Facebook pages do pretty much everything a group does, but a whole lot more…

• Status Updates/Twitter for the Org:  in groups, you weren’t able to create a status update so the only time people ever heard from the group after signing up was when you sent e-mails.  It’s now great to be able to send a status update  to the people from my church without having to send out an e-mail.  This is great for prayer requests, links, articles to read, etc.  I connected the status updates from our new group to Twitter but I had to create another account to do so because my personal Facebook account as connected to my personal twitter account.  So, you’ll notice that I now have a “Pastor Hiestand” twitter account using my church e-mail address.  This way, I was able to connect the page to twitter when i was logged in as that account. Update: Apparently groups now do status updates. Even so pages are still better! :)
• Embed our google calendar: I was able to embed our google calendar as a tab using the Google Calendar application.  This is great because the people in my church seem to rarely visit The Well’s website but are on facebook all the time.  Now the calendar is much more accessible.
• Proper notifications: It seemed that the biggest shortcoming of groups was that there were never any notifications sent out to the members of the group.. ever.  For example, the discussion board was pretty useless because no one ever knew that something was written there.
• Custom URL: there is a bit of a catch to this, you have to have at least 100 25 fans of a page in order to qualify for a custom url.  But, once you get enough fans you are all set with a custom url.
• Custom Design: This is the biggest and most important difference between Pages and Groups. More on that below…

Creating a Custom Design for a Facebook Page

What I am going to do here is give a very brief overview of what I did to create The Well’s Welcome page on our Facebook group.  If you know HTML, this shouldn’t be that hard. It also helps if you have a photoediting program like Fireworks for Photoshop to make some pretty images.

Using simple html and inline CSS I was able to create the Welcome page using the FBML application at the bottom of the page’s applications list.  The FBML application basically serves as a simple text editor and allows you to do almost anything you need to create a simple page. FBML is a little different than HTML and has some limitations.  You can find a list of tags that work here.  I use adobe Fireworks so I just created the images you see in the page and sliced them up.  Then I loaded those images onto our church’s webserver and linked to the images via simple image tags. Here is a screenshot of the code in my FBML page.

One of the things you’ll want to do is change the default page for new visitors.  You can click on the “Options” button underneath the “share” button.  From there click settings and change the default landing page.

There is still some work that I need to do on our page.  Right now, all the images in the lower section of the page link to our church website. I think I am going to eventually build pages in the Facebook application that match those (in content at least, not necessarily style) so that the users never have to leave facebook.

If you don’t know html/css, this whole project will be a bit harder, if not impossible.  If you are designer and need some help, feel free to contact me and I’ll help you as I can.

I think its a great idea for churches to begin making sharp and excellent Facebook Pages.  That’s why I’m more than happy to have you hire me to do just that.   I am available to work with anyone that needs a custom facebook page…

When all I said and done, this whole project will take me about 5-10 hours and I’d probably charge about $250-$500 or so for the work.   The price really depends on how complicated the page would need to be.

Contact me if you are interested in having me do some work for you, your org or your business.

First of all, I don’t blog as much as I used to so I needed to find a way to bring my older posts “up” into the spotlight a bit. I think I accomplished that here.

Second of all, I’m not just bored. In fact, I’m busier than ever. But, the last design I had was a theme that I had been developing to resell to clients. I’d been testing it on my blog and refining it. It’s finally at the point where I feel comfortable reselling it so it was time I moved on from it on my personal blog. (Note, if you are interested in a budget sensitive, customized blog template, let me know. That’s what I do).

Third, as a designer, one of the best things you can do is, every once and a while, use your creative energy to create something for yourself. It’s energizing and usually results in better work for your clients.

So, needless to say, I had to rush this and it’s probably far from perfect. I’ll refine it as I go. Let me know if you see anything that is outrageously broken (or even slightly broken).

I really love my work as a web designer, its a nice avenue for me to be creative. Over the years, I’ve worked with about 50 clients and most of them have been great. But every once and a while I get the stereotypical client who just doesn’t have a clue about how to treat and respect a webdesigner. It’s usually not because they are bad people, but more because they are just ignorant of what goes into building a site. In fact, its often the nicest people that are the worst offenders.

My favorite people are the ones who want a full website for free and then say, “It will be great advertising for you.” Of course, they are convinced that their website is going to be so famous that I will begin overflowing with work requests. But, considering they are asking for a free website, there is a good chance they will average about 20 hits a year. I heard one time (i forget where i heard this) that I should tell these people to go into a tatoo parlor and ask the artist for a free tatoo and in exchange they will tell people where they got it.  Really, I’d like to see someone try this.  But I’m guessing it won’t go too well.  Especially if you visit one of those really-big-Harley-biker-mean-looking kind of tatoo artists.

I was reading this article today called If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers that captures the essence of what I am trying to get at.  It’s a great satirical piece on working with designers.

If you are working with a designer here are some thoughts I have:

1. Trust them. They are the designer. You are not. That’s why you hired them.
2. Your opinions are very important, they are serving your needs.  But, do your homework and make sure you know what you want.  ”I want a cool website” is not really helpful for a designer.  We can’t read minds (at least, most of the other ones can’t).
3. Be ready to write content right away and its even better if you already have your content written.   This is usually the hardest part of the project because it takes a lot of work to write content for a website.  But, its really hard to structure a website that doesn’t have any content yet.
4. Remember, in most cases you are not the only client the designer has. You probably won’t get your site built in 24 hours (unless the designer is really slow or just really likes you a lot.  Of course if you pay a ton of extra money you might get it done faster too!)  Of course, its a good idea to set some goals with the designer and have a scheduled launch date.
5. When you don’t make the launch date, realize that it’s not just the designers fault.  It goes both ways. Sure they may have dragged their feet a little on the timeline (and you should call them on that if this is the case), but if they spent three months waiting for you to send them a site outline, or a site structure or your logo then there is not much they could have done.  If you decided you wanted three new features included in the project then that will probably extend the amount of time it take to build the website.
6. Creating a great website takes time. Lots of it.  Don’t be surprised when it costs a lot of money, especially if you are getting a totally original project that is not based off of a template. You might think, “All i want you to do is make this doodad do such and such?”  and it sounds easy.  But, it might take 10 hours of writing code to make that seemingly simple thing happen.
7. It will cost you money (unless someone is doing you a big favor). Time is money. Realize that this person is doing a service for you that you can’t do for yourself.  This means you will have to spend money. And, if you add three new features to the site mid-project, be prepared to put out some extra money as this means it will take more time.  If you are having a house built and mid-project you decide that you want an extra room added on, its going to cost you more.

Those are just some thoughts off the top of my head.

Any others to add?

Of course, there are some rules that web designers need to follow better when dealing with clients but that’s for another time and another place.

(By the way, I use the term “bi-occupational” instead of “bi-vocational” because I believe that my vocation as a Christian is “witness.” What I do for pay does not change my vocation. My vocation is witness, my job is pastor. Your vocation is witness, your job is… well whatever you do for a living).

The bi-occupational approach to church leadership sounds pretty sexy to a lot of people these days. And, while I am a believer in it, I’ll be the first to admit that it isn’t always easy. The biggest challenge is finding another job/career that can support your family and still make it possible for you to serve your church well.

In these last nine years, I’ve worked at UPS, Starbucks and for the last three years I have been a freelance web designer/developer. I’ll be honest, UPS was a terrible job. I worked midnights there and it was probably one of the darkest times of my life for a few different reason that I won’t get into. Starbucks was a great experience and web designing has been pretty awesome because it has given me an extremely flexible schedule and I love the work.

I am not sure if it’s the “economy” or what but I have not been getting enough design work lately to complement my salary at The Well (which, by the way, is a good part-time salary. They take care us well). So, over the last few weeks my wife and I have been talking about what to do. And it looks like God is leading me back to work at Starbucks part-time.

I’ll still be doing some design work, but now I’ll have less pressure to make so many sales each month. My hope is to find one or two steady clients that I can concentrate on serving and sell some of my template sites that don’t require a lot of set up work.

Starbucks will then be a good base for us to work from each month, especially as the benefits kick in after a few months.

I’ll be honest, this was a very hard decision to come to for many reasons.

First, I lose some of the flexibility of my schedule. Thankfully, I’ll have set hours (only mornings) and will be able to plan my weeks in advance. But, I lose a lot of the freedom that I get from being my own boss. This freedom is nice, but I understand that the freedom that I’ve had for the past three years is pretty unique so I am willing to part with it for the time being to care for the needs of my family.

The second reason it was hard honestly revolved around my ego. On some level it feels like a giant step backwards to head back to the Starbucks world. This is not meant as a slight on Starbucks my any means, I wouldn’t be going back there if I didn’t have a high respect for the company. Being totally honest here, as a pastor of a growing church that is doings some incredible ministry, its easy to fall into the trap of thinking that I am too big of a deal or too important to work as a barista at Starbucks. I’m not really sure how cool it is to show up at pastors conferences and say that you are only paid part-time at your church and you spend your mornings steaming milk. But, when it comes down to it, my family is more important that my ego and, well, if my ego really suffers from this job then maybe my ego needs to be put in its place!

While there are some things that made taking this job hard, there are some very appealing aspects to it.

First of all, I finally get to use my college degree. You see, i got a degree from PBU which Gary and I have recently dubbed “Pre-Barista University.” This is because I have so many friends who have graduated from PBU (Philadelphia Biblical University) end up working at Sbux. Now I get to tell this joke more often! :)

Second, and more seriously, I can’t think of a better connection point to the local community. Starbucks really is a third place. That isn’t just a cliche that they come up with as some marketing jargon. I remember when I ended my employment the first time I worked there I thought to myself, “I could probably start a church with 25 non-christians from my relationships at this store.” No, it’s not because I was preaching all the time (Starbucks is not the place for that and I make great efforts to respect the environment they have there). Rather, it was because I built so many actual friendships with both customers and partners that extended beyond the counter and into the real world. I have dreams of someday seeing The Well plant a church in the area I live so this is a great way for me to get connected to my local community.

Third, Starbucks is just a great company to work for. The workplace is business-like but its also filled with great people. As a pastor, I need a second job that is not going to wear me out emotionally. Starbucks is just that: enjoyable.

Finally, I need the extra cash. By working at Starbucks I can decline the health benefits at the church and essentially give myself a quick raise in that check in addition to the hourly wages from my time at Starbucks.

So here we go. Back to Starbucks. I’m honestly very at peace about the decision. I start tomorrow morning and I’ve committed to being there for at least a year so if you are ever in my area, stop by and you’ll get to best latte you can find in the area…

I still have some work to do on the sub pages and the sidebars but I figured I would toss it up now and that would inspire me to actually get it done faster and that way you could see the work in progress.

Let me know what you think and what you find that might be broken still.

Anyways, last night I had some fun refreshing my design and my styling and ended up totally revamping the header of the site.  

The header: One of the things I’ve felt for a while was that the black bar was unbalanced and the header was getting a little unorganized.  So I totally revamped it and simplified it.

New Icon: I added a new logo/icon to represent my theme of missional in suburbia.  Here’s a good test of its meaningfulness: Can you interpret its symbolism?  (Update: I’ve tweaked the icon a bit because it was so similar to another logo for a web hosting company.  I actually like what this one portrays more than the first one. I’ll be posting on why I chose this one soon).

No Picture of Me: I took away the picture of me. I’ve always thought it was helpful to see a picture of an author on the back of a book. For some reason this helpful as I read the book.  I was using that same approach for my blog but I’m up or a change.  If you really need to look at pictures of me, you can go to my facebook page or my twitter account.  On second thought, if you really need to look at some pictures of me, stop everything you are doing, call a counselor and get some help.

No more black bars: I ditched all the black bars that were on the site including the one in the header and the ones in the right sidebar.  I felt they were really “heavy” and enjoy the subtle feel of the grey. 

I would love to hear what you think or if you see anything that sticks out as unhelpful.  

I know that the site doesn’t render perfectly for Internet Explorer 6 but its definitely readable.  Consider this my encouragement for you upgrade already!

These days, there is absolutely no reason that I should have to wait 10 days for your records to be updated.

Get with it people.

It’s 2008.

Not 1996.

Don’t even get me started on how I got on the list in the first place. I’ve never used their product. 

Marketing is a bit more effective when I am actually interested in your product.

This is my clean workspace.

I am starting a new short-term contract job with a design studio so I’ll be working from home in the peace and quiet more than normal. Plus, its getting colder outside so there is less motivation to leave the house.

Oh, and I didn’t show you what it looks like behind my chair. That’s a whole other story. But, the nice thing is, when I am working I don’t have to look at the mess of my kids toys that are back there.

But, I wanted to draw your attention to a few sites that I not only designed but also wholeheartedly recommend. 

C4ML – Catlyst for Missional Leadership at Biblical Seminary

This isn’t a new website but its one that I developed about 6 months or so ago and we refreshed and reworked the site layout a bit.  With a site so heavy on content, it’s often helpful to revisit the site a few months after launch to see what worked and what didn’t.  So, I spent a few hours yesterday reworking some stuff.  I like the results.  The site feels a lot better. 

Not only do these guys have a great website, but I am a big fan of Mick Noel the director.  He’s become a friend and has a great heart for seeing the church in Philadelphia (both urban and suburban) be a honest to goodness witness to God’s Kingdom.  I went through one of the Missional Leader Labs a few years back and it was a very, very valuable part of my formation as a leader.  This was especially true since it was at this time that I was transitioning into my current role of Lead Pastor at The Well at the time. 

Dorie Morgan - Navigating Twenty-Something Suburban Life

Dorie is a great friend of our family and also a big part of our community at The Well.  She’s been blogging for a few months now and from that I’ve learned that she’s not only a great writer but also really insightful. I should say that I always suspected that this was the case but her blog cemented that thought in my head Add her blog to your feedreader, I think it will be worth your while! 

For her blog, I took the theme I released to the WordPress community and gave it a heavy tweaking and reworking specifically for Dorie site. 

Phillipe E. Leon Haberdashery 

I know what you are thinking, haberdashery?! What is that?!  Haberdasher is a fancy term for a suit maker. I met Chris (the owner) a long, long time ago and he’s been a friend for years.  Earlier this summer I approached him about making me a suit for some weddings I was going to be in. So, we bartered like it was 1798.  I made him this website and he made me a killer suit.  I think I got the good end of that deal.  I mean, look at this suit!  And yes, its got my last name embroidered on the outside of the inside pocket. Yes, I’m serious.  

So, looking for a well made custom suit?  Contact Chris and he’ll do you right.  Oh, did should mention that Chris has outfitted a number of professional athletes, including ex-NBA stud Del Currey. 

Coming Soon: A website for Renew, a church plant in Lansdale, PA and website for a church plant in NE Philly.