 Make Your Web Site Come Alive!
by Glenn White
(Note: This is a hyperlinked article. Click on any underlined word or phrase and
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related website.)
It’s All About Life!
Church is all about life. Therefore, the one quality every church web site should have is life! The question is, “How can you
create a site that is alive?” There are many ways you can make your web site come alive. First, let’s look at two techniques
you may want to avoid.
1. Flash Media.
It is probably good to avoid what is called flash animation or flash media. This is a web design technique that provides moving
images. It satisfies the creative urges of web designers but it may not encourage repeat visitors to your site. Admittedly, it is
tempting to put moving images on your web site and make it lively. Most web surfers, however, are not thrilled with moving
images and it slows the load time for your site. Not only that, many times it requires the user to download a plug-in. Which
means the user has to make an extra effort to view your site. You want to make your site very easy to use especially with the
growing segment of senior citizens in mind. Flash presentations can be fun but you need to ask the question, “Do the benefits of
the presentation outweigh the risk of losing viewers?”
2. Background Music. The second thing you may want to avoid is using background music on your site. The jury is still out on whether this is effective
or not. Many people abhor background music. Others tolerate it only because they don’t know how to turn it off. Then some
people consider background music as intrusive. Again, do the benefits of the presentation outweigh the risk of losing viewers?
Most users prefer
fast loading
information rich sites not media rich sites.
Two Key Words
You may be thinking, “Oh great, I wanted to put dancing angels with ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ playing as background
music on our home page to liven it up. What do I do now?”
Actually, there are many ways to give your web site life and
involve your viewers. Think about creating a community atmosphere in cyberspace and you will solve many potential usability
problems. Remember, the key words to life on the Web are “dialogue” and “interactivity.” So, let’s look at a few ways to
involve people on your site and create community.
• Weekly E-zine
An e-zine or ‘zine is an email newsletter. You can even put a subscribe feature on your web site inviting people to join. E-zines
are, without a doubt, the quickest, cheapest, and most effective way to build community in cyberspace. For example, you or a
team member could send out a weekly e-zine on Friday morning or Thursday evening to everyone on your email list with a
preview of the coming weekend services and maybe a summary of the previous week’s message. Web traffic analysts say the
weekends are the slowest for web surfers. I send out an e-zine on Friday and my web traffic is higher on the weekends than
during the week. Whatever you do, the minimum you should send out an e-zine is two to three times a month. There is a
tutorial to get you or your team started at E-Zinez.
• Polls
You can put a poll on the home page of your web site and find out what people think and publish the results in your
e-zine.
Again, think interactive. People on the Web love to offer their input and a weekly poll lets them know you
are listening and you care. A simple utility to put a poll on your web site is at
Web Enalysis.
• Message Boards
Message Boards are another community builder where people can post prayer needs, personal comments, and exchange ideas
and information. You can find free message board at:
www.ezboard.com
www.boardhost.com
Keep in mind “free” services on the Web usually mean you have to tolerate advertising.
There are services without
advertising, however, you can contract with like:
www.wellengaged.com
www.caucussystems.com
www.bulletinboards.com/setup.cfm
(and see a sample
church bulletin board)
• Chat Rooms
Yikes! Chat rooms? Yes, chat rooms can be a positive communication with proper monitoring. You can find out more about
chat rooms at:
www.talkcity.com
www.webmaster.com
www.eshare.com
www.koz.com
The downside to chat rooms is they require heavy monitoring. But if you have someone who can moderate a chat room it can
be a valuable tool. There is a safe Christian chat room for teenagers you may want to look at:
www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/5083/
• Daily Bible Readings
What better way to involve people in scripture than posting a daily Bible verse on your home page? There are many free
programs on the Web but here is daily Bible reading plan to
get you started. Simply post a link on your home page and it is automatically updated.
• Games
Games you say? Who says your Web page can’t be fun, too? Not only that your site will attract family-oriented viewers.
Faith Lobby has some fun stuff you can link to your web site.
• Humor
Humor? Oh no, now this going a bit too far, isn’t it? Not really. Not when you want to lighten up a little. Maybe it’s time to
replace the picture of the 100-year-old pipe organ on your site with a link to let viewers know there are real people in church.
In His.com has a lot of good, clean humor.
• Books and Music
You can feature the books and music you want on your site. You can also earn a little extra income to boot. It’s quite easy.
There are many book and music stores on the Web but the biggest is Amazon.com. They even have links expressly for
Christian books and music. Your church can apply for Amazon’s Associate program and
generate modest cash flow for your web site maintenance.
• Weekly Messages
You can post either the full text of the weekly message or a simple outline on your web site. You can even archive the
messages and provide an online spiritual history of the church. One church doing this is
Peninsula Bible Church.
• Feedback
A section on every church web site, I believe, should be labeled “Feedback”. This gives everyone the opportunity to express
ideas. This is becoming more and more important as the Web grows.
Think Community!
It’s amazing how many churches don’t think community when building a web site. Somehow, the community concept gets lost
in cyberspace. Don’t let this happen with your church web site.
We need brick-and-mortar church locations but we also need the church in cyberspace reaching people who may never
darken the doors of a church. Reaching people wherever they are and building community is an appropriate and necessary
response to the Great Commission. The Web is the greatest tool we have to fulfill that call in our digital age.
Note: A great resource about building community on the Web is appropriately titled Community Building on the Web
by Amy Jo Kim. Also, there is a companion web site at www.naima.com/community.
Copyright 2001 © Glenn White.
Contact the author
for
permission to reproduce this article for commercial purposes.
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