Tutorial

3 Essentials for a Church Site Built on WordPress

by Adam McLane on May 5, 2013 · 7 comments

A quick look at our portfolio will reveal that we build our fair share of church sites on WordPress. We’ve average about one per month these days… so we’ve learned a thing or two along the way.

Here’s a quick inventory of essentials

 

1. Cover the basics on the homepage. 

Your homepage is what your church sign or yellow page ad used to be.  The vast majority of people who check out your church will first look you up online. With that in mind, I want the homepage to purely be for visitors. Does it communicate who we are and more importantly where we are?

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2. Make it easy for the staff to update it.

When you boil it down, church websites are pretty simple. There are some static pages, there are some forms for contact, sign-ups, or giving, usually there is a blog of some sort, there’s a calendar, and there is a sermon archive/podcast.

But most important to remember? That there is a staff member who will be tasked with upkeep of this site who isn’t a web developer.

Gravity Forms ($39 per site)

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What I like about Gravity Forms is that it’s super easy for the end-user to edit existing forms or create brand new ones. It’s all drag-n-drop via the dashboard. You can build-up Gravity Forms with add-ons to do all sorts of things from hosting surveys to event registration to taking donations. It’s a must-have for a church website using WordPress. 

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Custom Post Types – I use Toolset to create custom post types and templates. (Types is free, Views is $95, the full set is $149)

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I use custom post types to create functionality for unique tasks. Things like a staff page or a sermon repository. But you could create a custom post type for all sorts of things you’d like to display that gets added to or edited over time. The reason you do this? It makes things easy and efficient for the staff member keeping the site updated.

For instance, this is how a new sermon gets added:

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Events Calendar Pro - About half church sites just embed Google Calendar, the other half use ECP, a premium WordPress plugin. ($50 per site)

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What I like about ECP is that it’s easy to set-up events for the site admin. And the public display can start as a list of events or a calendar before drilling down into individual events.

Picking ECP versus Google Calendars is really just a matter of the staff team. My advice is to use Google Calendars if your church is already using it. But both options allow people to add items to their Google Calendars, Outlook, or iCal.

Powerpress – For managing your podcast and media feeds. (free)

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One of the most common features that churches can’t seem to figure out on their own is a podcast. Distributing sermons is something every church wants to do… and Powerpress makes it pretty simple by adding a form to the bottom of every post. It couldn’t get much easier… upload your MP3 via WordPress’s core media library and drop the link into the box.

3. Make it responsive. I make sure the website looks great on a mobile browser.

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We all need to face the reality that about 50% of web visitors are viewing our site on either a mobile phone or a tablet. So, as of about a year ago, every one of our sites is built using responsive design. My goal is to make the site look great on whatever type of device you have. Using CSS, you can make a site respond to various screen sizes pretty easily. Yes, it’s extra hassle. But it’s totally worth it.

Questions? Leave us a comment?

Want us to build a site for your church? Contact us. 

Tips for creating and remembering unique passwords for every app

by Adam McLane on March 2, 2013 · 2 comments

evernote_logoToday, Evernote reported that they’ve been hacked and are forcing millions of users to create a new password.

This is a great reminder of a couple things:

  • There’s no such thing as absolute security on the internet, so never post anything online that would hurt you if it were public. 
  • It’s a good idea to have a unique password for each web app, so if one is hacked you’re not giving away the keys to your digital kingdom. I’ll teach you a simple way to remember them all below.
  • As much as you can depend on Keychain or an app to store your passwords, it’s a good idea to have the most important ones memorized.

Tip for creating and remembering passwords for every web app

Millions of people will reset their Evernote password today. But, if they use that password for everything, they really need to reset a whole bunch of passwords. And that’s a royal pain.

I use a simple naming convention to keep a separate password for every app. Here’s how it works:

Start with a base password, like this: holyCR@p

Then just add the name of the app you are logging into in the same way for every password, like this: holyCR@p.evernote or holyCR@p.wordpress or holyCR@p.facebook or holyCR@p.huffpo

Simple, easy to create, easy to remember, and absolutely unique to each place you create a password. This is especially useful for things you rarely log into like your airlines frequent flyer program or your gym profile or Myspace.

