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Main Street Open

Web development, WordPress customization, eBusiness consulting
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Do you still collect email addresses from your prospects?

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 December 4, 2014

oopsEmail marketing ceased being cool a few years ago. Spammers and overuse tarnished it’s reputation, but despite recent news reports, email marketing is not dead. It’s actually still very cost effective.

Social media marketing gives us access to fans and their friends, but Facebook continues to raise the bar on how often you have to “pay” to get this “free” advertising. Even with a million fans, if you aren’t paying to promote each post, you probably aren’t reaching the majority of them.

Email marketing can still be accomplished at an extremely low cost — often for free if you have less than a few thousand subscribers. Even with spam filters it has a better than average chance of getting to your customer’s eyes compared to social media or direct mail.

But email marketing still relies on collecting those important email addresses before it will work. Make sure you have a process to collect email addresses from new customers and prospects. Put a subscription form on your website allowing interested visitors to subscribe for more information. Even if you don’t produce an email newsletter today, you can still collect email addresses for the future.

Don’t write off email as old technology. Like anything else, it probably won’t stand as your exclusive marketing channel, but you will be amazed the results you can generate from a quarterly enews blast or occasional special offer. The cost is minimal once you have the list, and the results often come back the same day. You can’t say that about direct mail.

Start collected email addresses. Give us a shout if you need help.

Categories : Ministry, Small Business

Two ways to know it’s time to update your website

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 November 4, 2014

Like a lot of things in life, websites need to be updated every few years even if they were fabulous when launched. We don’t think you need to update every year just because, but there are some factors that will help you decide when to go for a new look.

Here are two ways to know it’s time to update your website:

1. Your website doesn’t look good on a smart phone

Research from earlier this year showed 63% of adult cell phone users use their phone to go online. Over 30% use their phone as their primary internet access device. Especially if your web visitors are young, your site needs to be usable and look good on a mobile device.

2. Your website doesn’t integrate with your social media.

Over 74% of online adults use social media. Today your business probably needs a strong social media presence, especially if you market to consumers. Social media traffic compliments your website, but doesn’t replace it. You need to have foolproof ways to drive traffic from your website to your social media, and from your social media to your website.

Fortunately, updating websites is significantly easier and less expensive than building new websites. Usually most of the content can be reused, and the basic navigational structure stays the same. If the original website was well designed and had good content to begin with, then the revision is more of an update than a complete rebuild.

Take a look at your site. Then give us a call if you want another opinion on how to make it most effective in today’s market.

Research sources:
http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/
http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/

Categories : Developers, Ministry, Small Business, Social Networking

Don’t forget to update your plugins

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 September 11, 2014

iStock_000002628963SmallLast week we helped restore a WordPress site that had been hacked. The WordPress version was relatively current, but one of the plugins was old, and the hacker had used a weak spot in the plugin to vandalize the site.

Most plugins are simple and don’t cause security issues. But plugins that accept data or allow file uploads are especially vulnerable to security holes. It’s important to keep these plugins up-to-date. On your WordPress dashboard it will show you how many plugins have updates beside the Plugins menu option.

As always, perform a full backup of your site and your data before upgrading. Poorly supported plugins are notorious for generating output that can break your template and crash your site. These are usually easy to fix, but it’s still good to have a backup on hand.

Categories : Developers, Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business, WordPress, WordPress Plugins

WordPress 4.0 release

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 September 11, 2014

wordpress-logoWordPress released their version 4.0 last week. You can read the details of the new release here.

Usually when software vendors release a new version ending in dot zero, it signifies a major update. In this case it really should be called 3.10. The new version has some nice features that make editing and managing media easier, but no huge system-wide changes that will require you to retrain your staff.

Personally, I think this is good. As WordPress has evolved into a professional caliber business tool, stability becomes more important that chasing every new fad and feature.

This release looks solid. We recommend updating for our clients. As always, perform a full backup of your site and your data before upgrading. If you have automatic updates enabled, you may still need to trigger this update manually since it is technically a major release.

Categories : Developers, Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business, WordPress, WordPress Plugins

New domain names available

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 August 26, 2014

iStock_000019333241SmallWant a domain name that ends in .church, .club or .guru? Now is your chance. Over 250 new gTLDs (generic top-level domains) have been released this year, with more coming out this month. These new extensions allow you another opportunity to get better domain names.

