Projects: Second Baptist Malvern
Recently I have had a pretty busy caseload juggling several projects in various stages of completion. One of those projects is a Ministry Website Solution for Second Baptist Church in Malvern, Arkansas. We were referred to them by Keith Crawford (his dad is one of the people tasked w/ providing us with content.)
This past week we did a conference call and picked up some great client feedback related to the colors, stylesheet, and fonts, etc. We have the website at approximately 80% so as soon as we hear back from the client we could launch very soon. Below you will find a screenshot of the project, since the project hasn’t officially launched yet I can’t provide a link to the URL.
Also, if you are a fan of ministry websites, please stay tuned for an announcement regarding our latest redesign of The Church Alive website.
Some Personal, Business, & Development Goals for 2010
The other day I was looking over my personal goals that I had set going into 2009. I feel really good about what I was able to accomplish in 2009 but unfortunately there are still a few things that I am going to carry over into 2010.
This is not to say that 2009 was a bad year, in fact I would say that 2009 was probably one of the best years I have had in a long time, especially in terms of business and personal development.
Personal Goals for 2010
I have set some pretty high goals for myself personally going into 2010 as compared to what I set for 2009. I have learned that I respond well when I put pressure on myself. Hopefully by setting the bar high I will be able to motivate myself to another level personally.
- Private Pilots License: One of the goals that I had for myself coming into 2009 was to get my pilots license. While I did manage to get a few lessons in I didn’t really devote a lot of time to accomplishing this goal. I am going to try to put forth a little more effort this year to get my license. I have checked into some classes offered by UCA for private pilot certification.
- Business Networking: One of the things I am most proud of in 2009 was helping to organize the Central Arkansas Refresh user group. I reflected on the #Refresh group a few weeks ago and gave some insight into how it all came together. Basically social media powered the group, but the group itself and our monthly meetings allowed me to make some awesome business contacts in the Central Arkansas area. I hope to continue growing my personal network in 2010 through outlets like the #RefreshCA group as well as attending various conferences.
- Speaking: I was fortunate enough to have been asked to speak at couple of events this past year on a variety of topics, primarily interactive marketing and social media. I really enjoyed being a part of these events and I hope to continue to take advantage of these opportunities when they present themselves.
- Diversify: While my passion is, and always will be, the internet, I plan on becoming involved in a few areas outside the web in 2010 as well. I have a lot of irons in the fire right now and I am not ready to make any announcements regarding any projects or anything just yet but I can assure you this, whatever business deals I get involved in 2010, they will strictly be sideline projects. I plan on staying actively involved doing what I am doing until I retire, these side projects will just hopefully help me retire a little bit sooner.
- Run in a 5k: Another one of my goals coming into 2009 was to become more healthy but I obviously didn’t do as well in that department as I would have liked. Hopefully I can do a lot better job in 2010. In order to push myself toward this goal I am going to try to run in at least one 5k this year. I haven’t decided on where or when yet, but after the first of the year I am going to start running and try to make this happen by at least the end of the summer.
- Build my Personal Brand: In a lot of ways I have already been building my personal brand by blogging here at The Cotton Club and by staying pretty active on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but I am going to try to take things to another level in 2010 by adding some exciting new things. One of the things that I will be adding is a podcast. I haven’t worked on the specifics just yet as to how often it’s going to be released or even when the first episode will air but I can assure you that it will happen in the first quarter of 2010.
Business Goals for 2010
My partners and I had a great year in 2009 despite the economic downturn that plagued the nation. We managed to pick up some great new accounts as well as further refine the focus of our business. I would like to build upon some of the products and services that we had a lot of success with this past year. Here’s the list of business goals I have put together so far…
- Email Outsourcing / Archiving: I have blogged a lot the past few months about our premium email products and archival solutions because a lot of attention has been placed on regulatory compliance in a lot of industries. I think that we have a very competitive solution that will continue to do well for us in 2010.
