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Does your church have a great website? Is it easy for you to keep your site updated? Are you happy with what you are able to do with your website? If you answered no to any of these questions, I can help.
In Church Websites for Everyone, I will help you create a great church website and teach you how to keep it updated. Sign up now and you could have a brand new website in time for Christmas.
Designed for Non-Experts
You don’t need to be a website expert to get started. I will introduce you to Squarespace, a platform that puts professional websites within reach to churches with limited budgets and users with limited technical skills. It is also powerful enough to handle larger churches, more complex websites, and advanced users. In fact, the Rio Texas website (www.riotexas.org) runs on Squarespace.
Please note, this course is free to Rio Texas United Methodist Churches. If you are not part of the Rio Texas Conference or not from a United Methodist Church, there is a webinar for you too, click here for more information.
While the course is free, to launch your church website, you will need to sign up for a Squarespace package. Fortunately, if you register for Squarespace through this course, you will get a six-month trial to check out Squarespace and get your site ready to launch. You will also get 20% off your first purchase. If you purchase a plan and pay yearly, that means 20% off your entire first year!
NOTE: When taking the course, there is no obligation to purchase a Squarespace plan. You can still take advantage of the course and the 6 months trial without purchasing anything.
About the Course
The course consists of five components.
A Headstart on your Website
Each participant will be given access to a website template that is already set up and ready for you to begin adding your own content. You will even get to choose between two different styles for your website.
Weekly Online Sessions
Each session will be an hour long and will take place in a webinar format. You will log on and watch the live presentation. I will not just tell you about creating your site, I will show you through many onscreen demonstrations. Each week’s video will be posted online the following day in case you need to miss a class or want to review.
Online Office Hours
I will be available throughout the week for scheduled online office hours. If you need extra help or review, you can sign up for a 30-minute video conference.
Homework
To get the most out of the course, you will need to do some work on your own or with your team. There will be one assignment that will be due before we begin. Then, each week, I will assign some work for you to do on your own website. The good news is, if you do the work each week, your website will be ready to launch at the end of the four weeks.
Access to Online Help
All participants will get access to a special, limited access website that will include the video from each week’s session, plus other resources including videos that show some of the most common tasks on Squarespace. You will have access to this site for as long as you need it.
Remember this course is for Rio Texas United Methodist churches only. If you are not part of the Rio Texas Conference or not from a United Methodist Church, and are still interested in the course, click here for more information.
Squarespace Pricing
Personal Plan
$12/month (when paid yearly) $16/month (when paid monthly)*
This plan is perfect for smaller churches. You get unlimited pages and unlimited use. The main limitations include a limit of two individual contributors, a lack of built-in donation support, and a lack of available advanced customization. This will be fine if only one or two people will be working on the site, if you don’t plan to accept online giving (or plan to do it through another service), and don’t need any special style modifications. If you choose this plan and find the need for these options, it is easy to upgrade.
*With the 20% discount included in the course, if you pay yearly, your first year will be less than $10/month.
Professional Plan
$18/month (when paid yearly) $26/month when paid monthly.
The extra six dollars a month adds quite a bit of flexibility. You can have an unlimited number of users contribute to the site, you can accept donations through the built-in integration with PayPal or Stripe, and you will have access to custom style sheets and JavaScript modifications. You may not know what stylesheets and JavaScript are but you may want the ability to have an advanced user make changes to your site that require those. The plan also adds some premium integrations with other services and an announcement bar that you can add to the top of your page. These are some very handy features.
*With the 20% discount included in the course, if you pay yearly, your first year will be less than $15/month.