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?

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)

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. 

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

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:

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

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)

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.

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. 

Today, 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.

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. 

Plugins referenced:

• Toolset ($150)
• Gravity Forms ($199/year)

Our clients don’t care about right now. They care about moving their companies towards tomorrow. 

With that in mind, we are seeing 4 trends emerging that we are moving our clients towards.

1. Stripe – Payment processing is a big deal for many of our clients. They want credit card payments to be fast, simple, and at a low cost. That’s why we’re pumped to see Stripe emerge. While PayPal gets more complicated and Authorize.net gets more expensive Stripe is going the other way. They match PayPal’s prices while integrating better/easier than Authorize.net. Winner, winner chicken dinner in our books.
2. Membership – A year ago we have 1 membership site client. This year we have 4 sites with several more in development. We absolutely blame Seth Godin and his book Tribes for this. For those thinking it’s easy money… allow me to tell you the truth. Yes, it can become easy money. But the first 12-18 months is hard. Not everyone makes it, but if you can make it through The Dip, you’ll love it.
3. Mandrill – Nearly all of our web development is done using WordPress. And while WP uses a fairly reliable SMTP or php option for sending email, we’re starting to hear from our clients that they want something better, more styled, and trackable. They want to be assured that their receipts, notifications, and member emails are getting where they need to go, look good, and can be optimized. At this point we are testing Mandrill (by Mailchimp) on a few sites. It’s definitely worth the look. (An advanced add-on, not something most beginners/novices should attempt)
4. The death of frameworks – I was a monster fan of frameworks like Genesis and Thesis. But as we are out building sites we’re just not seeing the effort being worth the payoff anymore. (We’ve found Thesis 2.0 to be completely unusable. What a shame.) Even though both frameworks now support child  themes, it just isn’t worth it anymore. Instead, we are using more premium templates and customizing them. Or, we are starting to think that WordPress’s default theme, Twenty Twelve, is an excellent framework for building child themes on. (The Jetpack integration with Twenty Twelve makes this much more enticing.)

What are trends in WordPress and design that you are seeing in your work?

I’m glad I wasn’t alone in my head scratching the new, random process blue dot, logo for USA Today.

Clearly, the have Google Doodle envy.

Also interesting to me, their press release didn’t include the new logo… and the website their press release was featured on still has the old logo.

C’mon people.

ht to The Colbert Report

As I’m working with clients, particularly those new to WordPress, I’m constantly introducing them to the concept of having a mobile motive in their design. Statistically, most of the sites we build are being view anywhere from 30% – 70% by a small screen. Whether that’s a phone or a tablet the reality is that people are using their mobile devises in their day-to-day browsing. In many of my clients’ sites I’m seeing Safari as the #1 or #2 browser and the reason for that is the iPhone and iPad. 

What’s a responsive designed theme?

In short, it’s a theme that automatically adjusts the theme based on the size of the screen that is viewing it. Every time a site loads on a device there is an exchange of information… and one of those things that your device asks a server is, “How big is that screen, big papa?” In responsive design, when your device tells the server… “I’m 500 pixels wide, master” than the theme has a plan for that… it adjusts the design to fix that 500 pixels.

Is it expensive?

Actually, no. Even WordPress’s new default theme for 2012 called… Twenty Twelve… is designed responsively. So really, you have no excuse. Most of the starter themes we are using today for our clients are responsively designed.

Should I convert or should I stay?

Yes, you should convert. The “old way” to handle small screens was to install on of the many mobile plugins. But now that responsive design is taking over and is so cheap, you should really think about moving to a responsive theme.

Want to get started? Contact us or start a forum thread and I’ll be happy to give you some advice.

I’ve always wanted to try making a WordPress plugin. And while I’ve had a bunch of ideas for very complex plugins I thought it’d be fun to start off with something ridiculously fun & simple.

So here it is, friends. Our first plugin, totally free!

Hello Darth

Download & Install from the WordPress repository

Suggestions & Support

Description

This little plugin is in homage to my geek friends who love to hate Lord Vader. When activated you will randomly see a quote from Darth Vader’s IMDB page in the upper right of your admin screen on every page.

How Does it Work?

• After you install and activate the plugin it’s super simple.
• All it does is add a Darth Vader quote to the top of your admin area, it’s like a subversive joke celebrating your dominance over the internet.

Screenshots

Future Development

HT to Matt Mullenberg for the original code.

This Super Bowl ad gets to the point. You can’t just throw money at a problem and expect it to solve your problem. 

Here are some commons mistakes I see all the time with small businesses & non-profits.

• Counting list/following growth as fiscal growth
• Confusing increased activity with increased revenue
• Investing in what worked yesterday with what will work tomorrow
• Building a brand vs. building sales
• Developing a feedback channel vs. building a marketing channel
• Using marketing and sales as synonyms

A broken strategy, no matter how well funded or how well hyped, is still a broken strategy. Investing in your past will never lead you to your future. And confusing hype with sales will never pay off.

Some small businesses are small because their niche` and product is meant to be small. Other organizations want to be big and see their offerings as game changers… but internal attitudes, struggles, and politics keep them small.

Personally, I like my work measured on things I can count. Revenue, transactions, deadlines met, human impact, on and on. I am not satisfied with hype. I’m not satisfied with increased activity or engagement. And I’m certainly not excited about the amount of money a project costs.

But I am satisfied and excited by results.

Stop throwing money at your problems! Instead, do the hard work to fix what is broken.

We are looking for 2-3 new suite mates for this fall starting September 1st.

