Parish Sites and E-newsletters
by John Feister

(If you don’t have time to read this now, please take note of the buttons on the right. They are free for the taking, for you to use on your Web site. Click on a button to pick up the html code.)

Q U I C K S C A N

Parish Site of the Month
Worth a Click

Easter is just around the corner. But the season of celebration goes on until Pentecost, May 27! That’s what all of the preparation of Lent is for—to celebrate more fully our life in the Risen Christ. We’ll keep our Lent-Easter feature updated throughout, even adding a new graphic link button so you won’t have to change any code.

Some of the AmericanCatholic.org Web crew traveled to Detroit a few weeks ago to provide a day of inspiration and training for parish staff in the Archdiocese of Detroit. I addressed the topic of the “Electronic Moment”—why now is the time to figure out how our parish Web sites are becoming keys to the Church’s social communication. Then I joined our assistant webmaster, Amanda Barton, in giving workshops on what makes parish Web sites work best. We’ll revisit some of those pointers about good Web sites in some future issues of Web Catholic (looking through “Web pick” for ideas is a good place to start!). For now, here are some highlights from the talk.

Two of the key themes I stressed are 1) it’s better to do a small site well than to do a larger site poorly and 2) parishes should really be doing e-mail newsletters as companions even to a simple Web site. The e-mail newsletters drive traffic to a site by telling people what’s new and inviting them to visit.

First, on the size of your effort: How many of parishes have gotten in over their heads on a Web site? The biggest challenges: not enough direction from the parish staff (i.e., it’s a volunteer effort without good accountability); and unrealistic expectations about the amount of available time to work on a site. Too many features, calendars, photos from parish activities, etc., make the task impossible for many parishes. Better to go simple and effective, then build when you can.

About e-mail: When we first started contacting people by e-mail (Web Catholic started in 1997!) we used e-mail from a local computer. The Internet won’t tolerate mass e-mails, though, since the rise of spamming, even when the recipient has signed up properly (never send unsolicited e-mail to someone you’re not already in a business or pastoral relationship with). Over the years we switched to an e-mail vendor—there are a number of reputable companies out there, and the cost is low. More on that in a future issue.

For now, God bless! Have a fruitful Lent, and then prepare to celebrate for weeks!

Peace and all good,

John Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org

Parish Site of the Month

St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church (Diocese of Lafayette)
St. John the Baptist's new Web site is worth checking out for its simple layout, clearly written text and minimal use of graphics. Bulletins, the calendar and the minister schedule are in trusted .pdf format, and the site’s pages are easily accessed through a clean javascript navigation. Rather than relying on a separate gallery to show off the church's members, different photos are featured in the top left corner of each page. The site does a great job conveying information about the church’s various groups. Click on any of the links under “Organizations,” and read text that is neatly organized with subheads and bullet points, making the pages very Web friendly.

Worth a Click

WikiProject Catholicism
By now, you’ve probably heard of Wikipedia and you’ve probably checked out its content. Wikipedia now brings you WikiProject Catholicism, a "group dedicated to improving Wikipedia’s coverage of topics related to the Catholic Church." Sign up to become part of the community so that you can add and edit content. Or, just browse the community page to check out featured articles and discussion topics.

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