- Shared & VPS Solutions: Over the years my partners and I have made a tremendous investment in our hosting infrastructure. Today, thanks to virtualization, we are able to provide VPS, or virtual private server, solutions to development firms for a very competitive rate, even on a national scale. I am going to try to make an effort to promote our hosting solutions a lot more in 2010 than I did in 2009.
- Ministry Web Solutions: This past year we launched Powersite ministry solutions to showcase our web design and development packages geared toward churches or non-profit organizations. We have had a great response so far from the Powersite launch and I hope to continue that momentum going into 2010.
- Social Media / Interactive Marketing: My partners and I had a lot of success this year steering a lot of our clients into the realm of social media. We also saw some tremendous results from our efforts. I hope to make social media an even-more integral part of what we provide for our clients in 2010.
Development Goals for 2010
I didn’t do a lot of custom application development this past year so I have come up with some goals for the upcoming year to get me back into the development mindset. Here’s what I have come up with so far…
- Develop 2 iPhone Apps: I have two ideas that I think could be profitable, I just have to finalize my project parameters and complete the markup models for each project, which I should be able to do by the first quarter of next year, then I have the rest of the year to familiarize myself with Objective C programming and knock these projects out.
- Develop 2 Wordpress Plugins: I also have two ideas for Wordpress plugins that I want to release in 2010. I already have started coding on both of these projects but haven’t had the spare time to devote to wrapping them up. I typically code on these types of projects after hours in between client projects. Hopefully I will find the time in 2010, stay tuned to this blog for info on both of these plugins.
- Develop 2 Web Applications: I also have two web applications, both geared toward the agriculture industry, that I should be able to launch in 2010. Both applications are 75% complete, I am just waiting on some regulatory guidelines to be handed down by a few more states and then I can wrap everything up. I won’t go into a lot of detail about these apps right now but will when we finally roll them out.
- Develop a MODx Project: My business partner Greg primarily works in MODx while I develop most of my projects in Wordpress. While both solutions are great for content management, they are both very different in terms of their core foundation. I would like to develop a project this next year in MODx so I can become more familiar with it’s operation and functionality.
Powersite Ministry Solutions Overview Presentation
A while back I posted a note regarding the recent launch of our Powersite ministry solutions product. This website package is geared toward churches, missionaries, evangelists, and non-profit organizations that have a need for specialized functionality. Some examples of the functionality provided with our Powersite Ministry Solutions include; content management, podcasting, video (streaming & embeded), mapping, forms, online giving / e-commerce, and blogging. For more information about our ministry solutions, please visit: http://powersitedesign.com.
This is an overview presentation that I prepared a while back to give perspective clients an overview of our solution. This presentation just touches on some of the high points of our solution, but for more information feel free to contact us.
Current Projects: Powersite Ministry Solutions
I blogged a while back about our content management solutions for churches and evangelists, and I think that I have gotten more inquiries about ministry websites than any other type of project since then. This got me to thinking, what if we just setup a ministry specific site dedicated to promoting our ministry website solutions, and even throw a few blog posts in from time to time with helpful tips for streaming video, or running your podcasts through iTunes. The more I thought about this, the more determined I became to make it happen. I bounced this idea off of my partner Greg a few times too and he thought it was a good idea as well, so I started hashing out the outline for the site.
It took me about 4 months or so of working on the content and design elements in my spare time. I finally came up with a design that I am comfortable with, of course it’s going to have to be tweaked a lot, my OCD catches things that the normal eye just passes over. I went ahead and launched the site this afternoon because I figured it couldn’t hurt anything, the powersitedesign.com domain has set there dormant for the better part of 2 years without any content updates. I hope this new site has the desired effect, I would love to see our list of ministry clients double before the end of the year.
If you are interested, we do have a very comprehensive package for churches that will allow them to do everything from manage the content on their website to live video streaming of their services, and pretty much everything else in between. You can visit the all-new Powersite Ministry Solutions website for a full description of our ministry solution, see some examples of our most recent ministry projects, learn how to use social media to expand your online ministry, or request a free consultation regarding your ministry project.
