12 Steps to a Successful Website - OurChurch.Com

Now, imagine for a moment you have decided to start your own catering business run from your home. You file for incorporation, you develop a menu, you have some brochures made, and then you sit at home and wait for the phone to ring. But nobody calls. Why? Because you are the only one who knows you have started the business.

Most people understand that if you don't promote a traditional business you will not get any clients. Yet, many website owners seem to believe that people will visit their website even though they have done nothing to promote it.

"Build it, and they will come" is a great line from a movie, but NOT a viable website marketing strategy. Your website is not much different from a conventional business run from your home - there is no "drive-by" traffic.

A website can be a cost-effective way to distribute information, it can help an organization operate more efficiently, and start-up costs can be very low. But the Internet is not magic. The Internet is growing by millions of new pages every day. You must employ the same marketing principles as in the real world if you want to be successful in the on-line world.

• Building a website, in and of itself, will not bring visitors to it.
• People will not find your website if you don't actively promote it.
• No one will promote your website for you. You must take the initiative.

OurChurch.Com serves Christian churches, schools, ministries, and businesses. Many Christian churches and ministries and even business owners dismiss marketing and promotion as if it's a sin. Many think marketing is self-serving, or that it requires boasting, exaggeration, and lies, or that it sounds too "of this world" for a Christian ministry to engage in. After all, God is all-powerful and will draw people to a website if He wants them to see it, right? Not exactly.

Jesus said we are to "be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." That means we are to use good, strategic, God-honoring tactics to make people aware of our ministry. We do this so that those who need help will be helped by it and those who want to join in helping can do that as well. Christians can engage in the honest, humble marketing of their website. OurChurch.Com is here to help you and teach you how to shine the light of your website into a dark world.