The .church domain will be available for public registration on September 17th. Check with your favorite domain registrar for details and pricing.

 

Categories : Developers, Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business

Critical WordPress Security Update 3.9.2

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 August 7, 2014

wordpressWordPress released a new security update 3.9.2 on Aug 6, 2014 eliminating a recently discovered security hole affecting several content management platforms. This hole allows an attacker to flood the website with requests that can overwhelm the server and crash the site. The issue was only recently discovered, and is fixed by the 3.9.2 update.

If your WordPress site is running the current version with auto-updates, the new fix should be installed automatically. If you are not running a current version, or do not have auto-updates, then this new version should be installed immediately.

As always, we recommend doing a full site backup before installing any updates. Please contact MainStreetOpen.com if you need assistance or support.

Categories : Developers, Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business, WordPress

The Big 6: The first step to getting your communications under control

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 July 24, 2014

chaosWorking with non-profits on their websites, we commonly see two problems: (1) they have trouble generating content, they have no new information to put on their site, or (2) they are overwhelmed with content and their site is a jumble of unprioritized competing messages and announcements.

Both cases are painful for the staff, and discouraging for their audiences.

The Big 6

Interestingly, the solution for both cases is similar. Focus on the most important stuff. What are the six big events in the year that you need EVERYONE to know about? If you don’t have any content, start with these. If you have too much content, push everything else back and focus on these.

Maybe it’s not six, maybe it’s four, or maybe it’s eight. But the point is to focus on the BIG stuff and put resources on doing those right.

If you work for a church, your Big 6 probably include Easter, Christmas, Vacation Bible School and a few other church-wide events and missions.

In a non-profit you may have an annual conference, big fund raisers, and other large projects that support your mission.

A timely feature story every week of the year

Each of these events typically is promoted months in advance. If you have six events and you promote them on the home page of your website for two months each, you automatically have a timely feature story for every week of the year. With six good stories you can survive for a whole year. It’s not optimum, but it’s better than many churches and non-profits are doing now.

Focus resources

If you are short on resources, spend your favors and budget on these six stories. Get people working on them far in advance. Find photos from last year. You don’t need all the details in advance, the stories can evolve as details are confirmed, but start getting something ready to promote the next big event. If you have to pay someone to write or take pictures for you, these are the topics most worthy of spending your limited cash. If you can call in favors and twist arms to get volunteer help, these are stories to work on.

If you are swamped with content, make sure you don’t let the little things prevent you from properly covering the Big 6. Carve out time and budget to get these six right, and if you run out of time (which you probably will), let the smaller stories suffer. Everyone will be reading about the Big 6. Not everyone will care about the smaller events. If you have budget for promotion, most of it should be spent on these top events. If you try to spread a modest budget across a hundred items, probably none of them will get enough exposure to do any good. Focus on the Big 6.

Results

It’s hard to do communications in a non-profit. There is always too much work, not enough money, and virtually no staff. Volunteers are great, but often not very dependable.

In this world, prioritization is imperative. Usually the Big 6 will generate more results for your organization than the next 50 events combined. Keep your focus on getting the Big 6 promoted and see if that doesn’t help start a process that can be applied to the next level of your communications.

Categories : Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business

Developing a style guide to strengthen your brand

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 July 9, 2014

style-imageThe purpose of a style guide is consistency.

Whenever you have more than one person creating communications materials for an organization, it helps to have a guide outlining the styles and design standards for the brand.

Contrary to what many amateur designers believe, consistency is good. You don’t want every piece of marketing collateral to have a fresh and unique look from the others. Strong brands have consistent and recognizable styles. Most Americans can identify an Apple product by the box from 50 feet away. Always the same colors, fonts, and style. You never see Apple marketing materials with plaid backgrounds. Never.

The style guide defines the standard logos, fonts, and colors used by your brand. It outlines the design elements – backgrounds, margins, logo spacing etc, to allow a consistent visual look between marketing materials.

Effective style guides can be though of as cookbooks rather than rule books. Instead of a “Thou Shalt Not” tone, it should take a “Here is how to do it” voice. When developing style guides, include the reasoning for style rules whenever possible to help users understand why the standards exist. That will help them follow the intent when they are faced with design issues not covered by the guide.

Most style guides are only 3 to 4 pages. When combined with a set of style-compliant templates, the style guide can help new content developers create consistent materials with minimum effort.

