A Whole New CCP Coming Soon!

I wanted to start off this Monday with a big announcement to all the Church Communications Pro readers that there are going to be a BUNCH of new (and hopefully exciting) changes taking place here at CCP soon.

Cory Miller has been blessed with his new business at iThemes and is really busy - so much that CCP just hasn’t been able to be worked on. This blog has been a great resource to many ministries and churches and I personally have enjoyed many of the insights presented here. That’s why I presented Cory with an idea which we have both whole-heartedly agreed to.

Starting today, I will become the new brain-child and chief editor at Church Communications Pro. This is a great honor in many ways. One of my goals has always been helping The Church to find ways to communicate the Gospel with excellence and relevance in an always moving, always changing culture. This is a very difficult task! It’s also my dream to see churches collaborating and working together to build the Kingdom; sharing ideas and resources through CCP is just one small way to achieve this. I hope that I can continue to build on the foundation and outstanding work that Cory has started and to help you to the best of my abilities.

Some of the changes that I see happening over the next few weeks are:

1. A brand spanking new design and look!
2. Content and category changes. Almost everything will remain intact for now but there will be new content and some new features.
3. Guest writers who are the some of the best at what they do.
4. Exclusive products and special deals through Church Communications Pro.

No doubt there will be some kinks to be worked out and fine-tuning ahead but it will definitely be worth the wait. So stay tuned in to what’s going on and updated information that’s coming down the pipeline!

Blessings!

James Dalman
Church Communications Pro

March 31, 2008 · Filed Under Blog Design, Web Site Design

5 Comments 

The First Five Steps to Optimizing Your WordPress Blog

I just posted on my blog design site a post detailing the first five tweaks I take when doing a new WordPress blog installation.

Here’s a summary of the most important tweaks I do:

  1. Install the Google sitemap plugin
  2. Activate the Askimet plugin
  3. Burn your feed
  4. Change the permalinks structure
  5. Use a contact form

Note: These are just the first five changes, according in priority, that I do.

Read the whole post here.

June 29, 2007 · Filed Under Blog Design

Comment 

Church Communications Pro Gets An Overdue Facelift

This is long overdue … my Church Communications Pro blog has needed a facelift-redesign for some time to reflect more of my own design style that’s grown from releasing over 20 free WordPress themes … and doing a bunch of other custom WordPress blog designs in the past four months.

Oh … for now … if you haven’t noticed … comments are back (emphasis: “for now” and on selected posts).

We’ll see how that goes … if it again, becomes a distraction … then off they go.

But back to the redesign … I’m still doing tweaks, which is the great thing about WordPress blogs … you can tinker and tweak until you exhaust yourself.

June 9, 2007 · Filed Under Blog Design, Church Marketing

2 Comments 

On Art, Eye Candy and Paint by Numbers

I’m a sucker for good design. I admire it. I respect it. I apprecicate it. I savor it.

Because I ain’t that good of a designer myself.

And frankly, I’m a little jealous of it. Well, OK, full-on jealous.

I think of design, especially web design, like I’ve heard some people talk of art. It’s like a good cup of coffee … it fires up all the neurons on my brain and makes me tingle.

And if you’re at all familiar with WordPress, there’s a gillion “themes” — otherwise known as templates — out there in the worldwide web (does anyone use that term anymore?).

Some are OK, even decent (like I could do better), but some are absolutely amazing.

Is “breath-taking” too much?

Anyway, one of the things I’m loving about WordPress is this seemingly never-ending candy store of templates to choose from. In fact, I probably downloaded some 30 templates to test them out here …

So today, as I’ve been picking over the candy-like themes on the Internet, I thought I’d share some of these.

But before I unveil my stash … I’ll just say a word about WordPress (yet again) and why it’s a great choice for blogging believers.

  • It’s free – Even though sometimes this can be scary because “free” can sometimes mean “unstable,” there are a ton of programmers who love WordPress and are devoted to its development.
  • It’s usually a “one-click” install on most hosting plans (Hint: ask me about my plans) — You’ll need a Linux plan though.
  • Brilliant designers are constantly unveiling new themes — Now, let me show you some of that candy brilliance.

So without further ahh doo … here my candy sack so far — links to free themes I’ve fallen in love with:

These are just a few … my day must go on, people.

Here’s some my thoughts on design …

  • I like clean, simple, functional. But clean is a good thing. Clean endures.
  • Simple can be powerful. Moving and memorable. Just see the logos of Web 2.0 companies.
  • Simple is deep. I find myself captivated in a few well-placed lines and the beauty of white space.
  • Blues, greens, and a freaky redish-pinkish tone pop on the Web for some reason. Again, see the Web 2.0 color palette.
  • If you have even the slightest amount of vision and imagination, you can take the beautiful works of others and tweak to make your own. Thanks goodness!

Because I appreciate good design so much is why I’m absolutely loving doing the research and making the contacts for the Buildin’ Rockin’ Cool Church Web Sites series (Coming soon to a theater near you: this blog). I get to see this kind of art and ask the artist where it came from … I get to peer into that funky, deep brilliance inside that bubbles out in form and function. And if that brilliance is stiffled … well, it’ll just erupt onto a canvas of pixels like a volcano somewhere, at some point. It can’t be bottled up. It shouldn’t. It’s a gift. It needs to be shared.

Again, I’m an admirer, not an artist, so I’m speaking selfishly of the sharing aspect.

Speaking of this kind of brilliance … here’s your gallery tour of some of the best blog designs (3 parts, no guide needed, plan to waste some time browsing, no photos please - it could damage the art). The design charts are great too.

I could look at these all day and did for the first part of this one.

It’s the kind of art gallery I’d love to stroll through and be captivated by.

And yeah … I’m still jealous of this freakish genius.

I tour these sites to get inspired … and depressed.

… and then I move on and paint by numbers.

November 4, 2006 · Filed Under Blog Design, Web Site Design

2 Comments