In fact, I know we’ve Googled search and looked in directories for a company just like them. And we’ve never heard of this company!

Everyone likes to be found. Especially on Google (or Yahoo, Bing, etc.) — it’s cheap and where most people look.

The average seeker doesn’t go past the second page of search results. So it’s imperative to get high on the organic (non-paid) results. Or the alternative is to pay for the placement at the top or to the right. And that can get expensive.

This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Sound scary? Here’s an over-simplification of how it’s done. It starts with the Search Engines sending spiders (digital super sleuths that randomly look at every page on the internet) arriving at your website. Here’s some of what they’re looking for:

• Content that changes. Not sure if I need to explain this, but when the spiders check your site they look to see if the information changes. They believe (rightly so) that if you’re engaging an audience, you will give them new content regularly. Blogs and social media feeds will do this. But remember to have an easy way to change the actual page contents too!
• Meta-tags that are used. Most people know that you can “hide” words on a page. These words tell the spiders what you’re really good at — what the benefits are on your site. Surprisingly, there’s a disconnect between what is in those words and the content on a page. They now compare the two and see if you genuinely have the pertinent information you put in the meta-tags. Again, this is great for those searching! And it forces websites to be authentic in content.
• Other Websites refer to your website. If the search engines want to point people to your site via an organic (non-paid) search, they want to make sure others like you too. So as they search the web, they look for links to your site. The more that others say your site has good content (based on the volume of links that point to your site), the more they want to say it too! This isn’t easy to do, but request associations, groups, members, tourist websites to list and link to you. The more the better!

Is this everything to SEO? No. In fact, my programmers (who incorporate good SEO foundations into every site we construct) are probably going to “share” some more with me when they read this. I’ll be sure to pass them along. But if you work hard about getting the content to follow the 3 steps above, you’re well on the way! Let me know if you have any questions!

I’m declaring that it’s (almost) the era of NO SUBSCRIPTION fees.

What does this mean to you? It means that your Church should stop paying regular subscriptions for having websites.

What?!? Yes. No more fees.

How? We’re introducing our Church Website Conversion Package that allows you to switch your content to an open source, interactive environment that allow you to:

• Built-in simple content management system so you can easily keep your content up-to-date. Multiple passwords for individual sections is no problem either!
• Church Consultant Recommendations for content and design. We use eye-tracking technology to make sure your content is found and that in engages your audience. And since Content is the #1 important thing on your site, we’ll help you develop the right information for your site. We know the Church and we know what your options are.
• Plugins to add robust, interactive content. The best thing is that we build the outlets in the core website so the plugins can be added in the initial build-out or later when you have more budget.
• Content Priority is key. The average person spends less than 10-seconds on a page so it’s important to provide the information quickly and within the 3-Click rule. The average person will click 3 times before leaving a site.
• Editing of text is also offered to deliver your content quickly with eye-interruptions to catch attention in larger blocks of copy.

And all of this is offered with no monthly fees or subscriptions. Keep in mind you’ll have to pay for your hosting package (ours is about $100/yr) and some plugins that aren’t delivered in an open source programming world. But normally, the entire conversion package is completed for just one upfront fee. Then the site is turned over to you to easily update with the built-in content management system. Contact us for more information!

But I’m amazed at how many churches feel they should change for the sake of change. You see, we get used to various things and they eventually create a paradigm.

In order to change or break a paradigm, it takes a lot of work, money and effort.

When’s the last time you watched a TV show and the voices were a bit muffled? Reality TV is notorious for this. Or there are subtitles for translated dialogue. Did you notice how easy to read the font is? The formatting? The color? How about the consistency?

It’s rare that you’ll see the format change within a movie or TV show — yet, Churches not only use different formats within the same service — and, gasp, even within one song!

