Do you have a blog going on your church website? I have a handful of pastor friends that have not yet jumped into the world of blogging (at least not on their church websites.)  When I ask them why not, here are some of the answers I get:

• I simply don't have the time to add something like this to my to-do list each week.  I'm busy with ministry - I want to spend my time doing things that really matter.
• I don't have enough to say to fill a blog?
• I fear that I would start strong then a few months would go by and visitors to the site would see that the latest post is from sometime last year.
• Once people start commenting on blogs, won't it get out of control really quickly? I fear that we won't be able to manage it all.

What I have told these friends (and what I will tell anyone who asks) is that none of those excuses hold much water.  In fact. there are a few great reasons you need to have a blog on your church website.  Here's the beginning of a list:

1. Foster Communication - A blog is a wonderful way to foster communication with people inside your community and beyond.
2. Subscription Options  - With the options for RSS or email subscriptions, a blog can be an great way to get information (announcements, event info, sermon teasers or reminders, etc) into the hand of the people who care.
3. Help People Find Your Church Online -  That's right, incorporating a blog on your church website is one of the best ways that you can improve your Search Engine Status or Google Ranking.  More on this in a future post...
4. Easy to Setup and Manage - With the tools that are available to you, blogging doesn't take a whole lot of time.  In fact, you can have an amazingly effective blog in just a few minutes each week.

Setup a risk-free 30-day trial and test out the blog feature yourself.  Check out this video tour of the new blog feature at SnapShot Web:

If you have a blog on your church site, we'd love to see it in action (and interact with you there.)  Post it in the comments and we'll take a look.  Have you got other reasons to add to the list?  Post them here as well.

Adding Widgets and Social Bookmarks to your Church website is a great way to increase traffic, improve your SEO, and allow people in your community to easily share your website with their friends and followers.  If you are new to all of this, here are six ways to get started:

1. Add a twitter or tweet this option
   
   You'll certainly want to make it easy for visitors to your site to tweet about your site with s simple click.  You can embed the javascript that you will find at a service like http://www.tweetmeme.com/
    
2. Add a Google Buzz button
   
   Google Buzz is a way to "share updates, photos, videos, and more."  You can generate the embed code to drop the Buzz Button on your site here http://www.buzzcounter.net/

To make your church website more social and improve your Search Engine Optimization, you'll want to add the newest Social Bookmarks Feature from SnapShot Web.  Add bookmarks to Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, Linked In, Yahoo Buzz, Email and over 30 more.  You can also add a Follow Me On Twitter button and a Tweet This Page button.

Check out the quick demo that will show off this great new tool.