Church Website Help

I decided to include this church website help article as a service to Churches so they can build quality sites for the Internet. I've designed and hosted a number of Church websites and learned much about some internet applications that can provide church website help to many.

Christian Web Hosting?

I don't believe in applying the title "Christian" to a product. Web hosting is a computing technology and is no more Christian than an automobile or blender. The larger principle that a Church ought to consider is the quality of the service for the price offered and being good stewards of their money. In my web hosting ratings, there are detailed reviews of features to match differing site needs. Service, reliability, and value for the money are all Biblical business principles. I looked at the web hosting services that call themselves "Christian Web Hosting" and found their prices to be too high for the service offered; hence, they did not appear in my top web hosting ratings.

What is a dedicated server?  A few definitions:

A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of internet hosting where the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating system, hardware, etc. Server administration can usually be provided by the hosting company as an add-on service. In some cases a dedicated server can offer less overhead and a larger return on investment. Dedicated servers are most often housed in data centers, similar to colocation facilities, providing redundant power sources and HVAC systems. In contrast to colocation, a dedicated hosting service provides system administration and owns the server itself.

An independent virtual private server web hosting rating list of the price and features of the top virtual private server web hosting companies. Each vps web hosting provider on the vps rating list allows you to compare the price and features.

Virtual Private Servers (VPS) are a virtualization of the server operating system that splits a single physical server into multiple virtual servers. This practice was common in old mainframes but new operating systems, especially Linux, have made the practice much more common in the Web Hosting industry.

Wikipedia defines a Content Management System (CMS) as follows:

A content management system is a computer software system for organizing and facilitating collaborative creation of documents and other content. A content management system is sometimes a web application used for managing websites and web content, though in many cases, content management systems require special client software for editing and constructing articles. They can also be used for storage and single sourcing of documentation for a firm including but not limited to operators' manuals, technical manuals, sales guides, etc. The market for content management systems remains fragmented, with many open-source and proprietary solutions available. The term was originally used for website publishing and management systems. Early content management systems were developed internally at organizations which were doing a lot of content publishing. In 1995, CNET spun out its internal development offerings into a separate company called Vignette, which opened up the market for commercial systems. As the market evolved, the scope of content management systems broadened, and the term is now used to refer to a range of technologies and techniques, including portal systems, wiki systems, and web-based groupware.

Getting a Site Online

Getting a site online can seem difficult, conceptually, if you've never attempted it before.  The following list is provided as a general step-by-step guide for getting a site online.

a.  Determine your website needs.  Is this a personal website, a business website, will you be streaming media, etc.  Capture your requirements before you proceed with choosing products so you can buy the products and services that best meet your needs.

b.  Choose a Site Concept.  You should research your market, determine best keywords to use, what your site is going to say, and start mapping out content.  You should not pick a domain name or start building pages until you've nailed down a solid concept.  Read more in the site sell section about how to build a content based website.  This is the most important step of getting a successful site online.  Don't come up with the plan after you already are down the road a bit and have to make major course corrections.

Business Website Tips

Businesses have several motivations for building business websites. For some, the Internet is their only customer base, for others they want to promote professional services and add to an existing clientele. There may be different needs and motivations but there are some common characteristics for successful business websites that all businesses ought to take note of.

Content - This should be the up-front consideration.  Many spend a long time making a web site look pretty but the key to a successful site that, both customers and search engines like, is good content that informs the reader and "tells" the search engine bots what your site is about.  Your aiming point should be a site that informs, puts you in a niche, makes people want to reference you and come back.  Graphics are nice but the most successful sites on the Internet are nearly completely text based.  Some business web sites look fantastic with tons of eye grabbing stuff but if they fail to deliver content then, unless it is a marquee name, it will be primarily a piece of art for the company to admire and be of little use in driving new customers their way through search engines.  Remember:  content, content, content!

Affiliate Programs Explained

The internet has many opportunities to make money by advertising other companies' products and services.  With over 16 million web pages on the Internet, it's nearly impossible to "stumble upon" a company's site.  Companies figured out if they pay commissions to "average Joes" they could drive customers to their site at very little cost.  Why pay for a large sales force when you can pay a commission to an affiliate only when a sale is made?  Affiliate programs not only improve their bottom line but are a free way for them to "get the word out" about their site.

