THE BLOG |
follow along for tips and tricks for creative web gurus like yourself! |
As an administrator working in the church world for many years, I know there are a couple schools of thought on this topic. Some think you need a website for your church, others don't. (But even those that didn't think it was necessary at one time, are now coming around to acknowledge that it is proven as a credible resource for a church.) Even waaay back when i graduated from college (don't ask) it was believed that organizations needed a website, even churches. Think about it -- your website provides a resource, a central location for all those announcements, schedules, and upcoming events. Being a true technology nerd, that made sense to me back then and I dug in, learned "dbase+" code and researched as much information as I could find about computers and this new thing called "internet service." So years later, when i was employed by a state office for a church organization, it was natural for me to help with getting their first website set up and running in 1999. I have been hooked on creating websites and content management ever since. I am biased. Yes that means, I am biased on this topic. But the evidence in today's world of technology advancement is too great to argue against having a web presence for your church organization or ministry. What about the cost? Do not let anyone tell you that having a website for your church or business is out of reach. If your next concern is the cost, I understand. If you have done any research or requested price quotes from a web developer to write the code for a website and set it up from scratch and all that is involved with that process, you know it can be expensive. But this is where I have found that using available CMS (Content Management Systems) that are readily available with today's technology advancements come into play. I can introduce you and your church to options that would fit your needs and assist with getting your website up and running for a fraction of that cost. No gimmicks, I promise! No hidden fees, no tricks. We can get you up and running on even the smallest of budgets. At the very least, reach out and let me share some thoughts about what we can provide while maintaining the limit of your congregation's allocated funds. Reaching more people outside your four walls is a plus and at the same time you are providing a consistent resource for your constituents to gain access to information that gets updated on a weekly or daily basis! Let's Talk!
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1. Decide on a domain name
If you have read "Your Website, Your Purpose" linked here, then perhaps you are ready to get to work and get the website started. Your decisions outlined in that post have been written down on paper or typed up in a document. So now you wish to get the website up and running instead of being just an idea in your mind. I understand. You are ready so let's get proactive. Your domain name is your choice. It should be easy to remember, easy to "spell" for the sake of those trying to type it in a browser window, and easy to say out loud. It may be the name of your business, the product you provide, or a name you have derived that is catchy and happens to be available as a URL for purchase. With some ideas on paper, now it is time to see if indeed they are available for purchase. You can choose any of the domain purchase websites to do your search, from godaddy.com to Bluehost.com or possibly google domains. Run your list of names through that site of your choice and get prices available for each domain name, if they haven't already been purchased. You don't have to purchase from that site, you are simply wanting to know if your choice of a domain name - is even available to purchase. Make your final choice, and purchase your domain name or contact me and let me purchase it on your behalf and get it setup as a secure website account. 2. Choose an outline/layout leading to your final action step. With a domain name chosen or some options being considered, now it's time to map out what you wish to say on your website. Your homepage can be drawn out on paper to decide where items will be placed. These will include your purpose statement, the most important thing you need to convey, which should be prominent "above the fold" and then a means to push your viewers to an action. This action could be signing up for a newsletter or filling out a contact form to get more info on a service. But how are you going to lead them to this next step? How can you convince them they need to "sign up" for what you have to offer? Convince them you are the expert. Share your "story" your "brand" your "purpose" with confidence. Convey the fact they need "this" (whatever "this" is) with confidence. You are in control here. This is where you let your imagination and your passion lead you. Share what you have to say and keep it simple and easy to follow through with your action step. 3. Put together a list of content pages you would like to include. With your outline completed and the layout of your homepage "mapped" out in front of you, what other pages do you need to include as a part of this homepage network to keep the information clearly visible? Put yourself in the shoes of your readers. Consider the best way to navigate through the site so they can find the content they need quickly and easily. What questions will they be asking when they find your website? How will they be answered with your information/services you have to offer them? Are their answers easy to find? Answer these questions as you set up how the "Index" of your menu system for all the pages of your website. Start with a draft and continue to tweak it as you go. You can continue to make changes as you derive better ways for the design of your website to work. Show your readers where they need to go next. Is your website about a step-by-step process? Show the steps in easy to follow images and buttons or text leading them from step to the next. This "step-by-step" setup may be so important, that you have it highlighted on your homepage. You decide what is most important based on the action step you have chosen as the primary goal. 4. Go Live and Show the World what you know. You have your purpose in hand, the outline drawn, your content written for each page. Now it is time to look at it all together as one theme, one presentation. Double check all your work. Make sure you have used plenty of keywords in your content of those pages to beef up your SEO. This will help people to find you and your website. It all looks great! So it is now time to take the leap, go live and let the world see what you have to offer them. You have found a "Need" and it is your time to show them how you (the expert) can "Fill" it. Now that you have your website live on the world wide web, you can also promote your website on social media sites. Get out there and show it off! Current Creative Content that’s Clear and Concise Content should be consistently current. Keep your customers, your readers, your followers regularly coming back for new and updated