You really can comment

For those new to blogging, you have the choice to comment (or not) to any posting here. Just click on the "comments" link (which may indeed show "0 comments") and post your thoughts, questions, or suggestions.

Just so you know ... this is a moderated blog; I review comments and "OK" them for posting. This helps avoid crass language or "flames". It also lets me weed out any spam attempts -- yes they really could happen otherwise ... kind of makes you sick, doesn't it! That's why you have to type in the letters you see in the image provided (it changes). Spammers can't deal with such a response requirement.

Calling all Evangelism blogs...

Gospelcom.net has added a page about Evangelism Blogs. One point they make is that while there are a lot of Evangelism sites on the Web, most are geared toward people who are already Christians. What's needed are more web resources dedicated to reaching non-Christians.

As the above-linked page says, "Blog evangelism is about building online relationships with people within an area of shared interest."

What do you do about content? Create the topics based on a secular topic or a need you feel needs addressing. What are you best at? What do you know the most about? Write about that.

Will you be the first in your church "neighborhood" to start an Evangelism blog?

How visitors really use the web

Steve Krug could write book about this! And he has -- "Don't make me think". Chapter 2 is online and viewable -- kind of a teaser for the whole book.

Krug says that "What [visitors] actually do most of the time (if we're lucky) is glance at each new page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link that catches their interest or vaguely resembles the thing they're looking for."

So if you're designing a page with a lot of text, several menus to choose from, and a ton of links, perhaps you're defeating the whole reason for the web page -- to get read. Here's some other things you should know about visitors to your site:

• They don't read; they scan the page
• They don't hunt for the best menu pick, they choose the first one that looks good.
• They don't stop to figure out how your site works. They just plough ahead and make guesses -- and maybe bad assumptions -- for parts they don't know.

Krug's point? If we know what visitors expect and how they act, we can design with that in mind. Forget creating a literary masterpiece or even an online church brochure that will get read from tri-fold cover-to-cover. Make information easy to find and not overwhelming.

Writing to educate or inform

Much of the content churches add to their web sites seeks to inform visitors about something, from ministries to denomination belief's. The Web Developer's Copywriting Guide at SitePoint gives some techniques to use when writing for educational purposes:

• Use clear, concise language. Break out the verbal essence!
• Use bulleted lists. They're easy to read fast (skim).
• Put the web page visitor's needs first. Ask yourself what they would want from your "product".

Tips for Web Techies

The Web Evangelism Bulletin is a treasure trove of information and links to sites that can spark an idea.

It also has a "Tips" section, which has links to web authoring and design sites. For example, check out the November, 2005 issue. You can choose to receive the bulletin by email or receive an email with a hyperlink. Or you can just periodically check out the latest online bulletin.

The site also offers a left-side floating menu of "Design help" as well as great tips on writing for the web and creating effective church web pages.

Google's gaggle of gadgets

OK, so maybe "gadgets" isn't entirely accurate, as we're really talking small programs here. But I went gaga over the alliteration. What I'm referring to is the ever-growing number of utilities and services that Google offers. At Google Labs you can get a look (and test run) projects under development as well as snag any that have been released for the public.

A couple of my favorite Google offerings are Google maps (now out of the lab) and Site-Flavored Google Search. And I'm a fan of GMail and its "Notifier" program too. Here's a tip for Google maps ... instead of just searching for an address, add "restaurants near " (without the quote marks) before the address. Press Enter, and presto, you get a bunch of lettered pointers on the map for varied restaurants. In the left pane are the same letters plus name and address. Cool.

Web books - free online segments

Some book publishers offer parts of their books for on line viewing, hoping to entice you into buying the whole book.

While I make no special recommendation for this book, "HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS - Visual QuickStart Guide, does show what's available online. The left column contains the book's navigation menu.

CSS Property Index

CSS Property Index is an alphabetical listing of a ton of CSS properties. Each links to two more levels of detail. Bookmark this page as a fast reference.

A realtime CSS editing tool

CSSVista lets you edit a CSS file and also see theresults in two different browser-type displays for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Oh, and did I say it was free? The folks who produce SiteVista hope you'll like the free utillity and buy their product. But there's no catch to their free CSS editor/viewer.

Free IBM utilities help an aging population

Now that the Boomers are heading toward retirement, you can expect many parts of our society to be catering more to seniors. One example ... IBM has produced some free software to help seniors and people with disabilities.

• aDesigner - a disability simulator that helps us Web designers check pages for accessibility and usability by the visually impaired.
• Web Adaptation Technology - makes surfing and reading web pages easier.
• Keyboard Optimizer - lets a user adjust a keyboard to suit their particular typing habits.
• Mouse Smoothing Software - smooths out mouse movements for people with a hand tremor.
• Head tracking Pointer - lets a person with an inexpensive camera use their face to point the screen.

