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(If you are already a customer of PluginBuddy, iThemes, or WebDesign.com, please log in to your Member Download Area, select “purchase and renew”, then select the Web Designer’s ToolKit – the list is in alphabetical order, so keep scrolling. Then enter TK4412 at checkout.)

Check out what’s included in the Web Designer’s ToolKit.

This promotion is part of the 12 Days of WebDesign.com…we’re giving away one gift a day for the first 12 days of December. Pick up the other gifts from the 12 days.

But remember, the 44% savings on the Web Designer’s ToolKit is valid only through midnight central time on Monday, December 12th.

Please note, this whopper discount cannot be combined with other discounts, coupons or upgrades.

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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 Yes, your pastor’s May 2005 letter to the congregation is outdated.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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Christians have a strong preference for the written word, but the Bible never says we can only communicate our faith in writing. As your church branches out on the Internet and finds ways to connect, don’t be limited by text.

Video
The most obvious format is video. Consider telling stories and answering questions with video. Keep it simple and short.

Audio
A podcast might be another way to tell your church’s story. Convince the old timers it’s a radio show. With Sunday morning worship music as transitions and nuggets from the sermon, half the work is already done.

Photos
Pictures are worth a thousand words. Load up on photos and let the smiling faces, the hands raised in worship, the tears of confession tell your church’s story.

Your pastor may like to sit at the computer and write sermons and newsletters, but that doesn’t mean your web site has to be all text. Branch out with some new media.

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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Churches have the greatest story ever told. But we’re not giving that message of hope to the people who need to hear it. Churches have a communications problem.

Churches can barely manage to communicate next week’s potluck, never mind communicating something as life-changing as the idea that our security rests not in the stock market or the economy, but in the grace of God. There’s an idea worth communicating. But how many churches have been able to get that message past the last pew? And if you’re only reaching the folks in the pews, you’re preaching to the choir (so to speak).

Here’s a free tip: communicate online.

Thanks to the Internet, it’s very easy and very cheap to get your message out there where people are listening. So why don’t churches do it?

Step one is to start communicating. Get your church’s information out there. Make sure your web site had a news section, a calendar, a blog, a place where you can load up lots of content and it’s easy to find and search through.

Granted, it’s not easy. It takes time, effort and money (though less than you’d think), and you have to compete with an increasingly crowded market. But there are also people searching for information, yearning for hope. If you offer it—someone will eventually find it (you’d be amazed at the inane information that’s perennially popular on my personal blog).

But if you’re not communicating your message, then don’t be surprised when no one hears it.

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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The resource site is filled with links, video tutorials and more …

You can read the whole backstory to iThemes … how I built our church’s website in WordPress, and of course, you might be familiar with the series I did here on how to use WP specifically for churches.

Go check out our free WordPress as a CMS resource site here!

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• Lynchpin Design: I recently completed the design of Granite State Baptist Church’s new brand image and website. Lynchpin Design did an outstanding job implementing my design but I was really impressed with their IMMIx CMS which they customize for each churches needs, instead of just giving a canned solution.

• Ekklesia 360: It has been a while since I worked with this system but when I partnered with Church Plant Media a few years ago, this was a great Content Management System.

• Discover Sky: This platform is available through Element Fusion and is a nice, cost effective solution if you want import your own design or have a designer create the skin for your website.

• Faith Connector: I designed the Dialogue Church website and then we had Faith Connector implement their CMS into the layout. It works extremely well, but to me, it’s more cumbersome than the rest.

• Another notable CMS/Website Company that recently contacted me and that looks promising is City Gates. I haven’t worked with them personally but I talked with Matt Kirkland and he sounds like a great guy.

This also reminds me of some advice to pass along on this topic.

If you have a designer create the website branding or layout-or if you do it yourself-make sure to communicate every aspect and detail of that design to the company who is going to set up your website to ensure it’s EXACTLY the way you want it. A couple of the designs I previously sent off should have been modified to meet web standards (I’m not a programmer or CSS guru) and when the site was launched it didn’t quite have that great lookas they should have. This can also be attributed to companies who just churn and burn the work out. It’s not their fault but when you rush out so many designs per week, it opens up the chance for missing important details like columns being too small for human readable text!

