Fun 'n Faith for the Soul blog . . .
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Today's Bible Bytes and WordWalk devos: Bible Bytes: "Turkey Talk: What to Do When You're Blue!"
Thanksgiving at Peggie's Place . . . "Don't Let the Grinch Steal Thanksgiving!"
"Meet the Indescribable Christ" . . . Emergency Room: Spiritual Help for Life Issues . . . The Blue Room . . . In personal crisis? "A Prayer at the Well!"
Access!
You will need an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Your choices are many--you can connect with a national provider (search at GOOGLE or decide on cable - my preference is Mediacom Online. Caution: Look for a provider who gives excellent support, unlimited hours, and a storage space for your directory. (And oh, by the way, a powerful computer and modem will help!!)Browse
You will need a browser such as Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari . Browsers may be downloaded from the Internet.Note there are "preferences" in a browser that require the setting-up of certain information--for e-mail, etc. Most providers and a good reference book will walk you through this process.
Connect
You will need an "FTP" program to transfer your files from your computer, uploading them to the storage space on your provider. As a Macintosh user, I use "Anarchie." You will use this program often--when you originally create a file, and then later to update or revise it. Be sure to have a back-up of any file you transfer to your provider.Search
You will use the "search" feature of the Internet often. There are excellent "search engines" around the NET - simply enter a word or phrase in a designated area; the search engine will find thousands of related pages.
Hide 'n Seek at Peggie's Place!
A listing of search engines--Christian and WWW included!
Tips 'n Tutorials! Stop!
Fear will inhibit the learning process, and I know--you're intimidated--or in plain English, scared to death. How is the world will I learn this? STOP--take ten deep breaths, calm yourself, and know the Lord is going to help you--just as He has helped thousands of others, now with wonderful Christian pages on the Web. It is NOT impossible; if you have a reasonable amount of intelligence, you can learn, just as everyone else has! But remember, you must do the work--the Lord will help you--but HE will not learn HTML for you! It IS work; there is a learning curve, but you can do it!Look!
Before you attempt to make your own page, look around at other pages on the Web, especially Christian ones. If you are a pastor, go to Peggie's church page , and browse through church and pastors' pages for ideas. If you are making a personal home page, go to Peggie's Christian friends page or Cool Christians for many creative Christian homepages.Make notes on features you like on other pages--layout, graphics, content, etc. There's a lot of wonderful Christian pages to see!
A few outstanding pages you don't want to miss: It may seem extremely confusing at first; take it slowly, and in time, it will fall into place. You WILL be able to learn it, and be proud of yourself for having conquered one more thing in life!
Learn! Feature: FREE Church Websites
Network of Faith . . . NetMinistry.com"Top Ten Mistakes Christian Web Sites Make" - by Alan Ritari
barbara's Entourage:God,Family,and Friends! Eric Reamer's Illustrated Illusions Grant's Graceland Home Page His Praise Maui!
ForAllNations.org--Dr. George Flattery (5* site) KIR-SHALOM San Diego First Assembly The Grace Place Orange Hills A/G Church (Orange, CA) Note: For excellent evangelism tips for Web ministries, see Web Evangelism 101.
Check out your local bookstore for basic, tutorial handbooks on "HTML," the coding language you must learn. I recommend the DUMMY series--but there are many others, with basic information, now available. See Creating Web Pages for Dummies
Recommended tutorial books:
All DUMMY books! Internet for Dummies Computing for Seniors in Easy Steps
Sams: Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML and XHTML in 21 Days . . . Computing and Internet (Barnes & Noble
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) . . . Web Developer's Handbook/CSS, Web Development, Color Tools, etc. . . . Teach Yourself BooksBlogs: RSS Information . . . Blogger: Dashboard - Create Your Own Blog free ... Blogging 101
Recommended online resources and tutorials:
Featuring: W3Schools Online Web Tutorials . . . Web Building Tutorial . . . Dave's HTML Code Guide - free HTML help
BigNoseBird.com - Web resources & tutorials . . . HTML Goodies
Christian-Web-Masters . . . HTML Code Tutorial--with a HELP forum! ... HTML for Beginners ... Lisa Tells It All
"Learning HTML for Kids of All Ages" . . . Creating a Web Page (Surfing the Net with KIDS!) . . .So You Want to Make A Web Page!
