People are bombarded with information - radio, television, magazines, newspapers, text messages, email and social media updates. Despite all the noise, people are still starved for good information. How do you get heard above the noise? Contribute to the noise? Quantity does not guarantee quality.

The biggest factor in getting heard is actually saying something on a regular basis. Not just anything, but something of value - timely and relevant. I will bet you have something of importance to share with people, but you haven't used your website to share it. Or, by the time you did post it, the timeliness or relevance was lost.

'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.' ~Aristotle

There are a variety of skills needed to build and maintain a church's web site - technical, editorial, graphical, planning, teaching and leading. Rare is the person who has all these skills AND has the time to devote to your church's web site. Clearly defining the roles and skills needed will help you build a team you need for your web ministry.

We all remember being taught the Five W's (and one H) in school, don't we? Well, they are still relevant in the realm of the World Wide Web. Who, What, When, Where, Why and How apply not only to your online content, but also to your online outreach.

Point. Click, Type, Click. Drag, Drop. Share. Take a fresh look at your website - it might be easy, but it ain't simple! The number of easy-to-use site building and publishing tools is climbing, but the task of building and maintaining a good website is not getting any simpler. Until now.

The concepts are easily learned and, with proper discipline, you can have an effective, enjoyable website for your church.

Being responsible for at least one web site, if not more, there are things you may not give much thought because they seem beyond your control, of little interest, or of any value to your users. Security usually falls in this category.

In spite of all that, anyone who maintains a site has the task of taking the initiative when it comes to security. If you don't, your visitors may find one day a new version of your site - a defaced one. Or, your host may suspend your account because a script on your site is causing a high server load. So, you have to do something.

Where do you start? Most of us will need guidance when it comes to security, server configuration and optimization. There is good news - help is readily available, if you ask for it! I spent some time reviewing the security notes for the different aspects of running a web site and spoke with a few people to get some useful tips to protect your investments of time and effort.

After you have done all your planning and organizing and finally have your site online, is it doing what you expected it to? Your web site is quite a bit different than the place where you worship - you don't see the faces that visit your web site or get a chance to shake their hands. You will need some tools to help you discover if you are hitting your goals for your web site. You will need more than just a simple counter to properly gather and analyze the statistics and trends for your site.

When technology works - it's great. When it doesn't, life can be miserable. God had Noah build the ark. He also had Joseph store up grain for the famine. What preparations have you made for the ups and downs you'll experience?