The 6 “golden rules” of awesome church websites
6 Golden Rules for an Awesome website, learnings from John Ortberg, and Tony has started a new company…
(Article Link mentioned in Podcast)
Underpromise
In our last podcast Josh and I gave 6 ways that you can master the first 6 months in a new ministry. The real “gem” that Josh came out with was to “Master the Reverse”. Meaning, instead of dumping your general brainstorm of what could be to your new partners in ministry, you should hear their hearts and not over promise. Over promising is a bad, bad thing… (shutters at many past mistakes…)
Seth Godin has a new post on his blog commenting on very same thing, here is a short excerpt:
“one of the most beneficial things you can do is get people to give you the benefit of the doubt before you start delivering a service or a product.”
I would recommend reading the rest of the article as well as subscribing to his blog and reading some of his books (you can find links in our resources section).
New Sponser for the Who Are These Guys Podcast - Contagious Solutions
Contagious Solutions is a new company I have formed to help businesses, churches and organizations with Social Media solutions. It is basically helping them to amplify the “word of mouth” about their message through the communities and conversations on the web.
p.s. The same Tony that is on the podcast is the Tony that has started this company, it is just that company that will help to fund the podcast. Same unknown guys encouraging young leaders every week!
How to master the first 6 months in a new ministry
This podcast is hard and fast, so hold on to your hats. Josh and Tony hit 6 essential strategies for succeeding in the first 6 months in a new ministry.
the current buzz surrounding facebook
There has been an enormous amount of buzz surrounding Facebook in the last 3-4 weeks. It has to do with the platform they launched that allows outside developers to make mini applications that can integrate into your Facebook experience. And if you are a Facebook user you have noticed that there are all kinds of applications you can add, from enhancements to the “wall”, video add ons, even listing books, word processors and productivity apps. But there are also a couple other things going on with Facebook that deserve mention.
From my estimation there are 3 reasons Facebook is getting so much praise:
1. With the addition of this app platform and the apps that followed; Facebook now is a universal landing place for communications and productivity. Sort of like your virtual computer space that is connected to everyone your know. This is huge because it presents the web or server based apps “operating system” that many people have been saying would be the Microsoft killer. Until now there wasn’t one place where all that was available in a ways that felt overly threatening to places like Microsoft because of one reason: the biggest advantage of using a web app is the possible collaboration and connection to other people through that app, and its universal accessibility. But with so many different sites for each kind of app, or with no social network to connect them all, it was like putting a frankestein “operating system” together, and it is always a wild struggle to get people to sign up for something new. So with your Word Processor and Spreadsheets at Google, Email and pim apps at Yahoo, chat at meebo or twitter or pownce, photos at flickr, bookmarks at del.icio.us and blog on Wordpress, there is no way you will get all your friends to make the exact same choices. Facebook has the potential to have elements of those apps in one place, and with a killer social network to connect them all to the people you know.
2. Social Networking for a long time in my mind is more fad and popularity contest. But now Facebook is shaping a social network that can fit for professionals and the workplace, which is a brilliant move. People like Robert Scoble have been raving about Facebook for several reasons, but one of which is the fact that it doesn’t feel like a place only for teenagers looking to score a date. And using Facebook as a professional is now an advantage instead of a “have to”.
3. Facebook, as software, doesn’t suck. Might seem a little simple but MySpace is the worse piece of software I have ever used (except for that label printing software for the Mac, holy cow…). But until recently people not in high school or college couldn’t use it. Now that they have opened it up, and it has a large critical mass of people, it is worth it to move to Facebook. MySpace sucks… sorry had to say it again…
How to deal with Email like a ninja
Okay, maybe there are better ways to organize and deal with email, or maybe your volume isn’t the same as others who are “so” popular. But I never seem to have a problem cranking through email easily - but I owe it to all the productivity “gods” from lifehacker.com, 43folders.com, and others. Regardless, here is the setup I have for making sure I always stay on top of email.
@ folders:
I have 5 folders that are “sub’d” under the inbox that have the “@” sign in front of them. The “@” sign is there for two reasons; first it puts those folders at the top since most email systems organize things a-z, and secondly because my “@” folders are my “action” folders or the ones that I need to interact with the most and that contain the messages that require action from me. Here are my “@” folders:
@Action Support: This folder is for messages that I get that I will need to either take action on in the next few days, or that I still need to decide what action to take.