information. If they come to your site and they only find the same information that was available a month ago, they are not tempted to stay and browse. With nothing current going on and no new information to glean, they will get tired of making the effort to click on your homepage bookmark. They were impressed once and they set that bookmark, let us keep them coming back and keep them as intrigued as they were with their first visit to your website. Content should be creative. Don’t underestimate your imagination and your “fresh” ideas. We can all be our worst critics, at times. Allow the creative juices to flow as your create content for your website. Be CREATIVE. Just because it hasn’t been done before, doesn’t mean it is blah and boring. If it has been done too many times that is when something loses its enticement. You can go to the web to get inspired and to get some new ideas, but don’t rely on what has been done already a dozen times to be the “creative” thing you need to try on your site. Content should be clearly written. Keep it simple when you are writing for your overall audience. Your content and ideas, even blog posts should be written so they can be read on an 8th grade level. At least this is the rule of thumb to use when preparing for a generic audience. Depending on your audience that you currently have, you may be able to steer away from that concept and focus on a higher level of communication. But even if you are writing to a highly intelligent focus audience for your product or service, keeping it simple will still help with the shorter attention spans that adults of all walks of life seem to have in our present world. Content should be concise. While you are being creative and keeping it current and written with clarity, you should also consider keeping it concise in its length. Remember the short attention span noted earlier? You will want to keep that in mind and not lose their interest by having your content be too lengthy. Long-winded, wordy sentences are not exactly crisp and easy to read. Legible type (fonts) can also help your words to be crisp and easy to read. Keep that in mind when you are setting up your layout in the initial phase of developing your blog. Remember, keep your content current, creative, clear, and concise. These are basic steps to get your readers coming back to your website time after time for all the great tips you have to offer them. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the phrase alone sounds complicated. It reeks of techno jargon and complex concepts. So let’s break it down in simple terms. You want a potential customer or client to be able to find you when they are looking for that “widget” or service you have to offer. You want them to see your website URL first or at least on the first page of options. What is the most important thing your website needs to be successful in online search engines? Below I have put together five (5) things that are important to consider to ensure the website that you have created or developed is easily reachable in search engines. If you are reading this, you have probably already created a concept for a website or you have begun the process of creating your website. If not, consider starting at “this blog about creating a website.” FIVE BASIC THINGS FOR SUCCESSFUL SEO Content As you consider search engine optimization (SEO), you must come up with words or terms that would naturally bring someone to your product or service. What is a list of words that people would be searching if they were trying to find your service? That list is important. That list we will call your “keywords.” Here is an example: If Jane Doe was providing a service where you could purchase templates for web designs, she may have a list of keywords that include: design, webpage, layout, template, landing page, and so on. Once you have this list of power words in hand, you will want to incorporate them throughout the content of your website. This allows for the search engines, like Google to consider your page as “important” when it comes to these terms when you are repeatedly using them. Connection to Credible Links What are credible links? Once you have established your content throughout your site, be bold and reach out to others in a similar field as your service or product. Develop a network of like-minded websites or other services that would complement what you have to offer your clients. Adding a list of links to your site will enhance their page-ranking over time, and if they return the favor by linking to your URL on their website, the reward is reciprocated on yours. The more “credible” the website that links to your web address, the better the reward when it comes to the bottom line of your SEO ranking. How do you determine credible? Well if they are established websites or high ranking websites with merit, they are great options. Government or education sites, for example would be a great choice. But other websites that have established a following on their own merit already (this comes with time among other factors) are also good choices to ask to link to your site. But you need to provide them with a good reason to link to your information. Think of ways you can make your content stand out above your competitors. Confirm SSL Security Depending on who you have hosting your website this can be fairly simple to check. If you have developed your own webpage and you use a domain service to host your purchased domain / URL you can check the SSL setting with that service. However, here is a quick way to check: When your domain name is entered in the browser address bar and your site comes up on the screen, do you see: https:// in front of your URL? If so, then your site is secure. You should also see the “lock” symbol on the browser’s address line. Another test you can try is using a free online “checker” for SSL like this link: https://www.sslshopper.com/ssl-checker.html. Keywords in Blogs You will want to continue to use your "power words" that we established in our first concept above. Doing this by regularly posting blogs daily or weekly about your product or service on your website will enhance your search-ability and your ranking in search engines. Share tips or insights that may encourage users to come to your page by posting concepts in sets of 3, 5, etc. An example would be "Three Steps to Enhance Your SEO." Keep it Fresh, Keep it Active You have come this far, don't give up; keep going. Each week or on a regular basis, add to your content, add blog posts, add to your social media linked to the website. Keeping your material fresh and with regular "changes or updates" will make the search engines acknowledge that your site is active and you are doing your part to keep the content that viewers and users want to see with ongoing valid material. Don't stop now! You are on a roll, maybe even a blog roll. So you think it is time to have a website. Maybe you have been led to take your story to the masses. Maybe you have created a new way of doing things or mastered an old way of doing things and the world simply needs to know so they can find you to do it! Whatever the