Webs 4 Churches

Web images with snazz

2011-08-16T20:44:00.002-04:00

The below tips are adapted from "5 Simple Things You Can Do to Make Your Web Images Pop". Note that sharpening should be last on your list of actions you take on any image.

Try a subtle slightly darker edged vignette around the image.
Convert the image to black and white (or grayscale). The right way: check colors and adjust before conversion. Skin tones may need an increase in luminosity of oranges and yellows.
Check and adjust tones as needed.

-- Histogram adjustment (especially check the mid-tones)
-- Skin tones (color balance)

Selectively sharpen areas of the image. Use a mask layer to make this easier and easier to "recover from".
Last before saving (or uploading): Sharpen. ... Or Unsharp mask, if you can experiment with settings until the photo is "just right". Nearly all images from digital cameras need some sharpening.

In some of the portfolio sample photos at SharkPixel, I noticed something I like to check and often do -- skin smoothing. Check their portfolio for some dramatic changes after skin retouching and smoothing in general. Holding your mouse over a photo shows a photo prior to some retouching.

Related links:

Church identity resources

2011-08-01T14:10:00.001-04:00

Creating and using a church identity, also known as "branding", is a sign that a church is "serious" about public relations. Branding is not just for businesses. Churches reap benefits from applying the same principles that help business with their "identity".

Branding both answers the question, "Who are we?" (by use of a meaningful logo), and provides a consistent look that people begin to associate with your specific local church.

Church identity is not just producing and using a new logo. It includes the whole consistent "look" of your church products, both printed and electronic. Fonts used, font sizes, colors, even shapes of products can all be a part of a consistent identity.

Below are some typical church products in the two basic categories and can benefit from a consistent branding.

Print media

Stationery
Intra-office memos and note paper
Newsletters
Worship bulletins (where used)
In-pew materials
Brochures
Post cards
Pamphlets and leaflets
Flyers & posters
Door hangers
Print ads
Ad-type banners
Business cards
Give-away products (mugs, for example)

Electronic media

Emails from church staff
Emailed news, notes, or similar publications where the email itself is the publication
Web sites of all types -- including blogs
Videos
Projected materials (for services, classes, or meetings)
Online ads
Online business locators (such as Google, which lets you associate a photo with your church's map location and with your business information)

To make good use of funds people give to further God's work on earth, look for free online resources. One example is a free class on identity by Hewlett Packard. You have to sign up, but it's free.

A few online identity resources toget you started...

Branding? For churches?
Church branding
Identity (branding) postings at this blog
Creating a distinctive identity (online class by HP)
Five Reasons Why Missional Churches Cannot Ignore Identity Branding
Unity Church Marketing blog ("church identity" labels)

A couple image searches you can use for logo inspiration...

Church logos (Bing image search)
Church identity (Bing image search)

RoboForm for iPad

2011-07-25T13:00:00.081-04:00

Church communicators often have multiple online account logins -- web site administration, email administration, blog accounts, YouTube accounts, etc. These can be a nightnmare to remember if you adopt good security practices of using multiple user name s and different passwords everrywhere.

The solution is to use good password mamnagement software. Roboform is one such program.

RoboForm Everywhere 7 now is available for iPad 2, iPhone, and iPod Touch. It requires purchase of an annual subscription to RoboForm Everywhere. RoboForm Everywhere is a "cloud solution" that keeps your web site, login name, and password data on a remote server.
I wanted to know how the app compares with the Roboform Desktop/laptop edition. Here's what I found so far...

Tough to contact. I had a hard time finding out how to contact the RoboForm developer (Siber Systems) by email to ask some questions.
Here's the tech support URL -- they reply by email.
Annual ssubscription fee. The 1-yr. subscription cost is currently discounted to $10. Added years are the normal $20. I'm not sure I like that. The Desktop edition lets you keep one version for several years and get updates for the version you buy free. New version upgrades cost $20. I guess that their rationale is that the RoboForm Everywhere edition can be used on multiple computers. Also, this cloud subscription service is in keeping with the software industry cloud service fee schemes. But to me it smacks of a way to keep the dollars flowing for the developer.
App security issue. I do not like being limited to a 4-digit PIN for access to the RoboForm app itself. It should allow at least the option to use a strong password (upper case letters, lower case letters, numerals, and symbols). After all, this one app password opens up a storehouse of all your key web sites, login names, and passwords. The reply to my question about this from Siber Systems is that PIN to access the app is in addition to the complex password you can use to access your actual Roboform data stored online. But since the iPad iOS 4.0 and higher lets you choose a 4-digit PIN or a complex password, as an app dealing in information security, I'd like to see RoboForm adopt that option too.
Data protection. Like with many cloud services, the quality of protection your data gets is at the mercy of the company that stores your data. Banks, credit card companies, and other businesses keep showing up in the news as getting hacked. So if you always keep your own computer patched and always practice safe computing, you may want to use the local desktop/laptop version.
Convenience vs. security trade-off. Using Roboform Everywhere to store information at a remote server and be able to access it from anywhere may be too tempting to pass up.

Managing a lot of passwords

2011-07-18T20:57:00.003-04:00

I have tons of web sites that require logins and passwords. Remembering them all is not really feasible, since I use a different name and password for most sites. So I researched password manager programs.

I like RoboForm for managing web site login names and passwords. The program is available for the below Operating Systems:

Windows
MacOS
Linux

RoboForm also has three "flavors":

RoboForm Desktop.
This edition is for one desktop or laptop computer. The encrypted password-related files are stored on that computer. If you use this solution, remember to "back up" your lengthy site, login name, and password data and store it somewhere other than on your computer.
RoboForm Everywhere.
This is a cloud solution. Your login and password data is stored on remote servers. Since the solution is a cloud one, your login and password data is available from any computer with Internet access. I'm personally hesitant to blindly trust most companies' information system security, but the choice is there. Using RoboForm on a mobile device requires this edition.
RoboForm2Go.
This is portable solution for one USB flash drive. This may be a handy solution if you use both a desktop and a laptop, as you could use RoboForm2Go on the USB drive on each computer. The license is per USB drive, not per computer.

Platforms supported by RoboForm:

Desktop/laptop

Internet Explorer
FireFox
Chrome
Opera
Safari (MacOS)

USB Drives (RoboForm2Go)

U3 flash drives

Mobile (app is free, but use requires the RoboForm Everywhere edition)

Android
iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Blackberry

There are other program managers on the market, but I'm fond of this one. It also originally came recommended by Fred Langa (Senior Editor, Windows Secrets newsletter), which encouraged me to check it out.

I'll report on RoboForm for an iPhone/iPad/iPod in a future post.

Password tips

2011-07-08T18:00:00.005-04:00

Anyone associated with a church web presence usually has a slug of sites and passwords they need to remember.

Some cautions and tips for login names and passwords.

Use a different login name for different web sites.
Avoid using your real name as any part of your login name.
Don't use the same password for multiple web sites. Use a different one for each.
Make passwords strong (8 or more characters plus a mix of upper case letters, lower case letters, numerals, and symbols such as ^). Ideally, use 13 or 14 total characters.
Don't use any part of your name, birthdate, pets names, etc. in your password -- nothing a criminal could pull from some part of the web (including a social media profile you think is "locked down").

To help you remember passwords, use a long passphrase, then adjust for the character mix as above. A password/phrase that is at least 13 characters is very hard to crack.

Example: Thyrpualptaftcmaa is the first letter of each word in the prior paragraph's first sentence. We can then adjust that and change some to characters, insert numerals, and remove a couple letters to set the total here to 14: ThYrPu^13ptae$

If you feel the need for good password manager software, stay tuned for a future post "Managing a lot of passwords".

Sentence Sermons - part 2

2011-07-01T19:39:00.002-04:00

In his book "701 Sentence Sermons ", L. James Harvey gives several excellent tips for excellent text for church signs and wherever else the church uses that sentence sermon -- see Sentence Sermons - part 1.

Below are are a few tips based on Volume 1 of Harvey's book.

Condense the English.
You don't need to include every word of every saying or quote. You can even rearrange the messages to better fit the sign. Most signs have only 3 to 5 lines for brief text.
Consider line breaks.

Decide what wording makes the separate lines read better. Revise the wording as needed, but keep the meaning clear.
Use a line break for natural speach pauses.
Use a line break for most commas.

Consider the speed of passing cars.
Consider your church's theogical views.
Don't use sentence sermons that run contrary to your church's views.

Communion: Eat. Pray. Love.

2011-06-26T15:16:00.003-04:00

Sometimes we can get spiritual messages from the world around us. That's what happened to me recently. While reading "701 Sermon Sentences" ideas, a possible church sign message related to communion popped into my head ...

COMMUNION -
EAT PRAY LOVE

You could even add a tag such as "Join us Sunday". The message is accurate, relates to the modern world, and is spiritual.

We don't really give much communications "push" to Communion. Maybe we should! Perhaps we could develop a graphic and then add color posters or flyers (mini-posters) around the church "advertising" Communion in addition to using the words on the church sign that week. That's how the above graphic was born.

If we treat a "Communion Sunday" as one at which we expect lower attendance, it will likely happen. What would happen if we instead treated and advertised a Communion Sunday as a special one.

This reasoning does not exactly fit those few churches that have Communion every Sunday, of course. But in any case, perhaps we shouold "advertise" communion better.

Sentence Sermons - part 1

2011-06-25T11:35:00.002-04:00

When I cruised through a local Cokesbury store, I noticed a paperback titled, "701 Sentence Sermons" by L. James Harvey. The cover showed a church sign. After a quick skim, I added the book to a small pile for the checkout.

Harvey stresses that the book is about a lot more than just church signage. He coined the phrase "sentence sermons" because he says that church signage should be short sermons. Also, he didn't title the book about church signs because he strongly encourages churches to use the sign "sentence sermons" in several ways, not just on signs.

In our modern multimedia world, some churches give less importance to the non-computer, non-video variety of media that is available. But excellence in communications means that churches need to employ a wide variety of media.

Types of "sentence sermons"

Advertising of upcoming events (keep to a bare minimum, Harvey says).
Bible-oriented messages.
Wisdom messages [a famous quote, for example]. These may reach a currently unchurched person better than quoting scripture.

Places to use "sentence sermons"

On the church roadside sign (duh!).
In church staff email sigs.
In Sunday bulletins.
In church newsletters.
In a tweet.
In a blog entry.
In sermons!
As a teaser in an ad.
[your idea here].

If you have a church sign that allows for messages, you may also want to pull ideas from Volumes 2, 3 and 4 of this Sentence Sermons series by L. James Harvey.

Another book that looks interesting is "Signs for These Times" by Ronald Glusenkamp. That one includes chapters oriented on themes and seasons. The book also includes a topic an scripture index. That could come in very handy for finding a sentence sermon that relates to an upcoming Sunday sermon.

Sermon planning
Sermon planning should include planning sentence sermons. Plant them on the church sign, in email sigs, and in the bulletin. Then watch them bear fruit.

Ask congregation members to suggest a brief "sentence sermon" about the Sunday sermon. Post an accepted idea on the church sign for the next week. Then announce (in church or in the Sunday Bulletin or newsletter or news blog) whose idea it was.

We're baaaak

2011-06-24T22:58:00.001-04:00

After a long hiatus, the Webs4Churches blog posating has now resumed. Work, home and health all dovetailed to reduce time available and keep me exhausted.

I hope to post about once a week or so. That may seem infrequent, but that schedule should also help me keep postings a higher quality.

91% feel church insensitive

2010-03-10T18:55:00.000-05:00

According to research conducted by Barna, 91 percent of non-Christians believe that the church isn't sensitive to their needs. Why? Jargon ("insider terms"), incomplete information, information that doesn't address daily concerns.

Tip: Design and write "for the least" among potential visitors. Avoid "churchy" language.

If your site contains a lot of churchy language, start editing now.

