If you need a website designed for your Church organization, the many Church web hosting options are an obvious and natural first choice, but how do these services compare with a regular secular web hosting company in terms of service and value to your cause?
The simple answer is, it depends…
A web hosting service will vary from company to company, whether it is Church-run, a regular secular web hosting company or any other sort of hosting company. If your goal is to attract people to your Church or Christian Ministry, the first question you need to ask yourself is which is going to offer the most value for my money?
A hosting company run by the Church may sound great, considering you are expecting to be served by like-minded people, but in reality, with a good host, once your site is up and running, you will rarely need much direct contact with the people who run the company.
Also sadly, often these services cannot compete with larger secular web hosting companies around. Worse still, others are only posing as Christian and will try and rip you off outright, justifying their inflated prices by the fact that they are “Christian” owned and run.
Having one of these companies design your website for you is another matter that should definitely be treated with extreme caution. In fact, having ANY hosting company also design your website is often a bad idea. If a host is dividing its resources between web design and hosting, it cannot provide the same quality of service – resources are spread too thin and quality suffers.
On the other hand, if they have solid design experience in the type of website you’re looking for, they should not be discounted offhand either, but I’d definitely be asking for some hard evidence of a proven track records in such projects.
Another option if you are up for a challenge, is to design the website yourself. It’s a trivial matter to set up a WordPress blogging platform for your Church and it costs nothing but your time. Many affordable web hosting companies provide the option to auto-install WordPress using Fantastico and provide loads of FREE templates, including many Church themes.
Whatever your choice in web hosting companies Christian or Secular, it pays to shop around and research your options. Seek information from a lot of different sources like Magazines, Online Review sites, Directories, Blogs, Web Hosting Forums as well as the forums of the hosting companies you are considering. Post questions in as many forums as possible and try and find reviews from people who have actual experience with the host.
Monthly Archives: November 2011
Dedicated Server Hosting
A socket listener that can perform the functions of a program is called a dedicate server. This is the technical definition of a dedicated server in networking lingo. In the general computer science language a dedicated server is a program which can by itself cater to many hosts. In simple words a dedicated hosting means a server for your own use and for none other.
The world is moving at a fast pace and speed is the name of the game. How many hours have we spent on the internet waiting for the page to load? Dedicated hosting puts an end to all this. The website will work faster and in a much more efficient way because the web address does not have to share its space with none other. A server which has more grips on it, a server which makes its use comfortable, a server which can be customized to your choice is called a dedicated hosting. The hosting of this server is called dedicated server hosting. The industry standard for hosting a server is leased on one year in general. These dedicated hosting can be obtained from server vendors. They offer a number of services when it comes to dedicated hosting.
The question here is why I should buy something for a purpose which I can perform with a normal server. The answer to this question can be answered by one more question. Why should you get your trousers stitched by a tailor instead of buying something from the store? It’s the fact that it is more personalized, more comfortable and makes it easy to use. The same concept can be applied to dedicated hosting. It gives the web developer a freedom to show his creativity without it being too much of a load on the server. It also makes the customers feel comfortable with using the server. A normal server may be shared between four or five companies.
This increases the load of the server and hence more waiting time for the customers. Dedicated hosting puts an end to all this. It reduces the waiting time greatly and it makes the website more users friendly. Also maintaining and taking care of the server becomes easier when you use a dedicated server. People generally do not have the exact number of users who will visit their website on a given day. They just buy a normal server and host their website on it. Suppose the website gets more hits than expected, it will be a big problem to the users because of the increased waiting time. In some cases the server might hang and leave the users wondering. To avoid the problems people have started using dedicated hosting. These servers can be customized and maintained according to the needs of the company and in terms of heavy rush these servers are equipped to handle the load. This is the reason why dedicated hosting are becoming very popular.
Key Elements of Easy Website Design
When weighing the merits and faults of a good software program, one of the main criteria used is how well the website design tools are set up and how easy it is to get them to do what you want them to.
While that criterion may seem at first to be two different qualities, they are deeply tied into one another.
When using a program with an intuitive interface, all of the tools that you need to get the job done should be accessible to you with a few, if not one, clicks of the mouse.
There are exceptions of course, specifically if you are looking for a function that has such a specialized use that it is only utilized once in a very great while, but otherwise, you want to be able to get at those website design tools easily.
A Designer’s Menu
One of the easiest to use tools for software programs, and web design programs in particular, is the Right-click Menu.
Anytime you click the right mouse button, a menu will appear at the point of your cursor. At this point, the tools should be divided into folders that can be scrolled through.
Need to insert a picture? Well, simply right click, select the image library and find what you want.
What about putting in a Google AdWords ad? Again, just right click, select the type of ad you want, and you’re done.
Such easy to use website design tools are worth gold, especially if you are a novice to building website pages.
Website Design Has Come A Long Way
Website design has come a long way from its humble beginnings.
