Microsoft, Yahoo! adopt Google sitemaps

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

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.

• Catfish - Part 1 (Sitepoint)
• Catfish - Part 1
• JQuery
• JQuery implementation of Catfish
• SitePoint blogs

UMC now offers free Web Ministry 101 course

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Put in your plan:

• 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!

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?

"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

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

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.

• Communicate with color
• Emotions of colors

Common design errors

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

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.