1. Do you build websites for a living, or on the side? How long have you been doing this?
2. Can I see six of your most recent websites?
3. Do you have references from clients past and present? May I contact them?
4. Can I get a copy of your hosting contract and your pricing list?
5. What platform or software do you you use to build your sites?
6. Will I get a blog?
7. Can I have multiple user accounts with different security roles?
8. Do you utilize all the recent web standards (HTML,CSS, XML, Accessibility, etc?)
9. Can I leave anytime and take my content with me?
10. How often do you back up all my data? Do I get a copy?
11. How often do you update your server software?
12. Do you charge per page or have limits on storage and bandwidth?
13. Do you support calendars? Photo Galleries? Web forms? Video? Audio?
14. What type of support do you offer? Phone? Email? On site? Do you have a SLA (Service Level Agreement)?

Can you think of other questions you would like to know?

Why? It is the #1 blogging platform (read more about this here) among the top 100 blogs.  It is also used by quite a few Fortune 500 companies!  There are a lot of OPINIONS flying around out there about the best way to build a site, but instead of jumping in and forming technical arguments that are lost on most people – we just use the #1 platform and rely on the “Wisdom of Crowds“.

WordPress is open source software.  This means it is free for anyone to use, change, write plugins for, etc.  WordPress runs on Linux, PHP, and MySQL… you don’t need to understand what these are, just know that they are all open source products that power the web server on which your site will live.  Free software, free operating system, free content management…. this translates into lower operating costs.

WordPress is among a handful of widely used content management systems.  We have tried several – all of the top 4 or 5 – and find WordPress to be the easiest to use while maintaining the best practices among website standards.  We strive to keep the technology as transparent as possible and hep you focus on CONTENT.  Remember – Content is King!!  SO easy to use translates into more relevant, fresh content.

WordPress is SEO friendly.  SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  In real estate, you hear “Location! Location! Location!”  In the world of website, the 3 most important rules are: 1)Findability 2)Findability & 3)Findability!  You need to be found by those searching for you or your website is useless!  Matt Cutts is the expert we will point to to explain why WordPress is a good choice for your SEO needs.  He is the head of Web Spam at Google and lives to improve search quality.  He also sneaks in some great tips to help you out when writing your content:

Oddly, some website producers hide the software that runs the website.  We recommend you ask any potential website producers/designers what they use and why.  Take notes, go home and see if the information measures up to your own research. We welcome these type of questions – in fact, here is a blog post to help you ask the right questions!

We built Portable Sermons to solve the “Podcasting Problem.”  Now its the easiest way to post sermon audio online, stream your audio, offer it for download, even send it to a friend.  You just upload and title it – we take care of the rest.  There is a free service or you can “Go pro” for unlimited storage for $29/mo.

NOTE: click on image thumbnails to see full resolution images.

Create Newsletter

Click the Newsletter tab, then the Create tab.

Use the Content edit box to write a special message to your recipients. Be sure to save your work as either a DRAFT (hidden) or PUBLISHED (public)!  Published DOES NOT mean you are sending it yet.. that’s coming soon.  Keep reading.

Optionally, you can Include Posts.  This optional tool appears underneath the Content edit box and the Posts you Include will appear in your newsletter below the lead article you just created in the Content edit box.

Optionally, you can add HTML (yes, that’s code!) to build the sidebar.

You can copy and paste it from older newsletters, or use the Content edit box to write content, then click the HTML tab and copy the code to paste into the Sidebar 1 text box.

Manage Newsletter

To manage (edit or delete) an existing newsletter, use the Manage tab, then click edit.

The edit link will bring up the same tools you have when you Create a newsletter.  Be sure to save your changes.

Categories

The Categories tab allows you to create different mailing lists filed under these categories.  Every subscriber in the database can belong to one or more categories so they will receive the appropriate newsletters.

Preview / Send

The Preview / Send tab allows you to Preview your completed content completely finished with the full design template.

If you like what you see and you are ready to Send it, you can SEND to either a single email address, to a single category

GOOD LUCK!

As always, send me your questions: Brook Drumm

The following can be purchased online at Amazon.com:

1. Apple iPod nano 8 GB
   Current price: $179.64 (10% discount)
2. Macally iVoiceIII -  iPod Audio Recorder Black (IP-A181)
   Current price: $31.15 (65% discount)

In addition you would need the following:

1. Line in cord. You would also need to purchase the correct line cord to run from your sound board to the line-in on the iVoice III.
   Cost for the cord will probably run in the neighborhood of $10-30.
2. PortableSermons.com Pro account. This will serve all of your uploaded sermons for as long as you have the account.
   The cost is $29.00 per month.

That’s where we come in. We are advocates for your small business, church, or non-profit organization and want to help you save time and money. We will do the set up for you remotely (anywhere in the U.S.) and connect it to your domain name so your email matches your website address. It will take us about an hour and will only cost you $120 for less than 10 people. Once it is set up, there are no more fees, but we are always available to help with your Google Apps Email or website needs!

Drop us a line: info@vaultmultimedia.com or give us a call (916)295-9416

“You’re E-vited”

We have done quite a few church websites using the fabulous WordPress CMS / Blogging software. We have scoured the web to provide the perfect plugins and extensions to meet most church website needs. In our search, we never found a really good E-vite (Electronic Invite) tool… so we wrote one. Oh, and we are giving it away. Right now it is very clean and simple, but we do have a few changes in the works. If you end up using it on your site, let us know. We would love to hear your feedback.

Download the Plugin : youre-evited.zip (0.1)