10 Ways to Turn People On, Online

1. Use your home page to tell people what’s going to happen at your church this weekend. Post your message title and one line that clearly defines it, or post your message titles for the month. If you’ve scheduled a guest speaker, concert, workshop or class, include that info on your home page.

2. If you have a picture of your building on the main page, make it small, as a help to first-time visitors looking for your church. A large, prominently featured photo of your building on your home page unfortunately says, “We’re a building.” Instead, communicate, “We’re a community.” Use a slide show featuring smiling faces, people connecting, people praying, people serving. Or feature a slide show with images and words that represent your mission and values (peace, community, joy, love, inspiration, spiritual growth, prayer, etc.).

3. Use colors and images that appeal to both genders. Don’t go ALL pink or ALL flowers or ALL hearts. Incorporate predominantly feminine or predominantly masculine images and colors judiciously.

4. Communicate the most important, basic info on your opening page. People searching the web for the right church are looking for basics: What do you teach? What’s happening now? Where are you located? What time is your Sunday service? After they get to your opening web page, they’ll spend a fraction of a second deciding whether to stay or go. You may love the idea of an opening that features a touchy-feely movie, but don’t do it. You’ll lose web traffic, search engine rankings, and potential visitors and new members.

Consider this insight from the elance blog:

“Just like hairstyles, websites date. What was all the rage a couple of years ago is now seen as passé… For instance, Flash intro pages were all the rage until web designers realized that users didn’t like them and wanted to get straight to the content. Flash introductions are the beehive hairdo of the web design world: dated, impractical and utterly pointless.”

5. Every image is worth 1,000 words. When you select any image for your home page (or any page on your website), make sure it communicates something important and significant about your ministry. Also consider the impression the image will make on a first-time visitor. If all of the photos on your home page are of people over 50, will a 30-something think she’s in the right place?

6. Use great images, appropriately sized. Professional stock photographs are now available online for as little as $1 per image. If you need images, try Fotolia.com. If you don’t have access to Photoshop or other good photo editing software, try the free photo editor at Picnik.com.

7. Include volunteer opportunities, but don’t over-do it. First-time visitors to your website aren’t likely to be looking for 20 ways to spend their spare time, so there’s no need to spend the time and money to develop 20 web pages, each devoted to a separate volunteer ministry. However, your site can and should serve as a resource for newer and established congregants who want to explore ways to serve, so it’s important to include a list of your volunteer teams and brief (2-4 sentence) explanations of each team’s function within the church.

8. Include a map link, service time(s), your address and phone number in a prominent place on your home page. Make the info everyone is looking for very easy to find.

9. If you use a picture of the minister on the home page, make it small. Your church isn’t really just about you, right?

10. Focus on the benefits. Why should anyone attend your service on Sunday? Will she find inspiration, joy, peace, new friends? Communicate that clearly on the home page, through both images and words, to attract new people who will love your church and help it grow. 

Was this tip forwarded to you? If so, you can sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” here.

Increase your ministry’s income

PARTNER WITH EXOTIC WORLD GIFTS
TO ENCOURAGE COMPASSIONATE SHOPPING
AND EARN 20% ON WEBSITE & BOOKSTORE SALES

This Fair Trade merchant with an excellent reference from The Unity Center in San Diego makes it easy to earn commissions on sales through your website and/or bookstore.

Shoppers at The Unity Center have spent more than $50,000 on Exotic World Gifts in the past 19 months, generating significant income for the ministry led by the Rev. Wendy Craig-Purcell.

Now you can add an Exotic World Gifts page to your website and/or offer the merchant’s gifts through your bookstore and earn 20% on every sale.

With Christmas quickly approaching, now is the time to take advantage of this offer.

Rev. Wendy Craig-Purcell.speaks very highly of Exotic World Gifts and its founders, Mark Fangue & Liz Allen. “I can recommend Mark wholeheartedly,” she says. “We have collaborated with Exotic World Gifts for a couple of years now. I think the world of Mark and his wife, Liz, and what they are doing. They are the best and they are helping lots and lots of people.” See the Shop the World page on The Unity Center’s website.

If Friends of Ministry developed your website, we will add an Exotic World Gifts page to your website upon request. Simply contact us for more information. If someone else developed your website, please email Mark Fangue at mark@exoticworldgifts.com to request information.