New Project: North Heights Youth
My partner Stephen recently handed me another ministry account, North Heights Youth, from Batesville, Arkansas. The client submitted a few designs and layouts they liked from other ministries he found online and we sort of took the project from there and produced a layout for the client to review.
We are currently in the client review aspect of the project and I should have more to report on this one very soon but for the time being, here’s a preview of the layout for those of you interested. Again, ministry website solutions have become sort of a interesting niche for me as of late and I am planning on rebranding Powersite in the very near future to go after the growing online ministry needs of churches across the US…
Project Update: Conway Faith Church
I have been working on a project recently for another ministry client here in Central Arkansas, The Conway Faith Assembly Church. I first met w/ Pastor Burden a few weeks ago over lunch and we began brainstorming for their project, which not only would include a new website but also a new face for their ministry. Ministry solutions has rapidly become one of my niche interests as of late so I have been pretty excited to work with another ministry client, especially one that is so close to home…
We are presently very close to launch with this project and I am very pleased with how the project has progressed so far. The new website is going to allow Conway Faith Church to post their messages online as well as video and staff blogs. I am hopeful that this will further expand their ministry. Here’s a sneak peak from our sandbox for those of you interested, I will post links once everything is officially launched: Conway Faith Church
The New Traditional Church
I just got around to reading a blog post that my good friend Garth Bowman sent me the other day about the New Traditional Church by Tony Morgan. I am not familiar with Tony but I have to say that I think he has hit the nail right on the head. The web is all about interaction, sure back in the day it was primarily used for research but today a vast majority of web users get online to communicate with their friends. The explosive growth of social networks like Twitter and Facebook just solidify that theory.
In his post, Tony makes a good point, if a ministry’s website doesn’t “engage” it’s visitors in some way, it more or less is a digital replication of the Sunday bulletin. When I consult with a ministry client one of the first things that I recommend is for them to establish a presence on Facebook and Twitter. When we develop ministry websites we always go into the project looking for ways to make our clients websites more “engaging”. We also incorporate things now like streaming video and chat rooms during our services, the response to the streaming video has been overwhelming, in fact we have had visitors from all over the globe inside our chatroom during service.
Another thing that has worked out very well for our clients is Facebook Connect, this technology allows users to post comments on your website using their Facebook account as a means of authentication. Facebook Connect also allows Facebook users to share your content with their friends inside of Facebook with just a few clicks. We have found that if users have to register for an account on your website just to post a comment, they are likely to just move on. But, if they are able to use their Facebook account they are a lot more likely to interact and post comments. Another way we have been broadening our reach is through the use of Twitter, our website is tied into Twitter so that anytime new content or podcasts are added to the website they are also sent out to our followers on Twitter.
I feel really good about our approach to Ministry Web Solutions, this past year one of our ministry clients, The Church Alive won “best of show” at the AdFed Banquet for the interactive category. If you are interested in speaking with us about your ministry’s web presence, please don’t hesitate to contact my partners and I, we would love to speak to you about your project.
Here’s the post that I was referring to from Tony Morgan:
I’m amazed at the number of churches that still view the web as primarily an advertising mechanism to let people know who they are and what they’re doing. Go ahead. Visit several church websites. Really doesn’t even matter what size the church is. With few exceptions, you’ll find their web strategy is essentially a bullhorn approach. The church is standing on a streetcorner of the web yelling at the people passing by:
- “Come to our services on Sunday!”
- “Let me tell you about our men’s ministry!”
- “Join us for the golf tournament or fishing derby!”
- “Serve on one of our ministry teams!”
- “Give money to our church!”
- “Here’s what we believe!”
It’s a one-sided relationship. The church views the web as a place to promote their agenda. No interaction with the audience. No stories of life change. No solutions to help people experience community or discipleship online. At best, you may be able to watch a video of a service, but you certainly won’t have the opportunity to engage a conversation with others about what you’re watching.
Essentially we’ve taken the Sunday service bulletin and we’ve put it on our website. That’s the web strategy for the Church today. “Here’s who we are and what we’re doing. Join us!”