When the internet was first becoming widespread, web designers would type individual lines of code into an HTML file, relying completely on their ability to take what they visualized in their head and transforming it into accurate numbers and letters.
As thing changed and more visual oriented design features were introduced instead of code, the ability to assemble websites has become more common.
This inevitably runs its own risk. If you can design a website with no training, then somebody else can as well. The best way to get an edge is to use the best program to streamline your project.
Here is an adage about the internet: “Content is King.” Whoever has the freshest content that people want to see will be successful.
So, if you need to produce content quickly, then you need a program that is easy to use and has a great user interface.
Website Design – 2011 Website Design Trends
The fast technological and technical advancement produces fast changing trends in website design. 2011 is going to be nothing like 2010 and the past decade in general, according to experts. In the new year, functionality is going to take over looks and the design work is going to merge more effectively with development work. This is the main 2011 website design trend that determines all the rest.
What do you have to do the make a functional web site this year? As a start, you should make your pages compatible with portable multimedia devices with browsing capabilities. You should enable visitors to access your site through their mobile phones, portable media players and tablets.
You should reduce the amount of clicking visitors have to do. Similarly, you have to allow them to scan though your pages rather than to spend time trying to look for something that is not there. According to gurus, one of the trendiest ways to achieve all this is to make your web pages compatible with thumbnail browsing.
If you want to keep up with the 2011 website design trends, you should look for functionality in communication as well. It is a must for a functional web site to have a blog. However, just a couple of pages with articles are no longer sufficient. Linking to the social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter is a must. You should definitely use innovative features such as Twitter live feeds on your site as well.
The 2011 website design trends require you to have a deeper design with a number of layers creating a 3D view. Depth is easily accomplished by making some elements larger than others and by placing pictures and background with 3d images.
If you think 3D images may make your pages a bit too crowded, you may want to rely on another hot trend – using photos as background. The so called photographic backgrounds are stylish, elegant and attractive. They can send a powerful message, no matter whether they are used for personal, fashion or cooking sites.
The trendiest website colors in 2011 are the natural ones. Yellow, green and blue are by far the most popular. The idea is to use a combination of two or three colors with different undertones to create a harmonious and relaxing backdrop. Basically, you need to make the visitor feel at home.
Follow the 2011 website design trends to make your web site more functional and attractive in the new decade.
Myths About Website Design
Most organizations think that getting your website designed is complex and expensive. There are many myths and these are the primary reasons why website design in many cases don’t deliver results.
If you are looking at having your website designed (or redesigned) then you should heed these myths to make your life simpler and your website more successful, completed faster and cost lesser.
Myth # 10 – Website Designing is Complicated and Difficult
If you are not eBay, Yahoo or Google then chances are that your website design will be pretty simple stuff without requiring too much coding and design.
Myth # 9 – Websites Take a Long Time
Actually, most simple websites take around 5-6 working days at the most.
Myth # 8 – My Website Designer will Creating Content
Alas, your website designer knows technology. What he doesn’t know and understand is your business, your thoughts and your insights. So, don’t expect your website designer to be able to create content if you don’t provide it.
Myth # 7 – My Website Should Be the Most Beautiful
The phrase “Beauty is skin deep” rings truest in the context of website design. How many websites do you visit with inane and irrelevant images? Why is a series of colored pencils so important for a consulting website? What is more important is the use of Search Engine Optimized technology, navigation, ease of management and user-friendly interfaces.
Myth # 6 – My Website Design Specifications will be the Ultimate
Websites are dynamic. Just like you rearrange the furniture, you will periodically want to change the look, alter the design or add new features to your website. So don’t take years to come up with the ultimate specifications. It is a waste of time and money. Instead, keep your website design simple and then build upon it gradually.
Myth # 5 – I Don’t Need to Invest Time on My Website
Many organizations assign a low priority to their websites. The interaction with the website designers is often left to employees who are not in line with the strategic imperatives of the business. Big Mistake! Your website is important to your organization and is of strategic importance.
Senior management time is required during the process of website design. You also need to earmark resources for managing your website even after it is running successfully online.
Myth # 4 – My Website Will Top Search Engine Results Page
That’s what a billion webmasters pray for. It takes time, tremendous effort for your site to start topping search engine results. It also costs money. SEO is important and is the next step after web design.
Myth # 3 – My Website is About My Company
Wrong! Your website is not about your company but how it can benefit your customers and site visitors. Keep this mind during while planning your website design
Myth # 2 – I Don’t Need to Improve My Website
All major internet organizations are continually innovating and adding new features or content to their website design. This is important to make sure that you are ahead of your online competitors. And you must, too.
Myth # 1 – Websites are Expensive
Most requirements for websites are simple enough and should cost around $ 1000 to $ 4000. So, make sure that you don’t get overcharged. At the same time, don’t go with a website designer who promises to deliver everything at a ridiculously low cost.




