Web Development on a Stick
Give Input on the Next EE Series
So, strange as it seems I’ve been getting the itch to start another “Building an ExpressionEngine Site” series. Since the last one was “Small Business”, I was thinking around what I could do next. The most natural one for me would be a church site. Church sites, on the whole, are pretty terrible and the combination of ExpressionEngine, a design template and a crafty developer equals a pretty darn nice website for not a whole lot of cash. Getting a step by step series out there might help someone who otherwise couldn’t be that crafty developer for their church.
As I think through it, though, it seems a waste to build a “sample” site when there are so many churches and ministries that could actually use the thing.
So, yes, I am considering ignoring my own advice and writing a blog series covering the build of an EE-based website that would, at the end of the series, be turned over to a church or ministry that could really use it. The series would then be compiled/edited into a book just like the Small Business series, and sold via Train-ee.com.
Yes, it might be crazy - or at least I am considering my less-than-stellar experiences with church websites.
So with that as the kernel of the idea, I’m looking for input on how to best structure the project so that the site-recipient is best set up for post-launch success, and I have the material for a book targeted at another audience.
I’m thinking of things along these lines:
- Recipient must identify a developer who will “inherit” the site and make all future changes to. This developer will be provided with the book resulting from this series. The goal here is that once done building the site I can hand it off and not be responsible for it forever.
- Recipient must be, as an organization, at least two years old, with a healthy ministry. I want to avoid putting a lot of work into a site for an organization that dies either during the process or shortly thereafter.
- Recipient must furnish a design template and logo before the project begins (Debatable here - documenting the design process might be interesting as well, but that would involve someone else as I’m really out of the design business these days.)
- Recipient must purchase hosting and a copy of ExpressionEngine.
- Recipient must be committed to actually using the site once live. I’m not sure how you can require commitment but I want to see the site get picked up and taken seriously in the day to day running of the recipient. Maybe the recipient has to be already active on the internet - just using something like Blogger that isn’t meeting their needs any longer. Or maybe the recipient would need to furnish a content maintenance plan involving staff and schedules.
- Recipient can’t be in a hurry. The last series took roughly 5 months to complete, and I’d expect this to be the same.
Other thoughts or ideas?
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February 02, 2008
Fabulous idea! I will be following this series very closely and I might have an idea of a ministry that could utilize this, if you are looking for one…
February 02, 2008
Interesting thought. How does a church site differ from a small business site? I can see there would potentially be a lot of overlap but if there are specific things such as user input, different sections doing wildly different jobs in the site it could certainly be of benefit. I think the site subject though is of little consequence - a site needing xy and z could be anything - though you are drawing from your experience and we are gratefull for your insights. Yeah go for it.
February 02, 2008
Very interested in becoming the recipient or following the course.
I am in the midst of transferring over 600 messages from our Pastor into this site. Also wanting to build a site for the church. Up to now I have been using Joomla but my neighbor who is a developer has shown me EE which have been trying. It would be a total blessing for this to happen.
February 02, 2008
Ooo, Pick me!
I am not in a place to officially say, but I am pretty sure my church is overdue for a redesign / redevelopment and would totally benefit from this. My husband is on staff, and several times recently I have mentioned that I would love to help with the design if I could find some developers to help with a CMS solution. It is a very large thriving church.
Like Kevin, this would be a total blessing - for us and/or whomever you would choose for this. Great idea!
February 02, 2008
Heh… I didn’t figure there would be a shortage of possible recipients...
However I would prefer a smaller ministry - both in that the project/site would be smaller and the ministry less likely and able to afford it on their own.
February 02, 2008
...and once again I post from my wife’s laptop and forget who is signed in...:roll
Crissa === Mike...in this case…
February 02, 2008
We have a congregation of about 200.
February 02, 2008
Crissa (haha), I completely understand that, too. We have over 2,000 members; the biggest need for a redo of the site is that all of the various aspects of the ministries on the site have gone in different directions and there is no cohesion or easy way to maintain it.
I think selfishly I also was looking at the project so that I could be involved and learn more about EE and how it works (and of course I want to get better at designing)!
All in all I’m glad that I’ve found out about these Train-ee eBooks you’ve got started and look forward to learning more through them and these posts here about the whole process.
Thanks!
February 02, 2008
My pastor has been asking me to help redesign the church site. I’m interested and he’s on board for switching to EE but I am also hesitant as I’m not sure where to begin with such a large project.
Please do this.
February 02, 2008
I think an ecommerce site would be a good idea. A church site shares so much with a small business and this would be a completely different use for EE.
February 03, 2008
Hey Folks - thanks for your comments.
Again - what I’m looking for here is thinking about how to best structure the project for post-launch use and success, rather than looking at specific ministries (yet).