The rest of the world views the Web very differently. For example, outside of the Church, people go online to:
- Meet other people and build relationships
- Share what’s happening in their life and tell their story
- Get a taste of the experience, primarily through video, with the opportunity to interact
- Have the ability to share slivers of content with others (3-minute clips, not 45-minute messages)
- View content on demand on their time
- Create content to add their contribution to the bigger story
Rather than looking at the Web through the eyes of a Facebook and YouTube and Twitter user, though, we’re still looking at the Web through the eyes of a Sunday bulletin reader. That approach works for the people who are already attending our churches. It completely ignors the people who we are trying to reach.
And that’s the problem. We view the Web as an add-on. After we’ve figured out how we’re going to do ministry, then we want to know how to use the Web to promote our ministry.
Instead, the churches that have influence within our online culture look at ministry differently. They assume the people they’re trying to reach are online. They assume the people who are connected to their ministry are online. Rather than looking at the Web as an add-on, they consider their web strategy as a fully-integrated part of how they help people take steps toward Christ. They are a church online as much as they are a church in a building located on the corner of First and Main.
The website isn’t something the “web monkey” maintains. It’s a place where the youth pastor, worship leader, children’s director, small group leader, senior pastor and every other person of influence help people to connect and grow. It’s an environment where the entire church engages the community and encourages each other to take their next steps. It’s as much their story as it is our story.
Of course, this approach to the Web would require far more time, resources and leadership. It would be much less expensive than building a new building, but it would require a shift in thinking and a shift in focus. Because it’s new, it would be hard. Because the staff and volunteer leadership team would have to embrace this new approach, it would be challenging.
We’d rather stick with what we know. It’s a lot easier to maintain our online bulletins. And that’s another reason why we are the new traditional church.
The New Traditional Church: Web Strategy | TonyMorganLive.com
The Flip Mino HD Camcorder – Under $200
I have had multiple clients ask me for advice on what kind of camera they need for capturing video and uploading it to their websites or to popular video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo. Over the years I have owned several high end camcorders and digital cameras and I have to say that I have never been as impressed as I am with the Flip Mino HD Camcorders that are on the market right now.
I like the Flip for a couple of reasons, but probably the primary reason is it’s awesome design. There is no need to keep up w/ proprietary cables to offload videos to your PC, the Flip has a built in standard USB adapter that just pops right out and plugs into your PC to upload your videos to the web. Another thing that I like about the camera is it’s size. These cameras will literally fit into your shirt pocket and you will forget they are there, extremely well put together too, I have seen these cameras get dropped time and time again and I haven’t ever heard of anyone having issues with their device.
If you are involved in Real Estate and looking for a camera to shoot your own Virtual Tour Videos for posting on your website or popular video sharing websites like YouTube and Vimeo, this is my recommendation!
Of course probably the two biggest selling points for this camera are that they start out under $200 and have HD (High Definition) capability. For more information about this camera, just click on it’s photo. Rarely do I recommend electronics like this, but this is the exception!!!
New Project: Faith Church
I had the opportunity to meet with Pastor Burden at Conway Faith Church this past week and I think they are going to be our newest ministry client. His goal for the project was to bring some energy to their website that their existing website lacks. We will be assisting the staff at Conway Faith Church with a wide variety of things including podcasting and content management. I started the project this week on my sandbox server and it’s coming along well. Stay tuned for updates on this project, for the time being here’s a screenshot of the layout so far…
Current Projects: Lifepoint CA
I have been working on a pro bono ministry project for a friend of ours this past week. They are in the process of planting a church in California called Lifepoint Church. Since they are in the planting phase of the project the website is going to be pretty straightforward starting out, but eventually as the church grows and starts holding services the content management solution (wordpress) will be scalable enough for them to add additional functionality as the need arises such as calendars, podcasting, and photo galleries.
I have been constructing the website on my sandbox to get the stylesheets all lined out so I don’t have a link that I can share at this time but here’s a screenshot for now. Once the site is launched I will do a post announcing the website, etc.