reason, you have stumbled across this site, this blog and need some basic directions or simple instructions of what to do next to have that website. WHAT'S NEXT? The key before you start thinking design or colors or fonts is to decide "who is your audience?" Ask yourself, "Who am I trying to reach? Who will benefit the most by finding me?" You have started with your "story," your "service," or your "product." Now it is time to narrow your focus and define your audience. With that in mind, develop your title. Will you simply use your name? Or will you creatively promote your "thing" by your title? You decide. This may change 5 or 15 times while you are brainstorming your ideas about your website. While deciding what you like for a title, see if anyone else is using it out on the web. Do a little research. Once you are happy with your defined audience and your chosen title, then you pay for your domain name. This could be your title plus ".com" or ".net" or many other url extensions that have been made available by the web. If you need help with this step in the endeavor, don't worry. This is where I can be of help or other website designers can lend a hand. WHAT NOW? So now you are set to move forward. You have your "thing" identified, your audience defined, and your perfect title. Start gathering all that material you have acquired already about your "thing" and write an outline that will show how you wish to share what you know about it. Make the outline simple, don't include all the "stuff" or all the details. Write down your ideas and how they should flow so that you will see how you wish to have them placed on your website. From this outline, you can then share with me or another website developer/designer exactly how your ideas and material will be placed in your layout and your menu structure online. This will be your guide so you can communicate clearly with those creating your site. There are plenty of helpful tutorials available on web hosting sites and other resources that can walk you through how and where to place your information. Making sense of what you have to offer will only help you when you are looking at guides to do the layout online. KEEP IT SIMPLE You want to show the world what you have to offer from "your writing," to "your expertise," to "your newly improved product." But less is more when it comes to content on your homepage. Keeping your website clean and clear of too much clutter with plenty of white-space will only enhance what you have to offer your select audience. Each separate page you prepare from your outline should have one ultimate purpose and clearly defined priority. Don't overwhelm your audience. Save some of what you have to share by placing it on the site slowly, perhaps through a "blog" that is focused on your "thing." Whatever it is and wherever you are in the process of creating your website, take time to define the purpose of the site and define your audience. Develop your title and develop your outline. Make the most of your first impression by having all your homework done before your site goes live for the first time. But most of all be creative and keep having fun. A new year may have allowed us to start fresh and new, but the hectic schedule was still awaiting us as we stepped into 2019. The days are long and the years are short it seems as i find myself reminiscing days before my oldest is about to turn 24.
THAT IS SIMPLY NOT POSSIBLE Where does the time go? How can I be in the world with two adult children of my own and two adult step-children? It is so exciting to see them go off into four different directions and find their way on their journey. They do wind back in from time-to-time, even my son who is no longer living at home and recently bought his own home with his wife. So occasionally we get to see what wonderful, exciting, stressful, flabbergasting things are going on in their worlds and hear about them. I am grateful for their ambition and independence. It is all very bitter-sweet, especially when the realization hits me that their aging - means I am aging. But with aging comes wisdom, wholeness, and the feeling of being comfortable in your own skin. I do love that part. The family, as a whole, was able to check off several ginormous things from our list from 2018, but we still have a wedding to plan, college classes gearing up for spring for the other three "children" and we hope to get our current residence on the market in the coming weeks. My head is spinning as I type that run-on sentence. BE STILL AND KNOW But God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. 2019
Do you have a word for 2019? Instead of writing a full list of resolutions for the new year, a few years back I heard the notion of simply coming up with a one-word theme for your new year-new you mantra. This word would be in a nutshell what you wish to accomplish for the next 365 days. You could apply it to many areas of your life, your home, your job, your quirks. I have enjoyed this concept and have done this each year since. CLEAN This year, my word for the year is "clean." Now this is most likely not what you first think of when it comes to lifestyle themes, but hear me out... or read on. 2018 was filled with lots of big moments. In October, my son got married and then he and his wife bought a house that I owned for the last 5 years as a rental. There were lots of repairs to be done when the tenants moved out and the newly wed couple chose to live there while the construction process was underway. At the same time I had my former residence on the market trying to get it sold which took about 6 months. So I was feeling the pressure of what became my short-lived experience of a real estate tycoon... well sort of. Prior to all this, my step-daughter graduated from high school, proceeded immediately to basic training for the US Army Reserves and then graduated from that training to move on to her Advanced Individual Training at Fort Gordon. She just graduated from that program in December. All the while my daughter got engaged during 2018 and she and her fiance finished their degrees from two different colleges. He graduated from NC State in December and she got her associate's degree in social science from the local community college. Take a breath. I know, busy is an understatement for 2018. But I needed to breath in and consider getting a clean slate going into the new year with many things "checked" off my list. Son married [check] Sold rental home [check] Sold former residence home [check] Graduations attended [check] Daughter engaged [check] But clean means more to me than just a clean slate for 2019. I want to get the current house organized. My husband desires to put it on the market by March of this year. We also have my daughter's wedding to plan for March. So technically, a clean break is what I need. Clean is also a reference for a clean heart before God. To be transparent before Him and to seek His face is my priority for 2019. So "clean" is my theme. It simply works as my focus word for the whole year. What is your focus word for 2019? |
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