Writing for the web requires the style and gifts of the journalist, not the preacher. The Press has had more than 200 years to learn how to communicate effectively in print. Learn from them. Read books on journalistic writing. Observe the way newspapers and magazines tell stories. They know the rules for clear communication and keeping a reader's interest.
Read widely, especially secular newspapers and magazines. Cut out and file away stories, illustrations, and ideas, which may be useful as a basis for future articles.
It is harder - and 25% slower - to read print from a computer monitor than on paper. If people cannot easily read a page, they will lose interest and leave. Help them by:
Short sentences
Short paragraphs
Lots of 'white space' around the text, with <P> paragraph breaks between paragraphs
Use 'san-serif' fonts which are 20% faster to read on a computer monitor
Aim for no more than 65 characters per line by using wide margins. Longer lines slow reading considerably
Enticing, sometimes intriguing headings, which are not 'preachy'
Use frequent subheadings to break up text and draw the reader on
Small quick-loading graphics add interest to any page
Taking care of the stranger Realize that many visitors to an English-language site are from other countries and may be second-language speakers:
Avoid idiom and slang from your country which others will not understand
Explain references to places and situations which only those in your country know
Aim for a simpler writing style. Avoid complicated words and sentence structure. This helps even first language speakers to read quickly. "We are not here to impress, but to express."
Revise and edit and revise Never put a first draft of writing online. Revise and edit many times. It is usually possible to cut word-length by 25% or more, and increase clarity at the same time. Ask other writers to critique your pages, and be humble enough to accept their advice.
Kill the typos Of course you should use spell-check! But this won't find grammatical errors such as it's (only ever means 'it is', never 'belonging to it'), and who's (only ever means 'who is', not 'belonging to [that person]'). Apostrophe with 's' never means more than one of anything - it only ever means 'belonging to' or indicates a missing letter e.g. who's.(Avoid banana's, video's, apple's to mean 'more than one'). This applies to numbers and abbreviations too - 60s and CDs is correct, 60's and CD's (though commonly used) are not really OK. The only time an apostrophe should be used for a plural is when the meaning would otherwise be totally confusing or meaningless, e.g. do's and dont's.There are other easily-made mistakes such as loose meaning 'lose' which rob a web-page of credibility. (One possible trick is to delete these common words from your spell-check dictionary. Then they will always display as errors, so you can assess correct usage.)
Hyphens however are under-used. They can link words together in a logical way. This is important where there are several adjectives which belong together. For instance:
The ticket is first class but The first-class ticket That fact is well known but The well-known fact
Without the hyphen - and especially if the line breaks after the first adjective - meaning is temporarily lost. For the same reason, it is better to hyphenate 'no-one'.
It is also important to use a consistent style of punctuation. Use our house-style/grammar guide to help you.
Which language to write in? There is a big need for evangelistic pages in many languages.
English remains the most popular language of the Internet.
If English is not your first language and you wish to reach beyond your own country, you may wish to produce pages in English.
Remember, you have an advantage: if you are a second-language English speaker, you know which words of English are difficult
to understand, so that you can avoid them. You will also understand the importance of not using
English idiom and slang. But it is important that you avoid translating your own idiom and sentence structure into English.
Also learn to avoid 'false friends' - words which sound the same in English and your language, yet have slightly, or very, different meanings.
If you have the opportunity, ask a native English speaker, who is also good at writing, to edit
your pages.
"Content is what you say, design is how you say it," says Warren Kramer of Gospelcom's Daily Wisdom. Even if the written text is clear and understandable, no-one will read it if the site design is confusing. Here are some tips:
Page backgrounds should be very pale, and normal text should be black. The lower the contrast between the two, the harder it is to read.
Those with color blindness or other visual impairment will struggle with low contrast or colors they cannot distinguish between.
Be aware of the way that color transmits a message which can enhance or detract from what your pages are intended to communicate.
'Reversed-out' print - i.e. pale text on a dark background - is hard to read, and should not be used except for headings or very short blocks of text.
Most people find that sans-serif fonts are clearer - indeed research has shown that sans-serif fonts are 20% quicker to read from a monitor. If no 'FONT FACE' is specified, most people will read the text in browser-default serif font, as this sentence displays. The following font specification has the advantage that it works on Macs and Unix machines without problems: <FONT FACE="HELVETICA,SANS-SERIF,ARIAL">
Graphics should be small or they will take a long time to download. Many people in some countries have slow Internet connections and will have for many years to come. Learn how to shrink file-sizes of graphics with minimum loss of quality.
Use lots of 'white space' around text. Break it up into short paragraphs. Text which is narrower than full-screen is also easier to read.
