Todd Hiestand
Missional Living in Suburban America
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Archive of "Blogging" Category
Testing Out My New WordPress Theme
If you are looking at an orange and black theme, that means you are now looking at the wordpress theme I am developing for release to the public. I have it on here because I want to give it some good testing before I release it to others. If you see any issues, please let me know.
The theme will work with widgets and will include an image file so you could add a custom header if you wanted. I’m pretty excited to release it as it will be the first one for me.
So, here’s the question, I have put a TON of work into this thing and am strongly considering selling it for a mere $5, would you pay that for this theme?
Would love your thoughts…
If you don’t see the orange and black theme, that means I’ve switched back. You can view the new theme here: http://www.toddhiestand.com/wordpress
Posted in Blogging, General, Web Design |
No Comments »Is my feed broken?
For all of you who read my blog from my RSS feed, can you do me a favor and click over and leave me a comment and let me know that you are getting my feed updates? I hear a nasty rumor that my feed is broken. If you don’t know what an RSS feed, don’t worry about it. I’ll explain it some other time.
Now I’ve got to go get my youngest child from the grips of his big brother!
Posted in Blogging, General, Site Updates |
15 Comments »Sunday Blog Roundup: April 26 - May 3
Well, I blogged as much last week as I ever have. I’ve started to use my blogs to share my experiences and thoughts on leadership (in addition to my normal musings on the church, life, my kids, webdesign, etc). But, there are a number of new readers in the last week and if you are new here i wanted to highlight a few posts from last week that you may have missed:
- Open Handed MInistry - here is wrote about how as pastors, we should view the members of our congregations
- On being a part-time pastor - this is my first refection on what it looks like for me to work and live this way.
- Am I a webdesigner or pastor? Keeping on Task - this post marks a new working paradigm for me that has helped me be more productive and responsive to my two jobs.
- Church Meetings, is it possible not to hate them? - We’ve been learning a lot about church meetings and what does and does not work.
- Speaking of Shiny Things - I redesigned my blog this week in addition to writing a lot.
- Don’t Call Me Mr. Mom - I am not Mr. mom. I am a dad.
- How I use Twitter - I love twitter and here’s why.
- The Role of Pastor - Lesslie Newbigin on the role of the pastor.
- Leading and Speaking with Confidence - Do you portray a sense of confidence or what?
- New Recommended Reading Page - I’ve update my recommended reading page.
Well, that’s all in one week. I am hoping to keep pace with at last one post a day. If we’re lucky there will be two. I’m really enjoying the writing outlet…
Posted in Blogging, General |
No Comments »Why and How I Use Twitter
I’ve been using Twitter for quite a while now. I, like most people, signed up and then didn’t use it for a few months but a while back I started using it more and more. For those of you who don’t know what Twitter is, its essentially a micro blog. Essentially write short 140 character updates which people can then view. The best part about Twitter is its social networking feature. You can have friends that you follow their updates and they follow yours. For someone like me who spends a lot of time along in my office on the computer, this is a helpful because it keeps me in some kind of community with others.
Here are some of my thoughts about Twitter:
Twitterrific is essential for Twitter
This little application allows me to publish updates and see my friends’ updates from my desktop. This means I don’t need to visit the Twitter website in order to use it. If i did, I probably wouldn’t use it as it would be a big waste of time. There are other apps out there for PC users but I think Twitterrific is the best of the bunch.Twitter + Facebook + AIM
With the use of Twitterrific & the twitter sync facebook app I am able to update all three of my status messages at the same time. I am on AIM almost all day long and I used to always say stupid stuff on my status message. I also use Facebook, albeit my use of it is very limited. I mainly use it to keep in touch with people in my church but this allows them to see all my stupid updates too.Updates or Stupid Thoughts?
