Web Builder Tips: Keeping Your Site Up to Date

Contents for this web_builder Tip:

1 – INTRO
2 – ADD, CHANGE, REPLACE CONTENT
3 – SCHEDULING
4 – GREAT ARTICLES

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1 – INTRO
http://www.forministry.com/webbuilder/tips.dsp

One of the challenges of maintaining a good Web site in a fast-paced, hectic world is keeping it fresh and up to date. Calendars that haven’t been updated for months, and announcements for events that took place last year, can make you look pretty silly. So taking the time to update these things can drastically improve the power of your site.

Some things to remember before you start updating your site:

a. Have a plan
Before you start changing and rearranging, organize the content in your site into categories: items that change regularly, items that change depending on events, items that will remain the same.

Also, make a schedule that you can stick to (see below, “Stick to it, but be flexible”). At least once a year, consider whether if it’s time for an entire Web site cleaning – changing images, design, layout, and format. You don’t necessarily have to, but it’s a good way to check every part of your site for old material.

b. Delegate if you can
If possible, find someone to help you keep your site together. You can have a person just in charge of certain pages, or just a particular content item. For instance, assign someone the responsibility of keeping the Activities Calendar up to date.

c. Stick to it, but be flexible
Create a schedule of when things will change, and keep that schedule pretty consistent. Of course, there will be times when you will have to be flexible, but having a regular schedule will help you keep up and will give your Web site users some peace of mind as well, like getting the morning newspaper everyday.

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2 – ADDING, CHANGING, REPLACING CONTENT
http://www.forministry.com/quickhelp

For a quick review on how to work with content on your site, check out the Quickhelp site (link given above), or some of these past web_builder tips:

a. Adding text
b. Addding images
 c. Working with articles


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3 – SCHEDULING
http://www.forministry.com/QUICKHELP/text2.dsp

Scheduling content is a great way to make sure items go up at the right time. For instance, anything you want to go up on New Year’s Day can be scheduled in advance to appear on your site on January 1, 12:00 a.m. (just in case you didn’t want to actually stay up until then and change everything).

If you wanted to replace a current item with the new one, you could schedule the current material on your site to end at the same time, so the new material would automatically replace the old.

Scheduling allows control over when certain content items appear on your site and for how long. Here’s a rundown on what to do:

  • Make sure you are in Edit Mode.
  • Click clock icon in column across from Edit This Item text.

 

  • Choose either a Fixed Schedule or a Daily Schedule for this item.
  • Choose the interval and complete appropriate date and time information.
  • Fixed items display once at a fixed time and date. Enter Start Date and Time and End Date and Time
  • Daily items display every day at a set time for a specified duration (days, weeks, months, etc.). Enter the Start Time Each Day and the End Time Each Day, as well as the Start and Stop Date.
  • Click on Apply Schedule when finished.


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4 – GREAT ARTICLES
http://www.forministry.com

ForMinistry offers a great wealth of resources and articles that you can link to on your site at www.ForMinistry.com. Check out all of our sections for new and updated material – resources for your church, for bible studies, for the Lent season, and for the Passion movie. The more plugged in your Web site is to everything going on through the internet, the more your site will stay current.

 

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For the online version of this Tip go to:

http://www.forministry.com/webbuilder/tips.dsp

For more help, check out our online Quickhelp site:

http://www.forministry.com/QUICKHELP

Have a great day!


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