Faith and Web

I remember the first time I ever saw a browser and website. It was 1994, and what won my heart was the little NCSA graphic. Goodness knows it wasn’t anything fancy. As I recall it was just one lonely picture – but it was a revolution. In those days, I was one of the few who saw online resources routinely (typically Westlaw and Lexis in my case), but they were text-only. Graphics made the text sing.

Graphics remain close to the heart of a web, and thus are a core skill for someone who runs a site. The good news is you still don’t have to use many graphics. Even better, you don’t have to be an artist to do a decent job.

But you do have to master a few basic concepts and techniques if you want to not only create, but maintain, a great website. It’s wonderful to have the world of digital photography at your fingertips, but so what if you can’t translate those great big files into tidy, small elements that show up in just the right place on your site?

So this is the first in a small series of posts about basic graphics skills. I’ll get to specific techniques in later posts, but today I’ll just focus on the first step – laying a foundation.

The foundation boils down to five key concepts, which all good webmasters, including church volunteers, need to know.

1. Understand the difference between raster and vector graphics

The labels are off-putting if you ask me, but the concept is essential and simple. In one type of graphic (vector) the size doesn’t matter, because it’s a mathematical, geometric construction. You can resize them as much as you want and it won’t affect the quality. In the other (raster) size does matter, because they are just a lot of dots (pixels) smashed together. Make a raster graphic smaller and you lose dots, typically making it look blurry. Make it bigger and who knows what color dots will fill the void, making it look worse than blurry. Raster graphics are also called bitmaps – a somewhat better name, I’d say, though still a bit clunky.

If I were queen of the graphics universe I’d rename them stretchy (vector) vs. dotty (raster). In any event, this affects everything about how best to use and manipulate them.

Also, it’s critical to understand that all of the web’s primary formats currently are raster. While the original graphic you work with can be vector or raster, in the end you will create a rasterized (dotty) version of it. Speaking of which….

2. Know the main graphic file types

No matter what file type the graphic was originally, to use it on the web you have to save it as one of three types: jpeg, gif or png.

Jpeg is the classic format for photos. Chances are you’ll get your photos as jpegs and after you’ve edited and optimized them, you’ll save them as a jpeg. It’s also good for busy graphics and for gradients.

Gif is the main alternative. It’s best for simple graphics with not too many colors (e.g. most logos) and for images with transparent backgrounds.

Png is up and coming. Actually, it should have replaced the gif long ago, since pngs do what gifs do, only better. However Internet Explorer (IE) didn’t handle pngs correctly until the most recent version (IE 7). Since many users still have IE 6 as their browser, using png is a risky choice. The simple solution is don’t do it. One tidbit, though. Png is the native graphic format for PowerPoint. When doing graphics for PowerPoint, if you have a choice of formats, go with png.

There are quite a number of other graphic formats, including ai, eps, pdf, and psd. While it’s helpful to be familiar with these, the only critical web skill is being able to open them when you get them. Then you convert them to jpeg, gif or png.

3. Be choosy; not all photos are created equal

I’m excruciatingly picky about graphics, especially photos. Many, many photos are just plain bad. Of course, that shouldn’t be a problem in this digital age. It’s one of the reasons Delete is my favorite key.

But even when photos are good, there are many other reasons you may not be able to use them. I frequently can’t use good landscape photos because the space on the page is too narrow. So here’s a tip: in general, portrait shots are more useful for the web. Another common problem is that the figures may be too tiny once resized. Or the action can point the user’s eyes away from the text. Etc., etc.

My favorite strategy is to tell people up front that I’m very picky about photos. Then we strategize about what photos are most needed and how to get them.

4. Respect the logo

If your congregation has a logo, chances are you’re going to have to use it. Hopefully you love it, and if that’s the case, wonderful. However, in my experience most people (particularly those who aren’t graphic artists by profession) don’t like the logos they have to work with.

I used to be one of those people. But as I’ve gained experience, I just think of them as one more core element to work with. While I may not like a logo per se, chances are I don’t dislike it either. More to the point, I understand it’s my responsibility to contextualize it – to make it work in the overall scheme of the site.

Of course, there are some truly dreadful logos out there. If this is the case, or if it’s clear almost everyone in the congregation loathes the logo, then of course you need to do something. Don’t use it or better yet, if the powers that be want it, have a professional design you a new one. They don’t usually cost much for congregations – typically between $100 and $500.

