10 design rules to keep in mind

(1) Communicate — don’t decorate.
(2) Speak with a visual voice.
(3) Use two typeface families maximum. OK, maybe three.
(4) Pick colors on purpose.
(5) If you can do it with less, then do it.
(6) Negative space is magical — create it, don’t just fill it up!
(7) Treat the type as image, as though it’s just as important.
(8) Be universal; remember that it’s not about you.
(9) Be decisive. Do it on purpose — or don’t do it at all.
(10) Symmetry is the ultimate evil.

Provides one permanent feed address no matter where your blog may ever move to.  

This is my biggest reason for advocating Feedburner.  It’s a great safety net.  Most people will get the idea to start a blog, and even jump in, before they know what they want completely.  That is good but usually will lead to limitations in the future by being locked to the platform you started with.  If you decide to move, every single user is unsubscribed and must subscribe again.  This usually loses 30%-50% of the readers immediately just for upgrading.  

Feedburner solves this problem.  It allows you to have a public address that will never change, while giving the flexibility behind the scenes to change the location, host, or platform to anything you want, anytime you want.  When you use it, just make sure users subscribe to the feedburner address. (i.e. feeds.feedburner.com/MinistryTools)

Gives ability for your content to be delivered by email.  

Feed readers like Google Reader are great, but the majority of normal people still don’t use them.  But everyone knows and understands email great.  Feedburner converts a complicated updating blog to email and emails everyone with the new content.  Notice the entry form on the side of this blog.

Gives statistics about your readers.  

Ever wonder who is reading what you write?  Feedburner gives those detailed statistics as well.

Builds interaction into posts.  

Notice at the bottom of this post.  It places these links into the content whether it be on the site, in a feed reader, or in email.

Here are some types of “podcasts” and other “feeds” that you can use, for free, and the type of media distributed.

1. Regular podcast - the easiest way to do a plain audio podcast that I have found is with gcast.  I have written about this before, so you can check out the post on it.
2. Video podcasts, feeds, or live sreaming - If you want to make your media that you distribute a little more interesting you can do a video podcast.  You record it (that would be another post), but once you have it in a digital format you can upload it to a number of different sites that allow people to subscribe to be notified when you update it.
   1. YouTube - This is the best for trying to get highlights out.  Or anything else, really, because of its popularity, but the limitation is that it only allows for 10 minutes.
   2. Vimeo - Better quality and longer durations allowed, but basically like YouTube.  Gaining popularity.
   3. Google Video - Unlimited and simple to understand.  Like everything else that Google does.
   4. Ustream.tv - What our church uses.  Supports live video streaming of services and records/hosts them for posterity.  You can embed a player on your website like YouTube and have it play default programming that you set up when there is nothing live.  You may see the embedded version here, and the dedicated Ustream page here.
3. Blogs - never actually seen it done, but you could start a blog for sermon notes and embed the video into it.

Now, how do you do it?

There are 2 easy options I will tell you about: Paypal and Easy Tithe.

First, Paypal.  Paypal is pretty much the standard of online transactions and is a partner of Ebay to help with all the money that that site moves.  Being such, they are incredibly convenient and easy to set up.  

A few things you want to know about Paypal:

• There is no monthly fee - only fees come from transactions (about 2.9%, I believe)
• The money is held by Paypal like an bank account, it doesn’t go directly into your account though it is simple to set that up.
• A giver can give in a variety of methods and doesn’t even need to sign up with Paypal.

Now, Easy Tithe.  Easy Tithe is really optimized for churches and it shows.  It makes things very simple and has many options that might push you toward that.

One of my favorite tools.  A free one.  Are you ever somewhere, think of something, but don’t have a good place to write it down to remember it??  Do you use email and have a cell phone?  Then Jott is for you.

Here is how you use it.  

1. Call Jott. (after you set up your account)
2. It will ask, “Who do you want to Jott?”
3. Say, “Me.”
4. It will beep like an answering machine, and then you simply speak what you want to remember.  
5. It then transcribes what you say (quite accurately too), sends you an email of the transcription, and includes the recording of your voice for any confusion.

