The misguided notion that somehow more is always better.
Remember folks, flee from temptation to ‘gizmo’ up your site.
Instead, focus on workflow – that is the things your users want/need to do/learn from visiting your website.
One of the things myths I’ve heard from attending my share of Word Camp Raleigh events is that template systems are somehow a magic bullet to a successful online marketing campaign.
Not that there’s anything wrong with terrific tools such as Thesis, Headway, Genesis, and Builder; nor the premium themes one can purchase for them.
Rather I’m hoping that along with the discussion of getting a fast start with premium framework themes and plugins that we also remember what usability guru Jakob Nielsen said about ‘Information Foraging‘ back in 2003 when describing how to catch and keep visits from data hungry first time visitors:
The two main strategies are to make your content look like a nutritious meal and signal that it’s an easy catch. These strategies must be used in combination: users will leave if the content is good but hard to find, or if it’s easy to find but offers only empty calories.
Basically, Nielsen is detailing how to attaining user-activity goals through the careful crafting compelling content and the navigation to it – known in the web strategy/analytics world as a ‘conversion funnel.‘
So it is my hope that amid discussions on how to make our blogs look ‘different like everyone else’ via various rendering engines, that we also take some time to talk about how-to develop a sensible information architecture that best suites the goals of your church and/or charity.
Put another way, we need to remember that if “Web users behave like wild beasts in the jungle …,” then we probably want to avoid taunting such ‘Informavores‘ with ‘canned content’ when in fact only raw meat will satisfy their hunger.
In other words, just because a number of the speakers are justifiably and understandably using this conference as an opportunity to sell their template and plugin wares – it shouldn’t be to the exclusion of those in attendance whom are seeking help with all the other aspects that go along with establishing an effective web presence.
Meanwhile, if you’re headed into town, let me know. If you can’t make the event, keep in mind that there’s a “SitePoint Podcast coming to WordCamp Raleigh.”
For what will it profit a man if his church website is the slickest in the Internet if he has to forfeit a month’s collections just to change the welcome message?
If you haven’t guessed by the play on Matthew 16:26 (&/or Mark 8:36, &/or Luke 9:25), or the somewhat wordy “bad church web design poster #006,” the topic of today’s “sermonette” is website maintenance.
You see, there’s a dirty little secret that professional web developers such as Tim Bednar, Mike Boyink, and myself have known for years:
Creating and designing websites is alluring and hi-profile work – whereas maintaining code and a consistent stream of compelling content is difficult and is about as glamorous as the janitor who keeps the church toilets clean.
A point made all the more sharper, like a pointy stick in the eye sharper, when you fall into the trap of having that college kid studying home on spring break create for a really super-click Flash-based church website that everyone – and only – those in his age group and demographic can ‘really appreciate.’
Then the train wreck occurs sometime in early October when said student is back at art school and your poor church Secretary has to post updates from those in the field on summer mission programs.
Sound Familiar?
If not, just give it time. Since 2002 when I started out on my crusade to teach, rebuke correct & train others in righteous web design I’ve seen literally hundreds – perhaps thousands – of church websites that went down this path to obscurity and frustration.
And this is why we find churches equipped with data-driven content management systems, or at least driven-by a reasonable blogging system, providing pages with excellent search engine rankings and the visitors and conversion rates to show for it.
Sound Good?
Okay, so if I’ve sold you on the concept that maintenance is the key to a successful online ministry, then perhaps then I can also convince you and/or your church to engage in the following processes to keep it going for years and years even though your resources are tight and your time tighter:
Sound Too Hard?
Now if you’re panicking a bit over some of the items above – don’t sweat it. If you’ve took my advice to create a team that includes both a hardware and software geek, you’re good to go on those issues like “use-case testing” or “disaster recovery drills.”
And if you’re too small to do the above – again, don’t sweat it – simply figure out what you can do from the above list with what you’ve got, never forgetting that putting up a website is easy – it’s the maintenance that’s a killer.
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. – Luke 14:28-33
(psst: oh yeah, in case you didn’t figure it out, you click on the small image of the poster above to get to the really-big version you can print out and nail to the door of your church)
