Why Your Pastor Needs a New Signature

Mark Alves Content Ideas

When going pro, athletes are advised to use two different signatures–their “real” one for signing contracts and other legal documents, along with a newly created “public” one for autographing balls, jerseys and who knows what else. The same forgery-avoidance advice applies to pastors, even if they don’t sign million dollar contracts.

Maybe your priest isn’t autographing footballs after Mass that end up on the Internet, but his signature is probably available electronically. Think about that weekly pastor’s column in the bulletin online or the bottom of those welcome letters and fundraising pamphlets done in Word. Why create a temptation for forgery? Make your pastor feel like a superstar by handling signatures like a pro.

Google CRAPTCHA

Mark Alves Google

Danny Sullivan of SearchEnglineLand pointed out an anatomically amusing Google CAPTCHA –those strangely formatted words that you have to type in to prove you’re a human and not an automated program. Here’s a scatalogical one to add to that list of adolescent humor:

Google CRAPTCHA

Yes, while trying to use Google Groups, I was asked to type “poopper” to show my non-botness. Let’s just call this a CRAPTCHA.

Please don’t confuse the term with craplets, those junk programs added onto new PCs that Walt Mossberg has wisely railed against.

Trutech T600-D DVD Player Doesn’t Work

Mark Alves Usability

Thinking about buying a cheap DVD unit for the church youth room? Skip the Trutech T600-D DVD player unless you don’t mind a device that can’t handle DVD menus, pixelates the picture during scene changes and generally strains to keep up with video.

For $27 I wasn’t expecting much, but at least expected playback to function reasonably well. I was using the S-video connection and tried legitmate DVDs, including Life Is Beautiful (one of my all-time faves), the first Lord of the Rings, a random Rescue Heroes and a Disney promotional DVD about planning a trip to the Magic Kingdom (my kids love this one). In each case, the video would stutter at least every couple of minutes and often had difficulty handling menus.

I liked the price and narrow size because it could squeeze into my existing cabinet, but it looks like a return to Target and some more research.

Help Your Church’s SEO, Win Free Training

Mark Alves SEM/SEO

Want to help your church or other non-profit charity rank better in the search engines? Giving of your time and expertise might get you rewarded in the here-and-now, not just in the hereafter. Bruce Clay, an internet consulting firm, is offering a free full-conference pass to SMX in Seattle and two free SEO training courses for the best search engine optimization plan.

Pick a charity that is already using the Web for outreach. That might be your own church or a neighborhood charity. Submit your plan and if it’s picked, make plans for SMX and two rounds of Bruce Clay training. Your flights and hotel aren’t included, but about $4,000 of training is covered. Find out more on the Bruce Clay site.

How About Our Own SEO Contributions for Charity?

This may be too big a commitment for many, so how about we try a mini virtual charity SEO contest here? In the comments, suggest a church site or online charity that could use some SEO help and that would be open to implementing our suggestions. We’ll pick one and see what our readers can come up with. The prize? Um, better rankings!