Twitter posts are meant to be updates that answer the question, “What are you doing.” I often post that but I also like to use it to just say stupid stuff. I am not sure that people really need to know what I am doing all the time.Twitter and my blog
With the use of a plug-in for Wordpress called Twitter Tools I am able to put my latest update on the header of my blog. This plug-in also allows me to notify my twitter friends when I write a new blog post. This has really helped drive traffic to my blog and has increased the amount of interaction I’ve had in the comments (which, by the way, I really like!)Twitter Friends
It’s interesting how I have made some new friends/acquaintances by using Twitter. There are also a few long distance friends who I am able to be in in contact with more via AIM and Twitter than some of the people in my church.Privacy & Twitter
Now, you might be thinking that you don’t really want people everywhere knowing what you are doing all the time. That’s why is nice that Twitter allows you to protect your updates. This means that only people who you let follow your updates can do so. This is especially good when I am out of town and I don’t want the whole world knowing my family is home alone.Twitter & Church
I first started using Twitter because I thought it would be cool to have a bunch of people from church on there. I thought it would be a cool way to stay in touch and share prayer requests and stuff like that. As of now, there are only about 4 people from my church using Twitter so that has not really worked. But, if you are interested, The Well has a twitter account. I haven’t posted to it for a while because The Well doesn’t have any friends. Maybe if it had friends, I would update it more…So, there it is. That’s most of why and how I use twitter. Feel free to go ahead and ask to follow me if you already use twitter. Unless you follow 1000 people I’ll likely accept your request. If you don’t use twitter, sign up and give it a try (no, I don’t get any referral money for that suggestion!)
Posted in Blogging, Culture, General, Life, Site Updates, Web Design |
6 Comments »Speaking of Shiny New Things
On a whim tonight, I made some major modifications to my blog design. I did a bunch of things….- The Site width is now 960px instead of 1000px. I hope this gives the design a little more breathing room.
- I reduced the font size a bit.
- Simplified the header
- Tried to make the section titles a bit more bold (as i want to highlight the little sayings in throw in there).
- I put the feeds up at the top.
- I only have two full posts showing now, the rest below it are excerpts (for you geeks out there, this was done by using two looks and i queried posts, then offset the bottom section by two posts)
- I moved the flickr photos down to the sidebar so the header could be simpler.
- For the web geeks: I got rid of a bunch of poor markup and also reduced the CSS file by 236 lines.
- I went with bolder lines and borders. Why? I just like it, okay.
- I probably did some other stuff… but I forget.
Note, its too late for me to check to see if the layout breaks in IE for windows. If it does, let me know and I’ll try to fix it for you.
What do you think?
Posted in Blogging, General, Site Updates, Web Design |
8 Comments »Merry Christmas Scott
I have a great friend, his name is Scott Hackman.
Scott is co-founder of One Village Coffee.
Scott is a free thinker.
Scott doesn’t fit in your box.
Scott wants to change the world (or at least help the people who are).
Scott is slightly crazy.
Scott has some great things to say.
Scott is a provocative writer.
Scott had one of the ugliest blogs of all time.
Now his new blog is beautiful if I do say so myself.
Add him to your list of daily reads.
Merry Christmas Scott.
Check it out: www.scotthackman.com
Posted in Blogging, General |
2 Comments »The Best of The Last Few Months
Being crazy busy this week I don’t have a ton of time to write out some of the things I’ve been thinking (topics like, “the practice of taking offering in the missional church” and “why taking days off is awesome” and other fun thoughts).
But, in the meantime, I am hoping to get some reaction from a couple things I have been processing lately here on the blog. Since no one really responded I’m posting a few links to some posts that I’d love to hear your thoughts on. After all, isn’t that what blogs are for?
The other reason I am doing this (besides not having anything else to write) is because I think that one of the problems of blogs is that once a topic moves off the front page it gets lost and forgotten about. Of course, this makes those blog posts sad. So, here are a few blog posts that I don’t want to get lost in the archives. So, consider this a “best of” blog post. You know, like when the television shows can’t come up with a good script the characters just spend the time remembering past episodes… yeah, its kinda like that…
Some posts for your reading pleasure (at least, I hope):
- What about the homeless?
- My view of small groups
- Where does “true” spiritual growth happen? (To be fair, this one you guys participated in well, but I’d love to hear more thoughts.
- If you are a
pastorperson, have you processed this tidbit from Paul? - Call yourself “missional” or a “follower of Jesus” or heck, a Christian? Its time to put up or shut up.
- The cycle of grace as defined by Scot McKnight
- What is “greatness” and how do we teach this to our children?
- Do you like the church, but not Jesus?
- Apparently, bombs don’t hurt the environment.
- You can still write our adopted son, Mason, a note.