Here’s 5 recommendations for PowerPoint/ProPresenter/etc. in the Church:

1. Keep your backgrounds simple: Decide if the backgrounds will be predominantly light or dark; and if they’ll be still or moving. This will help you make formatting decisions. It’s always better to have a specific look for your background — one that’s branded for your church.
2. Keep your Fonts consistent: Our eyes tend to read sans-serif fonts easier on screen — especially if reversed (white on dark background). Upper and lower case (not all capitals) are easier to read as well. Don’t go too big or you’ll end up making weird and awkward line breaks. But not too small or no one will be able to read it. Avoid bright colors — almost always, black and white are the best.
3. Keep your Paragraph style “flush left”: Especially if you have multiple lines. Our eyes are used to seeing book copy lined up straight on the left (like this page). Don’t center text lines or your eye has to strain to find where to look for the next line.
4. Be Consistent: I know it seems boring, and that you’d like to use all your fonts and formats. But, resist it! No one will complain if they can easily read the text, but they will if they have to adapt every few slides. Your slides shouldn’t be a “work of art”, rather, they should be utilitarian and easy to read.
5. Know your Content: For sermon slides, be sure you know the Outline formatting and indenting (Roman numeral, Numbers, i’s, etc). Help people to quickly know where you are in the outline. Think easy — not too complex. Your Pastor will say the whole sentence, your slides don’t need to have all the content. For song lyrics, don’t break lines unless there’s a natural break in the music (if possible). Help your congregation “hear” the music by your breaks. With the advent of “no music notes on the screen”, any assistance helps!

I’m sure there’s more, but always fault with simple and consistent. Can you think of anything else?

But I’ll save more on that for another day.

Sometimes in Branding there’s an association disconnect. Where you find out that a Church is connected to something that doesn’t correlate with their story.

Have you considered who your web hosting is associated with?

Every year I watch the Superbowl ads and the GoDaddy ads pop up. I find them degrading, not funny and opportunistic. So why do so many churches use them!?! I can’t imagine any church who wants to be associated with that brand. But they are.

Here’s 7 tips on picking a good web hosting package for your ministry:

1. Association and Branding-friendly. It’s what we just talked about. The cost of associating with a brand that is “anti-morals” is far too high for a church. Or if they gain most of their income from pornographic websites. Change your hosting package now! Or you’re supporting their marketing.
2. Allow you to Move easily. Some hosts register your domain in THEIR name, not yours. It makes it difficult to switch for any reason. We got caught with our first host that we used for our PinPoint website almost a decade ago. It took the threat of legal action for them to allow us the “permission” to move OUR website. Crazy.
3. Good Tech Support. Make sure they support you and want to help. Toll-free number and live chats. In fact, if you can get 24/7 service that’s perfect. And if you can get domestic call centers it’s even better (and less frustration).
4. Easy to update, change and add unlimited emails. This is a no brainer — but many hosting packages require you to contact them to make changes. Some need you to put a request in, and then wait. And wait.
5. Upgradeable. Be sure that plug-ins are available so that you can add components to your website as needed. E-commerce is a perfect example. You may want to add that later.
6. Included Analytics. The ability to see who comes to your website, what keywords are used, where they’re coming from, when they come, how long they stay on which pages, etc. This is worth hundreds of dollars!
7. Low cost. You shouldn’t pay much more than $150/year for all your hosting needs.

I’m sure there are other things too, but this is a good start. I don’t tell you these to scare you or to give you a sales pitch. There are lots of alternatives. We do offer a package through a well-known, large, reliable host. If you buy it through this link, you’ll get a great deal — and (in full disclosure) you give us some revenue.

Let me know if we can help in any way — or if you have additional questions! Or leave a comment below.

I remember in the mid ’90s when the advertising agency I worked for got “internet service”. It was through the phone lines (think slow!) and essentially we purchased a modem that allowed one of our computers to attach to this world wide web. I remember thinking “so, what can we do on it?”. E-mail was explained to us and then this foreign idea that people can advertise and give information on it. I was spell-bound.

The agency sent me away to learn how other agencies were developing “websites” using a programming language called HTML. WHAM! That’s where the internet lost me. It became something that “others” were going to have to do. My brother consistently taught me that “creatives” can’t operate in the programming world.

It wasn’t until much later, when I would work with programmers, that I realized I could design for the internet. But, like most designers of that era, we took our “print” mentality onto the web. We essentially used the internet to post a brochure online.

At the time, the best thing about the internet was the way we could break our pages into categories and then segment them for organizational purpose. Sound familiar?

By the late 90’s and early 2000’s, everyone realized that the internet was not going away, and they needed a website. It would save money and help in the distribution of knowledge. Churches jumped on the bandwagon about this time.

