Heal Your Church WebSite

Month: September 2007

  • 5 love notes from the mailbag

    I’m usually very responsive to comments and emails – as such interaction often results in long-term, online friendships with other developers. That said, sometimes I get ‘love notes’ that either request assistance when I’m mega-busy, or whose purpose is to tear me apart for ‘bashing the Body.’ Here are 5 examples of such – followed by some witty snarkasm on my part.

    1. A Misraelite responds to my article entitled ‘Why Christians Should Have Nothing To Do With Snowmobiles:’

      I was doing research on why people are turned off by Christianity. I could not believe what I read! Riding a snowmobile is a sin? There is no scripture that backs that up! These are the types of things that would make people wonder away or make them not even consider becoming a Christian! In fact, I challenge you to make this a ministry that could be used to bring souls either to christ or closer!

      My Response: Personally, I think alot of people are turned-off by the great cloud of witlessness who don’t know a joke when they see it.

    2. A gutsy steward asks:

      Dean – So we’re an old school Presbyterian Church … We’ve gone from no website, to a simple wordpress template.The initial idea was to have something functional online while we develop the real thing.

      Would you be interested in using this as a test case / makeover show for creating a website that does work? For recommending how to take something basic like this and making it a functional web residence for us?

      My Response: Yes. I love a teachable spirit, as exemplified by your courageous offer. Expect an article next week w/at least 5 pointers that encourages others to do likewise (in love).

    3. A quick email with a quicker response:

      How can I create a Sermon page with all the sermons so that viewers can select the sermon or sermons they wish to view?

      My Response: A sermons blog. WordPress on your own server, or Blogger on Google’s – both are great places to start. You can even use Google Docs to post to either once you get things established.

    4. From the flanks in response to ‘Too cool for Old School – Sonrise Baptist Church Newnan, GA:’

      How did you find this church in Newnan, GA? Out of genuine concern for this church, did you contact them and encourage them with your criticism?

      My Response: Out of genuine concern for the Body online, I have spies everywhere. Seriously, I would think such a genuinely concerned person would have contacted those involved in said website – which is why said question has me a bit suspicious over such ‘genuine concern.’

    5. From the ranks, also in response to ‘Too cool for Old School – Sonrise Baptist Church Newnan, GA:’

      Why, everywhere you go, do they insist on hiding the service times. Even on the directions and service times page, they are hidden. And they are hidden under sideways text, which is even worse.

      My Response: Out of genuine concern for everyone concerned, to keep me off the streets at night.

    So there you have it folks! Five reasons to keep them comments and love notes coming!

  • Pastors, programmers & graphic artists listen up: your user isn’t you

    Unless you’re writing a church website for a bunch of blogging pastors, frustrated graphic artists and/or “… burned out computer geeks, your user isn’t you. … This is very hard to get through somebody’s head; it’s very hard to get rid of this notion that what you like your user is going to like… Again, your user is not you.”

    Please pardon my blatant rip-off of Deborah Hartmann’s quote of David S. Platt’s recent keynote entitled “Why Software Sucks.”

    Perhaps it is 30 hours of planes and airports traveling back from Kuala Lumpur that’s made me a bit grumpy. Perhaps it is the head-cold inflicted on me by the sick six year old who kicked my right side most of the way home. Or perhaps it’s just the continual parade of church websites that suck that has me annoyed at the great cloud of witlessness that is the Church online.

    Probably a bit of all three. None-the-less, there’s a simple truth that I think to many of us are missing when it comes to designing and maintaining our church and charity websites which I’m hoping gets quoted and discussed web-wide:

    “For the most part, people aren’t seeking the church experience online – rather they are shopping online for a real-world church experience.” – Dean Peters, HealYourChurchWebSite.com, 16Sep07.

    Agree or disagree, I’d like this meme mulled-over in as many places as possible – and along with it, the following 5 suggestions to make your church website work, based on David Platt’s 5 suggestions to ” Just Make It Work:”

    1. Add a novice to the design team: I’m thinking a silver-haired seasoned citizen as they are often overlooked, yet comprise a significant population of any church body.
    2. Break convention when needed: Quit thinking brochureware (print marketing) and/or writing like Spurgeon – the web is different.
    3. Avoid feature “silliness”: Your website isn’t a stinkin’ art project, so cool it with the cheap tricks.
    4. Instrument your application very carefully: again I’m thinking silver-haired seasoned citizen and other members of the “silent majority” who may not be geeky cool, but are the ones who need an effective church website the most.
    5. Consider whether design decisions are taking you closer or farther away from the software *just* working: this implies you have a clear understanding of what it is your church and/or charity website is trying to accomplish. Meaning, I’d document some use cases.