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Want More Help?

If you’re looking for more tips on internet safety, specifically as it relates to family life, check out the book I co-authored with Mark Oestreicher, A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Social Media. 

Creating Staff Pages with Special Post Types

by Adam McLane on December 2, 2012 · 0 comments

Plugins referenced:

Adding PayPal Pro to WishList Member sites

by Adam McLane on June 11, 2012 · 3 comments

Today I launched a new development client site, ParentMinistry.net. It’s a subscription based site delivering premium content built on the WishList Member plugin. (Theme by StudioPress)

As I was doing the implementation I discovered a sticky little issue. While there was a built-in integration with PayPal all of their payment gateways for creating a membership account took them off of the site to pay. In the support forums the official answer was unclear, but it was over a relatively minor and perceived PCI Compliance issue. I kind of read that as an excuse because I know that other membership plugins like S2Member Pro and even Cart66 allow an integration with PayPal Pro for paid member registration.

The bottom line for us was that we didn’t want to risk the loss of a single conversion on this side-step to PayPal. A lot could go wrong with that step. They could think they need to create a PayPal account. They could have a PayPal account but not remember the password. Or they might have their credit card associated with another account and get frustrated. While it might seem relatively small to experienced PayPal-ers this step will lead to a lower conversion rate.

More steps + 3rd party payment process = bad conversion rate

My philosophy of payment processes is that I want to make it as safe, simple as possible. I’ll do just about anything to take them from the “buy now” to putting in their credit card number in 1-step.

How We Solved This Problem

I am bypassing WishList Member’s process altogether. Instead, we set-up a form using Gravity Forms. We have the developer license which gives us access to the User Registration & PayPal Pro add-ons. We set-up a sales page with a form that creates a WordPress user account and processes their payment.

When the customer completes the transaction, I am using the Gravity Forms built-in notifications to send them a welcome email / receipt combo message. Instead of just getting the form sent to our email box, we are sending it to ZenDesk to create a ticket alerting us to go into WishList and change their account from non-member to member. Easy peasy. 

A Hands On Solution

Now, this isn’t perfect. The dream of every membership site is that it’s 100% hands off. This is not a hands off solution because it creates a tiny task for each new member. (Adding a member to a group in WishList takes about 15 seconds, not much of a task!)

At the same time we are drastically increasing two factors which I think will not only help with conversions, but membership retention.

  1. It’s showing off our integrated approach to customer service. (No one wants to by truly anonymous on a membership site)
  2. It’s a 1-step payment process, eliminating the silliness of going to PayPal or another payment gateway.

Was this useful for you? Please leave me a comment with questions or feedback.

Adding SSL to make WordPress secure

by Adam McLane on December 24, 2011 · 0 comments


WordPress isn’t just for blogging anymore. More and more we are getting requests to build full-on CMS installations with WordPress, complete with

complex ecommerce, donation, and reservation systems.

One problem we’ve encountered is the need to make sites secure to receive personal information and process transactions. Savvy consumers know that when they enter their credit card information they should see https and not just http. (The S stands for secure) This verifies that the site certificate owner is who they say they are as well as ensures users that the information is going directly to the server they want it to go to and not to a third-party who may be selling/stealing/harvesting their personal information.

Installing a site certificate (SSL) is pretty straight-forward. In fact, most hosts will do it for you for a fee. (A shortcut we usually take advantage of to save time.)

But getting the SSL to work correctly can be time consuming since WordPress makes it so easy to add plugins and Javascripts which may cause the site certificate to have errors.