Any address that you have on your volatile computer is safe on Plaxo because it automatically syncs without you even noticing it.

Also, if anyone in your address book is also a member with Plaxo, if they ever update their information, it is automatically updated on Plaxo, and in your local address book.

It will send you Birthday reminders to give you a great excuse to contact people you want to stay up with and will link with other websites, blogs, and calendars to keep everything in one place.

Some nice features, for free.  Check it out here.

So, I thought I would give a few more tools to help with music for your church. It is always a hassle for me trying to gather cd’s, listen to tapes, and try to figure out sheet music.  I am a lot better at hearing a song and saying, “I like that.”  

That is why I use iTunes and Rhapsody, a lot. They both work off the same concept - finding a song or artist you like.  While that is hugely valuable, what makes it wonderful is the ability to find similar songs or artists.  Let me explain.

Lets say you know about a particular song that you like.  I dont know why, but I am thinking of “Step Into the Water”.  Once you search for “step into the water” it will bring up a big list of people who sing that.  If they sing that song, they will likely sing another you like.  So, you can start to look into that new group, find songs that they sing and discover songs very quickly.  It is an intermingled web — which is good for finding stuff.

iTunes gives you 30sec previews of unlimited number of songs and cost $.99 to buy each one.  

Rhapsody is membership based, but gives you 25 free plays.  After that it is $12.99/month for unlimited songs.  You can only listen to them on their site though.

• Creates interest and attention on the event
• Indicates effort and interest put into the event
• Communicates real desire for others to be involved

This list looks at 21 factors that will influence your visitor’s impression within moments of arriving at your site. These are just some of the factors, not a comprehensive list. Feel free to list some others in the comments that you think should be included. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Load Time – Most of us are very impatient and slow loading pages will not make us want to return. On the other hand, pages that load quickly will encourage visitors to navigate through your site knowing that they won’t have to wait very long for each page to load.

2. Error Messages – If new visitors to your site are getting error messages and are unable to access your site, they’re not going to be impressed and they won’t be back. There are a number of different errors that can occur. BlogStorm recently published an article Why Businesses Need a Website that Works, which takes a look at one unsuccessful website with an obvious problem.

3. Colors – The look of your site will obviously be a factor in your visitors’ first impressions. The colors of your website can have a huge impact on the overall attractiveness of the site. Choosing the right color combinations can be difficult, but fortunately there are a number of online tools that can help. For a list of resources and links to some articles on the psychology of colors, see Find the Perfect Colors for Your Website.

4. Logo/Branding – Another factor in the overall look of your website is the logo and branding. Most importantly, the logo should help to brand your business in the way that you want visitors and customers to think of you. For more information, see What Makes a Great Logo? from David Airey.

5. Header Images – Dominant header images are often used and they can have a strong effect on first impressions. Personally, I’m not a big fan of large header images for blogs, but some blog designers use them with great success. I like to see the content start higher on the page, but many visitors don’t share my opinion (I’d be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments below). Nate Whitehill uses a very attractive header image on his blog to make it stand out.

6. Typography – A somewhat subtle influence is the typography and fonts. A change in the typography may not be a drastic change, but it can make all the difference. See Five Simple Steps to Better Typography by Mark Boulton for a more complete look at the subject.

7. Layout – One of the most important design elements is the layout. Whatever layout you use should draw the reader’s attention to those items that are most important. Layout can be used not only to create an attractive design, but also to make the site easy for visitors to use. While most websites use a fairly standard design, a good way to make your site stand out is to use a more creative layout. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that your creative layout adds to the effectiveness of the website rather than detracting from it.

8. Advertisements – One of the easiest ways to make a bad first impression is to have a website that is full of advertisements. Most of today’s internet users have come to expect advertisements to be present on most websites, but too many ads, the wrong type of ads, and poor ad placement can be a big turn off for visitors.

