What do think should be included on the home page of your church website?  How should it be displayed?  What options for connection should be most obvious?  What are your goals when setting up your home page? How effective is your home page?  How do you measure it's effectiveness?  Check out what the folks at East Valley Nazarene have done with their homepage.  It's simple and beautiful and I think you are going to love it.

The folks at NorthPoint Church have done a great job communicating to their community with their e-newsletter.  Here are a few things we love about it:

1. Great Content - Each newsletter includes a personal reflection from one of the church staff.  It's typically a few paragraphs long.  It's sometimes informational and other times inspirational.  
    
2. Upcoming Events - They included a simple list of upcoming events.  The list includes dates, times, locations, and links for more info.  It's just enough to inform but not overwhelm.
    
3. Options for Connection - They provide obvious links to connect on Facebook, Twitter, iTunes and email.  They also have their service times and a link to a map prominantly displayed.
    
4. Clear and Beautiful Layout - They layout the newsletter to match their website's look and feel.  It's clean and simple, and it's great branding.
    
5. One Click Share Options - When viewing the newsletter in a browser, you can share it via Facebook, Twitter, or Google + wtih a simple click.

What are you doing to communicate with your people?  Are you using e-newsletter?  Has it been effective?  

Most of what we do every day at SnapShot Web could be described as helping churches, ministries, and sometimes small businesses get setup with affordable, great looking, very robust, and easy to manage websites.  When we set up a new website, I always tell customers and potential customers that the templates we start with are fully customizable.  What this means is that you can simply look for the website template that's closest to what you have in mind and we'll help you make changes to the images, colors, layout, etc. so that it's a perfect fit for what you are looking for.  That's most of what we do.

Occassionally though (it's actually becoming rather frequent) we'll have someone approach us with the website design already complete.  Not only do they know exactly what they are looking for but they have the design already packaged in layered Photoshop file.  These people want us to do two things for them:

1. Take their design and make it work - make the rollover images work, program the dropdown menus, add links, videos, mp3s, slideshows, etc.
2. Set it up in such a way that they can easily manage it themselves - this way they don't have to pay or wait every time they want to add a new page or update content.

We recently finished a custom project in this arena at live.simplyyouthministry.com and I thought you might like to check it out.  Click around the site and let us know what you think.  We've got a handful of others that I'll post on the blog in the coming weeks. 

Aliso Creek Presbyterian Church has put together a custom church website using the SnapShot Web tools.  One thing that you'll notice as you click through their church website is that they have some amazing and powerful photographs on every page.  These aren't your typical stock photos of generic smiling families.  Instead, they hired a local photographer to come out to their church and take some shots of people in their community.

The effect of a few good photos for your church website is priceless.  Take a look at www.acpc.net and let us know what you think.

The good folks at Trinity United Methodist Church in Elkhart, IN have had a SnapShot Website for their church for the last 5 years.  Just this past month though, they decided it was time for a major redesign of this church website. Since they are using the SnapShot tools to manage their site, the entire redisign process took only a matter of hours as they switched to a different template, make a few custom changes to the new template, then clicked through each page of their site to make sure everything was in place.

Check out the new look and feel at www.3umc.org.

The fine folks at Yorba Linda Friends Church recently launched a custom SnapShot Website.  When the new site launched, they put out a pretty great video to announce it.  They've done it again.  This time they have set up an amazing mobile app for Apple, Android, and Blackberry through the R04R promo.  You can check out the mobile app at friendschurchyl.com/mobile.

Just like last time, they put together a slick video to announce the app to their community and the world.

Want to setup a mobile presence for your church?  Sign up today.

The Student Ministry Website at First Baptist Church in Owensboro is very impressive.  Take a few minutes to click around the site and see what you think.  Here are the top 5 things that I love about it:

1. An Organized Home Page - When you pull up the home page you will see a simple welcome message, a slideshow with some of the latest announcements, a weekly schedule, and links to some of the most important places on the site.  It's clean and simple and easy to navigate.  
    