    In the meantime, I’m going to work on some articles this coming week to detail some simple procedures that will take your church website from cool and unused, to effective and often implemented.

    As always, your comments, questions and concerns are always welcome.

  • 5 tips for blogging sermons effectively

    Just publishing your sermon notes to your church’s blog is not enough – not if you want anyone to actually read them. Here are five simple things you can do to make your sermon notes more visible to more readers through more search engines.

    Why this is important:

    Ah sermons … the holy grail of any church website … not only because they provide church webmasters with a source of dynamic and (hopefully) compelling content, but because the (hopefully) compelling content serves seekers and members alike.

    Problem is, many sermons online go unread because they’re posted “as-is” rather than following these five simple steps that will (hopefully) increase their visibility on various search engines – especially Google:

    1. Put your key content on top

      Search engines index by title, so if you have some key words that represent your key points, put them in the title of your post – even if it is slightly different than the title of last Sunday’s sermon.

      Search engines display excerpts after the title – so help your readers out by putting your key points in those first 128 words or so.

    2. Lose the church-speak

      Don’t compel those not familiar with the vernacular of your congregation to have to learn a dialect of ancient Greek just to figure out what you’re saying.

      Likewise, avoid kitschy clichés and internal acronyms – they’re lost on first time visitors.

    3. Focus on what benefits the reader

      Rather than beating the faithful, make sure your titles and excerpts provide a “what’s in it for me” moment – so that the seeker is encourage to read the rest of the sermon, rather than click on over to CNN.
      For example, instead of:

      • title: Seven Deadly Sins
        excerpt: Seven reasons the World is going to hell in a hand basket

      Try:

      • title: The Wisdom of Proverb 6
        excerpt: 7 things you can control to life better now and hereafter.

    4. Write inviting titles

      Write titles that make people hunger for more.
      For example, instead of:

      • This sermon will discuss the fruits of the spirit, how they effect you, and what you should do.

      Try:

      • 9 yummy fruits of the spirit to nourish your walk

    5. Enjoy the art of the subtitle

      For example, instead of simply:

      • Daniel 3:1-30

      Try:

      • Daniel 3: Nebuchadnezzar’s epiphany at the fiery furnace door

    Here’s the best part of the above – while I demonstrated changes in titles – I did so without compromising on the content. Same can go for you.

    And how will you know if and when you’re effectively re-factoring your sermon titles and excerpts? Simple – begin using tools such as Google’s Analytics to track not only how many visitors hit your site, but what key words they use to get there and how long they stay there when they visit.

    Such analysis will quickly provide you with the information you need to gauge just how well you’re doing when you post your sermons online – especially those of you using blogs at inexpensive content management systems for your church and/or charity organization.

  • Bad Church Website Design Poster #0003 – Pretentious

    click here to see the full-sized, 760x600 version of Bad Church Website Design Poster #0003 - PretentiousNothing shouts at a potential visitor ‘your time is NOT important to us‘ than making them have to wait for a pretentious Flash intro … especially those renderings so gratuitous that they include a ‘skip intro’ link. Here’s why:

    I think Vincent Flanders sums it up best on his page entitled ‘Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015‘ when he opines:

    “… there’s a tendency to misuse Flash and because of space I can’t go into every detail. Nevertheless, here’s a perfect example …

    You have to watch a boring, soundless, twenty second flash intro with no option to skip it …

    Putting a ‘Skip Intro’ button on the page. Of course, we all realize that a ‘Skip Intro’ button signifies that the content on the page is worthless.

    Good Web designers only put content that must be viewed on a page. By giving them the option to skip this material, you’re saying it’s not worth seeing. If it isn’t worth seeing, why do you have it on your site in the first place?”

    Emphasis mine, but I’ve dialoged enough with Mr.Flanders to know that if anything, I haven’t emphasized the concept of worthless Flash animation enough.

    Look at it this way: what would happen if you were visiting a new church for the first time, only to be halted at the door, made to wait for the ‘greeter’ to set-up and load his portable DVD player, to make you watch a video of fly-in slogans, church-speak and content the equivalent to a DIAL Soap commercial?

    Yeah, any wonder why the Waffle House down the street is selling so many omelettes this morning? Probably because they don’t make people hungering wait to watch a video on the wholesomeness of the edible egg.

    Folks, your church website isn’t a stinkin’ art project. Nor is it MTV, nor is it a used-car concession. Quit treating like it is with the gratuitous, pretentious Flash introductions.

    There are plenty of other legitimate opportunities to employ Flash, putting it at the front door isn’t one of them.

    Yes, you click on the small poster to see the full-sized version, but please, no hot-linking without providing a link back here to the article – not just the pix.