Caption Please
Nov 20, 2009 Uncategorized
Kind of afraid to ask but… Do you have a caption for this photo?
Sent from my iPhoneSearching
Nov 20, 2009 Just for Fun, Me, Uncategorized
In one of the boxes pictured… There is coffee.
Sent from my iPhone
Before You Create Your Webpage
Nov 11, 2009 Uncategorized
“Do you want people to spend time visiting your church website or visiting your church?” This is the question a wise person asked me when I was talking about upgrading our church website. The question caused me to rethink some of the things I was planning for our site. I am not arguing against having a quality website, however I think there are some questions to be asked, and things to seriously be considered when you are starting a website for your church or non profit organization. Here is a list of questions I came up with:
1. What is your goal? You need to decide what your website will provide. Maybe it will have basic information like dates, times and forms. What ever your reason make sure that you are using the appropriate tool, or site, for the job.
2. How much are you going to spend- You can easily spend $2500 or more to have a beautiful website designed for your group or church. You need to ask yourself whether that money should be spent on your web presence or if it could be put to use in your organization in a better way.
3. What do you need to get your message across? Wait.. first figure out what your message is. Then what do you need to get that message out. Will flash slideshow with pictures be the best format? Would video updates be effective? Do you need to be able to create podcasts?
4. Who is your audience and how do they like to be reached? Don’t just think about who you are communicating with but also consider what ways they communicate. I recently had a member of our church tell me she does not go to our website. When I asked why, she said that she gets our email updates and facebook messages and they all came to her phone. She has no idea what the website looks like, how many hours I spent choosing the right photo or how much money we spent designing it. She gets the information she wants in the best format for her. That’s what’s important.
5. Consider other forms of communication- In this artcile by Fred Zimny he proposes that with services like facebook and twitter, that websites are becoming less important and are being forced to change:
“Over the next few years, we’re going to see official institutional websites become less important. They will cease functioning as the only point of web interaction between businesses and customers and will become merely the official storefront. The main “conversion goal” of these retooled portal sites will be to drive interactions onto the third-party social networking sites.”
It used to be that your goal was to get people to come to your website for interaction with your company. It seems more and more that websites are directing their visitors to their presence on social networking sites like facebook and twitter. Consider the thought that a website cannot be the only online presence your organization has.
6. Will your web presence be mobile?- Look at the number of iphones, blackberry’s, droids and other smartphones that are out there. More and more we access the web on the go. Are you considering how your site will be accessed by these devices?
What questions do you think should be considered before starting a website for your organization?
Tags: Church, Communication, email, facebook, people, photo, Pictures, podcast, question, Service, sing, twitter, video, websites, work
My Daily Photo 8/20/09
Aug 20, 2009 Photos and Backgrounds
Today’s photo was actually taken this past week when I led worship at St Marks UMC in Houston. It is of their chancel area.
My Dropbox – Something Free for You and Me!
Aug 20, 2009 Free Stuff, How To
For about a year now I have been using Dropbox as a way to share files between my various computers. It simply works like this. Install dropbox on whatever computers you want and folder called “My Dropbox” is put into My Documents. Whenever you add or take away files from that “My Dropbox” folder, it is syncronized on each computer on which it is installed. I use this often to put files I am working on so I can open them at home and work, such as publications for church, or photos for this blog.
My dropbox is making an offer for more free space. For everyone one of you who sign up for My Dropbox, I get 250 mb of more space, up to 3 gig. But wait there is more. If you sign up you also get not only the 1G of space that comes with the free version, but an additional 250 mb also. So I would like to ask for you to try My Dropbox. Just click “Get My Dropbox” below and it will take you through the short sign up process. I would not ask, or support this if I had not used it myself. I hope you enjoy.
I found “My Dropbox” because someone else suggested it to me. What other cool, useful web tools would you suggest?
Tags: computer, dropbox, Free, photo, photos, useful web tools, work
My Daily Photo 07/23/09
Jul 22, 2009 Photos and Backgrounds
This past summer I spent 3 weeks leading worship at Lakeview Methodist Conference Center in Palestine Tx. I have done this for about 12 years now. This sign is in front of the camp where I started.
– Post From My iPhone
Tags: blog, camp, conference, iphone, Methodist, photo, summer, Worship
My Daily Photo-08/16/09
Jul 21, 2009 Photos and Backgrounds
This photo is of the steeple at our church. I used photogene app to add some effects.
