Website 2

BUILDING A TEAM

YOUR PURPOSE?

FUNDING

PRINTING

DISTRIBUTION

A WEBSITE TOO?

GENERATING COPY

3. Frequency of Updating a Website?

4. Control of the Website

Ideally, the content of a website should complement the paper-based publication, not duplicate it. So, if the magazine editor and the webmaster are different folk, it is obviously vital that they collaborate easily and well. The two media are quite different means of communication and it might be that different individuals will be able to bring differing skill sets to each of the publications, with benefits to both.

The obvious alternative is for one individual to act as newsletter/magazine editor as well as webmaster. This helps to ensure consistency of content and style of course, although such a dual role can give the individual considerable “power” over the church communications and so this may need to be monitored by a wider editorial group (see Building a Team).

5. Legal Aspects

Tact, sensitivity and common sense should prevail in all church communications, so as to avoid causing offence to any potential reader. This is even more important for a website, which has the potential literally to reach a global audience. A detailed discussion of the laws of defamation, libel, etc., is clearly well beyond the scope of this website. However, some simple tips might be appropriate:

Avoid making statements that could be interpreted as favouring a political party or particular candidate in elections at any level, national or local
If your website provides a platform for individuals or groups to debate local issues, always ensure that all directly concerned parties have an equal opportunity to express their views
The content of the website should not make any direct or implied criticisms of individuals, groups or organisations, and it is best to prevent others (e.g., via letters, blogs, etc) from doing so

Creating a website to complement your paper magazine is not a decision to be taken lightly. Once created, it will only remain attractive to potential visitors if the content is kept up-to-date and refreshed visually from time to time. This can be quite time consuming, and requires an enthusiastic and committed webmaster.

On the other hand, it is worth remembering that a church-based website will not necessarily receive a high hit-rate (number of visitors) and so the updating process needs to strike a sensible balance between the desire the keep visitors coming back versus the time and effort required to maintain the site. At the very least, however, your diary of events, the details of service times etc, *must* be kept up-to-date. If you can’t guarantee to achieve this much, don’t create a website in the first place!

6. Financial Implications

Assuming that a church member or friend of the church is willing to perform the role of webmaster without financial reward, the costs of running a website can be surprisingly modest. The main elements of costs are:

domain registration fees
web hosting charges

Domain Registration Fees:

An initial fee will be incurred to register your chosen domain name in the first place, and annual fees to maintain the registration thereafter. Global level domains (e.g., .org) are more expensive than national level domains (e.g., .org.uk) but the longer the period of registration that is paid for upfront, the cheaper the annual fee becomes.

The Association for Church Editors recommends Serif Software for Ease of Use and excellent Value for Money.

To visit their website, click the logo:

Any photographs taken in a public place can be used on a website, but it is a common courtesy to ask permission of those photographed before publishing. This is particularly important for images of young children, so always ask parents or guardians first. It is also best to avoid stating the names of children on a website
Do not use images found on the internet as illustrations for your own site – there is a high likelihood that they have copyright restrictions or that the right to reproduce them requires the payment of a licence fee. Instead, favour those taken by the webmaster or other church members
Take care over humour – individuals can vary considerably in their response to items that were intended to be light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek or ironic
And while this hopefully doesn’t need saying, the website must never carry profanities or offend public decency!

Typical costs are as follows:

When registering your domain for the first time, it is worth comparing the ongoing costs of different ISPs as some use the initial domain registration as a loss leader, or include it free-of-charge as part of a web-hosting package.

Web Hosting Fees:

Your chosen ISP will charge a monthly or annual fee for hosting your website on its servers. The costs will vary according to the level of service required, but the needs of most church websites will be adequately catered for by the most basic of web hosting packages offered by ISPs. Typically this will cost about £5 per month, or £50 annually.