5. Play nicely with professionals

It’s true that with a few simple skills, most web professionals can do a decent job with graphics. That doesn’t mean, however, that we are all graphic artists. There comes a point where you need to know your limits and find a graphic artist.

A good example is the graphic of me in red glasses in this blog’s header. Even though I’m decent at graphics work, I knew I’d be better off with help. So I asked a good friend who is a professional and talented graphic artist – and I love the result. It’s much better than anything I could have done, though I did know how to work with the raw file once she had done her magic.

Similarly, while it’s fine, even good, to be picky about photos, this must be balanced by the art of not offending photographers. Better yet, build a partnership with them. I would say the essence is first finding people who are good photographers and then communicating clearly with them. Let them know what works well for the site and let them know how much you appreciate them. Credit them whenever possible. And ask their opinion about the site, what’s needed and so on. It all helps.

That’s it for basic concepts. In posts-to-come, I’ll cover the fundamental techniques, tips and online resources. So stay tuned. Same bat website, same bat RSS feed.

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I happened across a review of Rule the Web on Friday, and knew I had to get my hands on it – fast. I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, I could hardly put it down.

It’s a godsend for answering the kind of questions your average church webmaster (me) gets all the time. And that’s just what it did. The other day one of the staff was telling me how she wished she could reply from her Gmail account and make it look like her church account. Not only does the book tell you how to do this, there’s even a picture (p.294).

Here’s my top ten list of things learned from the book that are likely to be helpful in running a congregation’s website:

1. How to “drop catch” a good domain name. I didn’t even know that was the term you used for this. (p.6)
2. How to create a video webcast. I dream of doing this for my church. (p.46)
3. How to zap nasty ads using Firefox (p.98)
4. How to track a library of books. Can’t you see using an easy web solution for organizing the children’s books at church? (p.190)
5. Where to find audio books on the web (p.196)
6. How to manage a project. I’m thinking of using one of these tools for the redesign. (p.221)
7. How to easily backup a hard disk for little or nothing. (p.222-3)
8. How to set up meetings more efficiently. Trying to coordinate other people’s busy schedules drives me nuts. I bet I’m not the only one. (p.225)
9. How to set up cell-phone call transfer and screening. (p.258)
10. And, of course, how to make the most of your Gmail account. (p.287)

I’ll be blogging about my experiences with these great tools over the next few weeks, so stay tuned. Or go grab a copy of the book. It’s only $14.95 list. Not bad for a geek book.

Rule the Web: How to Do Anything and Everything on the Internet—Better, Faster, Easier
by Mark Frauenfelder
List: $14.95

2 Comments »

What’s the Best Web Software for Your Congregation?

For many congregations wanting to start or overhaul a website, the most challenging decision is what application to use. I’ve decided to take this challenge on and analyze the major contenders for a congregational website.

No one solution works for everyone. The goal is to find the one that works best for your congregation.

In the early days of the web, the only option was to learn HTML, the lingua franca of the web, and the rudiments of web servers. That’s still an option. But since then an enormous variety of web tools have been created.

The two most common types of tools are (1) web development software that professionals use and (2) Content Management System (CMS) software, designed to focus more on the content and less on coding. The choices, particularly of CMS software, seem to be endless. For example, you could say blogging tools are a niche type of CMS.

I’ve experimented with quite a number of these tools, but a diva only has so much time, so needless to say I haven’t tried them all. Not even close. However, I have read all the substantive reviews I could get my hands on. My goal was to figure out the best options across the range of choices.

I used seven criteria to assess these options. You can see a summary of my findings in the graph below.

Criteria

I used a 1-to-5 scale, with 5 being the optimal.

1. Easy to set-up
2. Easy to maintain
3. Customizable: flexible design
4. Customizable: flexible architecture
5. Cost for software
6. Cost for time (whether explicit payment or implicit volunteer hours), including time to learn the software
7. Stability, including the viability of company behind it and the level of support

Of course my ratings are subjective. However, where I have less experience and information, I’ve put a question mark next to my rating.

The graph combines ratings of 1 and 2 for the horizontal axis (ease) and 3 and 4 (customization) for the vertical axis. I didn’t create this graph with any preconceived notions, but one conclusion is obvious: the more control you want over your site, the more you are going to need the help of a professional-level webmaster. The corollary is that the easier you want your site set up and maintenance to be, the more you will have to sacrifice flexibility and customization.

The applications broke into four main categories: standard Content Management Systems (CMS), church-centric CMSs, adapted blog tools, and professional-level web development software.