Source: http://www.pastors.com/

Blogs influence traditional web sites

2010-03-03T18:11:00.001-05:00

"Increasingly, web users also expect ordinary websites to have blog-like fresh comment and news too."
- Christian Blog Evangelism

A church with a small web site may do well to use a Blog plus a few static pages. The free Google Blogger now lets you add up to 10 static pages to a blog.

If your church has bought a hosting package that includes RSS feeds , consider adding a teasers to them on the home page to blogs (pastor, youth director, ..)

If you have static web pages for your main site, consider adding home page links to any dynamic content you may have -- such as blogs or photos.

Desktop publishing basics

2010-02-27T19:54:00.001-05:00

Putting out an appealing newsletter, brochure or other print publication for your church is often not simple or easy. Most people need some level of training on how to do it well.

Your information needs to be in an easy-to-read, eye-catching format. Good publication design delivers news and messages effectively. Take the time to understand and follow simple fundamentals of design. The end result will be a publication that is easy to quickly understand and easy on the eyes.

Layout basics

It may be fun to use the variety of colors, graphics and fonts offered with many design tools, but remember tha readability is the most important aspect of your piece. Due to the web, more people now "scan" even written text rather trhan read it. So we need to adopt new techniques to help people find what they want and read it easily.

Easy-to-read pubs use

A serif font for text and a sans serif font for headlines and subheads. Serif fonts have extra strokes at the end of the lines that form the letters; sans serif fonts have no extra strokes.
A type size of 11 points or larger.
Left-aligned margins, not justified.
Text in columns and boxes -- not spread wide across a page.
Grouping of related stories on a page.
Graphics or photos that visually describe the story and draw interest. It's OK to use up to three fonts in your publication — one for text, one for headlines and one for your banner or nameplate. But suing more than three can cause clutter and look "circusy".

Headlines

Headlines (and even subheads) need to quickly tell tyhe reader what the text is about. Avoid "cute" headlines or ones that allude to the text but don't rteally describe what's important. Articles at the top of a page normally should be larger than those lower on the page. Size and placement relates to importance.

White space

White space — the space not occupied by text or graphics — makes the page easier to read. Don't avoid it -- treat is as your friend. Cramming a page full makes it look like a tough read. Some people avoiud tough reads. Use white space on all four margins, between columns and within text itself.

Simplify text

A rule of thumb when writing for the web is to try to delete 50% or more of the existing text. After boiling down the text to the essentials, look for "lists" of things and change them to bullets. Then break up the longer articles with subheads.
[reference: Technology for Ministry, UMCom]

New, smaller PDF Reader

2010-02-22T16:21:00.000-05:00

Adobe products, even the free Adobe Reader, are getting attacked pretty heavily these days and experts say it's likely to continue. The security patches are coming out much too frequently for my piece of mind. So what's a great solution if your church needs a free PDF reader? Nuance PDF Reader.

Nuance now offers the free PDF Reader. It's much smaller, fast, and full of features. I have been waiting for this to come out, as my favorite PDF editing software is from Nuance also -- PDF Converter Professional. I've been testing PDF Reader ever since it was announced a few days ago. Last night I removed Adobe Reader from my computer.

Keep your church office and personal computer safer -- remove Adobe Reader and use Nuance PDF Reader instead.

PDF Converter Professional -- Acrobat replacement
Nuance was originally called ScanSoft. They are well-known for the industry-leading OminPage OCR software and for the PaperPort software that comes with some scanners. They also produce the Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software. I first learned about Nuance when researching a replacement for Adobe Acrobat for work. I am very enthusiastic about the quality and features of Nuance PDF Converter Professional. Their conversion from PDF back to an Office type file such as MS Word, is exceptionally good.

I recommend replacing Adobe Acrobat if not for the security considerations as well as pricing. My replacement is PDF Converter Professional from Nuance.

The Nuance folks tell me that Microsoft hired them to provide the file-to-PDF converter for Microsoft Office ... you may notice a "printer" called "DocuCom" or "DocuCom PDF driver" -- that's done by Nuance. Out of that PDF Converter program grew PDF Converter Professional, a full-blown, powerful PDF editor as well as converter.

PDF Converter Professional is much less expensive that Adobe Acrobat and has the features that businesses and churches need. Why pay the outrageous amount Adobe asks for Acrobat? Even with a church discount through the UMC TechShop, Acrobat is twice as expensive as PDF Converter Professional.

Making websites that are evangelistic

2010-02-20T17:07:00.001-05:00

Websites offer us incredible power to share the Good News. But to make use of this potential, we must understand
these six issues:

The nature of the Internet -- It is a pull medium.

There is no automatic audience for any website.
There are only three ways that someone will find a site:

using a search engine
following a link from another website
by a personal recommendation – in an email, on a contact card, in print, TV/radio etc.

Selecting a web hosting service

2010-01-20T19:13:00.001-05:00

Web Designs From Scratch has a near-realtime comparisons of hosting services' uptime and support.

This could prove quite helpful in selecting a web host.

While checking out web hosting companies recently, I noticed that it pays to carefully compare options by any one company. In one case, a Linux server hosting would get you a free blog or two compared to the Windows server option. But then you lost a feature or two that got offered with Windows hosting.

Also, make sure you check on whether web statistics come with a package or not. You'll want the stats to help you learn where you are effective, what people are searching for, and more.

Church web site templates

2010-01-03T21:09:00.001-05:00

Finding really good web page templates for your church can be frustrating. You want one that is strict XHMTL 4.01, pure CSS -- no use of tables for layout, one that is attractive, yet a look that accurately reflects your congregation.

Depending on your web hosting service, you may not be able to change the menu links area other than to specify the name and URL for the existing "buttons" or links. Make sure to check out all aspects of any website building software offered by a web host.

Using stock photos may add eye appeal but actually be misleading. Here are a few of the templates I've been checking out when looking for a possible new, reasonably priced web hosting solution.

Church web site design change

2009-12-15T20:29:00.001-05:00

Avondale Pattillo United Methodist Church recently updated the design of its web pages. Some of their decision-making process may help other churches.

Why a design change?

Inconsistent design across all 140 pages on their web site.
Inconsistent use of sidebar content.
Inconsistent color scheme across all pages.
A desire to use less clip art and more photos on pages.
The HTML code contained elements that were on the list to be outdated (deprecated) by the World Wide Web Consortium.
A desire to keep the whole home page content visible on a 1024x768 pixel resolution screen.

APUMC made many changes in order to give a consistent, "professional" appearance, help navigation, and speed findign information:

Adopted one design for all web pages, with two exceptions:

Pages that were part of a prior years' training sessions. (That whole training section may be revised or even eliminated later).
"Resources for United Methodist Leaders" pages. These had a different look deliberately and are aimed at a different audience from most of the site.

Placed "utility" links at the top right, above their header.

Used the specific "APUMC" instead of the common but generic "Home" as the link to their home page.
Used the clearly understandable "A-Z Index" instead of the more geeky "SiteMap".

Placed the search box to the right right above the header.
Placed links to their main sections (Calendar, Ministries, Resources, Services, and Visit Us) in a horizontal bar just under the header and used unique hover colors for these links.
Placed sub-section menus (in Ministries, for example) to the left of the central content and used unique hover colors for these links.
Used a standard footer that included:

Church name, address, and church office phone number.
"This page was last updated: "
"Contact Us" link
"Notice & Privacy Policy" link
"Share this page" (using AddThis.com) link area

Used standard formatting for varied HTML elements, via an updated Cascading Style Sheet.
Used two "QuickLinks" boxes on the home page ... one with links for visitors and one for members.
Added photos on most "special section" pages for Lent through Easter and for Advent through Epiphany.

More web empowering of the church

2009-11-21T19:34:00.001-05:00

More bullets of points made by Mark Stephenson (Ginghamsburg Church) in his online video

Empowering sermons

Video
Audio

Empowering discipleship

E-learning

Teaching the staff
Bible Study
Sunday School

WEC Flash allows video plus slides

Empowering connection

Blogs (pastor, youth leaders ... "All youth leaders should think about having a blog", ...)

Devotions, Journaling

Daily scripture
Devotional or study
EMail option

Web Empowering Your Church

2009-11-15T22:21:00.002-05:00

Mark Stephenson at Ginghamsburg Church, Tipp City, OH, gives an online Video and synchronized slide presentation, "Web-Empowering the Church".

It's quite good, but plan on spending time -- it's over an hour of streaming video.

Church website beauty

2009-10-01T19:04:00.001-04:00

Church Beauty is the Church web site equivalent of CSS Beauty.

Most of the designs are very heavy on graphics and have a "slick" look. Many of the included webs seem to have a home page that's less functional that I'd like to see for visitors and members alike. A few have some uniquer approaches to presenting information that are worth considering. But remember that Church Beauty is about the look, not the content.

Personally, slick looks make me nervous and I cringe at the jarring, over-saturated colors of some church webs -- they have an "circus" atmosphere. I prefer a "good" look with outstanding content over a flashy look with mediocre content.

The Web-Empowered Church

2009-09-10T20:26:00.001-04:00

I pulled some key points from the online video by Mark Stephenson about the Web Empowered Church (WEC) ...

The big 3 pluses of WEC

Automate ministry processes.
Store information for easy, immediate access.
Connect with people anytime from anywhere in the world.

WEC Goals: expand, increase, extend

Expand evangelism, discipleship, and care.
Increase ministry efficiency and effectiveness.
Extend ministry beyond the church walls.

Other points, tips, and ideas

Web be more cost-effective communication than nearly any other media type. You can fund a web site for a year for the cost of a few mailings from the church.
You can start with volunteers. The first 1,000 pages at the Ginghamsburg site were done by unpaid servants. The site is now at 4,000 pages, including several years' of text and video of sermons.
You can minister to people worldwide 24 hours a day.
You can get the word out immediately.
Easy 24 x7 member participation (emails; online discussions -- IM, chat, discussion boards, "communities", blogs; ).
The Web-empowered Church (with a capital C) is NOT a replacement for a physical church. The Internet cannot hug, love, or think.
Connect people in need with those who can address the need, including requests for help in the community.
Community Prayer Exchange (Prayer Line = one-to-one). In a community Prayer Exchange, you'll need to address the need of some people to submit a prayer request anonymously.
"Post a thought or Prayer" -- adds to online display. This is most posted-to page on the Ginghamsburg site.
Servant connector. List opportunities, then let people check blocks and submit -- match talents to needs.

Branding - advertise your web site

2009-08-10T21:45:00.007-04:00

Some people get annoyed when asked to adopt "standards" for church print and electronic publications. But churches need to use such "branding" to establish a standard church "identity".

Here are some places you really need to make sure your web address is on all communications, including:

Business cards
Church bulletins
Worship inserts
Emails (add in the "signature" area)
Church publications (brochures, newsletters, flyers, ...)
Letterheads
Promotional materials
Advertising
Signs

Also remember that if you do not need a "www." at the start of your web address, leave it off! Keep it as simple as possible. A shorter address is easier to recall.

Twittering the Psalms

2009-07-19T22:30:00.000-04:00

The Worship area of the General Board of Discipleship has plugged the "Summer Psalms" Twitter project by Providence United Methodist Church, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Providence UMC's senior pastor is using Twitter to get followers thinking about the Psalms. A Psalm number (and usually a verse number) is followed by a brief quote or summary.

This is an excellent, innovative use of Twitter. It's not the usual blather about "what I'm doing". It's spiritual. It's short (by necessity). And it's thought-provoking.

Hallelujah!

Blogs were originally journals by individuals. Now they have broadened into everything from photo collections with comments to news to varied types of main web sites.

Twitter too will be going through these birth pains and significant expansion of the original "what I'm going right now" idea. Organizations are discovering new ways to use it to accomplish some of their varied goals. The original premise was pretty ego-centric. New uses such as Summer Psalms is just the tip of the iceberg in better use of this web-based service.