What if... - all media was coordinated in church?

Take a look at all the varied internal and external "products" your church produces, for example printed media (bulletins, newsletters, letterhead, business cards, post cards, news releases, flyers, mailers, T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.), web pages, and any video or other multimedia.

Chances are there's a big mismatch or perhaps no common thread at all. Successful businesses strive for a common look throughout the company to establish a recognizable "identity". A common key is often a unique logo that represents your church.

Read comments at the anthonycoppedge.com church tech blog

Ten lessons about your church web site

A church web site is a crucial means of communication. More and more people will be looking for you on the web, even before checking yellow pages or newspapers. And those web visitors will form opinions about your church based on the web site.

A posting at the BetaChurch blog lists 10 lessons about church webs:

• People may check out your web site before or instead of the Yellow Pages.
• People form opinions about your church based on your web site.
• Your web site reveals your church's true values.
• A web site is a key to effective communication.
• A web site is an ideal place to promote your church's vision. Often.
• A bad web site is worse than none at all.
• Don't settle for the easy way out. Do it right.
• People crave content, not looks (eye candy). Feed their souls.
• Visitors don't need an "online brochure."
• Keep your web site current and add new content regularly; it nets return visits.

More at betachurch.org

Web design patterns

The Web Design Patterns site is chocked full of links to pages with examples and tips about varied aspects of web design ... from breadcrumbs to wizards. The pages are all organized similarly: Problem, Use when, Solution, Why, and Example sections.

Web pattern language

The point of the WebPatterns project is to start collaboratively building a pattern language for web development. Check out the site to learn more. The link goes to the organization's Blog.

Google offers free search for non-profit sites

Google offers non-profit organizations such as churches the ability to add a search tool that can search either the non-profit's site or the web.

An example:
http://apmethodist.org/search.htm

How Google gets its results

The Google search engine uses several methods to get the results it displays:

1. PageRank


2. Keywords


3. Page content


4. Content of page linking to yours

Page Ranking is based on how may pages link to yours. But keywords and keyword density are also important factors.

For a more complete explanation, see Google's description of Page Ranking.

Optimizing your web site

... not to be confused with search engine optimization (SEO). Optimizing your site has to do with making it fast and efficient. Shrinking image file size, keeping pages "light", using design methods that speed display time, getting rid of unnecessary elements, and more.

A basic tenet: If you don't need it, don't use it. Blast those opening "splash" pages, twirling animations, and huge file size photos .

WebMonkey has a good tutorial on web site optimization .

Blogs are everywhere

So maybe a church-related blog isn't such an off-the-wall idea. To see how widespread blogs are getting, take a gander at MSNBC's page that lists a ton of MSNBC and NBC blogs:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032105/

Secrets of SEO

OK, so the big secret in search engine optimization (SEO) is "Keywords", which many people already know. Yeah, yeah, ... put all siginifcant words that pertain to a page in the page's KEYWORDS Meta Tag. But this Virtual Promote Gazette article also goes into a bit more explanation, including keyword density.

For the adventurous, there's even a Word macro you can copy (and then create) that can count word density.

Caution: Many people are color blind

An item in the "Clicked" blog at MSNBC references an article that says 1 in 12 people have some sort of color blindness. That's a much higher percentage than web developers usually think. In fact, I discovered that I have a slight blue-green color blindness.

The impact? Web developers need to take action:

• get some facts about the different types of color blindness
• follow accessibility techniques to make your pages easier to view by more people. For example, avoid using the colors red or green for anything important -- red-green color blind people see them as sort of shades of gray. In fact, that's why I edited the default template for this blog to change the dateline and "Links" area text from shades of green to shades of blue.
• check out sites that show you differences for various color-blind conditions.

An example cited in the MSNBC article is an MSNBC page that showed small photos, which "brightened" when you hover your mouse over them. The problem was that they weren't easily to tell apart for some people. And (originally) a red border was added to the photo.

Recent research shows that we all have differently "wired" retinas.

Blogging overhyped?

Hmmm. Here I am just starting this blog, at the suggestion of a Church Webs session attendee recently, and then I read this Adage.com article that says blogging has been oversold.

Visitors judge your site quickly

An article at Wired states,

"... researchers discovered that people could rate the visual appeal
of sites after seeing them for just one-twentieth of a second. These
judgments were not random, the researchers found -- sites that were
flashed up twice were given similar ratings both times."

So both content and general appearance are important. But remember, content is what will keep them coming back for more.

Also remember that viewers make a fast judgement about your site. A bad site is worse than non at all.

Read the full Wired article

W3Schools - free CSS tutorials

W3 Schools has free online tutorials dealing with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Their pages let you edit code in a left panel and see effects in the right panel. It's one way to make sure you understand the code.