Standard Content Management Systems

Weebly
Weebly is the newest alternative. It focuses on just what a typical small church needs: making websites easy to set up and easy to use. You can read my more detailed review here. You can use it with your own domain, and easily download your site. However, it’s a new startup, designs are very limited, the navigation and number of pages are quite restricted, and who knows if it will last. It strikes me as at least a good interim solution for a congregation with no site. The price and time investment required are compelling.

• Category: Hosted CMS
• 4 Easy to set-up
• 5 Easy to maintain
• 1 Flexible design
• 1 Flexible architecture
• 5 Cost for software: Free
• 5 Cost for time
• 2 Stability

Joomla
Joomla and its earlier sister product, Mambo, are first-rate open-source Content Management Systems. They’ve been on the market since 2002 – gaining widespread acceptance and support. Joomla’s primary draw is ease-of-use for non-programmers. However, it’s generally considered harder for webmasters like me to customize than competing products like WordPress and Drupal. For more information, see Wikipedia’s analysis.

• Category: Downloadable open source CMS
• 1 Easy to set-up
• 4 Easy to maintain
• 3 Flexible design
• 3 Flexible architecture
• 5 Cost for software: Free
• 1 Cost for time
• 3 Stability

Drupal
Drupal began in 2000, with students bridging their dormitories, and since then has grown to full-fledged open-source software maintained and developed by thousands of users and developers. It’s even used by major sites like The Onion. (Not that you want your church site to emulate The Onion in all regards, of course.) To oversimplify, its reputation is that it’s easier for webmasters like me to customize, but a bit harder for non-programmers to learn. For more information, see Wikipedia’s analysis.

• Category: Downloadable open source CMS
• 2 Easy to set-up
• 4? Easy to maintain
• 3? Flexible design
• 3? Flexible architecture
• 5 Cost for software: Free
• 2 Cost for time
• 4 Stability

Other CMSs
CMS Watch is usually considered the best general resource for researching the wide variety of Content Management Systems. Be sure to check it out if you are thinking of using a CMS in a big way.

Church-Focused Content Management Systems

Extend Platform
ACS Technologies’ Extend Platform is a CMS that’s popular with churches. It began in 2003. Unlike Joomla and Drupal, it’s an online application, so you don’t have to have a techie to install it. The designs seem to be fixed, but the content on most of their sites is both up-to-date and timely. This means it’s a system that works for its customers. See, for example, the Archdiocese of Louisville or read background information about the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.

• Category: Hosted church CMS
• 4? Easy to set-up
• 5 Easy to maintain
• 3? Flexible design
• 4? Flexible architecture
• 3? Cost for software: Starts at $19.95/month
• 4? Cost for time
• 3? Stability

E-zekiel
Axletree Media’s E-zekiel is also a “turnkey solution” for starting and maintaining church sites. It seems to be most established and well reviewed of Christian CMSs and has been adopted by the Methodists. E-zekiel sites I’ve seen are also current, and the layouts are more varied than many other hosted solutions.

• Category: Hosted church CMS
• 4? Easy to set-up
• 5? Easy to maintain
• 3? Flexible design
• 3? Flexible architecture
• 3? Cost for software: Starts at $19.95/month; free 30-day trial
• 4? Cost for time
• 3? Stability

Other Options
As is true with the larger CMS world, there are many more church-based CMSs. See, for example, this list. Although it’s a bit out-of-date, it gives you a sense of the variety of options. All that I found, however, are Christian-focused. It appears that the market is wide open for other faiths, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism

Adapted Blogging Applications

TypePad
Those who use TypePad love it. It’s easy to set up, easy to use and well-supported. Its parent company, Six Apart, has been in the business since 2001, and is an industry leader. It also has attractive designs, but you will, of course, be confined by a blogging framework, limiting designs and overall flexibility.

• Category: Hosted blog
• 4 Easy to set-up
• 5 Easy to maintain
• 2? Flexible design
• 1? Flexible architecture
• 3? Cost for software: Starts at $4.95/month
• 5 Cost for time
• 4? Stability

WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a simplified version of what many bloggers, including me, consider the gold-standard of blogging applications. The difference is that it’s a hosted solution, which side steps a bevy of techie tools and knowledge. As is true of all hosted solutions, however, it’s more limited than its cousin, the open source package. But it’s easy to use and has a solid company behind it.