2. An Image Driven Bottom Navigation on Every Page - In the footer of every every page, you will see the phone number and address of the ministry as well as 6 images that link to things like facebook, twitter, the church site, a flyer for an upcoming event, etc.  Keeping these things available on every page, means that they are always only one click away.
   
   
3. Sub-Banners on Every Inner Page (almost) - On almost every page, you will notice an image that stretches across the top of the content area.  This image has the same footprint and it immediately tells you where you are on the site.  When I'm on the events page, I see the calendar sub banner.  When I'm on the student resourses page, I see the student resources sub banner.  It gives the site a uniform look and feel.
   
   
4. Creative Ways for Parents to Connect - Many people consider their youth ministry website to be a tool that is exlusively for their students.  The folks at  First Baptist Church in Owensboro have clearly structured the site in a way that makes it a great spot for parents as well.  The way they have done this is quite comprehensive.  They have a place for parents to be able to ask questions to the ministry team, an online discussion board where parents can interact with one another, a list of helpful parenting links, articles, and other resources, a regular newsletter, and even a place where parents can sign up for a parent Bible study with one of the student minsters.
    
5. Video and Social Integration - There are lots of videos on the site - embedded from both youtube and vimeo. This is a great way to draw people in, to allow for a creative outlet for students, and to make your site a bit more interactive and social (as people can share the videos with a single click.)

Take look around fbcstudentsonline.org and let us know what you think.

Friends Church in Yorba Linda just launched a new church website with the help of the SnapShot Web team.  As the new site went live, they put together a quick video to show at their services and online to let people know about the launch and new domain name.  It's a simple and clear 30 second video to point you to friendschurchyl.com.  Check it out.

What have you done to let people know about your church website?

Want to know why others are using SnapShot Web to manage their Church Websites?  Here's what a pastor from Hedgesville has to say about using SnapShot Web for the church website at Hedgesville Church:

Our church is located in Hedgesville, WV (Eastern Panhandle) and has been in this location now for about 34 years.  We are a very young church at heart with contemporary worship and very strong children, youth and young adult ministries. Our first goal is to serve our community and let them see the love of Christ in what we do not only what we say.  We love technology!  We try to squeeze every drop out of everything we have and Snapshot helps us do just that.

I am the Associate pastor and have been on staff going on ten years.  I lead our young adult ministry (HC Live) and handle all the technical stuff. (sound, lights, video, graphic design,computers, etc)

We use our church website as the front door of our church.  Visitors can get a feel of what our church is like while finding out info and schedules for all out ministries.  We also embed sermon archives and a live stream for our Sunday morning service.  This gives people a chance to experience a service before they get here.

We routinely update the schedules and announcements and sermon archives and we have totally changed the look of our site once since we have been with SnapShot Web.

We have had visitors attend out church expressly because they visited the website.  It's the first thing people looking for a church do when they come into a new community.  We have to do our best and SnapShot has made that easier for us to do in house instead of a big web design bill.

The first tip I can think of is to look around.  There are a ton of incredible looking church websites out there and you can get a feel for what is good and what's not.  I have found that it is pretty easy to customize snapshot to fit just about anything you want.  Don't try to come up with everything on your own.  If I like the way a website looks as soon as I see it then I try to look at WHY I like it and incorporate those principles into ours.  Chances are the really good websites at the really big churches cost a lot of money and I can get that look for a lot less as SnapShot Web is quite affordable.

Our team of people who head up our small groups usually change the info about their group activities themselves.  It is extremely easy to show people how to make basic changes to their pages.

One other thing!  I have been a customer of SnapShot Web for more than a couple of years now and the one thing that stands out is their customer support.  They get back with you quickly!  They have answered all my technical questions and have equipped me to make changes to our site for a very custom look.  The customer support is first class.

