Church Web Design Part 7: Avoiding the Great Content Delay
In Part 6 of this series on the redesign of my church’s website I described the design phase of the project, and how Mike (OCC’s website developer on this project), was able to create a CMS template for our new website that looked virtually identical to our current site. With the concept phase complete, the next step was the content phase, one that is often fraught with delays.
Empowerment Philosophy
As I mentioned in the last article, one of the benefits of a content management system (CMS) is that it separates the design of the website from the content of the website. This enables ordinary, non-techie people like pastors, church secretaries, and volunteers to be able to add and update the content of the website without having to know anything about the design (or being able to mess it up.)
You’ve heard the saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Well, the same empowerment philosophy holds true for websites. Put a church’s content on their site for them and they have a good site for a day. Teach the church web administrator to enter their own content and they’ll have a good site for a lifetime.
One challenge, however, is that it’s hard for most people to grasp the distinction between concept and content.
Sell a person an empty house and they understand they’re getting the infrastructure (floors, walls, roof, plumbing, AC, appliances) but have to decorate the walls and supply the furniture themselves. Provide a church with an empty CMS website that has all the infrastructure (editor, media manager, interactive components) and they often get this confused look on their faces as they wonder where all their web pages are.
So, OurChurch.Com inserts a small portion of the content for its clients – the homepage content, 3 additional pages, a couple of items in the media manager, a couple of items in the shopping cart – just so the client can see what it looks like. Then OCC teaches its clients how to use the CMS and all of its components during phone sessions. During these training sessions, the client begins to enter content themselves, so they gain experience using the system.
The Content Phase
Immediately after we gave the final approval of the concept (design/template), Mike sent us a list of all the content he needed from us. The list depends on what functionality the client has had installed in their site, but our list included:
- Content for the Home Page
- Content for 3 other pages
- Content for up to 3 “Newsflash” items for the Scrolling Newsflash feature
- Info for the Contact Page (Name, Address, Phone, Fax, Email, etc.)
- Physical Address (if different than Contact Page) for the Map feature
- Up to 8 images for your Flash Rotator, and what page (or pages) you would like this feature located
- Names for up to 2 Media Galleries (video, photo, audio) and up to 2 media files for each gallery
- Photo and Info for up to 2 staff member for the Staff Directory (Name, Position, Work Phone, Fax, Email, Bio, etc.)
- Email for PayPal account (for the Donations module)
- A draft of the proposed “Site Map” for your site. For an example, go to http://www.ourchurch.com/design/cmsframe.php and click on “Site Map” in the main menu.
- Email address in which the Custom Contact Form data will be sent to.
The Great Content Delay
For a lot of churches this is where “the great content delay” takes place. OCC first sends this list shortly after the contract is received, so the client can begin gathering content while the OCC web designer is working on the template. Therefore, this is actually a reminder of the content needed. However, Mike tells me that he usually ends up waiting weeks and sometimes months for the content.
There are lots of challenges to gathering up all this content, particularly for churches. Some of them include:
- Somebody has to decide what pages to put on the site. That may require meetings.
- Text is needed from several different church staff members, some more responsive than others.
- Church staff are busy and have other priorities.
- Often the senior pastor wants to sign off on the text that will go onto the website and it sits in his in box waiting for approval for a while.
- Sometimes the pictures needed don’t exist. Somebody has to take them.
Avoiding the Delay
Fortunately, because I know how many other churches website projects experience delays at this point, I was prepared and able to send Mike all the content he needed within a couple of days, and he was able to insert the content into the site quickly avoiding a big delay.
Learning Points
Here are 5 things your church can do avoid the great content delay.
- Talk with the person who oversees the church staff (senior or executive pastor) at the beginning of the project and make sure they are aware that you will need content from the staff. Let them know that if they want the website done in a timely manner you’ll need them to hold the staff accountable for getting the content to you on time.
- Don’t wait until the content phase to start getting content together. Begin gathering or requesting the content you’ll need for your website during the design phase.
- When you ask for content from people, give them a deadline so they know when it’s expected.
- When you ask for content from people, remind them how much the new website will benefit their ministry. The sooner you receive then content from them, the sooner they will begin to see the benefits of the new website.
- Don’t try to be perfect. Remember, you’re not carving your content in stone. You can change it any time.
Have you experienced (or avoided) ”the great content delay?” What are the greatest challenges to getting content onto your website?  Do you have any advice to offer web administrators?
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October 4th, 2007 at 11:30 am
[…] In part 7 of this series about the redesign of my church’s website, we left off with Mike (OCC’s website developer on this project) having added a limited amount of content to the new website. The next step in the development process is training the client (me) on how to use the content management system (CMS) and all the components installed. This is one of the most important aspects of getting a new website, yet it’s usually overlooked. Do you know why? […]
October 31st, 2007 at 1:22 pm
[…] Completing the Content As explained in Part 7, OurChurch.Com’s philosophy is to install and configure the content management system and then to train and empower each client to add and manage their own content. The typical custom design contract includes OCC placing only a small amount of content on each client’s site, so the client can see what is possible. That helps to keep down the cost of web development projects. And with the client fully capable of adding content, doing it themselves gives the client the opportunity to format pages and tweak the text. […]