Tag Archive - websites

Interview with Clover

August 28, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 3 Comments

clover_125x125-FaceAd2I’ve been really impressed with Clover and the beautiful websites they have developed, and especially the intuitive ease with which they are designed…especially for those of us who don’t know how to program or code. I recently sat down to interview them and to get a better sense of who they are as a company and what they are about.

Tell me a little about the history of Clover. How did is start? Who was involved? What was the impetus behind their decision to start Clover?

Clover was created out of a design firm called ‘The Regime’. Our developers, Ben and Jim, started ‘The Regime’ back in 2007 and primarily did custom, super-creative work for bands, companies, restaurants, and ministries. After their home church (Cornerstone
Church of Simi Valley, CA) began planting a bunch of churches throughout the country, it didn’t take them very long to see the greater need for websites in the church community. They realized that not every church could afford a $15,000-$20,000 dollar website, and this prompted the idea of ‘Clover’. Clover was launched on May 15, 2008. They figured if they could create sites that met churches’ needs,
and could offer it to many people (rather than a few), they could charge so much less for it. They would also make it to where ministries weren’t dependent on having a programmer on staff or a web company to update their site… This would allow the ministry to save a ton of time and money, both of which are hard to come by. The result was Clover.

What is the #1 reason do you think that people come to Clover for their website needs?

We have found that the main reason people come to Clover is because there is nothing else out there like it. If you have spent any time at all looking for a website for your ministry, you will find that Clover is the only solution that combines beautiful designs, reasonable pricing, and unbelievably easy site management.

What separates Clover from the other web developing companies out there that are aimed for churches and ministries?

I think the ease of use really sets us apart from every other offering out there. With our new Greenhouse 2.0 (coming soon!), our new features will spark even more interest, but our CMS (Content Management System) just trumps anything out there. Another really cool thing about Clover is that you can test out every single feature before ever buying a site. You can go our site (cloversites.com), click on any one of the designs, and actually edit our sample sites. You can put your own photos, your own audio or video sermons, your page
titles and content, all without ever spending a dime. It’s really the best way to see everything Clover has to offer.

You talk about the “ideal user” on your website, but I was wondering if you could answer that again for me. What is the ideal user…or who predominantly comes to Clover for their web development needs?

I would say our ‘ideal user’ is someone who values beauty and current-looking websites, but isn’t a programmer

What is the mission/vision behind Clover, and how does Clover strive to have “Kingdom impact.”

Definitely one of the missions behind Clover is to get the Word of God out. Now, every ministry can have an online presence to reach their community for Christ that is current, gripping, and clean. This is absolutely the most vital part of what we’re doing here at Clover.
Ministries can put their messages on their site to share the Gospel to anyone visiting them online. Clover wants to help equip ministries
to do the work God has called them to do.

If someone is reading this interview, and they are shopping around for a website, what would you say to them to convince them to come to Clover?

The beauty of Clover is that we really don’t have to do much convincing… All we really have to have people do is try everything out at www.cloversites.com.

faithHighway: Utilizing Technology to Advance the Kingdom

June 22, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 4 Comments

If you take a second and look over to the right side of this blog you will see an advertisement for faithHighway. faithHighway is a great company, doing great work in the area of technology and ministry. They also scored me a free ticket to the ECHO Conference as well. I took a few minutes to interview them about their company, their products, and their mission. Check them out and see how they can help you or your church.

Without having to look at the history and FAQ’s on faithHighway’s website, can you tell us what the primary mission/vision behind faithHighway is?

faithHighway strives to further the Kingdom of God by helping churches reach their target audience through custom website design, custom print services, content services, streaming media and TV, and logo/branding packages.

I tend to think of web development when I hear faithHighway, but you are involved in a lot more than that. Give us a glimpse of the other things that faithHighway is doing?

We are most excited about the launch of our newest applications. By the fall, we will be equipping churches with a robust church management software called faithHighway360, as well as a social networking application, or iConnect360. fH360 will empower church leadership with the ability to update multiple platforms simultaneously, while tracking the most recent visitor trends, member giving, church attendance and much more. iConnect360 allows church members to interact throughout the work week, providing each member with their own profile and personalized dashboard, complete with customizable subscriptions to ministry and media updates.

What do you think faithHighway’s typical client is? Or who are you specifically trying to reach?

faithHighway has worked with over 14000 churches and ministries. Due to our custom solutions, we build each website around each church’s unique size and vision. We can accommodate every church, from pre-launch church plants to mega-churches.

What is it that you think separates faithHighway from other brand marketing and web developing companies?

faithHighway is the leading custom web provider for churches and ministries. Through professional consultation, expert design, unlimited training, tech support and storage, plus proprietary software, faithHighway provides a team for each client to work alongside, empowering them with every aspect necessary for a successful website and brand.

Responses to a Commenter

May 23, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

Ryan at Tilling the Soil asked me a couple of good questions related to my post below, so I want to give them proper attention in a post, and not just leave a comment for him.

I had the chance to talk with Ryan by phone last week and I enjoyed our conversation, and I’m looking forward to connecting with him when we move to Dallas this summer.


1. Ryan Says:
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:01 am e

Rhett,
Hey man, I’m really enjoying this series.
I have two concerns:
1) With all of the networking that is going on, is it realistic to ask people to go to another site (your church’s site), even if you are farming out all of the content to facebook, flickr, etc.? In my world if I can’t RSS it, then I probably won’t see it.
2) How do you deal with students who want this before the church authorizes it, and so they create their own facebook groups, mychurch.org pages, etc? (i.e. how do you maintain control in such an environment?)

-ryan

Response to Question 1

Ryan, I don’t think it really is realistic. In fact, I know for certain based on traffic, that our college webpage’s traffic decreased dramatically after our Facebook group was launched, and it has pretty much decreased to no traffic. I think most church’s will have this problem and may not realize it. They design sites that have forums, videos, photos, links, etc., but people aren’t going to leave their networks to do those activities on a church’s website. One, people already have enough committment to a site like Facebook, and to ask them to commit to your church’s website in the same way is unrealistic. Second, church website’s just can’t compete with the social tools out there.

Continue Reading…

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 2–The Purpose of Your Website

May 22, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 15 Comments

I think it’s important for college ministries to be forumlating a plan, and developing some ideas about how they can strategically use the internet to best serve their ministry.

There are a lot of topics that I could cover, and maybe 9 posts is too much, so I will try and keep them shorter than my last post.

Last week I posted Part 1–Simplicity, Flexibility, Cost and Speed. Bottom line: You need to have a design and plan that is simple (easy to navigate/aesthetically clean from a design point of view. You also should keep the costs low which is easy to do with all the free and inexpensive tools out there. And speed should be taken into consideration, mainly from the perspective of how fast can you integrate new technology to meet the needs and wants of your ministry. Way too many ministries plunge lots of cost and time into a site, that they no longer can adapt to changes, but are stuck with it for years to come.

Today I want to post about The Purpose of Your Website.

What is the purpose of your website?

This is an important question to begin with. What do you want it to do? What do you want people to come to the site and see and use? What should they walk away with? Sometimes ministries just build websites because they feel like they should have one, but never stop to consider its purpose.

Is it for college students to retrieve information? Is it for them to sign up for Bible studies? Is it for them to be able to visit forums and dialogue?

With these questions in mind we also need to keep in mind that with all the tools out there (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) a website shouldn’t have to do everything, unless it can do it better than those services (which I doubt it can do).

So here are a few pointers that I have found helpful:

Continue Reading…