Newsletters

[MCD]

One of the features we use on our church website is sendings newsletters. We use it to send out our weekly brochure and updates on major news, illnesses and death arrangements. Is anyone else doing this?

[KristenAH]

Our church sends out emails with regard to Sunday services, care notes (who is sick and in the hospital, etc.), and the newsletter.

I convert the newsletter into a pdf and put it out on the website.

Do you use the website to manage your email subscriptions? We were thinking about doing that and allowing people to sign up for the notices they would like to receive.

Kristen

[flutem3]

Mark wrote:

"One of the features we use on our church website is sendings newsletters. We use it to send out our weekly brochure and updates on major news, illnesses and death arrangements. Is anyone else doing this?"

Hi, Mark,

We send out snail mail newsletters every two weeks with the above information included as well as a letter from one of the pastors. The membership seems to like them even though many don't read them.

I have considered putting the newsletter on the website, but about 50% of the membership do not have/use computers.

These questions are for anyone and everyone.

How many of your membership have and use computers to get information about the happens in the church? And how large is your membership?

Thanks.

Carol

[mickmel]

One of the features we use on our church website is sendings newsletters. We use it to send out our weekly brochure and updates on major news, illnesses and death arrangements. Is anyone else doing this?
We send a digital copy of our newsletter using the service from www.topica.com (http://www.topica.com). It's a little expensive (around $50 a month), but can handle huge lists and it does a great job.

Along with our newsletter, church members can also sign-up for recreation updates ("games tonight cancelled due to rain") and a few others things.

We send out an occasional notices about illness/death (maybe once a year), but we have so much of that kind of stuff that it's typically just included in our normal newsletter.

[MCD]

Our church sends out emails with regard to Sunday services, care notes (who is sick and in the hospital, etc.), and the newsletter.

I convert the newsletter into a pdf and put it out on the website.

Do you use the website to manage your email subscriptions? We were thinking about doing that and allowing people to sign up for the notices they would like to receive.

Kristen
Anyone can get our newsletter by signing up for it. We have 6 different newsletters. This allows people to receive only the information they need.

[youthman]

I send out a Weekly SOLE Email Student Newsletter. I have youth, parents, friends of youth, family members and anyone else that visits our site that subscribe to it. It goes out to about 200 people that have subscribed. I just use Outlook Express to manage my contacts for the newsletter. I receive a weekly Newsletter from Youth Specialties (http://www.youthspecialties.com/free/email/student_newsletter/). They have designed the newsletter for Youth Pastors to be able to use it for their own newsletters. What I do is add information at the top of their newsletter (Note from me, Upcoming Events, Funny Photo, Monthly Birthdays etc) and at the bottom I add my own closing info.

One of the sites that I designed for a customer (Joanna Pullen), I create an HTML based newsletter with a "Newsletter Tool" that is on her webhost. They have a few templates and I added some code that allows visitors to sign up for the website using a form and it automatically adds them to the database on her webhost.

A friend of mine uses PHP List (http://tincan.co.uk/phplist). I personally have not used it myself but it seems pretty nice.

[chrisb_ebc]

PHP List is a great tool. Its a bit more for the "advanced user" But it is pretty good. Can run multiple lists, have a good bit of users to manage the lists. I currently do not use one on our church site but have on setup for our youth group site. You can find it at www.ebcyg.org. I have been contemplating setting up a email mailing list of sorts but I am not totally sure for what it could be used for beyond prayer updates. Something I goto think about.

[srmcatee]

These questions are for anyone and everyone.

How many of your membership have and use computers to get information about the happens in the church? And how large is your membership?



We have about 300 families. I would say 5% use computers.

[flutem3]

Hi, Steve,

That was what I was wondering about. Our size is a bit smaller than yours but not by much. And my best guess on usage is 5% as well. I have no idea what people want in a church website. I want the site to be something they want to return to. But I cannot get an answer to the question, "What would you like to have on the church website?" Several of the people who have answered the question mentioned things that are already there and in bold type as well!! :confused:

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Thanks!

Carol

[JackWolfgang]

We send a digital copy of our newsletter using the service from www.topica.com (http://www.topica.com). It's a little expensive (around $50 a month), but can handle huge lists and it does a great job.