In 2004 or 2005, programmers who took all their secondary education training in online tools (ultimately the first generation of internet geeks), figured out the inherent difference between web and print.

• They could integrate video and movement with words.
• They could ask questions and get answers.
• They could “hear” from their audience, rather than just “speak” to them.

Web 2.0 was born.

But sadly, the Church is slow catching up. Many are barely holding on to Web 1.0. They still have brochures online rather than interactive, engaging websites. Pages are too dense with copy as the average surfer will only spend a few seconds on a page before moving on. They will also only click 3 times to find information before losing interest.

Church websites have to change! You’re working on a website that isn’t working and you know it!

How? Well, there are many tools available if you want to do it yourself. Wordpress delivers a great foundation so you can update your content. But be careful! It’s not all about the tool, make sure you take the time to simplify your content. And be aware of eye-tracking technology that shows where people look on a web page.

No one comes to your website to see the mechanism — but rather, they come for your content. Think interactive; forms, polls, video, online giving, etc. Have fun with it — look what others are doing successfully.

We do projects like these every day and we’d like to help you. Especially if you’re a church. We’re content specialist — and we work with virtually any budget. We just want your church to look great and attract (and keep) an audience seeking a relationship with God! If we can help you, let me know!

We’ve had a good run with this website we’re currently using. It’s not that it’s broken, it’s just time to update the design. There are so many new things that we’ve been recommending for our clients and the web has so many cool things we can do now. It’s exciting to think we’ll update ours! As we work through the process, here’s some things we’re reminded of:

• It’s a lot easier to develop communication materials for someone else than doing it yourself. Things we find very easy to do for our clients are harder to do for ourselves. It only makes sense for you to use an outside firm. It’ll be faster and easier.
• You’ll discover you’ll want to put far too much in your website than needs to be there. So start editing. Simplify. Edit the page content and how many pages you need on your website.
• Think like your congregation (and potential congregation) when they approach your website. What are they looking for most often? What do they want to see on the home page? How should your website be arranged — by age? by groups? by interests? Ask! Or look at your analytics (the ability to see what pages are most viewed).
• Consider the new tools of the Internet. What has the web allowed people to do on a website since the last time you updated yours? How can you better engage your congregation? What do they want to do on your website? How do they want to interact with you? And vice versa.
• Think Integration. Look at all that social media has to offer (and the ease of setting it up!) and consider how to incorporate those benefits into your website. And how can your website enhance or illuminate your printed materials. Think across the media and integrate everything. Communicate in Unison!

We started the process this past week and we’re excited about how the website will take shape. Be watching for the update soon! Contact us now if you’d like us to help you with a transition to a new website. We have Church packages that will be right for you. And the very least, PLEASE update your copyright information on your website to make it appear to be up-to-date!

I returned today to my office to pour through the contacts we met. There were so many great Pastors, technical support and media directors that we met, and now I’m looking forward to following up with them all. They had hearts for the Church and for the Kingdom.

However, I did hear similar frustrations as I had discussions with many people at the conference and on the expo floor. Over and over I heard the same things:

1. Churches have gone the “inexpensive route” with website templates. Don’t get me wrong — there are a lot of great companies that offer inexpensive, well-designed website templates for the church. But words of caution comes from many that I talked to.

• If you set up a website using a template, and then decide later that you don’t want to pay the monthly subscription fee, you lose your site. The fine print will tell you that THEY own your site (and the infrastructure that contains your content). You cancel your subscription, they remove everything.
• The templates, although very nice in some cases, don’t look like the church — and can cause issues when the community clicks on your website then comes to your church. Be careful! This can look like you’re not authentic.

2. Churches have issues with Content. Templates can give a false sense of “doing it right” — the website looks good but the content is all wrong.

• Make sure you know the basic information that needs to be on your site — and where (according to eyetracker technology) it should be located.
• Have a creative development team that will be leaders! Make sure they are also editors. People don’t want to read a lot on a website anymore.
• Know your church’s “brand positioning” and make sure your content emphasizes it!

3. Church leadership sadly know that their website isn’t all that good and they don’t know how to shift the development away from a well-meaning member in the congregation.

