If church and Christian organisation websites were people, what would they speak and sound like? Clear, engaging and interesting? Or ambiguous, verbose and confusing? This presentation borrows tips and techniques from fields as diverse as marketing, psychology and the good old schoolroom to bring you 10 golden rules to help you sharpen your website's text. This presentation was given at Create 2009, a conference geared to help Christians be more creative and professional in using technology and design to promote the gospel. It's quite general, and intended for a broad -- rather than technical and industry-knowledgeable -- audience.

1. Ben Crothers | 14 Nov 2009

2.  I am a
user experience designer/
business consultant
 I really enjoy
helping churches online/anything 2.0/painting
 Work: PTG Global as a Senior Consultant
 Blog: catchmedia.com.au
 Twitter: @bencrothers

3.  Format:
 Landscape, not portrait
 Not linear, but jumping around with links
 Interactive, animation and show/hide effects
 It takes time to download
 People have more control over the format

4.  Behaviour:
 Cognitive load as we go from 'page' to 'page': Will
this link go where I expect it to go? Do I have time?
Will I change direction? Go back?
 We scan rather than read, in an 'F-pattern'
 We are (even more) fickle, impatient, task-focused

6.  Think about the real intent of your content
 Avoid clichés and phrases that don't actually
mean anything
 Avoid acronyms and proprietary words that
may confuse and alienate
 Sermon, worship, justification, non-Christian
 Get someone else to read your content

7.  Cut your text in half
 Use shorter sentences and shorter paragraphs
 Avoid the 'padding' content, e.g.
 Welcome messages
 Overly-long instructional text for online forms

8.  Think about the reward for the reader in
reading your content
 Know your audience and decide who to
grab first
 Use keywords that resonate with your
audience (but maybe not you)‫‏‬
 Be bold, be exciting and excited, be honest,
be real, be confident

10.  Could there be a different way to present
your message, other than a title and five
paragraphs of text?
 Like a billboard?
 Like an IKEA catalogue?
 Like a chart?
 Like a packet of biscuits?

12.  Replace or remove old content
 Make sure the home page looks different
week-to-week, or at least month-to-month
 Update content
 Randomly-selected items of content
 Write new blog posts

13.  It is worth it, it does matter, people do notice
and it does reflect better on your
church/organisation
 Why? It distracts from the message in the
content itself
 Mind your it's and its
 Separate, not seperate
 One idea per paragraph

14.  It is worth it, it does matter, people do notice
and it does reflect better on your
church/organisation
 Why? It distracts from the message in the
content itself
 Mind your it's and its
 Separate, not seperate
 One idea per paragraph

15.  It is worth it, it does matter, people do notice
and it does reflect better on your
church/organisation
 Why? It distracts from the message in the
content itself
 Mind your it's and its
 Separate, not seperate
 One idea per paragraph

16.  Use plenty of subtitles
 Short paragraphs
 Bulleted lists
 Priority of messages: make the most
important message/call to action the most
prominent
 Chunk and simplify your information, with
links to more detailed information if necessary

17.  Use magazine layouts as inspiration...

18.  Twitter:
 Make those 140 characters count!
 Punchy lead-ins for links: good
 Making it personal and different: even better
 This post just changed how I pray! http://bit.ly/KM096GY
 Leave room for others to retweet
 Use hashtags, like #createconf

19.  Blogs:
 Make the headline count! (50/50 rule)‫‏‬
 Read this or the puppy gets it!
 Top 10 reasons why...
 What I didn't know about Jesus
 Use subheadings within the post to tell the story:
 “I used to mock Christians”
 “Then He showed up”
 “Now by God's grace I'm planting my third church”

20.  Blogs (continued):
 Front-load your post with the key pieces of
information
 Start with the conclusion
 The include the rest of the vital details
 Then expand on detail

22.  You may be the expert, but you may not be the
best person to write the content
 Delegate and share the load, if you can
 Assign one person to take charge of gathering all
content from all content-providers
 Endorse this person and their job
 Content workflow: who writes, reviews, edits,
approves and publishes
 Content schedule: new content every month?

23.  Easier for writing content
 What 'boxes to fill in' rather than blank canvas
 Easier for gathering content from others
 Makes content consistent

24.  Easier for writing content
 What 'boxes to fill in' rather than blank canvas
 Easier for gathering content from others
 Makes content consistent

25.  Ben Crothers
 Blog: catchmedia.com.au
 Twitter: @bencrothers