'Splash pages' - those which are nothing but a large graphic plus 'enter' link - have been proven to lose visitors. Indeed, we lose people at every un-necessary click.
As important as the appearance of individual pages, is the way that they all link together. It is very easy to get this aspect of usability wrong. The web visitor does not, like you, know what all the pages contain. He or she is a stranger, navigating 'blind', and needs as much help as possible. However, the visitor wants to feel in control of the browsing experience. It is very important that those visiting your site know where they are, where they have been, and where they can go. This requires:
Navigation links which explain in sufficient enticing detail what each page offers.
'You are here' pointers can help the visitor know where they are.
Each page should be written as a logical entry point for a visitor, who may arrive directly at the page from a search engine, and will then want to know how to reach the rest of the site. It may therefore be wise to have a full set of navigation links on each page, rather than just the homepage.
While it is possible to fulfill these needs with frames, it is much harder to do it well, and many site designers avoid them.
Before designing a website, take large amounts of time to look at other websites and learn from both good and bad ones:
This weekly tip can be added to your own site.
Are they readable? Why? Or if not why not?
Does the page layout distract or help reability?
Are they easy to understand and navigate? Or do you feel lost and confused?
Are the graphics quick to load?
Make notes about good design features to use on your own pages and the bad things to avoid.
Expect that your website will grow - so build in room for easy and logical expansion right from the start.
Site design and usability links
Navigation - how to make your site easy to navigate - and therefore keep your visitors
Any media outreach, using radio, literature, or the Web, has to face the problem of helping inquirers and converts who may be at a long distance. However, the Internet does have the advantage of rapid email communication for online fellowship and encouragement. There are also many good online discipleship/teaching pages for new Christians. For converts who live many kilometers from a church, online fellowship and mentoring may be a very big help to them. Even in southern Europe, there are huge areas with very few good churches. In the Middle East, it may be even harder for a new Christian to meet together with others. Ongoing online fellowship can be a lifeline to such people.
The Web also helps us to locate local churches and other help for new converts. People with particular problems (e.g. alcohol, sex, drugs, health, abuse) may need specialized help. It is important that we are familiar with good help-sites, so we can suggest to people where to find the support they need.
10. Chat room, Instant Messaging and email witness
Online real-time interaction in a chat room can be a highly effective form of witness.It is important to be sensitive and wise without arguing. [What is a chat room?] Some people visit chat rooms together with a friend to help each other and also pray for each other. Bulletin boards and email discussion lists can also be a place to share faith - though it is best when it is appropriate to the topic of the board.
Chat rooms can be built into larger evangelistic sites if they have sufficient visitors. Instant Messaging can be a quick way for site visitors to contact you, if you are frequently online.
Chat rooms are very popular with the young. A church can train its young people to learn how to witness through chat, email and instant messager.
You can of course share your faith sensitively by email with anyone you meet in cypberspace. It is important to be aware of good evangelistic sites that you can refer them to, especially pages that explain particular questions they have.
It is also possible to send Digitracts to those you are in touch with.
Understand search engines and other methods of page promotion
Most people find evangelistic sites through links, particularly on search engines. It is important to learn how to get a high 'ranking' on search engines for particular keyword searches that relate to the subject of your site. Understand the way people string search words together, by obtaining good access statistics for your site.
It is sad that many good evangelistic sites do not apply these principles. People may spend days writing a good page, yet not spend the extra few minutes which would help their page to be easily found through a search engine.
These techniques are very easy, and include the writing of meaningful 'Title' and 'Meta description' tags in the 'Head' section of the page, and the use of <H> tags correctly.
Most of your pages should be logical entry points to the rest of your site. So each page should have its own different, carefully written, 'title' and 'meta description' tags.
There are also many other ways to promote your website, including contact cards.
There are many new developments and ideas for online evangelism. You may wish to receive regular news through the twice-monthly
Here are trends that we can already see:
Internet access through mobile phones and hand-held devices - can they be used for evangelism?
Streaming audio and video will have a contribution as the Internet gets faster.
Cross-media outreach which links radio, literature and the Internet will be increasingly used.
It will soon be normal for most churches to have a website.
Template-site editing is helping people to produce attractive sites without understanding HTML at all.
The world will never be the same again. Increasingly, people use the Internet as a starting place for information, help, friendship, fun, and leisure. They can be reached! The opportunities are enormous.
There are many opportunities for big organizations with time, money and expertise, to produce large evangelistic websites. But there will always be a place for the sparetime webmaster, giving his or her evening hours to reach the world. Your fingers - on a keyboard - can be used in the battle for souls.
"Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle." (Psalm 144:1)
