In his book, Start With Why, Simon Sinek writes, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”  In this case the contrast couldn’t be more stark, so I’m interested to put Sinek’s theory to the test and see if he’s right.

Will people will join GoDaddy’s mission get people to rush to their website in search of sexy pics of their spokeswomen?  Or will people join OurChurch.Com’s mission to partner with Christian organizations to achieve their mission online?  Or does “why” not matter?

I’ve had many Christians sheepishly admit to me they’ve got services with GoDaddy.  Their embarrassment tells me why does matter.

We can do better than that!  Come join a cause you can be proud of – seeing more Christian organizations achieve their mission online!

When outspoken Christian quarterback Tim Tebow threw for 316 yards to help Denver upset favored Pittsburgh in the playoffs, millions flocked to the Internet to search for John 3:16 — so much so that the day after the game, that Bible verse was the No. 1 search on Google.

As it turns out, some of those Google searches were of eternal significance.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association reports that more than 150 people have made a decision to accept Christ as their Savior as a result of searching for “John 3:16″ in Google and then clicking on an advertisement for the BGEA’s PeacewithGod.net website.

Pretty cool, huh?

You can read the rest of the article here.

(By the way, Tim was not wearing the verse in his eye paint Saturday. The pic is from a game with the University of Florda. Messages are banned from eye paint in the NFL.)

Thoughts?

There are thousands of companies that provide LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) web hosting accounts that will run WordPress. Let’s start by thinking through what factors to consider when evaluating web hosting companies.

Price – Price is usually what people look at first. Most web hosting companies charge $5-$10 for a basic web hosting account, though I’ve seen some as cheap as $2 or $3. When we’re talking about only $5-$10, does the difference matter?

Let’s say you’re planning to post twice a week and spend 1 hour writing each post and another hour engaging with readers in comments and reading other blogs. That’s 4 hours a week x 4 weeks a month = 16 hours a month. If you were to value your time at just $10/hr, you’re investing $160/mo of time into your blog. Do you really want to risk all that by trying to save $5/mo with a cheap web host that may have unreliable servers or poor support? Probably not.

Disk space – Disk space is the next thing people usually look at when searching for a web hosting company. Disk space has become so cheap, that many web hosts now claim to offer “unlimited” space. Beware of this! Do you think they would host The Huffington Post or Mashable for that? Of course not. Every company that claims to offer “unlimited” disk space has it written in the fine print that they can suspend your account if you use “excessive” disk space, processing or bandwidth. The problem is none of them will tell you what “excessive” means. The vast majority of blogs would be fine on any of these accounts, but if your blog really takes off your web hosting account could be suspended.

Personally, I have a hard time recommending any company that claims to offer “unlimited” space. Not only does it put you at risk, but I think the whole concept is disingenuous at best and dishonest at worst.

Support/Service – One of the most important yet overlooked aspect of web hosting service is the service and support. Is your blog going to be accessible all the time or will there be frequent down time? If you have a question, can you email and get quick, helpful reply or call and get a human being who speaks understandable English on the phone?

The challenge is almost every web hosting company claims to provide great support and offers something like a 99.99% uptime guarantee. So how do you know? You can try reading online reviews, but sometimes a handful of unhappy customers can make a company look really bad. The best option, though, is word of mouth. What hosting company do your friends who blog use? How happy are they with them?

As John Saddington (aka Tent Blogger) learned earlier this year (See Blog Host Fail), you can’t underestimate the value of good service and support.

Shared Values – One final thing to consider when selecting a web hosting company for your blog is values. Is this an organization you want to partner with? Do you share their values? Do you want to see them succeed? Do they care if you succeed?

So, what web hosting companies provide an honest, sufficient amount of disk space with great service and support at a fair price? Which would you feel good about supporting and know that they have your best interest in mind?

How about OurChurch.Com?

Sure, I’m biased, but I would put our servers and support staff up against that of any hosting company in the world.  And you’ve got an “in” with the CEO.

OurChurch.Com exists to help Christian organizations achieve their mission online. If that’s a value that resonates with you, I hope you’ll join the growing number of Christian organizations that we are helping achieve their mission. If you appreciate the insight and connections you gain though this blog, know that it’s made possible by our paying clients. If you’re already one of them, thank you!

Who provides hosting for your blog or website? Are you happy with them? Which factors weighed most in your decision?

