WEB EVANGELISM BULLETIN
. . . learning from each other
W-E-B Issue 162 ~ August 08
Monthly ISSN 471-0323
News this time...
MINISTERING TO ANOREXIA
WEBSITES FOR CHILDREN
BILLY GRAHAM ON WEB TECHNOLOGY
WONDERING ABOUT STARTING ON FACEBOOK?
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
CHURCH WEBSITES AND MINISTRY
WORD CLOUD
VIDEO AND ANIMATION
TIPS
COMMUNICATING WELL
LAST CALL: INTERNET MINISTRY CONFERENCE OCTOBER
TAILEND
"The church is only the church when it exists for others" - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
MINISTERING TO ANOREXIA
Laurie writes, "I was anorexic for six years as an adult. It was God who healed my
heart, spoke to me with loving and profound words and led me into freedom from my eating
disorder. Since that time, I've been an active supporter on an eating disorder message
board as it's my passion to communicate a message of hope and healing to those with eating
disorders. My website is another way to do that and it's also a way to share God's message
of salvation with others. The ebooks on my website are truly written from my heart - a
heart that has experienced deep pain as well as God's healing touch. So many times it's as
if God fills my heart and it flows out through my pen.
"It is my passion to share a message of hope and healing with those who suffer from
eating disorders in 'Freedom From Eating Disorders'."
http://www.freedomfromed.com/
WEBSITES FOR CHILDREN
A survey by the internet analysts Nielsen Online
put Stardoll.com at the head of its Top Ten sites visited by the youngest web users.
Second in the list was Club Penguin, a virtual world in which players adopt a bird and
march it round the beach, theatre or school.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4543796.ece
NEW WISE MEN GAME: There are very few outreach websites for children, especially those
which are not merely similar to Sunday School material. Here's a new online game from the
Kommunion.no team in Norway. It teaches the story of the wise men that went to see Jesus
in Bethlehem, and is available in a range of languages.
http://www.biblegamezone.com/games/play.php?id=12&template=bgz&language=eng
Other games and other languages are available via:
http://www.biblegamezone.com/
NEW PLAY SITE: JCPlayzone is subtitled 'playtime with a purpose' - and is aimed at
younger children:
http://www.jcplayzone.com/
BILLY GRAHAM ON WEB TECHNOLOGY
Dr Graham spoke back in 1998 to the secular TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)
group. The year before, he had urged Christians to get involved in web evangelism. You can
watch his video at the Strategic Digital Outreach blog:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08aug-billygraham
WONDERING ABOUT STARTING ON FACEBOOK?
Here's Kevin McCord's thoughts, 10 days after joining Facebook:
http://kevmccord.typepad.com/weblog/2008/08/facebook-137-friends-later.html
More on Facebook and social networking:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/social-networking.php
Networking sites demographics:
http://business.rapleaf.com/company_press_2008_07_29.html
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
BEST ONLINE DOCUMENTARIES: maybe they would like more Christian material submitted to
their religion section?
http://www.bodocus.com/
HAND-CRANKED MP3 PLAYER for the non-western world - the Saber:
http://globalrecordings.net/topic/saber
WHY MOVIES MATTER - article from Grace Hill:
http://www.gracehillmedia.com/newsletter/0308_Article.html
TATTOOS - want to get one?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2008/julaug/3.16.html?start=2
CHURCH WEBSITES AND MINISTRY
Churches should stop thinking JUST about their website and start thinking about their
web presence, says Kevin McCord:
http://kevmccord.typepad.com/weblog/2008/08/web-presence.html
Follow-on posting:
http://kevmccord.typepad.com/weblog/2008/08/web-presence-easy-stuff.html
CHURCH WEB DESIGN WISDOM: Interesting blog posting - and check the size of their church
URL on the front of the building!
http://www.churchrequel.com/church_requel/2008/08/church-web-desi.html
DOES YOUR CHURCH SITE SERVE TWO MASTERS? There are two primary audiences church
websites must serve equally well: visitors and members. The problem is all too often we
find ourselves ignoring Peter to serve Paul:
http://digital.leadnet.org/2008/08/does-your-churc.html
10 THINGS Church Website Visitors Need to See: Once a person comes to your church
website for the first time, what happens next? Do they quickly click away in horror? Or
does the design of your website make them feel welcome to look around and possibly attend
a church service?
http://churchmarketingonline.com/2008/08/10-things-church-website-visitors-need-to-see/
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION for church websites:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08aug-churchseo
MINISTRY POOL - this site has now relaunched as a valuable resource site for
churches:
http://ministrypool.com/
NO COMPETE? How About a 'no-complete' clause in your church's outreach?
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08aug-nocompete
BOOK REVIEW: Jim & Casper Go To Church
- Frank conversations about faith, churches, and well-meaning Christians
Jim Henderson, Matt Casper
Barna/Tyndale Publishing
ISBN 1414313314
This book complements the recently published 'unChristian', by explaining the journey of Jim (a pastor) and Matt (atheist) as they visit unannounced (rather like a 'mystery shopper') a range of churches. Although the number of churches visited was limited, and tended to be very large, their observations need to be taken on board, discussed, and acted upon, by every church, everywhere!
