So long Farewell Aufwiedersehn Adeiu

I have found blogger to be limited in regards to the creative process. I am switching to Word Press.

http://elev8design.wordpress.com/

5 Easy Ministry Uses For Facebook

Sometimes I have to sit back and take it all in. Technology, Social media, Marketing everything evolving at the speed of sound, and it's my job to understand how to use them and how they fit into life! I can't imagine how the lay person tries to figure it out.

Then you get into Social Media. Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In.... They could all have it's own book by this point! Each outlet has it's own pro's and con's and potentials. Personal I think one thing that ties them all together is the fact that people especially ministries do not recognize their potential.

Let's talk about Facebook.

Facebook has.....

• More than 500 million active users
• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• Average user has 130 friends
• People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
• Facebook has more than 150 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
• People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users. For more statistics about Facebook go to LINK

Unfortunately, I think many organisations are missing the point of Facebook. Facebook's power isn't in its's ability to be a broadcast channel. The real power comes from the way it can engage an audience, connect people with other people who like the same things and use people to bring the audience to you by letting them share your content or articles.

A recent study was done by ourchurch.com on the effectiveness of their churches Facebook presence. The study concluded they don’t think their church is doing a particularly good job with Facebook. While those results could be perceived as negative, a closer look reveals some big opportunities for those churches willing to embrace the world’s largest social network. I have expanded on some of their findings.

1. Communicate More – Communication is key to anything in life . Do I mean that a ministry worker should send a personal message to everyone? No! But a tickler about this weeks upcoming sermon would be a great treat. Letting people know about an opportunity to serve the community is a great way to involve people and spread the word.
   Because many pastors I know have a very busy schedule (they seem to work more then just on Sunday) :) A key team member can be appointed as a page administrator to help spread the word. Lastly, with all communication, consistency is key.
   
   
2. Ministry / Small Group Pages – A second opportunity for churches is for individual ministries to engage with people through Facebook. Whats good for the goose is good for the gander. Every ministry is can have its own fan-page free of charge! So make one :) By having a fan-page you can engage and communicate with the people in your group of the people you would like to see in your group. Your fan-page can be a great way to make newcomers feel comfortable. Many people are comfortable with Sunday service. It's big and they can hide. Put someone in a small ministry group and they can get nervous. This is ideal for getting people acquainted with the group or ministry. Also many ministries and small groups have their own agenda or announcements that the people who take part want to be included or updated on. Use this fan-page as a way to reach them and allow them to reach their friends, and then their friends.....
   
   
3. Facilitate Connections – A third opportunity for churches is to help their people connect with one another. It's no fun being a body if you never know what the other hand is doing :)
   
   
4. Evangelism – A fourth opportunity for churches is to encourage and train their people to develop relationships with those who are not Christians and show God’s grace and love to them. Every person that "likes" your group page can suggest the page to their friends. I have found in my own life that I will forward something to someone in my group of friends or repost someones event for my friends to see. We have a natural intention to want our friends to share in our passion for something.
   
   
5. Facebook Ads – A fifth opportunity for churches is to use Facebook ads to reach out to people in their community. Facebook provides a way to target people in exact areas who like certain things. Facebook will even tell you th exposure you should have in the groups you selected.
   
   Recently I placed an add on Facebook. My advertisement targeted people who "like" the following:

• lived in Maryland
• liked Ministry
• liked Pastors.
  
  What was left was only a few hundred potential people. My advertisement would only run on their accounts no one else. I budgeted $50.00 this was the max I would spend. I was pleased by the straight forwardness of the billing options and the ease of creating a advertisement.

At the end of the day

At the end of the day Facebook can be a great tool for churches. If you use it for more then telling us what you ate for dinner, where your going on Friday night or Farmville......

P.S. your crops are ready both in Farmville and life so go get them!

For more information on how to establish your online presence visit us on at Elev8 Web Design or call us @ 443-986-8461.

Eating School Breakfasts Improves Math Grades????

Apparently, Maryland State Department of Education has decided for us that we as parents are no longer capable of safely providing nutritional meals for our school-aged children as illustrated in the latests propaganda mailed home on our hard earned tax dollars.

Recently, my daughter delivered this gaudy over sized mailer titled

"DID YOU KNOW..."

the postcard lets us know wonderful facts like...

"Compared to lunches from home, school lunches contain twice as much fruit."

Apparently, without knowing I must of been giving my daughter fake fruit all this time. Never again will I consider apples, pears, raisins or oranges to be fruit.