ScribeFire blog editor for FireFox users

2009-07-08T23:43:00.002-04:00

ScribeFire is a great blogging tool for FireFox users. Some of the ScribeFire features I like the best:

Categorize and tag your blog posts
Post an entry as a draft
Save works-in-progress as notes
Use FTP to upload files
Upload images
Set timestamps

Chart your local area

2009-05-22T20:49:00.013-04:00

A mapping site called maps.huge.info can yield some useful data for your church. You can easily find the Postal ZIP codes within a specified radius of your church address, for example.

The radius search is a Google Maps mashup that uses a polygon to approximate a circle and displays ZIP Code area results graphically on the interactive map. You can drag the green radius indicator to change it or you can use the text box to change it.

The results also display brief demographics about the area selected. One example -- a couple of demographics for the ZIP codes found within a 3-mile radius of Avondale Pattillo UMC:

Year 2008 Households: 69,019 (est.)
Year 2000 Households: 62,142

The following postal areas were found within that 3-mile radius:

Avondale Estates
Clarkston
Decatur
Scottdale
Stone Mountain

"So what?", you say.

Let's be clear ... the more you know about the area around your church and the people who live there, the better you can serve your local community. Use the ZIP Code maps to consider where to "aim" mailouts or decide in which communities to seek to enter event (calendar type) information? Locate emailed newsletters or online calendars that serve the areas within your selected radius. Then contact the publication editor and find out how to get in their pub or on their calendar. This Google mashup can help you better target your external communications.

Trying to decide on a door-to-door evangelism-related effort? Use these maps to spark discussion on which local areas to go into.

Online ZIP Code mapping programs can also visually identify which parts of other ZIP Code areas are near you. Remember, different areas within a ZIP Code may have different demographics than the ZIP Code area as a whole.

Speaking of demographics, combine online demographic data for ZIP codes near your church with knowing what parts of which ZIP Codes are in the radius you wish to primarily serve.

Selected ZIP Codes by radius (at maps.huge.info)
Demographic U.S. Census information by ZIP Code (example is Zip Code 30002)
U.S Census map: Percentage of Black or African-American (for Zip Code 30002)

The state and future of Tweets

2009-04-19T20:35:00.003-04:00

The Xconomy blog has an informative posting, Tweets from the Edge: The Ups and Downs of Twitter. It talks about current Twitter use and even a potential change to open source.

Some have described tweets as inane. Some see twitter users as people who are very egotistical. Some view most twitter users as addicts. Yet many are using the service. Is there a good use for Twitter by churches without the church becoming an egotistical addict? I say yes, but not necessarily as many use it now.

What I mostly see in Twitter is a series of daily mundane, inane comments that are kind of ridiculous to "follow". Nobody really cares when you'll be home, what baseball game you are watching, or why the Mets stink, let alone, be subjected to unfathomable tweets such as, "Dude!" as an answer to someone specific.

Wouldn't it be great if churches actually avoided bombarding people with mundane tweets and instead gave them less frequents ones that had some genuine religious content? Church webs, blogs, and Twitter accounts are not personal ones -- they need to reflect the spiritual life of that church. They need to have a deliberate spiritual slant. Christians are called to live "in" the world yet not to be "of" the world. Our online presence should reflect that.

None of this is to say that churches should not set up non-religious webs sites, blogs, or Twitter accounts with the aim to address a specific topic (baseball, computers, whatever). Those type sites need to be designed specifically for non-church people, with minimal reference to the church or a religion. Keep that type site separate from your "normal" church ones.

Churches could very productively use a church Twitter account to:

Remind members about important functions or meetings.
Advertise upcoming events.
Give a spiritual message (limited to 140 characters, of course).
Pass out urgent news (for example, news of a church closure due to impending bad weather).

Pastors and youth leaders could use Twitter to:

Reflect on an event that day (with spiritual overtones, not just mundane thoughts).
Pitch an upcoming church event.
Thank specific people for helping others (but avoid full names to protect privacy).
Give a short spiritual message.

This runs counter to current Twitter use, but to gain respectability, avoid irritating people, and give more meaning to church and church-related tweets:

Limit tweets to significant ones. No bursts of "I'm headed to the store" or "Hot Dawgs! Go Georgia!!"
Limit tweeting frequency. Start with a maximum of one per day unless urgent news needs to get out. If you are tweeting more than once per day, you are probably losing potential "followers".
Do a reality check. Ask yourself, "What religious or spiritual meaning does my Tweet have?" If the answer is, "None", seriously consider keeping silent. Tweeting too much on unimportant, non-religious topics by church leaders and organizations can viewed as "for the birds".

Don't catch a "Social" disease

2009-03-19T19:30:00.004-04:00

Social networking sites are quite popular these days. But the very nature of these sites makes them ripe for criminal activity. In order to protect both your own personal information and that of your family and friends, you'd need much tighter security and less information sharing than social networking demands.

Below are a few quotes that should make you shudder and "go very slow" if approached about your church setting up a page on a social networking service. Can you justify deliberately adding risk for your church's children and members as well as its visitors?

"With more than 150 million members worldwide and a huge amount of data on every user, [FaceBook] is a dream come true for spammers and identity thieves." (WindowsSecrets newsletter)
"[Facebook] site has been hit by five separate security problems in the last seven days, say security experts. ... Security firms warn that the popularity of social networking sites makes them a tempting target for hi-tech thieves." (BBC news)
"Get used to this [Koobface worm attack]. I think we'll see a steady stream of these kinds of stories with malware propagating via social networking contacts throughout the next few years. And, given the increasingly flexible APIs the social network sites are implementing, bad guys will be able to mine this information for attacks far more effectively." (SANS Security Newsletter)
"In an analysis of cyber crime activity in the 2nd half of 2007, security vendor Symantec Corp. found that two social networking sites [FaceBook and MySpace] together were the target of 91 percent of U.S.-based phishing Web sites." [And it will likely only get worse] (The Washington Post)

If you insist on taking personal risks with your own computer and identity and that of your family, at least consider the impact on your friends if they get infected, attacked, or scammed after visiting your web site or using the social network more extensively after visiting your site.

Churches place great emphasis on providing a "Safe Sanctuary" for children. But they leap onto FaceBook without any concern for their congregation or the visitors they hope will visit there. Taking some teens on a picnic lunch in a park is a great idea. But if that park is a known hangout for drug pushers, muggers, and rapists, we would never take them there.

Yet most churches ignore the very real (and increasing) criminal activity related to social networking sites because the sites are neat, modern, and popular. Churches need to do better at protecting our children, members, and web site visitors. Fun and fad should never trump the safety of our flock.

Maybe it's time for a "Safe Web" policy for churches. Does your church have such a policy? Does it enforce it?

The US-CERT governmental organization has issued some tips for people who just have to risk everything and have a social networking page/site. (See the US-CERT tips) These tips appear aimed at getting teenagers to be less naive about Internet use in general, but there are lots more steps that people should take. Why don't many take these steps? Because if they followed them, it would take some of the "fun" out of their (risky) surfing. Here are a few:

Never use your real name in your email address. Give away as little information about yourself as possible.
Use disposable email addresses when singing up at online stores or services (including social networking sites). If an address starts getting tons of Spam, you may be able to determine where it came from. You may even be able to alert a "friend" that their computer may be infected and that any email addresses on it may have been "harvested".
Whenever possible, do not give out your real name or other information that identifies you personally.
Do not identify other people by name, especially a full name, while online.
Always provide the minimum required information when signing up for a service or buying a product. Don't fill in every field on a form just because it's there.
Never "assume" that Jane Doe is really Jane Doe, even if "she" has a cute photo icon that is really her and she's using "her" email address. Anyone can copy images that appear on the web. And criminals steal email addresses all the time.
If you want to share photos, use a photo service such as Google Photos or Flickr. Don't use a social networking site for photos. That's just one more thing the criminals can steal.
Avoid associating personal information with online photos.
If you really must create a social networking page, tighten the security by customizing the configuration. The social networking site usually has info on how to do that. But the default for nearly all social networking sites is very "open" and not very secure.
Be paranoid. Be very, very paranoid. It's a good and righteous thing to be paranoid when the "bad guys" really are "out to get you"!

Is Twitter for churches?

2009-03-10T21:58:00.003-04:00

Even Ellen Degeneres now tweets away on Twitter. Can anyone resist the urge to deluge the world with trivia about their mundane life? Who doesn't want to accumulate "followers".

Even that term makes me cringe. Should churches really want people who are "followers" of anyone other than Jesus? Are "followers" just the Greek chorus to the dreary drama of a dismal narcissist?

Jay Leno recently asked if those who use Twitter should be called "Twits". Are tweets for the birds? Is there a valid, spiritual use of Twitter? I think there is, but don't know that anyone is using it (more on this on a future post). Nearly all Twitter use I see is self-aggrandizing egotism. As a church member recently told me, "It's pretty arrogant to think that people really care about what you are doing or thinking all day" -- in 140 character or less bursts of "information".

Ministry Marketing

2009-01-10T22:43:00.001-05:00

"Ministry Marketing". Yuk. I hate the taste of "Marketing" in my mouth when applied to church. Yet the "Ministry Marketing Coach" blog has tons of excellent ideas and tips. Here are just a few:

Picasa 3

2008-11-28T11:27:00.001-05:00

Picasa 3 is fresh out of beta. Google says that key goals were a faster and more stable photo organizer/editor/sharing software.

If you use Picasa, update now. If you have not tried it, check out the new and improved features of Picasa 3. It's free software from Google.

Photography money saving tips

2008-10-27T19:18:00.000-04:00

An example of a Google Knol is "Money-saving tips for photography enthusiasts". Google defines a Knol as "an authoritative article about a specific topic."

Even babies like chunking

2008-07-15T21:44:00.008-04:00

Johns Hopkins researchers have found that babies learn better with chunking -- grouped data. While that's news, it's not really so new. After all, web content experts have been advocating chunking of text for quite a while.

Breaking up text into bite-sized chunks in different ways makes it easier to quickly scan for information. No matter how good your content, you can improve it by separating the text into logical chunks -- chunking.

Some good ways to chunk and organize your text include:

Use heads and subheads
Use short, simple sentences
See Write Simple or WebAim's "Writing Clearly and Simply"
Put key information first (inverted pyramid style)
Use short paragraphs (white space between chunked text)
Use lists (unordered or ordered) when possible
Use tables for tabular data

ScribeFire blog editor for FireFox users

2008-07-02T22:50:00.003-04:00

ScribeFire is a blogging tool for FireFox users. Some of the ScribeFire features I like the best:

Categorize and tag your blog posts
Post an entry as a draft
Save works-in-progress as notes
Use FTP to upload files
Upload images
Set timestamps

I used ScribeFire to upload this as a draft post to the blog. Then I checked the code with the Blogger editor. Here's a couple things I learned:

ScribeFire surrounds all the text you add in ScribeFire with a DIV element and a link to the W3C Validator. OK, but a bit much and not something I needed to add. So I deleted the DIV and associated link.
ScribeFire uses no paragraph elements. Though that's the Blogger default too, I much prefer to use code for paragraphs and to use CSS as desired for the P element.
ScribeFire left extra spaces around a lot of text and did not pull lines together. This can cause problems in Blogger and needed code cleanup.

In short, the tool is quite handy, but you may want to do some code cleanup before posting to your blog. I'll use this due to its ease of use but will publish only as a draft. I'll do code cleanup in Blogger. That's annoying for such a potentially great tool.

Finding a robust, easy CMS

2008-06-18T18:44:00.003-04:00

Our church has been seeking a Content Management System (CMS) and new Web Hosting for over a year. The frustration is palpable.

In the process, though, we have come across a couple of very useful sites that let you compare CMS software features and even give them an online trial.

We have also had time to look closely at our list of required and desired Web Hosting features. While that list seemed great at the time, after looking at a feature comparison at CMS Matrix, we revised the list to add specifics about the CMS. The list below shows our current features list for both Web Hosting and a CMS.