• Category: Hosted blog
• 4 Easy to set-up
• 5 Easy to maintain
• 3 Flexible design
• 1 Flexible architecture
• 4 Cost for software: Starts with free account
• 5 Cost for time
• 4 Stability

Industry Standard Web Building Tools

Dreamweaver
Adobe’s Dreamweaver is the gold-standard for professional webmasters. If you know great webmasters, chances are this is their primary tool. But it is a professional-level tool. Thus it’s not something you can learn overnight – unless you already have a solid understanding of HTML, CSS, FTP, scripting, and various other aspects of web development. Because I construct websites for a living, it’s my tool of choice. When I’m doing anything web-related, aside from the simple blog updates, you can bet Dreamweaver is involved. I used it with Photoshop, for example, in constructing the Wordpress template for this blog. If you really want to get serious about building websites, Dreamweaver is the way to go.

• Category: Proprietary web design and development application
• 1 Easy to set-up
• 2 Easy to maintain
• 5 Flexible design
• 5 Flexible architecture
• 4 Cost for software: $399 list
• 1 Cost for time
• 5 Stability

Microsoft Expression Web
Microsoft Expression Web is the new kid on the block. It came out in late 2006, replacing FrontPage. However, it’s an entirely different product, addressing many of the concerns professional webmasters had about FrontPage. I haven’t used it, but reviews are good. The same caveats about Dreamweaver would apply to Expression Web. However, in addition, it doesn’t run on Macs and doesn’t support PHP, which makes it more limited than Dreamweaver and eliminates a lot of webmasters from its user base, including me. My overall assessment is that it’s not worth it for people like me to switch, but if you are new to web design and Microsoft-based, download a trial version and see what you think.

• Category: Proprietary web design and development application
• 2 Easy to set-up
• 2 Easy to maintain
• 5 Flexible design
• 5 Flexible architecture
• 4 Cost for software: $299 list
• 2 Cost for time
• 4 Stability

In the Final Analysis

My hope is that this brief overview has given you some sense of both what your options are and how to make an educated decision in choosing a solution for your site. There’s no way I could cover all the options, and there is no silver bullet for churches or other faith-based organizations wanting to create a website.

The key is to figure out what your congregation wants and can support long term. Assess your goals and resources, and then pick the best match.

The more you want from your website, the greater your need for professional-level support, whether hired or volunteer, will be. If you have in your midsts web professionals who play nicely with others and are willing to volunteer their time, then use these people and play nicely with them. Or if you are a web professional, then vice versa. If the congregation plays nicely with you, then by all means do what you can to help.

As to how to play nicely, that’s a whole different conversation.

See also:
Starting a Church Website on a Shoestring: Part 1 of 2

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While all of the sites that I maintain look fine on my lovely new iPhone, they are itsy-bitsy postage-stamp renditions of their big daddy monitor versions. Does that suffice, I wondered? My hope was it would be easy to “sniff” (i.e., have the browser recognize) an iPhone accessing a site and then direct it to an iPhone-friendly rendition (whatever that means).

Specifically I was hoping to point iPhones to alternate style-sheets (CSS). It turns out it’s a breeze — if you have a nice clean site (in the HTML/CSS-sense).

Why Point to Alternate CSS?

I haven’t talked much about the importance of CSS on this blog, but that’s only because the blog is young. If I’m a zealot about anything, it would be CSS. CSS is incredibly important to a web professional and this is a great example.

Back in the dawn of browser-sniffing time (1997ish), webmasters coping with browser inconsistencies would point users to alternate pages. This was an incredible amount of work, and fraught with peril. Then CSS started to mature and came into its own at the point browser producers started to support it.

The Cliff Notes version is that nowadays a webmaster worth her salt will aim to totally control a sites’ look, feel and layout with CSS. If you can achieve this separation of look and content, the site should be easy to adapt to the many unpredictable web twists like the creation of the iPhone.

How Does a Website “Sniff” an iPhone?

So how does one do this magic — using an iPhone as an example? It actually depends on the scripting used for a particular website. These days I use PHP on all my sites, although other technologies like ASP.NET and Coldfusion would work just as well.

It only needs one or two lines of code – something like the following:

<?php
$browser = getenv(”HTTP_USER_AGENT”);
echo ‘<p>HTTP User Agent is: ‘ . $browser . ‘</p>’;
?>

You can see the results of this little script here.

Mine says “HTTP User Agent is: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4”. This translates to I’m using Firefox (Mozilla) on an aging Mac. But when I’m on my iPhone, ta da, the resulting page includes the magic string “iPhone”.

iPhone Detected; Then What?