- Of course, you can read all the letters I wrote Mason in the series of posts I wrote about our adoption while we were in Guatemala.
- In case you missed it, I wrote a lengthy paper on the gospel and suburbia that has received a fair amount of attention.
Okay, that should keep you buys for a few days while I get some work done!
Posted in Blogging, General, Life |
No Comments »Volunteer at The Well in Feasterville, PA
At The Well, we’ve got some great volunteer opportunities that we’ve started. It’s kinda cool to know that when you search “volunteer work in feasterville pa” our website comes up first (by the way, Feasterville is the town where our church gathers)
When a church is leading this search, I think its a pretty cool thing….
Posted in Blogging, General, Missional, The Well |
No Comments »What’s the 1st Photo In Your iPhoto Library?
So, I have been doing some organizing of my photos since getting the new iLife 08. One of the fun things with this is going through all my old photos and seeing some young looking people (yeah, i am talking about me and my wife. Both of us are now 30 - It’s my wife’s 30th today!)
So, in honor of the wife of my youth, here is the very first picture in our iPhoto gallery:
My iPhoto Stats:
#of pics: 3612 pics
Date of First pic: 9/19/2001So, what about you, what’s your first photo in your iPhoto library?
I’m going to try the tagging thing again:
If you are in this list and want to participate in this dumb game…
- What’s your first iPhoto?
- How many photos are in your library?
- what is the date of your first pic?
- Tag a couple more fellow bloggers
Even if I didn’t tag you, what’s your first photo in your iPhoto library?
Posted in Blogging, General, Life |
5 Comments »Why I Don’t Read Your Website
I spend a good amount of time each week designing websites. As I do I am beginning to realize more and more that copy writing is as much a major part of the project as the design itself.
I can do my best to create a site that is visually pleasing, guides the reader and helps promote the website’s cause, agenda or business as best that I can. But, if the copy that is put on the site is poor…the site will be ineffective no matter how pretty my design.
So, I’m trying to learn as much as a I can on this stuff so that I can help my customers better. The problem comes when they just don’t believe me that the only person who will read what they just wrote is them, their employees and their possibly mother.
I came across an article today from the A List Apart website today a quote there sums it up perfectly:
“Web users are not a captive audience. Don’t treat them like one.”
It’s true. Think about it, when you visit a website, do you read long paragraphs of text with really complicated, smart sounding words in it? Most organizations love their descriptive, “in house” language. But users, when they visit a site, they just want to know what you do, how you do it and why it matters to them, all in plain English. They don’t want to have to work for that information because if they have to, they probably won’t.
Here are some practices that make me actually want to read your website instead of just look at it:
Use headings and subheadings effectively: I have found when I visit a new site, I scan the headings to see which sections I want to read. If I don’t see any headings and its a long page, I often just don’t read.
Keep Paragraphs Short: This is probably the most second important to my reading after looking for headings. I have a hard time reading long paragraphs of text on the web. Chances are you can cut out 1/2 the paragraph text and still say the same thing. Chances are when you do that, I will read it.
iLove Lists: Seriously, when I am skimming a site I always stop on lists. I’ll bet you read the first paragraph on this post and the bold titles in this list. If they catch your interest, maybe you will read the rest of the post.
Use links effectively: This probably is more for blogs. But for some reason when I visit a blog and I see links my eyes go to them first. This is probably because the links are in a different color and highlighted. If i don’t see any interesting links, I generally won’t really read the entry.
Write on a
4th8th Grade level: This is probably more true for business websites and for churches. But, even for blogs this could be helpful. If you want your site to have wide appeal, don’t use big words. I’ve heard this tip from a number of different places.Don’t Be Boring: This suggestion comes from the article I’ll link to below. Just because your writing it short doesn’t mean it has to be boring!
Those are just a few thoughts off the top of my head…
Of course, now that I have said this, I need to schedule some time to take a look at our Church website and see how the copy I have written there goes against everything I have just said… feel free to let me know how I have done so far…
Oh, and now I am wondering if anyone is actually reading this post!
* Here’s another article worth a read if you are interested in this topic: Attack of the Zombie Copy
* Hat tip to Matt Heerema for the links and to these articles and others I have read over the years for the ideas. I am not sure any of them are original with me.
Posted in Blogging, General, Web Design |
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