Web Hosting

Offers a Content Management System (CMS) and templates suitable for our church's use.
The web hosting company must be an established one.
24 x 7 support. Email is OK, though phone is better.
Hosting firm has good ratings (when I can find them).
A very high percentage web server uptime.
Web server operating system: Windows 2003 server, Linux, Unix, or Apache (needed for a lot of open source CMS solutions).
The hosting package includes room for our web to grow (pages/disk space)
Offers at least 30 email addresses, auto-forwarding, POP access, and Spam filtering.
Hosting solution is $300 or less per year. (E-Zekiel is way out of our price range for the size web we have.)
Domain name registration/renewal is inexpensive (these should be very low cost these days).

CMS

The CMS should let nearly everyone (with minimal orientation) add, edit, or delete text, add or delete images, create or delete pages, and upload files. Templates must be pure CSS -- no use of tables for layout.
Ability to directly edit the code as well as use a pure GUI.
Must allow addition of alternate text and/or titles to image code (for accessibility).
Ability to upload files via FTP or via Web.
Absolutely no ads or forced frames with hosting company info showing.
CMS templates must allow inserting of multiple-level menus -- horizontal or vertical or both. Pure CSS menus code is heavily preferred by Java is acceptable.
The system requires email verification to activate a new account.
Granular privileges by page or content item.
Administrator can see who's logged in and disconnect the user if required.
SSL logins and pages are possible.
Versioning
Good online help and developers forums.
Drag-n-Drop of content
The system lets you force friendly URLs, not database code characters for "page" URLs.
Integrated Spell checking of content during editing.
Users can subscribe to varied "pages" and receive email notification of changes.
The Administrator can force a less advanced user interface for basic content editors.
The system allows Undo of content changes.
A WYSIWYG editor.
You can schedule posting of content changes.
The CMS allows sub-sites.
The CMS provides Web-accessible statistics.
Support for RSS.
Support for iCal.
Event management using the calendar.
WAI compliant.
XHTML compliant.
Allows use of Metadata for content objects.
Provides blogging capability.
Provides Chat capability.
An app to organize FAQs.
Link management.
Forms for email.
Users can subscribe and unsubscribe themselves from email lists.
Photo gallery.
Polls.
Surveys.
Quizzes.
Site search.
Site Map.

Open Office 3.0 features

2008-06-07T17:53:00.000-04:00

OpenOffice version 3.0 is about due for release and the OpenOffice.org Ninja blog has a decent article on some new OOo 3.0 version features.

Just try to ignore some of the fanboy rants (both pro- and anti- Microsoft Office) in the tons of comments. My take: OpenOffice is definitely improving but I'd like to see more and enhanced features along with an improved look and feel (user interface). That would make it an easier sell to more managers in the business community.

Also remember that Sun's StarOffice is free software you can grab as part of Google Pack. Installed that for my mother-in-law and she's never asked for any help with it -- a great sign of ease-of-use for the basic user.

Tech trends among Christians

2008-06-04T18:16:00.000-04:00

A recent Barna Research group study, "Social Networking, Online Entertainment and Church Podcasts" has some interesting results. Christians use technology in the following most common ways (in decreasing order of use)

Searching online (Google, Yahoo!, Live Search, etc.)
Instant Messaging (including texting on a cell phone)
Listening to a sermon or church teaching via a podcast. This was more common among Evangelicals and others who consider themselves "born again".
Viewing a video of some sort online.

The challenge for churches is to better relate its message to the current generation. When Paul said, I am all things to all men" he meant that he couched the message of Christ in terms and in a way that the particular audience could best grasp it.

For churches today, that means seeking ways to better communicate using the web tools available to us. That also means keeping up with newer methods as they become available. At the same time, we must remember to help safeguard the privacy of our members and web site visitors. Until Facebook and similar social networking sites become more secure and users a bit more savvy about not divulging personal data, I'll stay away from using it as an integral part of the church's online presence.

You may want to read the full Barna report.

New media in ministries

2008-06-01T18:30:00.002-04:00

What is "new media" and how can we use it in our church ministries? Aaron Linne has a few videos online about this topic. The introductory one, "New Media for Ministries: What is It?", is below. Here are links to the other videos on Vimeo (so far):

New Media for Ministries: 101 What is It? from Aaron Linne on Vimeo.

Technology 101 workshop slides

2008-05-30T16:49:00.003-04:00

The Digital @ Leadership Network blog put slides to its Technology 101 workshop online. Be patient after clicking on the link -- the slideshow takes a while to appear.

Web 2.0 can be dangerous

2008-01-05T16:53:00.000-05:00

Usability expert Jakob Nielsen says Web 2.0 can be bad. "Before throwing spending money at "2.0" features, make sure that you have all the "1.0" requirements working to perfection." He says that most web sites don't yet use terms in headlines and page titles that their visitors would use.

What's the message to church web developers? Before you leap into trying to adopt fancy new techniques, make sure you have done your best using the older methods. Few churches have a lot of time and funds to devote to web work, so make the most of what you have. For example, do you meet all the below criteria on every web page of your current site?

Each page's code includes keywords appropriate only for that page, a descriptive page title, and a short description.
Common, non-churchy language and terms.
Easy navigation that any visitor can understand.
An uncluttered design .
Don't distract from the text message.
No splash or introductory type page.
Such pages force the visitor to click once again just to get to the real home page.
A minimum of animated graphics.
Animated graphics pull the eye away from the main content area, which should be the meat of the page.
A good contrast of text and background.
A background image may look great, but also make text hard to read when placed on top of it.
Text is easy to read at any common screen resolutions.
A fixed 10pt font on a 1024x768 screen resolution is "squint print".
Visitors can easily resize text.
At over 1024x768 pixel resolution, visitors may need to enlarge small text to make it easy to read.

Newsletters: Folds create snakes

2007-11-14T18:33:00.000-05:00

If your newsletter uses vertical folds, it probably snakes text from the bottom of one column (or page) to the top of the next -- across the fold. While that's not bad for a printed publication, it's horrible for viewing electronically.

If you offer your newsletter to members by email or at your web site, avoid using a fold format. You will certainly fold the newsletter for mailing. That's not the issue here. It's the vertical fold built into a publication design that makes it hard to read online.

Below are two types of basic formats pulled from an actual newsletter (the tri-fold one) and a more user friendly one (no column snakes).

Vertical fold format

A vertical multi-fold format uses columns in which text must snake from one column to the next. Imagine the frustrating up-and-down scrolling you have to do to read that online. In the actual newsletter tri-fold example below, you also have to scroll horizontally to read the newsletter.

To make matters even worse for on-screen viewing, multi-fold publications, such as the one below, do not read properly from left-to-right. The numbers on the image show the actual publication page sequence.

Tri-fold format (reduced size pages from an actual newsletter):

A no-snakes format

You can use columns and avoid the snaking text and out-of-sequence on-screen viewing if you adopt a different format. The example below uses a two-column design but each column always reads straight down the page -- no snakes. You scroll back up to the top -- once -- to read the second column, but that's it.

This format also means that pages are never out-of-sequence for on-screen viewing.

No-snakes format:
The blue "bars" in the sample below indicate article headline text. The orange ones show placement of section heads. This design uses the wider left column for main articles and the narrower right column for standard sections (message from the Pastor, Calendar items, announcements, birthdays and anniversaries, etc.) Remember -- do not put complete birth or anniversary dates or members' full names online -- protect your members' personal data.

Be nice to your electronic friends ... use a format that has no column snakes. Avoid the vertical fold format whenever possible. You could, of course, convert a vertical fold format to a one-column one that reads straight down and use that for electronic viewing. But that takes time that you could save if the format were one without snaking column text. And that may result in an very wide column of text that's harder (slower) to read.

Podcasting trend goes down

2007-11-03T10:22:00.000-04:00

The trend in podcasting is downward, when compared to video and blogs, says the "Will Podcasting Survive?" article at the Alex Iskold Technology Blog. Podcasting was an evolution of radio that never made it into our daily lives.

Sure, some "Pod people" downloaded podcasts so they could listen to music (or sermons) while they worked or played, and the idea of being able to subscribe to the audio files just like a blog was neat, but use of Podcasts never reached critical mass.

So you could download a thousand songs into a music player and listen to them anytime. But how often did anyone listen to all those songs? Did they become more like a partially ignored collection? Where was the interaction that a blog provides (assuming you want to comment on a posting)?

And yes, anyone with a computer microphone could create a podcast, but how many did so? Perhaps the average person didn't look at creating podcasts as all that easy. By comparison, commenting on a blog posting is very easy, though many people still just read and do not add comments. some reasons podcasting is on the decline:

Multimedia videos are cooler than podcasts.
You can scan a blog for what interests you, but not a podcast.
You can interact with a blog posting.
It's easier to jump to what you are looking for in a blog or video. Not so with a podcast.
Reading a blog is more likely than listening all the way through a podcast.
The content of a podcast is nearly always music or news. Blogs or video can be anything.
Competition from commercial media. National Public Radio has podcasts. So does National Geographic, Comedy Central, ESPN, and many others. If you want to listen to streaming audio, you'd be more likely to stay with well-known content providers. On the other hand, many people enjoy reading the journaling and commentary by bloggers and video creators.

Podcasting has been "going out of fashion", Alex says. Today's "in" fad is "out" tomorrow. What impact does that have on church web sites?

If you have limited resources, don't be too eager to adopt the latest "hot" new web gizmo. Instead, give it a hard look. Ask whether it looks like a fad or a long-term hit. Avoid the fads when you have limited resources.
Carefully check what resources a new web feature would need -- people, equipment, time, expertise, and money. If you can't afford all the resources, don't adopt the new feature.
If you really want to give a new feature a try, even with limited resources, look for ways to lessen the resource impact. Perhaps there is a way to "start small" that you can try out before deciding whether to jump in feet first.

Check your web in varied browsers

2007-10-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

OK, so you're an avid [Firefox or Internet Explorer or Opera or Safari] browser fan. You checked your web pages and they look fine. In your browser. That's not enough.

You need to know if your web pages look good and don't "break" in other popular browsers. Some services are free, some are paid. Check browsers such as:

Firefox 2.0
Internet Explorer 6
Internet Explorer 7
Opera (varied versions)
Safari (a couple of versions). iPhones use Safari, by the way.

Not only that, you need to check different operating systems, because some browser versions can and do differ on different OSs. Consider:

Mac OSX
Linux (which has a lot of flavors
Windows

You can pay one-time or monthly fees to use a commercial service that checks a web page against varied browsers or you can go the free route.

Browsershots is a free online service I like. It uses computers of volunteers around the world to make snapshots of a web page in browser versions you select. After a wait (you can hang on or just return to that web page), you get a collection of thumbnail images. Click on one and get a larger view.

It's very easy to see if everything looks OK or if there's a problem with that browser displaying your web page as you intended. The image below represents about 35 minutes worth of waiting -- a price of the price.

As you can see from the image, one snapshot appears at only half-screen vertically. That's because the volunteer forgot to maximize the browser. When you run into that, this service even has an instant "problem" report for each browser snapshot.

Newsletters: Size matters

2007-10-16T22:28:00.000-04:00

Among the many factors you need to think about when designing or redesigning a church newsletter is it's physical size. Why? Size affects:

Ease of handling the printed newsletter.
Column width and layout options.
Ease of online reading.

All those are usability factors that you need to consider. Remember, the key is not what you think looks nice or what you've "always done", but rather how easily and quickly the many different readers of your newsletter can scan and read the content.

Also remember that online readers (and probably many readers of printed editions) scan text rather than reading it. The newsletter layout and design can help or hurt that scanning.

