caution

Choosing a Web Designer

Who do you trust? Who is the expert? How do you know if a web designer is worth his weight in salt?

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a web designer.  My policy is to give away information and sell a service.  Early in the process with clients, I go through a “discovery” phase – finding out where they stand with their site, then I take them through a teaching phase-  so that the decisions that follow are informed.  This is when I often find that the clients have had a bad run with their last “webmaster” (I use that term lightly).  Hindsight is 20/20 and this is a particularly hard lesson when a bad website is publicly displaying your decisions… for better or worse.

Here are a few questions you might ask to ensure your decision to hire a company or individual is a good one: More >

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mv-ps

Episodes 1, 2 & 3 of Our Podcast

Check out our first three episodes of our Ministry Vault podcast.

Subscribe Here: http://portablesermons.com/ministryvault

Or Here: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/ministry-vault/id382190586

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Facebook Fan Page Design – Part 2: Create a Micro Site

In part 1 of our series, we covered adding the FBML (Facebook Markup Language) application to our Fan Page.  It shows up as a tab and accepts some basic HTML.  One great example of this from Part 1 is here.  Now we will move on to a more advanced technique that allows us to hide and reveal different sections of our page to mimic a micro site – a webpage within a webpage. More >

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PDF-join

Joining PDF Files in Preview (Mac)

Macs handle PDF files natively (no extra software required). This is one more reason on my ever-growing list to switch to a Mac.  Joining two PDF files could not be easier.  More >

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Screen shot 2010-06-24 at 5.43.17 PM

What can I get the iPhone 4 ?

So much hype surrounds this little update from Apple, its hard to overstate the success of the product.  And this is day 1.  The product has been over-covered and over-reviewed, so I won’t attempt to give a full review just yet.  If you do want a great review, I recommend THIS ONE over at Engadget.  But, if you are up for a little editorial review, read on. More >

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Go2Convert

Online Image Conversion

Have you ever run across a file that won’t open in any software that you have installed on your computer?  Have you ever received a file that you KNEW you COULD open, if you had $1200 to buy Adobe Creative Suite?

Go2Convert.com to the rescue. More >

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Online Giving & Landing Pages

Landing pages allow you to customize the content to the reader who has just clicked through from an ad or special offer kind of click. These pages don’t have to show up in your regular website menus/navigation.

If you have an online giving option on your website (you do have that, right?), have you thought about what the donor sees after successfully sending money to your church?

Enter the ‘Thank You’ page.

Here are some best practices based on Hubspot’s blog article Thank You, Come Again!: Best Practices for Thank You Pages:

  • Thank Them. Well, duh! Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself what you’d like to see if you had just given money. Be sincere but not cheesy.
  • Set Great Expectations. Will you send them a tax receipt? A written thank you? What are you going to do with their money? Let them know what happens next.
  • Suggest They Follow You. Are you on FaceBook or Twitter? Invite them to be more involved in your ministry/cause by joining your circle of friends
  • Better Yet: Suggest They Tell Their Friends. They’ve already given you a vote of confidence by their donation. Suggest they invite you into their circle of friends. Get the word out!

Don’t miss the opportunity to involve your donors in the mission & ministry of your church. People love to be a part of something bigger than themselves, and especially love being part of a ‘winning team’.

What good ideas could you add to this?

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church20welcome

Welcome Church 2.0 – the blog!

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