NoteSites : How To Build Your Own Mini Website within Facebook using the ‘notes’ feature
I have just done my first experimental attempt at making a mini website using the ‘Facebook Notes’ feature.
The idea is that Facebook Notes provides you with everything you need to make a little text-based website.
The Facebook NotesSite can have:
* Navigation Links
* Pretty Formatting (using the ‘Format your Note’ )
* Pictures (using the upload a photo feature)
* Public Areas / Members Areas (using the privacy controls)
* Visitor Comments on each page
So, there is really not much difference between a Facebook Note site and a normal website.
Also, the ‘tag people’ feature is an added feature , that you don’t get with a normal site.
Anyway - this idea excited me…so I conducted an experiment…add a comment to tell me what you think.
Surely there’s an easier way?
There are probably some Facebook Apps that allow you to create a mini site witihn Facebook, but I assume that they fall short because they require a person to ‘Register the app’ before they can read any of it. The facebook notes feature, i think, is a standard in-house feature and so all users can read notes straight away.
It might all be a pointless excercise , but hey…lets have a go anyway.
How To Build Your Own Mini Website within FaceBook
Step 1. Make a Home Page
First thing, i guess, is to make a home page.
Do this simply creating a ‘facebook note’ in the usual way and giving it a title.
2. Create Pages and Cross Links
To get a basic NoteSite working ‘like a website’ - i guess the key to it all is to work out how to create links between pages (where each ‘page’ is basically just a new Facebook Note).
See how to create a Hyperlink (a link): http://www.facebook.com/notes_cheatsheet.php
The main problem is the process of creating a link to a page that does not exist yet (or is partially written and unpublished). I am doing this by:
* opening a new window and clicking ‘Write a New Note’
* picking up the note id from the web address from the browser addres bar of the ‘new note editing page’. The note id is is the last part of the web address of that page i.e.: www . facebook.com / note.php?saved&&suggest¬e_id=2323232323×3#/editnote.php?draft¬e_id=99999564534570
* then that gives you all you need to make a link to that page, before its even been made:
Just make a link to:
www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=xxxx
where xxx is the note id of the newly created page.
3. Add a Navigation System
Then the other aspect that converts a simple series of notes into a mini-website is to make some kind of top-level navigation. Which is probably easiest done, at first, using a hub and spoke navigation technique to make it easier to add new pages and cross-link them quickly.
After making my first note site…i’ve learned that its best not to bother with a ’site map’ page. Just make the ‘home page’ the ‘hub’ of the site. And just make every new page (spokes) link back to the home. (I realise i only, really, created the ’site map’ because it gave the collection of notes more of a ‘website feel’).
Once, the site is settled, and all the pages are made…then you can add links to the ‘main section pages’ onto each page as ‘top navigation bar’ which can be copied and pasted into the top lines of all pages. Adding some simple [FORMATTING] to make them stand out as a nav bar. Then, to show the ‘current’ page reflected in the nav bar, simply change that [ PAGE NAME ] from link-text to bold-text.
4. Final thoughts / Oh Dear
I’ve just been making these pages and tested the links, but, for me , they are always opening in a new window. That’s a bummer. Praps this aint a good idea after all!
Improvements
Things that would make it easier to create a NoteSite:
* wiki formating
Wiki formatting, for example, allows anyone to make a page look pretty without having to know HTML code.
* the option to have (internal) links that open in the same window (and not open in a new tab each time)
too many opened windows slows it all down to snails pace..boo
Once those are done…i think the idea has legs.
(Although, after making my fist NoteSite i’m starting to wonder if its worth all the bother after all!)