Make Your Life Easier; Let your Website Work For You (part 1)

Your website should be an extension of your organization. It should not be viewed as an additional task to your work week. However, one of the most common complaints I hear from people is…

“I don’t have time to keep up with our website.”

Many people feel like they have so many things on their “To Do” list in life, updating their website is just another stress in their life. However, it doesn’t need to be like this.

Often, the reason that people get stressed out about updating their website is that they don’t know what it takes to keep it up to date. They also feel like they have to do everything themselves.

Below are five steps to take to eliminate the stress of a website from your life

1. Create a plan: Write up with a simple plan about what information needs to be updated on the website and how often it needs to be done. Start with something simple. You can become more detailed and modify the plan after you establish the initial plan.
2. Delegate: If you don’t have time to update the website yourself, find someone to update the website for you. This can be a volunteer, part time administrative assistant, or even the web company who built your website for you.
3. Set expectations: When you delegate this task, make sure you clearly set the expectations as to how often the site will be updated. Also, have the person making the updates check their own work.
4. Check their work: Even though they will be checking their own work, it is important for you to check their work to ensure it is being done properly. When you first start, you may need to check every aspect of their work. Make sure the spelling is correct, the images look good, and the text is formatted properly. After the first few times, you can probably do a spot check on their work. Once they have been doing it for a while, you may not need to check their work at all.
5. Document the process: If the process is being done by a volunteer or someone within your organization, ask them to document what they do to update the website. This means typing every step in the process so if someone else needed to take over the task for them, the new person could read the documentation and update the website without having any questions. I will talk about this more in detail in next week.

Re-evaluate the plan: Once the system is established and is running smoothly, reevaluate the plan that you initially created. See if there are steps that are no longer needed or some items that need to be added. Before you create the initial plan, I suggest setting a calendar reminder for yourself for 3 months later to do this evaluation.

If you implement these five steps, your website will always be kept up to date and it will not be a source of stress in your life.

So what do you think of this plan? Are there any other suggestions you have? I challenge you to implement this and contact me in 3 months to tell me how things are going.

Mark Steinbrueck

President at OurChurch.Com

Mark has served as the President of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, leading the Custom Website and Sales departments with dedication and expertise.

Over the years, he has managed hundreds of custom website, graphic design, and marketing projects for churches, non-profits, businesses, and schools.

Beyond his professional work, Mark is deeply committed to serving his community. He coordinates and packs over 700 meals each week for children through One Community Now’s Pack A Sack for Kids program, volunteers in the Children’s Ministry at Generations Christian Church, and participates in a weekly Bible study.