How to Podcast

Podcasting is all the rage these days.  MP3 players are ubiquitous from teenagers on skateboards to old people on elliptical trainers in the gym.  Stationed overseas, I became more and more weary of the poor content on AFN and finally purchased an MP3 player so I could listen to better.

Because the Apple iPod quickly attained a position of dominance in the MP3 player industry and Apple came up with a great, simple way for users to listen to content, the process of "broadcasting" audio and video content via Web download has come to be known as Podcasting.  This article will cover, soup to nuts, what podcasting is and how you, your church, or your organization can both use and/or publish your own Podcasts.

Professional Website Design

In my discussion of html editors, I stress that building a professional web page with good functionality and "feel" is not something that should be left to an amateur.  If an organization is serious about their online presence then they need to consider how that presence will reflect upon them when people visit their site.  When I am researching companies on the web, my immediate impression of them is formed by the quality of their website.  If the site is cheesy and amateurish then, consciously or not, people are less likely to assume the company is professional on first impression.  For example, in my extensive search of Web Hosting and Domain Registration companies, I found a number of companies that had decent offerings but their website had that "...I'm running this company out of my basement..." feel.  If a company cannot put forth the effort or cannot afford a good website what makes me think I can trust them with my data?

When you register a new domain name, the domain name is given default nameserver information by the domain company you register the domain with or by the hosting company who you bought the domain through.  A nameserver is shorthand for domain nameserver.  Every domain on the internet, in the ICANN registry, has attributes called nameservers.  The nameservers information is, in some sense, a map or directions that tells the internet:

"Go to this domain name server and they'll be able to tell you where to go to find my internet files..."

When you establish an internet account with a hosting company to have them host a domain for you, what is really happening on their servers is they set up a directory on their server called "yourdomain.com".  In order for your domain to actually work, however, you have to set the nameserver information to their nameserver information which, in turn, points browsers to your directory once they reach the nameserver on their end

When you register your new domain with a domain registrar the control panel for that domain hosting account provides many features that are free with the service.  Among these features is the ability for domain redirection.

When you first register the domain with the registrar, the registrar will set up the DNS entry for that domain to point to them.  In layman's terms this means that if somebody types www.yourdomain.com then that domain is set up to point to their service.  In order to point it to a web host or company server you have to edit the nameserver (DNS) settings for that domain through the control panel.

Let's say you cannot afford a web host or your own DNS and server farm and still want your domain to point to (redirect) a web page you've developed.  Perhaps you're a small Church and your website is at http://www.aol.com/~smithrj because you got free web space from your ISP and that's all you can afford.  You can still purchase a domain name for less than $10 a year and use domain redirection to a free web page so you can advertise your church website

Many do not understand the capabilities that come free with their domain and take advantage of them.  How many times have you visited a site for www.localcompany.com and in the Contact Us page the sales or customer service personnel have e-mail addresses like joesmith@aol.com?  It certainly is not the main measure of the quality of the business but the Average Joe is probably thinking, "Geez, what is that, their personal e-mail address?"  Why not use domain email which is free with every hosting account?

The bottom line is that if you have paid money to own a domain than you should, at the least, buy from a domain registrar that offers e-mail forwarding for their accounts.  Further, many web hosting providers include one domain registration with their setup (many of the those rated here) and you have another avenue to have a unique domain email address.

What is Reseller Hosting?

If you are in the market for web hosting services and have been doing some searching on the Internet you have likely run across companies offering reseller hosting.  Many companies offer both shared hosting and reseller hosting among their "product" offerings.

To keep things simple, my main web hosting rating list reviews what is commonly called shared web hosting.  These accounts are designed for individuals or companies who have no web hosting needs beyond hosting their own websites and offer limited or no web hosting services to other individuals or companies.  They are "shared" because many web hosting accounts exist on the servers at the web hosting company.  These shared accounts are perfectly adequate for most individuals or businesses - in fact, this website is on a shared account.