New site launch this Fall–what you can expect to see

Well, I’ve been hinting around about the site rebuild for months now, but the time of the launch is coming near.  We will be doing a short “beta test” on a hidden version of the site initially in order to make sure everything is working okay, but after that we go online officially.

So what can you expect to see?  We are doing the rebuild in two phases.  The first phase will see some features disappear (temporarily) and others transform.  During the first phase, the Calendar, the Flute Circle Pages and the Links will go away.  The Classified section (not the one within the forums, but the one on the main site) will be permanently removed.  It is a magnet for spammers and is not heavily trafficked anyway.

The music section will be completely different from what currently exists.  It will be way cooler!  First of all, the members will have the ability to create a virtual “homepage” for themselves, not unlike a MySpace page.  A bit more limited than that in some ways, but very neat nonetheless.  Members can have a page with bio information, discography, links to personal websites (music related) and links directly to places that sell their music (CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, etc.).  Each members page will be equipped with a flash music player (specially designed for the Flute Portal–looks cool!) that can be loaded with as many of the artists tracks as they like.  So a visitor can scroll and selectively listen to however much music this artist chooses to load–conceivably their entire catalog.  Like most flash players, the ability to download the tracks will be gone, but the ability to browse and listen to music will be greatly enhanced.

The entire database of artists will be search-able by artist name and over time we will add other criteria (genre search, for example).  There will be a section for featured artists based upon user interest, and more!  We plan to tinker with it and add extra features as time goes on.     The user controls will be much easier to use than the current maze we call the user controls    Simple and elegant about sums it up.

Navigation:  The entire site will be more navigable and will be hooked together in a more cohesive fashion.  Currently, if a user wants to get to different parts of the Flute Portal from the Forums, they need to use the “Jump to Flute Portal” button in the upper left corner of the page.  From now on there will be a full navigation bar at the top of the forums that will allow a user to travel from the forums to any other part of the site (blogs, music, links, calendar, etc.) with a single click.

Each section of the site will also be equipped with something akin to an RSS feed that operates within the site.  That way, every time something new happens anywhere on the site, a little “news feed” will tell the user, regardless of where they are on the Flute Portal.   So if you are browsing the Forums, for example, and some artist loads some new music into the music section, the news feed will tell you this is going on!  That way, users can stay current with content without having to go searching each section every time they are on the site.

The whole site will have smoother, more intuitive operation, including things like “hover up” functionality on the Music artists and blog authors pages.  A hover up feature means that when you drag your mouse cursor over a name or picture, a little window pops up and “hovers” over the cursor and has information in it (such as a blog authors biography, for example).  This is a handy way to access detailed information without crowding the pages with text.

Advertising is something that users will also see more of.  The reality is that a site like this is expensive, as most of the members are aware, and the way it will pay for itself will be with both advertising and voluntary subscriptions.  We will most likely be implementing a Google Ad structure that will allow us to sell ad space without having to create proprietary architecture for the site, which is very expensive.  This means that users will see more “stuff” on the periphery of the site–various advertisements (all “topical” of course), and this may extend to the forums as well.   Not my favorite part of the make-over, but a very necessary one.

Many members expressed an interest in voluntary subscriptions being made available.  This will all be automated and very easy to use.  Members can sign up for a subscription–there will be a number of different “packages” available at different costs.  These packages will include some special goodies that are scaled to go with the price of the subscription.  Our free monthly flute drawing will return, and subscribers will be eligible!  The amount of times their name goes into the drawing will depend upon the subscription that is purchased, and along with that they will be enrolled in the Flute Portal monthly subscribers e-mail list.  Subscribers will be members of a sort of “club” that has access to special deals going on in the flute world.  For example, on a given month, a participating flute maker might be offering a unique product at a great price, but it is exclusive to Flute Portal subscribers.  No one else has access to these unique offers.  And there will be other, yet-to-be-decided perks!  The subscriptions are another important method of financing the operation of the site, since advertising income will be limited by space and by the amount of traffic on the site.  However, the price scaling will make it within the reach of just about any ones budget.  NOTE: Access to the entire site will remain free and public, the subscriptions are just a way for members to support the site and have access to the monthly drawing, etc..

There is a lot more going on behind the scenes in terms of site structure, but much of that is for more streamlined administrative control (something that has been sorely needed).

The second phase will take place over the Winter and probably will not be implemented until near to 2010.  This will include the restoration of the Flute Circle pages, the links and the calendar, all of them with improved functionality, easier user interface and more organization (better search functions, etc.).

My hope is that these changes will ultimately make the site more interesting and more user-friendly.  The beta launch will take place sometime in October, and if all goes well we will have the new site online by November.  These times are “liquid” however, since we are not sure what the beta testing will reveal.  In any case, hold onto your hats!