That’s the big question. But to answer it from the simple coding perspective, you can do something like a classic if/then statement, along the lines of:

$browser = getenv(”HTTP_USER_AGENT”);
if (eregi(’iPhone’, $browser)) { … }

“Eregi” reads the resulting string stored in the variable $browser and if it sees “iPhone”, then it does its thing. So where the ellipses (…) are you do whatever you want — the most likely being point to an iPhone-friendly stylesheet.

For this example, I’ve monkeyed just a little with the embedded stylesheet.

<?php
$background = “#fef9b7″;
$browser = getenv(”HTTP_USER_AGENT”);
if (eregi(’iPhone’, $browser)) { $background = “#b7ebfe”; }
?>
<style type=”text/css”>
body { background: <?php echo $background ?>; }
</style>

The result? If you look at this page on an iPhone it’s light blue (#b7ebfe). On anything else, it’s light yellow (#fef9b7).

What Next?

For now, all I know is how to code. What best to code for an iPhone is a different kettle of fish. Actually, I think it’s too early to know. It depends on how users work with iPhones. I could fall into the classic trap of designing for me on my iPhone, and while that’s fun, it’s a big usability no-no.

The bottom line is we web pros now have two homework assignments:

• Figure out how most people look at our websites using an iPhone.
• Clean up our code. If you haven’t done this already (and most church sites haven’t in my observation), separate content from style. If yours is such, get going. It’s a great investment in the future of your site, iPhone or no.

1 Comment »

I succumbed. I got an iPhone.

It reminds me of the Christmas I was 7 and got the most amazing (to my eyes) dollhouse. I could hardly tear myself away. But unlike a dollhouse, this toy I can take with me.

To my surprise, it’s every bit as gorgeous as the hype led me to believe. I was prepared to be more disappointed than I am.

Of course, it’s not perfect. The biggest disappointment involves my main reason for getting an iPhone – that is, how it renders web pages. It starts to recognize the wireless connection in my house, but then flips over to the cell phone connection, at which point, it costs cell phone time and, worse, it crawls.

The pace it renders web pages reminds me of 1995 on some ancient modem attached to a machine with almost no RAM. Surf the web? Ha. Back in those days, I’d call up web pages and sometimes they’d come in fairly quickly, but sometimes I’d wander off and do little chores, like the dishes, while waiting for it to respond. That’s how slow the iPhone connection is right now.

The good news is web connectivity is likely to improve soon. I’ll either figure out how to configure things differently, or Apple will fix some glitch. No matter what, though, I can’t imagine choosing to call up sites using ATT’s network. In a word, it’s dreadful.

Once you do get to your website of choice, be it church or state, it looks wonderful — like a dollhouse version. It shrinks down as advertised, and zooming in and out is great fun. It doesn’t recognize Flash, so if you have a Flash-dependent site, you’re out of luck. But the biggest issue is once you get to a page, it’s so slow you’re anything but motivated to go to another page.

So for now, my jury is out on the impact of the iPhone on designing church websites. Will you need to design an iPhone friendly version? And if so, what does that mean? Those are still the biggest questions in my mind. I’ll keep you posted as I get more answers.

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Several years ago, I attempted to create a members-only site for our congregation using phpBB. This limped along and was ignored by everyone except porn and viagra spammers. Stinker #1.

My second attempt was using MediaWiki software (Wikipedia is the online encyclopedia, MediaWiki is the software). I very proudly installed the software on wiki.chaliceuu.org and named it ChaliceWiki. I announced it and showed it to people.

I assumed that everyone knew about Wikipedia and that everyone knew that you could edit it. False on both counts. I spent all my time explaining Wikipedia. “You know, WIKIPEDIA!” Apparently, the “explaining it louder principle” doesn’t work for translating techno-babble any better than English. Stinker #2. Trashed it.

I recreated the site as members.chaliceuu.org - the members-only site that you can edit. No talk of Wikis or Wikipedia. I worked with colleagues on the Technology Committee, hashed out a basic organization for the information and populated a skeleton of content. I rolled it out to a few people and two recruits began adding material on their own. I can’t tell you how happy I was when someone else started creating content!

We have had the members-only section up since the beginning of April 2007 and it has been growing steadily. Currently, at three months we have 83 users and 369 pages.

What goes into a members-only section?