• If you’re one of “those people” in the pew, consider telling the Pastor you would like to step aside. If you’re doing a good job, they’ll beg to have you back. Or ask if you can help make the transition to an outside source who better serves the church market.
• Pastors, take leadership! This won’t be easy, but if your website isn’t doing the right things well, you need to change your website and/or developers. In the long run it’ll be best for your church.
• Ask some questions of the person doing the site: Ask about the analytics package and how it effects the content, or what are the core benefits that your website are emphasizing. We can also meet with your team and demonstrate how we will set up the initial website but utilize people in the church to maintain it.

If you don’t have a great website, it comes down to 2 things — either your design isn’t good or your content isn’t relevant. At PinPoint, we will walk you through the process that insures the content is relevant and “positioned” well, and that the design allows the most amount of people to find and view the content.

It’s been a good week at the WFX — we clearly understand these issues after hearing about them from the church. Now lets start working together to solve these critical issues! Contact me today.

We know that ministries and churches don’t have huge budgets. But God has called all of us to be good stewards (managers) of what He’s given us. So is a website a good use of funds?

Well, yes. And no.

I’m sure you know the basic facts:

• Your congregation wants information about the Church.
• The majority of people prefer finding information online.
• More than 80% of people will go to your website before visiting your church.
• You have the potential of “church outside of your walls” with an effective online presence.
• You need a website.

But everyone wants an amazing website, without a lot of money. They want their website to be at the top of an organic search on Google. They want it all.

There’s only ONE THING that EVERYONE goes to a website for.

Content.

So content has to come first. Then a simple website that is easy to update your content.

How do you develop content? Here’s some basics:

• Know your Brand. Who you are and what you do well. Your benefits.
• Know your Audience. Who you are currently reaching. And those you want to.
• Know your Positioning. This is what sets you apart from the noise of all the other churches in your area.

All these things will help create a design for your website. But wait! You need even more:

• A strong, simple logo. This is the memorable visual that even an elementary school kid can recall in a sketch.
• A color palette that all your materials use as their primary colors.
• A font palette that uses effective fonts — for web (sans serif works best) and for print (serif is better).
• Design elements that are unique to you. And will be evident on all your materials.

Once you have all these things, it’s easier to develop the Content-rich website. But there are some things you need in the choice of your website:

• Be sure it’s simple, unique (not a template) and engaging.
• Be sure it follows the principles of good SEO (search engine optimization).
• Be sure it has an analytics package as part of the hosting. This should be free or almost free.
• Be sure it’s easy for you to update your content. Be careful of those who charge a month fee for this.
• Be sure you create something professional. You should be proud of the end project!

We’d love to work with you to complete all of these for you. Just contact us to get started. Or based on budget, we can help you do some of the work and we’ll assemble the finished product for you. We love God and His church!

We’ve all been there (whether for vacation or business), you know you have to get ready to go on the trip and as the date arrives, you start to think of all the things you’ll need to pack. I’m a procrastinator when it comes to actually filling the suitcase. Usually just a couple of hours before I leave, I go through my closet and decide what would be the most appropriate things to take. This usually means that I throw a few extra items in that will coordinate with each other. And I end up over-packing.

Well, you’re getting ready to take yourself and your congregation to a destination. That’s your vision. And when it comes to packing your suitcase, you need to take the necessities. You have to take your “dreamlining” list and anything that is required to reach your dreams. Keep your audience in mind and consider what your church will look like once you’ve achieved your vision.

Imagine all your benefits. Be sure to pack your top 3 as we discussed in the Chapter.

Your filled suitcase is your “brand”. It’s every thing you need to promote your church.

But to make it simpler, we attach your brand to some visual items. We live in a visual society, and “the visual” is easier to remember. The right visual brand, will attract the audience you desire.

So you need:

• A Simple, yet Dynamic Logo. The definition of simple? An elementary school child should be able to draw your logo from memory. If they can’t, it’s too complex. Just look quickly at the top 5 companies of the Fortune 500 companies and you’ll see that their logos are pure simplicity. Be sure to do the same!
• A Color Suit. Like packing for a trip, it’s more effective if you have everything that coordinates in color. Imagine a men’s suit: The actual suit (the largest amount of color), the shirt (the medium amount of color) and the tie (the small amount of unexpected color). Once you decide on your Primary, Secondary and Tertiary color suit, use those colors every where (in the amounts you’ve chosen). Use your tertiary color only randomly; it adds some personality to the mix.
• Catchy, Simple Slogan. We call that your brand positioning. It’s a short (5 words or so) message that communicates (or can be assigned to) your key benefit. It needs to be memorable and evoke an emotional cord with your audience.