When you offer your newsletter as an electronic file attached to email or online, you have some added responsibilities:

Make size readable. Make sure you use a size that does not exceed screen width. Make sure that if a visitor resizes a newsletter to their screen width, they can still read it easily. Reduced size fonts can become "squint print" in a hurry.
Don't design for hi-res. Design for a screen resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, but make sure the newsletter looks good at 1280 x 720 pixels. Why not design for hi-resolution and widescreen? Many people don't maximize browsers when they have widescreen monitors. Check your web site stats to see what screen resolution is most common, but remember that it needs to look great at 800 x 600 pixels (or the Mac equivalent).
Colors. Keep color saturation and contrast in mind. Many LCD monitors "wash out" contrast and over-saturate colors. Window scrollbars may be very hard to see, as will light pastels or grays.
No snake columns. Make sure readers don't have to scroll down and then up again on the same page to read your online or electronic file newsletter. This most often happens if you use "newspaper" columns that snake from bottom to top across multiple columns. Columns are fine, but avoid the snaking column. Do that by keeping stories flowing vertically; no column changes. If you have two columns, story text in each column flows only downward.
Avoid folds. Whenever possible, don't use a folded paper format. A newsletter that has vertical folds results in a newsletter that exceeds the screen width. It also often means columns that snake across the fold. This format is quite hard to read online or in an electronic file format. Don't force your readers to print the newsletter to be able to scan and read it easily. Give up the old print mentality. Think of online and electronic file readers, while keeping the format attractive in print as well.

You can't have it all

2007-09-25T22:07:00.000-04:00

Rarely do churches have the staff, volunteers, and funds to do absolutely everything they'd love to. The applies in the web communications as well as other traditional committee areas. So what do you do? You prioritize the work. But how do you do that and involve church members as well as staff.

Below are thoughts about getting fresh ideas and then prioritizing web work using brainstorming:

Open a session with the understanding that your church cannot do everything it would like to.
Brainstorm ideas for web communications of all sorts.

Use a session moderator, one good at encouraging ideas.
Adopt rules:

All ideas are welcomed.
Phrase ideas as positive ones.
No discussion during this first phase -- just generate tons of ideas.
Let others' ideas spur you to related ones.
Don't criticize any idea given. Ideas at this stage may not even be practical, and may be "far out". The aim is a ton of ideas, some of which you'll end up using.
Ignore whether your church currently has the resources to implement an idea or not. That analysis comes later.
Set a time limit for brainstorming (30 - 40 minutes, maximum).
Collect all ideas. One way is to use paper or a large "dry erase board" to record all ideas.

Use one main collection method. One is a "limb and branch" approach [I forget the technical term] ... draw lines and mark the ideas above the lines. Fan out lines that are related. This actually helps spur ideas! [Anyone who knows the technical term -- post here for the benefit of all.]

Categorize the ideas (some may fit in more than one category).

Ask group members what categories (groupings) they see in the ideas.
Jot down each possible grouping.
Ask the group to assign actions to the first category.
Record the responses.One way is to use a different colored dry erase marker for each category, then place "bullets" of that color next to each action associated with the category.
Move to the next category, and continue till done.

Record the final results (a digital photo of a dry erase board might work).
Prioritize ideas

Do a first cut at prioritizing the categories.
Do a first cut at prioritizing the actions in each category.
Disregard available resources at this time. That comes next.
If the group deems an idea way too "far out" to be done at this time, mark it and put it in a "set-aside" group for now. Always keep ideas. You never know when today's "far out" idea will become practical.

Analyze categories and actions

Consider privacy aspects to each action.
Consider security aspects to each action.
List any resources needed to accomplish each action.
Resources include people, time, and things (equipment, web hosting, web developer, etc.)
List which resources your church already has.
List which resources should be easy to get.
List which resources may be very hard to get. Nothing is impossible, but look at the effort-versus-benefit of each "very hard to get" resource.
Discuss alternative ways and approaches to getting hard-to-get resources. Conference funding? Temporary seminary student help? Grants?
Agree on which actions should be postponed due to resource constraints.
Re-examine the priorities in light of security, privacy, and available resources.

Finalize initial milestones

Acknowledge that people need to accomplish some actions that they just like to do, regardless of priority.
Keep the web communications workers happy, motivated, and engaged.
Re-examine priorities and establish short-term milestones.
Plan early milestones that will be easy to accomplish -- you need some "wins" fairly fast to keep morale and excitement up

Agree on how and when to next meet.

Decide of you want an "email meeting" to add ideas that post-session thoughts and discussion may generate.
The next meeting should address progress, resource challenges, future resource needs, any changes needed to existing milestones, and any possible milestones for other actions.

Decide on the type of meeting format. Meetings could be in person, via email message exchanges, or a web meeting. Explore options. Seek variety -- keep interest up.

Google's custom search engine

2007-09-20T18:18:00.000-04:00

Google now has a "Custom Search Engine". You add code on any web page that immeditely adds a special search box. The key is that Google focuses searches on all sites linked on that page.

Possible uses:

Search blogroll sites.
Search based on a web page's theme, as shown by sites the page links to.
Search focused on the links in a links collection page such as "Religion Resources".

Example use

Churches with topic-related pages that also include "Resource" links, "Related sites" links or similar on a page now get added value from a customized search. On a Missions page, for example, the custom search will let a visitor focus a search on any Mission-related sites linked on that page. So each different topic page -- for example worship, youth, and stewardship -- will result in different search results depending on what links appear on those pages.
This seems to be the replacement for the old "Site-flavored search" beta, which no longer works.

This also appears to be a great reason to add links of interest to the topical area of a church web page. Added value to visitors means happier visitors.

Tips for web designers

2007-08-19T20:30:00.000-04:00

Here are some uselful links:

Criteria for a new web host

2007-08-17T01:55:00.000-04:00

Our church is looking at web hosting options. One criterion is to let an average person maintain the web. A second key criterion is to be able to "touch the code" if we have a person capable of doing that.

Below is the long list of criteria we're using to compare web hosting solutions and site builder type options:

Offers a Content Management System (CMS) and templates suitable for our church's use. The CMS should let nearly everyone (with minimal orientation) add, edit, or delete text, add or delete images, create or delete pages, and upload files.Templates must be pure CSS -- no use of tables for layout.
XHTML templates are preferred, though XML is OK as long as layout and CSS can be directly edited. (I'm resisting having to devote enough time to learn XML coding for very little benefit -- I won't use it at work, for example.)
Ability to directly edit the code as well as use the CMS.
Must allow addition of alternate text and/or titles to image code (for accessibility).
Ability to upload files via FTP or via Web.
Absolutely no ads or forced frames with hosting company info showing.
Templates must allow inserting of multiple-level CSS fly-out menus -- horizontal or vertical or both. Single-level menus are not good enough, if we're going to improve the navigation, which we intend to do.
The web hosting company must be an established one.
24 x 7 support. Email is OK, though phone is better.
Hosting firm has good ratings (when I can find them).
A very high percentage web server uptime.
Offers hosting on Windows 2003 server (in order to keep our options open).
The hosting package includes room for our web to grow (pages/disk space)
Offers at least 30 email addresses, auto-forwarding, POP access, and Spam filtering.
Hosting solution is $300 or less per year. (E-Zekiel is way out of our price range for the size web we have.)
Domain name registration/renewal is inexpensive (these should be very low cost these days).

Optional, but desired features:

Ability to upload and offer podcasts of sermons
Ability to embed video (YouTube or similar)
Ability to display RSS feeds on selected pages (like Blogger's new XML template system allows).

Sermon post format

2007-07-21T21:08:00.000-04:00

Using the content suggestions at OurChurch, below is a sample template for a sermon posting in a Pastor's blog:

Bible passage(s): [link(s) to an online bible]

Key Bible verse: [link to an online bible]

Sermon Title:

Main point 1

Sub-point 1
Sub-point 2

Main point 2

Sub-point 1
Sub-point 2
Sub-point 3

Main point 3

Sub-point 1
Sub-point 2

Action step: [The specific action you want people to take in the coming days as a result of this message.]

Dig deeper: [linked references for added information related to the sermon topic.]

Ask the pastor: Click on the "comments" link at the bottom of this posting or contact me at the church's email address. [The "contact me" link could go to the church's "Contact" web page or the actual church email address for the pastor.]

Traits of a great web site

2007-07-21T20:55:00.000-04:00

Titus Hoskins in SitePro News lists seven traits of a great web site:

Keywords are used
Design is simple
Pages are optimized
Navigation is easy
Content is fresh
Good enough to bookmark
Looks cool

Content in Pastors' blogs

2007-07-04T15:16:00.000-04:00

What content should appear in a pastor's blog? Anything they want, of course. On the other hand, it depends on why the blog was created and the purpose of the blog.

Pastors may arrive at a church with a blog already. They may well use it for publishing daily happenings (journal style) and musings. If the church wants "their" Pastor's blog to integrate with the church web and church worship, the church and pastor need to discuss a blog that is directly tied to the church. Both type blogs can exist at the same time. Authoring multiple blogs is common.

The Christian Web Trends blog posting lists some great content ideas for "Supercharging sermons with a blog", which I have added to the below tips.

Come decision points about pastor blog content and design on which the church and pastor need to reach agreement:

If the pastor has or wants a personal journal type blog, is the pastor also willing to author a pastor's blog that is a more direct extension of the local church?
Should the design integrate with the church web design or its existing blogs?
Should the pastor's blog contain any sermon texts, summaries, or outlines? Sermon messages can be one form of online evangelism.
Should a "Sermon blog" be a separate blog or mixed in with the other postings in the church's Pastor's blog?
Should the church offer (and link) sermon podcasts or video?
Should the blog allow comments, as is the norm?
Should any comments should be "moderated", so as to avoid anti-Christian rants and foul language appearing in blog comments? Yes, of course!
Should the blog contain short "point of view" postings about spiritual life in a secular world? These could be "thought for the week" style, supplement a past sermon, or based on the pastor's and congregation's daily life experiences.

Sermon information

If the pastor's blog will contain sermon information, decide the following:

When should such information be posted?
Immediately or after a week or two delay?
Some pastors and church leaders may fear that offering full text or even outlines immediately might lower actual church attendance. Others may want to immediately offer the message to shut-ins or people who were unable to attend church.
Should it be full text, paragraph summary, or outline?
I suggest a two-level outline format, which is easiest to scan. After all, research shows that most surfers scan, not read text on web pages. An outline of two levels includes the key points and yet is short.

Add sermon resource links

If posting sermon outlines, help people dig deeper by stirring in:

Links to resources related to the sermon topic. Remember that your own church web may contain information or related link collections.
Links to bible passages for the sermon.
Titles of materials available in the church library.
Links to Books, say available from Cokesbury, that are a really great reference.

Add the "So what?"

Sermons at their best are like editorials, not just commentary. Editorials urge their readers to take action. Here's the pastor's chance to reinforce the Christian actions that readers should take in their lives during the coming days and weeks. The Christian Web Trends blog calls these "Action Steps." Be specific. Make each action step short. Use bullets – make the action steps easy to scan.

Encourage contact

If you have enabled comments, your blog postings automatically have a way to "contact us". Some readers, though, may wish to contact the pastor personally, not via a blog comment. So it's best to also add a "Contact us" link. Since this is a Pastor's blog that is tied to your church, how about adding a "Send a prayer request" link too? It couldn't hurt and might be just what some blog reader needs.

Methoblogger Lectionary & other helps

2007-07-04T14:50:00.000-04:00

When your pastor, teachers, or any other interested people want to get someone else's take on Common Lectionary readings for the week, surf on over to "The Methoblogger Lectionary Group" site.

There are a ton of helpful web sites and blogs related to preaching and teaching. Add to that web pages helpful to various committees and work areas in the church and you have the makings of a great resource page for your web.

Gather a list of such links and put them on a special "leader helps" type web page, similar to what Avondale Pattillo United Methodist Church has done.