2 Main Options

  1. Secure the whole site. It’s pretty easy to activate that. Just go to your General Settings and add https under the site name where http currently is. This will make your entire site default to https. The problem is quickly going to become that you’ll see errors on the SSL because not everything on your site is secure. (Yet) To remove the errors you’ll need to work through each error and resolve it. This can be time consuming and annoying. (To say the least.) I’d  recommend this option only if you’re starting from scratch. Converting a site with thousands of hard-coded http links will drive you insane. The quickest way to fix that would be to do it via MySql. (Expert level)
  2. Secure only the pages you need to have secure. I prefer this option. Install the plugin WordPress HTTPS, activate it, and chose the posts/pages you want to secure individually. Typically, I only secure pages where customers will transmit personal information. (Checkout pages, reservation pages, contact pages, etc.) You will still need to troubleshoot errors, but the process of eliminating these errors should be shorter because you can isolate that page.

Tips for fixing the errors

  • You’re probably going to need to swap out some plugins. Every time I’ve done this the problem is social media plugins which link to insecure pages. (cough, Facebook is tracking your every click, cough cough.)
  • Open the page with errors in Google Chrome. Go to view>developer>developers tools>console. This will list the errors the SSL is having on that page. Troubleshoot those errors.
  • You’ll need to wait a few hours before the red SSL warnings turn green. But if Google Chrome says you’re clean then you are good to go.

Need help? Leave a question in the Help Center. (free) We’re also happy to do this for you. (not free) Contact usand we’ll set up an estimate.

How to add the Google +1 button to your WordPress blog

by Adam McLane on June 18, 2011 · 6 comments

Google +1You may have noticed the Google +1 button showing up on your favorite websites and blogs. (e.g. Mashable) This is Google’s response to Facebook’s über popular Like button that appears on just about every website on the planet.

There are a two plugin options for adding it to your WordPress self-hosted blog.

  1. Install a Google +1 plug-in (Simple enough)
  2. Install the AddThis plugin, which includes Google +1 along with a myriad of other services. (Also simple, free account required)

But if you are looking for a little more control than a plugin can offer you, here’s how to add it by yourself.

Level of difficulty: Easy

Time Needed: Less than 10 minutes

Note: If you use the Thesis framework, do not use this tutorial. Also, if you upgrade your theme you may need to repeat this procedure.

Step 1

From your dashboard, scroll down to the Appearance section and click Editor.

Step 2

From the Theme Editor, select your Header file. (Default theme Twenty Ten shown below, most themes have a similar file.)

Step 3

Find the </head> tag. Insert the code below in the line immediately before </head>

To save, click Update File.

Note: You can acquire this code directly from Google here.

Step 4

This step varies from theme to theme, but for most you will select the Main Index Template to edit next. (Most likely alternative is Comments.)

Step 5

Decide where you’d like to put the Google +1 button. I like to place things like this between the main content and the comments, but you can move it around wherever you’d like and it should work the same.

For Twenty Ten, to place the button between the blog post content and the comments, I pasted the code below just below the <!– #comment –> tag.

Once you’ve done that, click Update File and you are done!

Note: To see all of the size options, visit the Google +1 page for webmasters.

BONUS

Why stop there? Why not add a little McLane Creative Monster Sauce to the thing by including a Facebook Like Button and Twitter Retweet Button? Swap out the code below for Step 5 to get the results above.

Questions? Leave a comment or head over to the WordPress Help Center and start a topic.

Like this post? Help me out by giving it a Google +1, Retweet, or Like.

How to back-up your self-hosted WordPress blog

by Adam McLane on April 2, 2011 · 9 comments

Introduction

I’ve built and run dozens of WordPress websites. (Blogs, ecommerce sites, business homepages, etc.) As a content management system, (CMS) WordPress is famously stable. Even when there are major problems you can almost always fully recover. That said, it is a good practice to back-up your self-hosted WordPress blog occasionally. If nothing else it will keep you familiar how WordPress works. Additionally, since this procedure is the first half of moving your blog to a different host/server altogether– it’s a good practice to get into.

Level of difficulty: Medium

Time needed: 15-45 minutes

Here is a  tutorial for backing up your self-hosted blog if your host uses cPanel: (Pretty standard)

Step 1: Login to your cPanel


*Trick: Remembering your cPanel login URL is a pain in the neck. So if you can’t figure it out, just go to your primary domain and add /cpanel (Example: http://yourdomain.com/cPanel)

Step Two: Open phpMyAdmin

Tip: Most of the time when you open this it will log you in automatically. If it doesn’t, you may need to find the database login/password in the original email sent to you when you set up your hosting account or contact your hosts customer service. If you want to do this yourself, find and copy locally  a file called “wp-config.php” using an FTP client. Open that with TextEdit (Mac) or Notepad (Windows) and you will see the name of your database, the database login name, and your database password.