Chris Jones
Associate Pastor
Hedgesville Church

Check out this testimonial from a SnapShot User at Hayward Wesleyan Church.  Also be sure to take a look at their Youth Ministry Website and their Church Website.  You may get some great ideas on ways to take your own Church Website to a great new level.  Here's what Jeremy has to say:

I don't know about you, but I use the internet for almost everything. My personal and profession email, calendar, contacts, web searches, pictures, videos, etc are all online. If I need to know something, I google it. If I need a video clip, graphic, activity idea, inspiration for a teaching lesson, etc, I go online and search for it. Translate that to my local ministry context with youth and children: when people want to know what time an event is, or a Release Form they forgot to pick up at church, or how much an event costs, or what is my child learning about, or what music is my child singing, or who are these weird people at Hayward Wesleyan Church and why do they enjoy ministering with youth and children so much... they go to the internet.

Before we purchased SnapShot Web, we had a custom built website that wasn't very good. And when I say "we" it wasn't the youth and children's ministry, it was the church's main website. By the time the website went live most of the pics were outdated, content was no longer relevant (because it was outdated), and we didn't have a convenient and timely way to update content and events as needed. It wasn't user-friendly at all.

Enter SnapShot Web.  I discovered SnapShot Web through Simply Youth Ministry resources. I was drawn to the idea that we (in-house) would be able to create and maintain a website and its content ourselves without having to learn about CSS, HTML, Web Hosting, FTP, etc from scratch. SnapShot Web provides the container, the portal, access to all the features you might need, and the ability for the end-user to create and maintain and update content as needed. They also provide many tools and videos and ideas and suggestions about what is possible and ways to learn about making things not only look great, but also usable and interactive for the average visitor to our site. I have thoroughly enjoyed the freedom to create our own content and make the website our own in a very simple, easy and intuitive manner. I can't tell you how easy it has been to create and maintain an online presence for our youth and children and their parents in our community.

One of the things I really enjoy about SnapShot Web is that I can update content ANYTIME and ANYWHERE there is a web connection. I don't have to be on a special computer with special software attached to a special server. I can be literally anywhere and update and upload content as needed.  I can also embed videos from YouTube and Vimeo (virtually anywhere) on our website. Upload and link PDF documents for forms. Graphics and pictures and links are a breeze to do. Connect the site with Facebook, etc. It's been fun to upload and share curriculum and ideas and content with the world (via the internet), so not only do our local church community benefit from the connectedness and information, but the entire church community benefits from some of the things we do and share with everyone. I think it's fun doing that and the website has really helped with that. I can't imagine how much our current website would cost if we had to hire a firm to generate the current website we have... and we have created that!

We came across these Free Social Media Icons from Elegant Themes.  We think that may be a great fit for your website.  There are icons for just about every social media site you can imagine (and several that you may not have heard of just yet.)  Take a look, download them, use them, and let us know if you need anything.

At SnapShot Web, We pride ourselves on going above and beyond helping you make your church or ministry website into something beautiful, effective, and amazing.  We love to support you as you manage your SnapShot Website.  We'll often get a phone call or email that begins with "So sorry to bother you but..." It's never a bother.  Helping you is what we love to do.  We see it as a great gift and joy to get to support you and your ministry in this way.

Occasionally we will have a SnapShot Web user that doesn't ask any questions.  This sometimes means that she or he is not working with their site much.  It sometimes means that they are comfortable with the most basic setting and they will leave their site as it is.  And it sometimes means that they are a super-user - so gifted at working with the SnapShot Web tools that they may have things they could teach us.

Sometimes people will ask us "Just how customized can our church or ministry website be if we use SnapShot Web?"  Well, take a look at the new Live Curriculum Site and see what you think.  The designers over at Simply Youth Ministry put the design together and our team here simply dropped it into the SnapShot Web tools. 

Stay tuned in the near future as we are working on some great new templates that you are going to love.

If you are looking for ways to take your design to a great new level, there are lots of great (and free) resources that will help you along the way.  One of those resources is Texture King.  Spend some time on their site and see some of the amazing texture resources that you can download and use for free for your design needs.

A SnapShot Web customer recently told us about a great resource for icons to use on your website.  Spend a few minutes clicking around the Dry Icons site and your see that there are a ton of great options for icons and other design elements to enhance your online presence.  You'll see that you can use many of the resources for free (with a few restrictions) or you can purchase a commercial or extended license for a small fee.

If you are interested in incorporating some of these icons into your site and you're not sure how, let us know and we can talk you through the simple steps to pull it off.