Pastor blog uses

2007-07-02T21:40:00.000-04:00

Your congregation might well benefit from a blog authored by your pastor. Why? Your church web site needs to include changing content -- content that will keep people coming back. A pastor's blog is one of many parts to a complete church web site, even for a basic site that's not "fancy":

Some types of static information church web pages:

Information pages (who we are, what we believe, service information, location, contact information, ...)
Resource pages (links to spiritual topics and online tools)

Some types of dynamic (changing) web pages:

Photo albums
Church news
Pastor's blog
Syndicated news
Syndicated religious cartoons

Here are a few of the many possible uses for a pastor's blog:

A weekly (or more frequent) pithy spiritual message, musing, or "thought for the week"
Sermon texts
Sermon summaries
Sermon supplemental references (linked)
Topics related to the denomination

I believe that the below possibilities are of much lower interest and value in a pastor's blog:

"Pitches" for upcoming events.
This type subject might be a low-interest item and better suited to a church newsletter or Sunday bulletin supplement.
"Congratulations" on past events.
Such items might be better posted in a church news blog or online newsletter.

Communications tips

2007-05-02T02:42:00.000-04:00

The Web Evangelism Bulletin has a ton of tips and sample sites each issue, some of which apply to general communications or writing. Here's a few gleaned from that bulletin since November ...

Cool Kuler Coolest

2007-04-21T21:12:00.000-04:00

Adobe Labs has come up with a winner -- Kuler. Fun to use and a boon to web and graphics designers of all types, this color grouping creator and sharing application is a very popular site.

Take the Kuler tour (aka tutorial) to see what it's all about. It even plays cool music while you learn. To create or share color groupings, you'll need an Adobe ID.

The Museum of Modern Betas (MoMB) lists Kuler as #7 in their "Top 100".

Web inventor explains impact of Semantic Web

2007-04-20T23:22:00.000-04:00

Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web and is director of the World Wide Web Consortium, explains to MIT's "Technology Review" how the Semantic Web will transform the way we use data.

The video presentation is by Brightcove video publishers. I find the interface interesting and easy to use. The maximum size is not full-screen, but plenty big enough for a computer screen.

View the 8-minute video of Tim Berners-Lee

My Maps a great new resource

2007-04-13T12:37:00.000-04:00

Google has done it again! The Google Maps home page now offers "My Maps". This tool lets you add several map points, lines, shapes, balloon text, pictures, and more.

Prior to this new feature, I had tested MultiPlottr, which is a similar tool and does use Google Maps. Google's My Maps appears slicker and offers the familiar ease of use and easy to learn GUI we've come to expect from Google. With Google My Maps you have to guess at location by dragging a plot marker. Try both and see if you agree.

Side note: There is a limit of 50 plotted addesses per map at present.

Ideas for possible uses

Plot the street addresses of your church members. A visual look at clustering and dispersion may give you added insight for outreach or visitation planning.
Plot members' addresses, but use different colors for:

Members who have moved out of the area but still attend.
New members within the last year.
Founding members (if the church is new).
Members who have not moved out of the area.
Your church's street address (the key reference point on the map).
Location of selected community resources (City Hall, Courthouse, City or County agencies that help people, Clothes closets, etc.). This might become the basis for a "Where to get help" portal page for your community.

Home address of visitors in the past year.
Plot the location of an event away from the church. The Church Art Online Plus Calendar does this, but that is a paid subscription. You could email this map link to all church members and any visitors that gave you their email address.
Plot any type of demographic information about your members that is related to their address. Just remember the 50-address per map current limit.

Special note about long links. Remember that if you email map links, you should check the length and potential for problems at the receiving end. If the link is a long one or contains special characters, the recipient's email messages may "break" the link, especially when it wraps lines.

A way to avoid that problem is to use the free "TinyURL" online service to create a special short link when the target is a long one. TinyURL creates a special very short link that points to the long one you provide. An example long link reduced by TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/ywzpx8 .

TinyURL also offers a "preview" feature that lets people see the actual destination link before they decide to select it. Here's an example of the same link as a "preview" one: http://tinyurl.com/preview.php?num=ywzpx8

Church PR using Flickr

2007-04-11T23:39:00.000-04:00

If your church uses Flickr or some similar sites for photo albums, you also have easy access to a unique avenue for identity products.

Zazzle
Zazzle site lets you design produce custom stamps, T-shirts, mugs, and more. Custom stamps come in varied sizes using photos of your choice and sizing. They are more expensive than USPS stamps, but it's a unique way of promoting your church. Flickr offers a cross-site link to Zazzle.
QOOP
QOOP uses your photos to create custom cards (myCards) of different sizes, calendars, Posters, an more. You can create picture-based business cards, for example. Or mini-cards with a photo on one side and printing on the other. You might want to purchase some for special seasons or to promote select events.
Moo
Make notecards or mini-cards

Church webs -- Heal!

2007-04-09T23:10:00.000-04:00

A few sites dedicated to helping you improve your web site:

Heal your church web site
Is my web site ineffective? (including checklists)
Top 20 confessed web site sins
Don't do really weird navigation, no matter how "cool" some designer thinks it is. Go ahead. Figure it out. Then ask yourself if you really want to use it on that web site?

Hone your keywords

2007-04-02T22:34:00.000-04:00

You can find out what words are getting associated with any keywords you specify by using Google's Keyword Tool.

Although designed for use with Google AdWords, the handy online Keyword Tool can help you tweak the ones you are using or considering.

Other free keyword-related tools:

Keyword suggestion tool (1)
Keyword suggestion tool (2)
GoogleDuel - compare which of two related words is more popular
Ontology Finder - get a list of related words. Use the synonyms in your page's text to boost search results.
Keyword Density tool
Keyword Cloud
Keyword Optimizer - Deletes duplicate keywords in the list and alphabetizes the list.
Add Keyword Typos - lists possible misspellings you may want to add in your Keywords list.

Free online web design course

2007-03-30T16:46:00.000-04:00

Project: New is a free online course made up of articles on designing and developing a website. The course has several contributors and uses a downloadable syllabus.

Oh ... and it's not heavy on coding. So don't shy away from it if you're not a coder.

I found the site by selecting a link in a SitePoint book (free sample of Principles of Beautiful Web Design), then following a comment's link in the blog at that site. Aren't hyperlinks wonderful!

Search for free stock photos

2007-03-30T16:42:00.001-04:00

The PicFindr site lets you search for free stock photos. It even lets you customize what restrictions you are willing to live with (give credit, not alter, ask permission). The default is no restrictions.

You can also use the Advanced drop-down to match any term (the default is all terms) or show partial match sites.

The PicFindr site describes itself as "not alpha - not beta - just not done yet", but it works well.

Have a Picnik with your photos

2007-03-29T21:53:00.000-04:00

So you want to do some nice photo editing and maybe even a few fancy effects. But you don't want the hassle of learning some graphics program. Go to Picnik and use the free tools there.

All the photo adjustments are easy to access and very easy to use. Yet the results are great!

To make this app even sweeter, you can work on a photo from your computer, from Flickr, from a Picasa Web Album, from the web, from a webcam, or even from a Yahoo! image search result.

I did find that if I played around for several minutes with all sorts of adjustments to a large photo (1600x1200, 1+MB) Internet Explorer 7 crashed. It may have to do with temporary files in use, a bug in the beta Picnic software, or possibly an MSIE issue. I will stress-test FireFox similarly soon. But even though IE 7 crashed, after accessing the site again, the original adjusted image I'd made appeared. Cool.

With this online Flash-based application, you can:

Resize
Crop
Rotate
Adjust "exposure", including using a histogram, if you prefer
Adjust color saturation and hue
Adjust red-eye
Add Sepia effects
Add Black and White effects
Boost color saturation
Soften the image
Sharpen the image (though the controls seemed to sharpen too much even at a low setting)
Add a frame ("border") and matte
Create a vignette

Most of these effects use a slider bar to control degree of effect applied. Instant on-screen results show. I found the operation fast (I use a cable modem), effective, and the results good looking. I was able to apply more effects than I normally use in much less time than with my graphics program.

The Picnik people promise even more effects are coming. An enhanced (paid) version will give you even more options, but the basic version offers much more than I expected and yet is very easy to use. Even in Beta, I recommend you give Picnik a whirl. Grab a photo, edit, use some creative tools, then save and share. It's easy and fun.

Keep up with Picnik happenings via their Picnik blog.

Footer fetish

2007-03-26T22:55:00.000-04:00

Derek Powazek urges web desighners to use footers for something meaningful -- something more than just copyright information or addresses. He says that people who have read all the way to the bottom of the page deserve a reward.

How about suggestions (links) on where to go next?. Or maybe "Bonus links", "Related links" or some such, perhaps with an attractive image link or two?

Tips for great photos

2007-02-20T20:39:00.000-05:00

Tips for taking great photos are usually of two types -- composition and camera settings. The Kodak page, Top 10 Tips for Great Pictures emphasizes composition and lighting, but also has some camera settings tips.

Another resource is the Church Communications: Photography Tips page. It's loaded with tips and links.

Evaluate newsletter, bulletin design

2007-02-01T23:43:00.000-05:00

Dive into a newsletter and bulletin redesign by first getting a few copies of publications from other churches. That feels less threatening. Then, check out all the principles, guidelines, traps, and tips on this site and those sites linked from here. Lastly, apply those to the sample pubs you now have.

A good way to evaluate the pubs is to use a rubric. The Educational Service Center, Fort Worth, Texas, has a newsletter design rubric (PDF) you can download and print. It scores against major design principles:

Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity
Graphics

Get your newsletter read

2007-02-01T23:07:00.000-05:00

Why is it that so many church members don't know information that's printed in their newsletter? Because the design or content turns them off. Ironically, many church newsletters contain no news. Let me "shout" it ... NEWSletter. Did you notice the word "news"? Of course, that includes news feature stories too.

Below are some tips to improve tour church newsletter and actually get people reading it.

Write to communicate, not to impress. Write clearly and simply, using short sentences. Don't use big words when small words will say the same thing.
Proofread. Run a spell check and grammar check, but proofread yourself too.
Write front-page articles that draw interest. Remember that information you might like people to know need not be what they are really interested in reading. Write for your audience.
Use recycled paper. Your readers will appreciate your stewardship. Remember that "recyclable" is not the same as "recycled". Will it cost a bit more to use recycled paper? If so, consider placing a large jar in the entryway, with a sign reading "Give change for a change to recycled" or similar.

CompanyNewsletters.com has these and many more tips. Read and heed.

Use plain language

2007-01-31T21:06:00.000-05:00

A prime factor in ease of reading is use of plain language – what I call “verbal essence.” The Federal Government has a Plain Language web site. It not only aims at federal employees, but has plain writing tips for the private sector too.

“Writing today is not a frill for the few, but an essential skill for the many.”

The National Commission on Writing in America’s Schools and Colleges adds its voice to the challenge in “The Neglected ‘R’: The Need for a Writing Revolution” (PDF format). “Writing, education’s second ‘R,’ has become the neglected element of school reform” the commission report says.

Whether you are a church web developer, communications committee person, or member of the church staff, you need to know how to write clearly and simply.

Key points

Identify your readers – all of them.
Know your readers! Understand what they need, how they read, and then fulfill their needs.
Pretentious language wastes time.
Complex language has hidden costs. People may not know what you are trying to say.
Keep it simple!
Use the right words.
Avoid "hidden" verbs.

Resources

Newsletter, bulletin design tips

2007-01-30T22:50:00.000-05:00

Once the exclusive domain of books, you can now find tips on design of newsletters and bulletins on the Web. Here are some tips and related sources:

AVOID ALL CAPITALS. It's old typewriter and teletype habits and now considered "shouting". Plus all caps slow down reading speed.
Avoid blocks of bolded text. They slow down reading speed.
Use only single spaces between sentences. Two spaces is an old, typewriter-based habit. We use proportional fonts these days, unlike the typewriter.
Use true dashes, not hyphens.
Reserve underlines for hyperlinks. Don't underline headlines, subheads, or publication titles.
Place quote marks correctly.
Use serif fonts for text, sans serif for headlines and subheads. Serif fonts are easier to read in blocks of text. Using sans serif for headlines and subheads helps visually separate them from text elements on a page. It makes the page easier to scan.
Use proper line spacing. Don't just add empty paragraphs – extra presses of the Enter key.
Avoid rivers of white. Make effective use of white space. Look at your design critically – what's critical and what's really just "noise"? Remove the noise.