Please check out these companies if you need a website or Content Management System!

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James Dalman specializes in church branding, church consulting, and church marketing. He is the editor at Church Communications Pro and wants Holland to win Euro 2008.

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Budget

There are two main budgetary concerns with CMS’s: set-up (or design) fees and monthly hosting charges. A custom designed CMS, like the one we use at Calvary Church, can be pretty pricey. With the extra expense comes more custom functionality and future expandability. There are less expensive set-up options in the form of plug and play CMS’s. Most of the CMS companies targeted at churches only charge a small set up fee (if any) and a monthly fee. With these, you typically do not get a custom design, but rather get to choose from a selection of templates that you can tweak yourself. Typically you should budget more for monthly hosting of a CMS than for basic web hosting.

Custom Templates

Most CMS’s operate using templates to maintain the design of the site’s pages. Consider whether the CMS has a wide selection of templates from which to choose, if you can design your own templates, and explore whether the templates are easy to change.

Features

Another factor to consider when selecting a CMS is the list of features. Do you only need to design static web pages? Will you need email forms? Is there an easy way to upload and edit images? Do you plan on streaming audio or video? Will you be selling items in an online store (e-commerce)? Does the CMS provide tracking statistics for your site? Will you need forums, chat rooms, or a live chat support tool for your site? Do you need a WYSIWYG editor or is a basic text editor sufficient? Along with the consideration of the list of features the CMS currently has available, you should consider whether or not the CMS has the capability to add custom features for you should you need them in the future.

Support

Most CMS providers will help you get your initial site set-up and designed (as mentioned above, some may charge you a hefty set-up fee, just for that purpose), but what do they offer you once you’re up and running? Consider the number of support hours you anticipate needing a month and look for a CMS that has double that amount. Other support considerations include on-site training for users of your system, online documentation, and an online knowledge base or user forums.

FTP Access

With basic web hosting, pages are updated using FTP access. Most CMS hosting plans do not include FTP access to your site. This can be problematic if, for example, you need to bulk upload pages or images, or if you ever need to migrate your site to another provider. Look for a CMS provider that will offer you FTP access to your files, or at minimum some FTP space on their server in another location.

Ownership vs. Leasing

Most CMS providers retain the rights to the structure of the CMS (while you own the content that you place within their system). In other words, they’re leasing you their software application. If you need to own your CMS, expect to pay a lot more money and make sure both you and the CMS provider are clear on the need. Don’t assume that a custom-designed CMS will be yours to own.

Ease of Use for Advanced Designers

Another consideration is the ease of use for an advanced website designer. Chances are, the volunteers who step forward to help maintain content on your CMS will have some web design experience. As such, if they’re restricted by a CMS that doesn’t allow them to “do their thing,” they might be frustrated. Look for a CMS that has, at minimum, the capability to edit the source code for the page.

Trial Period

Does the CMS provider give you a trial period or unlimited demo login so that you can take the CMS for a test drive before you commit? If not, keep looking. You might want to have potential web volunteers take a look at the CMS as well.

This list of things to consider isn’t exhaustive, but hopefully it will give you a starting point in selecting a CMS. Carefully evaluate your needs and don’t hesitate to ask lots of questions to the sales person at the CMS provider you’re considering. Making a successful choice of which CMS to use can take you a long way towards having a website that is successful in drawing guests to your church and intersecting with members of your congregation.

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Chuck Scoggins is Creative Communications Director at Calvary Church in St. Peters, MO and President of 374 Designs. His latest project is Serve15 and you can email him at chuck@374designs.com.

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THE PROS

1. Quality through templates

The natural structure of a CMS assures that quality is maintained. Most CMS’s use a format where a master administrator controls the “look” of the site including the fonts, colors, navigational structure, content, and special widgets such as site-wide search engines, online giving, or flash banners.

The administrator also has many other options including the ability to set an approval process before a content item can be published or “made live” to the site. This keeps all aspects of the website up to church standards.

