October 24, 2019
OCS 3.0 Rollout: Voice Broadcasting
Notifying your church members about an unexpected weather cancellation just got even easier! Next week we will rollout our updated Voice Broadcasting Tool 3.0 (previously called Automated Voice Messaging). Beginning next Friday you can record and send a voice message right from your phone to those members who wish to only receive phone call notifications.
Dial our new voice broadcast number; the menu will guide you through recording your message and selecting the group to receive it. The previous Text-to-Speech option will remain if you prefer not to record your voice.
Look on your dashboard for more setup information for Voice Broadcasting 3.0.
August 13, 2019
Choose a Creative Domain Name Extension for Your Church
Everyone knows most websites today end with .com (or .org, plus a few others), which are called a Domain Name Extension. But now there are over 1,500 different domain extensions!
With so many different possibilities, we think a few really stand out for church websites: .church, .life, .faith, and .family to name a few. Whether you're a church plant about to begin your website or have an existing church website, you might want to consider instead using these new domain extensions because:
- Some extensions may be easier to remember and look great in print. Shorter domain names are easier to say, print, and remember, so the extension can help.
- You can get closer to the website address you originally wanted. When first choosing your church's domain name, you may have found what you wanted was already taken with a .com at the end. But with all of these new extensions, you may be able to get what you originally wanted, or even make your website address shorter or easier to remember.
Use your imagination, and if you are not sure where to look, we personally use www.name.com for our own domain name registrations and can highly recommend them (we are not an affiliate). Keep in mind that some of the extensions (such as .church) might cost more than your current .com registration.
July 15, 2019
Shouldn't I Use Stock Photos on Our Church Website?
Stock photography has been such a help in building websites that look great, and churches and ministries have made great use of this resource over the years. But are there times when using a stock image isn't a good idea? Over at the Church Juice blog, they bring up four reasons not to use stock photos—and three times when you should use them.
"The Good and Bad of Stock Photography" — Church Juice
P.S. Don't forget (when it is time to find a stock photo) the Resources Tab at the top left of your OCS Dashboard, where we have a growing link list of free images, videos, and more.
June 18, 2019
Beware of Fake Invoices for Your Website Domain Name
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Churches need to be aware of two Domain Name notifications you might receive in your mailbox involving some official-looking "invoices" that aren't really bills at all. So here's the rundown of what to know:
You get a piece of paper in your mail that says "Notice," "Bill," "Service," or "Invoice." What's really happening? Someone wants you to mistakenly pay for a service that you never ordered from a different domain registrar or you don't realize that their service is not required.
So far there are two different versions:
1) Your Domain Name is about to "expire"
Looks pretty official, right? Except if you read the entire "Notice," especially the three areas circled in red. Seems odd that they have to state that you're "not obligated to renew" with them, that the "notice is not a bill" despite it looking like one, and they're making it easy "should you decide to switch your domain name registration." That's because they're not your domain registrar; they're trying to get you to change to them and usually their price is considerably higher than what you're currently paying.
We've talked before about the importance of not letting your website domain name expire. But most known domain registrars (GoDaddy, Name.com, etc.) do NOT sent you a paper invoice. They will send an email to you ahead of time 30-60 days from your expiration date. Note that this paper "notice" is conveniently wanting you to change to the new registrar earlier than when your current domain registrar will alert you.
2) You need to pay for a "Website Listing Service"
Yet another paper in the mail that looks a lot like an official bill. But it's really an advertisement for a service that, in our opinion, is not necessary. Check out the area circled in red. "Domain name submissions to the leading search engines." Huh? Your website and domain name are already listed for free by the major search engines (Google, Bing, etc.), no submission required.
"Domain name listed...on high traffic websites." Why would you need that when the major search engines can already find you? "Submission to social media sites." If your church already has a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram account, what use would this additional "submission" be?
Neither of these "notices" or "services" are required. You do not have to use them.
What you can do?
- Be familiar with the name of your current domain registrar (you can check this here; while you're there make sure your email contact info is up to date!) and make a note of when it does legitimately expire.
- Look for an email notice from your current registrar.
- Read all the way through mailed documents like this; if they keep having to state it's "not a bill" and "if you decide to switch," then it sounds like you're not doing business with them in the first place.