Stopping at red lights

Clients ask often: Is Facebook safe? Is Twitter safe? Most have seen articles such as this one posted last weekend at CNN.com: Facebook, Twitter crooks just a click away.

My answer is always: It depends, and it depends a lot on you.

While there are no guarantees online, just as there are none in life, you can take simple, smart steps to help secure your identity and ensure your safety online, just as you do in the “real” world.

For example, while you’re crossing the street on foot, you don’t make a habit of stepping out in front of trucks. While driving, you don’t routinely run red lights. (At least, we hope not!)

There are equally simple rules for safe movement in social networks and elsewhere on line. Two good sources of information:

• Friends of Ministry’s $9.95 eBook, Social Networking for Ministry

• Facebook Identity Theft Protection Guide (no charge)

~ Cheryl Harrison, Director
Friends of Ministry, Inc.

You can receive “Weekly Web Tips” in email. Sign up here.

Get up to speed in less than 5 minutes

Unless you’re very well informed, you may find these numbers surprising:

Ten million people watched the big three broadcast networks (still ABC, CBS & NBC) last month. These networks have been around for a combined 200 years.

Two hundred and fifty million people visited Facebook, YouTube and Myspace in the same time. None of these social networks existed six years ago.

The average American teen sends 2,272 text messages per month.

Videos uploaded to YouTube in the past 2 months surpass the total combined broadcast air time of ABC, CBS and NBC for the past 60 years.

How does your ministry need to communicate now, and 10 years from now? Watch “Did you know?” — a 4:45-minute video — on the home page at www.FriendsofMinistry.com, to learn more about how the world has changed. And if you need help changing with it, contact us. We’re here to serve and support you.

~ Cheryl Harrison, Director
Friends of Ministry, Inc.

Was this tip forwarded to you? If so, you can sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” here: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/page.asp?ID=31900

When I first began developing websites 5 years ago, there was very little video on the web — no YouTube! — and not much audio. Facebook was a brand new website used exclusively by Harvard students, and do-it-yourself website maintenance was almost unheard-of.

I felt divinely blessed when I discovered the web hosting and development package I still use today to create and maintain websites. That package saved me thousands of dollars in development and maintenance fees, and it has saved Friends of Ministry’s clients many thousands of dollars, as well.

I am happy to have empowered many ministries to maintain their own websites, and I applaud them for their decisions.

I also have realized that it’s time to offer some refresher training sessions, so I have scheduled five website maintenance trainings for October. Each of the sessions will cover a different aspect of website maintenance or expansion.

In at least three sessions, we’ll focus on what’s changed — the widespread use of media (video and audio) and social networking. (See below for details.)

In addition to covering basics, we’ll learn how to post YouTube videos on websites and add or expand an audio library.

If you want to participate, please register now so I can be prepared for you — the first session starts in only one week.

Each of the five training sessions will last 90 minutes. About 45 minutes of each session will be set aside for participants to ask for and get specific, step-by-step instructions or guidance for any website maintenance issue.

Each session is only $20. You can sign up for just the session(s) you want to attend; when yousign up for all five you save $25.

Important note: While the Facebook training session is open to everyone on Oct. 23, the other sessions are open only to our clients who maintain their own websites.

Here are the session descriptions:

Web Maintenance Training: Adding YouTube Videos
Friday, Oct. 2, 10 – 11:30 am
Learn how to:
- Find appropriate videos on YouTube
- Add YouTube videos to almost any page of your website.
- Add movie trailers to increase attendance at movie nights
- Add Association of Unity Churches’ videos to your web pages
- Add music videos to generate interest in upcoming guest musicians and concerts
- Add speakers’ videos to generate interest in upcoming workshops.
Plus: Ask questions and get answers for any maintenance issue that challenges you.

Maintenance Training: Creating or Expanding an Audio Library
Friday, Oct. 9, 10 – 11:30 am
Learn:
- How to use the new Media Library feature to create podcasts on your website
- How to convert files from CD to mp3 for web broadcast
- Where to get easy-to-use, inexpensive software for audio file conversions
- What you should and should not post from Sunday service recordings
- Recommended audio editing software
Plus: Ask questions and get answers for any maintenance issue that challenges you.

