New to the Forum

[lorekclaw]

Please check out my site. I welcome comments. www.MagOnline.com (http://www.MagOnline.com)
I am in the beginning stages of updating our site. I dont' know if I want to do it on my own (I'm using FrontPage) or using a site builder such as Ezekial. Any suggestion?
Lori from Riverside CA

[flutem3]

Please check out my site. I welcome comments. www.MagOnline.com (http://www.magonline.com/)
I am in the beginning stages of updating our site. I dont' know if I want to do it on my own (I'm using FrontPage) or using a site builder such as Ezekial. Any suggestion?
Lori from Riverside CA

Hi, Lori,

Welcome to the forum!!! I took a look at your website. I really enjoy the questions and answers which the staff gave. It makes me feel that I know them just a little bit. I think it is a good idea.

Re: Your question.

This is my own biased answer. :)

1. How much do you enjoy web design?

2. Do you have a budget for E-zekial or Front Page.

3. Which one are you currently using?

4. Have you been working with this website for a long time, or are you taking it over from someone else?

5. A website needs to be a joy for you and of benefit in some way, shape, or form to others. Some people never seem to answer for themselves: Why am I building this website? What are the goals of the website? Who is going to read all the "stuff" on the website?

6. The content is more important than the software that got the website up and running.

7. Use what is most comfortable for you to use. Many people say that it is of the utmost importance to learn HTML. I am able to use it, snippets, but do not know very much.

I was going to try to use software other than what I am using, and a wise person on here asked me why I was going to change. The reason isn't all that great. I was going to change because some people had criticized what I was using. However, what I use is fine for me right now. In the future, it may not be. Therefore, I stayed with what I have and enjoy what I am doing.

Do you have a lot of experience building and designing websites? I started from zero like most people and taught myself. Therefore, there are many gaps in my learning. When I come across one, I then learn whatever information I need.

I hope you enjoy this forum as much as I do. I know I have not really answered your question. But I have banged my head long and hard on a wall until Mr. Belfry, I think it was, told me to use what worked for me.
I stopped banging my head, and the headaches are gone. The only ones which are left are those pertaining to having people get me information in a timely manner. :rolleyes:

Carol

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[lorekclaw]

To answer your questions:
1 - I enjoy designing. I think one of my faults is that I enjoy the designing and graphic arts work more than the technical side.
2 - We don't have a lot of budget but I'm supposed to come up with some prices for our administrator. If I decide to just do it myself I won't have to worry about it.
3 - I use FrontPage.
4 - I've had this site for about 4 years. I inherited it from someone else but have pretty much redone the whole thing.
5 - I enjoy certain aspects of the site. I just want it to be as useful to people as I can make it.
6 - I feel my site is probably one of the most up-to-date sites I've seen. I surf a lot of church sites and so many of them are out of date.
7 - My fear of going to a developer like Ezekiel is that I won't have as much flexibility as I do now. But on the other hand they have a lot more current technology than I can provide.

I sometimes visit the FrontPage forum and they speak so far above my head, I feel a little inadequate. So I start thinking I should let someone else design the site.

Thanks so much for your thoughts. I look forward to interacting with others as well.
Lori

[flutem3]

Lori wrote:

"1 - I enjoy designing. I think one of my faults is that I enjoy the designing and graphic arts work more than the technical side.
2 - We don't have a lot of budget but I'm supposed to come up with some prices for our administrator. If I decide to just do it myself I won't have to worry about it.
3 - I use FrontPage..."

Hello again, Lori,

I don't see how enjoying designing can be a fault!!! Oh, if only more people could. I am not a very good designer, but I am learning and am better than I used to be.

If you are happy using FrontPage, use it, and save the church some money which it can use on something you don't really need. If you ever discover that you need something that FrontPage cannot provide, look around and see what you can find for free!! :)

In fact, you might want to check out: www.openoffice.org (http://www.openoffice.org/) I have not used it, but some of the people are trying it out and discovering that they can make PowerPoint type stuff...free. I did see an example that a lady sent me. I was really surprised. It looked good.

If you like to design, do it!! The technical side will come along...at least it has for me. Just because some whiz-bang stuff is available doesn't mean that it is good for a church website. Sometimes, less really is more. It seems to me that people stick so much stuff on a page that there is no place for a person's eyes to land...a focal point. In fact, many pages are like that. When I started, I put practically everything I could think of on the index page. My thinking was and is that most people only look at that page. Unfortunately, that is true. However, I don't think it helped at all for me to "junk" it up. Instead, I have tried to clear it off so to speak. People seem to like it better too.

Keep in touch so we will know what you are up to.

Carol
http://www.wabashfirstumc.org

[David Gillaspey]

Please check out my site. I welcome comments. www.MagOnline.com (http://www.MagOnline.com)
I am in the beginning stages of updating our site. I dont' know if I want to do it on my own (I'm using FrontPage) or using a site builder such as Ezekial. Any suggestion?
Lori from Riverside CAHi Lori,

My comments about your site:

First, you have the church address and phone number on the home page, which is good. That may seem a minor point, but a large number of the church websites I've viewed (11,000+) neglect to include this important information. (Otherwise, it's put on the Services page or the Contact Us page or the About us page. That's part of the problem ? there is no standard place for the church address.)

Staff photo page is nicely done ? all the photos have the same background, indicative of planning ahead.

This will disappoint you, but the gradient color (blue to yellow and back) used throughout the site is not good. It makes your site look amateurish. Gradients are rarely used on websites anymore, and then, only for subtle changes in background color.

This will also disappoint you, but I recommend not having church buildings on home pages. That's because the Church is a body of people, not a physical facility. Use photos of people (or nature or scenics, if you have to).

This is picky, but on the "What we believe page," there's this credit: "Courtesy of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention." That signals the visitor the information is what someone ELSE believes.

Throughout the site, there are a number of page titles added as graphics (with that gradient background). It's better to just use text for page titles because 1) text downloads lightning fast, and 2) text can be read by screen readers that the blind rely upon to browse websites.

There are a number of buttons throughout the site. On my Top 10 Tips,

http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/top_10_tips.php

I recommend against that. But I'm particularly concerned about the ones on the righthand side of the home page, e.g., "Links of Interest" and "E-Cards." There's absolutely no reason to make a graphic out of simple links. Use text.

On other pages, such as the Children's Ministry page, I recommend caution when using buttons such as "Clubhouse". Aside from my recommendation to use text for links, consider that unchurched visitors to your site would have little idea what "Clubhouse" (or "Awana") means. Try to find ways to describe a ministry in terms that work for both members/Christians and unchurched people. To your credit, however, it appears that you were careful to add "alt" text descriptions in the HTML code for your graphics (lots of church webmasters fail to do this).

Now about E-zekiel (http://www.e-zekiel.com), that's just one of many proprietary CMS (web content management systems) available, as you probably know. (See full list here (http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/CMS_main.php), which also includes a link to a page listing open-source CMS solutions.) I think you'll find the right CMS will work well for you, if you decide to go that route.

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

[lorekclaw]

Thank you so much! Those are the type of suggestions I am looking for. I will definitely keep all of those in mind as I either redesign my site or look for a CMS.
Lori