- Find out the names of the search engines, "high-traffic websites," or social media submissions that a "listing service" say they will provide.
May 21, 2019
OCS 3.0 Rollout Starts Now: Group Texting
Great news: OCS 3.0 Rollout starts now! Group Texting is the first to release. Here are the details:
- Now included with our service is a local (when available) texting number for each account (US and Canada only), plus 500 free texts per month. This overrides 2.0, where you could send texts for free from an email address, but buying a texting phone number and sending was formerly an extra charge
- New Dashboard Texting, where you can send and receive from any screen in the OCS 3.0 system
- New Texting Mobile Web App
- Live Text Status Monitor to view your texts being sent with delivery reports
Look for the Group Texting notification at the top of your dashboard when you login to your account. Follow the instructions to see the new dashboard and start using your group texting mobile web app. Every account should have access by the end of Friday, May 31st.
And keep watching as we continue to rollout 3.0 updates for all OCS Tools.
May 09, 2019
Why Your Church Needs to Own Your Website Domain Name, Part 2
If you missed Part 1 of "Why Your Church Needs to Own Your Website Domain Name," be sure to catch up here.
In our last post, we covered why it's so important for a church to own their website domain name. When a church registers and annually pays a domain registrar, they'll be considered the owner of the domain and their contact information will be up to date. Why is contact info is so important?
Sometimes we'll get a call from one of our clients that their website has disappeared and in its place is a notification from the domain registrar that their domain name has expired. But they never were notified! As their webhost, while we host their church website, we aren't a domain registrar so they have to contact the registrar to submit payment and get that "address" to their website working again for another year. When they contact the registrar they find this may not be so easy for two possible reasons:
1) A now-deleted church email account was the contact with the domain registrar, so the renewal notifications were never received by the church. Registrars usually give you a lot of advance email notice. They want you to renew! But if the contact was the youth pastor's church email and he's moved on to a new church months ago, the email account was likely deleted. If you own the domain name, you can always login with the registrar to keep your contact info updated. But if you don't own it...well, see number 2.
2) If you missed the last post, we talked about the early days of the internet when a well-meaning church attendee, let's call him Sam Volunteer, would suggest the church needed a website (which also requires that domain name) so he would set it up and perhaps even pay for it. So he owns the domain name and is the only contact, meaning Sam is the only person who got the renewal email. But Sam moved away quite some time back, no one's heard from him, and none of his contact information works.
In the case of Problem 1, the church still owns the domain name. They can contact the registrar, pay to restore that "address," and the church website will be found on the internet again. They can even get the email changed so they'll be notified when it needs to be renewed next year.
In the case of Problem 2, it's a similar problem to our last post, Part 1. Sam Volunteer owns the domain name, so unless Sam can be contacted, the church will have to select a new domain name. This will ensure they keep control over its use and renewal.
One last thing: domain names can be renewed for more than a year at a time. A multi-year renewal can save the yearly confusion that this might cause.
May 01, 2019
Why Your Church Needs to Own Your Website Domain Name, Part 1
If your church has a website, that means someone decided on a name (such as www.yournameofchurch.com) and had to register that domain name so your website has its text-based "address" on the internet. Sometimes when a church changes their webhost they'll find out they may own their website, but they don't actually own or control their domain name. What gives?
While it's best that the domain name is registered and paid by the church staff using church funds, sometimes this is not the case. Especially in the early days of the internet a well-meaning church attendee, let's call him Sam Volunteer, would suggest the church needed a website (which also requires that renewed-annually domain name) so he would set it up and perhaps even pay for it.
Fast forward a few years over many changes, and the church decides it's time to change the website to a new webhost and a new look (like OCS). The church wants to keep the same domain name and tells the domain registrar that their new website lives with the new webhost. The domain registrar tells them because Sam Volunteer gave his information and paid for it, he owns the domain name and is the only contact for the domain name, meaning Sam is the only person who can instruct them what to do. But Sam moved away quite some time back, no one's heard from him, and none of his contact information works.
What happens next is that the church must choose a different domain name and host their new website at that address. Church members will have to be informed of the new domain name, and search engines will pick up the change, too. Bottom line: the church will now be the owner of the domain name with the correct contact info, so they won't lose their domain name another way—which is covered in Part 2.
