35,305,644 blogs.  Many are created by journalists, academics, and those working in politics, for whom sounding off to others is often an imperative. The vast majority are probably by people who are not part of the opinion/ analysis industry and just want to let off steam and/or be visible on the net. Following are some blogs which are very popular and informative. Please send us your favorites which might be of interest to other Republican women. If your club or federation has a blog, please let us know. A few of our favorites: § American Thinker § Gop.com/blog § MichelleMalkin.com § Peach Pundit - GA § Political Insider - AJC - most major    newspapers now have blogs § Politico.com § PowerlineBlog.com § RealClearPolitics.com § Red State.com § The Daily Dish § Townhall.com  § How to set up a Blog  § Need to Create a Blog? § Blog for George Mason RWC of   Virginia -  Linda Bartlett, President   See her article in the Winter 2007   edition of the Republican Woman   Magazine. She has two blogs.        Our Favorite e-mail cartoon. . . Internet Favorites     Everybody visits web sites. . .       BTW -- If you are a cat lover, you might enjoy this page. . . 3Back to top of page     Next Tech Tips will address creating and sending E-Newsletters which are attractive and easy to navigate. Page by Bettye Chambers, National Federation of Republican Women Website Assistance Committee

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