Additionally, most companies that offer a CMS platform can provide you with professional design services to “skin” out your site with a custom look or offer an array of pre-designed templates they plug-in and modify to your needs.

2. Functionality

While the quality of your design layout is improved using a solid CMS, the functionality of your site also increases! An example would be a media upload editor, which optimizes media files as they are uploaded to a server, can help increase quality by helping to assure images load quickly and are sized properly. Publish dates assure that updated content gets published at a specified time, though perhaps written weeks earlier. Using time-out date features, contributors to the site can set their content items to expire to assure that no out-of-date content is left on the site.

3. Ease of Use – No Web Development Knowledge Necessary

Almost anyone can edit their website content using a web-based “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) editor built into the CMS. Adding event information or a news article is as simple as using a word processor. Other features such as those listed below, also can be simple to use after a thorough training session.

4. Features & Plug-ins

One of the greatest advantages of using a quality CMS is the ability to choose a variety of features or plug-ins to use on your site including:

• Discussion or collaboration modules
• Seamless blog integration
• E-Newsletters
• Flash or Rotating Banners
• E-Invitations
• Online Giving or E-Commerce
• Audio, Video, and Podcasting

Many systems already come with these “bonus” features so there is no need to purchase different components like what was required in the past.

THE CONS

There are a few disadvantages to using a CMS however. While these are far outweighed by the advantages, fairness demands that we consider a few.

1. Restrictive For Web Designers

Though CMS’s add an element of control for those who are not web savvy, they can be restricting to administrators who have a deep understanding of website design and limit the creative options.

2. The Price

CMS platforms can either be purchased outright and set up on an internal server or “leased” from the CMS provider through a monthly / yearly fee. The first option usually lacks tech support, updates, or training. It requires more involvement and can be more of a hassle or expense. Leasing is a better option because you can get customer support or training but it is way more expensive than a typical monthly hosting plan.

3. Learning Curve

A few systems are fairly easy to learn and many others are more complicated. If the administrator or team member has some knowledge of computer technology and are web savvy, the learning curve will be quicker than a non-techie or non-trained person. Either situation will require a fair amount of training but it is much better than learning all the ins and outs of web design. My advice is to choose a company that provides on-site or online training along with good documentation and manuals.

All things considered, the benefits to a church using a content management system and having a well-designed site far outweigh these minor disadvantages. In part three of this series, we’ll look at how to choose a CMS for your church.

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Chuck Scoggins is Creative Communications Director at Calvary Church in St. Peters, MO and President of 374 Designs. His latest project is Serve15 and you can email him at chuck@374designs.com.

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Church websites are an essential piece to the church communication process. In fact, The Pew Research Center states that 64 percent of the nation’s 128 million internet users use the web for religious or spiritual purposes – and nearly 6 out of 10 Protestant churches now have a dedicated website.

If church websites are one of the most effective ways to reach our audience, wouldn’t it make sense to create them to meet the viewer’s expectations?

As a designer, I could write about how a majority of church sites make my stomach turn because they were designed poorly, but during this three part series I really want to focus on the backbone of a website which is the Content Management System (CMS).

We know that content (along with great design) is extremely important to keeping your audience engaged and coming back. It’s like a garden. If you keep it cultivated, watered, and weeded it will bear fruit or vegetables. If not, it will become useless and waste space. The same goes for your church website.

What exactly is a content management system?

A content management system, in general, is a computer software system for organizing and collaborating in the creation of documents and other content. The content management systems I will be discussing are web applications for managing websites and web content.

CMS provides a structure by which churches can use templates to control the “look” of a site; it allows multiple users at various administrative levels to organize the content while maintaining quality. CMS programs are available in various price levels, complexity, and features. They are an optimal choice for large churches (with various departments and potential administrators including volunteers and paid webmasters) and for small churches alike.

There are also advantages and disadvantages to using CMS’s to manage a church’s web site, which I will discuss in part two of this three part series.

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Chuck Scoggins is the Creative Communications Director at Calvary Church in Saint Peters, MO. He also contributes at Church Web Adviser; a publication that provides smaller churches with webmaster tools to accomplish big things with their sites. Chuck is not a Barry Manilow fan.

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