Roughly in the order that it went in, here is our current content:

• Directory of Members (our #1 draw)
• Official documents (eg. MUP)
• Maps, drawing & diagrams of the facility
• Congregational History while it is under development
• ByLaws
• ByLaw drafts
• Conflict resolution process
• Long Range Planning docs & drafts
• Committee pages (title, purpose, members, minutes)
• Policies
• Forms
• Newsletters (PDF)
• News clippings
• Support documents such as instructions for Greeters, Worship Associates, etc.
• Event photos
• Board Minutes
• Committee meeting minutes

Ask around for stuff. Troll for documents that you can easily convert like the By-laws and policy manuals. You’ll be amazed how much information is scattered among your congregation members. When I finally tracked down the ex-chair of Buildings and Grounds, he coughed up a ton of documents like major use permits, plans, diagrams, electrical layout, plumbing and sewer plans that he had at home. He scanned them in and uploaded them himself!

My Advice

Wikipedians may be comfortable with vast open empty spaces but congregation members are not. You’ll need to accumulate a certain amount of content and put a skeleton structure in place, like committee pages, before you roll out the site. People are more willing to edit than they are to create!

Take the rollout slowly and only involve people who have a reason to use the material you have loaded. For example, target key people like the Board Secretary to put the Board Minutes into the site. Then the entire board has a reason to go to the site and get accounts. Once you start accumulating material, people will want to get on board. Listen to their complaints and see what you can do to improve things. Work one on one or in small groups.

The software is far from perfect. The documentation leaves a lot to be desired. But, with some tweaking, it can become simple to use and will have content that attracts people. In another article, I’ll talk about some of the specific tweaks that are needed to make it easier to use. One of the tweaks is to make the main page as attractive, informative and easy to navigate as possible. This means making it very non-standard from a wiki standpoint but its crucial to helping people get oriented.

Save the Day!

All in all, our members-only site is successful and actively used. Most people browse and a small group create and edit content. But even if you are on your own, it takes less time than you think. Just make a habit of dumping anything appropriate that you find into the site. And scrounge! Eventually someone will ask “Does anyone know where the approved version of the watzit policy is?” Instead of “Hmm, I think Carol or Bob has a copy of that,” you’ll be able to pull it down from the members-only site and save the day. It’s happened. Once people see the sense of collecting all this information into one location, things will really take off.

Update, July 4: Be sure to see Dean’s more techie follow-up on this topic over on his blog: Members-Only: A Wiki in Sheep’s Clothing - Part 2. Anna Belle

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Adding extra domain names isn’t something I’d ever done – until this past weekend. Typically domains are given to me or they come with the host. But my church wanted a name that was easier to read on a bumper sticker than firstuunashville.org. Plus they’re cheap, on the order of $9.00 each.

People had told me it was simple, but I knew enough about the complexity of the Domain Name System (DNS) to be skeptical. Turns out I was wrong. It’s dead easy. Here’s how.

Step 1. Choose a registrar. You want an ICANN-Accredited one. Geeky friends whom I trust seem to mostly use GoDaddy, so that’s where my co-chair of Communications and I went, with church credit card in hand.

Step 2. Choose the domain names you want. Chances are you’re not going to get your first choice, but the system spits back some alternatives. From that list we found a couple that were acceptable, if not ideal. We chose “fuunweb.com” and “fuunweb.org” because they are shorter, faster to type and easier to remember than the alternatives.

Step 3. Buy your extra domains. Preferably do this with the church credit card (assuming you are getting them for your church).

Step 4. Manage your new domains. We had to recover a bit after the ordeal of buying, but we returned, recharged by coffee. At this point if you’re like us, you will be overwhelmed by GoDaddy’s very busy screen. We signed in with our username and password, no problem. But then what? Eventually we figured out you should click on Domain Names / Manage Domains at far left of the horizontal menu above “Welcome.” This brings you to a list of your domains. Click on the domain name links (in our case fuunweb.com and fuunweb.org) and you have all kinds of possibilities.

Step 5. Set them up to forward. Assuming this is what you want to do with your new domains, just click on the forwarding link. Then “Enable” forwarding, enter where to forward it to and choose the type of redirect. You can also “Mask” your domain at this point.

Masking makes your new domain name act just like the domain it’s pointing to. So, if we had masked fuunweb.com, then www. fuunweb.com/about/ would look just like www.firstuunashville.org/about/. Unless you really need it, I’d advise against masking. It can hurt your search engine rankings.

Just click “OK,” and it’s done. However, given the way the DNS works you won’t see the results for probably about a day. If it’s not working in 3 days you’ve got a problem, but chances are all will be fine. The delay has to do with how the new name propagates (in a loose interpretation of the DNS) to computers around the world.

But that’s all there is to it. We’ve got our new domain names for bumper stickers and more. And if we can do it, so can you.

