Building a website

[mvteam]

Have been given the task of building a website for chuch. Where do you start. Looked at Intuit.com and thanks to the posts looked at Faithconnector.com Love this site, thanks for the help!

[shayward]

Web sites are nice things. I think the number 1 issue is about content. What is going to go on your web site.

You can make anything look pretty. You can proverbially make an unlimited number of digital angels dance on the head of a pin. But without content you've got nothing.

Check out our web site:

http://www.communitypentecostal.ca

Have you ever seen such a sorry site? The problem is getting content from people. I've made up as much content as I can, but ultimately a lot of other people need to be giving me at list bullet-point lists about the church's history, etc. Photos would be good, too (I'm not a photographer).

I think before you start looking at colours and graphics and web technologies and platforms and hosting, you should start by finding out what you want your site to "say". And start simple.

1. Welcome Page (short and sweet introduction to your church)
2. Regular Service/Event Times (plus if Sunday School and Nursery is available)
3. Location
4. Contact Information
5. About (Mission Statement, Philosophy of Ministry, Affiliation with a Governing Body)

You may want to market your church, tell people why they should come there, etc., etc. But you need to start with something. And so if someone searches for Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Sumner, IA are they going to end up at your web site? And if so, can they find out enough to know if they can LOGISTICALLY come to your church.

Once you have your content in a Word document (including correct gramar and spelling ) and photos, and once you have it approved by the board, then you can start building.

[Mustangnaz]

We use Element Fusion's skyCMS and are very pleased.

shayward, you need a new font for your site!

[shayward]

shayward, you need a new font for your site!

Our site is awful! I'm using Drupal, though, so it's easy to change to appearance of the site without having to re-jig all of the content.

[matthewah]

Cloversites is what we use. Just got our new site up this last week.
www.calvarylv.org

[mvteam]

Thanks everyone for the help! Matthewah you have a nice site. I knew it would take a lot of planning but wow!

[LeAnn B]

I've created several church websites with Joomla. If you're able to build it yourself I would suggest going with a CMS for sure.

[rePete]

mvteam,

Content management is the way to go. Let me recommend Wordpress. Easy to use, FREE, extendable like you won't believe. I recently built a site (sorry it doesn't exist anymore) using WP and a premium theme from Studiopress. Cost me all of $60 us and looked great. I was able to implement every idea I could think of with plugins and widgets. The site doesn't have to look like a blog if you don't want it to. And I'm no great html/PHP wizard. I can use an editor though.

I am just now embarking on a personal site using another theme from them. It's going well, I just wish I had more time to finish it.

God bless,
Pete

[BE55Roberts]

WordPress is a good choice if you want to get the Church web site up quickly and simply. Since the software is free, you can focus on getting a great price on the web hosting service. There are plenty of good choices here, too. However, remember that to get the best deal, you have to setup multi-year service. But the Church has been around along time, and will remain until the end of time, so that's okay.

With blogging software like WordPress, make your static pages the basics:
o About the Church, its history and sense of Mission
o Pastor - personal message from the pastor
o Directions - including a map to the Church from major highways
o Worship - current services and times they met

Then you can add pages - i.e. "postings" for upcoming events and activities. These will be listed in reverse chronological order, so the most recent event shows up first. The more you post, the more interesting your web site gets, so keep posting on a weekly basis. Then let everyone know where they can find the latest Word!

[topshelf]

I have made over 20 church website over the years ...

The
1. the content for the website such as
-Home Page (that is called the index page)
-Church info
- Media
and the listed goes on

[kcrox]

While I agree with Shayward, I must say that the look and feel of your website will say a LOT about your church. If you have, oh say, a grey website, like our current website, it may not get the "fun" angle you want to get across. I would personally look into color psychology, that will tell you a LOT, and it's one of my favorite aspects of web design

Another thing you want to pay particular attention to is the layout, where things are, a "consumer" will get the very first impression of your site immediately, and will make a decision of if they want to stay within 3 seconds, so make sure you grab their attention quickly, and that your content is placed where it would be the most strategic.

Just my opinion, anyway

[Esoteric]

I love Joomla.

Mike