If you were having a website made for you it would normally be accessed via your very own domain name ie. www.fredasdresses.com.au or something like it, which is great but it does cost money and you just might not need it for what you or your business does. Castlemaine.biz does not offer this facility BUT, there is a way of having your very own short name to advertise your business if you do not need to get a tailor-made website.

Here is what you do.

First make a start on your Castlemaine.biz entry so that you can see it up and operational. Then, log-out and locate your site. Once you can see it without the edit button at the bottom, you can collect the information you need to make a shorter URL. To do this, copy the very very long URL/address which appears in your browser when your page is showing. It begins http://....

Now paste your Castlemaine.biz URL into the TinyURL box at the right of this page and click on Make TinyURL. Now for the really good bit! You will be sent to the TinyURL.com page where you will see a box below where the long name appears, offering you the choice of having a custom alias. Type in your preferred name and press return. TinyURL will show you the result. If you are lucky you will get the name you want. If not, try something else that you would be happy with.

You now have a name a bit like this: www.tinyurl/zeneden. Now you have a simple web address that to easily tell people, use in emails, advertisements or on business cards.

Thank you TinyUrl for such a wonderful FREE service.

You might not have a GPS unit which makes finding the coordinates to enter in Add Entry so that Google Maps shows on your site a little difficult. But there is a way.

How to find the latitude and longitude coordinates of a place when you either have the street address or the zip code or just the name of a city.

Following are the steps involved:

1. Open the Google Maps website and enter the address details in the search box.

2. Zoom In the Google Maps as much as possible until you locate the place for which you need the latitude and longitude.

3. Right click that exact location on Google Maps and select “Center Map Here”

4. Click the “Link to this Page” hyperlink on Google Maps website and copy paste the URL into notepad – look for the value of latitude and longitude parameter in the URL – they are the latitude and longitude coordinates of your location.

Here are the coordinates for the Castlemaine Art Gallery. We have highlighted the 2 measurements which you would need to paste into your new web page if you were the Gallery. Note that the latitude is the one with the minus (-) sign in front. Include the minus sign when copying and pasting. If the coordinates appear twice, use the last set. Here they are: latitude -37.064818 and longitude 144.216027.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=14+lyttleton+street+castlemaine+australia&sll=-37.064396,144.216065&sspn=0.001485,0.002411&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=14+Lyttleton+St,+Castlemaine+Victoria+3450,+Australia&ll=-37.064818,144.216027&spn=0.012859,0.01929&z=16&iwloc=r1

Copy paste that value in the Google Maps Search box again to confirm the location on Google Maps.

Tip! It is easy to put the coordinates into the wrong boxes and if you do your address will be on another planet. Remember to put the smaller figure with the '-' in front of it into Latitude

Not everyone needs a Biz Listing page on Castlemaine.biz, but there is another reason to register on the site. We've added a wonderful Events and Venue component. Registered members can now add Events and Venues.

Events

We think we've given you enough category options but we will be happy to add more if necessary.

ART - Openings and Exhibitions.
BOOKS & WRITING - Book launches, clubs, writing workshops.
CLASSES | TEACHING | PRODUCTS - Provides information about courses.
EDUCATION & SEMINARS - Education and Information events.
ENVIRONMENT | HERITAGE  - Events relating to the natural and planned environment.
FESTIVALS & CELEBRATIONS - All festivals and celebrations.
JUST BALLS - Country balls and dances.
MARKETS & FAIRS - Where people take things to sell!
MEETINGS | PUBLIC | CHURCH - Public meetings, church services etc. Must be open to the public.
MOVING MACHINES - If humans made it and it moves, put it here!
MUSEUMS & LIBRARIES- A Museum can be any place where collections are held.
MUSIC - Your musical, gig, band appearance, dance troupe can go in here.
PERFORMING ARTS - All theatrical entries except Music which has its own section.
SHOW TIME - Livestock and Pet Shows, Flowers, Vegetables.
VOLUNTEERING | BENEFITS - Volunteers meetings and events. Benefit events. Appeals.

Important

1. Make sure you you include a description of the Event, not just the name. You might know what the event is about but sometimes, readers do not have clue what your Feature Show will feature!

2. Include all the necessary contact details, at the very least a telephone number or email address.

Venues

There are currently (March 2010) around 50 venues already in this website database. Registerd users can add a venue if it is not listed.

It is worth noting here that an Event entry does not have to have a venue. This is an option. Some events might simple require people to telephone or email a number to get location details. An example of this is where a bush walk is listed for a particular area. It might be necessary for people to call to get location details.

You can edit your own submissions - both Events and Venues. However, to do this you must have submitted the entry in the first place, You cannot edit someone elses entry. This is a good reason for club secretary's and members to register, Castlemaine.biz editors will often add things to the calendar. If a correction is needed, contact us and we will change it immediately.

Finally, this listing is for public events only. We cannot except private function listings.

Google Maps

This is an option which you switch on or off to suit. Unlike the system used in Biz Listings where you have to add the coordinates, the Venues component finds it for you. The drawback here is that it sometimes has a little difficulty pinpointing the exact spot, particulary in less settled areas where the address is often vague.

You can cheat a little by changing the address in the hidden Venue entry form until it looks right, while putting a correct address where it shows up on the entry.

An example of this is our entry for the Baringhup Hall. Google maps did not want to mark the right spot. It didn't exactly put you in the middle of Cairn Curran but if you were a stranger to Baringhup you would have spent a lot of time looking for the hall.

If the right spot is not showing on the map then experiment!