As a general rule you should avoid placing ads in places that will interfere with visitors being able to read your content, unless the goal of your site is to make money through ad clicks. Animated ads are also a touchy subject as they can also easily distract and annoy readers.

If you use advertisements that are relevant to visitors and are kept out of the flow of your content, visitors generally will not mind.

9. Your Reputation – Some of your first-time visitors will be familiar with you or your website before they even visit. In many cases they may have read about you on another website that links to you. This is especially common for bloggers. If that visitor has read a positive recommendation of you before visiting your site, you will have already developed a little bit of a reputation in the mind of that visitor that may affect the first impression. This can also work the opposite way if they have heard or read negative things before visiting.

10. Ease of Navigation – We’ve probably all been at websites that looked like they had great content that we wanted to read, but just couldn’t find what we wanted. I’m not sure if there is anything more frustrating on a website than poor navigation. On the other hand, well-constructed navigation can help visitors to have a very positive experience on the site.

11. Clarity of Purpose – New visitors should be able to very quickly determine the purpose of a website. Many sites effectively incorporate this into their branding by using a descriptive tag line that sums up the site’s purpose. About Us pages are also helpful for communicating purpose.

12. Unprofessional Items – Some items like low-quality animated GIFs and hit counters can give a negative first impression. Generally anything that makes your site look like it was designed 10 years ago should be avoided.

13. Quality of Images and Photos – It’s amazing how much impact a high-quality photo or graphic can have on a design. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources online for getting high-quality, low-cost photos, and some are even free. Searching for a good free picture may not be worth the time it takes when you can find one faster and pay $1 or $2. For a list of places to find photos online, see Stock Photography Resources.

14. Accessibility – Accessibility is a big buzzword in web design. The reality is that not all of your visitors will fall into the mould of the average visitor. Some will have handicaps, some will use older browsers, some will have slower connections, etc. If your website is not accessible to a visitor it’s almost guaranteed to create a bad impression.

15. Popups and Pop-unders – Most internet surfers now have some sort of popup blocker, but some websites are still using them. Most visitors don’t appreciate popups that aren’t blocked, and this can create a bad impression. Some sites, however, still use popups effectively, so it’s something that you will have to weigh the pros and cons.

16. Video and Audio – As more and more internet users have high speed connections, audio and video will continue to become more common. Some visitors appreciate these elements and it’s evident by the success of such sites as YouTube. A general rule with both audio and video is that it should not start automatically without the user choosing to have it start.

17. Associations – Visitors may be new to your website, but they may be impressed with associations to someone or something they know and respect. An example of this is web hosting provider Media Temple. Visitors to Media Temple’s website will see testimonials on the homepage from Nike, Sony, and Starbucks. If that visitor is wondering about the competence and capability of Media Temple, associations with these large, well-known companies will have a huge impact on the first impression. Another example is a website displaying a badge that shows membership in the Better Business Bureau.

18. Quality of Content – Of course quality content cannot be left off this list. While content may not have an instant impact like some of the factors that relate to the design of the site, it will have a significant impact on visitors that stick around for a minute or so. This is a big factor especially for blogs. A first-time visitor that finds really great content will remember their visit in a positive light.

19. Tone – In addition to the actual content, the tone of the content can also have an impact on first impressions. I’ve been on a few blogs that have strong content, but an unnecessarily negative tone by the blogger created a poor first impression.

20. Number of Comments and Trackbacks – New visitors to blogs will often notice the number of comments on posts. A lot of comments and trackbacks show that other readers are involved, and it indicates that this is likely a valuable resource. On the other hand, seeing no comments often causes the visitor to wonder how many other people are reading.

21. Flash Intros – Positive or negative, flash intros will impact the first impression of visitors. I’m not a fan of flash intros on most websites. I think they have their place on websites in certain industries, such as websites for movies or rock bands. Unless visitors will expect a website in your industry to have a flash intro, I would avoid it.

by Vandelay Design

What would you like to add to the list?