Church Websites: Getting Beyond A CookieCutter Website.

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Church WebsitesGetting Beyond A Cookie-Cutter
Website.

• Presented ByJohn B. Abela

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Session Topics

• Options Build it yourself, or pay someone else?
• DIY What You Need To Know To Get Start.
• DIY Ways To Save Yourself Some Money.
• Outsourcing Some Things You Really Need To Know
  About Outsourcing.
• Outsourcing Questions To Ask Yourself And Your
  Development Firm.

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Build it yourself, or pay someone else?

• Reasons To Build It Yourself
• Easier On The Pocket Book
• Customized Feature
• Total Control Over Content Code
• Reasons To Outsource
• Less Learning Curve
• (Possibly) Better Design Code
• Better Church Oversight ( makes things happen)

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DIY What You Need To Know To Get Started (and
before you start)

• Board Approval
• Blueprint (aka flowchart)
• Secretarial Assistance
• Photographer
• Experience With Code Development
• Experience With Graphical Development
• Experience With Setbacks Delays

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DIY Ways To Save Yourself Some Money.

• Integrate Open Source Software
• cms drupal, mamboforums phorum, phpbb,
  vbulletingalleries flickr.com api, lightbox
  jsaudio/video loudblog, youtubeblogging
  christianblog.com api, wordpress
• Buy Older Software Versions From Ebay
• Browsers FireFox, Internet Explorer (ver 6 7),
  Opera.
• Text editors Notepad, EditPlus, TextEdit(mac).
• WYSIWYG Dreamweaver, FrontPage.
• File Transfer Protocol CuteFTP, WinSCP, SSH
  Secure Shell, FireFTP.
• Graphics Photoshop (expensive), Fireworks
  (cheaper).
• HostingI honestly dont know a way dont do
  advertisements and dont do cheap!

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Outsourcing Some Things You Really Need To Know
About Outsourcing.

• Outsourcing Will Take Awhile!
• Outsourcing Does Cost More!
• Outsourcing Typically Produces Better Results!
• Outsourcing Can Be A Royal Pain!
• Outsourcing Is Demanding (quotes, text, images,
  etc)
• Outsourcing Firms Can Be Demanding Strict
• Outsourcing Can Appease Hesitant Board Members.
• Outsourcing Offers Long-Term Website Management.

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Outsourcing Questions To Ask Yourself And Your
Development Firm.

• Questions To Ask Yourself

• Do you have the resources to pull together all
  that a Development Firm is going to want and
  need?
• Do you have the ability to develop flowcharts?
• Do you have the budget for contracting a
  Development Firm?

• Questions To Ask The Development Firm

• Do they have contracts and what do they cover and
  not cover? (add-on features can kill your pocket
  book)
• Do you have to provide photographs or do they
  send a shooting crew out?
• What internal standards do they have to meet the
  timeline? (and what in their contract guarantees
  you a timeline?)
• How many template designs do they offer in the
  initial package price?

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Thank You For Coming!Please try to make it to
my next session on Christian Blogging !!