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Blogger-extraordinaire Philocrites recently ran a workshop on Blogging for Beginners. He reports that, “During the Q&A period, many congregational webmasters asked about blogs as part of congregational websites.”

That’s great news. Webmasters thinking about congregational blogging are my kind of webmasters. So to answer their question, here are my top ten tips.

1. Start Your Own Blog

It doesn’t really matter what it’s about, though if you can find a topic you’re passionate about, that’s the best. The goal here is to learn blog basics, not to join one of the many crazy blog popularity contests or to make money. Just enjoy yourself. I’d recommend trying at least two types of blogs. Blogger is astonishingly easy, and even if you don’t end up using it yourself, it’s good to learn its strengths and weaknesses first-hand so you know when it’s the best tool for the job. WordPress and TypePad are my two top recommendations. And keep your eyes on Movable Type. It’s making a comeback.

2. Read The Blogging Church or Clear Blogging

These two books are my current favorites, but of course feel free to read whatever appeals to you. The point is to get a broad overview. If you do buy a book, a nice side benefit is that when you’re through with it, you can pass it on to someone else in your congregation who you think will make good use it. Then once you have the big picture, you would also do well to subscribe to a few of the many blogs on blogging, so you can stay on top of the latest.

3. Be an Unabashed Blog (or Tech) Evangelist

Enthusiasm is catching, and if you can build your own in the course of creating your blog, it’s going to rub off on the congregation. One way to do this is to comment regularly on other blogs you like. Do people in your congregation have personal blogs? Subscribe and comment on them. You’ll be amazed at the communities you’ll find, which in turn will give you a sense of ways to build your congregation’s blogs

4. Focus On the User

A congregational blog by definition isn’t a personal blog. It’s about what your congregation needs and will make good use of. In the end, this is always what it comes down to, and if you take just one thing away from this post, let it be this. Talk to people in the congregation. Look at site statistics. Find out what in particular they would like to have on the website. Some of it may be a match for a blog or two or three. Once you’ve started a blog, pay attention some more. Find out what’s working and what’s not, and adjust accordingly.

5. Find a Catalytic Voice to Seed the Blog

If you have the time and ability to contribute content to the blog, that’s great. But if, like most webmasters I know, it’s all you can do to keep up with the tech demands being placed on you, then the key is to find a person who will take charge of the blog once it’s in place. Likely suspects are the people who suggest that you start a congregational blog, plus tech-savvy staff members or leaders.

6. Prepare and Build Momentum

Once you have some good ideas, get buy-in from the leadership. Then have a meeting to flesh plans out. Of course, pay close attention to what they want.

7. Start Slowly

There’s rarely a need to hurry the start of a blog. Take time to plan, listen to potential users and experiment with various technologies. It’s an investment that will pay off.

8. Make Use of the Power of RSS

RSS feeds are built into all the major blog applications now. RSS is a phenomenally simple XML standard, and in its simplicity and standardization lie its power. It can be repurposed in all kinds of ways. If you have a geek-streak, go for it. Mix and match those RSS feeds, and make them earn their keep. You might even do an aggregator for your congregation like John Cooley’s UUpdates.

9. Have a Blogging Class for Your Church

You’ll have fun and so will those who come. Piggyback on Philocrites’ workshop. It’s a great way to continue building momentum and focusing on your users. If your church doesn’t have wireless, find some place like a coffee shop that does, and get those who can to bring their laptops.

10. Clarify Your Goals

It’s critical that you understand what the goals are for your blog. Don’t just have a blog for having a blog’s sake. That’s unlikely to work. Different types of congregational blogs have different needs. Ask yourself, “What do we plan to accomplish with this blog?” Once you can answer this, that in turn will answer any number of other questions, such as should it be password-protected, should commenting be turned off, and who is in charge of the content.

Here’s an assortment of possible goals. Hopefully some will be a good match for your congregation.

• An announcement board, with commenting turned off, and authorship privileges given to all church leaders. We have a blog like that at my church. You can see where we’ve pulled its RSS feed on our home page.
• A sermon blog, with an editor in charge of posting a podcast or text version of the sermon and commenting turned on. Needless to say, this requires the minister’s support.
• A Children’s Religious Education blog. That’s next on our plate, and I can’t wait. More to the point, our Director of Religious Education can’t wait either. She is building momentum even as I type this, talking it up and finding people who are eager to participate.
• A password-protected techies’ blog, where those who tend to the congregation’s hard and software can keep quick notes about licenses, platforms, wiring, manuals, cost estimates for major upgrades, and so on.
• A ministry blog, where senior staff can speak with an authentic voice and nurture the dialog so many of us hunger for. Many ministers aren’t ready to do this, but if you notice your minister is thinking along these lines, jump for joy and do what you can to support him or her.

