We’re calling it our iThemes WordPress Theme Bootcamp.

This is a great opportunity for those of you looking to build your church’s website in WordPress!

You can get signup details here …. but on Tuesday, we’re doing a free online workshop to give some highlights of the information we’ll share at the workshop.

Signup for the free preview webinar here …. and get registration details for the Dallas WordPress Theme Bootcamp here.

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Title: Web Design with WordPress
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2009
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CST

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/491948074

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While WordPress has an iPhone plug-in for websites that use WP as a CMS platform, I think AppChurch would be an awesome tool if your church uses another CMS system.  Both Mars Hills and LifeChurch.tv have created and used this type of technology (I love both) with great success and I really feel it would be beneficial for you to check out for your church as well.  The AppChurch is a free download from the iTunes store though you do have to pay a monthly fee if you want your church logo, service times, map, events, and sermons to be included for your visitors to see … but at $7 per month for one website, I think this is a small investment if people visit your church because of it.

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In this webinar, you’ll learn the essentials of highly effective church websites with two experienced church marketing professionals.

Watch the Church Website Webinar here

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You can read the whole series here ….

WordPress was the answer I found … it was easy to use and had numerous benefits – like helping the church get found online via Google and other search engines.

And after all this time, WordPress and one of our deigns is still powering the QSBC website today!

But that experience propelled me into freelance web design for clients all over the world, then eventually our first business, iThemes, where we provide high-quality templates for WordPress. (We’ve even been mentioned in the WordPress for Dummies book!)

It’s been a wild ride from that first website and the ChurchCommunicationsPro.com blog, which is ranked in the Top 100 Church blogs.

Now …. fast forward almost two years later, we’ve launched WebDesign.com to provide website design services and consulting.

Because of our team’s experience and knowledge of church marketing and church web design, we’re offering a special package designed especially for churches and ministries.

You can read about the Church Web Design package details here.

If your church or ministry is looking for a great web design or redesign solution, we’d love to talk with you about your site.

This package is designed to get you an affordable yet attractive website … with some special features like podcasting and an event calendar — both popular requests we’ve gotten from our church clients.

You can visit our contact form and email us, or call us toll-free at 888-743-0274!

In the meantime, thanks for following CCP!

P.S. — If you’ve been wanting to start a blog for your ministry, check out our Blog Design package too. It’s a great way to get started with the right design and tools to give you maximum impact!

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Today we announce our new Movable Type Premium Theme Store from iThemes.

There are three MT themes available; Business Blogger which is FREE THEME DOWNLOAD, Blogging Success (based off of our WordPress version), and soon to arrive Essence. This is an exciting time for us and we are really pumped about this new partnership with Six Apart!

Please check out our Movable Type Theme Store or visit iThemes for our WP Premium Themes.

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Since I’ve joined the iThemes team, we have been blasting out a bunch of new projects which has kept us all pretty swamped.  One of the major products we released this morning is a new Wordpress theme called Flexx Theme. It is off the wall, and I believe for churches (or anyone else for that matters) it is going to absolutely change the playing field when it comes to church blogs or church websites.

Here’s just a few of the goodies that Flexx Theme is capable of doing:

• Offering 1,056 layouts variations!
• Click of the button layout and styling options.
• Easy to upload backgrounds and headers without FTP.
• No coding experience needed or required to use!
• Rotating and Fading Image Headers.
• Automatically Search Engine Optimized.
• Built in Color Picker for Background Colors
• and more things you can shake a stick at!

I will also be working on FLEXX THEME: CHURCH which will be released at ChurchTheme.com in the next week or so.  Either way you won’t want to miss getting it but if you do want the original Flexx Theme then get it now because the price will go up next week!

All this to say what ties into my headline.

We are going to load the Flexx Theme for Church Communications Pro to show it off and so you can see how it works.  So please excuse the mess as we start relaunching CCP and give it one new sweet look!

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I’ve talked about communicating where people are listening (use the Internet!), I gave some specific ways to communicate and I emphasized that communication doesn’t have to be written. But none of those strategies are any good if people can’t find your content.

Search Box
Earlier this year I tried to find information about the presidential candidates and I was shocked to discover that Barack Obama’s web site had no search box. Right now it’s a week before the election and his site still doesn’t have one. I’m losing hope.

Make sure your web site is searchable and that the results are helpful. Even if you’re not a techie, Google offers a free and easy search you can add to your site. Help people find what they’re looking for.

Archives
If you offer any kind of updateable content you should be archiving it and keeping it available, no matter how old it is. Yes, your pastor’s May 2005 letter to the congregation is outdated. But hopefully the spiritual concepts illustrated in that letter are timeless. Keep it online.

Navigation
In order for a site full of content to be useful, it has to be well organized. Make sure your site has a well-structured menu and navigation. It should be easy to get around and easy to figure out where you are in the site. It should be obvious where I’d go to find that May 2005 letter.

Highlight
The final key to making content easy to find is to highlight the good stuff. With so much information coming and going it’s easy to miss something. So be sure you’re pulling out the gems and pointing people to them. This might mean highlighting last week’s sermon and it might mean pulling out that timeless lesson from your pastor’s May 2005 letter.

Just because you built it doesn’t mean they’ll find it. Put in the extra effort to make sure people find your content.

Kevin D. Hendricks is the editor of Church Marketing Sucks and runs his own freelance writing and editing company, Monkey Outta Nowhere, where he helps organizations communicate.

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You can’t just dump content online and expect people to be transformed. It can happen, but you need to do a little more work.

You need to find ways to connect. Here are three suggestions:

Be Current
Our culture is obsessed with the current. Often with good reason. We’re concerned with what’s happening here and now. If your message is going to have any impact, it has to be current. Find ways to connect your message to what people are worried about. Today that’s a no-brainer: What does Jesus have to say about the economy?

Tell Stories
You can’t just write copy and hope to connect with people. Try telling stories about real people. It’s likely a few folks in your congregation have weathered the greatest economic collapse this country has ever faced. What’s their story?

Answer Questions
A third way to connect with people is by answering their questions. What burning questions do people have about your church or specific doctrines? Answer them.

Church web sites don’t have to be limited to potlucks and sermons. Try offering content that’s more likely to connect with people.

Kevin D. Hendricks is the editor of Church Marketing Sucks and runs his own freelance writing and editing company, Monkey Outta Nowhere, where he helps organizations communicate.

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