Here’s the link to phpMyAdmin’s website if you want to learn more.

Step 3: Select your database from left side panel. (Single click)

Tip: Refer to the file you downloaded in Step 2, wp-config.php, for the database name.

Step 4: Navigate to the export tab

Step 5: Select all tables, export as SQL


Step 6: Scroll to the bottom, double check all of the settings, press go

Step 7: Compress the file, store it somewhere safe

Windows users: You can do the same thing with WinZip.

Tip: I store these files using Dropbox. That way they are easily accessible to me anywhere I have an internet connection, and also double-backed-up, safe, and secure in the cloud.

Step 8: Create a blog back-up folder, back-up your files locally using an FTP client

Step 9: Compress the blog back-up folder and save it somewhere safe.

Local back-up vs. Server side back up

McLane Creative clients whom we offer hosting enjoy the protection of a nightly back-up. At about 2:00 AM PST each night all of the data, databases, and structures are automatically backed up and securely stored on our server. Most webhosts offer this automatically. (We recommend Hostgator if you are looking for cheap, reliable, shared hosting.)

You can rest easy that your blog is safe, in general. At the same time, especially if you are in a shared hosting environment, your site could be infected with a trojan virus that won’t be discovered for several months, your host may suddenly shut down, be sold, or otherwise become unavailable.

That’s why I recommend manually backing up your WordPress blog quarterly. If anything happens, no matter how unlikely it is, you know that you have your blog backed up. And you can only ever lose what is between your last backup and your next.

A Warning about Back-up Plugins

Aren’t there plugins that do this for you? YES! It might be tempting to skip this altogether and think that installing a plugin is all you need to do. Two things to think about which are flawed in thinking that way. First, it’s really just doing what your host is already doing. Making a back-up of your stuff and sticking in on your server. If that thing goes down, having a back-up on your server leaves you just as screwed as if you didn’t have a back-up. Second, those plugins are going to use a lot of resources– which might, just say, cause a problem with your database! Not a good idea.

Congrats! Your blog is now safer than ever. Now mark your calendar and do it again in 3 months.

Getting Started on a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog

by Adam McLane on December 27, 2010 · 0 comments

Because I’m a daily blogger and I’ve written quite a bit about social media strategy, I tend to attract questions from beginners. (Which is awesome!) I thought it might be helpful to post my most frequent questions so I can easily refer people to this post as opposed to retyping it.

Q: I want to get started in blogging, and I want to have a self-hosted blog. How do I get started?

A: I presume you mean for free? Here’s my free advice for getting started.

  1. I’d recommend creating a hosting account with Hostgator. The hatchling plan is probably just fine if you’re just doing a blog. (For busineeses, such as running an ecommerce site, contact me and I’ll make a better recommendation based on your needs.) If you use coupon code “mclanecreative” when you create your account, you’ll save $10 on your hosting and I get a $50 for the referral. If you are going to do more than one domain, you’ll want the “baby” plan. (I have several high traffic blog clients with Hostgator and they are very happy.)
  2. Once you chose a domain and create the account, you can login to cPanel and use Simplescripts or Fantastico (They are buttons, usually near the bottom) to create a self-hosted WordPress site. Just follow the dialog and it’ll walk you through the process.
  3. Once the WP install is done, then you’ll want to look for a theme. You can do that either through your blog (see the appearance tab) or at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ I’d recommend any of the top themes to start. You won’t look like a buster and they are probably easy to customize.
  4. Once that is set, then create a solid about page and start blogging.  I’ve written a lot about how to establish a voice. The Fall 2010 editions of Immerse Journal have solid tutorials for getting started.

That is the basics. I hope that helps! Leave a comment if you have a question on this post. If you’re interested in hiring me to help you get started, please contact me.