November 05, 2021
3+ Update: New and Improved Footer
We’ve got a whole new way of building and controlling placement of your website footer, and we’d love to show it to you.
In 3+ you can edit your footer on any page, and it’s now easier to remove the footer from specific pages. As in 3.0 you can still build your footer with multiple sections, and we’ve made that part simpler, too. To see the new 3+ footer in action, click to view this 60 second video.
November 02, 2021
It's Time Get to Your Church Ready for Christmas
It's now the "Planning for Christmas" season. Hasn't the year flown by? Before it gets really hectic, take a moment to look at our updated annual post with the new online-focused list of 5 things to get your church website ready for Christmas.
October 28, 2021
3+ Update: Background Image Search
For our 3+ Update this week we have a brief video showing the Background Image Search we've plugged in. Take a minute and a half to watch it. For those in a hurry, here are the highlights:
- Search within the 3+ website builder for over 2 million images, copyright and royalty-free from Pixabay
- HD quality
- Click to insert
- No need to download from other sites and then upload
October 13, 2021
Taking It From Good to Great: Announcing 3+
Something crazy happened while building 3.0.
As we programmed the entirely new website builder, the challenge of balancing power with ease was a towering hurdle to overcome. Through our amazing 3.0 Beta testers, we realized 3.0 could be streamlined to become the quick way to build a beautiful website yet retain 3.0 power. So we’re taking this from good to great, and it’s called 3+.
Mark saw the potential of this improved builder and without announcing it to anyone, not even our team, he combined key segments of 3.0 with his new vision to produce the new 3+ Website Builder. Because 3.0 provided an amazing foundation of code, those concepts have allowed us to now build 3+. We expect a full release in 2023.
What you told us you loved, like the ability to schedule section publishing and control mobile/desktop publishing, are still there. As you will soon see, they are easier to access, use, and build a beautiful responsive website.
For those who have sites built on 3.0, don’t worry! You can stay on 3.0 if you wish or we can help you migrate to 3+ since you have already done so much work. For those still on our current 2.0 websites, we know rebuilding a website can be a lot, so in 3+ we made migration of 2.0 sites a priority with new tools that can automatically copy much of your content for you.
Want a peek at 3+? Starting now, we’ll release videos every so often showing you more about the new builder. We’ll keep the videos brief and welcome your feedback.
There is so much more we could say, but we’ll let this week’s video handle the introduction. While there’s more to see, 3+ is still being assembled. We want to give you just a taste in this Intro Video, with more to come.
Thank you for allowing us to serve you and your church/ministry!
November 19, 2020
New Online Focus: 5 Things to Get Your Church Website Ready for Christmas
More than ever before, your church's online presence is vital, especially as we approach Christmas. Since 2015, we've offered a quick list of details to check on your church website in expectation of visitors during the Christmas season. In 2017 we expanded to Ten Things for Your Church to Check on your website, and if you're not familiar with the post be sure to give it a quick glance for some still-helpful tips. This year we're offering a new, more specific list that's focused on your online presence.
1) Check Domain Expiration/Update Contact Email
Your website is your contact point, and if your domain name expires that means your website is inaccessible to everyone. We've talked before about how important it is that you manage your church domain name and update your contact email with them. The quick take is:
a) make sure to renew your domain name before it expires, and
b) check that your contact email is up to date with the domain registrar (we're your webhost and not a domain registrar).
2) Test Menu Links
Click through all your menu items on your website to make sure they actually go to a webpage. You'd be surprised how often this gets overlooked, and an important page may be left out in the cold.
3) Review Email and Group Texting Lists
Email and text notifications are essential during this season of special services or bad weather cancellations. Now is a good time to review your church contact lists for duplicates, updates, or deletions.
4) Focus on Live Video Streaming
Watching church live online has grown in demand, and your church may already be streaming. Give your stream a quick review for any issues (image quality, audio level, framing the image, lighting, etc.). When live streaming extra Christmas services, remember you'll be using more bandwidth than normal with a larger online viewing audience.
5) Update the "What to Expect" Page
We've talked before about creating a special page to help visitors understand what to expect at your worship service (child care, dress, parking). Be sure to update your page so new visitors are aware if your church has made changes.
September 25, 2020
The All-New Church Texting 3.0 is Here
Click above to view the Walk Through Video for an overview.
The all-new Church Texting 3.0 (formerly Group Texting) is here! We're pleased to reveal the ground-up rebuild of our popular Group Texting platform, now with the following features:
- Texting from a phone number, not an email address
- Select your own private number, not shared with other churches
- Receive responses and have them forwarded to multiple other cells phones (such as staff)
- Reply from your phone to responses using your church texting phone number
- 400 character count text message allowance
- Send rate: 10 texts per minute
- Unsubscribe text included
- Send immediately or schedule for later
- Detailed and searchable logs with status for each number
- Send automated welcome text when adding contacts
- Improved Group Subscription Management, allowing you to add all contacts to new group with just one click
Though this is new software, your current Group Texting contacts and groups will now appear in Church Texting. Just log in to the OCS3 Beta to start using this today.
April 02, 2020
Updates Coming for YouTube Creators Using Live Streams
If your church is using YouTube to stream your services live, updates are on the way. Look for:
- Live stream analytics breakdown, showing live viewing and replay viewing
- Access to Smart Replies in the Comments section
- Removal of Channel Bulletins on your Channel Homepage
For more details, head over to the Search Engine Journal article: YouTube Updates for Creators: Improved Analytics for Live Streams & More
