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FreeEagle -> Church Web Site (7/15/2008 4:49:35 AM)
I've decided to take on task of building a church web site, we have some ideas of what to add, and or stay away from. I would like to keep the site low maintenance. For those of you that have been there, and done that what should I avoid and Why? What should I make sure I add?

JonCo54 -> RE: Church Web Site (7/15/2008 8:53:08 AM)
Could you please post a link.

cversion7 -> RE: Church Web Site (7/15/2008 1:06:06 PM)
I'll lay out some things as I am fairly new to web design myself. 1. The easiest thing to do is to browse other church websites and find what you like and dislike about them so you can determine what type of look and navigation style you want. Do you want buttons at the top, on the left, on the right? You need to have a game-plan before you jump into software. Draw it out on paper how you think it should look (playing the "I'm not an artist" card doesn't work, just a rough draft is awesome). 2. Read some tutorials online on web design. I would stick to ones that aren't specific to a certain software, but anything is good as long as you get some diversity. 3. Check out html source code. In your web browser, you can view the source of a page to get an idea of what's going on behind the scenes. In Firefox, it is View > Page Source (CTRL + U). You might not understand a lot of it, but it will be helpful if you can pick out some things like font choices, positioning, size, order, navigation, etc. There will be a lot that you can't view such as any CSS or JavaScript files as those are "called" but not displayed in the page source, but this should give you some idea of how to make things appear if you compare the source to what you actually see on the website. 4. Pick a web development application. If you don't have one, great! If you do, great! It won't matter which you use as you should be able to find tips anywhere for that application. I'm using Frontpage because that's what my company already had in place (got ExpressionWeb but haven't used it much yet). If you need something free, http://nvudev.com/index.php is supposed to be pretty stinkin' good for free. Or you could even use Notepad. :P 5. Start playing with it, have fun and good luck! I am assuming you haven't created web pages before so that's what I'm writing in reference to. Also, I assume you already have web hosting and a domain name so I'm not mentioning that part. If my response didn't help, please respond with some more specific questions. :D

mvic -> RE: Church Web Site (7/15/2008 8:13:52 PM)
If you're including photos in your website make sure they are less than 1 million megapixels each for easy loading when viewed. Check my website for ideas. I used an old version of Frontpage.

FreeEagle -> RE: Church Web Site (7/16/2008 8:29:55 AM)
Thanks all for the advice! I do have experience in building. I guess I'm looking for more of What features have you regretted adding or not adding. I have a commercial site that I was building when I learned SEO. It helped my home page, but I had 100-150 other pages that I have to re-write because not SEO compliant. I have 8,000 - 10,000 hits a month, but am in the process of transferring hosting services because my current host wants more $ to handle the load = Regret because new service offers more space then I'll ever use, plus has 100 times more bells and whistles, for half the cost. I have the new host site with great SEO pages, but my customers can't see them, until I'm done re-writing ALL my other pages (about 3000 hours of work). Along the way of building I was told "do a newsletter" it'll help people come back. I have never regretted the newsletter, as it gives a way to keep name, features and products in front of customers. Would a newsletter work with a church site? And how? I'm not the pastor, nor do I want to become him. With my site I was told "add forums" it'll be good for community communications. I have always regretted adding the forums, because I added it when I was getting about 400 -800 hits a month, and it seems like I'm the only one posting, almost like talking to myself. I got a lot of spammers to post early on, but not my customers. So looking back, I wouldn't add forums to any site until I had at least 50,000 hits. And I don't expect that ever from our church site, as our town is only 2500 people. Does no good to give url yet as everything is still under development, and was started by someone else with our church. I'm picking up where he left off. Just looking for ideas that work.

JonCo54 -> RE: Church Web Site (7/16/2008 8:59:21 AM)
Thanks for the update, Please keep me posted God Bless, Jon

furrypurrykitty -> RE: Church Web Site (7/17/2008 12:15:14 AM)
When I was webmaster of my church's site, I tried having forums for awhile and they were a huge pain in the neck because I wasn't available to constantly monitor them. People didn't post to them very much, but I still had to check them periodically because lamers would post inappropriate things.

Rivermoon -> RE: Church Web Site (7/17/2008 6:25:29 PM)
Hi FreeEagle, I've never officially been a webmaster before, but I used to work in church maintaining the IT stuff, including the web server. The web server was long done before I worked there. I believe my question for you is what is the purpose of having the church website. Most of the church website focus on data outgoing purposes, instead of data incoming purposes, i.e. the website is for the church to broadcast and update the upcoming weekly and monthly events. And it also provides congregation the info. what ministries are there in the church, what is the purpose of each ministry, how to get involved, and who and how to contact if anyone wants to contact the pastor/contact for information and questions of the ministry. Some more sophisticated website may run the streaming audio or video sermon archive. But it will definitely require more hosting capability, which must go with your budget. Anything incoming will require people dedication to monitor and respond. So the church I used to work in has limited any incoming data on the website to the minimum necessity. And it also depends on the features of web hosting you use, how the incoming data can be redirected to the person-in-charge, instead of relying on 1 person to screen through all the incoming data. What my previous church does is to forward the incoming data from each specific ministry to the pastor in charge of that ministry. Well, it's not the best way, as that specific pastor will need to deal with a lot of junkies and spasms, coming from that ministry webpage alone. Well, not sure how much it will help. Just want to share a bit of my IT experience in the church I used to work in. I believe you've known a lot already, Regards, Do take care & God Bless, Rivermoon

FreeEagle -> RE: Church Web Site (7/18/2008 9:36:10 AM)
The main purpose of the web site, is to let others know where /who we are. We're in a small town with about 5 other churches. While the other churches all have buildings and permanent locations, we have our office in one location, and then meet in the local high school. Our signs are put up and taken down each week. An internet search, don't even acknowledge that we exist. After reading some of the other posts, this is what I,m thinking so far. I think I'll keep it all outgoing - any incoming submissions will be sent by form (to me) and I'll copy and paste good content. Other contacts will be listed phone numbers. 1.) Home page - Our locations, and times we meet. A photo and short message from the pastor - possible cd sample of past message. Other pages considered will be: 2.) Our Mission statement - along with a list of the elders. 3.) Our Message Is that of Jesus Christ - I'd like to post Acts 2:17 - 39. 4.) Testimonies - We don't have enough time to tell them in service, and yet how many are saved by someone's testimony. This may include personal photo's or photos of their baptism. 5.) Small groups / community events & Calendar - what each group is about and who to contact. May even include stories and /or stories of past groups. Calendar would include birthdays without years. 6.) Church plants - Outreach - This would be stories and photos from the pastors/leaders in the church plant areas. 7.) Fun Stuff or Miscellaneous - Streaming music, jokes and humor, recipes, Other links - Possible; City, crosswalk and others.

Rivermoon -> RE: Church Web Site (7/18/2008 10:08:32 AM)
Hi FreeEagle, I think what you come up with the plan of the church website is very good, as I believe you've set the appropriate purpose of using the website. Not sure how big is the congregation of your church, and how fast will the congregation grow and how big the percentage of the congregation is more computer-inclined. All these will affect the volume of incoming forms, as well as, where the forms will be used on church website. I'm just afraid that the percentage of work related with the forms will be growing fast soon after the congregation knows about the new church website. Just be prepared for the upcoming maintenance efforts required. Maybe I'm just too worrying!!! :-P Good job, as I can see you're knowing what you're doing. :-D Rivermoon

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