In the end, the future of church blogging is in your hands. Grow blogs and I believe you will grow your congregation and yourself.

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At long last, our church has launched a “Members Only” area of the site.

Why we’ve wanted one is simple: for our membership directory. It contains all that critical, but often private, information like phone numbers and email addresses. The idea first came up in 1996, believe it or not. But things generally move slowly in the church web world. Particularly with potentially touchy areas like this, it’s good to take it slowly and wait for the right time.

So the right time is here, we’ve got it going, and suddenly I wonder, now what? Is there anything else we can use this password-protected area for? It’s basically one folder locked down with an .htaccess file that requires you to sign in with the secret password.

Here are some other ideas:

• The budget. A while back we posted a proposed budget on our main site before a congregational meeting. It saved paper, since we didn’t have to mail it to all members, but somehow I just wasn’t comfortable with it being so visible to the larger world. A members’ only area seems a better place.
• Old newsletters. They are chock-full of information that members don’t want Google remembering ad nauseam.
• Maybe, just maybe, an announcement board. Members frequently suggest that we have an area of the site where they can post information about their businesses, needs, etc. Basically they hope for an online church classifieds section. What usually happens is they say to me, “I think you should set up an area where I can post X.” It’s the pronoun that gets me every time. Actually the verb bothers me some too. Yes, I can set one up, but the issue is who will maintain it? The thinking is usually that it will take care of itself, but that’s just not so. So, if we can find someone eager to tend to such an online board, I’m all for it.

Do you have other things you use a Members Only area for? I would love to know if others have tried this and what you have learned from it.

Update July 4: For more on this topic, see guest blogger Dean Goddette’s post: Members Only: A Wiki in Sheep’s Clothing.

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Not all churches have websites. Those of us who have them tend to take them for granted and assume that everyone else has them too. But the more I explore this area, the more I learn that’s just not so.

These are wonderful, vibrant churches, with people who understand the importance of the digital age. Once they know of my interest in websites for churches, they’ll say, “We don’t have a website. What should we do?”

I got an email like this about a week ago. The person said she plans to start with a meeting. In my opinion that’s the single smartest thing she can do, but it’s not a guarantee. There are no silver bullets for creating a good church website – not even a meeting, much as I love meetings.

She doesn’t live close to me, so I can’t do what I’m used to – that is, help in a hands-on kind of way. So to try to answer her question, I imagined what I’d do if I were running the meeting, but was only allowed to delegate and not permitted to do any of the technical work.

Here’s my strategy:

1. Plan for the meeting

• Ask the best people you can think of, including likely prospects to be writers, editors, photographers and coders, to attend. It’s especially important to get leadership buy-in. So if you can find a minister, senior staff or lay leader who is interested, by all means include them.
• Set it up at a time most of them can come.
• Plan for an informal, comfortable setting – for maybe a couple of hours, with snacks. If it has wireless and people bring laptops, that’s great, but not required.

2. Organize your ideas for the meeting. Things to consider include:

• What content is most needed. Research this on the web, particularly looking for church content that’s simple but effective. If you can, get a sense of what’s easier and what’s harder to do.
• Your best options for a host and software to run the site. This is probably going to be the most challenging and important decision and I intend to blog on it in Part 2. Options range from WordPress to hiring a web company.
• Possible domain names.

3. Run a very focused meeting.

• If someone can take minutes, that will be very helpful.
• Be clear about your goals. My primary goals at this stage would be to identify talents, garner support and further refine the wish list for the site. Once you know what people can do and what they want from the site, it’s going to be easier to pick a solution.
• Develop an action plan – who will be doing what and when. This doesn’t have to be comprehensive – just concrete things you know need to be done to get the process moving.

4. Follow-up.

• Distribute the minutes as soon as you can.
• Develop a schedule based on the action plan, and follow up with the appropriate people at the appropriate times if you haven’t heard from them.
• Make plans to reconvene at least a core group. Depending on how big the congregation is and how lofty your goals are, it could be a large group or it could be as small as just two of you over lunch.

Remember: the most important thing is to enjoy this. It could be an opportunity for you to learn new skills, deepen connections in your church or broaden your circle. In the end, the process is every bit as important as the product. After all, it’s church we’re talking about.

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