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Living in Florida, I don’t personally adhear to the seasonal nature of spring cleaning.  In fact, with the highs around 70 right now, I’d like to spend a few hours in the garage in the next couple of weeks before it starts to feel like an oven in there again. 

There’s a bike in there that’s broken and either need to be fixed or put out to the curb.  There are some toys that my kids have outgrown and need to be taken to Good Will.  There are tools that were laid on my workbench and need to be put away and reorganized.  There are the boxes that I kept just in case items I bought broke and needed to be returned.  And then there’s lots of dirt and leaves that have blown in over the last several months.

Things have started to pile up and get cluttered.  Sometimes I can’t find things I’m looking for.  It’s starting to become more difficult to find places to put new things.

The same thing can happen with a website over time.  As content gets added, it can become cluttered.  Graphics and media don’t always get put into the right folders and can become difficult to find later on.  Old files that you know you’ll never use again are sitting around gathering electrons.

It’s time for a little spring website cleaning.

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If you are one of those people whose head is spinning with all the new Internet terms like blog, podcast, folksonomy, or netiquette, here’s one more: webinar.  In this article, I’ll explain in plain English what a webinar is, how it works, why you should consider participating in one or even hosting one.  Plus I’ll include examples from a previous webinar and provide details on how you can participate in an informative webinar tomorrow on the NE1 Web Page Editor at no cost.

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The Christian Web Trends Blog is intended for all Christians interested in reading and discussion the impact of Internet technology on ministry and not specifically for people who use OurChurch.Com website services.  So, while I do occasionally mention OCC services tangentially as they relate to a topic, I don’t often write blog articles specifically about OCC services because it’s not about OCC.

Today I’m going to make an exception to talk about the new NE1 Website Builder we recently launched, because more than 10,000 Christian organizations have active websites built with our Beacon website builder.  And I believe with all my heart that the more of those organizations that move to NE1 and the sooner they move the better those organizations will be able to communicate and minister to those they serve.

Plus more than half our blog subscribers have a website created with our Beacon website builder and have an interest in NE1.  It’s not often I write something that even half of our readers are interested in.

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Happy New Year!  After a hiatus of several weeks, I’m back to writing the Christian Web Trends blog.  Our whole staff here at OurChurch.Com has been working day and night in preparation for yesterday’s grand opening of our new NE1 Website Builder.  By the way, if you blog about tech stuff, we’d love for you to write a review of NE1.  Let me know if you do, and I’ll mention it and link to it here.

The reason we’ve been working so furiously is because January more than any other time of year is when organizations set new goals and take their websites to the next level.  We’ve been providing website services to Christian organizations for more than 11 years now, and we see this every year.  So, we wanted to have our new web builder available so organizations could both improve the look of their sites and improve its functionality now when people are most likely to be motivated to improve their websites.

This time of year I’m a big proponent of taking time to reflect back on the past year and setting new goals for the new year.  I hope you’ll do that personally, and if you manage a website I hope you’ll do that with regards to that as well.

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