Steps to newsletter success

2007-01-30T22:34:00.000-05:00

Author Roger Parker lists 12 steps to newsletter success. Here are a few:

Be consistent – in frequency, number of pages, ...
Choose a distinctive nameplate (also called a "flag" – the part that has the publication title).
Choose effective columns and margins layout. Make effective use of white space. Don't try to fill every inch of every column.
Make headlines and subheads easy to find and easy to read.
Use subheads to break up "gray" blocks of text.
Make body copy as easy to read as possible. (choose a good font, use adequate font sizes, use ragged right text, ...)
Use good grammar and punctuation.
Use photo captions.
Be restrained in any use of color.
Check "the details" of your newsletter – Avoid widows and orphans in lines and subheads; use non-breaking spaces to keep first and last names (and similar) together. In MS Word, that's Shift+Alt+spacebar.
Keep the design simple. Create a newsletter template, then use it! In the template, create "styles" for a few levels headlines plus subheads, body text, etc.

Church website design checklist

2007-01-30T21:21:00.000-05:00

"Does your church's website communicate to outsiders as well as to the members?" asks a new web resource. A church site is the congregation's 'shop window' to its community. To fulfill this function well, it must be enticing, people-centered and easily understood by outsiders.

Because many churches are unsure how to achieve this vital mix, the folks at Gospeccom have developed a Church Site Design Checklist that you fill out online and immediately see the score.

This helpful tool is a product of the Internet Evangelism Day team.

The Internet Evangelism Day ('IE Day') website also explains other types of online evangelism, such as outreach sites, video clips, blogging and podcasts. There is even a free 'conversation starter' screen-saver to download.

Cokesbury updates web

2007-01-30T21:13:00.000-05:00

The Cokesbury web site may have changed a bit since you or your church Education Coordinator (or similar) visited it last. Check out these links, mentioned in their recent Christian Education Showcase email message:

Common desktop publishing mistakes

2007-01-29T23:41:00.000-05:00

A good place for church communications people to start in a review of church publications is the key mistakes many make in desktop publishing:

Gray pages
(Caused by too much text, crowded line spacing, crowded headlines, or margins crammed to the edge)
Poor use of white space on pages
Long or very short lines of type
Narrow columns of justified type
Inappropriate, distracting borders
Overuse of reverse text, screens, borders, or rules
Wrong punctuation (quotes, hyphens, and spaces)
Widowed or orphaned text or subheads
Colored text

These points come from Roger C. Parker, author of several desktop publishing books, including “One Minute Designer,” and NewEntrepeneur.com. He has several web pages of points and even checklists related to design of publications.

Read more in Roger’s “Desktop publishing’s twelve most common mistakes. His Pre-Flight Checklist is a handy reminder of the many aspects of publications that you should consider. Print it out and use it to check your Worship Bulletin and your church newsletter.

Avoid being ugly

2007-01-27T04:01:00.000-05:00

Rick Altman says that the aim of the average person doing design (such as newsletters, bulletins, flyers, or graphics) should be the "absence of ugliness."

While that at first may seem harsh, he's pointing out that it's not realistic for average people to assume that they can become a professional designer in their spare time. Instead, he asserts, they should adopt simple techniques that will help them stay away from making ugly creations.

This also dovetails with a maxim of web site design – it's better to have no web site than to have an ugly one. Looks does count to visitors! Ugly stops them cold in their tracks.

Of course, content matters, so even if the product is not ugly, the text has to keep people reading.

Tiny fonts need alias

2007-01-20T17:07:00.000-05:00

The smoothing out of fonts, called anti-aliasing, makes them look better on screen. But anti-aliasing turns out to be a bad thing at very small font sizes.

Fonts in the 8 point and under range look better "aliased". But merely turning off anti-aliasing for a font doesn't do the trick. You actually need special fonts created for use at what I call "squint print" size.

A recent "Design View" newsletter article from Sitepoint, "Tiny Typefaces - Five Fine, Free Fonts," gives examples and more details. (You can subscribe and get their newsletters by email or just periodically check out their web site.)

Googlers may want to search for "free tiny font." For the squintiest of "squint print", try the diminutive 4pt "Tiny" font at a very punny site, "I Shot the Serif". Hmm ... I hope lawyers -- those purveyors of fine print -- don't read this blog.

Another choice, especially for display of code, is one of the Proggy fonts, designed by and for coders.

Church bulletin design goals

2007-01-13T14:59:00.000-05:00

When considering the design (or more likely redesign) of a church worship bulletin, we need to keep several goals in mind. These goals are the basis for specific objectives that will make a worship bulletin more “welcoming” to members and visitors alike.

Design Goal 1: Make items easily to find fast
Design Goal 2. Make text an easy read
Design Goal 3. Make it easy for people to speak in unison during unison readings
Design Goal 4. Make the electronic version "modern", not "old style"
Design Goal 5. Eliminate distracting elements

Use established principles and techniques to accomplish the objectives. Most publishing industry principles and methods apply directly (or with slight adjustment) to church publications.

In the coming weeks, we'll address each of the above goals.

Blog Design tips

2007-01-06T20:54:00.001-05:00

People are often wary about starting "something completely different", as Monty Python's saying went. That's also true when it comes to new technologies and new uses of technology. While blogs caught on monumentally, many are still in the dark about what they are, how much work it takes to start one, and so on.

The best bet is to start simple. I started with Google's Blogger because of Google's reputation for clean and easy to use interfaces. I have not been disappointed. The new Blogger (now out of beta) is no exception. They have made the drag and drop layout interface very easy to use.

Another aspect of blogs is their design. Free templates for your favorite blogging service, such as Blogger, are readily available online. Of course, each blog service usually provides a small variety of decent ones to start with (like this one from Blogger).

But beyond that, it's a good idea to seek tips on both design. So I did a – yep, you guessed it – Google Search for blog design tips, which yielded a ton of potential jewels.

Microsoft, Yahoo! adopt Google sitemaps

2006-11-17T15:02:00.000-05:00

Both Microsoft and Yahoo! have announced support of Google's sitemaps instead of developing an alternative method. Sitemaps help webcrawlers crawl your site better, thus improving search results.

As part of this agreement, the three parties are co-sponsoring a new web site, Sitemaps.org, which has details about the new sitemaps process. The new method uses XML tags, by the way.

Google will support existing sitemaps, their posting at the Google Webmaster Central blog says.

Email sigs pull visitors

2006-11-04T18:24:00.000-05:00

So you have a great church web site and promoted it well. It includes down-to-earth plain language, people-oriented information, and is much more than just an online brochure. You added meta tags to each page that include all the topics on that page. You have added good "Description" meta tags. Your text on the page is brief, interesting, and in the "inverted pyramid" style -- most important information first. You have the web address on all printed materials, including business cards. It's even on your church roadside sign.

But the number of visitors to your site is not as high you'd like. What else can you do to promote your church? Increase the number of people who know your web address by using a couple of site tips that employ email.

Email signatures of members. Have every church member add the following to the bottom of every email they send (under their signature or "sig" area):

"My church: http://church-web-address"

You get instant promotion to a lot of people. Some of those email recipients may check it out. Some may pass it on to others.
Church leader sigs. Include the church street address, web address, email address, and phone number on every email any church leader sends in their official capacity. By church leaders I mean to include every member of every committee or work area in the church.

What site activities do you offer?

2006-10-19T11:53:00.000-04:00

A web site can offer many different "activities" for visitors:

Email contacts
Fill out polls or surveys
Add or send information via forms
Notify visitors via subscriptions
Notify visitors via Web alerts
Track Web site visitors with web site analytics and traffic reports
Build online communities -- blogs, forums, other community avenues

Decide which activities your web editing team can handle, prioritize them, and then charge ahead on priority one. If your existing web hosting or content management system (CMS) doesn't offer some of the above, there are many free resources available, including those below:

Free survey - SurveyMonkey. Others ...
Free analytics -- Google sitemap and Google analytics. Others...
Free blog - Google Blogger. Others...

Writely has become Google Docs

2006-10-18T00:36:00.000-04:00

Google has now renamed Writely and made it part of Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

A fast test of the interface shows that it includes:

Full-screen width text writing and editing.
Common and easy to understand icons for buttons, such as bold, font, hyperlink, text alignment, cut, copy, and paste.
Toolbar "Style" includes frequently used options, but no ability to add a style.
Spell-check, with the ability to add words to your dictionary.
Periodic auto-save.
Collaborate with other .
A "Publish" capability that can send a doc to a blog (but not multiple blogs).
Insert an image, table, comment, bookmark separator, or special character.
Edit the HTML that makes up the doc.
Track revisions.
Preview
Save as Open Office or even PDF

Web Directions South resources now online

2006-10-16T13:49:00.000-04:00

Get session notes, handouts, speakers' slides, and eventually podcasts of the sessions for the Web Directions South conference held in Syndey from September 26-29, 2006 at WD06 Resources.

Session topics include:

Design
Accessibility
Web standards
RSS
Online communities

Surf and learn.

Corporate logo library

2006-10-16T13:43:00.000-04:00

BrandsOfTheWorld.com is a free library of brands and logos. The service is searchable, categorized and provides scalable vector versions (usually EPS) of thousands of logos.

Could your web site use Catfish?

2006-10-16T12:18:00.000-04:00

Catfish. n., A horizontal area at the bottom of a web page that overlays the normal page content until closed by the user. It's a "bottom-dweller", hence the name coined by Sitepoint, which started this technique a while back.

Matt Oakes has improved on it using a JQuery plugin. Check out both Catfish and JQuery to see if you might be able to make use of them.

Although Catfish was originally designed for ads, I see possible use as a cool and unusual "announcement" method.

UMC now offers free Web Ministry 101 course

2006-10-11T19:50:00.000-04:00

United Methodist Communications today announced the launching of Web Ministry 101. The free online on-demand training aims to let you and your local church use the internet for effective Web ministry.

Register for Web Ministry 101

After you have register, you will get an email with a link to the training sessions. This is self-paced, so take any or all of the four-part training. Come back later to finish or for a refresher.

Related resource

Web Ministry Resource Center, which contains the Web Ministry Planning Guide and more.

After each training session, a link at the end of each training session gives you a chance to complete an online survey. A follow-up email will also contain that survey link.

UMC announces sneak peek at new site

2006-10-11T19:31:00.000-04:00

United Methodist Communications today announced that a "sneak peek" at the new UMC.org site is now ready for previewing.

Access the sneak peek at http://www.umc.org/; click the "sneak peek" image banner link (in the center middle of the page) to experience the preview site.

View the short introductory video, then select one of the links to new features. After checking out a new feature, please give feedback. UMComm is actively seeking comments in order to make the final site better meet visitors' needs when the site "goes live" in January 2007.

Blog startup tips

2006-09-29T15:07:00.000-04:00

Thinking of starting a blog? Below are some things to consider and postings to read:

Decide on your target readership.
If you don't know or can't define it, don't start a blog yet. On the other hand, readership may evolve as the content evolves.
Blog what you know, who you are, or what you like.
If what you know includes what you like, that's even more rewarding for both you and your readers.
Decide on the type of content.
Remember that this may change as you go, but you need to focus on a starting point. A blog may start as purely informative, shepherding people to postings at other blogs and web sites, but later start to add original content and even opinion.
Select hosting and software based on technical expertise (and time) available.
Blogger, as one example, is an easy one for novices yet allows more advanced coding, if that's your thing. Typepad (Moveable Type) and WordPress blogs generally require some coding expertise. If you cannot devote a lot of time, you may want a simpler platform even if you are a coder.
Select a name that conveys what the blog is about.
It may well help your blog rise in search results.
How to start a blog. This series of postings might also be called "how to emulate the A-List bloggers". Excellence alone is not enough.

Church bulletin content, design

2006-08-21T13:57:00.000-04:00

Most every church has both a Sunday Worship bulletin plus a periodic church newsletter. What goes in which? This is something that the Worship Work Area (will we never adopt the "normal" word "committee"?) and Administrative Council should deal with. It's a policy type decision. Making such a decision official helps everyone involved with the production of these publications.

