Glu-Lam-Log Updates Website
by Eric Alman

	Eric Alman, son of Glu-Lam's owners Phil and Elaine, is heading into his junior year at the University of Montana as a Physics major. Eric has been working at Glu-Lam-Log as long as he can remember, and has done everything from pulling weeds at the plant to maintaining computers and processing bulk mailings. Now, he's attempting to put some of his college education to use by trying his hand as a contributing author for Glu-Lam-Log Notes.

Launched in the summer of 1997, the Glu-Lam-Log website is well organized and easy to navigate. It captures the essence of Glu-Lam’s personal and informal approach to business.

In his own web browsing experiences, Phil had noticed common problems with many of the sites he visited. The majority of business websites contained too much fluff, and not enough real information. Sites would look appealing, but finding the information he was searching for would be next to impossible. Either the information would simply not be there, or it would be presented in such a disorganized manner that navigating the site was frustrating and discouraging.

Realizing this was definitely not the way to get on the good side of a potential customer, Phil had certain objectives he was determined the site would meet when he agreed to move forward with his website experiment. “I wanted to make the site pleasing to they eye, easy to navigate, informative, and responsive. There would be just as much hard-core information as promotion.”

The design of Glu-Lam’s website closely follows these guidelines. First of all, it uses informative pictures to bring the site to life. In creating the site, webmaster Russ Alman took great care to avoid cluttering your screen. This doesn’t mean that the site is lacking in graphics; it is simply laid out in a way that makes it pleasing to look at and easy to navigate. An important feature is the fact that the graphics do not come at the expense of long load times. “Most people have relatively slow connections to the World Wide Web,” Russ explains. “The key is to make the size of the files used to generate images as small as possible while keeping them as high quality as possible.” This careful setup allows the site to provide you with many beautiful images, but your hair won’t turn gray while you’re waiting for them to show up on your screen.

	You can order samples and product information directly from the Glu-Lam-Log website. Your request will be automatically be sent to Phil Alman, co-owner of the company.

Another thing you’ll notice about the site is the absence of fluff; it’s practically overflowing with useful information. Articles of general interest to log home builders and owners can be found in the Glu-Lam-Log Notes portion of our website. In this section you’ll find information covering many log home related topics, from information on proper techniques for finishing your home to tips on protecting your home against wildfire. And of course there’s no shortage of information on Glu-Lam-Log products. Plus, if there’s information you’re looking for that you don’t see on our website, or if you have any other questions or concerns, they can be brought directly to the company’s attention using the site’s information request form.

The site becomes even more practical because of the company’s commitment to short response time. When you visit the Glu-Lam site and send an information request, it is immediately forwarded to Glu-Lam’s e-mail address. This e-mail is checked several times a day, and any time a new request shows up it is processed promptly. Phil describes, “Our goal is to directly reply, via e-mail, to all information requests within hours.” As a general rule, information packages and samples are sent out to people within a day or two of an inquiry.

	The Glu-Lam-Log website is designed by Russ Alman of Alman Computer Services. Russ uses a PowerMacintosh G3/350 with 192 Mb of RAM and a variety of peripherals. Website design involves using many software applications, such as Adobe GoLive (pictured above), Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw.

The Glu-Lam-Log website has been up and running for around two years, and so far it has been a successful experiment. The site receives a large number of hits and generates five to ten qualified inquires each day. A fair number of orders can be attributed to clients whose first contact with the company was via the World Wide Web. In fact, Glu-Lam recently received a visit from a dealer in Italy who originally met us on the web. But the company is not about to accept the site for what it is; positive feedback has only convinced Phil to keep working on improving the site. In the future, you can expect to see lots of changes and improvements.

Webmaster Russ Alman is currently updating the site to reflect Glu-Lam’s latest literature and products. He will also add some special features that exploit the capabilities of the web. Phil describes some of the ideas he has to make a visit to www.glulamlog.com even more helpful: “We plan to pre-publish articles written for future issues of Notes, our company newspaper, on the website. This way, people with access to the web can get advance information on log-home related topics. We also plan to create information sheets that can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, to either be printed out or simply viewed on their computer screen. This will be a great way to use the web’s capabilities to give people immediate access to information.” Among other things, the company also plans to add convenient features such as a page with direct links to Glu-Lam’s dealers around the country. So keep your eye on www.glulamlog.com; there will be quite a few improvements made in the near future.