Website Maintenance Training: Stunning Page Design
Friday, Oct. 16, 10 – 11:30 am
Learn how to:
- Make the most of your investment on the web, creating a home page (or any page) that shines as brilliantly as your ministry
- Use tables and images to maximize the impact of every web page
- Upload and resize photos for use on web pages and/or in photo albums
- Maintain consistency in design throughout your website
Plus: Ask questions and get answers for any maintenance issue that challenges you.

Website Maintenance Training: Facebook Primer
Friday, Oct. 23, 10 – 11:30 am
Learn:
- Why more than 300 million people and thousands of ministries are using Facebook and why you should be, too
- How to set up a Facebook page for your ministry
- How to reach out to current friends and members (and to all of THEIR friends) with Facebook
- How to post your events on Facebook and send invitations
- How to add a Facebook link to your website
Plus: Ask questions and get answers for any maintenance issue that challenges you.

Website Maintenance Training: Using Links for Fun & Profit
Friday, Oct. 30, 10 – 11:30 am
Learn:
- How to establish hyperlinks on any web page on your site to any other web page in the world
- How to keep visitors from leaving your website when they click on a hyperlink to another site (such as the website of an upcoming speaker)
- How to use links in emails to drive more traffic to your website and generate interest in upcoming events
- How to use links in emails to encourage online donations
Plus: Ask questions and get answers for any maintenance issue that challenges you.

Only $20 per webinar or $75 for all five.
Please note: This is a per-person rate, and registration fees are not refundable. However, if you sign up for an early webinar and cannot make it, you can use your credit to attend a later webinar.
 
Sign up for one or more webinars here. (Note that you can use any major credit card or PayPal upon checkout.)

www.friendsofministry.com

Your next new members are looking for you on the web

Facebook… twitter… LinkedIn… meetup.com… unitysocial.com…
 
On Wednesday, May 27, we can walk you through the basics of these social networks so that the people in your city who are using them can find you.
 
If you’ve already registered for our introduction to social networking webinar, congratulations on taking an easy but very important step to growing your ministry!
 
If not, please prayerfully consider whether you can join us for this webinar. There are only 5 days left to register and 10 remaining open spots for the online training.
 
We’ll show you how other churches are using Facebook and other social networks to promote concerts, workshops, services and more…
 
We’ll take a look at ministers’ profiles and the number of ministers and churches already using these free resources to share the Light on the web.
 
And we’ll give you written step-by-step instructions for getting started.
 
But you have to sign up! Here’s the link to register: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/Application.asp?app=Store&ID=13206
 
Background
 
Through social networks, the internet has provided very powerful new tools that churches and alternative ministries can use to gain greater insight into their members and reach out to people in their communities who are hungry for Unity but don’t know where to find it. 
 
For ministers, churches and alternative ministries not already using social networks to grow their ministries, we have scheduled an introduction to social networking webinar.
 
All you need to join the webinar is a computer with a high-speed internet connection and a phone.
 
In a two-hour session, we will cover the basics:
• How to sign up for Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, meetup and unitysocial.com
• How to set up a Facebook “fan club” for your ministry
• How to use all four networks to promote Sunday services, concerts, classes, workshops and more
• How thousands of churches (including dozens of Unity churches) already are using social networks as a key component of their outreach and marketing
 
We’ll also provide a “cheat sheet” you can use to get started, and we’ll have time for questions and answers.
 
The webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, May 27 at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern, and will last two hours. You’ll need to be at your PC or Mac to access the webinar. If you do not have a microphone/headset that plugs into your computer, you’ll be able to participate by phone. (Long-distance charges will apply.)
 
Access to this webinar is limited, and advance registration is required. To ensure your spot, go to Friends of Ministry’s online store, here: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/Application.asp?app=Store&ID=13206

Two days before the webinar, we will send you an email with a link for webinar access and specific instructions.
 
~ Cheryl Harrison, Director
Friends of Ministry, Inc.
www.FriendsofMinistry.com
——————————————————————————–

Sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” at www.FriendsofMinistry.com.

Facebook, twitter & more for churches

Weekly Web Tip from Friends of Ministry

Twitter Your Way to a More Prosperous Ministry

---

Facebook… twitter… LinkedIn… unitysocial.com… 

You hear about these online social networks nearly every day, and if you’re not using them you’re probably wondering if you should be.

