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!

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!

And it’s true. But if you’re getting results from it, it’s awfully hard to say Direct Mail isn’t worth it. But in this time of financial concern, where budgets are reduced, it’s probably not the way I’d direct a client (unless they only target seniors, or the aging population).

Instead, the web offers many benefits. And it’s ultimately cheaper.

The cost of setting up a web presence can cost you quite a bit. And the old-school notion of “finishing” a website has to be forgotten. It’s an ongoing project. But that’s the benefit!

How’s that a plus? Let’s walk through our recommendations to a client…

1. Consider your audience – and if they are “normal”, they are online more and more. Only the aging North American population still has resistance for the web. But even that sector is getting on board — but you have to direct your website to them. Keep it easy and no plug-ins.

2. Decide how you are going to reach your audience online. 1) E-blasts (html mass emails that some call spam) are a legitimate way of reaching an audience. Make sure they want the email and make sure they can unsubscribe easily. 2) Website search engines — this is the way most will find what they are looking for. But Search Engine Optimization (where your site pops up on the first page of Google) is not for the faint of heart and can be costly. 3) “Regular” emails. Writing a personal email to touch base with clients and offer them your product. And of course there are other methods too!

3. Now the fun! Set it up. Be sure to use your established branding look (if you don’t have one… we’d love to help!), create a message, use a color that is in your branding palette, a certain type of graphic/photo. Determine the unique benefits that your audience are needing. Keep it simple and watch analytics (available for free with our hosting package), be willing to change design or message.

Once the set-up is complete and you’ve told people about your service or product, it’s just maintenance costs (hosting and subscriptions) and the cost of changing and adding to your site. We set up all our websites so that you can make the changes quite simply. This usually costs less than $100 a month. Pretty inexpensive!

Let me know if you’ve used your website (or the internet) as an inexpensive method to get your message out! Share your ideas and watch for others!

Perhaps you’ve never considered it before, and I hate to be the one that breaks it to you… but… your website is not your audience’s favorite website. Or at least, chance are, it’s not. If it is — write your own blog!

What this means is, the experiences that your audience has on their favorite site has to be similar on your website or people will become confused or angered. We’ve all been on sites that “do it differently” — I don’t stay for long. It’s frustrating.

The top 5 websites (according to some research I read awhile ago — and may be obsolete now) in the US are myspace, yahoo, msn, ebay and google. They represent about 30% of American’s time on the internet. So if they do it a certain way, and you’re trying to do something similar to them, you should do it the same. Makes sense, right?

So that means that your links should follow the web “standard” interface — usually blue and/or underlined. Menus at the top or on the left. If you master similar surfing style to the “big guys”, no one will ever complain about the experience. Well, there’ll always be one or two, eh?

That compares your website to other external websites. And… I can’t believe I have to say this, but make your web pages consistent in your own website. Follow a consistent palette of colors, same fonts, same grid (more on this in Commandment 6) and same tone of writing. It’ll all add to the experience.

At PinPoint, our current branding positioning is “Communicate. In Unison.” We believe that everything that a church or business does (from Print to Email to Web) must be done consistently. It’s our mantra. It’ll scream professionalism and ensure that the audience tells others about your site. Who knows — your website may even become their favorite.