Adding a blog to a pre-existing church website? How?

[dlcjonathan]

I would like to add a blog to our pre-existing church website (made in dreamweaver). What is the best platform to do this? Is there a way to send a feed from a wordpress or google blogger and embed it somewhere on my page? It can't be that hard . If you've done this please share. I would like to see an example of finished product too. thanks dawg!

[[Admin] skstarkiller]

set up a folder on your site called blog so the url would be yourchurchname.com/blog then install wordpress (super easy) as long as you have a mysql database).

[Gene]

Blogger can publish to your website in a directory you specify, e.g., yourchurchname.org/blog. You give it the FTP server, etc., and when you make a post it updates on your site.

[dlcjonathan]

okay i did the first part. But how do i make it fit into my homepage? using the same template as my site?

[Gene]

Do you mean how do you make the blog look like the rest of your website? It depends on whether you're using WordPress or Blogger as to specifics, but basically the best place to start is by finding a theme that is similar to the look you want, and modify it from there.

[LeAnn B]

You could use a wrapper but for the most part they end up looking pretty ugly I know in Joomla there are components that you can use to import an RSS feed but I'm not sure about a site created with Dreamweaver. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[[Admin] osborn4]

We use a frame with our Blogger blog
SDB Exec Blog

Not the greatest, but it does what we need for now.

[dlcjonathan]

- Im using blogger but (could switch to wordpress if its better)

- i like the idea of using the frame but would the content be searchable?

[dlcjonathan]

i want it to fit into a page like this (minus the sermons player) http://www.desertlifechurch.com/udr.html

is it even possible?

[Gene]

With either WordPress or Blogger you could stick them in a frame and get what you want, I think. Start with a theme that looks basically like what you want, e.g., Minima Dark for Blogger, and then remove any parts you don't want to appear. Blogger blogs normally have a search bar, but I'm not sure if ones published to your own site instead of blogspot.com still have it.

[dlcjonathan]

What i meant was if i set it in a iframe will the content be recognized by search engines (google, yahoo). Part of the reason to add the blog is to add valuable content to the site and drive traffic.

[Gene]

Yes, Google, et al, will still find it. It generates static HTML pages when you publish to your own site vs. keeping it on Blogger. The only catch is that if someone finds a blog page via a search engine and goes to it, they won't get the framed version, just the blog page that was inside the frame.

To get it so visitors via a blog page get the full experience, you'd need to make a WordPress or Blogger theme that looks like the rest of your website. More work than sticking it in a frame, but not impossible.