 

The answer is an unqualified “yes.” Through social networks, the internet has provided very powerful new tools that churches and alternative ministries can use to gain greater insight into their members and reach out to people in their communities who are hungry for their message but don’t know where to find it. 

 

But where to start?

 

For ministers, churches and alternative ministries not already using social networks to grow their ministries, we have scheduled an introduction to social networking webinar.

 

All you need to join the webinar is a computer with a high-speed internet connection and a phone.

 

In a two-hour session, we will cover the basics:

• How to sign up for Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter and unitysocial.com

• How to set up a Facebook “fan club” for your ministry

• How to use all four networks to promote Sunday services, concerts, classes, workshops and more

• How thousands of churches (including dozens of Unity churches) already are using social networks as a key component of their outreach and marketing

 

We’ll also provide a “cheat sheet” you can use to get started, and we’ll have time for questions and answers.

 

The webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, May 27 at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern, and will last two hours. You’ll need to be at your PC or Mac to access the webinar. If you do not have a microphone/headset that plugs into your computer, you’ll be able to participate by phone. (Long-distance charges will apply.)

 

Access to this webinar is limited, and advance registration is required. To guarantee your reservation, go to Friends of Ministry’s online store, here: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/Application.asp?app=Store&ID=13206 and sign up.

 

Two days before the webinar, we will send you an email with a link for webinar access and specific instructions.

 

 

~ Cheryl Harrison, Director

Friends of Ministry, Inc.

www.FriendsofMinistry.com

 

Protect yourself from Conficker C

A worm that has infected the computers of millions of unsuspecting users will activate Wednesday, April Fool’s Day, allowing hackers to take control of all infected PCs.

This is not an April Fool’s joke; you can find CNN’s story about the Conficker C computer worm here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/03/24/conficker.computer.worm/index.html. 

Microsoft has offered a $250,000 award to experts who catch the authors of the malicious software.

If your virus protection is not up-to-date, now is the time to address that issue, and now is the time to back up your files.

Microsoft provides a free safety check for Windows users at http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm.

~ Cheryl Harrison, Director
Friends of Ministry, Inc.
www.FriendsofMinistry.com

Sign up for your subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” at www.FriendsofMinistry.com.

Being Social

Among internet gurus, 2008 has been dubbed “the year of the social network.”

Why should you care?

Google and other search engines are giving high rankings to social network web pages, affecting the way everything else (including your website) shows up in searches.

So if you want to hold or improve your website’s Google ranking, it’s (actually past) time to get social.

A great place to start: www.UnitySocial.com.

Create your own profile there, and add a Unity Social widget to your home page.

If you need or want help, contact me.

~ Cheryl Harrison, Director
Friends of Ministry, Inc.
www.FriendsofMinistry.com

P.S. The widget — that little logo that signifies your connection to Unity Social — is important; it tells younger visitors to your website that, if they join you, there’s a social place on the web for them.

Another tip: You can sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” here.

Getting the Right Answers

Does your church need a blog?

Considering the cost, is it really worth it to offer podcasts on your church website?

How can you attract internet seekers — those cruising the internet for spiritual nourishment — to your church’s website?

Answers to questions like these are hard to come by. Finding the answers that are right for your ministry requires a lot of research and trial and error — in other words, time and money.

However, because of the internet, you do have easy access to resources that can help you decide what’s worth doing.

One of the best resources comes from The Barna Group, which offers a regular email bulletin with information about the latest studies related to ministry and Christian life. Some studies specifically address internet use by Christians and churches.

· Each Barna Update contains a brief description of new research currently featured at www.Barna.org.
· If you are interested in reading more about the research, just log on to www.Barna.org or use the link that is embedded in The Barna Update itself.
· It’s free. It’s convenient. There are absolutely no strings attached, and your e-mail address will never be sold or distributed to anyone else.
· And best of all, you can stay abreast of timely information from The Barna Group just by checking your e-mail.

To sign up for The Barna Update, visit this web page: http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Subscribe

~ Cheryl Harrison, Director
Friends of Ministry, Inc.
www.FriendsofMinistry.com

You can sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” here.