Don’t try to develop a comprehensive guide all at the same time. Just start by documenting the basics, include some examples and templates, and let the guide grow over time. If you wait until you have all the answers, you will probably never get started.

Long term, a simple style guide will reduce your development time and improve design consistency, strengthing your brand in the outside world.

Categories : Developers, Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business

We didn’t visit your church because of your lousy website

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 June 11, 2014

iStock_000006241161SmallMy wife and I recently realized one of our dreams, and moved to an acreage in the country. We are on the outskirts of the same metropolitan area, but completely on the opposite side – over 50 miles from our old house. Too far to commute, we needed to find a new church. Since we are not very familiar with the new area, it’s been a wide open search.

Fortunately, there are lots of options. There are a dozen rural churches nearby, and if we go 15 minutes back toward the city, there are a hundred more in the suburbs. (yeah, we live in the Bible Belt.)

Too many to visit. How to choose?

Hello internet. In a few hours of web surfing we were able to “virtually visit” dozens of churches. From that “shopping” we identified a couple to visit. Yes, a couple out of dozens of good prospects.

We didn’t bother researching churches that didn’t have websites. There are too many churches with websites that we can evaluate, we will never have time to read yellow pages ads or church listing in the local newspaper.

If a church’s website was old, broken down, and out of date, then we subconsciously assumed the church was too. It’s not intentional, but since we don’t know anything about them, all we have to go on is the website, and most of them look pretty bad.

If the website was clean, visitor-friendly and current, then we assumed the congregation probably was too. We are not looking for some young, hip, e-church, but we do want one who is not still advertising last year’s Vacation Bible School on their home page.

My wife uses her phone for a lot of internet searching, and I typically use a tablet outside the office. Sites that didn’t display well on mobile devices didn’t get as much time during our research.

Some of the most impressive websites weren’t that big or fancy — they were just clean, easy to use, and had the information we needed. You would be amazed how many church websites have extensive sections on their theology and mission statements, but don’t include details like service times or exact locations.

From our internet shopping we identified two churches to visit first. We liked them both and will probably end up staying in one of them. The third-best website church may not even get a visit from us. Yes, it’s brutal, but that’s the way it works.

For the other 998 churches in our area, I’m sorry. We didn’t visit you because of your lousy website.

Categories : Ministry, Non-Profit

Improving your ranking on Google

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 February 6, 2014

google-logoFrequently new clients come to us wanting to improve their search engine placement. They complain that their site doesn’t rank highly on the keywords they want.

When reviewing their sites, we often find they don’t even have those keywords on the site, or if they do, the keywords are embedded in a graphic where Google can’t read them. Sometimes simple copy changes can generate big improvements in ranking.

Another problem is wanting too broad of keywords. Google likes specialists. It’s a lot easier to impress Google with a whole site on “Motorcycle Insurance” than just “Insurance”. If you add a location to your “motorcycle insurance” as in “Denver motorcycle insurance” it’s even easier to get good rankings.

If you want to sell any kind of insurance, anywhere, to anyone, it’s really difficult to get enough traffic to hold a top Google ranking. If you are not a Fortune 500 company, it might be more realistic to target your search engine placement on more specific keywords.

Holding a top Google ranking can be complicated and expensive for some keywords, but often we can find solutions that are easy and affordable. Give us a call for a free consultation and see how we can help you.

Categories : Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business

WordPress 3.7 Auto-Updates: Great news or bad idea?

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 October 30, 2013

WordPress 3.7 was released on October 24, and the first maintenance release 3.7.1 was released yesterday (10/29).

There are several new features in 3.7 – improved search results, stronger password testing, and improved global support — but the biggest is the auto-update feature.

Starting with version 3.7, WordPress will automatically install all maintenance updates when they are released. You will not be notified or given a chance to opt-out. For most sites this is a good thing. For some complex, mission-critical sites we feel this is a concern.

The auto-update feature can be disabled by editing a parameter in the WP-config file, but there is no way through the user interface to prevent the updates.

The Pro’s of auto-updates: small security patches will automatically be installed. You don’t have to do anything, you don’t have to pay anybody, it just stays up to date. This makes the internet a safer place by preventing old, stale WordPress sites from causing security risks and making WordPress look bad. The risk of an update crashing your site is very low. For most sites, especially small, low traffic sites with limited plugins, this is a very good thing.