Tips in Reformed Worship magazine are a good place to start in your decision-making process. The article covers the bulletin's purpose, cover, content, and composition. Some key points in the article:

Cover and Content

Importance. Congregations acknowledge the important of the Sunday bulletin, but few put much effort into improving this crucial communications tool.
Purpose. Specify a purpose for the Sunday bulletin and one for the church newsletter.
Make sure the content and composition of each satisfies the stated purpose.
Impression. Your Sunday bulletin says a lot about your church. Is it saying what you want?
[Does it use church jargon? Does it have large blocks of text? Does it look crammed together? Can people, both members and visitors, quickly and easily find what they are looking for during the worship service? Etc.]
Decisions. The Worship work area/committee and Administrative Board or Council should decide matters such as what types of information go in which of the publications (bulletin and newsletter) and who decides what gets in the publication when there's more information than space allows.
Cover. The cover of the bulletin gives an initial and lasting impression and as such deserves special attention.
Is that impression one you want?
Ease of use. Matters such as size and number of folds affect how "user-friendly" a bulletin or newsletter is.

Design

Some tips for good composition:

Simple. Use a modern, clean look. Use standard sections such as Order of Worship, Prayer Requests, Church Calendar, and Announcements.
Short. [A standard goal in modern writing is to aim for a 50% reduction in words from the draft to final stage]. Omit items in the bulletin that can wait for the next newsletter.
Spacious. Use white space to make the design attractive and to separate unrelated elements. Large blocks of text discourage reading.
Sensitive. Be sensitive not only to privacy concerns of members but also to who will read the bulletin, including children. Make at least part of the bulletin attractive for kids. Avoid church jargon.
Superior quality. "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well."

Site planning lowers problems

2006-08-01T04:05:00.000-04:00

Many church webs sites would benefit greatly from better planning. While in the military, I heard an old maxim ... "One minute of planning saves 12 minutes of execution". In other words, a good plan prevents wasted time later. This certainly pertains to web sites.

When thinking about creating or changing a web site, a good place to start is Gospelcom's " Your first two questions" page. The page even has a Planning Worksheet.

Plan for:

Clear writing (it doesn't come easy)
Good accessibility (by people with varied disabilities)
Great usability (for example, is text easy to scan and the site is easy to navigate).

"Who-What-Where-When-Why" is a standard journalism standard for writing a straight news story. Let's apply that standard to web site planning:

Who do you want to reach with your web site?
What results do you hope to get from your web site?
Where will you host the site? Costs, services, and support vary widely.
When does you church want this done? Be realistic.
Why have a web? If your church can't answer this with enthusiasm, forget it.

Some related links:

Planning your web site design (Macromedia -- now Adobe)
Planning (Web Style Guide)
Web site planning (TechSoup)
Site Planning Basics - what you should know before you design a web site

Use Google's new Accessible Search

2006-07-21T17:54:00.000-04:00

Google Accessible Search searches for pages that are easy to read for the visually handicapped. That is, if your web page is easy for a screen reader to handle, it scores higher in the results.

This is one way to test out accessibility of your web pages for visually impaired people. Test it by doing some searches that you'd hope got your web page in the first page of the rankings. If the rankings are not what you'd like, get to work on SEO (search engine oiptimization) and accessibility.

Site planning saves time

2006-07-19T19:36:00.000-04:00

Clear writing (it doesn't come easy)
Good accessibility (by people with varied disabilities)
Great usability (for example, make text easy to scan and ensure the site is easy to navigate).

"Who-What-Where-When-Why" is a standard journalism standard for writing a straight news story. Let's apply that standard to web site planning:

Who do you want to reach with your web site?
Who will do the needed web page editing and site management?
Who will provide content?
Who will approve content prior to publishing it?
What results do you hope to get from your web site?
What type of site will it be -- simple online brochure, internal, outreach, ... ?
Where will you host the site? Costs, services, and support vary widely.
When does you church want this done? Be realistic about the time involved, both for thesite startup and for updating of content.
Why have a web? If church members can't answer this with enthusiasm, forget it.

Some related links:

Planning your web site design (Macromedia -- now Adobe)
Planning (Web Style Guide)
Web site planning (TechSoup)
Site Planning Basics - what you should know before you design a web site

Design pages for speed!

2006-07-19T19:21:00.000-04:00

Surfers just hate to wait. As computers get faster and more people have broadband, they expect pages to display in as few as 8 seconds.

Extracts of the book "Speed up your Web site" at WebSite Optimization has good pointers. The author says that people now get frustrated if a web page doesn't load in the first 8 - 10 seconds. The old dial-up days guideline was 30 seconds. That's a huge difference.

Some tips to reduce page display times:

Use only essential images. Excessive use of images gives a cluttered look anyway.
Optimize images. Optimizing images can drastically reduce file size (and thuis display time). Some free optimizers are online (some offer free "lite" type versions online) or use your favorite graphics editor (I use Paint Shop Pro -- it costs lots less than PhotoShop).
"Chunk" information. Use subheads and bullets instead of long narrative text. This can also help search engine optimization (SEO).
Reduce excess verbiage. I call this "verbal essence".
Avoid very long pages. Try to reduce text by 50%. Then split up long pages and link to them.

Are youth shunning email?

2006-07-18T19:23:00.000-04:00

"Email is the new snail mail..." for today's youth says an article in USA Today. What's causing that?

Spam is junking up email inboxes. A 2003 Pew study, "Spam: How it is hurting email and degrading life on the Internet " stated that about half of all email was spam. Spam has mushroomed from then. People feel that it's out of control and they don't want to have to deal with it.
Cell phones let youth communicate faster than typing email messages.
Instant Messaging (IM) is gaining popularity with the young crowd, which favors immediate gratification in communication.
Text messaging from cell phones and hand held devices fills a desire for immediate, "anywhere" communication.

Does quick communication have a down-side?

A problem with the faster ways of communicating is the chance of bad assumptions. The list below is in order of increased possible misunderstanding of the message:

Face-to-face talking, which has the least chance of being misunderstood due to observation of voice tone plus body language.
Phone calls
Email
Instant Messaging (IM)
Text messaging (or should I say "TXT MSGNG"?) is fast and convenient but conveys the least amount of total information about the message.

Do we even need email anymore?

This is not the death nell for email. Even youth do see a continuing need for email:

When the message needs to go to many people, not just one.
For more formal correspondence. Not that long ago, email was looked at as too informal,; now some view it as more formal than their normal communications.
When the message needs attachments.
For better documentation.
When they have more time and an increased desire to write (in sentences) and perhaps late at night when the other person is not available by IM, phone, or text messaging.
When communicating with adults and people in authority.

How does this apply to churches?

Your church needs to communicate to youth on their level. In communicating with youth, do your leaders:

Use cell phones?
Use IM? (Address privacy concerns, identity theft, and attacks)
Use web-based chat? (Address privacy concerns, identity theft, and attacks)
Use text messaging? R U OK W/ TXT MSGS?
Offer (via your web site) blogs or discussion forums where youth can engage each other and the church leadership via the web? (Make sure you address privacy concerns, protect identities, and protect against attacks.)

Grab ideas from blogs

2006-07-15T14:23:00.000-04:00

Keep searching for new ideas, new methods of reaching people through your web site. One way to get ideas is to search for and read some blogs that pertain to webs or religion. Blogs and sites I found when scanning the Gospelcom evangelism area after reading their Web Evangelism Bulletin:

Effective Web Ministry Notes
Strategic Digital Outreach - the old story from modern wineskins
Christian Web Trends blog
Outside the box ministry
Emerging Evangelism
UIE Brain Sparks (UIE = User Interface Engineering)
IEC ENewsletter (IEC = Internet Evangelism Coalition)
Church Leader Insights newsletter. Archives are online

Also check out the dozens of email newsletters at Christianity Today.

When we stop learning, we are in danger. As Will Rogers said, "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just stand there." Are your church leaders doing the same old thing or are they proactive and seeking new ways to educate, empower, and equip the saints to carry out God's work?

Color tools for web work

2006-07-12T22:26:00.000-04:00

While trying to decide on color changes for the Congo UMC - Mulungwishi blog, I happened across a simple but fast and effective tool — The Colorizer at WebReference.com.

Color Scheme not only helps you check out a palette, but also lets you check out how it looks to people with color vision problems. Cool. Their old version operates a little differently and can be fun too.

And speaking of fun, try the Colour Sampler. Play around with a palette and then select the "Sample Page" link to see all the combinations of text and backgrounds. ColorCombos' ComboTester is a nice, free online utility. The site also has many sample 3 to 5-color palettes.

For PhotoShop fans favoring free goodies, Visibone has downloadable color swatches.

WebReference also has a couple of pages on color, each with good links within the text.

Common design errors

2006-07-09T18:01:00.000-04:00

Many people have slid into creating web pages without any training in design. A similar pattern emerged after the advent of laser printers and easy-to-use word processors. All of a sudden, many people were producing newsletters and flyers. But the result was often horrible products that experts dubbed "laser crud".

Likewise, many web page editor programs are easy to use now. But that doesn't mean that the results people churn out are automatically great. Below are some common pitfalls to avoid. In the coming weeks, I'll cover several of these in more depth.

Poor use of white space
Poor contrast among headlines of differerent importance
Poor text-to-background contrast
Grammar and spelling errors
Too many typefaces (a.k.a. fonts)
Image display resizing without image file resizing
Huge images
Distracting animation
Too much bold or italic text
Too many elements on a page
Too much colored text

Keep main roads running smoothly

2006-07-06T12:33:00.000-04:00

Do you know your web site's main roads? These are the destination pages that are most popular. If you don't have a web site statistics report handy, take an educated guess. Think like a visitor. Think like a non-member visitor.

The navigation path ("click path") to these pages should be very clear and easy to find from anywhere in your site. This is a strong usability factor.

Adding a blog header background image

2006-07-05T13:30:00.000-04:00

The FreeWebPageHeaders site only offers many free 800x200 pixel images for use as DIV backgrounds. The site also has a tutorial on how to add such background images to a DIV. The technique uses CSS.

Open source web page designs

2006-07-03T23:23:00.000-04:00

The folks at Open Source Web Design offer free Web page designs. A spot-check shows that OSWD uses modern CSS coding, not layout tables.

You could use these as the basic for regular or blog-type web pages. So download, tweak, and enjoy.

Another source is the free CSS/HTML templates at Mollio. The six basic designs cover most of the common column types and all use CSS, not layout tables. Mollio offers these under three different licenses: Creative Commons, GPL and CPL.

Translate your web

2006-07-03T21:47:00.000-04:00

Do you have congregation members or anyone in your Web site's "target audience" that prefer a language other than English? If so, offer them a way to translate your web page.

Google offers a Language Tools page that "translates" from one language to another. Just type in the web address of the page you want translated, and ... presto. Test it out by translating the Avondale Pattillo UMC home page from English to Spanish.

Outreach tips

2006-07-01T11:42:00.000-04:00

The Church Outreach Lab has some interesting comments and useful web page content tips. It also accepts tips and comments from varied churches. Here are a few:

Keep it very simple. Our brains break complex information into small bits before moving them to long-term memory. So make your communications literally more memorable — simply "keep it simple".
Most church newsletters are horrendous. For more tips about newsletters , see Avondale Pattillo UMC's special training section. Does your church newsletter look "old school" and out of touch with the modern world?
Make Sunday worship bulletins seeker-simple. If you truly believe in outreach, make your worship bulletin simple for a seeker to understand. For example, get rid of ancient terms such as Introit, Gloria Patri, Postlude, and the like.
Hold special events that emphasize your "brand" -- what your church is really all about.
Communicate by email and the web plus traditional means. Hold some "meetings" or pre-meeting discussions by email. Keep the membership up on late-breaking news by email. Let members receive publications via email. Have a web presence that's more than an online brochure.