WORD CLOUD
You may be familiar with the concept of 'word cloud' - a list of keywords relating to a webpage or blog posting. Now you can view a word cloud for any page or posting, created by Wordle into a rather beautiful graphic, with preferences you can control. Nice enough to use as, for instance, a blog header graphic.
A pastor could use it create a word cloud for a sermon, and project it, suggests Church
2.0 blog:
http://church20.blogspot.com/2008/08/create-key-word-cloud.html
http://wordle.net/
VIDEO AND ANIMATION
Make a video using still pics and music. Automatically. Incredible. Try Animoto:
http://animoto.com/
Animation has a unique power to communicate. We need more Christians who could make
something like this secular short animation:
http://www.carloslascano.com/carloslascano/vid_ashortlovestory.html
TIPS
- non-techies look away now
COLLECTION OF PHOTOSHOP tutorials at Photoshop Lady:
http://www.photoshoplady.com/
PHP language selection: assuming you have different language versions of your pages
available, make it easy for users with this script:
http://www.weberdev.com/get_example.php3?ExampleID=4842
HACKING APACHE - one way to protect your server:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08aug-apache
SEO Tip: Fixing Duplicate Content:
http://www.devwebpro.co.uk/devwebprouk-46-20080819SEOTipFixingDuplicateContent.html
CALL TO ACTION BUTTON: A "call to action" is a request for your site visitor to do
something:
http://www.wilsonweb.com/conversion/follansbee-call-to-action.htm
VIDEO BACKGROUND LOOPS - free downloads:
http://movietools.info/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=2&Itemid=4
FIREFOX EXTENSIONS you can't do without. (PDF article, needs free registration with
TechRepublic):
http://downloads.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=382166&tag=nl.e101
UPGRADE PROBLEMS: Windows upgrades and service packs are great when they actually solve
problems or add cool new features. Unfortunately, updates sometimes introduce new problems
or whack a feature you find really useful:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=163&tag=nl.e101
ADDRESS TOOLBAR, restore toolbar removed by Windows XP SP3:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08aug-techrepublic
GOOGLE RANKINGS - Six Internal Linking Tactics To Get Top Google Rankings:
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2008/aug/18prt.html
MOBILE DEVICES users find they have the same usability problems that some disabled
users encounter with PCs, according to researchers from the University of Manchester:
http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article4857.asp
HTML EMAIL designer's guide - help on templates, testing, image blocking, and all the
problems of creating a usable HTML email:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/1664
EXTENDED TIP: popups without popups:
People don't like automatic popups much, and in any case, they often get blocked. But what
if you want to draw attention to, say, your email newsletter, using a once-only message
for all your site visitors? Here's a way with layers and CSS. Use PHP to
- set page count
- set a cookie on count=2, but only if the cookie is not already set. Cookie can expire in
a month, or longer period, so users will not see the reminder frequently
- insert HTML code for a layer containing the content you wish to show, but only when page
count is 2, and the cookie is not already set
Then:
- use Javascript to fade in the layer after a set number of seconds
- use CSS to allow the layer to be hidden again by a close button (For people with
javascript disabled, make a no-script reload button to achieve the same effect.)
- use CSS (and for IE5/6 some javascript) to float the layer so its position is fixed and
therefore visible wherever people are on the page
- if people do subscribe, make the subscribe confirmation page set the cookie for a much
longer time, so that they will not be bothered by it again for a year or two
- for people with cookies disabled, use PHP and Javascript to only display the layer once
a session (logic: use PHP to check if count=1 and referer of page is not your site, and
only then load the layer; and then use javascript to only display the layer if cookies
disabled.)
The effect is that users will only see the message when they get to a second page of
your site (implying some level of interest). By including all your code on every page
(using a site-wide insert), it will work whichever page they arrive at (few people arrive
at a website through the homepage, and may never visit it) And it will fade in gracefully
after a period of seconds, rather than appearing abruptly and immediately. If they close
it, they won't see it again for the length of the cookie that is set. If they subscribe,
they won't see it again for whatever far longer period you choose.
Note: if your hosting company shares load between different servers, session count may not work unless they set it up for you. Test it by making session count visible, and see if the number advances by one each time.
COMMUNICATING WELL
Communication Skills for Evangelism adapted from the Evangelism Handbook:
http://www.intervarsity.org/evangelism/article_item.php?article_id=1593
Are you looking at the big picture? asks Todd Rhoades:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08aug-eyeonball
FISHBOWL CONCEPT. What's a Fishbowl Conversation? Would it work well for your
conference or group?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishbowl_(conversation)
LAST CALL: INTERNET MINISTRY CONFERENCE OCTOBER
October's Internet Ministry Conference bookings close on 31 August. After that you can
still follow the conference blog, and later this year, watch videos of some of the
presentations (which promise to be excellent):
http://www.internetministryconference.org/
View last year's excellent videos here:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/internetministryconference.php
TAILEND ô¿ô
Would you like to run for President? Get your free movie news-clilp about yourself
here:
http://www.inews3.com/aol4pres.php
This is an example of an innovative strategy to draw people to view 'their' video on the organization's site. Another example of an 'if only a Christian group had done this'.
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