Next, I was reminded about economics.

"It's cheaper to buy a school lunch than to pack one from home with the same nutritional value."

If I were to lazily buy and make my daughter breakfast and lunch I would be waisting about $10.00!!! If I buy school breakfast and lunch I will be investing a meager $21.50 per week..... Wait, isn't $10.00 less then $21.50? Oh well.... Details.....

While we are on the subject of math,

"Eating school breakfast is associated with improved math grades."

I was grateful to learn if I buy my child school breakfast (not make it for her) I will be helping her become a smarter mathematician!

Since we are horrible parents providing non-nutritious meals for our children maybe we should look at a typical school meal consists of. I for demonstration will use todays Breakfast and Lunch 11/16/2010. You can click on the breakfast or lunch link to see their menu.

Breakfast

• Bagel & Cream Cheese $1.25
• Breakfast Yogurt Parfait $1.25
• Cereal $ .75
• Cornbread Loaf $ .75
• Crackers, Fun Shapes $ .50
• Fresh Fruit $ .75
• Elfin Grahams $ .50
• Hot Breakfast Entrée $1.25
• Juice 100% $ .55
• Oatmeal choc. Chip Bar $1.25
• Power Wheel $ .75
• String Cheese $ .50
• Whole Grain Biscuit $ .75
• Wheat Breakfast Bun $1.25

Lunch

• ENTRÉES -
• Choose 1 Pizza
• Hamburger
• Cheeseburger
  
  
• SIDES -
• Choose Up To 2 Sweet Potatoes
• Fresh Vegetable Combo
• Cinnamon Apples
• Assorted Fresh Fruit Juice

Personally, I would take the Pepsi challenge any day of the week that a homemade sandwich of PB&J with an apple, carrot sticks, grapes or even a Twinkie are much better then the typical menu of cheeseburgers, pizza, chicken nuggets or pork BBQ with a side of french fries or canned fruit with preservatives suspended in sugary syrup.

I have to say I am very disappointed with Maryland State Department of Education. Not only have they lied but they are teaching us that we should depend on them not ourselves. The way they are doing this is also in my opinion very sneaky. They are sowing seeds of doubt on our ability to take care and responsibility for our future generation.

By telling us to teach our children that nutrition is best purchased from school, wont they continue with this behavior by continuing to purchase all meals from places like Burger King or McDonald's? If you think this comment is way off about the direction of how schools view lunch think about the recent comments from The Cincinnati Public Schools Food Services Supervisor, Jessica Shelly, as she recently told a reporter,

"Our main goal was to create a restaurant style food (menu)..."

How long before school introduces a toy in their school lunches.....not long I would bet.

Christian artist???

Growing up as an expressiv artist I had the ability to express any emotion through a wide variety of mediums and subjects. 

When I attended art college I had classes where men and women unclothed so we could draw, sculpt or paint them. We had a variety of body types to explore; aged to youthful, fit to unfit.  Each type representative of what happens.  With the body as it ages.

I should tell you at this point in my blog I am a born again Christian. No I wasn't in rehab or prison. I didnt find God in the back of a cop car... :) One day I just felt the voice of God calling and reminding me that He loved and missed me. Im so thankful I was listening. :) I have been blessed in so many ways! If you don't have a relationship with Him. Or have questions email me anytime. Even if its just to pray for you.

As I grow more involved in adult life. I seem to have less time to create art (besides graphic design). When I can, I take photographs, draw or paint. I have found an online resources that allows artistic projects to be uploaded and viewed by other artists. 

One thing I think about is can you be a true artist with no restrictions or taboo subjects and still be a Christian?

Some will say no, and some will say yes.  Some will point out reasons and some just want to argue. 

For me I guess the answer is almost similar to what is art...
I think it just depends on the point of view. As for me, Domonic, I think I can and am a Christian and an artist. While I don't sculpt, draw or paint nudes any more. I have found meaningful ways to express my feelings without feeling like a sellout. Perhaps this would of came by it's self with maturity.  Maybe God said try this.

Even when I wasn't a Christian my art always evolved. Part of what I love about art is if your mind is open you will always grow be it technique, medium or content.

Either way I still, when I can create expressive, meaningful art projects while being a Christian. At the end of the day art to me is about perspective and joy and knowing I have a Lord who is proud of what im doing with the talents He gave me.

Raise Funds for Your Church With Google Adsense

Google Adsense is a great tool for generating extra income for your church or ministry. It’s very easy to set up Google Adsense. You must first create an account and select a username and password. You will be required to enter your tax exempt numbers and other personal information, so have them ready.