The Con’s of auto updates: the updates are installed without your knowledge and without a prior backup being run. If an error or a plugin conflict does happen, it can crash your site without a backup and without any prior warning. If you are a merchant and this happens on Black Friday, it could be a disaster. If you are selling concert tickets and your site decided to auto-update without a backup, it could ruin your event. The chances of failure are small, but they increase with the number of plugins you are running. You have to weight the risks of downtime against the benefits of auto-updates.

Right now we are advising clients with simple sites and limited plugins to leave the auto-updates enabled. The risk of failure is very low, the benefits of the updates outweigh the risks.

If you have a large, complex site with many plugins, or a mission-critical site that cannot risk any unexpected downtime, then we recommend disabling the auto-updates by modifying the WP configuration file. If you don’t know how to do that, hire a professional. Messing up the config file will guarantee your site will crash.

Main Street will monitor this situation for next few updates. There is a lot of heated discussion in the developer community about this right now. Some love the idea of keeping sites up to date, others are very wary of letting a third party update their sites without their knowledge or at least a good backup.

The WordPress core developers assure us their testing procedures are infallible, but the fact that they issued a maintenance release five days after a major release causes me to question that statement.

We still love WordPress. It is still the best content management system by far. It is secure, flexible and easy to use. None of that has changed, the only concerns we have are with the auto-updates for large mission-critical sites. Smaller, low traffic sites should have no worries.

Categories : Developers, Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business, WordPress

Do you really own your domain name?

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 October 2, 2013

oopsThe last step in launching a new website is updating the DNS pointers on the client’s domain name. Sometimes with churches and small businesses this leads to the realization that nobody knows who controls the domain name, or even who owns it.

This is important, your domain name (yourname.com) is a corporate asset. You need to manage it as such. I have seen churches and businesses forced to register new domain names and change their marketing materials because they find their current name is really owned by a former employee/volunteer/vendor who is no longer available.

Three things to review on your domain name:

1) Do you have access to the domain name?
Domains are registered and administrated by Domain Registrars. Some of the big players in this market are Network Solutions and GoDaddy. You should have an account number or username, and a password for your domain registrar. This allows you or your tech people to change where your domain points. You need to keep this information in a safe place where you can find it. If you don’t know where your domain is registered, find out.

2. Do you “own” the domain?
Even if you have the login and password, it doesn’t mean you actually “own” the domain. When a domain is registered, the person completing the registration enters the owner of the domain. If your domain was registered by an employee, a volunteer, or a vendor there is a possibility that they are technically the owner of the domain, even if you are paying the bill. You need to review your domain record and verify it is registered to your organization.

3) Are the domain contacts correct?
There are several contacts associated with a domain name: Registrant, Technical, Administrative, Billing. In many cases these are all the same contact. It’s important that at least Registrant and Administrative have a valid, current email address. These email addresses will get notices if the domain is transferred or comes up for renewal. If the billing notices go to an old obsolete email or former employee, your domain can expire (and someone else can buy it) and you won’t even be notified.

Take a moment to verify your domain information. Your domain name is a corporate asset, it should be protected and managed as such. Contact Main Street or your current web developer if you need help.

Categories : Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business

Is your website embarrassing?

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 September 5, 2013

unembarrassed-man2Five things you can check in five minutes...

It’s September. The kids are back in school, and many businesses and non-profits are ramping up for their busiest time of year.

It’s also a good time to review your website and social media. Many of your customers and new prospects will be seeing them in the next few months. Now is a good time to make sure they are up to date.

Frankly, is your website embarrassing? Here are five things you can check in five minutes:

1) Check the information on your website and social media. Is it all correct? Did any phone numbers or contacts change since you last updated the site?

2) Check the news. Is your last news article or blog post several months old (or years)? Does your site look like you went out of business months ago and nobody told the hosting company?

3) Check the mobile view. More and more people are using smartphones and tablets on a regular basis. Many are even using mobile devices for their primary internet access. How does your site look on a smartphone and tablet? Is is useable? Does it look professional?

4) Check the message. Does your site present the message you want today? Has your business focus changed? Do you have seasonal marketing messages that needs to be updated?

5) Check the style. Is your site design clean and simple — easy to view on mobile devices? Or does it look old-fashioned, like it was designed years ago when people thought you just couldn’t have too many graphics?

Now is the time to update your site before you get too busy. Your website will be the first impression for many of your new prospects this fall. Don’t let an embarrassing website make you look unprofessional and maybe even cost you business!

Categories : Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business

Is your mobile website costing you customers?

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 September 3, 2013

Young adult using a smart phoneI was shopping at a big box store this weekend and remembered I needed new bags/filter for my wet/dry vacuum in the garage. Of course, the filters come in a dozen sizes and don’t say which size fits which vac.

No problem for me, I have a web browser on my cell phone. I know which model I have so I can look it up on the company’s website and make the purchase. No sweat, technology is great.

Except it didn’t work out like that. The company’s website didn’t load on my phone properly. I refreshed the site and got part of the page, including the button to lookup filters and accessories, but it was too small to select on a touch screen, and the rest of the page was jacked up anyway.

I tried for a couple of minutes, got frustrated and decided it would probably be easier to look at a new unit from a different vendor. Guess what? I can buy a competitor’s unit for almost the same price as a filter and bag for my old model.

Is your mobile website (or lack of a mobile website) costing you sales? More people are accessing websites from smart phones, and they are not just kids, they are business owners and professionals.

Check your website on your smartphone. Is it useable?

Categories : Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business

Effective Church Communications Seminar – Tulsa, Sept 16-17, 2013

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 August 26, 2013

Main Street is partnering with the Tulsa Metro Baptist Network to present this two day seminar. The first day will be presentations by the Baptist General Convention staff, and the second day is Main Street’s Effective Church Communications seminar.

Topics include:

  • Introduction to church communications
  • Seven principles for effective church communications
  • How to get big results from a small website
  • Social media: the best fellowship tool since the crockpot
  • Herding cats, coordinating communications, and other fun stuff
  • Group therapy

This information works equally well for non-profits and associations – not just churches. The event is open to all churches and non-profits, you do not need to be a member of the TMBN (or even Baptist) to attend.

Click here for more details and registration information.

Categories : Ministry, Non-Profit

Do your customers use social media?

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 August 6, 2013

Probably so. The latest research published by Pew Research Center (August 2013) has the following findings:

  • 72% of online adults use social networking sites.
  • Almost 90% of online adults between 18 and 29 use social networks. (no surprise there)
  • 60% of online adults between 50 and 64 use use social networks.
  • 43% of online adults over 65 use social networks, up from 8% only 3 years ago.
  • Hispanics and Blacks are slightly more likely to use social networks than Whites.
  • Education and household income have very little affect on usage.
  • Urban residents have slightly higher usage than rural, but almost within the error margin.
  • Women are slightly more likely than men, but the gap is almost closed.

So regardless of age, race, gender, economic or social status, the odds are your customers and prospects are using social media. Is it time to develop a social media plan for your business or organization?

Read the full report at PewInternet.org:
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/social-networking-sites/Findings.aspx

Categories : Ministry, Small Business, Social Networking, Uncategorized

Inexpensive websites generate new customers every week

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 July 30, 2013

Micro-sites are small websites that are highly optimized to specific niche markets. The results can be amazing.

Example 1: Five years ago we built a small website for a local realtor that targeted a specific niche market – garden homes. The site has about 7 pages of content and a blog which hasn’t been updated in years. Even so, the site still has top search engine ranking for garden homes in this suburb and still generates several new prospects a week and about one SALE a month. Not bad for tiny site with no new content.

Example 2: My son and I decided to repair lawnmowers on the side as a hobby (he is mechanical). I built a really quick and dirty website for the project – one page and a contact form. The site was optimized for SEO, but has no blog, and no new content since launch. The site holds a top Google ranking for lawnmower repair in our area. We get 2 or 3 calls per week from the site, and almost all of them turn into business – and we do no other advertising.

These micro-sites work because they are small and keyword targeted. When you build a big real estate site that covers all types of property across a large metropolitan area, there is not enough focus on any particular keyword to get good keyword rankings. The small micro-site has a higher concentration of keywords and more opportunities to optimize the domain name and page titles. The small sites are inexpensive to build, but still generate great results within the targeted keyword.

The realtor from the first example is now planning to build another site targeting a new niche. She understands that several small targeted sites will bring her more business than her “all things to all people” brokerage provided website.

The other critical factor on these sites is that in both cases, the customers are new to the area. They don’t know local realtors, or local lawnmower shops, so they are using Google to find a vendor. In that case the top Google listing gets the call.

There are dozens of realtors in this area who can sell you a garden home. But only one in this area has website dedicated to the topic. When the retiree from out of state starts searching for a garden home in this area, which site do you think Google provides first? And people aren’t looking for realtors, they are looking for homes.

Do you have a target market that would benefit from a highly optimized micro-site?

Categories : Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business, Social Networking

Four trends for the future of your website

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 July 18, 2013

1. Everything is going mobile.
Today 1 in 4 teens is a “mobile-mostly” internet user. Mobile is the fastest growing web platform as more users of all ages access the internet on the go from mobile devices. All the sites we build now are “responsive designs”. These are designs that automatically resize and reformat based on the device – desktop, tablet, or smart phone. This means you can reach all platforms with only one design.

2. Social media will hold more of your content.
Forget about trying to get users to come to your website and comment on posts or post their own photos and content. They are already doing that on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and a dozen other social networks that are popping up every day. Integrate with social media, don’t try to compete with it. Let your audience share your content on social media and expand the reach of your content.

3. Designs will get more streamlined.
Part of the mobile conversion is the need for streamlined designed. Large graphics take too long to load and look terrible on tiny screens. Flash animations don’t work on most mobile devices. Website designs are getting streamlined, cleaner, and graphically more simple. Even on the desktop, modern designs are streamlined – think Apple, not Nickelodeon.

4. Content generation will be faster and less polished.
Social media and text messaging have fostered a culture that doesn’t require complete sentences or even whole words. Handheld video cameras and smart phone videos have brought video production standards to new lows not seen since the invention of the pinhole camera. But this is how content is generated, and the best way to keep current information on your site (and social media) is to embrace the new media and their standards.

You need to keep your website evolving to stay relevant to your customers and prospects. Have a plan for addressing mobile users, social media and rapid fire content because they are certain to be in your very near future.

Categories : Developers, Small Business, Social Networking, WordPress

Four trends for the future of church websites

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 July 18, 2013

1. Everything is going mobile.
Today 1 in 4 teens is a “mobile-mostly” internet user. Mobile is the fastest growing web platform as more users of all ages access the internet on the go from mobile devices. All the sites we build now are “responsive designs”. These are designs that automatically resize and reformat based on the device – desktop, tablet, or smart phone. This means you can reach all platforms with only one design.

2. Social media will hold more of your content.
Forget about trying to get users to come to your website and comment on posts or post their own photos and content. They are already doing that on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and a dozen other social networks that are popping up every day. Integrate with social media, don’t try to compete with it. Let your audience share your content on social media and expand the reach of your content.

3. Designs will get more streamlined.
Part of the mobile conversion is the need for streamlined designed. Large graphics take too long to load and look terrible on tiny screens. Flash animations don’t work on most mobile devices. Website designs are getting streamlined, cleaner, and graphically more simple. Even on the desktop, modern designs are streamlined – think Apple, not Nickelodeon.

4. Content generation will be faster and less polished.
Social media and text messaging have fostered a culture that doesn’t require complete sentences or even whole words. Handheld video cameras and smart phone videos have brought video production standards to new lows not seen since the invention of the pinhole camera. But this is how content is generated, and the best way to keep current information on your site (and social media) is to embrace the new media and their standards.

Churches are not famous for being early adopters of technology or cultural change, but you need to keep your website evolving or it will quickly be irrelevant to the community. Have a plan for addressing mobile users, social media and rapid fire content because they are certain to be in your very near future.

Terrell Sanders
President, Main Street Enterprises

Main Street provides web development, and social media and internet marketing consulting for churches and non-profits. www.MainStreetOpen.com.

Categories : Ministry, Non-Profit

WordPress 3.5.2 Security Update Released

Posted by Terrell Sanders on
 June 27, 2013

wordpress-logoWordPress released security update version 3.5.2 this week. The version includes several minor, yet important security patches for WordPress. We recommend you update to this version as soon as possible.

Main Street can help you with security updates, plugin updates,  and site backups. Contact us today for help with your site.

WordPress update 3.5.2 details

 

Categories : Developers, Ministry, Non-Profit, Small Business, WordPress
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