Comments for

Comment on Put Your Church Library (Easily) Online by Kent

Kent — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:45:57 +0000

Hi Roger, I am not sure if this will help, but you can import all your books into Wordpress. I am assuming you can export to a CSV file from your current database. They with some work you can import this CSV into Wordpress.

I found 2 articles that might help you with this task (I have not tried either, so cannot give any guarantees) :

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/csv-importer/

http://www.zackpreble.com/2008/03/28/importing-posts-from-csv-file-into-wordpress/

Comment on Sermon Audio on the Church Website by Kent

Kent — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:30:46 +0000

We use the Olympus WS-310M with a lapel. These work really well for us as the speaker / pastor can move about. Always a clear recording and the USB makes it easy to offload.

Comment on Sermon Audio on the Church Website by Kent

Kent — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:24:47 +0000

I like your idea of a secret message as well. Page clicks alone are not a very accurate measurement.

One could use log files to see if downloads were completed indicating that someone at least downloaded a whole audio file.

Another thing is we could look at the length people are on a page before they navigate away. This would indicate that they were on the page for quite some time and likely listened to some or all of a podcast.

Comment on Building a Good & Lasting Church Website …a Cautionary Tale by Kent

Kent — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:57:38 +0000

I too have learnt the hard way that others may have different ideas to me, which I see quickly after I leave. I am starting to value teaching people how to use web building tools rather than do all the hard work for people / churches. As a volunteer I too want to break away from what I call the “contractor scenario”, or the one volunteer does it all and everyone else has an opinion.

For larger projects I have worked as a team member and really love multiple people having input. Now the lessons I am learning is how do we value working in community and teaching each other, to build something for the church community … that happens to be something technical like a web site.

Comment on Use Blog Software to Create Your Church Website by Kent

Kent — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:34:13 +0000

Web 2.0 CMS tools.

I have been developing sites with tools like webnode.com, weebly.com and snappages.com and found these also to be beneficial in many of the same ways as Wordpress. Might be worth a look.

Thanks for the great article and all you are doing in ministry for churches, I might try Wordpress sometime as well.

Comment on How to add a “Donate Now” button to your website by Neil

Neil — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:03:18 +0000

Thanks Mona, you’re the second to mention that. Their rate for “customers” is 3% plus a sign-up fee and monthly fee. The 4.75% is for those who simply register to have a donate button, and not a custom button.

Might seem a lot to the avg consumer, but not much different than what processing companies charge businesses who accept creditcards. The recession and debt defaults are going to make CC transactions more expensive now in for the foreseeable future.

CC processors are also passing on the cost of higher security -to companies like networkforgood and thus their consumers . I know my software company now gets hit with a new fee every year related to security requirements and guarantees. It’s a pain in the you know what.

BUT….keep this in mind: Organizational accounting for checks costs money too. And we must assume that convenient donations options bring in more donations.

Comment on How to add a “Donate Now” button to your website by Mona Milbrodt

Mona Milbrodt — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:29:56 +0000

Thanks so much Neil, for this great information. You should know, however, that if you use Network for Good, they now collect 4.75% per donation transaction. Your blog says that it’s 2.5%, but that was three months ago.

Comment on Put Your Church Library (Easily) Online by Roger Brown, M.D.

Roger Brown, M.D. — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:03:18 +0000

Thank you for sharing an exciting solution. I am a missionary involved in providing counseling support for missionaries working across parts of Africa. The community of missionaries we serve work in over 20 Africa countries and from over 160 Christian organizations. Your idea may help us increase the access to our loaning library. With over 2500 books we will need to find a way to export our existing database which I assume would be doable. When I return from home assignment in the US I will discuss the idea with our team and tech support. Thanks!

Comment on The Rising Cost of Driving to Church by whatabuger

whatabuger — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:30:45 +0000

Sounds like a good idea but indenpence is what lots of people are willing to pay for

Comment on 7 Tips to Better Children’s Sermons by Becky

Becky — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:23:05 +0000

I find this article very educative and helpful. Thank you.

Comment on Sermon Audio on the Church Website by Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:12:37 +0000

Great article. I like the creative idea on trying to find out how many people have listened to the sermon. Hopefully, you’ll get some feedback!

Comment on Free Outlook & Word-like software by Neil

Neil — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:50:54 +0000

I tried Thunderbird’s email program for about 2 weeks and decided to go back to Outlook 2003. Because email is a big part of my business, I needed a couple of features which Thunderbird didn’t have. Outlook 2003 installed on my Windows 7 computer too!

I tried the trial version of Outlook 2007 last year and didn’t think it was any better than the 2003 version which I already owned.

Good to have choices.

Comment on Face(book) the Facts… why your church should be on Facebook by Daniel Threlfall

Daniel Threlfall — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:28:39 +0000

Excellent post regarding Facebook. Your church may also consider putting a Facebook “Fan Box” on the website. It’s easy. I did it for a site, and it literally took two minutes. It allows site visitors to join, see other fans, network, and gel up the community feel of your website and church congregation.

Also, my two cents on the ad issue. There are, at times, FB ads which are a bit off-color or at least suggestive. To avoid this problem, I’ve installed add-ons to my Firefox browser that block all ads. Wonderful feature.

Comment on Sermon Audio on the Church Website by Lin Pearson

Lin Pearson — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:50:34 +0000

Great idea! I guess you’d have to vary the place you put the “secret message” every week. I can see them fast forwarding to the 12 minute mark if it was always there!!!

Comment on Tech Tip #7: Save your Computer with a Vacuum by Neil

Neil — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:03:15 +0000

Good question! I vacuum the bottom of my laptop where the vents are. The other day I had to replace a keyboard on my daughter’s laptop and was surprised by the cat hair that had gotten UNDER the keyboard panel. I’ve owned several laptops and some run hotter than others. I have a laptop tray “coolpad” that I always use. This keeps my clothing/lap from blocking the air intake vents usually located on the bottom of the laptop.