A Village Website

Below are two comments from perhaps the designer of Treuddyn village website and the operator of. Perhaps Penyffordd Council might wish to investigate.

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Comments about Treuddyn Website


the Treuddyn website only costs £120 per year to host - I do all the updates for free and it isn't a great overhead. The painful part of getting the site up & running is getting all the info from the local groups & associations - but much of this doesn't change from one year to the next unless they want to post current committee members or photos of events. You don't have to know anything about java, html etc - it is basic pc skills with some idea of presentation. Often the hardest thing is to get an image for the page - but this is obtained from a free to use library. We planned the site for news/information/publicity about the village - we steered away from blogs etc as they are often devisive rather than cohesive - there are many other forums to have that type of activity. We also created a Twitter page in the same style as the web page to get a wider audience to the events we publicise - we are followed by a number of local journalists and welsh media/tourist sites which help. We get approx 700 separate users a month, and I can see we are picked up in many searches. I get approx 20 contacts a month via the Contact Us page, if I know the answer I reply directly, if not I forward them on to a more appropriate person. Many people use the website to prepare to move to the area and find out about the facilities, other people want to know about local accomodation, news etc or invite our local groups to participate in other towns' arts festivals etc. It is a good forum to show what is planned for the village - putting up the site plans etc of a new housing development - to make community issues more open. It is better to separate fact from opinion though. Our website is also bilingual english/welsh - but unless an article is on a permanent page we rely on the provider of the information to furnish a translation. Sorry to go on...it's kind of my baby, but it's definately worth the effort to get up & running. This might duplicate a post as my previous attempt appears not to have saved. 


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just to advise - the Treuddyn website only costs £120 to host per year. No costs other than that. I maintain and update it for free and it does not require any in depth knowledge of html etc it's actually harder to find the images (which are generally from a free to use website). We have deliberately designed the site to be a news/information/publicity platform for the village and steered away from blog-type postings as there are many other forums to post that type of info and it tends to be devisive rather than cohesive. We also have a Twitter page designed with the same graphics as the website to get publicity for our events and news (we have many local reporters and news groups who pick up feeds this way). The painful part of the website was getting the original information to launch from the various groups in the village - most of this doesn't change over time. It is definately worth the effort - we get over 700 separate hits a month and I can see that we are picked up in many searches. People hoping to move to the area use it as good reference information and I get about 20 emails a month via the contact us page with general queries about the village or village groups/organisations and I reply to them or forward them to a more appropriate person if I don't know. I think there's a place for both type of webpage, but if you want to promote Penyffordd it's definately worth separating fact from opinion in how you organise things