In this series of articles we are discussing the basics of starting a web ministry. In this article we will talk about WordPress themes and plugins.
One of the advantages of using WordPress in a self hosted format (this was discussed in a previous article in this Starting a Web Ministry basics series) is the availability of wide variety of themes for your site. A WordPress theme is the design of your blog. There are thousands of themes for WordPress, many of them are offered for free. A nice looking theme will have a significant impact on your site. A well designed theme will also make starting a web ministry a lot easier. There are also themes available which you can purchase for $50 (fifty) to $250 (two hundred fifty) or more. We have found that the themes from Solostreamhave worked really well for us. The themes from Solostream.com are attractive, easily customized, and very easy to work with. This Christian Blog site is using a theme called WP-Vybe from Solostream. If you want to check out the themes that are offered just click here to view more details.
Once you have a theme in place you can really fine tune your WordPress web ministry blog by adding plugins. There are thousands of plugins which are available for WordPress and they are all offered for free. You can find a plugin to do almost anything you can imagine on your web ministry blog. We use plugins to provide a verse of the day, backup the site automatically, make it easy and safe for people to contact us, make it easy and safe for people to donate to us, and more. You can check out the plugin directory at WordPress.org to get an idea of the plugins that are available. Installing a good theme and some nice plugins will really make your Web Ministry stand out.
12Apr2009 |
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Continued
In this series of articles we are discussing the basics of starting a web ministry. While the free blog services we talked about in our last article will be enough for some web ministries, there are many who will be better served by registering a domain name and getting a web host for their web ministry. In this article we will talk about the process of selecting and registering a domain name. A domain name is the address that locates your site on the Internet. You can purchase and register a domain name for about $10/year.
Before you choose a domain name there a few things to consider. A domain name needs to be specific to your topic or ministry. Do not use abbreviations or nick names that no one knows. You want a domain name that has potential to create the most amount of traffic to your site. A well chosen domain name can have a big impact on the search engines. For example, let’s say we were starting a Web Ministry for the First Christian Church of Fairbanks. Do not get a domain name like FCCF.com. You would be better off getting “FirstChristianChurchFairbanks” or “FairbanksChristianChurch”. Why? It seems that it would be easier for people to type in FCCF.com than FirstChristianChurchFairbanks.com. The issue is about how people who don’t know your domain name find your web ministry site. With the right domain name, people could find you by searching for Fairbanks Churches or First Christian Church or Churches in Fairbanks. Since your domain name contains those words it has the potential of showing up on the search engines.
Once you have an idea about what domain name you would like, you have to see if its available. To do this, I like to use Good News Domains (www.goodnewsdomains.com).
Once you are at the Good News Domain site look for the “Start a Domain Name search” box:
Now just type in the domain name you would like to have, like this:
If the domain name you want is available, you will see the following screen:
It the domain name you want is not available, Good News Domains will provide you with some suggestions. It may take a little imagination but keep searching until you fin the right domain name for your web ministry. Once you have your domain name, follow the instructions on the Good News Domain site to get it registered. Once you have your domain name, you will need to get a web host. We will talk about that in our next article in this series on Starting a Web Ministry Basics.
12Jan2009 |
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Continued
A Web Ministry provides an opportunity to not only impact your church but also the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In this series of articles called Starting a Web Ministry Basics, we will provide you with information to help you get your web ministry started. Let’s start with what might be the simplest form of web ministry, a free blog. There are a lot of ways to start a free blog on the Internet, but there are two that we particularly like. Our two favorite ways are Blogger (www.blogger.com):
and Wordpress.com (www.wordpress.com)
Both of these free services will offer you a easy to use and cost free beginning for your web ministry. As you surf the “NET” you will find a lot of ministries that use one or the other of these options very successfully. For many of you, one of these options will be all you will ever need for your web ministry.
There will be some, however, that will need an option with a little more flexibility to accomplish their web ministry goals. For those of you who are in this category, it will be beneficial to register a domain name and pay for web hosting. This is still a very affordable process that will cost between $60 - 100/year. Your web ministry can be set up in such a way that it becomes a revenue stream which can easily cover the cost of a domain name and web hosting. We will begin to write about this process more in future articles in this series.
For ministries that are desiring a web ministry that really hits the ground running, we would encourage you to check out our sister sites, Web Ministry and Church Webmaster to check out some of the services that are avaialble yo you.
For now, we would encourage you to start by trying out one of the free blogging options. Each of the sites will provide you with easy to follow information and you can get your web ministry started in a mater of minutes. We look forward to partnering with you in advancing the Kingdom of God with the World Wide Web!
30Dec2008 |
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Continued
There are a lot of options when it comes to starting a web ministry. Perhaps one of the best ...
I have a domain name,TaylorMadeMinistries.com, where I am interested in starting a web ministry that will provide Christian based information ...