Practical Web Design: Fundamentals of Web Design
SmartPlanet.com W3 Schools--free tutorials Other tutorials listed at Peggie's Computing page.- - Also see Christian computing
Mad Dash to Make a Page!
Do I want to use an "editor"? This is NOT a person--it is a
software program that, once you learn how to use it, will insert
HTML codes for you.
What information do I want to include? Make a skeletal outline of areas you want to feature - personal, ministry, resources, etc.
What theme would I like to use? I strongly lean to a "themed" home, although it is not absolutely necessary. It is more creative and inviting, I believe. For example, if you are a pastor, do a page with "pastor" words/themes or do a "church-service" page. If you are a missionary, use missions-related words for your outline. If you are a school teacher, do a book-related or library theme.
What about content? Extremely important. Know what information, what message you wish to present. A resource list of links? A ministry information page? A come-back or a "hook" to get people to return is important--do you want to do a weekly feature? a devotional? Be sure to include somewhere on your page a disclaimer - that you are not responsible for links beyond your own page! Be sure to include e-mail and possibly a guestbook. You may eventually want to add music and a chat room.
Some ideas: do something for children, teens, family, holidays, culture, humor, music. And definitely an evangelism page--with gospel presentation. (Music and humor links are very popular.)
check out Peggie's personal "Mission Statement!"
What style, design, colors interest me? Think about the colors of text, the symbols, grpahics, bars, buttons you would like to use. You haven't a clue? Probably not! Go surfing into the graphics area of Web links - see Peggie's Computing page again for many graphics areas. Most graphics are free; you will want to download each one to your own computer (click on an image and save it to your desktop; put it in your own directory). It is also courteous to give credit for the web page that furnished the graphic.
Great graphics site:
Graphics is a detailed sub-topic in itself. Your important learning skill will be learning how to find a graphic, how to code it on your page, and how to upload it to your directory. As you learn to use the Web, you will find wonderful helps--SPINwave to reduce the size of your graphics and Clip Art Searcher to find the graphics you need, etc. You will learn as you go! Don't worry about details now!
What about stats? Very important. You will need a counter - your ISP may provide one. There are some free ones available around the NET as well. I recommend The Christian Counter or eXTReMe Tracking.
Tutorials on promotion of your Web sites:
Featured:
The Web Marketing Checklist: 27 Ways to Promote Your Site
"Add Me" is excellent for submissions to major search engines on the Web!
Visit Christian databases at Peggie's Place and Hide 'n Seek for many more places and search engines where links would be welcome. Many will ask for a return link back to their site. Announcing is a lot of work, but remember, it is vital to the success of your page being visible on the Web!
so no need to panic!!
Sure...silly grin...but remember, with God, and alot of hard
work,
nothing is impossible!
(And if you know a friend who already has a page,
bake them a
cake--maybe they will help you!)
Please e-mail me to say hi.
Thanks for visiting a place where
"Christians aren't perfect; they're just forgiven!"
Have a great day serving
the Lord!
And when that first home page is all done, let me know--
we'll have a MAD learner's graduation party!
Have fun,
and God bless!
With thanks to Gilberto Barreto for the beautiful music playing at Peggie's Place. His original composition is entitled, "Come To Me."
Peggie's Personal Statement of Faith . . . The Peggie's Place Story & a Mission Statement
AddMe - Search Engine Optimization
Most of the music playing at Peggie's Place originates from Songs of Praise.
Visit their great Web site to hear beautiful tunes by many talented artists. CDs are available.
--It jogs around the world and around the clock--to find YOU!
This Christian home has been visited a zillion times
since December 26, 1995!
Well, not quite, but there HAS been a houseful--and
STILL room for one more--YOU!
The Christian Counter scans the entire site--and there's plenty of chocolate for everyone--so enjoy!
Please note that while I strongly adhere to major tenets of the evangelical Christian faith, I may not personally agree with every specific doctrinal belief set forth in other Christian pages. I do want to provide a diversity of links and resource material for the entire Body of Christ to enjoy, and trust you will view it as such.A safety tip: Internet links and material may include other links and/or material which do not reflect my Christian views or yours. Please choose wisely and use with discretion! And if you find an ugly spider hiding in a dark corner, you may smash it with a broom from my BROOM CLOSET--I hate offensive stuff too!
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pbohanon@peggiesplace.com.
Copyright 1996-2008 by Peggie C. Bohanon, Springfield, MO. All rights reserved.