I am in the process of writing some content for our website that details a solution that I have been working on for the better part of the last year, Ministry or Church Website Solutions.  A lot of people get the impression that our company only works with Business Clients, but that’s not entirely true.  We do a lot of wok already for non-profits and church organizations already. 

Ministry Websites are a market that I am pretty passionate about because I see the internet as the next frontier for reaching people.  Fortunately, my pastor along with several others involved with the ministry have given me some good direction as to the online needs that a ministry center has.

There are several other solution providers out there that cater only to Churches and honestly some of these companies do a decent job, while some leave a little bit to be desired in terms of capabilities.

I haven’t completely written the content for the entire service offering but here are the core components for our solution:

Content Management Solution (CMS):

Maintaining fresh, relevant content is the key to having a successful online ministry. With our easy to use Content Management Solution, website maintenance can be delegated to multiple department heads to allow for frequent updating. Also, with our Content Management Solution, all changes you make to your website are applied immediately, no more delays getting information onto the web. Embed Videos, Google Maps, or Upload Photos from events, you can do it all with our Content Management Solution. In addition to updating existing content, our Content Management Solution also allows you to add new pages or blog posts to your website on the fly, and since our solution is entirely web based, changes can be made from any computer with an internet connection. There are also some applications on the market for several wireless devices such as the iPhone that allow you to manage your website with a mobile device. If this is of interest to you, our development team can assist you in setting up these third party management applications.

Podcasting / iTunes:

One of the best ways to increase the size of your listening audience is by podcasting, or making your sermons available online in a downloadable audio format. We will provide your ministry with the tools needed to broadcast your sermons online, and in the popular iTunes store. Your membership can simply subscribe to your podcast and rest assured that they will receive the newest audio files as soon as they are released.

Video (Streaming & Embedded):

With recent advances in technology that were geared toward making video more accessible on the web, it has never been easier to add video to your website. With our Content Management Solution, video content from popular websites like YouTube or Vimeo can be embedded directly onto your website with just a few clicks of the mouse. We can also provide you with the tools and direction needed to add live streaming broadcasts of your services to your website. These broadcasts will allow visitors located anywhere in the world to logon to your website and view your services in real time via the internet.

Social Network Integration:

Social Networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are becoming more and more popular every day. A recent report showed that a large percentage of internet users would login to social networks and never actually venture onto the actual internet. This trend appears to be gaining momentum and shows no sign of letting up anytime soon. In order to reach this target audience, church leaders must establish an effective presence inside these social networks. We can assist your ministry in establishing a presence on these social networks as well as incorporating Facebook Connect on your website.

Facebook Connect allows visitors to your website to post comments and share content from your website with their friends inside Facebook. This technology is extremely popular and can provide your ministry with a lot of exposure inside of Facebook’s social network.

Blogging Tools:

Our ministry websites come complete with Blogging capabilities for every member of your ministry team. We have even assisted pastors in the past with establishing weekly video blogs for communicating with their members. Visitors to your blogs also have the ability to post comments and share the content with thier friends via social networks such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. Don’t worry, as the site administrator you maintain total editorial control over what is commented on your website, we give you the tools to moderate all comments.

Event Management / Calendar Solutions:

An online calendar is the best tool to share event information with your congregation. Our integrated calendar solution is extremely easy to manage and can have multiple administrators or department heads as administrators. Since the calendar is integrated into your website, it is managed right alongside the rest of your website in your control panel. All calendar event notifications are also pushed out to your subscribing members via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) so your entire congregation will be up to date.

Online Giving:

We will work with your ministry to establish a secure online giving process for your congregation using their credit or debit card. Contributors to your ministry can have the peace of mind knowing that their personal information and online transactions are secure thanks to third party processors like PayPal and Fellowship One.

E-Commerce:

Our ministry clients also have the option to add e-commerce functionality to their website. Most ministry clients add online bookstores to sell Books, DVD’s, CD’s, and Clothing to their members. Our e-commerce solution plugs into our existing content management solution so managing your inventory and transactions are a snap. We can also assist your ministry to incorporate secure credit card processing into your e-commerce solution.

Content Syndication (RSS):

Web content today is delivered a little bit differently than it was 10 years ago. Today, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) allows users to receive your content by a variety of methods such as on their wireless devices, RSS Readers, and even on their computer desktops thanks to iGoogle, Google’s customizable start page.

Every ministry website we develop is equipped with RSS feed capability. One of the best things about our Content Management Solution is that anytime new content is added to your website it is pushed out to your subscribers automatically.

Online Forms:

One of the best tools for gathering information online is the use of web forms. With our Content Management Solution you can deploy multiple forms on your website, each with different recipients if you would like. These online forms can be added and dropped from your website with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Photo Galleries:

One sure way to drive traffic to your website is to add photo galleries. We can incorporate a standalone photo gallery into your Content Management Solution or integrate an existing Picasa or Flickr gallery into
your website. With the integrated photo gallery solutions from providers like Picasa (Google), and Flickr (Yahoo) anytime new photos are added to your Flick or Picasa account, they are automatically imported into your website. The integrated solution from either Flickr or Picasa makes managing online photo galleries considerably easier.

Ministry Specific Tools & Resources (Bible Search, Daily Scripture):

We can also add tools to your website upon request that allow visitors to your website to participate in bible reading plans and perform keyword searches using a wide variety of popular translations.

Search Engine Optimization:

A good organic search engine placement for search terms relevant to your ministry is important. To ensure that your website is archived correctly by the search engines, we install dynamic XML sitemapping tools that will automatically notify Google when you add new content to your website.

Traffic Analysis & Analytics:

To help our clients track the success of their online investment, we provide them with Google Analytics and Reporting. Google Analytics provide detailed drilldowns of key information about your website performance such as the number of hits and pageviews your website has received, as well as where your site visitors are located geographically, and what websites or search engines referred them to your site. We can even provide what search terms visitors used to locate your website inside of Google. This usage data can provide some valuable insight for any future marketing campaigns your ministry rolls out.

Each week, a full-color PDF is emailed to you with your analytics report. This report can be shared with your board members as well as your congregation. Also, with Google Analytics you can login anytime to view your real time traffic analysis.

 

As soon as I have the remainder of the content written I will be posting some links, but in the meantime if you are involved in the ministry or think that your church’s website could use a facelift, don’t hesitate to drop us a line, we would love to discus your project with you. 

Also, as a footnote, we have a ministry client, The Church Alive, that has won an Addy Award this year.  We will learn a lot more this year at the Awards Banquet in Jonesboro about the award.