If you haven’t already done so, please complete the State of the Blogging Universe Survey and check out the other posts in this series.

5) What’s the Best Blogging Platform? <– State of the Blogging Universe Series -> 7) The Best Blogging Tips

Some people choose free blogging services like Blogger.com or WordPress.com because they’re free and getting started is extremely easy. Some people are choosing mini-blogging services like Tumblr and Posterous which are also free and even easier to set-up. Some people also choose to pay for a blogging service like TypePad. But hands down the best blogging platform is…

Self-hosted WordPress

By “self-hosting” I mean, you install and host the WordPress software yourself in a web hosting account rather than using the WordPress.com service.

Why is self-hosted WordPress the best solution?  Let me give you 10 good reasons…

1. It’s good. WordPress is by far the most popular blogging software on the planet.
2. It’s active. Because WordPress is used by so many people, it also has a great development team, which means bugs are fixed quickly and it has a great future.
3. 5 minute installation. Yes, it’s that easy. And there are step-by-step instructions.
4. Easy to update. When a new version of WordPress is released, it usually takes one click to update to the new version. So, you don’t have to worry about ending up with an old obsolete blog in a year or two.
5. Thousands of plugins. Plugins extend the functionality of WordPress. There is a plugin for just about anything you can think of.
6. Thousands of themes. Thousands of templates or themes have already been developed for WordPress. Many are available for free. Many are available for a small fee. You’re sure to find one with a style and layout you like.
7. Many theme developers. But if you want a custom theme, there are hundreds of WordPress theme developers who will create a custom theme for you.
8. Drives search traffic to your own site. A blog is a great way to bring new visitors to your site from search engines. If you use a free blogging service like blogger.com, your blog is bringing search traffic to blogger.com not YourDomain.com.
9. Brings links to your site. Similarly, when people link to your blog posts you want them linking to posts on YourDomain.com not something.blogger.com.
10. It’s free. The wordpress software itself is free. You will have to pay $5-$10/mo for web hosting, but if you are going to spend 5, 10 or more hours a month blogging, what is your time worth? Isn’t worth investing an extra 5% to get all of the benefits on this list?

Do you agree the self-hosted wordpress is the best blogging platform? Why or why not?

If you haven’t already done so, please complete the State of the Blogging Universe Survey and check out the other posts in this series.

4) Is Blogging Still Worth It? <– State of the Blogging Universe Series -> 6) How to Choose the Best Blog Hosting for Your Blog

• On the one hand, Facebook and Twitter continue to grow rapidly and the number of people who use social media far exceeds the number of people blogging or even reading blogs.
• Yet, as more people use social media it provides additional opportunities to share blog posts with them.
• However, as more and more people share more and more content with each other, it’s become more difficult for bloggers to consistently engaged with people.

So, blogging still on the rise or is it on the decline?

Is blogging still an effective tool for making connections, communicating and marketing?

Before we address those questions, I’d like to help us all get a better idea of the state of the blogosphere by conducting a survey.

Then for the next 4 weeks we’ll tackle topics like why blogging is harder than ever, whether you should start blogging, continue blogging or quit blogging, my top 4 blogging tips, and the best blogging platform. We’ll examine blogging success stories. And we’ll wrap things up by analyzing the survey results on December 21.

Please take 5 minutes and complete this State of the Blogging Universe Survey

Then please share a link to the survey on Facebook and Twitter. The more people that complete the survey, the better the results we’ll all get from it.

To provide a little added incentive, if you share this post on any social network – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon, Digg, whatever – go ahead and introduce yourself in a comment below and include a link to any website, blog or social media profile you’d like others to know about.

Posts in the State of the Blogging Universe Series (added when published)

1. This post
2. What Are Your Top 3 Favorite Blogs?
3. 10 Reasons Blogs Fail
4. Is Blogging Still Worth It?
5. What’s the Best Blogging Platform?
6. How to Choose the Best Blog Hosting for Your Blog
7. The Best Blogging Tips
8. Blog Tip #1: Focus on Your Passion
9. Blog Tip #2: Plan for Consistency
10. Blog Tip #3: Engage with Your Readers
11. Blog Tip #4: Lead Your Niche
12. 5 Insights from the State of the Blogging Universe Survey

Then after learning that iTBN is basically Trinity Broadcaasting Network’s answer to Hulu I wondered…  does anyone who uses the Internet actually watch Christian television?