@To Read: This for email that is longer that I know I will need to read later, or for article links that are sent my way.
@Waitingfor: This is a folder where I place emails I have SENT to others where I am waiting for action from them. There are ways to have the message automatically moved to a certain folder after it is sent in programs like Outlook and Entourage, or I just move them manually. The benefit is having a running list of all the stuff I am waiting for, and the date and time I sent it.
@Reply: This is obvious, but there are certain emails that take some extra thought in their reply and this is where they go. Then when I need to crank through important replies I can focus just on that.
@Projects: This is a main folder that has 10 or more subfolders titled for the active or live projects I have going. Only the stuff that is “live” has a folder here, and it is where I keep track of all the information coming in about those things. So, when I see an email with just information that is FYI, I don’t even read it really, I just drag it there. Then when I am reviewing or working on that project I open that folder as a quick reference for the actions I need to take.
Inbox:
There are plenty of people (and when I say plenty I mean Josh) who have hundreds or even thousands of emails in their inbox. For me, I want my inbox as clear as possible. It represents that I have addressed everything that has come my way. Not that I have “done” it, but that I have organized it for further action. By having my “@” folders in place I can very quickly go through my inbox and organize the information that has come my way into piles of similar action or response. When I have some time to read through materials I can go to my @toread folder and read through the emails and articles there all at once. Having this systems helps me to focus better in the different “modes” that all of us have to move between during a normal work day. But usually we are flying back and forth so quickly between them that we can’t focus or address the information very well. This system helps me to do a better job taking action on my information while helping me to actually go through it a a quicker pace.
Reference:
This is one large folder where pretty much everything else goes that I need to hold onto, seriously. It has over 12,ooo emails in it right now. Why is it one large folder? Because the search on Gmail or through my Mac is faster and better at finding emails than me trying to create a large nested system of folders to wade through. Now, once a project is complete I do just drag it to reference as a sub folder cause it is already organized. And I do have a couple other sub folders under Reference, but I only go down one level. You can’t believe how much time just using search will save you vs. a large system of folders.(even if you are on a pc, I suggest Google Desktop Search, though others might be better…).
There is my system I hope that it helps. If any of you have any other “ninja” tips for email share them! Email can be one of the largest time sinks in terms of productivity, we all need help with it!
Craziness
Well first I apologize the blog and podcast have been acting weird lately. I have been on “live support chat” with bluehost like crazy over the past couple of days because I was unable to access the blog. What I have now found out is that I am the only one, and people who are connected to the same subnet (the hub that connects internet customers in smaller geographic area) are the only ones who can’t connect to anything on bluehost servers. But because my initial reactions were that I has messed something up I ended up relaunching the blog and the podcast.
ACK!
I am at a coffee shop now putting the pieces all back together. Luckily I had backed up my Mysql database which had everything, so there are only a few glitches I am still working through (stats with podpress and some broken links), but everything seems to be back to normal - except the part where I can’t connect to the blog from home.
What are your technology horror stories? We have all had them and this is a doozy, I am not even sure if it will be fixed any time soon.. LOL… craziness. Put your technology horror stories in the comments and lets laugh together so we don’t just cry… (tear) ha!
3 Dips every young leader faces
Josh and Tony talk about Seth Godin’s new book, “The Dip” and how there are three major “dips” that every young leader in ministry will face. Links:Where I’m Supposed to Be by Brandon MuchowMalone CollegeA Student’s Live BlogThe Dip (book)The Dip BlogFirst 2 Years in Ministry by Doug Fields
Bluehost was down, dang!
Hey everyone, sorry our site has been down, our hosting service (bluehost.com) was completely down for the last 12-24 hours. Pretty frustrating, especially when you aren’t sure if you have done something wrong or if it is them.
Anyways, this week has been super crazy with me beginning a job hunt and with Josh having a conference to run. But we are getting ready to record a podcast and we will get it live tonight!
Pownce Invites
Pownce is a new message/productivity virtual team based web site that is really very cool. I have 5 invites for those that want one, and if we start a train here, once you get an invite from me check back and see if any one else needs one and send it on! If you want/need an invite just leave a comment.
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