Faith and Web

I was about to do an article on Google Analytics, when I realized some of you might not have a Google Account. Perish the thought, but to cover all eventualities, that’s the first step. The thing is, once you do get an account, you’ll have access to a bonanza of other Google tools. While Analytics is enough of a reason in itself for this church web diva, it seemed prudent to cover the big picture first.

How To Get Your Own Google Account

There are two steps. First you go to the Accounts page:

In the lower right corner, you click on “Create an account now,” fill in a few straightforward fields, and you’re off. That’s it. I promise.

Then What?

In priority order, here my favorite Google Account tools.

1. Google Analytics.
   It’s as good as or better than many of the high-priced website number-crunching tools.
2. Google Reader.
   I’ve tried any number of blog and RSS readers to stay on top of what’s happening in the web development world, and for my needs (multiple machines and platforms) Google Reader is hands-down the best. And, zounds, now you can even get it offline.
3. Gmail.
   It’s just another email account, but it’s got the power of Google search built in. So you can use it for things like webmaster and religious mail lists. Over time you’ll build up a data bank of very useful information. Need to choose a host? Quick – search your Gmail account and see whom trusted others recommend.
4. Google Groups.
   This is the old Usenet, dating back to 1981, and thus crammed with information on every imaginable topic. You can also set up your own groups. For example, I might set up a redesign group while we’re overhauling our church’s site.
5. Blogger.
   Blogger makes it so easy to set up a blog. Whether you use it yourself or not, it’s good to have in your toolbox. You might want to recommend it (or not) to someone in your congregation who’s considering blogging.
6. Docs & Spreadsheets.
   Have you ever wanted to publish a spreadsheet on the web? Or collaborate online on a document? It’s incredibly easy with Docs & Spreadsheets. See, for example, my church’s redesign roadmap
7. Google Alerts.
   Do you want to keep track of what’s being said about your church – on the web, in blogs, in the news? There’s no easier way to do this than Google Alerts. You can get them daily, weekly, or as they happen.
8. iGoogle.
   Most webmasters know how to design their own home page, but still, this is fun and it can morph into your Google launching pad. It has hundreds (maybe thousands) of widgets (“stuff”) you can add. Watch out, though. It can be a huge waste of time. It’s kind of like getting sucked into a candy store and eating a bit too much.
9. Calendar.
   Calendars are surprisingly complex. I’ve not found Google’s calendar to be particularly helpful for my church’s needs, but that doesn’t mean you won’t.
10. Picasa Web Albums.
    I don’t use them, because I’m not much of a photographer. But Mr. Web Diva does and swears by Picasa.

And if these aren’t enough for you, see Google’s own much longer list of options.

NB: lest you think I’m snubbing Google Webmaster Tools, they aren’t really part of the Account suite, though they seem to be moving in that direction. Also, they’re considerably less intuitive than all of the above, so I’ll save them for a future post.

Update 6/23/07: Be sure to check out Mark Alves excellent post on picking the best Google account for the job.

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Weebly, a new startup by three Penn State students, makes it incredibly easy to build a professional-looking website for your congregation – and it’s free. As they put it: “Our focus is to maintain elegance and simplicity coupled with powerful features, to allow all types of users to create, manage, and host their website, free of charge.”

I tried it out, and set up a site in under an hour. All you have to do is sign up for an account. After that it’s mostly just dragging and dropping “elements” (text and image holders, Google maps, YouTube videos, etc.). You don’t need to know the first thing about HTML, much less how to program. You can even test-drive it.

How Does It Break Down?

In the Plus Column

• The interface is both simple and intuitive.
• Blogging is built in.
• It has a developer section, so programmers can make widgets for Weebly.
• It’s gotten good reviews from notables like Techcrunch.
• It seems to be stable. At least it didn’t crash on me.
• It’s great for videos.
• It even has a simple contact form you can add.
• You can download your whole site as a zip file, which is great for backup.
• You don’t have to use “weebly.com.” You can use your own domain name.

In the Minus Column

• You can only design simple, small sites. In particular, you can only set up a limited number of pages, all of which are part of the main menu.
• You are limited to Weebly’s set of about 20 designs. In my case, I chose one where I could incorporate my graphic. Then I desperately wanted to get into the CSS and make the text darker, so its contrast with the background would be more readable, but couldn’t do it. “Theme specifications (for user-submitted themes)” is on their to-do list, so hopefully this will change soon.
• Statistics are limited to page views.
• You can’t have multiple site administrators, with varying degrees of control over the site.
• It’s new, so who knows how stable it is.