Once your account is set up, decide what type of ads you want on your site, generate the code, and then copy and paste the code into your web page. Once the code is on your site, Google begins to generate relevant ads based upon your site’s content. I have been amazed at the accuracy of their choices. After that, when someone clicks on one of the ads, you make money.

Here are a few things that will help you get the most out of Google Adsense:

Ad placement. Where you place your ads is very important. Through trial and error we have found the best performer for us is a 160×600 vertical banner. We place it on the left side right below our navigation links. The second best performer is a 468×15 horizontal keyword ad. We place it at the top of the page right under our logo.

Ad format. The type of ad you choose will make a big difference in your performance. I use only text ads. I have tried image ads but they do very poorly on our site. You should experiment with different ad types because each site is different. For some sites using a combination of text and image ads works well. Google has a feature that allows you to create custom channels for each ad so you can track its performance.

Ad color. I have found that making the ads blend into our site as much as possible produces the best results. Google makes it easy to select colors for your ads. I use a white background with a white border and the title and URL are the same color as my navigation links. They don’t really look like ads, but additional links on our site.

Ad density. You are only allowed to have up to three ad units per page. We have two on every page and use an additional one on some pages. Often Google will only show one or two of the ad units at a time. You have the option of choosing either public service ads, or an alternate URL which will show the page of your choice during those times when the Google ads are not available.

Program performance. Google makes it easy to keep track of your site’s performance by showing how many clicks you have received and how many ad impressions have been shown. In the beginning a click-thru-ratio (CTR) over 3% is considered good. The amount of money you make is directly related to the number of visitors you have and how often they click.

Adsense for search. This is a great feature that allows your visitors to search for content either on your site, on the web, or a combination of the two. The landing page that is produced as a result of their search is full of relevant ads that will generate income if your visitor clicks on them.

Experiment with Adsense. If one type of ad doesn’t perform well, replace it with another. Once you have Adsense in place, Google does all of the work for you. Give it a try – you really have nothing to loose and everything to gain.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kim Linton is a freelance writer who covers a wide variety of topics including Christianity, technology and industry trends. Her work has been featured on major news outlets including The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and has been published on a variety of niche sites including Woman's Day and Intel.

originally read on http://www.ministrymaker.com

Web of Neglect

If your site's outdated, you could be paying the price--in customers.
By Nichole L. Torres | Entrepreneur Magazine - May 2006

You know the drill--you're visiting a business's website, looking for information on the latest sale or the types of services offered, and when you click on a link, you find it's broken or the printout coupon has expired. The website is out-of-date, and that entrepreneur
is losing business because of it. Don't let this happen to your business, warns Steve Grushcow, CEO of Edit.com, a website maintenance service provider in New York City. "We find that [some businesses] forget about [their websites] because they're sort of intangible," says Grushcow, "but it's the face [of the business] to a lot of your customers."

During startup, define what exactly you want your website to accomplish-will it provide information, make sales, or get people to call your 800 number? Once you get up and running, make sure it still meets those goals. Grushcow also suggests checking your site at least once a month for broken links or outdated news. You can even add a newsletter or blog to make your site feel more current. And if you keep a list of clients or samples of past work, make sure to keep that up-to-date as well. "Keep your business consistent," says Grushcow. "Changes in your business should also be reflected on your website."

You can update your website yourself with web-maintenance software
like Edit.com's, but if your design needs an overhaul, call in a professional developer to give it the face-lift it needs.

And if you're paying to advertise your site on search engines, you should be doubly concerned with keeping it updated and functioning well. "If your phone number is on your business
card and it doesn't work, that would obviously be a problem," says Grushcow. "It's the same case for your website."

Gmote Turns Your Android Phone Into a Remote Control for Your PC

Android only: Gmote controls your desktop PC directly from your mobile phone, letting you control playback of music and movies, browse your file system, or even use your phone as a keyboard and mouse.

To get the media playback controls working, you'll need to make sure that your PC has VLC installed, install the Gmote server application—there are versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and then install the Gmote client on your phone. Once you've completed the setup you can connect the mobile client to the Gmote server by IP address, and start controlling your PC from your phone.

It's definitely not a substitute for a good media center remote, but it's a great way to control a PC using your Android phone. Hit the link for the download, or check out the How-To Geek guide for a screenshot tour of how it works. Gmote is a free download for Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux.