How the ABCs of Real Estate Blogging Can Help Your Church

Mark Alves Content Ideas

When you’re trying to find the right seat for Mass, it comes down to location, location, location, right? In that spirit, you can pick up a few pointers for your church site from the real estate world. Brandon Cornett put together an A-to-Z list of real estate blogging tips that you’ll find apply to church webmasters as well. He covers it all from Authoritative, Believable and Candid all the way to Xstensible, Yours and Zippy.

Here are some points that stood out and my interpretation for church webheads:

E – Enthusiastic
“…Half-hearted commentary stands out like a purple elephant in the blogosphere.” (Not to be confused with a remarkable purple cow.)

H – Happening
(Include the latest buzz at your church, whether photos from recent events, recaps of an education series or related links to hot local topics.)

J – Jargon-free
(No one outside of the innermost religious education circles says “catechetical.”)

L – Lead-producing
(You want people to join your community, right?)

P – Purposeful
(Understand what your church is trying to achieve online and measure it.)

R – Recyclable
(Don’t forget about re-highlighting your best articles or photos. Annual picnic coming up? Advertise it using last year’s photos. Reflections on the Blessed Mother? Bring them back out for May and October (her designated months). Same for Lent and Advent reflections. My parish celebrated the Jubilee in 2000 with themes on the sabbath, freedom and more that we’ve re-linked to over the years.)

U – Usable
(I’m into usability and your congregation will thank you if you put your efforts there.)

What would you put on your A-Z list?

The 3 Email Newsletters No Church Site Should Be Without

Mark Alves Email

I say the more the merrier if you can support plenty of non-overlapping email newsletters or listservs on your church site, but, please, make sure you offer the holy trinity of email lists:

  1. News and updates – Monthly reminders of the most important upcoming events at your church. You might go as frequently as weekly if your research supports it. More importantly, this is your distribution channel for emergency announcements and last minute schedule changes for major events. Don’t spam all your other lists when a crisis comes up–get the word out that this particular list serves as the official source from your parish.
  2. Prayer requests and intentions – Moderated messages on behalf of those who have asked others to pray for them or particular situations. The publishing frequency should be as-needed since many requests will be time sensitive ( e.g., sudden, life-saving surgery).
  3. Volunteer opportunities – Monthly reminders of upcoming volunteer opportunities at your church and in your local community. You might even include donation requests here.

With your lists in place, you’ll want to offer several avenues for visitors to sign up. First of all, dedicate a page on your site to all of the subscriptions you offer. Someone who is interested in one list might want to find out about the others you offer. Next, incorporate subscriptions into your church registration process so potential subscribers can sign up at the same time they are joining your parish. Lastly, cross reference your subscription page as related content. When you publish your volunteer openings online, include a link to the email registration page. On your sacraments page where you mention anointing of the sick, you have an appropriate segue for those interested in praying for others in times of need.

Why have separate lists instead of just one? You’re dealing with different audiences in many cases. Sure, some parishioners will sign up for everything you offer. But others–many who might not even attend your church-could be more selective. For example, local community members might be interested in hearing about local volunteer openings even if they aren’t members of your church. Some good-natured souls are moved to pray for others, but might not care so much about upcoming events. Most people are growing increasingly protective of their email so give them focused content to choose from.

Offer these options so you can cultivate your community in both times of need and opportunity. What types of email lists are working best for your church?

This post was submitted to Daily Blog Tips Blog Project: Three.

Top Posts Second Quarter 2007

Mark Alves News

Here are the top posts on this site from April – June 2007 in case you missed any the first time around. Or if you just want to relive the good times.

  1. Avoiding the Goodmail Blocked Images Seminar Snafu – Show me, don’t tell me, when giving email marketing advice. Don’t let this happen to your church e-newsletter.
  2. Trutech T600-D DVD Player Doesn’t Work – A disappointed consumer reviews the cheap DVD player that was too good to be true.
  3. Omniture SiteCatalyst Advanced Implementation – Day One and Day Two – Why fly to Utah when you can read the summaries here?
  4. Google CRAPTCHA – Crude Google confirmation message.
  5. How To Avoid The 48 Worst Blogging Mistakes – Your parishioners deserve better.

Best Free Tools for Picking Keywords

Mark Alves SEM/SEO

Lee Odden’s Online Marketing Blog wrapped up a reader poll of their favorite keyword research tools. Here are the free ones for SEO since most of us church webmasters aren’t working with much of a budget. See the full list if you can pony up for a paid tool or for PPC.

  • Wordtracker – Ongoing free trial is available where you can get a reduced list of keywords emailed to you.
  • Digital Point – Provides data from Worktracker and Overture, though the latter is no longer updating its data. While you’re there, check out the terrific keyword position tracking tool.
  • SEODigger – What’s that church up the road ranking for? Find out.
  • SEO Book Keyword Tool – One of many cool tools on this site.
  • Trellian Keyword Discovery – Get a free taste of their premium product.
  • Google AdWords Keyword Tool – Built for PPC, but works for organic search brainstorming.
  • Good Keywords – You’ll need to download this one to your desktop, but I haven’t been nagged by them.
  • Google Suggest Scraper – From Dave Naylor, so watch out for bad language on the landing page and don’t use it on the Sabbath.
  • SpyFu – See organic rankings, related terms and estimated PPC cost.
  • MSN AdCenter Forecaster – Another one built for PPC, but can be used for organic church terms.
  • Apogee Meta Tag Collector – What are those other churches using in their meta keywords and descriptions tags? Even if the keyword tag has lost much of its value as far as search engines concerned, you can glean what the competition thinks is important. Links the results to Overture, Keyword Tracker and KeyWord Discovery.

Just remember that when you conduct competitive research through someone else’s servers, it’s not a secret.

So, which tools do you use? For example, Google’s Hot Trends wasn’t on the list…