If you are a creative freelancer looking for a fun, creative space to work… Let me know. We offer 2 types of sub-leasing in our Little Italy office. We have permanent desks for those looking to be in the office a lot and we have part-time space for those looking for a place to work about 10 days per month.

A little more info… 

Adam (McLane Creative’s Principal) sub-leases space from Boost Collaborative. [These are great friends of ours, we love what they do!]

This month we moved into a new, more fun and artsy space on Kettner, in Little Italy. The new space is filled with life and vibrancy to it. Wide hallways, high ceilings, antique wood floors. Literally, it’s an art gallery.

My suite has room for 3-4 desks. We also have full access to the conference room space for meetings, the common space for hanging out and breaks, etc. The whole space is equipped with wifi, bean bags, couches, and a laid back San Diego attitude. We even keep a local brew on tap because it’s beer-thirty somewhere all the time. 

Pricing & How it works

Full-time space – $175/month 

This includes a permanent desk in the McLane Creative suite for one person, a key to the office so you can work there off hours, etc. You can be in the office whenever the building is open so if you like to work late or on Saturday’s that’s no problem. You can keep a limited amount of stuff there. (Small filing cabinet, small bookshelf, whatever fits in your spot) Full-time folks also have access to schedule the conference room when its available and basically have all the access you’d expect as a regular full-time person.

Part-time space – $95/month

This is what I call the “get me out of the house” plan. You can use the space 10 days per month during office hours. While you won’t have a permanent desk you’ll have a regular spot. You’ll be welcome and belong. You can schedule the conference space and, as long as space allows, you can store a few things in the office. Think of it as a coffee shop that never gets awkward, has a comfy chair, and allows you to leave your laptop laying around while you go to lunch.

Location & Parking

Little Italy is one of San Diego’s most distinctive, vibrant downtown neighborhoods. There’s tons of shops nearby. Tons of places to eat. There’s a wine bar and tea room on our block. And you’re literally about .5 miles from San Diego International Airport.

If you are willing to walk 3 blocks there is free street parking. There’s also metered parking and pay lots within a couple of blocks. 

Terms

Full-time – 3 month minimum, then month-to-month as long as you tell us by the 15th of the month.

Part-time – Month-to-month. Just let us know by the 15th of the month if you don’t plan on coming back so we can fill your spot.

Interested? Let me know. We’d love to show you the place, meet, and decide if it’d work to have you join us!

Last Saturday, I woke up to an appeal from my good friend and collaborator, Dave Palmer. He as moving his family from San Diego to Nashville and was stuck in rural Texas. His truck repeatedly overheated and it’d gotten to the point where his 80 year old dad had fallen ill from the lack of air conditioning. And U-Haul was beyond slow in their response.

So we made some coffee and tossed out a few tweets. Here’s what our mini-campaign, dubbed #freepalmer, posted over a few hours:

tweet 1 - I need your help. Please RT and/or post your own tweet about my next tweet. We need help getting a companies attention ASAP.
tweet 2 - Hey @UHaul_Cares! Your truck has @davepalmerinc stranded in the desert. He needs help ASAP. #freepalmer bitly.com/N0j8ny pls RT
tweet 3 - Hey @penskemoving. Be a hero, rescue @davepalmerinc. @Uhaul_Cares has left him in the deserts of Texas. #freeplamer http://bitly.com/N0j8ny
tweet 4 - Hey @budgettrucknews Be a hero, rescue @davepalmerinc. @Uhaul_Cares has left him stranded in Texas. #freeplamer bitly.com/N0j8ny
tweet 5 – Hey @Uhaul_Cares! Are you listening? One of your customers is stranded in Texas. Step up and do the right thing. #freepalmer http://bitly.com/N0j8ny
tweet 6 – Hey @RyderPR! Be a hero, rescue @davepalmerinc. @Uhaul_Cares has left him in the deserts of Texas. #freeplamer http://bitly.com/N0j8ny
tweet 7 - .@Uhaul_Cares, either do the right thing and help Dave or change your twitter handle. Need ideas? #freepalmer http://bitly.com/N0j8ny
tweet 8 – Hey @abfupackmoving! Be a hero, rescue @davepalmerinc. @Uhaul_Cares has left him in the deserts of Texas. #freeplamer http://bitly.com/N0j8ny
tweet 9 – Hey @pods! Be a hero, rescue @davepalmerinc. @Uhaul_Cares has left him in the deserts of Texas. #freeplamer http://bitly.com/N0j8ny

In fairness, we weren’t the only one who jumped on the #freepalmer bandwagon as a bunch of Dave’s friends started tweeting, facebooking, and alerting media. Hey, we’re marketing people… this is what we do!

But the results were fantastic. In about 4 hours we had 380 specific tweets, thousands of retweets, and with the hashtag totally followers (potential reach) of over 1 million. The response from U-Haul was fairly quick because of the volume of attention. Just as it was really building up steam to be something that might actually trend on Twitter, U-Haul called Dave and began a process of fixing the situation. Part of the strategy with tweeting U-Haul’s competitors was to add a layer of desperation because no brand wants to be seen as losing face publicly. (@penskemoving offered to step in and fix the whole thing and about 15 minutes later U-Haul had a fix in motion. Coincidence? Doubt it.)

Lesson learned: If the cause is good and the message is clear, there’s no such thing as a bad day for social good to happen in the social arena. I never would have sat in a strategy meeting and picked a Saturday. But the immediacy of both the need and the need for a response made this totally work.

Photo credit: Rosaura Ochoa via Flickr (Creative Commons)