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Criteria for Building a Church/Ministry Home Page
- In surfing the web, one develops a system of likes and dislikes on the various web sites visited. As a good salesman once said "I would like to sell everybody my products, but I settle on selling to the most people I can and then wonder why I did not sell to the others." In dealing with others, it is difficult to reach all the people all the time. A good politician knows he/she must get 50% plus one vote to the elected. And for a politician that is usually good enough !
- One needs to arrive at a system of judging what one considers a good web site. A few basic principles are presented below:
- If a modem is operating at 14.4 kbps, a page should load in 30 seconds maximum. At 28.8 kbps the page should load in 15 seconds or less. Most people are impatient and want instant access to everything on the web. Also, most people spend five seconds or less looking at a web site. This means that a video screen needs to inspire the viewer in a split second to either like or dislike a web site. As you work through the web sites you need to make a split second decision, do you like or dislike a particular web site? If the page takes longer to load than the times mentioned in this paragraph, most people will not even see or use the web site ! ! ! !
- Upon viewing a web site, what do you like: the colors, the size of print, the graphics, the moving graphics and moving lines, the spacing, the amount of material on the page or something else. A successful advertising executive on Madison Avenue knows that successful advertising must appeal to the largest majority possible and at the same time offend as few as possible (negative impact). Some web sites advertise products and others serve as ego builders for the person building that web site. Some web sites sell advertising to pay for the web sites and some cost the owner of the web site money and time in maintaining it. Some web sites are unique in subject matter and some are just like many others without a specific purpose. Why would one want to bookmark (favorite) a web site and return to it at a later time or again and again and again. What do you like about a web site? ?
- Some web sites throughly disgust me and I find offensive. The colors, flashing graphics or something literally turns me off. These sites I hope I never return to again. I dislike "Under Construction" signs as I think all pages should be dynamic and change as events or information changes. Commercial web site developers are more afraid of the negative impact of their web sites than any other impact. As you look at a page, ask yourself "What don't I like about this web page?" Remember, someday you may want to put a web site out on the World Wide Web! ! ! !
- For basic evaluation, the last item is "What is the purpose of the web site or web page?" I know you will go to a particular web site looking for something. Will the web site have an obvious purpose or objective? Will it fulfill a purpose or objective? I have seen many church web sites that start out with a picture of the church, the name and picture of the minister, a list of the elders and pictures (one is often missing -- too busy), a list of the deacons and pictures, a list of the church staff and pictures, the hours of worship and ALL other activities of the church, the church's snail mail address (through the United States Postal Service, instead of e-mail), no telephone number, etc., etc, etc. I have a nickname for these sites; I call them "Me Too Sites" or "e-brochures". They may be good for advertising in a small town pamphlet, newspaper, and yellow page advertisements, but what about the World Wide Web? At least the Me Too sites can make some church members happy to have a presence on the Web, but what is the purpose? What about sermons, prayer lists, daily devotionals, Bible training lessons, an e-mail address for Christian help and answering questions? ? ? What does the church have to offer that is unique to that particular web site? Does the web site have a single or multiple purpose?
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