The bottom line: if you need a small, simple website or if ease-of-construction is paramount and you’re willing to compromise on a small site, Weebly looks like a winner. I’d recommend trying it out.

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• The Effects of Line Length on Reading Online News (uiGarden.net)
  A study examining the effects of line length on reading performance; reading rates were found to be fastest at 95 cpl.
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• Format CSS Online
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• Aaron Wall’s SEO Book.com
  Recommended by seoish.com
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• The Bootstrapper Bible
  A manifesto Seth Godin based on the book he wrote a few years ago
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• The Sermon Blog/Podcast Lives
  Includes helpful suggestions, particularly on how to structure a sermon podcast
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• killerphp.com: PHP Video Tutorial for Web Designers
  A beginners website/course on PHP created for web designers who have little to no programming experience.
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2 Comments »

I confess. I adore books. However, I’m a librarian, and I ascribe to Nancy’s Pearls of Wisdom (found on the Librarian Action Figure box). “Life is too short and the library is too large to ever read a book that you’re not thoroughly enjoying.”

Like Ms. Pearl, I’m ruthless, and if after 50 pages it’s not doing it for me, I stop. Thus I only read about 50 pages of most books.* That includes books about the web. I read a lot of them, and put even more to one side.

It occurred to me that you might find it helpful to know which books have my seal-of-approval. So I’ve done a new Bookshelf page for this site, culling out the best-of-the-best for those of you who like books and want to create a great website for your congregation or faith.

Do you have any particular favorites? Books I’ve overlooked? Suggestions? I’m all ears.

*Footnote: If you are over 50, Nancy Pearl’s further Rule of 50 can be invoked. “Subtract your age from 100 – the result is the number of pages you should need before deciding whether or not to continue on.”

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A Christian web developer recently asked me about web apps for prayer requests.  He thinks, and I agree, that, “The social networking aspect of web 2.0 applications would be a great platform.”  I think Ajax in particular has a lot of potential.

He asked if I knew of resources that might be helpful.  I don’t, but thought some of you readers might.  If you do, drop me a line.

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Got 100 dollars? 7 Experts share budget website marketing tips: Mark Alves just pointed out this great post. It reminds me of last year when our church’s kind-hearted Finance Chair wanted to increase the website budget by just this – $100. My church’s co-webmistress and I said “Why? Our web host isn’t raising its price.” Now it’s time to start kicking myself, and maybe whip out a web begging bowl.

I’ve culled through the article, extracting the tips that strike me as most helpful to congregations. In no particular order, they are:

• Buy a few great books on marketing and the web including Purple Cow, The Cluetrain Manifesto, and Don’t Make Me Think. [I second the vote for Don’t Make Me Think.]
• If you don’t already have a web host, invest $7 a month in Dreamhost. Or bluehost. As Patrick Sexton points out: “If a webhost costs 3.99 per month, there is a reason and the reason is that they do not offer the tools you need.” [Note: a great host for UUs is UUism Networks.]
• Buy a logo from a logo design firm.
• Buy quality links. [I’m not sure how one does this. Something to research.]
• Register your domain name for at least three years.
• Go to a conference. If you can’t afford to register, get a press pass. [My bet is the press pass idea wouldn't work for many of us webbish types, but consider volunteering, e.g. to help with the website.]
• Buy Aaron Wall’s SEObook at $79.
• Buy some $29 guides from SEOmoz.org, particularly the ones you know the least about.
• Update: Buy other domain names that point to the homepage.  (Hat tip to Lizard Eater, who reminded me about this, and elaborated that it’s good to “find something easier to remember to someone NOT a member of your church”)

Now it’s time to stop kicking myself. Almost to a person the experts consulted for this list pointed out that it’s not so much about spending money. It’s all about content, links and working hard.

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• Free Vectors by Vecteezy!
  Fabulous resource for free vector (as opposed to bitmap photo-type) graphics to use on a website
  (tags: graphics)
• The Showcase – Accessites.org
  Beautiful websites with an accessibility seal-of-approval (much rarer than valid sites)
  (tags: accessibility inspirations)
• 60 Elegant and Visually Appealing Designs | Smashing Magazine
  (tags: inspirations)
• Web Development Solutions (Godbit Project)
  Recommended for those starting out in web development; covers many topics, including WordPress, Microformats, Ajax and APIs ($34.99)
  (tags: books-to-read)
• 50 Web Usability Tips that Help You Attract and Retain Web Visitors
  Excellent summary of usability to-dos
  (tags: accessibility usability)

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I just happened across several more blogs at the intersection of faith and web — or close to it. From a quick look it appears they all started at about the same as this blog. Interesting. An idea whose time had come perchance?