We're always looking for great resources to share so let us know when you come across something that would be helpful for church or ministry website.

We met Matt Swider at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago a few months ago.  He wanted to get his youth ministry set up with a stellar website but he quickly admitted that he was far from web savvy.  "No problem," we told him.  We set him up with a site and he was working on it the next day. 

Here's what's really cool... Matt has a student in his ministry that has some great design and web skills.  This student took one of the SnapShot Web templates and started making custom tweaks to make it his own.  You've got to check out the finished product at www.helenavoltage.com.  While you are on their site, make sure you take a look at their staff page (rollover the images to see some great effects) as well as their photo galleries. 

Well done guys.

What is one of the first things a potential visitor does before coming to your church? Research shows that most people do exactly what I’ve done and look online to find out some information. What times do you meet? Where are you located? What activities does your church offer for their children? Do you have a nursery? Your website is the new entry point into your church or ministry and your first chance to make an impression. A well-designed website can reflect the quality of your ministry and the culture of your church.

Jody Webster is SnapShot Web Ministry Partner that has a great eye for design plus the tools to make it all happen.  Check out his site and some of the ways that he can help with yours.

A letter from a gifted designer, pastor, and SnapShot Web user in Northern Ireland:

Hey, my name’s Neil Young, I am the Youth Pastor at the Causeway Coast Vineyard church, Northern Ireland. Through our youth movement, Destination:Home, we work with a variety of young people in schools, streets, café’s, smallgroups etc and I love what I get to do as a job.

We have been using snapshot web since 2008 and it has been such a valuable tool in communicating why we do what we do and when we do it. We have found a number of things pretty important when it comes to building web sites, especially church based sites.

We wanted to show you a great Church website that is incorporating some simple and clean design pieces that give it a great look and feel.  The church, Mosborough Elim Church in the U.K. has set up a sub navigation on their site.  It's really 4 simple images that they have dropped into their site and shown on every page.  This, in essence, ensures that wherever someone is on the site, they will have a quick and easy way to get to the contact info, the service time info, and the info for guests with a simple click.  The design that they have used for these images looks amazing.  It fits well with the look they have implemented on their site. 

Another thing to check out while you peruse their site, www.mosboroughelimchurch.co.uk, is the way that they have used sub-header images on each of their pages to build a sense of continuity all through their site.  Make sure to check it out and as always, let us know if you'd like us to help you do something similar with your site.

Lots of people have asked recently about how to set up a splash page for their church or ministry website.  A splash page is, in essence, a page that shows up before your home page and often offers people the chance to enter into different sections in your site.  We would say that sometimes this is not the best option as you are requiring an extra click for people to get to the content of your site. 

Other times though, people can make it work quite well.  We came across this site - www.ampedyouthonline.com - recently that has set up a make-shift splash page right from within the SnapShot Web tools.  They've done it in a way that looks good and is very easy to understand (two essentials for a splash page.)

One of the beautiful things about SnapShot Web is that you start with a template for your website but you can make all kinds of changes and tweaks to that template to "make it your own."

Let us show you a beautiful example.  Grace United Methodist Church, in Merritt Island, FL had a particular look and feel in mind as they were considering putting together a website.  Since none of our templates were a perfect match for them, we just had them choose one that was close and then we talked them through the process of changing a few images and a few colors and they were all set with what you see now.

All that to say that adding custom headers, logos, colors, images, and more is not only possible but we highly encourage it and we'll help you with the process.  Click through their site and check out some of the things that they're doing.  As always, please let us know if we can answer any questions for you or help you with your web needs in any way.

You already know that having a website for your ministry is important. You also know that it’s important for your website to looks great. But how do you pull this off? How do you make sure that your website has a look and feel that is easy on the eyes? How do you create site that makes people say “Wow”? And how do you avoid the common pitfalls that cause people wince when they visit your site?

We’ll mention 4 quick things that will help you create a website look that you’ll love. Some of these things may seem obvious to you, but if you were to look at as many church and ministry sites as I do every week, you would find that sometimes the obvious things aren't so obvious and are worth reviewing.