Along with our newsletter, church members can also sign-up for recreation updates ("games tonight cancelled due to rain") and a few others things.

We send out an occasional notices about illness/death (maybe once a year), but we have so much of that kind of stuff that it's typically just included in our normal newsletter.

$50 a month does seem high. Some web hosts offer mailing list solutions with their hosting packages. Check with yours to see.

Our sister church here in Tallahassee uses Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp). Their prices look a little cheaper than Topica until you start talking about 2,500+ recipients.

[srmcatee]

Carol,

We are about to try an interesting tactic. Our website supports forums. We are offering forum support to local neighborhoods around our church. Our church is located in what used to be a blighted neighboorhood. Due to community activity we have a very active neighborhood.

We are offering them a forum to allow posts about the neighborhood, crime alerts and such. The tactic is that anyone can register and use the site, church member or non-churchmember. But they will all have to navigate our website and see everything that is going on at the church regardless.

I guess you could call it "guerrila evangilism". Kinda like guerilla marketing. :)

[flutem3]

Hi, Steve,

I think that is a terrific idea. I am not sure how you will get it to work, but I sure think it is worth trying.

Re: guerilla evangelism - What do you think that disciples, Paul, et. al. were doing? :D

How are you going to get them to navigate the website to get to the forum? Does that mean if they do not navigate the website, they cannot use the forum. Or when you say, "navigate the website," do you mean they just have to go there?

Let us know how it works!!

Carol

[srmcatee]

Hi Carol,

You would navigate the site the same as you do for GreatChurchesWebsites.org. You log on, then go where you want, or bookmark it.

[flutem3]

Hi, Steve,

I thought you meant that you had found a way for people to look at other pages on the website before they could get into the forum.

I also thought that was a neat thing if you could get them to go that. And if you were able to do that, I wanted to know how too!!

Carol

[Faithhb_lutheran]

Carol,

There is a way to do that with javascript. If you play online games they almost all do it. What you would do is set up a link to go to a page then add in javascript to redirect them for a short time to an ad page, like say for a VBS or a new bible study.

[flutem3]

Hi, Kyle,

I am not planning on doing that, but I understand what you are talking about. Hallelujah!!

I am within a few pages of finishing the redesign of our website. Have you ever had a page that absolutely didn't do what you wanted to do...and you couldn't figure out what to do with it? I have one of those. Maybe it doesn't need to be there. That is a distinct possibility. It really is a dreadful page...hodge podge. I am thinking....and drawing too. :D

Carol

[Faithhb_lutheran]

Carol,

If you post a link to the problem page maybe somebody would be able to give you some help.

[McDLT]

We have about 300 families. I would say 5% use computers.

I would still recommend you put the newsletter on the website. It will show people who visit the site the things your church does; it's a great way for visitors to keep tabs on what's going on; and may even attract people to your church. You never really know who's going to visit the church based on your website. :)

[srmcatee]

CMS systems are usually made up of content blocks. What the user is usually working on is in the center column, like a newspaper. You then have the left and right columns (like a newspaper) where you can post some peripheral information, Like an AA meeting, or a new Sunday School program....

Actually, the whole thing is like a newspaper. Main story in the middle, and other peripheral content around it.

Does that help.

ps. We are working with the neighorhood groups. Some are interested, and some are look warm. But they know this is basically free, so worth a discussion since our church supports many efforts in the local community.

[flutem3]

Hi,

Yes, that does help. I am in the process of redesigning our site. When you see it, you are going to laugh at my question. I have more or less done that without know what I had done.

Carol

[ckvkkeek]

I keep the website updated with newsletter items, and we send out emails very frequently.

We try, though this is one weak area, to send out the bulletin every week. And when it does get sent, it actually updates our web site with that info. Something I setup. I am going to improve it so it is easier to send out the announcements... but I need the time to write an .NET application.

We also have several mailing list for people to sign up for. I wrote it in ASP, and people can subscribe and unsubscribe as needed.

And for Carol... about 30 families pretty much all but a few are on the web. But we are in one of the most wired areas in the country (1 or 2 depending on the survey).

ck