• Church 2.0 – the blog is the first one I came across

From it I discovered:

• Worship Tech Online
• PastorHacks.Net

How PastorHacks.Net uses BackPack particularly intrigues me.

So much web. So little time. But I’m very much looking forward to exploring all three.

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If I were in charge of my denomination, I would make supporting and improving congregational websites one of my top priorities – maybe even one of my top three priorities. I don’t say this because I’m a webmaster. It’s just from paying attention – and not having any particular investment in the old models. Websites have become critical to congregations, and all too frequently I hear the concern of congregations who don’t have people like me to help them.

I’d shift money for marketing and communications from some of the more expensive, traditional venues into distributed websites. The goal would be to develop a simple website-building environment for congregations that wanted such a thing. Of course, I wouldn’t just throw money at new technologies. That’s completely unnecessary. Important doesn’t equal expensive. And this should take very, very little money.

I’d just budget for the following:

• One of the best new media consultants to come in for one day and open the eyes of the leadership. I don’t think the powers-that-be are resisting. It’s just that the picture isn’t that clear to them yet – at least not in my denomination. So this would help them focus on what really matters and how it works. I think they would get incredibly excited, at which point it would have their strong support.
• An excellent project coordinator, to work on this for a year.
• Programming help. The coordinator could use in-house resources, contract out or both.

I don’t have the slightest doubt that congregations are hungry for this. I hear appeals for this kind help repeatedly on Websters, the listserv for church webmasters. And when my denomination’s Information Technology and Electronic Communications Committee (ITEC) did focus groups on what was most wanted, every group – congregational presidents, church administrators, district staff and ministers – asked for website resources.

Nor do I have the slightest doubt that the return on investment would be colossal. It would grow the faith, reaching out in myriad ways that were scarcely possible 10 years ago and unimaginable 20 years ago.

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Technically I’m not new to the world of blogging. I started my first in 1999. You can still see the remains of it, blogged painstakingly with good old HTML. Much has changed in the eight intervening years, with a whole culture growing up around blogs. Since then I’ve dabbled a bit and grown to love WordPress in particular, but haven’t been serious again until this blog.

For me, getting serious means reading up on something – buying the best books in particular. (I’m a still a book-buying librarian at heart.) So, I chose two books:

1. Dan Harper recommended Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them by Bob Walsh, so I bought it first.
2. Then I happened across The Blogging Church: Sharing the Story of Your Church Through Blogs by Brian Bailey, so I bought it too.

Now I wonder, which should I recommend? The simple answer is it depends, but if in doubt and curious, read both. Clear Blogging is a first-rate introduction with an abundance of helpful insights and practical hands-on advice. It even has a section for ministers (pages 114-118 in particular). Just flipping through its pages right now I want to read it again, which is a great sign.

The Blogging Church covers much of the same territory, with introductions for beginners and tips, but its strength is its focus. While it’s geared to Evangelical pastors, for those of us with somewhat different faiths and careers, it’s not difficult to translate.

My sense is that Evangelicals are at the forefront of using technology. Here in Nashville, the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay has always been in the web vanguard. I remember attending a Macromedia Users Group years ago where their staff demonstrated streaming video. However, blogs have remarkable potential for all faiths, not just the tech-savvy. Here are the kinds of points Bailey makes which are more universal:

• Churches have traditionally excelled at one-way communication, and this is thus our comfort zone. But there’s a new generation no long satisfied with this model. They expect to be able participate. They look for a church that will listen.
• Church blogs are different from church websites. A blog is an easy and cheap way to reach people. A website is more complex, and “lacks the personal voice that makes a blog so inviting.”
• “Blogging is simple, cheap, and powerful…. The impact-to-investment ratio is impossible to ignore.” (p.9)
• People yearn for authentic conversation – passion, personality, humor, tough questions.
• Blogs make it more possible for people to connect to the church beyond weekend services.
• A particular type of blog can help bridge gaps between staff and hard-working volunteers.

Blogs for Church Volunteers

Maybe it’s because I’m one of those volunteers, and not staff, but I particularly appreciated this last point. Bailey unpacks what a children’s religious education blog might have, with ideas along the lines of:

• Welcome new volunteers, with introductions and photos of them.
• Spotlight great volunteer service.
• Answer frequently asked questions.
• Post information from retreats.

Those are by no means all of his suggestions and ideas. For that, I’d encourage you to buy the book or look for it in your public library. Or if you just want to try out blogging, and already know your beat, then check out Clear Blogging.

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