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Praying In Color

web site improvements

Last post 03-13-2008 3:30 PM by Aaron Spiegel. 1 replies.
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  • 03-11-2008 11:14 AM

    web site improvements

    I was wondering if you could give some examples of really great church websites. And would you mind taking a look at ours and giving an honest opinion. 

    Our church situation may be typical...being Catholic, this Methodist world is a bit foreign.  We used to have a larger congregation (450-500) and due to conflict in the church, attendance now runs 65-75 on Sundays.  The congregation is mainly 65 yrs +.  We have 2 part-time ministers, neither of which is available during the week due to their "real jobs".  They hadn't had a secretary in 2 years when I started in January, so now that I have the office in order I thought I might focus on the website.

    I really enjoyed the workshop in Evansville and look forward to attending another one in the future.

    Our website is epworthalive.org.

    Thank you,

    Tammi Dant

  • 03-13-2008 3:30 PM In reply to

    Re: web site improvements

    Tammi,

    I'm glad you enjoyed the workshop and got something out of it! I hesitate to review congregational websites (at least in public), but I will because yours is pretty good! I notice you're using one of the ASP's, My Church Website, http://www.mychurchwebsite.net. It's not one of the one's we regularly recommend but that's only because there are so many we can't keep up with them!

    The church's important information is immediately available - location (with a map!), service times, contact information and a way to give feedback via email. The design is simple and aesthetically pleasing although a bit busy. One thing I would think about is the size of the fonts. You say your congregation is mainly 65+ year olds. I know if I have trouble reading the type they will too! The rule of thumb (at least for presentations) is make the font size one-half the average age of the constituents. So yours could be 30+! You may find this makes the front page too busy and cramped - you could easily lose one of the three columns if that's an option from the provider.

    I also like that information about clergy is immediately accessable and the pastor has a blog with RSS feeds enabled. He's not using the blog (hint, hint) but that's a great start for getting into Web 2.0 stuff. My final comment is that this isn't a site that will attract Gen X/Y people. That's fine if you're focusing on seniors. If you want to attract a younger audience you need to adjust the layout for them.

    So, you asked for good church websites. Here's are a few I like:
    http://www.marshill.org/
    http://www.trinitychurchindy.org/
    http://www.bridgewaycc.com/
    http://www.heartlandchurch.tv/v1

    Aaron Spiegel
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