I know from a functionality standpoint there’s alot of overlap between and church and small business site - however with a church site we can look at podcasting, photo galleries, members-only pages, using member profiles as a church-member-picture directory, multiple content administrators, workflow, etc.
I’m also trying to think a bit like a marketer here - wondering if a book targeted towards church sites would sell to people who wouldn’t maybe buy one based on a small business site.
@Louis: eCommerce isn’t currently one of EE’s strong points. The simple commerce module works fine for a few items that can sell via PayPal (and could be looked at as part of a Church site), but the forums are filled with people looking for an eCommerce engine to integrate with EE for more stringent requirements than the SECM can handle. The time isn’t right for that book yet…
February 03, 2008
Mike,
I really, REALLY hope you do the church series!!! Especially if you cover some topics like members-only sections, workflow and events calendar (maybe with repeet); and of course using a different blog per site “section”.
I ain’t too proud to beg!
February 03, 2008
Mike, from the books angle I would concentrate on functionality - the ones you have mentioned are a step beyond the SME site and choosing a church site should be a good way to show the example you have mentioned. Perhaps also show how some twists on how the functionality can be used in other sites as well. An example, from my portfolio, would be a highly customised weblog for a rugby club to quickly add results to its website on a very complex page without the user having to know any html or css. And certainly a piece on how to integrate the EE forum into a site!
February 04, 2008
I’m thinking community sites, you may of saw my post in the train-EE forums. A church site is a perfect fit for what I would call the “community” features offered in EE.
A charitable organization with a focus on a certain set of needs would also be good, still falls into the ministry category too.
If a need presents itself I’ll give a yell then.
There are a few websites out there that help connect developers with folks needing sites.
I forget the link offhand, on some of these would get some exposure.
I’ll pm you any links I turn up in that category then Michael.
February 04, 2008
Here was the link of interest:
http://www.volunteermatch.org/
February 06, 2008
If the right party was found, maybe we could give them the site, by donating it to them. If enough people wanted to chip in for the license cost, I’ld be willing to help out there.
February 06, 2008
Here’s maybe a better place to look, found one:
http://www.christianvolunteering.org/org/opp1722.jsp
this one in St. Joseph MO.
This site on the homepage has a dropdown and I picked computers and technology to find this one.
Maybe someone will no somebody personally too, just tossing ideas out.
February 06, 2008
I for one would love to see it. As a recent finder of EE (and enjoying it VERY much) and recent webmaster of my church, it would definitely help to hear some ideas from an experienced person.
February 06, 2008
I think that this would be a great series. I have just recently found EE and I want to transition over to it from WordPress and it would be helpful to see how to do certain things that pertain to the church.
The small business series has been extremely helpful, but some of the ideas you are talking about would be great to read. I am very much looking forward to this!
February 09, 2008
A proper look at calendars would be nice. Perhaps even a way to have events that span days etc.
February 09, 2008
I recently launched a website for a local congregation using ExpressionEngine (see http://www.kingstreet.org) and am always looking for ways to improve the site. I’ll stay tuned for what you author.
February 13, 2008
I would be very interested in this up-coming series as I am the webmaster for my Church’s site:
http://www.newlifelamesa.org/
We currently have a CMS system that we pay handily for and isn’t real flexible. I could say more but the important thing is the challenge for me to build the best tool for our body - enabling them to be ministered to as well as using the site as a ministry and outreach tool and I run into alot of blocks.
Particularly of interest to me is the handling of sermons, indexing, sorting, creating a player. We have somewhat of that now but we are boxed in.
Please be encouraged, most churches that have them are strong in the Lord yet weak in the web.
Thank you Mike - I’m almost finished with your Building series and would really look forward to such a series.
Pete
February 16, 2008
From 2003-2007, during various times, my family was living/volunteering/working near Acapulco Mexico with a Roman Catholic missionary organization. They live according to vows of poverty, and donations have been slow the last few years. Father Pablo Straub is a pretty respected/famous priest --and he’s the founder/Superior.
Over a year ago, I tried to get a site going for him in Expression Engine. He has a lot of video content and photos from missions all through Latin America that I wanted to display on the site. The site has posts, but isn’t finished. I don’t know if they like the design at all. It could be refined or changed.
After 3 years with them, last September we left to live in a small town in the mountains of Panama instead, but, I’ve wanted to get back to the project but they would benefit from better expertise than I possess. I haven’t been helping him on really anything since Sept. as I’ve been trying to get a web projects consulting business going.
I’d be very interested in any project that gets completed here regardless whether it’s Father Straub’s.
Bruce
February 16, 2008
I didn’t mention the site name for my post above was http://www.windowtotruth.com
Bruce