Political Campaign Management TipsRun for office or become a campaign manager

UPDATED 3-25-10

Who does your campaign website speak to?

The key question to ask yourself before you build a campaign website is who you are targeting. There is more than one correct answer to that question.  A political website can target supporters to volunteer, make campaign contributions or find out where the candidate is appearing.  It can also introduce undecided voters to the candidate and serve as a place for the media to find the candidate’s biography and statements on the issues.   Most campaign websites should do all of these in some measure, but balancing these different goals is important.

I have seen some campaign websites that pop up a huge “Volunteer” or “Contribute” page that has to be closed before the rest of the website can even be accessed.  On some campaigns, there is little else on the website.   I think this can irritate the media and undecided voters.  They have made the effort to visit your website and there really isn’t anything worthwhile for them to see. Keep in mind that many of your visitors will be people who are actively seeking information about your campaign.  This gives you an opportunity to persuade  people to vote for you.  You don’t need to be subtle about signing up volunteers or collecting donations, but avoid the totally “in your face” approach to recruiting supporters.   Be sure there is plenty of useful information on your site.

Should you use a volunteer or hire a professional campaign website designer?

Hire experienced professional help with good references for your website design and management if you are planning to collect donations through your political website.  It just isn’t a good idea to have someone learn how to do this on the job. Since website design and management tends to be fairly inexpensive,  I would lean heavily in the direction of hiring an individual or firm with specific experience working on political websites.  However, if you aren’t going to collect money directly through your campaign website,  a knowledgeable and experienced volunteer can probably handle the design and management of a website for a local political campaign.  Keep in mind that your campaign website is an important part of your campaign.  Even a volunteer should have experience in website design and good references.

Domain Names for a Political Campaign

It is important to get a domain name (that’s the politicalcampaignpro.com type name that people use to find your website) that is easy for the voters to remember and easy to find.  I would highly recommend that you get a dot “com” domain name since those are by far the most common and people have a tendency to forget when the extension is different.  I would especially avoid unusual and foreign extensions.

Unfortunately, a lot of the best domain names have been taken.  Any domain registrar will have a place you can input a variety of names and find out if they are available.   The better registrars will also make suggestions for other options if your preferred name is taken.  Adding variations of your last name, first and last name, the office your running for and the community you represent can help you find something that works.  In other words, if “smithforcongress” and “joesmithforcongress” are taken, try “smithfortexas,” “electsmithdistrict23″ or “electjoesmithtocongress.”

Don’t get too cute with domain names.  You want people to take your campaign seriously and you will have to live with the domain name throughout the campaign.  You don’t know what kind of ups and downs you will have.  There may be times that a joking name wouldn’t seem appropriate.  Humor is great in a political campaign and it can work well on a campaign website.  Just don’t use it in the domain name.

You may also want to get additional domain names that speak to a particular issue, or that can be used by specific support groups (like teachersforsmith or firefightersforsmith) or that can be used to tackle your opponent’s record.

I use GoDaddy.com as a domain registrar and I have been happy with their service.  I have never tried their web hosting.  I recommend you do some research to find the best company to host your website. And, keep in mind that if you are planning to use a professional campaign website design service, they may have their own hosting services. However, it might be a good idea to reserve your domain name quickly (regardless of which registrar you use) so that you have the best chance to get the name you want.

If you want to use GoDaddy as a registrar there is an ad on this page that offers you a discount on their domain name registration.  This is an affiliate link.  This site doesn’t supply any other services for GoDaddy.  Please see our About page if you want more information on affiliate ads on this site.

WordPress Political Themes

Many websites are built on the WordPress platform.  One nice thing about WordPress is that you can set up a website with a particular design framework (called a “theme”) and later change the theme while retaining the content you have written.  There can be a few glitches when you change themes, but the process usually works pretty well.

Some WordPress themes are available at no charge while others are sold for a fee.  I located some free political themes here . You can find additional free themes at the WordPress Free Themes Directory .  While this directory doesn’t have a lot of specifically political themes, you should be able to convert many other themes for political use.  You can try various keywords.  Try putting “magazine,” “news,”  “general” and other terms in the search box or just browse through popular themes.

You may find that it is worthwhile to pay for a theme if you find one that meets your needs and has the look you want.  The cost is fairly low compared to the time you can put in adjusting a theme that doesn’t quite fit.  I haven’t used any of the paid political themes, so I can’t recommend them, but I am sure you can find a number of them with an Internet search.

Your Website is Online Political Advertising

Remember that your campaign website is a key part of you advertising strategy.  The thoughts and ideas you share  on your website should be the same as those in your political advertising.

You can always go back and edit the content on the site, but keep in mind that the words and pictures you put on the Internet can still be found in search engine caches and in the hands of political opponents who monitor changes in your site. Don’t ever put content on your website without thinking about it.  You are likely to regret items that are posted in haste.