There are also two audiences for your Church to consider: internal (your current membership) and the external (your community, not yet committed to a local church).

Here’s the additional things that you may need (feel free to over-pack!):

Internal Communication Suit:

• Website: Simple, interactive, engaging, professional. With content that reflects your benefits in some way; or leave it out if it’s off point! Remember that the average person spends 10 seconds or less on a page and will rarely ever click more than 3 times in your site.
• Worship Guides: A lot of churches are getting creative with these. Keep them simple and point people to your website for the details.
• E-Blasts: Gather emails from your congregation and save time and money communicating to them in a branded professional way. Be consistent with message, content, design and timing! Be regular without filling their email box.

External Communication Suit:

• Website: The same as above, just make sure that their’s enough content to woo a person from your community to your Church. Statistics say that they’re interested in your doctrine (what you believe), where you’re located (and how to get there) and who’s the Pastor.
• Direct Mail: Target a certain geographic area, buy a mailing list (or hand deliver) — then produce a useful direct mail piece. Put yourself in the community’s shoes and give them enough information to entice them to your location or website. Be professional, and promote your positioning. Only!
• Service Projects: The Church without doors. Get out into the community and serve. Be sure that everyone has the “message” about your Church ready to be given — either in word or printed.

So there you have it! It’s easier written than done though. That’s why our PinPoint team works with Churches. We love to help walk you through the process and provide the materials you need. We’d love to help you achieve all of this. Contact us today to get started with a free consultation! We help you Communicate. In Unison!

Can you imagine ever saying those words? The internet has only been around a little more than a decade, and it seems like I’m googling, facebooking, browsing, blogging and surfing many times a day. Every day. And I never even used those weird words 5-6 years ago!

How did we get along without it? I rely so heavily on the “net” for research, entertainment and communication. About half the emails I get point to an internet link and the first place I turn to for news is… you guessed it, a website!

Are you with me? I hope you’ve attached yourself to this wonderful knowledge source. Pastors can find so much online. In fact, I rarely ever pick up my Bible when doing Bible study — I go to my favorite Bible Study websites and BibleGateway. Online, there’s also so many corresponding commentaries on passages I’m studying — and in a few minutes I can browse a bunch of them. Incredible.

Recently I jumped on a website that I’ve heard about but never went to. And it’s amazing!

Everyone should have an account on it. It’s Delicious.com

• Here’s what it is: Essentially it’s a place to bookmark your favorite websites. It’s online, not browser specific, so even if you’re at someone else’s computer, you can retrieve (easily) all your bookmarks.
• What you may be saying right now: “Wait! I already have a way to bookmark websites!” But this is so much different. Keep reading!
• The Benefits: I had over 200 bookmarked sites on my browser before I found Delicious. When I needed a site in my bookmarks, I had to scroll through a bunch of addresses and remember what each was for. Well, Delicious is so much more simpler. First, when you get to a site you want to read later or refer to later, you click on “Delicious” — a link that’s in your browser toolbar. This link is added in the easy registration process. Then a window pops up that has the link to the page you’re on. It prompts you to create keywords (called tags) — this allows you to find the bookmark by keyword, not the address! Once you have a bunch of bookmarks, you can combine tags and narrow your search. Say you have 20 bookmarked sites for “travel”, you can search for “air, travel” and only get the airlines.
• Wait, there’s more! This is more than a bookmarking site! It’s also (take a deep breath) a social networking site. You can create a group of friends and every time you bookmark something, you can indicate that the bookmark is public — which allows your network to see your bookmarks. And vice versa! That way you can share your favorite sites with your friends AND when you search for a tag, you are searching for bookmarks in your ENTIRE network! Now that’s collaboration. Imagine the possibilities!

So what are you waiting for — go register. It’s free. And easy. And it’ll make your time on the internet more valuable — and if you’re like me, your memory is not as good as it was a few years ago. Delicious helps you remember websites you wanted to remember.

What are other sites that you rely on as a Pastor? I’d love to hear them!