Rather than wondering, I thought I’d ask.  Are you interested in watching Christian television shows via iTBN?  Do you think anyone will watch?

This announcement is for all of you who use the NE1 Web Builder which comes with all of OurChurch.Com’s web hosting packages.  If that’s not you, feel free to take a coffee break… or continue reading with envy… your call.

While you were lounging around at the beach sipping daiquiris (non alcoholic, I’m sure) all summer, our team was hard at work creating a trilogy of improvements to the NE1 Web Builder.  If it wasn’t already after midnight this is where I would insert a bad movie pun.  But since I’m short on functioning brain cells let me just say that over the next week, we will be rolling part 1, which includes 4 major improvements.

1) New Image Editor

Currently, if you go into the asset manager and click the “edit” (pencil-like) icon next to an image, it launches a basic image editor that enables you to resize, crop, and rotate images. We’re ditching that image editor and replacing it with an awesome image editor provided by pixlr.com. This image editor can do just about everything except bake brownies. Use it to add text, reduce red eye, adjust brightness and contrast, make your boss look like he’s posing in a fun house hall of mirrors, plus dozens of other filters and adjustments. The most commonly used features are intuitive to use and there are video tutorials for the more advanced features.

2) New Image Galleries

Big improvements are on the way for the image gallery as well. The new version will enable you to:

• Arrange images in a gallery by simply dragging and dropping them where you want them
• Set the size of the thumbnails
• Set the number of images per page
• Set the number of images per row
• Hide comments

The Gallery module comes in the all Gold, Silver and Bronze hosting packages, so if you’ve got a Free or Starter package now, you’ll need to upgrade to get the new gallery.

3) User Access Manager

The User Access Manager is a completely new module that enables you set up multiple administrators for your website. Not only that, but it enables you to determine exactly which pages and modules each person can edit.

Want to give your senior pastor access to post to the blog but don’t want him to be able to change the site template? You got it! Want to give teachers the ability to update pages just for their classes? Your wish is our command! Want to set up a second administrator and give them access to everything so you can go on vacation ignore all calls from your boss? Done!

The User Access Manager is gold. Literally. It’s available exclusively in the Gold package.

4) New Help Icons

As if that wasn’t enough to get you dancing a jig, you’ll soon notice “Help” icons next to the title of every NE1 Admin page. Click it, and it will magically take you to the help page for that admin function.

Rollout Schedule

The plan is to begin rolling out these improvements this morning (Friday) to NE1 sites in Gold, Silver, and Bronze hosting packages. If all goes well, Free and Starter packages sites should begin seeing these goodies by the middle of next week.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, give us a shout here on the blog or via our help desk.  We hope you’ll enjoy this epic adventure!

In His Service,
Paul Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com

Unfortunately, a lot of people have a actually had conversations like this.  How about you?

As reported by The Christian Post:

“What has changed everything?” asked the apologist from Campus Crusade for Christ International as he spoke on “Unshakable Truth, Relevant Faith” at the Billy Graham Center in Asheville, N.C.. His answer was, the Internet.

“The Internet has given atheists, agnostics, skeptics, the people who like to destroy everything that you and I believe, the almost equal access to your kids as your youth pastor and you have… whether you like it or not,”

First of all, I don’t believe the Internet has given anyone equal access to my kids because they spend way more time with me, my wife, church, and others who live out their Christian faith than they spend online.

Second, McDowell seems to be implying that in order to successfully pass on your faith to your kids you have to indoctrinate them with Christianity and never let them know anything about other worldviews. I have a major problem with that. I want my kids to know about atheism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and every other –ism. I want them to compare the truth of the Bible with the lies other worldviews perpetuate.  The way to pass on our faith to our kids is not to put our hands over their eyes and ears every time they encounter a non-Christian worldview

I do think we absolutely need to protect our children from pornography and sites promoting hate and violence.

And I do think there is a real risk that if parents do not teach their kids the fundamentals of the Christian faith, if they don’t live out their faith, and if they don’t explain the fallacies of other worldviews that children free to roam the Internet on their own, that they will drift to the dominant, post-modern, relativistic worldview.

But let’s not blame or fear the Internet. Let’s prepare our children for the inevitable exposure they will have to other worldviews both offline and online.

What do you think? Is the Internet the “greatest threat to Christians?”